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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Starship Troopers (1997) in Movies
Sep 22, 2020
Do you know what? Starship Troopers is a 5 star film and there's nothing anyone can say to convince me otherwise.
It's 90s sci-fi at its absolute best.
It has a great cast - Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick-Harris, Jake Busey - none of them feel replaceable.
It has special effects that genuinely still.homd up over 20 years later, and also a fuck tonne of genuinely horrific practical effects - some of the violence in Starship Troopers is next level, in true Paul Verhoeven style.
It has a corny yet airtight script, it's suitably cheesy when it wants to be, and wonderfully satirical throughout.
It's also got a top tier score courtesy of Basil Poledouris.
I saw this film when I was in my early teens, a few years after it released and it has always stuck with me since. Starship Troopers is perfection, fight me.
It's 90s sci-fi at its absolute best.
It has a great cast - Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick-Harris, Jake Busey - none of them feel replaceable.
It has special effects that genuinely still.homd up over 20 years later, and also a fuck tonne of genuinely horrific practical effects - some of the violence in Starship Troopers is next level, in true Paul Verhoeven style.
It has a corny yet airtight script, it's suitably cheesy when it wants to be, and wonderfully satirical throughout.
It's also got a top tier score courtesy of Basil Poledouris.
I saw this film when I was in my early teens, a few years after it released and it has always stuck with me since. Starship Troopers is perfection, fight me.
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Sharknado (2013) in Movies
Sep 17, 2019
Jesus. H. Christ.
It's 2019, and I've finally sat down and watched Sharknado, after hearing many years worth of friends and even random people tell me how it's the epitome of a bad-good movie.
That, my friends, is just a big fat badly-rendered shark of a lie.
There is nothing redeemable about Sharknado. The acting from everyone is awful and the special effects are laughable (Easily worse than a late 90s music video).
There are some scenes that just baffle me with their inclusion. Nothing really makes sense, and all of this would be perfectly acceptable if it was indeed 'bad-good' or mildly funny, but any attempt at humour made me want to tear my ears off.
I would say a hard avoid on this one, but I'm going to persevere and watch the whole lot of them, just to add a review here. Will they get better as they go on? Pretty sure they can't get any worse!
That, my friends, is just a big fat badly-rendered shark of a lie.
There is nothing redeemable about Sharknado. The acting from everyone is awful and the special effects are laughable (Easily worse than a late 90s music video).
There are some scenes that just baffle me with their inclusion. Nothing really makes sense, and all of this would be perfectly acceptable if it was indeed 'bad-good' or mildly funny, but any attempt at humour made me want to tear my ears off.
I would say a hard avoid on this one, but I'm going to persevere and watch the whole lot of them, just to add a review here. Will they get better as they go on? Pretty sure they can't get any worse!
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Set in Boston in the early 90s when the city was rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law...
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated There's Someone Inside Your House (2021) in Movies
Oct 27, 2021
Straight off the bat, I didn't hate There's Someone Inside Your House. As far as 90s inspired teen slashers go, it's relatively entertaining - it's has some solid gore, it's pacing is snappy for the most part, and the opening 15 minutes or so has some genuinely unsettling wide shots of houses with subtly open doors, hinting at someone unwanted being inside. It's a neat trick that's repeated once, but then unfortunately abandoned.
The main issue with TSIYH is how darn predictable it is, down to every set piece and narrative beat. The eventual killer reveal is sadly an obvious one, and there are even moments where the plot threatens to get a little ballsy but chickens out at the last second.
TSIYH had some fun slasher moments for sure, and I did like the multiple mask concept of the killer, but it's over reliance on genre tropes, and tendency to play it safe drag the overall experience down.
The main issue with TSIYH is how darn predictable it is, down to every set piece and narrative beat. The eventual killer reveal is sadly an obvious one, and there are even moments where the plot threatens to get a little ballsy but chickens out at the last second.
TSIYH had some fun slasher moments for sure, and I did like the multiple mask concept of the killer, but it's over reliance on genre tropes, and tendency to play it safe drag the overall experience down.
David McK (3562 KP) rated True Lies (1994) in Movies
Mar 29, 2020 (Updated Apr 10, 2022)
The early to mid 90s were a great time for action movies.
Cliffhanger. Speed. And this.
Starring a pre-Governator Arnold Schwarzenneger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a pre-TVs-Faith-from-Buffy Eliza Dushku, this basically posits the question "What if James Bond was a family man? And what if his wife doesn't know he's a spy?"
When he then discovers that said wife is - he thinks - having an affair (but is in reality falling victim to a scam artist), he then decides to 'give her a bit of excitement', which leads to her getting caught up in his 'real' job and finding out more about his life!
With a rarely-looking-hotter Tia Carrere, those tango scenes (and *that* striptease) alongside plenty of stunts and gunplay (and the Harrier jump jets) - and, of course, the one-liners! - this is a pretty enjoyable big budget action movie
(Edit: I've just discovered it's directed by a pre-Titanic James Cameron, which helps!)
Cliffhanger. Speed. And this.
Starring a pre-Governator Arnold Schwarzenneger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a pre-TVs-Faith-from-Buffy Eliza Dushku, this basically posits the question "What if James Bond was a family man? And what if his wife doesn't know he's a spy?"
When he then discovers that said wife is - he thinks - having an affair (but is in reality falling victim to a scam artist), he then decides to 'give her a bit of excitement', which leads to her getting caught up in his 'real' job and finding out more about his life!
With a rarely-looking-hotter Tia Carrere, those tango scenes (and *that* striptease) alongside plenty of stunts and gunplay (and the Harrier jump jets) - and, of course, the one-liners! - this is a pretty enjoyable big budget action movie
(Edit: I've just discovered it's directed by a pre-Titanic James Cameron, which helps!)
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Anaconda (1997) in Movies
Jun 28, 2022
Is there a better example of a film that's so shit but so great at the same time than Anaconda? I would argue that there is not. Something bad about Anaconda - Ice Cube making "your mum" jokes. Something good about Anaconda - Ice Cube making "your mum" jokes. Something bad - Jon Voights dodgy Paraguay accent. Something good - Jon Voights dodgy Paraguay accent...you see where I'm going with this. Everything that makes this movie shit also adds to its weird brand of 90s monster movie charm, right down to the snakes facial expressions sometimes being disturbingly human. I'm also a fan of how Johnathan Hydes character goes from being the token pampered rich dude who is uncomfortable in a jungle/safari setting and has a silly amount of suitcases (there's always one of those fuckers in these kind of films) to the only one who I wanted to survive. Character growth right there.
God bless Anaconda for being so entertainingly shite 🖤
God bless Anaconda for being so entertainingly shite 🖤
David McK (3562 KP) rated Only You Can Save Mankind (Johnny Maxwell #1) in Books
Feb 20, 2022
"After all, joysticks don't have 'Don't Fire' buttons on them ..."
Only You Can Save Mankind!
Why me?
If not you, who else?
I first read this not long after it was published, back in the early-to-mid 1990s, at which time I was exactly it's target audience being in my mid teens myself.
By that point, I had already discovered Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels, but hadn't read many - any? - of his non-Discworld books.
That changed when I read this, which would go on to become the first in his so-called Johnny Maxwell series (comprising this, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).
Reading this now (in the early 2020s), it still holds up remarkably well, even if it is noticeable how much society has changed: mobile phones weren't really a thing back in the 90s, personal computers were relatively new, the Gulf War was still ongoing ...
Why me?
If not you, who else?
I first read this not long after it was published, back in the early-to-mid 1990s, at which time I was exactly it's target audience being in my mid teens myself.
By that point, I had already discovered Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels, but hadn't read many - any? - of his non-Discworld books.
That changed when I read this, which would go on to become the first in his so-called Johnny Maxwell series (comprising this, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).
Reading this now (in the early 2020s), it still holds up remarkably well, even if it is noticeable how much society has changed: mobile phones weren't really a thing back in the 90s, personal computers were relatively new, the Gulf War was still ongoing ...
Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated Rush Hour 3 (2007) in Movies
Dec 12, 2021
Foreign detective's in Paris
At the time of its announcement I was very sceptical and was 50/50 upon its release.
Plot - Inspector Lee and LAPD detective James Carter travel to Paris to protect a French witness from the attacks of the Chinese triads. The two battle it out against the world's most deadly criminals.
The threequel received very mixed reviews from both critics and movie goers.
Although not the worst movie ever and was still packed with its usual high octane and action packed movie scenes and fight sequences, the plot itself felt recycled which was a shame as a new setting was a great idea but wasn't enough to carry it.
Still a fun film to watch that sits nicely with its predecessors, a forth installment is said to be in the works, so with any luck we may have some of that 90s magic back.. Even if its for one last run.
Plot - Inspector Lee and LAPD detective James Carter travel to Paris to protect a French witness from the attacks of the Chinese triads. The two battle it out against the world's most deadly criminals.
The threequel received very mixed reviews from both critics and movie goers.
Although not the worst movie ever and was still packed with its usual high octane and action packed movie scenes and fight sequences, the plot itself felt recycled which was a shame as a new setting was a great idea but wasn't enough to carry it.
Still a fun film to watch that sits nicely with its predecessors, a forth installment is said to be in the works, so with any luck we may have some of that 90s magic back.. Even if its for one last run.