fredag 17 maj 2024
MR-9: Do Or Die
söndag 12 maj 2024
Road House
Back in the 80´s you didn´t have to adjust everything to what was acceptable or not, all you needed was big muscles, cheesy dialogue and naked women and everything would turn out perfectly. Why do i bring this up? People seem so sensitive these days if a woman is nude on screen or show her feminine sides. Back in the 80´s they just threw their clothes off and everyone was cheering. Those were the good days of VHS violence and i am pretty sure that the only way we can keep these films alive in modern society is through independent horror and action films. The 80´s had so many films with really fun characters they didn´t care what was politically correct or not, these films just wanted to entertain the audience. I am so happy i was a teenager back in those days because i got to experience everything that would be forbidden today in ordinary super markets. You could get Playboy magazines, horror magazines that would show pictures of decapitated bodies, some of these super markets even sold ninja action VHS films if you were lucky. We could probably talk about the 80´s for several hours but let´s talk about a film that really have left a legacy among VHS video violence fans. And that is the 1989 action film Road House directed by Rowdy Herrington ( actually the same director who directed the Bruce Willis action film Striking Distance in 1993, worth checking out ). Road House is still considered today to be one of the true classics in legendary actor Patrick Swayze´s film career. Swayze plays the character James Dalton, a professional bouncer working security for a club in New York city. Although Dalton may seem stable and cool he is still struggling of the memories when he killed a man in self-defence by ripping out his throat. Businessman Frank Tilghman ( Kevin Tighe ), recruits Dalton to take over security at his club "Double Deuce" in Jasper, Missouri. What Frank doesn´t know is that Dalton can´t be bought for any money, he only does what is right and whatever it takes to make it work. Road House is that kind of classic action fighting film that fits really well into this time period. The dialogue is cheesy and the fights are of course the biggest highlights. If you have not seen this film you should watch it on streaming or on physical media. For several years i have heard rumours of a remake until i finally saw that actor Jake Gyllenhaal have ben chosen to play Dalton in the new Road House remake. Not only that but i also noticed that UFC fighter Conor McGregor would also be in this film. Since it´s been 35 years since the original film with Patrick Swayze came out, does this remake feel good enough to stand on it´s own or is this a remake that never should have seen the light of day?
Troubled former UFC middleweight fighter Elwood Dalton ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) scamming fighters on the underground circuit. He is approached by Frankie ( Jessica Williams ), the owner of an unroly roadhouse in the Florida community of Glass Key, who offers him a job as a head bouncer. Once everyone get to see how Dalton approach drunk customers and put them in place, the reputation of this bouncer is spreading across town. But not everyone is happy that Dalton is cleaning up the trash, especially well known criminals who have plans to build a luxuary resort.
I know that the latest Road House remake have diveded a lot of people if they enjoy this film or not for taking a different approach than the 1989 film. I personally don´t mind that this remake does some things differently since you can´t do a remake the same way as the 80´s classic and make it look exactly the same. That would have been silly honestly so i think they did a good choice going for a more modern update, and still showing respect for the original film as well. I do have some smaller negative opinions on this remake but let´s get to the positive first. First of all i think Jake Gyllenhall did a really good job on his physical performance in this film. He looks like he is in fantastic physical shape and his fights works really well ( perhaps not every single scene but most of them ). The fighting scenes in general deliver some fun scenes and since i am a fan of old school fighting action films this is a film that´s definetely made for fans such as myself. UFC fighter Conor McGregor may not be the greatest actor of all time but i actually enjoy his over the top performance in Road House. He must have been aware of that people would not see him as an Oscar winning actor so he went into his role in this film and seems to enjoy himself. The music scenes actually feels like a tribute to the 80´s film with mostly rock blues music being played. One of the most negative details i feel they could have fixed in this film is not using CGI fights. I understand that physical fight scenes takes a lot of hard work and practise to get a scene right, but fans of fighting films will see the difference between a physical fight scene or a CGI fight scene. And i promise most fans will definetely prefer physical fight scenes over any CGI effects, you can pretty much ask anyone and they will agree with me. The plot is very thin and if you have a problem with that this might not be a film for you. I actually don´t have a problem with that since a film like Road House doesn´t need a complicated plot since the original film didn´t really have a strong plot either. Overall i will say this is a fun fighting action film that actually embrace some of the 80´s vibe and make a more modern approach instead. Director Doug Liman ( who also directed the Tom Cruise highlight known as Edge Of Tomorrow, a must see ) clearly knew he had a lot of things to consider making this film, knowing how many people worldwide love the 1989 film. I think he did a good job with this remake and show that you can make an updated version of a classic. If you don´t take this film seriously at all and know it´s meant to be silly, i would say Road House is worth a watch on Amazon Prime if you love the original film or fighting films in general. Excuse me for a moment, i need to head down to Road House for a whiskey night. Something tells me that chairs will be flying when Swedish singer Hans Martin enter the stage ( no one fights harder than Hans Martin fans when they hear hit single Pärleporten, trust me from personal experiences ).
Rating: DDD
torsdag 9 maj 2024
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
måndag 6 maj 2024
Creepypasta
söndag 5 maj 2024
Lights Out
I love discovering actors no matter what genre they are in. Actors i have never heard of before or for some reason i didn´t notice if they had a smaller role to begin with. Not all actors start off in a big full feature film, in fact most actors usually have to work their way through the film industry to finally get to bigger productions. Just look at George Clooney for example and i remember seeing him for the first time in the 1988 horror comedy Return Of The Killer Tomatoes. Who would have known back then he would become a huge Hollywood star in the 90´s. I can honestly say this is a terrible film but at least you can have fun with it, if you are in the right mood. How many of you did see Cyborg 2 the 1993 sci fi action film with actress Angelina Jolie ( the sequel to the 1989 Van Damme classic Cyborg ) ? I remember seeing the film on VHS back in the day but i had no idea Angelina would become a Hollywood box office star in the 2001 action film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. At some occations we do discover actors in Hollywood films that actually are really good and we just don´t recognize the actor from any other films. That happened to me when i saw the 2011 action sports drama film Warrior directed by Gavin O´Connor. Warrior is a really powerful sports drama with really good acting from Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte and Joel Edgerton. It was in this film i disovered actor Frank Grillo for the first time, and it would turn out that he would do a lot more films. It was in 2014 i really feel he got recognized worldwide in the sequel The Purge: Anarchy ( my personal favourite in this franchise ). I really enjoyed him in the 2017 sci fi action sequel Beyond Skyline and he have done several good films i can easily recommend since then. One thing i knew i wanted to see ever since i heard about it was a film called Lights Out, simply because it looked like an old school street fighting film from the 80´s or 90´s. Is this a film that should be seen by a larger audience or is Lights Out not as fun as i was hoping it would be?
Duffy ( Frank Grillo ) is a drifter and a war veteran struggling with PTSD. His life at this point is living in motels, taking one day at a time just to survive. He gets into a bar fight after a poker game and manage to get out with cash. One bar visitor named Max ( Mekhi Phifer ) is impressed by Duffy´s fighting skills and see an oppurtunity to introduce him to a undergound fight club. Duffy wins his first fight without any problems and Max continue to promote Duffy to make sure he gets booked on more fights. Max owns crime boss Sage Parker ( Dermot Mulroney ) a lot of money and make a deal with Sage. Duffy doesn´t know all the details and just accept the fights, but his PTSD is causing some problems along the way while Duffy gets more pressure as each fighter becomes more difficult.
If you are a big fan of the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic 1990 film Lionheart ( directed by Sheldon Lettich ) then you are going to be thrilled over Lights Out. This is actually a similar film with a different plot, but you can recognize the style of Lights Out and feel that this film is clearly inspired by the Van Damme classic with military action added to spice things up. In the 1990 film Lionheart the main character Lyon Gaultier is a French Foreign Legion and in Lights Out the main character Duffy played by Frank Grillo is veteran soldier, so already there you can see the pattern matches pretty well. In Lionheart you saw street fights going on and we actually see something similar in Lights Out. What i appreciate about this is that this film tries to bring back similar styles as Lionheart into modern cinema. Even the friendshhip between Duffy and his match fixer Max Bomer almost feels similar to the frienship between Lyon and his match fixer Joshua. One thing this film also does is bring back war memories in some scenes as Duffy is clearly suffering with PTSD. You might think that a fighting film such as this only have terrible acting but i have to say especially Frank Grillo bring on his acting skills in several scenes. I especially enjoy the performance from actor Dermot Mulroney ( who i especially remember from the 2013 psychological thriller Stoker ) as the character Sage. We even see martial arts actor Scott Adkins in this film for a couple of scenes. Ok so we might as well get into something i feel could have been better, and honestly some fighting scenes feel a bit too weak. While some scenes hit in the right spot there are a couple of fighting scenes that doesn´t leave a bigger impact. Considering this is a film you would want to include powerful fights i feel they could have done the punches even stronger in certain scenes. With that said i still feel Lights Out manage to become a fighting action drama that´s exactly what we need to see more of in the future. Director Christian Sesma have made a film that knows what audience it was made for and i appreciate the effort, it is a good looking film and feels like a throwback tribute to the 90´s. If you love the classic Lionheart you simply have to check out Lights Out, no matter if you watch it on streaming or on a physical copy. Lights Out proves there is still hope for films of this specific genre.
Rating: DDD
lördag 4 maj 2024
Godzilla Minus One
Monster movies have been around since the early 1900´s and one of the most iconic motion pictures is without a doubt the 1922 German horror film Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror inspired by Bram Stoker´s novel Dracula. Of course America saw the potential in Nosferatu and decided to do their own version of the novel simply calling the film Dracula. Released in 1931 the horror film Dracula would definetely bring the vampire genre to a completely different level before in cinema where legendary actor Bela Lugosi brought a magical performance as Count Dracula. I have seen this 1931 film several times and even though i am usually not a big fan of too old movies ( especially from 1920´s and 1930´s for different reasons ), i do appreciate Dracula as a horror classic. A lot of sequels were made after the first American film version was released and since then we had both remakes and sequels based on Bram Stoker´s iconic book. Speaking of monster films of the past there were a lot of monster movies made after Dracula came out. You have classics such a the 1932 horror film The Mummy and of course the 1935 horror film Werewolf Of London, both worth checking out. But there are so many other titles released especially in the 1950´s you should experience. There is one film i feel doesn´t get talked about a lot and that is the 1959 film Attack Of The Giant Leeches directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. This is really B movie territory so if you appreciate monster B movies this is one of those films you might enjoy. Just the idea of big leeches attacking humans is absolutely brilliant and a fun idea. Even if America have made most monster movies in the past we even had Japan bringing a true classic to cinema history by releasing the 1954 horror film Godzilla directed by Ishiro Honda. I have seen the original film and it is quite charming. Since the original film we have a lot of sequels as well as American updated versions of Godzilla ( where especially the 1998 American version failed ) and i especially appreciated the 2014 American version. The other films in the Godzilla sequels have been enjoyable as well for different reasons but i have been very curious to see the Oscar winner Godzilla Minus One. As the film was released digital i decided to sit down and give this film a chance. Is this Japanese film a big highlight for monster fans worldwide or is this not as fun as i was hoping it would be?
In 1945, near the end of world war II. kamikaze pilot Kóichi Shikishima ( Ryunosuke Kamiki ) lands his Mitsubishi A6M Zero at a Japanese base on Odo Island. That night the base is attacked by a large dinosaur-like creature known as Godzilla and this is the very first time Kóichi see the beast with his own eyes. Kóichi returns to his home to find his parents were killed in the bombing of Tokyo. Plagued by survivor´s guilt, he begins supporting a woman, Noriko Óishi ( Minami Hamabe ), whos parents also died in the bombing. She is taking care of an orphaned baby named Akiko. As they begin to build a life together Kóichi have no other option than get money to survive by working as at minesweeper. While trying to destroy mines Godzilla shows up in the ocean and they are not able to stop the beast from entering Tokyo city. Godzilla destroy big parts of the city and Noriko is tragically killed among the many other victims of civilians. Kóichi agree to gather with a big group of people to try and stop Godzilla with the help of former naval engineer Kenji Noda ( Hidetaka Yoshioka ).
To compare this Godzilla film to others in the franchise would probably not be a good idea, at least if we are talking about the American versions. Godzilla Minus One does something completely different than the American versions and that is take the ground material much more serious and actually tries to go on a much more deeper dramatic level than before. That doesn´t mean this is a film that is supposed to be made like a drama, they just try to make the story much more emotional and serious than we are used to see. The connection with the end of World War II definetely helps this film bring out the more serious tone, and you actually feel the impact this war have done to the Japanese people. You might wonder do they manage to portrait Godzilla in a different way than before? Not completely, but i will say this i really think Godzilla looks incredible in this film when it comes to the CGI effects. They have done a really good job on the design of Godzilla and the attack scenes looks really well made. In fact i would even say that some of the action scenes in Godzilla Minus One have some of the best looking monster scenes i have seen in any of the Godzilla films so far in this franchise. When it comes to the acting i have to say the whole cast does a really good job with each character, even though i am not familiar with any of the actors except for actress Sakura Andó ( who i especially remember from the very powerful drama film Shoplifters, a film i really enjoyed in cinema ) i am actually feeling that i need to see these actors in other films as well after their powerful performances in Godzilla Minus One. Lead actor Ryunosuke Kamiki playing the character Koichi manage to portrait a soldier struggling with PTSD in a realistic way. With really powerful CGI effects, brilliant sound effects and really strong acting performances i have a feeling this may be the best Godzilla film yet so far. Godzilla Minus One delivers more than i expected and director Takashi Yamakazi ( director of the sci fi action classic Returner ) clearly knew what this franchise needed to get back on it´s feet. If you are a fan of monster movies i guarantee you are going to enjoy this delightful film. Godzilla Minus One hit all the right spots for me and i can´t do anything else than highly recommend this film.
Rating: DDDD