A fistful of Dollars

A classic spaghetti western and one of Sergio Leone's best.

This is the film that cemented Clint Eastwood into being remembered as one of genre's most remembered, although the concept in its entirety was stolen from Kurasawa's Yojimbo.

Its about a stranger who arrives at a remote Mexican Village, he goes to the local saloon where the innkeeper tells him about the 2 families vying to control the town as it's a hotbed for illegal gun sales between the Mexican and American army, the stranger see's an opportunity to use the families hate for each other and  to makes some money by using his services as a gunslinger.

He takes advantage when a group of Mexican soldiers come through the village and are hijacked by one the village gangs and are killed, he uses this information to sell to the other gang, he then goes backwards and forwards between the gangs to use information against each other.

Along the way as he gets deeper involved he begins to see how innocent parties are affected by his involvement and the streets being a basic war zone and decides he needs to take a stand against both parties and do what is right.

A very good a film and a stone cold classic in the cowboy genre and if you haven't seen the film I am pretty sure most people know the classic ending.

Troll Hunter

A film made in "real time" I am very skeptical about these, as they are very hit and miss.

The film is about a bunch of college students trying to make a film about a suspected bear poacher named Hans, their pursuit is long and dogged as they approach him he tells them repeatably to go away, one night they follow him into the woods where they hear strange noises then Hans runs out of the woods and yells "TROLL", one of the students Thomas is attacked by a large animal,which is revealed to be a Troll, they all then escape in Hans's land rover.

Whilst with Hans although skeptical about the existence of Trolls he agree's to let them document him, he checks if any of the kids are religious which they say they aren't  and makes them put on troll stench also, they go back with with Hans into the woods where they once again hear noises and to their surprise encounter a Troll, Hans destroys the beast with a powerful UV ray, a representative turns up from the Troll Security Agency where it is explained that most strange weather phenomenons reported on TV such as hurricanes ripping down trees is more often then not Trolls and mysterious animal deaths are blamed on bears, it is also reported that the Trolls are behaving strangely.

So for the rest of the film we follow Hans and encounter other people such veterinarians and the government who are also in on the secret.

The film is shot in Norwegian but does have English subtitles, it was a regional film that achieved Major success worldwide and quite rightly so, it is very tongue in cheek enjoyable and shot and acted superbly not quite Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity standard but still good, so enjoy.

The Running Man

A Prime Schwarzenegger film one I have watched numerous times but not for a number of years, This is another film set in a big brother type future.

Ben Richards is imprisoned, framed for a crime by the state for the Bakersfield massacre a crime he didnt commit, whilst in prison he makes freinds with Weiss and Lochlan two members of the underground, the underground accounts for the majority of prisoners, the underground want to tell people the truth, they along with the other inmates bust out of prison and Richards leaves his friends to go into the city where he hopes his brother can ger him out of the country.

Whilst at the TV station they are looking for a new contestant  for the stations number one show the running man, a show where criminals are hunted for the viewing public by people know as stalkers, the host and a major player in the government Nathan Killian see's the break out of the prison and decides he wants Richards for the show.

He goes to his brother apartment and finds out he no longer lives there, and now a woman called Amber does, she informs him that he was taken by the state for re-education, he takes her hostage informing her that he was set up, she of course doesnt believe him, he then goes to the airport with Amber telling her as soon as he is safe he will let her go, whilst at the airport she manages to escape him and the authorities recapture him.

He wakes up in a cell to Killians face to be informed that he will the running man whether he likes it or not, around the same time it breaks to Amber in her apartment where she see's on the news that they captured Richards but he killed several people at the airport, she knows this not to be true.

Richards is being prepped for the show and long the way see's amber and a friend talking about what happened, she goes one way and Richards goes to the show, during the introduction Killain announces they have caught Weiss and Lochlan and they will be running with him, they are taken to the first game zone and one of the crowd chooses a stalker named Sub-Zero to take them on, during the battle Richards manage to overpower and kill Sub-Zero, this shocks the crowd.

Amber whilst at the station goes looking for footage of the Bakersfield Massacre and finds Richards was righ,t she then gets cornered by security and is also sent into the game-zone as they obviously dont want the truth revealed.

Ok sorry this big review but for a action film there is alot that needs explaining in the build up, and obviously I dont need to say much more because obviously you see what coming.

A very enjoyable film but dont expect any loyality to the stephen king book, only likenesses are it is set in the future and there is a show called the running man and that the state control things, seperate that make them two seperate entities and you are fine.

Jackass 2

Ummm not sure how to review this as its not a film persay.

So its the usual crew from the first film and the tv show doing on film what they cant do on television, So cue Messers Knoxville, Margera and his long suffering parents, the late Ryan Dunn, Wee man, Steve-O, Pontious and the rest, generally doing gross out stunts.

The film opens with the stunt of them being chased by wild bulls, other stunts include Steve-O pushing a fish hook through his cheek, the firehouse rodeo this is basically a man sitting on a firehose whilst it throws him about, and just generally hurting each on skateboards shopping carts bmx bikes and various other implements.

As I say cant really review this but if you like to see mentallists hurt themselves in gross ways then enjoy !.

Misery

One of the more loyal book adaptions for screen for Stephen King.

Paul Sheldon is finishing his latest book at his regular cabin, on his way back to civilization his car gets caught is a snowstorm and crashes, he is pulled from wreckage, He eventually wakes from unconsciousness in a strange bed both his legs are broken as he coming around he hears a voice saying "I'm your number one fan", this is Anne Wilkes a former nurse who pulled him out of the wreckage, over time she tells him how Misery the heroine from his books has helped her, she then asks him if she can read the manuscript for his new book, he agrees she can as she saved his life, she also informs him that she has notified his loved ones to his whereabouts.

During a mealtime she tells him how she dislikes his new book and how she disapproves of swearing, Paul responds by telling her thats how people talked where he came from, she angrily reacts to this which visibly shocks Paul, she later apologises which Paul accepts by saying everyone is allowed a temper, she later informs him that she bought a copy of his new book Misery's Child and cant wait to start reading.

Annie goes into Paul's screaming at him at how he killed Misery in the book, she leaves his room informing him that no-one is coming for him as she hasnt told anyone where he is, Next morning Annie enters his room and makes him burn his new book and informs him that he should ressurect Misery, he reluctantly agrees as he know nows he is mortal danger.

The Local town Sherrif recieves a telephone call from Pauls agent and he begins to investigate his disapperance and immerses himself in Paul Sheldon by reading his books.

Paul finds a way to escape room from his room in his wheelchair he begins investigating around the house, he finds the phone in the house is a dummy phone and finds Annies stack of painkillers which he starts stockpiling.

One day he invites Annie to join him for dinner and tries to overdose her on painkillers this fails as she accidently spills her glass of wine, during another one of Annies times away from the house Paul finds a scrapbook charting Annies life and finds she may have been involved in the murder of several infants while working at a childrens hospital he then returns to his room to sleep whilst she is still out, he wakes suddenly to Annie injecting him with a drug, he passes out, he then awakes being tied down on the bed, she informs that she is going to hobble him, she gets a sledge hammer and smashes both his ankles whilst informing him she loves him.

Once again this is where I am going to leave it, will Paul finish book ?, will he be found ?, how much more love will Annie show him?, enjoy finding out !!.

Robot Jox

I once rented this on video when I was about 14, so I found this on Netflix and fancied a little bit of nostalgia.

Set 50 years after a nuclear holocaust, war is now banned by the surviving nations now solve their disputes with Giant robotic machines controlled inside by people who are specifically trained to operate them.

Jox are signed to 10 fight contracts to which hardly anyone survives, Achilles the main Jox for the Western Market is on his 9th fight and he is supported by strategist Tex Conway and robot designer Matsumoto, during his 10th fight against Confederate challenger the Russian Alexander the fight ends in tragedy when Achilles intercepts a fist rocket that is heading for a stand full of people and falls backwards and crushes many people in there, during the fight there is also talk that information must have been leaked to the confederation.

At a press conference it is decided by the judges that the fight ended inconclusively and that a rematch must happen, Achilles announces that he will not fight it as he has had 10 fights and is retiring, it is announced after a competition that a Gen Jox (genetically engineered)  named Athena is replacing Achilles in the fight, hearing this and battling with his own personal feelings for Athena he decides to do the fight.

Not longer after this Matsumoto confronts Tex that he thinks he maybe the spy as he has reviewed footage of Tex's previous fights and that he shouldn't have won as he was outgunned, Tex responds by telling him he is correct and kills him.

The morning of the fight Athena sedates Achilles and enters his robot and intends to fight in his place, during the fight Achilles comes around and decides to help Athena as the fight is in progress and the referees refuse to stop it, he plays a video Matsumoto had made for the fight which reveals the incident where he was shot, seeing this Conway commits suicide and leaps to his death, on the field Alexander overpowers Athena and Achilles runs on to the field confront Alexander for their final showdown.

I aint gonna spoil the end of the film as it is rather surprising and may not be what you will be expecting.

A enjoyable film, but even for then the special effects are a little lame and the acting isn't outstanding, however saying that they obviously did the best with the budget they had.

Robocop Trilogy

I watched all these in one night so a joint review of each in one blog.

Robocop

Set in the future of Detroit, a Detroit where crime is the norm and the Police are ineffective, Behind Detroit problems is a company called OCP who run everything including the police, OCP however have a future set for Detroit and intend to pull it down and build delta city, to help the running and prevent crime they come up with a robotic crime fighting unit call the ED209, this is backed by company vice president Dick Jones, However during the demonstration a executive is killed and company man Bob Morton seizes his opportunity to tell the President about his Robocop idea, he gets the go ahead.  

Around the same time officer Alex Murphy signs into his new precinct where he meet his new partner Ann Lewis, whilst on their first patrol a call about a bank robbery comes in, its been committed by notorious crime boss Clarence Boddicker, they chase and track them down to a disused steel mill, whilst there Ann gets knocked out by one of the gang and Murphy gets him trapped, they brutally shoot him multiple times and leave him for dead, he gets taken to a hospital where the medics attempt to save him but is pronounced dead, OCP have their subject to turn into Robocop.

Murphy Gets turned into Robocop with a supposedly wiped memory, he goes out into Detroit and makes an immediate and crime starts to get reduced, however after a chance meeting with once of Boddicker's gang his memory starts to return, he begins his pursuit of the Boddicker and his gang, also it is revealed that Jones and Boddicker are allied to together and has him kill Morton over his disrespect to Jones and resentment that his Robocop is better than his ED209.

So there you have it can Robocop save the day and gain redemption ?, of course he can because there is a sequel. An excellent film and worthy of a status of a cult classic in my book.

Robocop 2

The police are on strike, a new drug has a stranglehold on the city, a cop who is addicted to nuke the new drug has been informing to the drug lords about the nonstriking police movements, Robocop goes after Cain the leader of gang who supplies and makes nuke, they however capture him and tear off his arms and legs with road diggers and various other tools, they dump him alive but malfunctioning and near death outside his precinct, they also torture and kill they cop who informs for them and he revealed their location to Robocop.

Robocop is kept alive and is reassembled, a new Doctor at OCP takes charge of Robocop and whilst during his rebuild inputs him with new directives which make him ineffectual, this is done on purpose as she is heading up the Robocop 2 programme.

The Robocop 2 programme is suffering serious setbacks and each of the new Robocops that is unveiled things go wrong such as one of them shoots himself and another pulls his skulls of its shoulders.

Murphy is in his lab where the people who maintain him see the new directives that is making him confused, after overhearing that a electric shock could wipe the programme or kill him he decides to risk it, the risk works and he persuades the striking officers to return to work and go after Cain, the police are successful and take out Cain and his gang, in hospital the Doctor decides Cain will be a perfect candidate for Robocop 2, as he desires power and immortality.

So that sets up the rest of the movie, it's a ok film but is lacking in so many ways to first, and whoever came up with the idea to a have drug riddled crime boss to be a cop needs THEIR head inspecting becuase we all know that a drug riddled crime bosses can be easily controlled !!! and because of that it leaves a nasty taste. We also didn't really need the Mayor trying to make a deal with the remains of Cains gang either for me this was space filler to introduce Cain as Robocop 2.

Robocop 3

So the last one is a proper turd in the punch bowl, Peter Weller didn't reprise his role as Robocop because he apparently had other film commitments, this I suspect is bullshit, he read the script and thought fuck that !.

OCP is going under and needs to get Delta city off the ground or they go out of business and they lose their merger with the Kanemitsu Corporation, to help with the progress of delta city is the Rehab Team which are forcibly removing people their homes, we also get introduced to resistance who want to keep their homes, after a raid on a police depot they take arms and a unusual looking device which they no idea what is, also the young child they rescued during a forced eviction is revealed to be a computer whizz, the call comes over the radio that he are getting away with guns and good ole Robo take pursuit  he ignores this half way to rescue Lewis from a gang of thugs.

After OCP find out Robocop disregarded orders, they want a behaviour chip put into him, but one the team who helped created him refuses and fails to tell the others she hasn't done it.

During a hunt for rebels Murphy and Lewis find some people hiding in a church then the Rehab team turn up lead by their leader McDaggett, Lewis is killed trying to protect them and Murphy is wounded, Murphy escapes with the Rebels and asks them to get his Doctor as he is dying, which they do, he is rebuilt and joins the rebels against OCP.

As I have said in the past this all I want to say about this film as it is totally turgid ! We later meet ninja cyborgs and the mysterious device is revealed to jet pack for Robocop, that right, we get a flying Robocop, in know the films are sci-fi, but in this we lose all the grit and get the gimmick which makes it crap.

Summary

There shouldn't have been 3 films in my opinion the 2 sequels ruin the legacy of the original film, you could however do what I do and pretend they don't exist !!