Hi, everyone.
If you’ve been checking out my website for awhile, you have a pretty good idea of my taste in movies, and probably share it to some extent.
When I was a teenager, I used to catch Italian action movies on late night TV now and then, and I remember one particularly good one which involved […]
Jun
30
Foreign Trash Flicks - What Are Your Favorites?
≡ Category: Loose Talk | ≅ Leave a Comment
Jun
30
GOOGLE SHOPPING
Go on Google and click on the Shopping link in the upper left corner. Type in something like “Bullet for Hire” (without the quotes) to see if anyone is selling Bullet for Hire.
GOOGLE SEARCH
Do a regular search on Google. Type in something like Bullet for Hire and see what comes up in the first […]
Jun
23
Dragon In Jail - By The Numbers Triad Flick Gets The Job Done
≡ Category: Drama, Hong Kong, Movie Reviews, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Drama
Director: Kent Cheng
Year: 1990
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
How much you enjoy Dragon in Jail will depend on how much you enjoy Hong Kong triad movie tropes in general. There is nothing here that anyone who has seen a couple dozen Hong Kong flicks won’t have seen two or three times before, but […]
Jun
19
Magnificent Warriors - Pure Action Flick Scorns Bloodlust
≡ Category: Bullet Ballet, Essential, Martial Arts, Movie Reviews | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Bullet Ballet/Martial Arts
Director: David Chung
Year: 1987
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
The first thing that stands out about Magnificent Warriors is how determinedly non-bloodthirsty it is. Hong Kong cinema is full of black and bitter endings where the heroes sacrifice their lives in a last ditch attempt to bring down the villains.
An equally common […]
Jun
18
Black Mask - Juicy Characters Upstage Action
≡ Category: Bullet Ballet, Hong Kong, Martial Arts, Movie Reviews, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Bullet Ballet/Martial Arts
Director: Daniel Lee
Year: 1996
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
I hadn’t remembered how much fun Black Mask was.
When I saw it the first time, I was underwhelmed by the sometimes crappy special effects and the cartoonish directing style. That was probably a little unfair of me because Black Mask is based on […]
Jun
15
Between Your Legs - A Fine Lurid Mess
≡ Category: Drama, Movie Reviews, Recommended, Spain | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Spain
Genre: Drama
Director: Manuel Gómez Pereira
Year: 1999
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Forty minutes into Between Your Legs, if you’re anything like me, you will have no idea what the heck is going on.
Here are some of the elements of the plot: several of the characters attend a meeting of Sex Addicts Anonymous, there’s a dead body […]
Jun
13
Angel Terminators - Kick Ass Action Saves The Day
≡ Category: Girls with Guns, Martial Arts, Movie Reviews, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Girls With Guns
Director: Wat Li
Year: 1990
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Since Angel Terminators gets a pass on its excellent kung fu choreography alone, it’s a pity the scripting and directing isn’t a little more disciplined — otherwise Angel Terminators would be a Trash Cinema Essential.
There are so many things that are good about […]
Jun
11
Another Public Enemy - Social Criticism Made Thrilling
≡ Category: Action, Drama, Korea, Movie Reviews, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Drama/Action
Director: Woo-Suk Kang
Year: 2005
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Minutes into Another Public Enemy, we witness a rumble between rival high schools that’s an exercise in unbridled brutality. Kids get beaten with baseball bats and kicked in the face in ways that would pretty much guarantee an extended hospital stay, if not a one-way ticket to […]
Jun
6
BULLET BALLET/HEROIC BLOODSHED
For these films to be successful, the action choreography has to be creative and energetic. It has to make a modicum of sense. If somebody gets shot 50 times and gets up, it kind of takes me out of the movie. Stuntwork is also important. Hong Kong stuntmen and stuntwomen are just nuts. […]
Jun
6
Here’s what I value in the different genres:
COMEDY
Actually, comedy is one of the few genres I don’t care for in Hong Kong’s Golden Age. I make an exception for Jackie Chan’s work, but that’s mostly physical comedy inspired by Buster Keaton. I actually like Stephen Chow’s more recent comedies, such as Shaolin Soccer and Kung […]