Action movie guilty pleasures

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Grabthehoopka
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by Grabthehoopka »

Well, for one, I usually draw a lot of ire for thinking so, but I like Escape From LA more than Escape From New York, because it's a lot cheesier and more imaginative, and I kind of...sort of...like Beyond Thunderdome.

In addition, I do tend to like really bad low-budget action affairs from the late 80's, like Gymkata, Miami Connection, and Robowar, but I mean, who doesn't?
Harry Sunderland
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by Harry Sunderland »

Overall, I prefer NY because you can tell Carpenter is really giving his damnedest to make a bad ass film. But LA is fun because it seems more like Kurt and John trying to out do each other in craziness. I feel like the movie is more a big f.u. to socal and Hollywood, which is fun.

That surfing scene, omg. Hahhaha ridiculous.

I loved both, but NY is one of my special movies. Though the ending to l.a. is great.
ranger_lennier
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by ranger_lennier »

RightClickSaveAs wrote: I also liked the first Silent Hill, even with some of the corny scenes, I thought it did a great job of capturing some of the mood and atmosphere of Silent Hill. The director said he was a huge fan of the games. Although that might have hurt the movie some, because it seems like he just jammed scenes from the games and characters such as Pyramid Head into the movie when they didn't necessarily fit with the movie storyline that well.
I feel like the movie was more effective in terms of creating a creepy atmosphere and disturbing images than in terms of the actual story. And basically the reason I say that is because, having only seen it once when it was in theaters in 2006, at this point I've pretty much forgotten what the story is, but I still remember this scene where things start going crazy and everyone's seeking sanctuary in a church or something like that. One girl's just a little too late and Pyramid Head catches up to her and rips her skin clean off with his gigantic sword. So, I guess they were doing something right with the character if I still remember that eight years after watching the movie.
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matt
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by matt »

I felt like Escape from LA was almost more of a remake than a sequel. It was sooooooooooooo similar. I saw it first, so I wasn't as entertained with New York, but that's kind of cheating when judging it. hahah

Yeah, the storytelling wasn't that great in Silent Hill the movie, but they had some great stuff. I also thought it was interesting that Silent Hill: Homecoming seemed like it was a sequel to the movie rather than the earlier games. Did anyone else feel that way? They had the ashes and the siren, which didn't seem like it was from another game, but maybe I'm misremembering...
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
Grabthehoopka
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by Grabthehoopka »

matt wrote:Yeah, the storytelling wasn't that great in Silent Hill the movie, but they had some great stuff. I also thought it was interesting that Silent Hill: Homecoming seemed like it was a sequel to the movie rather than the earlier games. Did anyone else feel that way? They had the ashes and the siren, which didn't seem like it was from another game, but maybe I'm misremembering...
No, you're not the only one. Sigh. I can't help but feel like the movie was one big nail in the series' coffin. Chris Pruett wrote an article about this on his blog, and I think once the series became marketable and once there was a serious amount of money at stake, the people at the top in possession of said money and the people in the middle who want to make games that people like can't risk making something radically different, and the lukewarm critical and commercial response of Shattered Memories probably means we won't see them honestly try any time soon.
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matt
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by matt »

Do you mean Downpour? Shattered Memories came out before Downpour and had a pretty decent critical reception... I finally purchased Downpour, but I don't think I'll get a chance to play it for a while... :-/
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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gagaplex
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by gagaplex »

Okay, I shouldn't even mention this one here since it's NOT a "guilty pleasure" of mine. I'm perfectly happy endorsing this one as the absolute masterpiece it is, but since you folks mentioned the Escape-movies...

Big Trouble In Little China.

Another Carpenter flick. Also: Best. Action movie. Ever. A bit of fun, a bit of horror, a bit of fantasy, lots of action. It even has Raiden in there, sort of.

Picture that is too big and awesome to be displayed correctly:
http://grimmfest.com/grimmupnorth/wp-co ... hina-1.jpg

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matt
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by matt »

Interestingly, a buddy of mine who worked on True Crime: Streets of LA said that the game was inspired by Big Trouble in Little China, which is why it had a dragon fight that some people felt was out of place.

I do love John Carpenter and enjoyed Big Trouble in Little China.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the masterpiece of Bayhem, The Rock. It's pretty awesome, and Nicholas Cage makes everything better.
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
Grabthehoopka
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by Grabthehoopka »

I'm just gonna leave this here. This 5 minute long sequence is a masterpiece, better and more entertaining than anything I could possibly hope to produce in my lifetime. It just keeps getting better and better and makes less and less sense the longer it goes on:



The stuff that comes out of India has been getting more and more homogenized and with the rise of digital cinema they've been getting more and more music video-ey (with good reason; the music, movie, and television industry in India are like three sides of the same coin, so the highest profile movie directors are also the highest profile music video directors, in addition to the fact that the majority of all bollywood films are musicals to begin with). However, even with their love affair of technical shots and excessive slow motion, modern Indian cinema still has its moments:

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matt
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Re: Action movie guilty pleasures

Post by matt »

Awesome! Action movies need more horseback riding. I especially liked it when he slid the horse under the car. hahah

The only Bollywood movie I've seen recently is Hisss, which I thought might be good since it was directed by the daughter of David Lynch and has a snake monster. Unfortunately, it was dreadful (and they managed to work an inexplicable dance number in the movie true to the Bollywood stereotype).

Interestingly, the production was so disastrous that they made a documentary about Jennifer Lynch's journey trying to get the movie made.

I haven't really been that into any of Jennifer Lynch's other work, but it seems like the odds were really stacked against her for this movie.
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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