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gaykarstaagforever · 3 months

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Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

A troubled production that released to such audience apathy that John Carpenter vowed to never work for Hollywood studios ever again, it is now widely considered possibly his best movie, and an action-comedy classic that only 1980s Hollywood could produce. High praise indeed.

I never saw it before now, because it was one of those movies that my Gen X older cousins wouldn't shut up about, and they were bullies and idiots. Plus, as much as I like kung fu movies and screwball comedies, any clips of this I've seen over the years looked like sarcastic nonsense, like some "serious" filmmaker making fun of cool crazy things they don't appreciate. I was prepared to be disappointed.

I was not. This movie is goddamn delightful.

What I didn't know was that W. D. Richter (professional script doctor and director of Buckaroo Banzai) "adapted" the script from the orginal, which most people involved classify as a terrible "cowboys battle Chinese demons" thing that was literally written by guys who had no idea what they were doing. I've gotten into actual fights defending Buckaroo Banzai, a movie almost entirely defined as a good, fun movie based on a wilfully confusing mess of a script. I would daresay the ONLY reason BTiLC works is because Richter dragged it over the conceptual finish line, with Carpenter doing his magic to make that into a coherent 90 minute movie with a reasonable budget.

Absolutely none of this should work. And it obviously still didn't, for most of the general audience.

The plot is simple enough - an ancient demon warlord who has been cursed to live as an increasingly-decrepit old man finally has an opportunity to break the curse, and then conquer the world with his not-so-secret army of kung fu wizards. And it's up to small-time Chinatown hustler Wang Chi, his friend - blowhard freelance truck driver Jack Burton - and their gang of misfit friends, to take him down. But all this is just a framework on which to hang constant digressions into goofball exposition about Chinese mythology, chaotic street fights between thugs and kung fu gangs and wizards, and then everyone is running around a neon maze filled with demons and monsters and guns. It feels like a movie written by a white 14 yo who just watched his first Young Jackie Chan movie, and is copying the bad translation verbatim, but with himself being there to crack wise about how weird and cool this all is.

Is this movie racist? I don't know. Probably. It is at least racially insensitive, and willfully inaccurate about...everything. But everything, from the production design and acting and direction, is so gleefully excited about the total radness of it all that it comes across as stupid whizbang fun.

And it isn't without progressive elements for 1986. The cast is mostly Asian-American actors playing well-rounded, coherent characters. Kurt Russell as Jack Burton is the point-of-view protagonist, but he certainly isn't the hero of the story, and spends the whole movie being a loveable idiot sidekick in a world he is utterly incapable of dealing with. And the focus on him seems to have been a studio note, and something both Carpenter and Russell thought was problematic.

I'm a white American so it is inevitable I don't appreciate how offensive this is. I was also raised in the 90s "bastardized ninja" landscape, so I have childhood programming that triggers every time I see Mortal Kombat-style shit, and I love it emotionally, even if I understand now how gross it is.

And I have the added complication of this sort of property in childhood fostering an interest that led me to later learn about actual Chinese and Japanese mythology and religion and culture. Which doesn't justify anything, it's just how it happened and I'm a product of that, for good and ill.

All that said, Big Trouble in Little China is to me beautifully made, exciting and fun, perfectly paced, and as good a version of this dated insensitive genre of thing as there is. Just on a technical level, it may seriously be John Carpenter's best, given the time and budget constraints he was forced to work under. This movie should be absolute garbage, and it isn't, and that's because Carpenter broke himself to make that happen. And when it wasn't rewarded, he rightfully told Hollywood to go fuck itself, and the rest is history.

I have no idea if anyone under the age of 30 would think this movie is anything but a cringey relic of a more simple, but more insensitive, time. I still think as a production it is a good movie, and an example of how to do a lot with little, including filming coherent and meaningful action scenes.

...Even if those scenes are babbling gangs of Chinese ninjas (yes) shooting MAC-10s at indestructible flying lightning wizards in rediculous douli hats and metal claws, in the police-free back alleys of San Franciso's Chinatown.

They should really make that original script about cowboys fighting Chinese demons. Give it to a Hong Kong director with a $30 million budget and let them go wild. It would no doubt be at least as fun and funny as this, if not equally embarrassingly stupid.

#big trouble in little china #kurt russell #john carpenter #1980s #movie review

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visplay · 5 months

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Chris: Big Trouble in Little China is a John Carpenter directed fantasy classic with Kurt Russell, about Asian triads, wizards, and with a couple of monsters, a classic, needs a 4K release, Watch: When Free.

Richie: It’s so much fun, a classic, Watch: Buy.

#movie review #big trouble in little china

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mask131 · 7 months

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Video-sharing of the day! Today, a dual edition.

youtube

#video #video sharing #chinese representation #american media #journey to the west #movie review #big trouble in little china #american movies

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iamthekaijuking · 2 days

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Gigabash character overview: Balzarr

Last time I made one of these I lamented how Passion Republican Games might not make any more original characters, but I was pleasantly surprised when, for the two year anniversary of the game, they announced a new dlc character pack consisting of the first original characters since the game’s launch!

youtube

Balzarr is a technical rush down character. With possibly the fastest movement speed of the roster, high damage, some decent combo potential and a gimmick, a good player can unleash a flurry of attacks and give you little breathing room.

Balzarr’s gimmick is his Predator Stance, where by holding the special attack button while airborne, using certain attacks, or pushing against a building or arena wall you can prop him up on his tail. Using his tail as a springboard he can then launch two quick and powerful attacks, and he can also lock onto an opponent within a cone of vision in front of him up to 1 1/2 body lengths away. Because of this Balzarr benefits greatly from having buildings around the map just like Gigaman and can use them to have a strong first half of a match.

Balzarr does have weaknesses though. He lacks any ranged attacks outside of throwing objects, only really attacks that close distance. And if there are no buildings around then a player will be unable to use his predator stance without comboing into it. He also requires good timing for certain attacks.

Balzarr is also the first functionally quadrupedal character added to the roster (Rohanna technically moves around on four vines but she’s functionally a biped).

Design

As the first quadrupedal character, PRG had some difficulty with designing Balzarr. They took heavy inspiration from the manticore, and tried to strike a balance between a more animalistic design and a more mythical beast one. Here’s some concept art. Design 6 feels very monster hunter.

There’s also the elephant in the room and the biggest source of inspiration, Goldar from power rangers.

This dlc is basically a fake power rangers character pack, even being called the Mighty dlc like the mighty morphing power rangers. But some of you might be wondering “Well why not get the rights to power rangers? PRG already got rights to Ultraman and Godzilla characters.” and the thing is that they probably originally wanted to do that. But Power Rangers as an I.P. is split between multiple different companies, meaning getting the rights to it would be too expensive for the small indi studio. And even if they did then it wouldn’t be available to half the world due to licensing agreements, like how the Ultraman character pack isn’t available in Japan or mainland China.

Even still, I’m glad we finally rounded out kaiju related tokusatsu references in the game. We can finally add Power Rangers alongside Godzilla, Ultraman, and mech anime references. The only real big pillar of tokusatsu left to reference is Kamen Rider, but I don’t think that’s likely since it isn’t part of the kaiju genre (watch me be wrong in like a year).

Lore

“When thou wish upon a shooting star, beware, lest it be the Demon Star. For when its fiery trail crosses thy sight, doom shall follow with darkest might.” so goes the ancient tale that refers to Balzarr, indicating that he might be an alien and has been to earth before. He’s most recently touched down in 2021 and has since rampaged across the globe. The Global Titan Defense Initiative has had trouble dealing with the gold plated lion as he’s so fast that he outpaces their most advanced targeting systems. Since his first modern day sighting Balzarr has been ransacking every Giga Crystal storage facility across the globe.

There’s a bit more to this story that I’ll get into with the next review.

#Youtube #Balzarr #gigabash #kaiju #daikaiju

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popculturebuffet · 3 months

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Morphin Time: A Boom Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Retrospective: Issues 0 and 1 (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

It's Morphin Time all you happy people! Yes folks it's time once again to launch another respective! And this time we're looking at a series i've only glanced at. Yes it's time to let the power protect us as we look at the BOOM Studios! Power Rangers Comics.

If your reading this post you probably DON'T need an introduction to the mighty morphin power rangers, but the short version for those of you who stumbled into this because you like kermit the frog, because you have good taste and deserve good things: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the first in the long running massively popular Power Rangers Franchise, a cheesy series that followed five 90's as hell saved by the bell looking teenagers with attitude who were picked by a blue tube man and his nerdy robot son to fight the evil sorceress rita replusa, who tube man zordon had left on the moon in a dumpster which astronauts found. Our heroes would spend the days with various teen shenanigans, fight a monster, then Rita would MAKE HER MONSTER GROW, they'd get in a super fighting robot using stock footage and the day would be saved. The teens also reguarly delt with bumbling dumbasses and everyone's faviorite characters bulk and skull. Rita eventually remembered she had a shiny power coin of her own, so she turned new kid and franchise icon Tommy Oliver into her own green ranger. After a dope as hell 5 parter, the rangers defeated their new counterpart, freed him and turned him to his side. There's a bunch more including peace confrences, australian cat women, failed kamen rider spinoffs, aliens, flying cars, robot ninjas, ooze men who aren't canon sadly, skydiving that also isn't canon, marriage being the greatest evil scheme of all, baby carraiges, many a cast change, and explosions. And that's just the first series, but for today's comic we really only need to get up to when Tommy joined as that's when this story began.

The comic came about during Boom's big mid 10's liscensing boom period, with tons of licenses from Adventure Time, Regular Show and Steven Universe, to Rocko and Rugrats, to John Fucking Carpenter himself co writing a Big Trouble in Little China comic. It was really the companies golden age as big hits like Giant Days were also out and about, though the companies mildly pivoted more towards the indies these days. Not a bad move given their backlog includes Giant Days, Once and Future and Lumberjanes. The former two are some of my faviorite comics period with Giant Days possibly being my faviorite comics run period, while the latter is something I badly want adapted but keeps getting jerked around in that regard.

BOOM is kinda the middle child of the big indies. Image is the big shadow looming over all, regularly churning out era defining comics like Invincible, Radiant Black (A comic I badly want to read from the same creator as this book and it's sister book go go power rangers), Saga (Which I haven't read but have heard good things) or the Wicket + The Divine, as well as smaller stone cold classics still close to my heart like Chew and Farmhand, with it now getting into lisensed work with the Energon Universe. IDW was at least for a long time ahead lisensing wise and tends to recover quickly there and still has both Sonic, which has had an impressive and healthy run and TMNT, which ran for 150 issues and has had nearly that many alongside it in mini series, crossovers, mini series for other continuities, and one shots and is about to relaunch next month, and Dark Horse which while fumbling for a bit has steadily rebounded becoming both a lisensing juggernaught once again. In contrast boom used to lean heavily on it's lisenses while allowing it to take risks on indie titles, oftne paying off with stuff like again Giant Days.

Still Power Rangers , likely like TMNT at IDW, provides a nice stable backbone overall, with this very book having ran for 8 years ending this year, and it being clear Hasbro isn't leaving BOOM. In addition to a long as hell main book, the series has had two diffrent companion series: GoGo Power Rangers, my personal faviorite, which covers the teams adventures just after getting their powers up to right before green with evil, and Mighty Morphin, which followed a second team I can't get into much but you've probably heard about. And that's not getting into the mini series, graphic novels, and other various power rangers spinoffs, alternate universe things, etc. Boom has been good to the franchise, this franchise has been good to him and despite wondering if the end of the mighty morphin series means the end of power rangers, it's clear the company has no signs of loosing their cash cow even after Saban sold it to Hasbro.

So that brings us to this series. The Boom Continuity is a soft reboot of the Mighty Morphin era: It's now set in modern day with modern fashion and Bulk and Skull naturally running a youtube channel, more on that later, but a lot of the event sof the show still happened. No word on if they fought the rapping pumpkin still but i'm inclined to go with "Yes". So the series picks up right after green with evil but dosen't take place in the same universe as the live action shows, something they seemed to bounce back and forth about for a bit before deciding "Nah".

They also decided to start right after green with evil instead of adapt it though I expect it's part an audience thing, most people picking it up or reading this various article know the broad strokes, and part simply wanting to tell their own stories, as that's more attractive to fans than an adaptation anyways.

So our series picks up with the team having a new member and decides to play with that a bit, with our first arc having Tommy adapting to being a ranger, having a tight knit friend group, and the voice of the woman who brainwashed him in his head voicing all his insecurities. So you know, high school. It leads into a larger arc with a big beastie, world destruction and an evil tommy I haven't read, having only read this first 6 issues and thought they were fine. I later read gogo in full and read through the necessary evil era by writer Ryan Parrot, so I haven't dove into this era of rangers that deeply. But now thanks to brotoman i'm going in deep, from the start to at least the massive shattered grid crossover. Wether we go on AFTER that... is up to him, but i'm fine wither way and curious to see if this series improves a bit in my eyes on a second look. So get out your morpher, shout tyransaurus or doot on a flute, however you prefer and let's look at MMPR #0 and #1

We start at 0. This was, as far as I can tell so they could release an issue before the proper run to hype the series up at conventions and such, something I can't blame them for: Power Rangers had had a history in comics, a marvel series at their height, a few others after, and most recently before this a few graphic novels by papercutz for samurai, mega force and mighty morphin itself. Nothing bad, but not really the big nostalgic rollout other franchises had had in comics and nothing aimed at older fans of the franchise like this, so they had every reason to hype it.

Picking mighty morphin was also a good call. It's what the public knows as power rangers, it has a simple enough setup to explore with some depth while stilll getting that nostalgia pop that makes money. I do hope they move on from it as while I like MMPR, I grew up with it and all the franchise has had a MASSIVE life after it I've discovered thanks to history of power rangers. MMPR isn't bad and some projects kinda HAVE to be this: launching in it was the right call as is the upcoming brawler rita's rewind, which I intend to buy as soon as it comes out, being set there as MMPR had a smorgasbord of games in the 16 bit era, I just think expanding a bit beyond one arc covering a team made up of legacy rangers and a few graphic novels isn't a bad idea and i'm glad ranger academy exists for that. At the very least i'm mistified they've only done the dream team concept once so far.

We begin the issue with the green ranger having.. killed everyone with Rita praising him and him willing to serve and please make it stop. '

Thankfully it does as this was all just a dream by one Tommy Oliver, the ranger among rangers. Jason asks what ya dreamin about bud but can't really get through to him, with Tommy deflecting it's just nervous it's his first day. And I do like the response a lot. It's one of the better scenes in these first two issues

It's simple but it really works for me and shows the sheer pressure they have. YOu may of also noticed rita. This isn't the real her but a voice in the back of tommy's head voicing all his doubts. I hear you tommy, my anxiety also resembles a witch. WOn't stop rhyming or talking about that bear and bird. It's exhausting.

I like this concept: That Tommy dosen't get over his guilt at what he did while mind controlled or his doubts easily and has trouble fitting into the gang: while Jason and Kimberly warmly welcome him, it's clear they already have a vibe going, with the gang being blindsided by a test they thought was next week. It's hard to crack in and Rita may be all of tommy's insecurities manifested as his greatest enemy.. but she has a point: do they even want him too. And as we'll find out next issue while most are open to it, one of them very much dosen't.

That said while I like this concept.. it has flaws. For one focusing so heavily on Tommy.. means the others don't really get to do much this issue, bantering a bit about Billy's push notification obession and setting up who they are for new readers, as well as hinting at Zack not liking tommy much, but otherwise it's mostly on tommy and most we get from him at least early on is he's a sad boy. I'm not saying he has no reason to be.. but it may of not been the best choice to do this story arc one. It would've been better to have some time to get to know our six, let tommy's unease and zack's tension build.. but instead at arc one tommy is at a pretty low point, and the story goes up to 10 right after this with a huge crisis. There isn't time for our characters to settle before the world gets flipped upside down.

Part of this is being spoiled by later series GoGo Power Rangers, with Ryan Parrot having a more relaxed take: There's an ongoing story to it, but it's more focused on fleshing out the five teenagers with attitude (minus Tommy as it takes place before Green with Evil). It's why his later run with necessary evil, while also starting with the rangers in a tight spot as it takes place just after the transfer of power and has team adjusting to three new recurits and tommy adjusting to leadership... flows better to me. It let the characters build so when it puts them in a tight spot, you feel more. Here it feels like Kyle Higgins has a LOT of plot he wants to get to so he lets the characters hurt a bit. We do get more character intreractoin next issue that helps a bit but i'm hoping this arc has more than I remember.

At class we get a talk about counter intellegence before i'ts morphin time: Rita has evil plans, as we see iwth a cutaway to her moon fortress which looks as cool as ever, and she sends Bullzer down.

And look I don't want to make this review "Oops all gripes".. but we have another problem right away: the monster design.

As you can see... Bullzer.. is really generic and trying to be scary. And i'm not against making a monster intimidating, tha'ts fine. But it dosen't look.. power rangers. I'm not asking the artists to imitate cheap rubber or have it be a skeleton with a fancy hat. I would prefer bones but I love skellingtons. I just do. But the monsters were creative. You had guys like my guy eye guy whose just made of eyes or pudgy pig whose a pig head in a roman soldier helmet. I mean sure looking thorugh a gallery of season 1 monsters there were duds

But even mr ticklesneezer, and yes that is his legal god given name, is at least creative being trini's childhood doll made into this abomination. They even had, to my shock a better looking gamera knockoff

Is he a tad goofier? Yes. Does he still have dope claws and the name shell shock. Yes. Im not saying you have to be as campy.. but it's weird to have no camp when the costumes and zords aren't changed. You didn't update the zords to look more realistic, thank god, why are the monsters suddenly trying to be more down to earth? I'm not asking for rapping pumpkins or pudgy pigs or that fucking elf, please for mr ticklesneezer's sake

But it put me off the book instantly that the first monster they fight and most they do , if my memory serves..a re just bland generic monsters. I like a good turtle boy, but this is just... trying too hard to be "ADULT" and "EDGIER". I"m not saying power rangers can't tackle complex topics but I am saying you can't forget that it's still power rangers

To contrast this I went to look up gogo's first monster and I do wish he was a tad campier too

But while Flog here is also generic.. he at least dosen't stick out as much like a sore thumb. He's still perhaps a bit too hyper realistic for this universe, but details like the simple mildly goofy name, the earring, the bhoots.. it feels like they put a bit more effort in. I get Bullzer is just a one off.. but so was most every other power rangers monster. The people at super sentai put hard work into these things.. most of the time and the people on saban's end had to come up with new names and gimmicks. Sometimes they were horrible ideas but it feels like more effort was put in. Hopefully this gets better.

The fight itself thoguh is neat as the team has to use strategy as gamera's angsty teenage son has thick armor, while Tomm'ys ptsd anxiety ghost rita causes him to freeze up at points. he's able to beat the monster, giving it a drill that will pierce the heavens.. but freezes when trying to save a bridge. Tommy blames it on technicals and Jason.. is a bit of a dick and blames it on tommy not following orders, as he rushedin at the start of a fight. Zordon tells them both to cut that shit out: Jason needs to help loop tommy in better and Tommy needs to ask for help. And they both need to prepare: while getting Tommy back from rita was a big victory, Rita is petty.. and her revenge is coming. Rather than possess a teenager struggling with his sexualityt hough her plan is instead to have Scorpia fish a crystal out of a river. A new era begins.

We then get a backup story that was in the back of my trade so I only read it as I wrote this, but boy it is fun: The Ongoing Adventures of Bulk and Skull. Since BOOM! knew who the real heroes were, we got this backup feature with our heroes in all their glory, written by gay icon Steve Orlando. Orlando's been easily one of my favoirite comics writers, currently writing the phenominal scarlet witch ongoing at marvel and formerly having reinvented midnighter at dc before taking on the justice league with his own nicely mismatched team.

It's a short two issue gag story as Bulk and Skull deal with Principal Caplan: Caplan is an excessively minor power rangers character who as far as I can tell mainly showed up to be a foil to our faviorite goofuses. It's still a nice deep cut and I love the joke about him having taken up glassblowing for the stress, made a scream jar and somehow filled it. "Screams have no mass! Your not supposed to fill it!". They use a large deli lunch order to escape and then try to hit on some girls unsuccessfully who are more intrested in the rangers. It's there Bulk gets a terrible idea: if girls like the power rangers, then they'll BECOME power rangers. A truly perfect bulk and skull shenanigan.

There's another backup that's beautfiully drawn, but i'll mostly skip as it's just a one off fight with goldar. Not bad at all, lot of fun, but not why we're here. Granted Bulk and Skull isn't either, but it's both a dedicated backup and a nice bit of levity after all the emo.

Speaking of which our proper first issue opens with the dynamic duo giving a recap of events up to the start of this series on their youtube channel RANGER STATION. Ranger Station is a fantastic concept: our doofy heroes always had some shenanigan or hustle going and later zeroed in on finding out who the rangers were... this just combines their two schticks perfectly. I love Skull interjecting, Bulk saying every episode is someone's first and their gateway to susbscribe which is how I approach my blog so, respect, and we have Skull plugging their premium content which would be on a patreon these days, just like the early days of this blog. My patreon is still active by the way and 5 dollar contributors get a 5 dollar review a month. If they can shill for themselves so can I.

They recap the events so far: how the power rangers came about when rita did, green with evil and now the shocking development from the 0 issue: The Green Ranger has joined the team. Bulk is naturally super pumped but asks the average citzen what they think. Some think due to the bridge mishap, Tommy's still evil, the first woman theya sk has the very valid point of wanting the rangers to you know, explain why the guy who tried to kill everyone is now on their side. And given the Rangers DO have the valid explination of "the person behind the monster sbrainwashed them"... yeah probably shoudl've done a press release. And one guy thinks it's too many colors. He later died of cardiac arrest when we got up to 8 ranger teams.

Bulk and Skull end up talking to tommy, who is awkard and Kim luckily is able to ward them off. Tommy plans to get some training in after school so Kim joins him to spend time with her crush then hopefully get a coffee date. Kim has game.

Issue 1 is step up in tone. I complained a lot and likely will again about the sries sometimes bleak tone... but this issue ballances the every day stuff better with the teenagers with attitude. Since Tommy isn't seeing PTSD Rita EVERY second, we get a chance to breathe, still feel him doubting himself and wallowing in self loathing, but not be strangled by it.

We then get Jason and Zack in class where an assholish teacher wakes Zack up from his nap and puts him in detention for it. Now you might say "Jake that's not exactly a dick move, he shouldn't sleep in class" and to that I say... captain beard has no idea WHY Zack did. He could have a job, of had an emergency. All Zack says is "I didn't get enough sleep", but given how stressful teenagers lives are, there's a LOT of reasons for that beyond "Ranger Stuff". I"m not saying it's good to sleep in class but i'm saying maybe talk to your student. And when Jason tries to stand up for him... he also gets detttention.

The rangers have lunch and break down their plans; Kim's hanging with tommy, Jason and Zack are in a dettention Zack boldy assumes he could get out of.. though then again I do have this pet theory that like zack morris he can freeze time because all zacks have that power, so maybe Jason jumped in too soon. Tommy tries to join in but they all gotta go, diffrent lunch periods. We then get Bulk interviewing Jason who stands up for Tommy.. but it's clear Zack's a bit more hesitant.

Meanwhile we go to Rita's Moon Castle, where she's working on her vauge evil plan: the mystery crystal what Scorpina dredged out of the river is charged a bit thanks to the bullzer but it needs more energy... apparnetly too much green energy can be dangerous too.

In class Jason clearly knows SOMETHING'S up with Zack and why he can't sleep no good, and tells zack he's ready to listen when he's ready to tell him. IT's a nice friendship moment. After Zack asks if Jason's SURRREEE all this okay. Jason admits that Zordon adding tommy to the team without asking them sucks.. but Zordon picked them. If he has faith in tommy, they have to trust that. I do like this tension, that adding someone who just attacked them, brainwashed or not isn't easy. I also like that, as we'll get later, ther'es more to Zack's issues than just being the token douche. His backstory behind this is still a TAD douchey but it's intresting.

Tommy and Kim are up next running a training sim. Unfortunately for them... it's a kobiashi maru bitch. The survivors their leading from some putties.. get lead straight into some and if they hadn't, they would've gotten squished. Tommy.. can't accept that and Kim sadly accepts she's not getting a date... but dosen't you know.. TELL him she's upset. "Sigh" Teen Angst, I do not like reliving it.

We end the issue with Tommy mopnig at home.. only for Scorpina to hav ea knife to this throat.

TO BE CONTINUED

We continue bulk and skulls antics before we go: the two race to the scene of a battle and accidently knock out a putty thinking he's a guy asking for directions. Good stuff. Bulk decides he can use this. He'll fight the thing for a raging crowd! or something.

So that ends our first look at boom and while I had a LOT to gripe about the first issue the second.. is much better. It feels like the characters have more room to breathe and thus get fleshed out. Granted issue 0 was just supposed to be a slow start.. but given there was a backup story thrown in there to fill the issue, it would've made more sense ot just.. do a full issue teaser since issue 0 still kicks off events. Still so far the series isn't bad and might be better than I remember. Either way this is going to be a long trip and I thank you all for coming with me. May the power protect you.

#mighty morphin power rangers #boom studios #kyle higgins #tommy oliver #jason lee scott #zack taylor #billy cranston #trini kwan #rita repulsa #power rangers #comics

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omegatheunknown · 10 months

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Top 10 of 2023 -- Theatrical Releases

Started using letterboxd as a journal two years ago, mostly so I could remember just how recently I'd watched Big Trouble in Little China or Hot Fuzz, but also to hit 'em with of the moment reviews and ratings fresh from the theatre. Which is to say, I'm a little nervous to see what'll come up at the top, but let's take a trip.

10- The Boogeyman (**1/2) - Technically in theatres for a week or two. Buried otherwise, a low stakes King adaptation/remake/reboot that makes the list so I don't have to say anything about AntMan, Elemental, Renfield, or, god forbid, Mario. Effective horror, kind of a neat creature at the center of it, pleasantly surprised that I didn't hate it.

9- Asteroid City (***) - Did lead to a minor personal epiphany, so not all bad. The amount of meta-fictional artifice (lest we for a second want to empathize or consider Wes' paper doll characters in his paper doll theatre as being recognizably human) has gone well-beyond the 'as Royal Tenenbaum' and 'let me tell you about my boat,' past the authorial frame of the Grand Budapest and as of The French Dispatch, Mssr Anderson is now almost entirely preoccupied with stories within stories and it is actually very annoying. (The minor epiphany is that I have also been doing this, as metafiction delights me too, Wes, but why should anyone else care?) Anyway, highlight here is the usual meticulous design, the ridiculous stop-motion sequence, some crackerjack dialogue (muted because now every character has the same blunted affect and without subtitles I sorta glazed over in parts) and these movies remain quite funny.

8- Barbie (***1/2) - Watched a lot of pablum this year, most of it with very naked corporate ambition. Barbie's central trick is to critique itself and the very cynical context in which it critiques itself and hopefully contain within it the entire discourse (good luck to you.) Wish I hadn't had to listen to people earnestly tell me how brilliant and resonant certain 'pause for applause' moments were, but the humour may well stand the test of time, and people were rightly hyped on Ryan Gosling's over-delivery on what once was seen as an unlikely bit of casting.

7- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (***1/2) - Not too proud to admit I was, in 2023, still kind of excited to see this one (1) marvel movie. Crisp Rat aside, the Guardians deliver best on the comic-to-screen vibe and rarely seem embarrassed with their source, leading to the intense emotional journey of a CGI mutant raccoon bounty hunter reckoning with his maker, no winking involved. Rocket Raccoon is my fucking guy, anyway, no more of these, please and thanks.

6- Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves (***1/2) - Yeah, okay, more popcorn flick pablum. Hasbro hoping to further capitalize on the pop culture rise of and monetize and micro-transaction-atize and thereby enshitiffy one of my dearest hobbies (I am diversifying away from D&D TM) looming large in the background here, given the whole OGL blowback it was briefly reasonable large portions of diehards might boycott this thing. Anyway, saw it, liked it, succeeded wildly in the goal of effectively conveying what it's actually like to play a fantasy ttrpg, all the weird in-jokes, wild variations in tone, hand-waving and quirks of 'the rules' there for snorts of recognition. Cannot imagine this was much fun for non-players, but maybe.

5- Across the Spider-Verse (****) - Extremely hyped, but hopefully not the zenith of the trilogy, a lot is riding on part 3, which is thankfully due, uhhh, sometime next year? Dragged out its ending laying more groundwork, but before then, another ceiling breaking exercise in contemporary animation, an almost non-stop kinetic kaleidoscope of visual creativity that augurs well for animation's continued evolution.

4- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Mutant Mayhem (****) - Speaking of. Now, I've loved the Turtles since I was 4 years old, so my personal belief has always been, even though I love the 1990 rubber-suited cash grab, that the central premise is something that in the right hands can actually be objectively good, as opposed to personally delightful to me. This is that movie, the good Ninja Turtles movie. 'Teenage' -- to the point of being endearingly, obnoxiously immature, 'Mutant' -- to the point that the world around them is just as grody and fucked up looking as they are, 'Ninja' -- with sly handheld camera angles and satisfyingly fluid motion to rival Spiderverse, and uh, 'Turtles' -- they sure fucking are. I loved this. Jackie Chan forever.More, please.

3- Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (****) - Exceedingly Quebecois take on the contemporary hipster vampire movie, Can-con for my list. Canadian Indies in 2023 are strikingly similar to American Indies from 2008, if that at all recommends. Ranks high for efficient self-contained everything, very charming, funny, just bizarre enough.

2- The Boy and the Heron (****1/2) - Easy to feel like this is a Ghibli greatest hits compilation, easier to remember that's what we all kinda want-- cute and unsettling creatures, delicious looking food, spirit worlds, quiet moments of reflection, arcane rules for how any and everything works... yet also maybe the truest return to the titanic achievements of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away (especially.) Story forms a suitably esoteric thesis about grief and creation and, ultimately, endings. I think Miyazaki might actually be done this time.

1- Godzilla Minus One (*****) - An entirely different movie than Shin Godzilla, very possibly even better. It's tense (Godzilla hasn't felt creepy like this for a while.) It's emotional (rivals Godzilla vs Biollante in its human story.) It's very naked in its message (ah, the guilt.) The action is superb. I do not know where Godzilla goes from here. (Mothra!)

(Haven’t seen: Poor Things, Bottoms, Napoleon, the Killer, a bunch of other crap.)

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thealmightyemprex · 1 year

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Craig Halloween costumes from Welcome to the Basement Ranked AKA one of the most niche lists I have ever done

So one of my favorite webseries is Welcome to the Basement ,a film review show hosted by Matt Sloan and Craig Johnson .After nearly 12 years Craid is leaving the show ,and as a fan since 2015 ....I wanted to do a little tribute.Now could do my faqvorite episodes,or moments with Craig.However every Halloween Matt and Craig dress as charters from the movies they watch ....And I am usually impressed by his costume choices ,so all Craig costumes ranked

11 .The Devil from Beat the Devil -Amityville Horror

10.Rusty James from Rumble Fish-I Know What You Did Last Summer

9.Heathcliff from Wurthering Heights-The Wolfman

8.Tetsuo from Akira-Pet Semetary

7.Jessica from Logans Run-Susperia

6.Mystery Man from Lost Highway-Scanners

5.Robin Hood from Adventures of Robin Hood-The Tingler

4.Sergent Howie from Wicker Man -Horror of Dracula

3.Jack Burton- from Big Trouble in Little China -The Omen

2.Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls-Day of the Dead

1.Huxley from The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland -Night of the Creeps

There ends the most niche list I have ever done .If ya never have seen the show ,check it out on youtube .So long Craig

@theancientvaleofsoulmaking @scarletblumburtonofeastlondon @the-blue-fairie @ariel-seagull-wings @themousefromfantasyland @princesssarisa

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drhooves · 10 months

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my sister is stalking my letterbox and she saw my review on big trouble in little china. it's joever.

#big trouble in little china #it's over #JELP

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watching-pictures-move · 2 years

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Movie Review | Year of the Dragon (Cimino, 1985)

This review contains spoilers.

There’s a difference between a movie being racist and a character being racist, and I think a scene here between Mickey Rourke and Ariane that illustrates the distinction. Rourke tells Ariane he’s been reading up on the history of Chinese people in America, and shows an awareness of the discriminatory laws they were subject to. He refers to a picture celebrating the completion of a railroad, noting the demographic groups who were present, and points out that the Chinese labourers who did the actual backbreaking work of building them were not in the photo. One might think he’s developed an understanding of their marginalization, but his next line reveals the opposite, as he speculates that it was due to their secretive nature. Rourke’s character, a highly decorated police captain who takes over the precinct in New York’s Chinatown, spews an endless stream of bigotry as he wages his war on the local triads, yet scenes like that illustrate his limited understanding. His Vietnam service is a critical detail, showing that he conflates the Chinese with the Vietnamese as he tries to essentially re-fight the war on his own terms, disgusted by the defeatist, corrupt cops that populate his precinct and try to constrain him.

And while Rourke is our protagonist and much of the film is filtered through his perspective, the movie devotes a sizable amount of screentime to upstart gangster John Lone, who plays the movie in silky smooth drip king mode. And while Lone’s charisma is undeniable, it isn’t eager to either glibly worship him or play up his villainy, but instead drops us into his world, showing his role in the community (offering his help to people whose options are limited in mainstream society), with his peers (maneuvering to oust an elder, more risk-averse triad leader) and running his criminal enterprise (a trip to Thailand to give us supply contacts a bloody surprise). These are not positive images of Chinese Americans, but like William Friedkin’s Cruising, which attracted similar controversy for making a cynical thriller about the gay leather bar scene when LGBTQ representation in Hollywood movies was extremely limited, there’s too much detail and genuine fascination in the portrayal for it to be dismissed as bigotry. Was any other Hollywood movie of this time and with this level of budget even acknowledging that there are multiple Chinese languages (going so far as to reference the Hakka dialect)? I am not of the group being depicted and as a result may not share the same sensitivities, but I can’t agree with the claims that this movie is racist. (It’s worth noting that Victor Wong and Dennis Dun, who have important parts in this, also starred in the following year’s Big Trouble in Little China, another movie about a clueless white guy in Chinatown, although that movie is more overtly satirical in this respect. I also should note that as a Torontonian, I chuckled whenever the villains mentioned the rival triad from Toronto.)

This is also a moody, forcefully directed crime thriller, powered by a electric performance by Rourke, who hurtles through the movie like a natural disaster, leaving everything and everyone he comes across in ruins. (If there’s one issue with Rourke’s role, it’s the weird dye they put on his hair to make him look like a grizzled veteran. Rourke was at the peak of his sex appeal at this point, so the bad dye job clashes extra hard with his good looks.) I just got finished defending the movie for distinguishing its perspective from its hero’s, yet there’s no denying that Rourke’s immense magnetism pulls us into his orbit, and in its most thrilling sequences locks onto his feverish intensity. Look at the scene where a pair of assassins kills his wife, and he takes frantically takes them out, the second one being dispatched with a gruesome headshot and subsequent explosion. Or the scene where he accosts Lone in a garishly lit nightclub, barging into multiple bathroom stalls where people are doing cocaine (an unexpectedly comedic touch), and then chases after two gunwomen with new wave hairdos, recklessly exchanging gunfire through traffic. Or the showdown with its mixture of car chase and gunplay on train tracks. The movie may be messy (there’s a subplot about an undercover agent that seems forgotten about for much of the runtime, although it too gets a bloody, forceful denouement), but as a fan of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, I don’t think neatness is always and asset, and scenes like these are bracingly visceral in their impact.

I do think the movie suffers in its portrayal of its female characters, with Rourke’s wife and Ariane coming off less like fully formed people than as plot devices and extensions of Rourke’s psyche. The idea of the long suffering wife seems more important than who the wife really is. And the idea of Ariane, with her cultural identity and her fancy apartment with a view to die for (which Rourke transforms into a police clubhouse of sorts in one of the movie’s funnier scenes) seems more important than how she really thinks and feels. I understand Ariane’s performance was frequently cited as one of the movie’s weaknesses, but I think the writing lets her down more than actual deficiencies in her acting, and the last line of the movie concludes their relationship on a completely wrong note. (I understand that Cimino was forced to put this in at the studio’s request after they didn’t like the original closing line: “Well, I guess if you fight a war long enough, you end up marrying the enemy.” In my opinion, the original line would have been clumsy but still greatly preferable to what we get in the finished film.) But I suppose the fact that these characters don’t feel like three dimensional characters is true to how Rourke sees them, being so caught up in his crusade that it’s withered away his empathy.

In short, this is undeniably messy, but also very good.

#film #movie review #year of the dragon #michael cimino

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