Mr. Majestyk suggested a new post that everyone can respond to with their random business while the RECENT COMMENTS sidebar is broken. Good idea, so here it is. Have at it!
Happy New Year, everybody. I’ll have some good new shit for you after the holiday, I promise.
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December 30th, 2017 at 11:11 am
Wow, that was fast! That’s the kind of amazing customer service you get with an artisanal operation like Outlaw Vern.
I’ll get this party started. Here are some movies I saw recently that I think are worth discussing:
THE VILLAINESS: I didn’t think this one looked like much from the trailer but, goddamn, man, the action is some next-level shit. The story took a while to engage me, seeing as how it’s just the world’s 45th Xerox of LA FEMME NIKITA, but when the typically florid, operatic melodrama of Korean cinema kicked in at the end, I couldn’t help but get swept up in how far they were willing to take it. I’d started wondering exactly what the title meant (The title character is an anti-hero, at best) when the last shot made me realize I was watching an origin story. This one’s a must-see.
WOLF WARRIOR II: I did not expect to love this one. My thoughts are collected on the actual review (https://outlawvern.com/2017/08/15/wolf-warrior-ii).
KILLING GUNTHER: Not exactly a game-changer, but I got some chuckles out of it and I thought Arnold was great, bringing his old puckish shit-starter persona from PUMPING IRON out of mothballs. I even thought the found-footage angle was handled with more creativity than you’d expect. I especially liked when SPOILERS I GUESS the cameramen got killed and the rest of the fight was covered by the cameras they left lying around. It also makes me respect Tarran Killiam a lot more knowing that the could have chosen a safe romantic comedy for his directorial/starring debut and instead he saved up all his clout for a chance to fight Arnold Schwarzenegger. I admire that kind of life choice.
MAYHEM: Very similar to THE BELKO EXPERIMENT (Your basic “BATTLE ROYALE meets OFFICE SPACE” situation) but the central appeal of the premise is very different. BELKO rubs your nose in the basic savagery of human nature, while MAYHEM celebrates it. It’s the one horror movie I’ve seen where I can say with 100% certainty that I would not be one of the good guys here. A disease that makes it impossible to restrain one’s pent-up rage? Shit, man, I got a hard enough time keeping the lid on that shit as is. I’d have been running around that building chopping heads off five minutes into the contamination. Also, the female lead, Samara Weaving (THE BABYSITTER [which I thought was great], ASH VS EVIL DEAD) might be my new favorite actress. She’s got balls, sass, a great conversationally wiseass delivery, and she’s clearly down for whatever madness a horror/action filmmaker can throw at her. I want to see her beat up more dudes.
KINGSMAN 2: Clearly inferior to the original but nobody else is really doing this kind of MATRIX-y, cartoonish action anymore so I can’t say I didn’t get a kick out of it. It had some inventive set-pieces (even if none measured up to the church fight from the first one), an amazing (if largely underutilized cast), and a bit more heart than expected, even if it never completely hangs together and that unfortunate finger-banging scene is a travesty. I’d watch another one.
I also watched the season’s two Christmas horror offerings, RED CHRISTMAS and BETTER WATCH OUT. My thoughts are here: (https://outlawvern.com/2017/12/19/better-watch-out/) and here: (https://outlawvern.com/2017/12/06/red-christmas/)
Anyway, thanks again for the prompt response, Vern.