What was the last movie you saw...? Part IV

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

The Equalizer 3

Denzel Washington returns as Robert McCall, the vigilante who defends the downtrodden. He is joined in this venture by Dakota Fanning's CIA (or was it FBI?) operative. The rest of the cast is Italian.

McCall is in the south of Italy to sort out some baddies for what initially is an unknown cause. He gets injured in the process and is taken by a good Samaritan to get medical help. Whilst recuperating he finds out that the community is oppressed by a drug lord and his men. He discovers there is some sort of shipment arriving and makes contact with Fanning's agent who initially seems more concerned with how he got the secure number.

Like the previous films this is slow, slow, quick, quick, BANG! Plenty of detail and build up before McCall uses his "special" set of skills to sort out a situation. It must be said that (if my memory serves) this film is more violent and graphic than the other two in the series. There's a lot of good things to be said for the film, it is quite satisfying, the only gripe I have is that because it is set in Italy there's a lot of sub-titling... I hate sub-titles!! 7.5/10

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

@Thel

I've not seen OHMSS in maybe 30 years and have no urge to see it again. I think some people have a soft spot for it being a story that departs from the usual Bond formula, but yeah, it was poorly implemented and acted. But does have one of the better Bond themes songs.

[Charger]

The Equalizer movies have been pretty good so far. This from what I've heard is the weakest one of them but I think I'm still going to want to see it.

[Zzzptm]

Racist Trees - a documentary about the Tamarisk trees that were planted between a Black neighborhood and a golf course in Palm Springs. I got into the history of urban development around the world after playing Cities:Skylines for a few years, and the story depicted in this documentary is similar to the story of communities across the USA, including the potential for healing and reconciliation that people are capable of and which is depicted at the end.

[Charger]

I went with an absolute classic yesterday

John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK


I recently captured ex special forces soldier turned bank robber Snake Plisken is sent to the prison island of Manhattan to find and bring back the President who crash landed there.

Carpenter created a brilliant world and great story with a rather small budget. At the time the movie wasn't recieved all that well but has since become a cult classic and to this day Kurt Russell says this is his all time favourite movie and Snake is his all time favourite character. And I can surely understand why. Snake is a great character and Russell's preformance is iconic.

Carpenter's music is also worth mentioning as it is pretty much flawless.

Sure some of the computer graphics are of it's age but that's how it was...same with Alien. 80s futuristic computers weren't all that futuristic...hell people back then couldn't even imagine what computers could do already in 97 when this is set.

An absolute classic.

*  *  *  *  ½


Tonight we're gonna be escaping LA!

[Thelemech]

  nice 👌 charger

I love both of these classics

There is a appearance from the undisputed champion of the b movie
Bruce Campbell in the second film

[Charger]

Indeed there is! And Rob Zombie did a killer track for it too!

[Zzzptm]

So how come it's Manhattan that's walled off and not Staten Island? Staten Island is almost 3x the size of Manhattan and... It's *Staten Island*, not glitzy Manhattan! It's still New York, but with the added benefit of not being able to drive out of it, ya gotta take the ferry.

[Charger]

The bridges were mined. I guess most of manhattan was over run by criminals to start with thus making it easier to just border it off.


Sadly Escape From LA was just removed from SkyShowtime yesterday! What are the odds of that happening!? Pissed me off royally! So couldn't go for that...

Went with this one instead then

John Carpenter's GHOSTS OF MARS

A team of police officers are tasked to bring a captured criminal Desolation Williams to stand trial in 22nd century Mars only to find themselves against a threat much greater (and much older) than Williams and his crew.

Williams is kind of the 22nd century version of Snake Plissken a tough guy with a good heart and bunch of skills. Ice Cube does a good job with the part. Natasha Henstridge the same and also features a young Jason Statham.

The movie is over the top in almost every way. And Carpenter said he wanted make it campy as possible without it being an outright comedy. Sadly that wasn't relayed well to the public who thought it was a serious movie and thus got rather bad reviews as it wasn't taken in as it should have. But knowing that elevates this movie quite a bit I'd say.
The movie was shot completely at night including most of the studio scenes which rubbed the crew and the cast the wrong way but Carpenter insisted on it. The out door shots surely benefit from it...adding to the mystery of Mars.
The make up effects are very good.

Not as great as Vampires was and sadly due to the poor reception this movie was the last movie Carpenter would make in a decade.

*  *  *  ½

[Zzzptm]

Watched Dumb Money last night. Aside from having to listen to rap songs that I was hoping to avoid my entire life, like W.A.P. from Cardi B, I enjoyed the movie. Paul Dano landed an excellent role with this one and the rest of the cast is great to watch. It's a novelization in film of the Game Stop story from late 2020/early 2021 and how billionaires don't care, they're going to get their billions, one way or another. Peasant revolts always fail, but usually not without a concession or two in the hopes that's enough to keep them from happening again.

[Charger]

So what were your favourite movies of 2023?

I think my absolute number one has to be Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

That one had it all, great action, great effects, great cast and great humor. AND it wasn't too insanely long as most movies of that nature tend to be these days.

Indiana Jones and The Dial Of Destiny was really good too part from the ending which maybe was bit too far out there, bu the action was good and Harrison Ford still gave his all which was really commendable at his age. And that digitally made young Indy was extremely well done.


The Marvels has to be the worst MCU movie ever made. That was a bad joke. The first Captain Marvel movie was pretty weak but this one was a whole lot worse. Dumb comes to mind.


I have not seen Guardians Vol 3 or Expendables 4 yet but both have sadly gotten really bad reviews all around so considering how great the first movies were I haven't had any real interest in even seeing them since they might spoil the legacy of the previous ones.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I'll need to think about my choices.


But what YOU can do Charger is ignore anyone who said GotG v3 was bad and go watch it... it's wonderful and many critics also liked it. It's got 82% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 94% Audience Score, the story is the best I've seen in ages and the only slight gripe is the soundtrack doesn't quite compare to the previous 2 films!

[Charger]

Oh...that's nice to hear. Most people have been complaining about it not having enough humor and that the cast chemistry wasn't there anymore...well I am glad to hear you enjoyed it so yeah...I probably would have bought it anyways just to complete my main MCU collection...

[Zzzptm]

Dude, I loved Barbie.

[Charger]

I shall try not to hold that against you...but it will be hard.