Certain that Skylab would fall on her head
One Armed Boxer II (1977), Yu Wang. September 22, 8pm and September 23, 10pm (half). View count: 1.5.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Robert Wise. September 22, 11pm. View count: Two.
Pulp Fiction (1994) (fifteen minutes thereof), Quentin Tarantino. September 27, 11pm. View count: Four and little bits and pieces.
Sinclair hooked us up with One Armed Boxer II, which is definitely more fun than the average weird 70s kung fu flick. It's the sequel to predictably-named One Armed Boxer (I), which we haven't seen, but which has a quite bitchin' poster. So, yes, flying guillotine. It's this tall hat-shaped thing with blades on the outside and inside, so that when the blind kung fu master throws it over your head and pulls the string, your head comes off. It's fun.
The movie also includes a kung fu tournament which features several weird asian stereotypes, including Wins-Without-a-Knife Yakuma (the token japanese guy), and a sikh fellow who has stretchy arms (as seen on the poster). I am curious as to where this concept came from; during the movie, chmmr suggested that this movie was the genesis of the idea of Dhalsim, about which I was skeptical (I figured it was more likely they were both drawing on some common concept). However, wikipedia seems to say that he was correct. Thanks, wikipedia!
Anyhow, it's a fun movie. The dub is not always hilarious or impenetrable, the plot is followable, and the action is legitimately pretty badass. Check it out, won't you?
Star Trek: the Motion Picture, on the other hand, is awful. The screenwriters had clearly recently seen 2001 and decided that it (or rather, its pacing and psychedelic trappings) marked the new path of space movies, so it was just chock full of appallingly dull shots of stupid little shuttles floating around and baffling artificial landscapes no one could care about. The character writing was completely phoned in; no one could possibly believe that these people had spent years and years serving together on a ship much like this one. The baroque moment illustrating this was toward the beginning when William Shatner and James Doohan meet up on a shuttlecraft to go out to the new Enterprise, which is for some reason way out in the middle of nowhere (away from earth not far enough to take a real ship, but too far for a space elevator, I guess). They are flying out, apparently on autopilot, both staring out the big front window at the purported majesty of their surroundings, and not a word do they say to one another. Hey, guys, you're friends. You're comrades. Where's the 'how's your family?' the 'what've you been up to?' or 'how've you been?' It's just horrible. It looks more like they had an unhappy affair and are now dismayed to see that they have to work together again. This would not have saved the movie. It was stupid and I hated it. (This is another movie which I can't remember how many times I've actually seen it vs. read the Cracked parody, but it's not troubling me all that much.)
I just put Pulp Fiction in so that I could complain about how obnoxious Tarantino's dialogue is. It is really, really obnoxious.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Robert Wise. September 22, 11pm. View count: Two.
Pulp Fiction (1994) (fifteen minutes thereof), Quentin Tarantino. September 27, 11pm. View count: Four and little bits and pieces.
Sinclair hooked us up with One Armed Boxer II, which is definitely more fun than the average weird 70s kung fu flick. It's the sequel to predictably-named One Armed Boxer (I), which we haven't seen, but which has a quite bitchin' poster. So, yes, flying guillotine. It's this tall hat-shaped thing with blades on the outside and inside, so that when the blind kung fu master throws it over your head and pulls the string, your head comes off. It's fun.
The movie also includes a kung fu tournament which features several weird asian stereotypes, including Wins-Without-a-Knife Yakuma (the token japanese guy), and a sikh fellow who has stretchy arms (as seen on the poster). I am curious as to where this concept came from; during the movie, chmmr suggested that this movie was the genesis of the idea of Dhalsim, about which I was skeptical (I figured it was more likely they were both drawing on some common concept). However, wikipedia seems to say that he was correct. Thanks, wikipedia!
Anyhow, it's a fun movie. The dub is not always hilarious or impenetrable, the plot is followable, and the action is legitimately pretty badass. Check it out, won't you?
Star Trek: the Motion Picture, on the other hand, is awful. The screenwriters had clearly recently seen 2001 and decided that it (or rather, its pacing and psychedelic trappings) marked the new path of space movies, so it was just chock full of appallingly dull shots of stupid little shuttles floating around and baffling artificial landscapes no one could care about. The character writing was completely phoned in; no one could possibly believe that these people had spent years and years serving together on a ship much like this one. The baroque moment illustrating this was toward the beginning when William Shatner and James Doohan meet up on a shuttlecraft to go out to the new Enterprise, which is for some reason way out in the middle of nowhere (away from earth not far enough to take a real ship, but too far for a space elevator, I guess). They are flying out, apparently on autopilot, both staring out the big front window at the purported majesty of their surroundings, and not a word do they say to one another. Hey, guys, you're friends. You're comrades. Where's the 'how's your family?' the 'what've you been up to?' or 'how've you been?' It's just horrible. It looks more like they had an unhappy affair and are now dismayed to see that they have to work together again. This would not have saved the movie. It was stupid and I hated it. (This is another movie which I can't remember how many times I've actually seen it vs. read the Cracked parody, but it's not troubling me all that much.)
I just put Pulp Fiction in so that I could complain about how obnoxious Tarantino's dialogue is. It is really, really obnoxious.