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If anything I've kinda burned The Raid out, I was so astonished by it back in like 2013 that I just watched it over and over a bunch of times that year.
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# ? May 9, 2023 13:57 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 16:28 |
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the new mortal kombat movie would have been if not for the obvious studio head insert main character. everything that was not him was fine and fun.
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# ? May 9, 2023 14:06 |
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WoodrowSkillson posted:the new mortal kombat movie would have been if not for the obvious studio head insert main character. everything that was not him was fine and fun. In my opinion there's a lot more wrong with it than that. The director is extremely mediocre and that's going to be a huge problem in the sequel.
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# ? May 9, 2023 15:36 |
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Karl Urban owns but if they were going to cast someone that's 50+ old to be Johnny Cage it was idiotic for them to not just say gently caress it and get Jean Claude Van Damme to do it. The Miz was pushing to get the role for awhile which would have been a casting choice flawless victory if they wanted to do douchebag era Johnny.
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# ? May 9, 2023 15:44 |
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Neo Rasa posted:Karl Urban owns but if they were going to cast someone that's 50+ old to be Johnny Cage it was idiotic for them to not just say gently caress it and get Jean Claude Van Damme to do it. Only if they follow it up with a Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat movie where he fights himself.
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# ? May 9, 2023 18:11 |
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Neo Rasa posted:Karl Urban owns but if they were going to cast someone that's 50+ old to be Johnny Cage it was idiotic for them to not just say gently caress it and get Jean Claude Van Damme to do it. The Miz definitely is more on the leven of the first movie, Urban brings some star power to the movie that hopefully leads to more eyes on what the gently caress the director is doing. The movie is very lifeless in places, and the editing was a hack job.
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# ? May 9, 2023 18:31 |
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Yeah there are long stretches that are just bland, and feel AI or committee-generated in a way that MK never should. The Scorp/Sub stuff ahead of the title card is the movie's peak and nothing else ever touches it.
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# ? May 9, 2023 18:43 |
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flashy_mcflash posted:Yeah there are long stretches that are just bland, and feel AI or committee-generated in a way that MK never should. The Scorp/Sub stuff ahead of the title card is the movie's peak and nothing else ever touches it. Yes, this scene and a couple of brief horror-esque Subzero moments are literally all the movie has going for it. Otherwise it's ugly and lifeless, with stupid setups and payoffs and boring go-nowhere and do-nothing fights. Adding Karl Urban isn't going to fix that.
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# ? May 9, 2023 20:03 |
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A huge amount of the movie is just a bunch of rules lawyering and setting up the tournament which we don't even get. It really feels like it was written and edited by a bunch of people who never ever spoke to each other. Maybe that's what happened due to COVID, I don't know, but it didn't work at all.
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# ? May 9, 2023 20:27 |
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I do hope that Urban's involvement translates to more people paying attention to it and hopefully more money. Other faults aside I was surprised how cheap the movie seemed at times and not in an endearing way. That underground mini-arena where Raiden has them training where Kung Lao/Liu Kang/Kano/etc. all first meet up was honestly pretty cool looking but every other location sucked. Like how they clearly used the same house for more than one location, and why is the final battle in a chainlink fence preservation facility or whatever the gently caress that was. I loving loved the entire cast across the board though honestly even if some of them had nothing to do. Just in general that MK flick was one I enjoyed a lot in the moment in spite of its issues but the more I look on it it's such a waste of potential with that cast, I hope they get everyone back and this movie is good (and that they use Cole as a fatality demonstration body early on lol). Like they even gave LIU KANG of all people some backstory that made him kind of a character! They could have just had him be the main character! Also they shouldn't have even bothered having Goro in the movie, like hey let's just teleport to some bar to fight a four armed CG orc okay that's done and my have the god-given ability to grow a yellow shirt now, bye, what the gently caress was that poo poo lol
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# ? May 9, 2023 20:37 |
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I liked Liu Kang and Kung Lao but I thought Lewis Tan was horrible, even though the writing certainly didn't do him any favours and the character was atrocious. Sure, this guy is 0-100 in MMA fights against normal humans, that's who you want defending earth.
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# ? May 9, 2023 20:41 |
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flashy_mcflash posted:I liked Liu Kang and Kung Lao but I thought Lewis Tan was horrible, even though the writing certainly didn't do him any favours and the character was atrocious. Sure, this guy is 0-100 in MMA fights against normal humans, that's who you want defending earth. Yeah I really didn't get the whole "special powers" poo poo. Jax having insanely little noodle arms that got buff when he believed in himself(?!?!?) was just wild. The entire thing was an exercise in hoop jumping and for what? A seven dollar fight scene in the gym set done up to look frozen. What the hell man? The Scorpion/Cage fight in MK95 was more memorable and dynamic and THAT set was literally just made out of pieces of other sets as a total Hail Mary after focus groups told them the movie needed more action.
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# ? May 9, 2023 20:45 |
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When I heard Urban was on board, I just assumed he'd be Kano.
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# ? May 9, 2023 20:46 |
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In any given script or story, especially pulp action, you do need the build up and transitional scenes. Otherwise the payoffs aren't payoffs. The MK movie is composed overwhelmingly of those build and transitional scenes, with very few payoffs. They spend so long just going places and being told things, and the cast aren't given nearly enough character moments or humour or drama to make those scenes interesting. Having a bunch of exposition come from Jax and Sonya, who are then rendered as more 'ordinary people dragged into the magic world' who need a bunch more exposition dropped on them is bewildering, and just means we reset the movie rather than getting it moving faster. Coupled with spending a good third of the movie building up Sub Zero, then having him vanish from the movie until the climax, alongside having Goro and Reptile simply appear with no build up at all to either of their scenes. I feel like, at some point, if they'd assembled the movie in flowchart form and seen just how much of it is wasted time, ideally early on, it could have been fixed. There's a whole essay or something in understanding its structural problems and why it doesn't even work particularly well as pulp action.
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# ? May 9, 2023 23:05 |
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Raid 2 needs more praise as well, the prison fight scene is absolutely bonkers. Also new MI trailer dropped https://twitter.com/MissionFilm/status/1658819873089404935 Looks like it will be another banger.
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# ? May 17, 2023 15:46 |
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Ulio posted:Raid 2 needs more praise as well, the prison fight scene is absolutely bonkers. It's looking great, but why is it a two parter? Argh. This movie may have more tom cruise sprinting moments than any other, which is wonderful. Rebecca Ferguson, Pom Klementieff and Vanessa Kirby all look to have pretty sizable roles, nice to see that.
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# ? May 17, 2023 16:10 |
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Raid 2 is great, but it's much more of a conventional kung fu flick than the first.
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# ? May 17, 2023 16:26 |
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Halloween Jack posted:Raid 2 is great, but it's much more of a conventional kung fu flick than the first. It's also a classic gangster movie, which includes the more complex internal politics of the different factions and all that. The first Raid was obviously much simpler(and shorter) which helped it have a wider appeal.
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# ? May 17, 2023 16:31 |
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Cruise looks more plasticy than usual, freaks me out a little.
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# ? May 17, 2023 17:20 |
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Anybody here seen Tiger Cage or Tiger Cage 2? I've never heard of them but they're directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and they have Donnie Yen in them. They're on Paramount+ which as it turns out actually has a pretty solid selection of Hong Kong action stuff. Both Project A movies, Dragons Forever, The Master(early Jet Li), and these Tiger Cage movies that I don't know much about.
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# ? May 18, 2023 16:43 |
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Basebf555 posted:Anybody here seen Tiger Cage or Tiger Cage 2? I haven't watched the sequels yet, but I bought the 88 films box set and really enjoyed the first. It's not really a Donnie Yen feature though, the second is where he's the lead.
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# ? May 18, 2023 18:00 |
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Last time I checked the Paramount+ selections (I think Dr. Wei was up there?) they were all dub only. Not sure if that’s changed.
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# ? May 18, 2023 18:48 |
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Lumbermouth posted:Last time I checked the Paramount+ selections (I think Dr. Wei was up there?) they were all dub only. Not sure if that’s changed. I imagine you're probably right. I'm gonna still watch a few of these just to see how good the action is and then maybe buy blu rays down the road.
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# ? May 18, 2023 19:12 |
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Halloween Jack posted:Raid 2 is great, but it's much more of a conventional kung fu flick than the first.
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# ? May 18, 2023 21:39 |
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Goddamn the first ten minutes or so of Tiger Cage is wild. I wonder what the record is for number of gunshots in the opening 10 minutes of a movie.
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# ? May 18, 2023 22:13 |
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Basebf555 posted:Goddamn the first ten minutes or so of Tiger Cage is wild. I wonder what the record is for number of gunshots in the opening 10 minutes of a movie. is it more bullet filled than punisher war zone?
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# ? May 18, 2023 22:21 |
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trevorreznik posted:is it more bullet filled than punisher war zone? I would say so yea
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# ? May 18, 2023 22:25 |
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That opening also has this https://twitter.com/kickassvargas/status/1559032677512011776
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# ? May 19, 2023 15:47 |
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Yea I watched that several times and the only thing I could guess is that the awning he bounces off of must've been like a padded bouncy material.
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# ? May 19, 2023 15:50 |
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Punkin Spunkin posted:yeah, it was like...okay in my eyes. a lot of the appeal of the first film was the setting for me, and just the fantastic fights there, then with the success they got they just got more money and more scale but it didnt exactly translate. a lot of it just felt goofy bad, like Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man are corny as gently caress and just feel like they got pulled out of a bad anime. not all of the fights feel as tightly well crafted as the original The Raid 1 is definitely a better overall and tighter flick but Raid 2 does have that car chase and that fight at the end with the assassin and that part where the dude's face gets melted on a restaurant grill so they're about equal to me.
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# ? May 19, 2023 15:57 |
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trevorreznik posted:is it more bullet filled than punisher war zone? Speaking of this dude my only problem with RRR (other than the nationalistic ballyhoo of the end credits that I had no context for) was Ray not getting a second standout action scene. Are there any other bollywood/tollywood/etc movies that are as good or better than it? I spent a large part of the run time whooping
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# ? May 19, 2023 15:58 |
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Shageletic posted:Speaking of this dude my only problem with RRR (other than the nationalistic ballyhoo of the end credits that I had no context for) was Ray not getting a second standout action scene. Not really. I watched bahubali 1&2, pushpa, kgf 1&2 pretty much in a row a month or two back. Bahubali 2 comes closest but the pacing isn't nearly as tight (being a two parter). The primary problem they all have is the heroes are completely unstoppable in nearly everything they do. Bahubali solves this to a degree, but RRR really solves it by just having them be frenemies for most of the runtime so it feels like it earns the final team-up to dunk all over the brits. I still enjoyed the other movies but wasn't recommending them to anyone unlike RRR War looks interesting and I'll try that soon, because it looks like they're going for a two perfect rival thing, so maybe I'll enjoy that more. trevorreznik fucked around with this message at 16:18 on May 19, 2023 |
# ? May 19, 2023 16:15 |
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War is good fun, especially if you're looking for something to scratch the same itch as the later Fast and Furious movies
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# ? May 19, 2023 21:22 |
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FancyMike posted:That opening also has this https://twitter.com/kickassvargas/status/1559032677512011776 Good Lord. Reminds me of this holy poo poo moment from the early 90's Travolta movie Chains of Gold. (2:24 in the clip) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgWgTMcc6L4 I'm assuming the filmmakers just threw a bouquet of flowers in the water afterwards and called it a day.
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# ? May 19, 2023 23:40 |
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filmcynic posted:Good Lord. Reminds me of this holy poo poo moment from the early 90's Travolta movie Chains of Gold. (2:24 in the clip) The only person doing more work than that stuntman was the saxophonist.
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# ? May 19, 2023 23:59 |
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John Wick 4 was great but it would be better with a saxophone soundtrack.
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# ? May 20, 2023 02:35 |
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How else am I supposed to know there's an action scene/people about to do it
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# ? May 20, 2023 02:46 |
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Shageletic posted:How else am I supposed to know there's an action scene/people about to do it Either way there's action.
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# ? May 20, 2023 03:07 |
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dokmo posted:I rewatched Hydra and Baby Assassins to get the taste of Seagalchat out of my head. Not great movies, but a truly great fight finales. I just watched Baby Assassins without remembering why I had it on a watchlist and drat, I was impressed. Especially the finale hand to hand fight that was better than I'd really expected. I'm gonna have to dive into this Sonomura guy Edit I looked him up and turns out I already know some of his work, from doing actuon direction for dmc 3 & mgr:r a decade ago trevorreznik fucked around with this message at 04:05 on May 20, 2023 |
# ? May 20, 2023 03:57 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 16:28 |
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Shageletic posted:How else am I supposed to know there's an action scene/people about to do it Watch Drive Angry 3D and enjoy both at the same time.
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# ? May 20, 2023 05:26 |