El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
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Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 1, 2014 23:10:03 GMT -5
#34: "THE THIRSTY DEAD"Story: group of women kidnapped from streets of Manilla taken to hidden cult in mountains. One woman resembles someone in their legends who can resurrect their leader (who is now a head in a glowing box), the others are being kept so they can drink their blood (which keeps the cult immortal). The 'one' convinces the cult's high priest to help them escape through the jungle. Strange little movie, filmed in the Philippines in the early 70's. With a story like this, you'd expect a little nudity, a little torture, a little more of an exploitation film. And you get none of it. Other than a little blood from when the 'draining' scene happens, and a close-up of some zombie-esque 'former drainees', there is no gore. Other than some small bikinis and flowing sheer dresses, there is no nudity. The script feels a lot like a lost episode of the original Star Trek as well, with the main character going out of her way to learn about their society, point out the flaw (drinking blood, in case you didn't catch it), then the daring escape. The cult even wears costumes that look like something from a cheap SF show. Some amusement comes from one of the other kidnapped women, a stripper who sees the possibility of being kidnapped into white slavery as "career advancement", and keeps up her catty sniping at the main character throughout the movie. Other than that, with no exploitation elements to hold the interest, this movie is pretty boring.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 2, 2014 0:32:36 GMT -5
"THE VISITOR"Story: The Visitor is an old man (John Huston) sent to stop an 8-year old girl with telekinetic powers from... something with her mother being kidnapped and impregnated by an evil conglomerate looking to bring the next Anti-Christ... or something... 1979 Italian/American science-fiction/horror thriller shoots for the Moon and crashes, an attempt to make a SF version of "The Exorcist". The main reason is because the director was Michael J. Paradise, aka. Italian cinematographer Giulio Paradisi, who had worked in Italian art films (including with Felini). He had a specific vision and just was not able to bring that vision to film (especially with the budget that the producers had). There are bits and pieces of the movie that feel like they either don't belong (an extended scene at a skating rink, for one) or that should have had significance but the explanation was cut out (the exploding basketball). It's almost like it was being written on the fly. Possibly because it was. Another major flaw is that there's no real character to hold on to, no 'hero'. There's the Visitor but his origin and motivations are kept away from the audience so it's hard to cheer for him because you don't know exactly why he's stalking an 8-year old girl. The girl herself looks mid-teenaged and behaves like the bad girl from a Disney family TV show (and somehow she seems to know she's the Devil, or the Anti-Christ, or trying to bring about the Anti-Christ or something) so she's out. Lance Henriksen shows up as the woman's boyfriend, but he's in on the conspiracy part. The woman is either screaming in fear or crying. However, it is a hypnotic mess. It's like a dream, running amok, throwing strange images and characters at you without explanation. You have to see this movie to disbelieve it. Drafthouse Films released a beautifully restored version of this film, with footage that was cut from the original US release (around 10 minutes of extra stuff), along with a couple of interviews with Henriksen (who admits that he had no idea what was happening) and a writer hired to 'steer' the director into making a decent movie (he was fired early on, but had a great story). I recommend this movie. It's insane but I loved it. PS - Drafthouse also put out not one but two covers with amazing art...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 16:38:15 GMT -5
Watched sympathy for Mr. vengeance tonight
.....Kinda conflicted. I actually really liked the plot and the characters but it really felt like they skipped over quite a few plot points to get to where they were going. Several times it seemed like the story went "This is happening now" without an explanation of how they had gotten there and it was scrambling to catch up with it
Having said that, I did follows it even with those leaps and I did feel like I was watching something different as a lot of the time it felt they were trying to tell stuff visually and I've never seen a sex scene with sign language before so that was new ha
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,868
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Post by agent817 on Jun 6, 2014 23:21:54 GMT -5
It's been a while since I've posted in this thread. Here it goes: LOCKEPlot: Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is a man at the top of his game. A dedicated husband, a star employee at a high-powered construction firm, he's the model of cool professionalism with a talent for managing complex situations. Driving home on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Locke makes a sudden choice to go confront the only situation in his life that can't be neatly handled. He quickly learns that the cost of becoming a better man is high. Verdict: I have to say that this movie was, without a doubt, a really good experience for me. Before seeing this, I had read that this movie was about some guy facing challenges in his life while driving and talking on the phone. The movie itself has just one live actor and that is Tom Hardy. The rest are all voices provided by actors. I got more into the story as the movie went on. I highly recommend it.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 13, 2014 23:54:27 GMT -5
#35: "BLOOD THIRST"Story: police chief of Manilla asks American detective for help in finding why women keep turning up dead. Detective finds ties to night club, falls in love, fights monster. OK, so this movie was filmed in 1965 (yes, in the Philippines), and not released in the US until 1971, but it looks and feels like it was made in the 50's. It's like a drive-in monster flick, a black'n'white horror quickie with cheap sets that couldn't afford to have the monster show up until the end of the movie, when the square-jawed hero saves the screaming woman. My theory was that a US producer did this on the fly in order to prove to other how cheaply they could make a movie overseas. Boring, generic, bland, only becoming a little funny when the hero starts talking to himself when he's alone, with tin-eared dialogue I'd expect more from the MST3K crowd and not a serious script. Not worth it. Avoid.
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Post by Mr PONYMANIA Mr Jenzie on Jun 13, 2014 23:59:00 GMT -5
THE ROOM
oh god what did i just watch!!!
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 13, 2014 23:59:56 GMT -5
#36: "TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE"So, want to know how cheap this DVD set is? I put the disc into the Blu-ray player and select "TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE" on the menu. The movie that starts up is "THE TERROR". So, I let it run for a few minutes, thinking that the opening (Boris Karloff sneaking through the castle, through a hidden door into the dungeon) was just footage being re-used (something that Corman was well-known for doing). Nope. The people who put this DVD set together just didn't give a damn enough to check that the movie being put on disc was the right movie.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,868
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Post by agent817 on Jun 14, 2014 17:36:38 GMT -5
BOUNTY HUNTERSPlot: A group of people go around catching people who have skipped out on paying bail or have a bounty on their heads. One night the group, consisting of Jules (Trish Stratus), Chase (Boomer Phillips), and Ridley (Frank J. Zupancic), catches an informant with a $100,000 bounty. A mobster who wants this man more, offers the group a million dollars to turn the informant over to him. Verdict: I have to say that this movie is by no means good, but I thought it was fun. Sure, Trish is great to look at and her character is no different from her wrestling/real life persona, so she kind of did well playing her character. I thought the romantic subplot with the older bounty hunter was unnecessary. It could have just had the guy care about her but not be her lover or would-be lover for that. I did think the other guy on the team was funny, by the way. The thing I found ridiculous was the editing of the rapid attacks from the female assassin in the movie. I did like the fight scenes between Trish and the assassin. I did kind of mark out when she did The Stratusfaction (I kid you not on this) on her. I only recommend it to B-movie fans, and if you're a Trish Stratus fan.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jun 24, 2014 1:10:16 GMT -5
#37: "THE SADIST"Story: three school teachers driving to a baseball game are forced to stop at a junkyard when the car breaks down. There they are taken hostage by a young punk named Charlie and his girl Judy, who are on a cross-country killing spree, staying one step ahead of the police by stealing cars and killing anyone who sees them. While Charlie forces the teachers to fix their car so he and Judy can keep running, he passes the time by torturing the teachers. Wasn't expecting this good of a movie from this collection, I tell you. - Arch Hall Jr.'s performance as Charlie is definitely OTT but after a while I started to feel like it was Charlie doing that intentionally to keep the teachers on edge, putting on a performance for them to keep them in line. Also, Charlie may no be particularly smart but he is a lot brighter than the teachers give him credit for. - girlfriend Judy is a blank, barely there... can't tell if it was a great performance or just an actress who didn't know what to do. - solid performances from the teachers, especially the older Mr. Oliver. - great setting, a big desolate junkyard. Strange how such an open place could be made so claustrophobic. This is a solid classic. Recommended. (but at no time is there a woman in a skimpy dress like the one on the poster)
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jul 7, 2014 23:59:24 GMT -5
#38: "THE KILLING KIND"Story: Thelma's son Terry has just been released from prison, and has moved into Thelma's boarding house for women. Terry and Thelma have always been close... so when Thelma remarks that the girl who lied to put Terry in jail should be dead, Terry goes off one night, and then the girl's body is found. And then more women start turning up dead... Not a fun slasher flick, but more like a psychological study of Terry, a shattered psyche that sees all women as the cause of his pain. It's a powerful performance by a young John Savage("The Deer Hunter"), almost like Michael Rooker in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer". I got the feeling that while the incident that put Terry in jail (shown at the beginning) may have been the trigger that turned Terry into a monster, it really was just a matter of time before that happened. The relationship between Terry and his mother Thelma (played by Ann Sothern, TV sitcom star of "Private Secretary", "The Ann Sothern Show" and the voice on "My Mother The Car") is simply creepy, and damn difficult to watch at times. There's also a neighbour lady who feels like a female version of Terry, who comes across as just as scary after she talks to Terry one night. Familiar faces: Cindy Williams (Shirley from TV's "Laverne & Shirley") is the pretty young girl who just moved into Thelma's boarding house, and makes the mistake of flirting with Terry... It's a well-made movie, to be sure, but it sure isn't a fun movie to watch. Interesting if you want a study on how serial killers are hatched, but otherwise hard to recommend.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jul 10, 2014 0:40:45 GMT -5
#39: "THE FORGOTTEN" (aka. "DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT")Story: pretty young nurse arrives for her new job at small sanitarium to find that the doctor who hired her has disappeared without informing his colleague. Since the sanitarium is short-handed (it's only the one doctor there now, with no nurses around...), the pretty young nurse is asked to stay. But we know that the missing doctor is dead, murdered by accident during one patient's therapy... and that's not the only secret that's being kept here... Better-than-expected low budget horror flick from 1973. Yes, it is cheap looking but there's a good story, it moves along quickly and the characters are all likeable. The acting for the patients is over-the-top but you expect crazy people to be acting crazy, right? It's like the director told the performers what their character's mental illness' were and let them ham it up as they see fit, and as dumb as that sounds it kind of works. The 'pretty nurse' does a decent job (played by Rosie Holotik, Playboy cover model April 1972), and there's a fun appearance by a telephone repairman who you'd swear was Bill Engvall in his earlier years. Of course, there's a final-reel twist (not a big surprise, but still nicely done) and it all ends with blood. Cheap blood effects, but I still felt sad for the characters at the end... so congratulations must be given for making me feel for the psychos. I'm surprised to say that I actually liked this one. #40: "Silent Night, Bloody Night"
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jul 13, 2014 0:48:50 GMT -5
#41: "IT HAPPENED AT NIGHTMARE INN"Spanish film made in 1973, also known as "Un Vela Para El Diablo" (A Candle For the Devil)! Story: two sisters in small Spanish resort town rent rooms to tourists. When one pretty English girl dies (apparently accidentally), they hide the body and claim she just up and left. Soon, the dominant sister is judging the tourists, women with loose morals and tight clothing... - sisters are well played, especially the 'dominant' one. You do get the feeling that whatever rage that was boiling up through the years had finally broken out, and she was justifying it with her religious beliefs and morals (movie explains that her fiance ran away with a younger woman years ago). - British actress Judy Geeson (TV's "Mad About You") is the protagonist, the sister of the first missing girl, looking into why she left without telling anyone. She wasn't terrible but not memorable either. - suitably creepy atmosphere. - bad ending. An unrelated 'incident' (well, not really but an unlikely event) is what causes the locals to come to the inn to get answers, at a moment when it just happens the climax is going on. Not a bad movie, really, but not 'required viewing' either. #42: "Murder Mansion"#43: "Scream Bloody Murder"
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jul 23, 2014 0:23:11 GMT -5
#44: "NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR"Story: movie opens with young adult Wesley ( Gerald McRaney, TV's "Simon & Simon" and "Major Dad") having sex, then Wes has a 'psycho-technicolour migraine' and runs away. The young woman goes to church the next day (to repent the sin of hanging around Gerald McRaney) and is murdered. Police suspect Wes, we learn about his troubled past and time in an asylum, he falls in love again, the next girls dies AGAIN, the police investigate AGAIN, he falls for ANOTHER woman... but what is really happening? You won't care. The movie is a badly filmed mess, filled with poor acting, terrible lighting, glitchy sound, and just a flat-out bad story. McRaney did show promise as an actor but he hadn't learned the art of 'subtlety' yet, going from a smooth-talking ladies man at one moment and a shrieking madman the next, with no real flow between the two. The story ends with a "Psycho" rip-off that you'll figure out after the first 10 minutes. Not worth seeing.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jul 27, 2014 1:18:58 GMT -5
#45: "GOD TOLD ME TO"Story: a string of seemingly-unrelated mass murders in New York lead a detective to possible cult leader, and a revelation about himself. Made in 1976 by prolific B-movie creator Larry Cohen ("It's Alive", "Q the Winged Serpent", "The Stuff", "Maniac Cop", writer of "Phone Booth" and "Cellular"). I liked it, but I'm not in love with it. The movie has a GREAT start: random people start committing horrendous acts of violence and when captured, they all answer with the same words: "God told me to." The lead detective had a staunch Catholic upbringing, so he has to start thinking about if this may be the truth... is God telling these people to kill? But then he starts finding clues about a strange man (who no one can really describe) talking to these killers, and the trail leads him to... actually, no, it's one of the cult members that leads him to the strange leader. That's when the truth about the cult leader and the detective (and the connection they share) is revealed. So, the story is a little off-the-rails, but the acting is solid and the dialogue is sharp. Nobody goes out and hams it up, everyone gives a performance that is solid and believable, which is strange for a movie this weird. Side note: Andy Kaufman's first movie (he plays a policeman who shoots up the St. Patrick's Day Parade). Other side note: I'll have to spoiler... {Spoiler}{Spoiler}So, the spoiler is that it's aliens, OK? The reason I've spoiled this is that the footage of the alien spaceship is from a TV show I used to watch called "Space: 1999", and I laughed when it appeared on the screen. It's definitely worth seeing, but be prepared to be saying "WTF" to the screen.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Jul 30, 2014 0:09:42 GMT -5
#46: "LEGACY OF BLOOD"Story: at the reading of their father's will, four siblings learn that they will have to spend the week at the mansion, along with the servants... and if anyone doesn't make it, the rest get more of the inheritance. Soon people start dying, and some dark secrets are revealed... Made in 1971, feels more like a late 50's/early 60's schlocky drive-in thriller (if it wasn't for the color and the occasional poorly-done gore). Bad acting galore (especially the guy who plays the younger brother, he Shatners so hard he almost Shats himself...), terribly filmed (so many shadows you lose track of people), horrible sound (conversations drowned out by music)... even John Carradine had the good sense not to be in this movie for very long (little more than 5 minutes total), and he's been in everything! All the actors look older than the characters that they are supposed to be (the chauffeur had jet black hair and pure white sideburns, the older brother looks to be the same age as Carradine, and the younger sister's psychiatrist/husband looks twice her age). All of the characters have that bit of crazy in them that means you could suspect them being the killer (chauffeur skinned a German during WW2 and made a lamp out of him, the butler likes being beaten by a cane, the younger brother is in lust with the younger sister, she's out to lunch, etc.), but in the end all you want is these people to die so the movie will end. Stupid story, with even dumber 'joke' ending. Avoid. Stay away. And the rest of the set I've seen before... #47: Sisters of Death (and a much better copy of it)#48: The Devil's Hand#49: Snowbeast#50: Lady Frankenstein
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Aug 4, 2014 23:52:37 GMT -5
"THE INNKEEPERS"Story: two employees of the soon-to-be-closing Yankee Pedlar Inn try to stay awake all night in an effort to capture proof of a ghost. Not your typical horror film, to be sure. I found that the movie was more about the one main character Claire ( Sara Paxton, "Shark Night", "Cheap Thrills"), and her need for something to be found, rather than anything paranormal. As such, it's not a big ghost-fest like "Thirteen Ghosts" or "The House on Haunted Hill", it's more about what Claire sees, or thinks she sees. Other stars: Pat Healy ("Magnolia", "Cheap Thrills") is the other main character, a nerdy amateur ghost-hunter named Luke, who does a great job of projecting "I got this" on the surface and not knowing what to do beneath. Kelly McGillis ("Top Gun", "The Accused") appears later as a psychic/former child TV star who is staying at the hotel, who tries to discourage Claire from digging too deep into the paranormal. Very slow, almost glacial... but it's not about the thrills of ghost-hunting, it's about the suspense of waiting for something to happen, and at the end it's up to the viewer to decide what really did happen. It's a damn good movie, but not for fans of 'big horror' movies. More of a slow-burning thriller.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Aug 16, 2014 0:47:52 GMT -5
"THE LEGO MOVIE"Everyone who has seen this has already said how much fun this movie is, and if you haven't seen it then I will echo their statements and say that it is worth seeing. The only thing I can add to this is that I was really surprised at Will Ferrell's performance in the 'live action' part of the story... I wasn't expecting to see him not hamming it up. It's roles like that which make me think that people like Ferrell could go on and do well in a really dramatic role (see: Jack Black in "Bernie"). So, highly recommended, must see.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Aug 16, 2014 1:04:17 GMT -5
"THE RAID 2"Story: minutes after "The Raid" ends, main character Rama is recruited into becoming an undercover operative in an attempt to join a crime lord's gang and find information on their government ties. This leads to Rama becoming friends with the crime lord's son, who is restless in waiting for his father to pass more power to him. When a conflict arises between the Indonesian local gang and the Japanese faction, it all hits the fan. "The Raid" was 3 minutes of love story at the beginning and 98 minutes of incredibly intense martial arts action and gunplay. "The Raid 2" keeps the 98 minutes of kick-ass action and mixes it with 52 minutes of story, a pretty straight-forward crime story about loyalty, greed and betrayal but well acted (with some nice performances by the older actors). The car chase scene is simply phenomenal. Hell, the bonus feature that showed how they filmed the car chase scene is phenomenal.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,894
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Aug 31, 2014 1:52:17 GMT -5
"BLUE RUIN"Story: homeless guy Dwight learns that the man who killed his parents in out of jail, so Dwight picks himself up and goes to get revenge. What happens next? Fascinating story about a normal guy who is trying to deal with the consequences of his actions, a brutal act of revenge that starts another quest for vengeance, only this time Dwight is the hunted and the hunters are smarter, better armed and more ruthless that Dwight. According to the 'making of' bonus, the movie started out as a tribute to 80's revenge-action flicks but the filmmaker kept having trouble writing the script with his wife and children in the room... he kept thinking about what would really happen, how it would affect his family, the family of the victims, and more, turning the story from an action fest into a thoughtful, quiet, mesmerizing piece with the occasional burst of gunfire (and it does get very bloody at times). The movie just sucked me in from the beginning and I'm not sure I blinked until the end. Highly recommended.
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Jiren
Patti Mayonnaise
Hearts Bayformers
Posts: 35,163
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Post by Jiren on Aug 31, 2014 17:12:36 GMT -5
LucyIf Limitless, The Lawnmower Man & transcendence had an orgy and produced a kid, This would be the result. A good fun fast paced movie that's pretty well acted, but not as good as said movies. I had some issues with some of the powers she gains but it didn't ruin it for me.
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