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Robocop  (1987)
Robocop (1987)
1987 | Action, Sci-Fi
story (2 more)
action
explosions
Cyborgpunk?
Contains spoilers, click to show
One of my favorite films. Awesome story, good actors, stunts, puppetry, models, and good Special Effects. This is Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller's best movie. $50 million budget (in 1987!), with multiple huge explosions, with hundreds of bullets fired, and scores of stuntmen used.

A cop loses his humanity and is brought back to life, he is resurrected as a cyborg super cop who once again regains his humanity and has to learn how to navigate being robot and deal with his past human memories. ED-209 has all the fire power and is just a cool design for a robot/urban tank. The costume and the suit for RoboCop was beautifully designed. Themes include media influence, gentrification, corruption, authoritarianism, greed, privatization, capitalism, identity, dystopia, and human nature. It is a movie well deserved of it's R rating. In one scene RoboCop prevents a rape when he shoots the rapist in the dick. VIOLENT and amazingly poetic.
  
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2015)
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2015)
2015 | Drama
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Indie drama (with occasional mildly comic overtones) with a rather convoluted genesis (I'm not going through that again). Lonely Japanese woman believes she can change her life by locating the lost ransom money from the (wholly fictional) movie Fargo, sets off for Minnesota.

Brilliant, vanity-free performance by Rinko Kikuchi, who draws you in as a troubled but still engaging character; there are many moving moments. Much of the film is set in urban Tokyo and captures a real sense of the alienation which has such a negative impact on many people in Kumiko's situation. The US end of the film is slightly lighter in tone, equally well written, directed and performed.

Still, even if you've seen Fargo, I imagine this is a rather different and unsettling film, particularly the conclusion. It's ultimately about isolation, delusion, madness and death, and cheerful writing and polished production can only mitigate that so much. But still a very watchable oddity.
  
The Raid (2011)
The Raid (2011)
2011 | Action
Best Fight choreography ever (1 more)
100 minutes of non-stop action, it's beautiful in the way the violence is done. Amazing.
Nothing. (0 more)
Wow, just wow
Lots of movies get described as "an adrenaline rush, from start to finish" and rarely do they deliver. The Raid does exactly that. The best fight choreography, its more of a violent dance than fighting...stunning in its visceral display. The story is simple, yet goes deeper than just "get the bad guy". It's survival behind enemy lines, at all cost...but manages to preserve the hero's humanity as well. There are mine.t's of little action, but they are filled with nail-biting tension...and with the rate of the body count, there isn't a guarantee even the hero makes it out alive.

Sidenote: while a different movie altogether, yet with the same feel, if you like The Raid then give Dredd (with Karl Urban) a watch. Also a great film, and highly underrated.
  
Smiley (2012)
Smiley (2012)
2012 | Horror
Interesting twist to the ending (0 more)
The ending couldn't save the rest of the movie (3 more)
Cliche plot you have seen before
Bad acting
Annoying characters
The internet's bloody mary
This was a terrible movie

Bloody mary meets unfriended? It feels like a typical supernatural slasher you have seen plenty of times.

None of the characters are likeable, if anything they are actually annoying right from the first start especially the main girl. Again there is no logic, it's not creepy or gory and I found it just boring.
Don't get me wrong I love urban legends when it is done right.

The killer was not designed well, not shown enough and not creepy enough. Only a few deaths that were not scary or gory.

I couldn't wait for this movie to end but I'm happy I watched it so that you don't have to. It was paced horribly and even a good twist at the end couldn't save this movie.
  
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
1997 | Horror
One of the best slasher films
Like Scream, this is by far one of the best slasher films and is one of my all time favourites. I grew up watching films like this - I may have only been 10 when it first came out in 1997, but my parents weren’t too fussy about renting me these sorts of films - and it was almost mandatory to watch this at every teenage sleepover at high school.

It has a great young and popular cast (back when Jennifer Love Hewitt was good) with a fantastic soundtrack. And not only that, the plot is actually pretty intriguing and even now some of the scenes are pretty scary and creepy - the one in the deserted department store still creeps me out. I’ve always loved the fact that this film plays on the classic urban legend of the man with a hook for a hand, as that was always one of my favourites. They really don’t make slasher films like this anymore.
  
40x40

Kevin Phillipson (10072 KP) Oct 11, 2018

Love this film one of my favourites

The Painted Man (the Demon Cycle, Book 1)
The Painted Man (the Demon Cycle, Book 1)
Peter V. Brett | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
First in "The Demon Cycle", this is very much what I would term a dark fantasy novel: not urban fantasy (like The Dresden Files), not heroic fantasy (David Gemmell) and not high fantasy (Lord of the Rings).

This is set in a world where Demons rise through the ground every night to terrorise/slowly cull the few remaining humans, the novel follows three seperate survivors of such attacks. It's pretty obvious that they are, eventually, going to meet up, which only happens in the latter porion of the book, by which stage one of the survivors has become The Painted Man (i.e. covered in magical wards, which the demons can't stand) of the title.

An enjoyable enough read, but I did find this to be occassionally hard going. I also picked it up when Waterstones had it on sale for about £3: for that price, I'm happy enough, but I also wouldn't be looking for the sequels at full price either.
  
Maggie for Hire (Maggie MacKay #1)
Maggie for Hire (Maggie MacKay #1)
Kate Danley | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
My name is Maggie MacKay. When monsters show up in Los Angeles, I get the call to haul 'em back to the dimension where they belong.

It's a living.

But I just got word my uncle has teamed up with the forces of darkness to ruin my life. Actually, everyone's lives. Everyone's gonna die if I don't find a magical object before the coming apocalypse. This is going to make the next family reunion a little awkward.

Come along with me, my sidekick elf Killian, and my crazy family for a snarky urban fantasy adventure with attitude.

WARNING: This book contains cussing, brawling, and unladylike behavior. Proceed with caution.

Well I really enjoyed this book it was a quick read,fast paced and well written! I loved Maggie and her whole kickass attitude. Although there was a bit of sexual tension between her and Killian it didn't take over the whole book. Loved how balanced it was. Short chapters that kept you reading!
  
    Prince

    Prince

    Matt Thorne

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    Legendarily reticent, perverse and misleading, Prince is one of the few remaining 80s superstars who...