recent purchases

[jethro]

I got Tokyo Zombie, and I thought it was pretty good. I'd rate it somewhere between a 3/5 and a 3.5/5. I really liked the ending, and then to top it off the song at the end is kick ass. And you are right the jujitsu is definitely better than Redbelt. Very fluid. It looks like there's some good special features. The first one I clicked on, the making of, is 53 minutes, so I'm looking forward to watching the special features tonight.

A couple other movies I got (from the $5 bin at Wal Mart), Waiting and Sixteen Candles. Waiting is a good comedy about employees working in a restaurant. I got it because it has the star of Van WIlder, Ryan Reynolds, but he is basically playing the same character and that wasn't what I was looking for. But other than that the movie is really good. Sixteen Candles I haven't seen since I was little. I didn't even know it was on DVD. I can't wait to watch this.

[jethro]

I'm watching the making of Tokyo Zombie, and they say that they sent the actors to train under a guy who got his blackbelt from Rickson Gracie (FYI this guy plays the one eyed zombie fighter). I guess that explains why they looked comfortable doing jujitsu. I'm sure a Rickson Gracie blackbelt is hard to get, so the training really paid off for these guys. PLus they've had physical roles before, I remember the bald guy did some fighting in Blood Heat. So doing action scenes was probably easier for them than it would be for a lot of other actors.

Also, in the training for the final fight scene, the bald guy looks to have a good guard. I figured there was at least a bit of stunt doubling, but now I don't think so.

I think I'm done pausing the the DVD and editing my post. Now back to watching the special features

[Jimbo]

Yeah, I had forgotten to add that I'd watched most of the 'making of' featurette and those guys really worked to get the jujitsu moves down. And being a Rickson Gracie black belt, that guy has to be tremendous. They had the guys working some very advanced moves.

That's one of the reasons I like Japanese cinema so much. Who in this country would even think of doing a jujitsu/zombie movie, much less be able to pull it off and make it good like this one? Tokyo Zombie pays homage to Land of the Dead, but to be honest, I liked TZ a lot better.

[Jimbo]

I keep forgetting to mention that I've been reading The Toughest Man Alive, the autobiography of Gene LeBell. It's one of the better books I've read. A lot of info about the judo/martial arts/boxing world, pro wrestling world, stunt world, and Hollywood. I always knew that Gene was a b@d@ss, and have been a fan of his since I was a little kid and he was announcing at the old L.A. Olympic Auditorium. Working with Gene (and Hayward Nishioka) was the main source of Bruce Lee's grappling inspiration. There's so much variety of info it's amazing, and well-written.

[jethro]

Glad you like your book. I've heard of Gene Lebell, but I don't really know anything about him.

I was watching Shaolin Mantis recently. I hadn't watched it in about 2 maybe even 3 years. I always considered it one of the best kung fu movies, probably in my top 10, defnitely in my top 20. I thought I would watch it again to see if it is still in my top 10, after seeing a ton of new movies since then. It's just as good as I remember. Great love story in the first half, and then nonstop AMAZING fights in the second half. The choreography is mindblowing. All the actors do very very well, and there are a ton of good performers, but Lau KAr Wing manages to stand out. His 2 fights are the best in the movie for me. The 3 on 1 fight is so good, and the finale is even better. And I can't think of a better hand to hand performance from Chiang. He's great in The Loot, his second best hand to hand performance, but I still think Shaolin Mantis is easily his best. He's shown some sick swordplay in more than a few movies, but for some reason he rarely gives a great hand to hand performance.

Also, I got a bunch of TV shows recently. My grandpa has been workin on this for me for awhile. I got Adventures of Pete and Pete season 3, complete Salute Your Shorts, compelete Wonder Years (I can't believe they haven't released this on DVD, one of the best shows ever, even better than Pete and Pete and Salute Your SHorts!), complete Duckman and Weird Science season 3. He also copied The Stepfather for me, still my favorite horror movie (actually more like suspense/horror). I think this only has a French DVD release. Unbelieveable. You'd think that with Terry Oquinn (I think that's his name) being one of the most popular characters on Lost, and probably the most intriguing character, someone would give this a DVD release. His performance in the Stepfather is unforgettable. I don't know who could have done it better.

[Jimbo]

I think that actor on The Stepfather was also the leader of the secret group in that '90s Lance Henrikson series Millennium. He can be very menacing. Stepfather was a really good suspense film, IMO.

IMO Shaolin Mantis is a great film. Not my fave Lau Kar-Leung film, but it's a better 'movie' movie before Lau got carried away (or was forced) putting too much slapstick comedy in so many of his later films. I'm torn between whether SM or The Loot is my fave David Chiang performance, but SM is a higher-quality film by far, esp. with Lau's direction and those co-stars. Oddly enough, though, I rarely even liked Chiang's weapons play in most of his films. These two films, and some others, a bit in Blooded Treasury Fight, showed that he could deliver with the right direction.

Gene LeBell has been in more movies and TV shows than almost anyone, mostly as an unknown stuntman, but is hugely recognizable. From the 1950s to today. He's also the guy who famously choked out Steven Seagal on a movie set when Seagal was supposedly mouthing off. I did notice that LeBell chose not to mention that in his book. LeBell and his #1 student Gokor Chivichyan are also the teachers of UFC fighter Karo Parisyan. But LeBell could probably take out any one of the top MA cinematic performers anywhere at his peak, and I bet today in his 70s he could still do it. Chuck Norris even writes where LeBell took both Bob Wall and Richard Norton and immediately had them in extreme pain, as well as choking out Norris himself. A lot of the book tells of his competitive fights and challenge matches.

[jethro]

Thanks for the info. He sounds like a bad dude. I knew I heard his name before. I know I've heard him mentioned on at least a few of my 40 or so UFC DVDs. And David Chiang was competent enough with weapons in the early and mid 70's, but then in movie like Return of the Deadly Blade, Abbot White 2 and Sword Shot at Sun he had some really good looking swordplay. Also some awesome TV stuff on youtube.

And good info on Terry O'QUinn. I'll have to check that movie out. I didn't think he had any really good roles other than The Stepfather and Lost. I think I've seen Stepfather 2, but I don't remember it. I don't think he's in #3.

[Jimbo]

Jethro, the Millennium series ran on Fox and was predicated on a super-secret group called the Millennium Group. Lance Henrikson played Frank(?) Black, though I'm starting to forget some details about the show, which ran a few seasons. There was even a cross-over episode where Frank Black teams with Fox Mulder and Scully on The X-Files. In fact, that X-Files episode might even have been the end of Millennium, as I think it ends at New Year's 2000.

Terry O'Quinn (?) played Frank Black's boss or liaison(?) in Millennium, and in some episodes seemed like a normal, boring good guy, but in later ones I seem to remember he and his role became more sinister. I don't watch Lost, but I'm sure he has a lot bigger role with more to do in it than he did in Millennium. It wasn't a bad series for what it was, but once Y2K happened it was history, because the premise of the show was a menacing countdown at some point during each episode towards the year 2000. I think it ran for about two or three seasons.

[Jimbo]

I got Gojoe and Duel of the Century.

Gojoe was beautifully shot, as far as the scenery goes. But for some reason, this movie didn't quite do it for me. IMO, the action and fight scenes themselves were very poorly shot, and the choreo was way too repetitive. One scene, where the 3 evil beings are killing running through the forest killing the platoon of samurai was the same moves/scenes over and over again for over 3 minutes. Or at the end the screen hardly showed the fighters at all, only their swords banging together and the resulting sparks. It seemed like they either didn't know how to capture fight moves onscreen, or wanted it filmed that way for artistic reasons. Also, the sound is uneven. Even with the sound turned way up, I could barely hear the dialogue above a low mumble.

Which is too bad, because I really wanted to like this film. I wanted to care more about the characters, but most of them seemed vague and underdeveloped. The concept is cool; I just wish it had been executed better.

[jethro]

Yeah I here you there. The movie is not for everybody. I really liked the action, the music and the acting. And I love the scene where the main demon is swatting away arrows with his sword. Really intense. I cant say it's a great movie, but it's one of my favorites.

I got Shogun's Shadow today. Good movie with some great action.

[Jimbo]

Yesterday got the following:

Let's Scare Jessica to Death. Filmed in 1971 and slow-paced by today's standards, this is an excellent psychological horror story about a woman recently released from a mental ward who goes to live in a remote farmhouse in the Connecticut countryside. Is everything in her mind, or is a real vampire haunting the farmhouse and the lake? Saw it as a kid, and the female ghost/vampire is still one of the creepiest and most effective in a movie.

JCVD. I commented on this in the JCVD thread.

Kibakichi. A werewolf/samurai arrives in a small village of shape-shifting demons. Will comment more after watching it.

The Happiness of the Katakuris. Will describe later.

[jethro]

I tried really hard to like Kibakichi, but it didn't do anything for me. terrible movie. I can't believe they made a part 2.

[Shaolinlueb]

jethro

waiting is hilarious. if you ever worked at a restaurant you can connect with that movie. i worked at old country buffet in high school and i just laughed so hard through it.

Tokyo zombie is good? it didn't look it. guess i will have to check it out.

shaolinlueb

[Jimbo]

I tried really hard to like Kibakichi, but it didn't do anything for me. terrible movie. I can't believe they made a part 2.

You're right, Jethro. I watched Kibakichi last night and fell asleep through about the whole middle of it. I also really wanted to like it, but couldn't. Plus, the 'werewolf' is one of the cheesiest I've ever seen. He's tumbling and wire-flying all over the place, plus they give him the voice of the "Green Gargantua". This must have been filmed sometime in the '90s or something, it looks older than better-quality films coming out of Japan. Luckily, I only paid $7.99 for it.

The Happiness of the Katakuris is one weird movie. The cover that says "The Sound of Music meets Dawn of the Dead" is a bit misleading, as it's not a zombie movie. It IS one of the more bizarre movies I've seen. It's a twisted musical about the Katakuri family, who wants to run a country inn, but the few guests they get keep dying in odd ways. I don't want to give up more than that about the story. I will say it's probably one of those movies that most people will either love or hate. Can't say I love it, but I did like it. In several parts, the humor can be downright hilarious. As can be expected by a movie by Takashi Miike. The late Tetsuro Tamba is esp. great as the patriarch of the Katakuri family; he was a master of facial expressions and body language. Most of the online reviews I've read on HOTK were very positive, but I'll bet most of those are from dedicated Miike fans. I personally found Tokyo Zombie funnier overall, but then they're completely different movies. Still, I personally rate it pretty high overall.

[jethro]

Sounds like a weird Miike movie alright. The only musicals I've seen that I really like are The Blues Brothers and Amadeus. More like half musicals i guess.