Have both Amer and Strange Color sitting in my queue, been very interested to see what they are about
[size=12pt]Judgment Night -1993- Stephen Hopkins [/size]
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First time watch for this 93 film, that actually Iāve never heard of it before, until I decided to take it for the holydays.
A good surprise, in the sense that I was expecting something much worse, cause I didnāt know it and notice some bad reviews while trying to know some more about it.
The story a sort of The most dangerous game variation, that would be impossible to happen today, with so many forms of communication, but yeah back in 1993 was quite believable, the strange ting is that it wasnāt so far away as that.
Itās a positive film, because the different characters are well defined, and the tension is well build. The story goes around about a group of friends (two of them brothers) that to escape a traffic jam in their way to a sport event, take a short cut through a problematic neighborhood, ending up fighting their way back from it after accidentally witness a murder, while the killer Denis Leary is in their back.
A good and relevant cast, Leary steals the show with a great piece of acting proving that you donāt need to twist and shout to make a believeble bad guy, and is character is a real piece of work, a good actor.
Also Jeremy Piven proves (once again) to be a good actor for a normally known secondary parts actor, besides Leary he plays the most complex and demanding character, a sweet talking salesman that tries to buy his way out of the situation. Estevez with is kid face seems young for the part, and Cuba Gooding Jr has a tendency to overact and that shows here, but theyāre OK, also notice the presence of regular 90ās bad guy Peter Green.
Judgment Night has some connection points with Walter Hillās Trespass, also made around the same period, so if you like Trespass (a better film than this one), you will like this one.
So a simple film, based mostly in building tension, but a very effective one well directed by someone who knows how to make a decent action movie, with some good scenes and well build tension, with the bonus of a cool villain, and a good final scene, along with some smart acting. Nice soundtrack.
Recommended
Not a bad film (I agree that Trespass is better), but the soundtrack was superb. Lots of metal/rap crossover projects, recording tracks specially for Judgment Night. Acts such as Slayer & Ice-T, Faith No More & Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., and Sonic Youth & Cypress Hill.
Judgment Night Soundtrackhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBNRcFA63xg
Yes, the Judgement Night soundtrack (or better songtrack) is great. It was probably then much more popular than the film.
House Of Pain and Helmet is my favourite one on there.
I was really out of it, most likely on a Nirvana diet at the period, didnāt even know the Soundtrack.
Captain America:The Winter Soldier (2014)
I went in with low expectations for this movie and was pleasantly surprised. Great action with pretty good CGI effects, I enjoyed this one more than the first movie, witch IMO it sucked farts. Robert Redford is in this and for an old man, he still has a commanding screen presence, but iām getting sick of Samuel L. Jackson though. Anywaysā¦pretty good all around. 8/10
Gotta say I have lost loads of respect for Samuel L since he became poster boy for Capital One credit cardsā¦ come on man, did you really need the moneyā¦
Its been a bit since I listened to the Judgment Night soundtrack, even longer since Iāve seen the film. Both used to be favorites
A lesser success, but similar soundtrack in concept, was Spawn:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD4BBF4EDD2D9D54F (the video titles donāt all list the artists, but all the songs are two different genre artists together)
Yep, another interesting mash-up project and, IMO, the only worthwhile part of that movie.
A couple of blistering tunes on there: Slayer & Atari Teenage Riotās reworking of ATRās Deutschland (Has Gotta Die!), here entitled No Remorse (I Wanna Die) which Autephex has linked to above and also the magnificent Henry Rollins & Goldie - T-4 Strainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVPJ43WPMIY, a track that still gets regular airplay in casa.caressā¦
I thought Spawn was alright the first time I saw it, watched it again a few years later and wasnāt that gone on it.
Killin[size=12pt][/size]g Season - 2013 - Mark Steven Johnson
Uau what an incredible bad film, when you think that Robert de Niro as done and been in the worst project possible for someone who has given us such quality performances na great films, he appear in this bottom of the barrel production, alongside a very committed John Travolta, wasting is acting efforts in such a lame film.
First of all the story is totally absurd and makes no historically sense at all, and I know cause I was there, Invasion of Bosnia, Serbian Army, there were no such things at the time of the events that concern the later revenge of the story.
US operations on the ground, to catch the āScorpionsā!!! None of those were caught at the time, and apart from some special operations to rescue prisoners (mostly done by the SAS), the OTAN normal scenario of operations was the air.
So the revenge story that takes place in the film is totally bogus, even worst John Travolta character uses a Muslim name (Emil), and so on.
By now with so many information available, making these obvious errors is not understandable, Hollywood screenwriterās should do some basic research, even more for such recent events. The background of events from the later Balkanic war, were so complex, that telling stories about it goes beyond the usual bad guy versus good guy tale.
Thereās a lot of violence but both main characters are not deep enough, and the film is just a senseless combination of gratuitous violence in a chase film, and the happy ending just makes me laugh, those guys really didnāt know what being part of a paramilitary group means, orfor that matter a special operation soldier capable of killing execution style, no regrets. Totally absurd nonsense
Like I said Travolta tries to give some meaning to his character, while De Niro is just there, in the end his attitude made more sense, the film doesnāt deserve more.
For those who care the story starts when a retired US Army officer while hunting in the Appalachian Mountains gives a ride to a European hunter he finds in the rain. During their time together, the ex-army officer finds out that the hunter was also in the same war scenario he has been in the past, with both man sharing a secret and one looking for revenge.
Of course De Niro characters with his historical background (and secret), finds it normal and not strange to discover someone from the Balkans in the middle of nowhere US, just to hunt.
Yeah I watched till the end just to find out if there was some redemption in it, but no things only get worst. Itās one of those movies thatās only bad, not so bad that it becomes funny, no its plain bad. Donāt waste your time.
Both De Niro and Travolta have been in so many stinkers over the past decade that I havenāt even tried this one.
Iāve learned to hate De Niro, like others have learned to hate Pacino, and Iāve never been a great fan of Travolta (he was okay in some movies made by De Palma, Tarantino or Woo, but otherwise: irritating guy)
By the way, I donāt think Emil is a specific Arabic name; it exists in Arabic (Amiel), but itās a rather common name in most languages I know. Maybe youāre mixing it up with Emir, which is typically Arabic (meaning Prince)
As far as I remembre Emil is a common name for Bosnian Muslins, (I can be wrong), which is diferente of being an arabic name, but yeah the origin must come from Emir, I really donāt know.
About De Niro, I can understand thatās not easy to be only in Raging Bulls, and not all actors make career choices like Daniel Day Lewis, but the amount of stinkers heās in sure makes a viewer who likes cinema think twice about him.
And Travolta to be honest in Killing Season he seems to think heās Marlon Brando doing Cor. Kurtz.
@ Emil
Iāll do some research on this
Travoltaās accent annoyed me in Killing Season and De Nero is getting to old for these sort of parts in my view.
Emil is not a Muslim name. It has Latin origins and it is common name in pretty much every Slavic country, including Croatia and Serbia (also seems to be popular in Scandinavia, but I canāt witness that from first hand). It has nothing to do with Emir, which is a common among Bosnia-muslims.
Havenāt seen the movie so I cannot judge, but to Hollywood to use some international conflict - and each one of those conflicts is usually complex - to make superficial black and white action tale is more a rule than something we should be surprised by.
[quote=āscherpschutter, post:11813, topic:1923ā]Both De Niro and Travolta have been in so many stinkers over the past decade that I havenāt even tried this one.
Iāve learned to hate De Niro, like others have learned to hate Pacino, and Iāve never been a great fan of Travolta (he was okay in some movies made by De Palma, Tarantino or Woo, but otherwise: irritating guy)[/quote]
Iāll forgive De Niro anything, but Iāll skip this cash-in junk he is making nowadays and stick to rewatches of his brilliant classics (and you cannot really hate him and make parody of him, since thatās exactly what he is deliberately making of himself for last 15 years). And yes, Pacino is irritating me in I guess everything he done after Scarface.
On the other hand, I donāt see why Travolta should be mentioned in the same sentence as those two, apart from Italian surname (and him and De Niro being in the same movie) 
[quote=ātitoli, post:11817, topic:1923ā]Iāll forgive De Niro anything, but Iāll skip this cash-in junk he is making nowadays and stick to rewatches of his brilliant classics (and you cannot really hate him and make parody of him, since thatās exactly what he is deliberately making of himself for last 15 years). And yes, Pacino is irritating me in I guess everything he done after Scarface.
On the other hand, I donāt see why Travolta should be mentioned in the same sentence as those two, apart from Italian surname (and him and De Niro being in the same movie) :)[/quote]
Travolta is in another class, of course, but he was in one movie with de Niro in this case, so it was hard NOT to mention him. Mediocre actor who was in a couple of decent movies, thatās all. And Grease is part of the collective memory of mankind, just like Bambi or Batman.
Headhunters/Hodejegerne (2011)
Norwegian action thriller based on the book by Jo Nesbo. I like Nesboās crime books so I gave this movie a go, which was a huge hit in its home country. It works well as action thriller, I was especially pleasantly surprised with the action part in the middle, which was tense and looked really impressive for European production. Story is however a bit superficial and it will require a lot of suspension of disbelief, which is something I find more easily done while reading a book, than while watching a movie.
De Niro is an actor, like Jon Voight or Pacino, who gets a free pass from me due the quality of his best films are simply phenomenal; his hack work may be saddening, but they donāt diminish the power of the glory years. It puzzles me, the decline; is it laziness, has the motivation just gone, is it all for the paycheck (surely heās rich enough)? The seeds for Pacinoās overacting were always there, even with The Godfather, but De Niro always appeared so controlled, focused, committed, like Day-Lewis. The habit of just making films has perhaps grown too strong, like Woody Allen, to stop, even when you should, and that means doing any script. Another De Niro - Scorsese project, The Iceman, has been long rumoured, but frankly at this stage, Iād rather see De Caprio.