Movie Recommendations and Discussion

General Off-Topic Discussion
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Yowza. I just saw a 1983 slasher film called Fatal Games about a mad javelin thrower offing students at an athletics academy. I’d heard of it on the Hysteria Continues podcast, then I bumped into it on – you guesed it – Tubi.

Fatal Games starts off with a montage of real gymnastic feats in slow motion. My film logistics brain was already wondering, “Are the people doing this uneven bars work going to be the same ones playing the main characters in the film?” And yes, they were!

Not only did they have solid gymnastic and/or swimming skills, and at least a desire to act, they were also prepared to take off all their clothes. I would think people (women – there was no equal opportunity nudity in 1983) ticking all these boxes would not be thick on the ground.

There is acres of nudity and repeated locker room shower scenes. I’m a hetero male who has watched a lot of exploitation films, and this made me feel sleazy. But they actually have a mystery to get through (who’s javelling these kids to death?) so all the nudity’s confined to the first half of the film.

They set up the suspects – all teachers – and the red herrings, quite well. The solution actually spoke directly (if outrageously) to recent events at the 2024 Olympics – the killer is a female teacher, formerly male, who changed sex in order to get an advantage over other women at the Olympics, but was disqualified. Now she wants to “disqualify” everyone!

Scenes of the killer impractically trying to hit people with a javelin in the empty college halls at night are really something.

Another remarkable movie find.

This isn’t the trailer from the 80s, it’s Vinegar Syndrome’s Blu-ray release trailer, but it’s half as long, and superior while still feeling it could have come from the 80s. Contains at least one javelin death set to 80s music.

(I wish it was as easy to review IFComp entries as it is to review films like this one.)

-Wade

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Obligatory “I don’t know what’s more painful, the javelin death or the 1980s music” joke goes here. :rofl:

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OMG that trailer is great like a Grindhouse parody. “Daddy…I don’t know about the future…but I know I’m a good gymnast” * :musical_note:Take it…all the way…takeittothelimit and DON’T LOOK BACK NOW :notes: [javelin mayhem] “Are you going over to Phil’s tonight to do some…acrobatics?” :rofl:

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Watched Who Am I? today. It’s a bit slow going at first but once it gets started, it becomes a great Jackie Chan film. Gotta love the wooden clogs fight, and “I may have amnesia… but I’m not stupid!”. :laughing:

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I finally watched When Marnie Was There. It was… all right? Didn’t have as many sharply observed little details as other Ghibli movies. That’s part of what makes the best ones so great. But I liked it more than From Up On Poppy Hill. We’ll see how much I remember it in a few years. That’s the litmus test.

I also watched Kind Hearts and Coronets recently. Excellent in some respects; ugly in others. Just casually sprinkles some racial slurs into the mix, and also depicts the sole women’s suffrage figure as a violent buffoon. The characters are mostly horrible people, which is by design, but the movie’s own prejudices don’t leave a glowing impression.

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RoboCop (1987) is the most significant event in our history.

I had no idea that Our RoboCop Remake (2014) even existed until recently. It’s a shot for shot remake, done by 50 directors all paying homage to the movie Paul Verhoeven carried down from Mount Sinai.

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Warning: This movie is definitely not suitable for children (and people with poor taste in film).

Full Movie → https://vimeo.com/85903713

IMDb Page → https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3528906/

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Back in 2015 I took off from work early to watch “Mad Max” in the theatre. Couldn’t figure out why so many trailers for patriotic films, religious films, and animal movies. Then the main feature started and realized we were watching “Max” about a military service dog.

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I finally watched When Marnie Was There. It was… all right? Didn’t have as many sharply observed little details as other Ghibli movies.

Did you like the gently freaky windmill part, which was ghosts but not ghosts…or something?

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The first windmill sequence (or silo? I think it was a silo) was probably one of the high points of the movie. How the color palette suddenly changed to black/purple. The animation got a little more loose and wild with those two maids, fitting for stormy weather and traumatic memories. The lightning: sharp and bright and different from the rest of the film. The second sequence, with the larger emphasis on Marnie’s backstory, where they walked into a glowing portal, didn’t work quite as well for me, but the ambiance was still neat.

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Nor I 'til your post. Looks like hardly anyone’s seen it. Well, I will definitely be watching it, soon.

I do love Robocop when I see it, but weirdly it hasn’t set up shop in my mind no matter how many times I have seen it. I couldn’t run through its events off the top of my head except at the broadest level.

I’m wondering if I even saw Robocop 2 (1990) before the first one. I saw the sequel at the cinema with my dad and I found it really traumatic, the intensity and cruelty. Much later I saw it again on video and it didn’t rekindle that intensity.

Then came Robocop 3 (1993) which was the total fall. For my slightly younger friend who rented the video with me, Robocop 3 was when he realised a movie could be bad. His experience reminded me of the first time I discovered a sequel could be bad: The Jewel of the Nile (1985)

As for the Robocop remake, it worked with thorough unremarkability in its own right, but barely registers in my memory.

-Wade

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For me, RoboCop is kind of like Ghostbusters. The first movie is practically perfect, the second is kind of interesting, but not nearly as good… then the rest of the sequels can go to hell. :wink:

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I recently watched both Allan Quatermain movies… and I have no idea why I like them. If you feel the need to torture yourself, I highly recommend…

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King Solomon’s Mines (1985) → https://tubitv.com… king-solomon-s-mines

The Lost City of Gold (1986) → https://tubitv.com… the-lost-city-of-gold

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Yes! I Saw The TV Glow, I need to watch again because I wasn’t really prepared for the whole experience. As a person who identifies mostly as void, I’m really excited about and terrified by it!

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I Saw the TV Glow was so good (despite maybe having some pacing issues). Has me asking lots of questions like “why do I still stubbornly insist on being vague about my gender online, despite having legally changed it IRL years ago?” and other such conundrums.

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It’s a cautionary tale but one with a hopeful message if you squint (note the message written out in chalk at the end of the movie).
I absolutely agree with you about the pacing issues, btw.

I think I found the exact flip side of a movie recently, which is The People’s Joker. Just a big dumb ridiculous movie that celebrates queer and trans joy while also having a surprising amount of heart (and a surprising amount of David Liebe Hart).

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Watched two Jackie Chan films this weekend: Police Story 3: Supercop and Police Story 4: First Strike. The New Line Cinema/Dimension Films cheesy English dubs, haha. It was great. I must’ve seen almost every film Jackie made in his golden period, but they’re best seen with cheesy English dubs where his character’s just named “Jackie”. :laughing: