Amentep

Old thread - Lol. Eh, B movies are broader than just being untalented - often times you have talented people working with minimal budgets and the actors they can get locally. In those cases, the ideas will shine through and make a movie fun, for me at least. This had none of that, it was exploitation filmmaking without any redeeming features really. Unless you want to see a guy playing a mummy stick his face and nose into the camera to simulate mental contnrol before assaulting naked women. The ending is risible as well and the mythology is inconsistent - not just with Egyptian myth and history, that's common for mummy films but with itself. The movie presents certain reasons the mummy is doing what he's doing and then literally violates that explanation in the next scene. There was no interest in this film from the filmmakers beyond the explotational elements. Was a real drag.

New thread -

Okay some more of what I watched over my holidaze - Pieces - Christopher George plays what may be the least effective cop in slasher film history as a maniac chainsaws his way through college. He is aided by a former Tennis Pro turned police woman (Lynda Day), a student (Ian Sera), a Professor (Jack Taylor), the groundskeeper (a glowering Paul Smith), and the Dean (Edmund Purdom) - any of who could be the killer (last seen as a kid who killed his mom). Very giallo (with all the weird logic those films display at times) and in its way and a lot of fun. Plus random Bruce Le cameo. Miami Connection - A band that are also martial arts experts runs afoul of drug dealers who have ninjas on their side in Orlando because one of the band members is dating the sister of one of the drug dealers. A lot of fun, with some catchy music. Alien Outlaw - Aliens attack a small town just as shooting expert Jesse Jamison comes to town with her trick shooting show. Lots of things get shot, and possibly one of the best escapes in cinema for a heavily overweight comedy relief character. The Maltese Falcon - The stuff dreams are made of; the new restoration did a lot of good for sound and image Casablanca - Also a very good restoration. And a good film. Always felt like Henried was all wrong for Lazlo - his portrayal doesn't fit the idea of a character whose led a canny cat-and-mouse chase with the Germans through WWII Europe; instead it feels like his character is one scene away from doing a Sydney Carton with jutting jaw if given half-a-chance. Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance - intersplices the origin of the title character's fall from second/execution for the Shogun with a forward story of the now-a-sword-for-hire Ogami Ittō taking money to further his planned vengeance on the clan that framed him in the eyes of the Shogun. This leads to a bloody conflict with a group of Ronin who are waiting to perform their own assassination in a hot springs town where they terrorize all who are there. Nice 70s samurai action film; always thought Wakayama Tomisaburō was a great pick for the role; he's expressive when he needs to be, stoic when he needs to be, meancing when he needs to be, and plays the father role well to boot. American Graffiti - 4 high school graduates have a final night on Modesto before they go their separate ways. Its an interesting exercise in characters as plot, since there really isn't a formal structure, but a structure that weaves the characters through the night into a satisfying film. People Under the Stairs - skipped it when it came out, but over the years heard so much about it I had to give it a shot. Man marketing really let this film down at the time of its release. Its not the film I remember being sold, and its overall a very solid horror film. I can't help but feel the film got edited heavily though (Bill Cobbs, for example, just disappears from the film at the end, with no explanation). Love Brides of the Blood Mummy - a good example of what a lot people accuse Eurohorror of being - pointless cruelty and a rapey plot. Nice costumes is about the best I can say, they felt like they could have come from a higher budgeted film. On the plus side, I have a new answer to "what's the worst mummy film you've seen". Get Crazy - Daniel Stern puts on a rock-n-roll new years eve show for his boss, while an evil Ed Begely, Jr. tries to take over the beloved venue to build a Trump-esque tower on its land. A surreal comedy that is one half 'lets put on a show' and one half actual concert footage. A lot better than a film made to be a Mel Brook's The Producers style tax break flop should be. Underworld / Transmutations - An artist who used to be a fixer for a criminal is brought in to search for his ex-girlfriend who has been kidnapped by sewer dwelling mutants created by a mad scientist. Its a fun film; certainly compromised by producers. Still it has a lot of ideas that the film's writer, Clive Barker, would go to flesh out to better effect in later stories and movies. The director of this would collaborate on the stronger, but still flawed, Rawhead Rex with Barker a few years later. Sky Pirates - just after WWII, an Australian air force pilot is tasked to bring some US military personnel, a scientist and a mysteries part of a stone tablet to America with a stop at Easter Island. After things go south, the pilot and the scientist's daughter are locked in a race with evil US military types to get their hands on the completed tablet and the ultimate weapon it contains. Very much an Australian entry into he Indiana Clones series of films, its probably stronger in the first 2/3 than the last 1/3, but worth a watch. Magnificent Warriors - Michelle Yeoh is a pilot with a way with a whip, gun and martial arts. Recruited through her grandfather to rescue the leader of a Tibetan city during the second series of Japanese invasions into various Asian countries in the 1930s, complications abound when a thief steals the identification of her contact in the city. Great comedic martial arts stunts and good straight action up to the final fight. While not as grim as some martial arts films can be, the final fight takes a serious turn that somewhat drains the high energy and fun that had been established to that point. Not as Indiana Clone as I'd been told (its more High Road to China adjacent, really, lol) it is a fun film.

Species (1995) and Species II (1998) - first film is okay trashy sf but the humans have absolutely some of the worst plans in film. Second film is altogether worse, the main astronaut villains family strife is a time waster, our returning heroes are somehow worse at alien capturing than in the first film, and Mykelti Williams is given some horrendous dialogue/character bits. In both films the actors give it their best, though, so kudos to them.

The Discord Mod surely? Forums are so 2004. Also The Twitch Streamer, The YouTuber, The InstaGrammer, The FaceBooker, The X (formerly known as Twitter)er...

The Programmer. The Executive. The Psychometrist. The Phlebotomist. The Courier. The Technologist. The Detailer. The Clerk. The Attendant. The Waiter. The Coordinator. The Inker. The Priest. The Guy Who Lives In A Van Down By The River. Truly, the possibilities are endless.

Old thread:

New thread

GvK reportedly more than doubled the money it cost to make, so it made a profit. Merchandising probably was also good and the makers have invested a lot in it (cf The Monarch tv show tie-in).

Whenever adaptions come up, I always think of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Threw out loads of stuff in his adaptions (Young and Innocent, for example, films the subplot of Josephine Tey's A Shilling for Candles not the actual plot of the novel), remade his own film, etc. Adaptions/Remakes aren't (IMO) the problem, inherently. I think King's problem with THE SHINING is that its a Kubrick film and not a King story. I seem to recall reading that he thought the film was good, but it missed what he thought was the point of the book, which is why he thought the TV miniseries was a better adaption of the book.

My understanding is Miller had to rely more on CGI due to filming during COVID than originally planned and like most films, the CGI in the trailer isn't finished.

Don't watch any Lucio Fulci films if you don't like dream logic applied to narrative. And I say that liking most of the Fulci films I've seen so far.

It does look lower budgeted; most of the complaints I've seen online haven't been about the budget, though. Given the spotty track-record on the Sony films, I can imagine they're keeping a tight control on the budget of this so I'm not surprised at its look. Potential for an interesting horror/thriller take with the set-up, I think. Sony only has Spider-Man related characters, so they're limited in what they can do. That's why they made a deal with Marvel regarding the Spider-Man proper movies to have integration with the MCU. The Sony only films have been Spider-Man villains-turned-anti-hero (Venom, Morbius) so far. This is the first one dealing with characters that are more-or-less tied to Spider-Man as heroes (an earlier film proposed Black Cat and Silver Sable, but never got off the ground).

I confess, I don't get the hate the trailer is getting. But it already created a meme with the 'studying with the mom in the amazon' line.

Since unlimited growth is impossible, the only way to continue to grow (and thus bring value to investors) is to take over other industries. When you run out of industries (or are locked out by bigger players), you have to begin destroying the services the government provides so you can expand into those territories. Education and the Post Office are just the 'low hanging fruit' of this endeavor.

Those are Medical Eye Patches as far as I know. Yoshihiko Noda made a stir appearing with one covering a black eye in January 2012 when he was PM. I've seen reference to them being prescribed for a variety of things, from detached retinas to styes.

Oh no, I keep it untangled. Can't stand tangled phone cords. >.<

I have a landline and its a rotary phone to boot.

Theatrical cut or Director's cut? Like a lot of Morgan Creek films, there was a good deal of editing to the theatrical released version.

Not sure that I want to be at a party where the lead Do is into castration...

We've had nobody for the better part of a decade. We still buy candy, but no one shows up on the street. Never was much in for decorating the house. Long gone are the days when I was a kid when I went up the street to a neighbors haunted tent house and ran home screaming. Lol.

I dunno, a lot of people are just...like...weird man. It was mostly doctors and nurses and firefighters, construction worker and other occupations easily identified by some outfit. Occasionally 6 year-olds in suits with a briefcase being a lawyer. Kind of harder to figure out an identifiable uniform for plumber, electrician, secretary, teacher and soul-numbed middle manager.