MUWT 2: The Quickening

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I watched it tonight and it rules.

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went looking for hallmark movies to watch on youtube and got sucked into watching Robo Vampire instead, about a Robocop knockoff (“Robo Warrior”) who must fight a bunch of hopping vampires who are being deployed against the police by a drug cartel. I have been meaning to watch a Godfrey Ho movie for a while now and I guess this was a good starting point in that about 2/3rds of the movie seemed to just be footage from a different movie which was spliced in, so that at first you think all the characters are fighting the same cartel and then after a while you realise there’s a weird persistent disconnect between the A and B plots where none of the same actors appear in each and they don’t really seem to acknowledge one another. the parts with the hopping vampires are good. one of them has a gorilla face for some reason and is romantically involved with a ghost lady. they are married by the evil priest and when robowarrior finds them together they ask that he holds off on shooting them until they can consummate their marriage.

one thing I appreciated about the way a different action movie gets cut in (and redubbed?) is how the different factions of a cops vs robbers movie become really blurred and indecipherable. at one point a gang of toughs come into a church and start bullying the priest to tell them where he’s hiding the drugs. they smash open the giant wooden cross and a bunch of coke spills out. oh, so are these the cops and the priest is working for the cartel? but then the priest’s daughter attacks them and gets captured, and the narcotics agents in the next scene are talking about how they need to rescue her before she gives them away, so I guess it’s the other way around? a lot of scenes are just anonymous groups of guys machinegunning each other while wearing army clothes and you’re sort of unsure of which faction they’re meant to represent and which is meant to be sympathetic. so I guess it’s a touch of verisilimitude, and then it goes back to bootleg Robocop fighting hopping vampires on a beach. it was an interesting effect and I enjoyed it.

EDIT: i guess the title Robo Vampire reflects the uneasy ways that the main vampire and the Robocop seem to mirror one another, in that they’re both essentially corpses reanimated by magic/science and pressed into continuing a vengeful war against the other side. however, i admit to being a little disappointed when it turned out the movie didn’t actually have a single character who was both a robot and a vampire simultaneously. maybe they wanted to hold that in reserve for a sequel.

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I watched that recently, too! And it’s sequel! Some of the comedy is in poor taste, especially with the deaf-mute character in the sequel. On the whole, I enjoyed it just for the action choreography. Made the mistake of following those up with My Lucky Stars, which pads its fat middle with god-awful comedy bits revolving around a group of five dudes being horny for one woman.

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But I need to mention that the end features a sequence where Jackie Chan is dressed in a huge Arale costume, sneaking through a haunted house, and just murdering a dozen goons with guns and swords.

I WATCHED ERROL MORRIS’S FAVORITE MOVIE THE EMPERORS NAKED ARMY MARCHES ON AND holy shit of course this is his favorite movie. its all about an interviewer with superhuman convictions screaming questions from off screen at war criminals and then kicking their asses

there’s so much sadness about the way war and starvation breaks you but SO MUCH FRUSTRATING QUESTION AVOIDING WEASEL BEHAVIOR from the officers. the first time he attacks one of the dudes the camera did like slide show of still shots to emphasize impact or whatever, they do it in a lot of japanese movies i watch but i dont know anything about film so i wont pretend, but i WILL SAY that i cheered

i think everyone who thinks violence isnt necessary for change should watch it

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yess i have been inspired to finally watch police story too

heartening to learn that jackie chan has always been both an immensely talented performer and an irritating little shit since day 1

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The second has that amazing mall-chandelier aesthetic as well

and a great boat

I also watched Police Story this weekend! It’d been on my list for a while and a buddy recommended it after watching it recently too. Very very cool stunts and great looking movie!

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I definitely thought of this in the later part of this scene where she tries to smash the assailant over the head with a random roman column she happens to have lying around the house

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I watched Joker finally. I liked it. I like it when movies have a distinct time and place to them and “vaguely East Coast-ish 1970s” is a great setting for any movie. Good cinematography and framing of these shots. I enjoyed just looking at it regardless of how the story itself landed.

As a movie about society or the present moment or whatever I felt kind of “ehhh okay that’s one take on things I guess” and I’m not surprised it resonates with people but like most of these kinds of stories I think it encourages passivity. These stories always depict how screwed up everything is and show everyone wanting to be part of something greater to change things but always conveniently leave out how that stuff usually happens in the real world.

It leads to people thinking that “this will be the year when things finally get bad enough that everyone will revolt and the revolution will spontaneously occur etc. and all anyone will have to do is put on a mask and start torching cop cars.” but ignores that revolutions tend to occur only after lots of people working together have figured out what things they want changed, what conditions need to exist in society for those specific things to happen and then put the work in to create those conditions and encourage the changes they want to see all while supporting each other from the various forces in society that would rather not see the changes implemented.

Of course that’s not even on the menu of possibilities here. This is more a movie for people who have already given up any hope of creating a better future and would rather just say “screw it burn it all down.” A nice fantasy to blow off steam that I know I’m guilty of partaking in from time to time. It’s a story that requires zero thinking that invariably leads a lot of people to say it really makes them think.

But as another origin story for the Batman and Joker characters I thought it was pretty good. Lots of beautiful filth and grime in every scene.

Now I want Todd Philips to write and direct a Batman Year One story in this same universe so he has an excuse to set it in the vaguely East Coast-ish early 1990s and all of Batman’s tech is just stuff that existed in that decade.

Joker gives me hope that someday comic book movies will be truly like any other regular movie in that they’ll be made for a general audience and not just for people who are already familiar with the lore of whatever characters are on screen. As a person who is quite familiar with all the Batman lore there is a lot to enjoy in Joker but having that familiarity is not at all necessary for someone to be able to enjoy and appreciate it as a film, or get something out of its themes and characters.

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Even better, that’s on a floppy. Right next to Dr. Manhattan and Alexander folders holding presumably more specific things on them than the rest of the “Boys.” :curly:

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The Boys folder/Diskette surely has something to do with that song, I am SURE about that, absolutely.

we need to demand they release the #ThorntonCut of All the Pretty Horses next

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#6HourAssemblyCut of The Thin Red Line or no deal

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wachowski’s know which is the best dark souls

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Someone needs to get the Wachowskis to post on selectbutton

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I watched North by Northwest and lord I do not get the Hitchcock praise. The crop duster scene is almost good but it keeps cutting to Carry Grant falling on some asphalt on a sound stage. I was expecting this tense moment and gah could not get out of my mind (here and elsewhere in the film) how it clearly keeps cutting between outside and rear projection.

I also thought this was a famous film for not explaining what’s going on and they explain the plot 40 minutes in! They actually cut away from Cary entirely to lay out the plot. So then the airplane perpellar scene happens (which I thought was famous for obfuscating what was going on) but we already know everything! And they say almost everything anyways. Gah!

Also Cary Grant professional 50 year old climber give me a break. get bent Sight and Sound 100 List.


Then I watched The Long Goodbye and loved every second of it. Real locations, likable protagonist, not explained entirely, jokes, a cat. Tie discussion. Lots of characters. Give me Charming Private Eye fucked over for 100 minutes any day. What an absolute treat.

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Watch the 39 Steps or The Lady Vanishes rudie

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Whenever I’m at the store faced with a wall of choice when shopping for the cat I wander around muttering “courry brand cat food…”

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