I saw quite a few articles on the net last month about how this was the last time we’d be paying $7.99 per month, and that for everyone the next bill would be $9.99 just like it is for new subscribers. But I got this month’s bill, and it was $7.99 again. Maybe this will be the final month?
Netflix now has a 2015 movie called Admiral which is worth a watch if you’re into the Golden Age of Sail and the old red-white-and-blue standing up against those English sea-pigs. The movie was originally called Michiel De Ruyter in its Dutch theatrical release, which makes sense, as it’s an epic biopic about the Dutch hero and admiral Michiel De Ruyter. Here, De Ruyter, looking like Oliver Platt at his physical peak, navigates through tides and fleets and the even trickier shoals of domestic politics.
The camera floats around like it drifted away from a Michael Bay movie, and there’s a bunch of scenes of naval combat where sailors brace for explosions of what looks like compost. I got a little confused tracking what was Zeeland, Holland, Dutch-land, Orangeland, and the Netherlands. There are seven provinces, I know that… or was the Seven Provinces a ship? Anyway, the Dutch are the clever Daafs standing up against Goliath Britain, led by Charles Dance, who Ty-winningly plays King Charles II of England. The actors playing Johan De Witt and William III are good, and the actress who plays Mrs. De Ruyter does what she can with what would have been a thankless role in any language or time period.
There is some seriously sexy fleet action, and the dialog (in Dutch) and acting is less ponderous than a Hollywood version of the story would have been.
Shit. Yes. I love, LOVE Age of Sail stuff, and this looks wondrous. Thank you!
So…fiction?
Like a hero with a decidedly un-heroic physique.
The movie is no Master And Commander, but there are a lot more ships on screen than at The Far Side Of The World.
Yeah was about to suggest this, saw a sequence from this a few months ago and was kind of surprised to see it straight to Netflix.
Watched a couple of documentaries over the last few days that I think are relatively new, including Team Foxcatcher (pretty good), Soaked in Bleach (about Kurt Cobain’s “suicide”, not too bad) and the title escapes me but about Whitey Bulger (okay).
— Alan
Not a movie, but I was less than thrilled by the first episode of Chelsea, Ms. Handler’s new thrice-weekly talkshow on Netflix. Too much tooting of her own horn for my taste, but hopefully she can settle into a groove. I liked Chelsea Does quite a bit, and this seems like it wants to do more like that in a casual format.
If you haven’t had enough “what the CHRIST am I watching?” in your life lately, check out Sion Sono’s Tokyo Tribe on Netflix. It’s…kind of a hiphop gang war musical …thing? I don’t know. It’s gorgeous and full of style and absolutely bugfuck insane and over the top. There is a scene where a kid picks a lock by breakdancing. That is not the most ludicrous thing by a long shot.
I watched the invitation last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. A subtle thriller about a dinner party that may or may not be as it seems and a guy deals with his traumatic past in the process. Well worth watching it if you have a medium attention span (slow build to the climax).
I’ve decided I really need to cut into the pile of stuff I have set aside on Netflix (video games aren’t the only backlogs I accumulate) and this week it was Stakeland’s turn in the barrel. And for a low budget (but I’m guessing not tiny - interesting locations, good effects and a couple of recognizable actors) it turned out to be pretty ok. It throws zombie and vampire lore into a blender to give us a weird kind of mush, of a recognizably post-breakout world that we’re so used to from The Walking Dead and Romero movies at this point. But these aren’t your bog standard zombies, but blood sucking vampires that stalk the living. Only at night though - they’re susceptible to sunlight and stakes through the heart, though apparently not religious icons.
I liked the actors, though I didn’t recognize most. The main bad guy is a character actor I’ve seen before, most recently from Treme, and there’s a small part played by Kelly McGinnis (Top Gun) of all people! I did not recognize the two main characters, the older, grizzled vampire killer or his young Robin, but they were pretty solid.
You won’t find a lot of surprises in this movie, it’s mostly just following these characters (plus a few strays they pick up along the way) as they look try to escape to Canada to get away from all this (evidently the vampires don’t like the cold). There’s a few interesting ideas here - at one point the bad guys, a bunch of militant religious types, use a helicopter to airdrop vampires into a peaceful settlement while they’re celebrating one night. It’s a pretty good time, and not a bad use of an hour and a half.
I didn’t care for Stakeland, but that vampire airdrop scene was pretty cool. However, the guy who make Stakeland – Jim Mickle – has made a couple of movies that I really do like. Mulberry Street is a great example of low budget horror. Cold in July is a solid Joe Lansdale adaptation, if you’re into that sort of thing. Great cast. It’s certainly better than Hap and Leonard, another Joe Landsale adaptation by Mickle, but for TV. I bailed on it pretty early.
By the way, there’s a screening room in Until Dawn, that crappy PS4 horror game. It’s got two Stakeland posters in it. Two! The devs either couldn’t be bothered to find a non-Stakeland movie poster or they really wanted to make sure you saw their Stakeland nod.
-Tom
EDIT: Hmm, so I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the original cast (but not director) wrapped production on a Stakeland sequel due out in October. The bad new is that it’s a Syfy Channel joint. Yikes.
Watched Darling. It’s all in Black and White because ART! Just think Francis Ha or Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
It is a pretty simply and ok horror piece that isn’t about jump scares. Very little dialogue with mainly a single character. I was whelmed.
You got off easy. Darling might be Mickey Keating’s least awful movie. Ritual, Pod, and especially Carnage Park are pretty much object lessons in how not to make a movie. Yet for some reason, this guy keep getting funding to write and shoot his scripts. It’s especially depressing that for his next movie, Psychopaths, he has such wonderful actors. Ashley Bell and the wonderful Angela Trimbur from The Final Girls.
-Tom
I enjoyed watching Metro Manila on Netflix US. Poor farmers migrate to the big city and things don’t go so well. It might sound a bit cliche, and it is, but the writing/acting still did it for me. The movie turns into a bit of a thriller past the half way mark and has a nice ending.
I haven’t seen Metro Manila yet (it’s been in my queue for a few years), but I did already watch the Indian remake (called City Lights). The movie tells you right at the start that it’s a remake of Metro Manila. Just like at the start of Bang Bang it tells you it’s a remake of Knight and Day (I haven’t seen that original either).
Today I watched Dhunak on Netflix. A charming movie about a couple of kids in Rajistan (desert province in India) who tell each other made up movie stories about their two favorite actors, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. I really enjoyed it.
So I finally saw Big Trouble in Little China today. Not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, it was clearly trying to be funny and goofy, on the other hand, it has these really loooooong goofy fight scenes that are so terrible. Are they part of the joke? A joke that goes on too long maybe? Kim Cattrall’s acting at times is soooo ham-handed and over the top, it’s got to be on purpose, but still, it doesn’t exactly fit with everyone else’s. It’s like all the different actors were in different movies, even though they were in the same scene together.
Overall I was entertained though. One thing this movie was not, it was NOT mediocre in any way, and those are the movies I hate the most. Big Trouble in Little China was sort of like Airplane at times in its goofy humor, but at other times as serious as other 80s action movies. And seemed to go back and forth. It was definitely not boring.
If I may put aside any observations that don’t conform to the ‘best movie ever’ position…
I will say I fired up Big Trouble on Netflix a few months ago, and was aghast at the remastering. It looks like they spliced together dailies on videotape. It felt starkly lit and austere. Sure it’s higher def, but it loses a lot of character without the grainy film look.
[quote=“Rock8man, post:3917, topic:48886”]
Are they part of the joke?
[/quote]Yes, they are.
[quote=“Rock8man, post:3917, topic:48886”]
It’s like all the different actors were in different movies
[/quote]As is this. Jack Burton thinks he’s Indiana Jones combined with John Wayne, Gracie Law think’s she’s in a docudrama about a plucky reporter taking on human trafficking, Wang Chi thinks he’s a non-bumbling Jackie Chan needing to put up with a hapless sidekick, and Lo Pan thinks he’s in a medieval fantasy film.
The movie certainly isn’t for everyone, but whenever there’s a question of whether the actors and director had their tongues stuck firmly in their cheeks, the answer is “yes.” If anything, the main fault of the film is not making it quite as obvious as they could have at times
Yeah, it’s worth pointing out (though you likely put this together already) that Jack Burton is the sidekick of the movie, though he doesn’t realize it. He’s a little like Max in Fury Road that way, though Max didn’t believe he was the main character of a massive adventure. Man, now I kind of want to watch a double feature.