Movie of the Day – Revenge of the Ninja

You know, Enter the Ninja was so damn good that I decided to give you all a second helping of ninja with an unofficial sequel to Enter the Ninja.  If there is one thing Hollywood loves, it’s sequelizing the hell out of movies.  This is no exception to yesterday’s love fest as Revenge of the Ninja is about as balls out crazy as the first movie of the trilogy.  Yes I said trilogy as there is another movie called Ninja III: The Domination, but I just want to focus on the even crazier sequel Revenge of the Ninja cause there is more sword clanging, ninja star throwing, and ninja goodness that you won’t believe.  I would venture to say that despite the absence of an amazing death scene, Revenge of the Ninja is the equivalent The Dark Knight in terms of sequel success.  Yeah that’s right, this movie is the Dark Knight of the ninja franchise.

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Movie of the Day – Sword in the Moon

I haven’t done a balls out Asian swordplay film in a while and since I have a certain affinity for the genre that has given me countless hours of entertainment, time to repay the favor.  In the past I have talked about films like Shogun Assassin, The Sword of Doom and 13 Assassins, all of which are well done stories and offer up some the most crazy sword play battles ever.  Today’s selection is no different, but this time we look at a film from South Korea instead of the usual Japanese sword fare.  Sword in the Moon offers up a little bit of story to go along with a glorious buffet of actions scenes and sword clashes.

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Movie of the Day – Ironclad

I was recently on a medieval film kick as of late and I just had to post about this film in particular.  This isn’t really something that has broken new grounds in the storytelling or redefined the genre of medieval films.   There is a bit of history thrown into the proceedings, but what it does best is serving up the guilty pleasure that is medieval violence.  Ironclad literally goes medieval on the asses of those that dare to overtake their castle.

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Movie of the Day – Versus

I seriously don’t know what to make of this movie other than it is all about zombie ass kicking.  I was first clued into this movie when a friend managed to get a bootleg copy of this film from the UK because it wasn’t available here in America.  I didn’t know what to expect and the story in the movie is something akin to a ridiculous level of disbelief and understanding.  Personally I didn’t care for the lack of story, but what interested me was the action and premise.  This is without a doubt, a coke binge of action, zombies, mobsters, gun play and sword fighting.

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Movie of the Day – 13 Assassins

Takashi Miike is a lot of things, well actually one thing and that is the visceral director of some of the most insane and disturbing films to come out of the era of V-cinema and Japanese filmmaking.  A man who puts to film some depraved things like Visitor Q, Izo, Dead or Alive and Ichi The Killer.  If you have never seen any of his films, they are hard to watch but there is no denying the sheer boundaries that have been pushed by his filmmaking.  Titillating and thought provoking, his films have a unique style that I admire as a fan of film.  But seeing him take on more complicated projections and properties is something that can only lead to a certain cinematic style that Miike can bring.  Tackling a remake of the 1963 film of the same name is a tall order, but there is no denying that his intensity will be carefully transposed on the film that plays fast with a loose historical affiliation and one of the most intense third acts in film history.

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Movie of the Day – Jade Warrior

If there was anything special that I got out of my time spent abroad in other countries, besides friends and some stories, is that I was able to experience world cinema in actual foreign countries.  So while I was in Finland visiting a friend, I was watching some television and came across a trailer for a rather interesting movie.  Jadesoturi, was a mix of Chinese wuxia and a Finnish Kalevala mythology.  I had to have the latter explained to me as I don’t even know what Kalevala is and the only words I knew at the time were phrases to pick up women and order another beer.  Both were useful in their own rights, but from a movie fan perspective, I had to know more about this movie.  So I was excited that it was playing at the local theater in Turku, Finland, but my American mind didn’t comprehend that the foreign language film in Finnish and Chinese were only going to be subtitled in Finnish, so no luck there.  I did finally get a chance to watch this movie 3 years later and well, it was worth it.

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Movie of the Day – Ninja Assassin

I am a man of simple tastes.  When I decide to watch a movie entitled “Ninja Assassin”  I expect to be entertained by the mystical prowess of ninjas that assassinate people.  That’s all I expect when I read a simplistic title and watch a trailer that teases at the tip of a ninja sword (ha euphemism), just what I want to see.  I want ridiculous action, lousy acting, and a bloody good time.  Ninja Assassin is just that.

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Movie of the Day – Willow

WILLOW!  If you are a movie buff, your mind will be flooded with images of swords and sorcery and munchkins.  If you are not a movie buff, you are probably thinking Willow Smith or Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  Either way, Willow I want to remember is the one directed by Ron Howard and produced by George Lucas.  As a young boy, I thought that nothing could live up to this movie and nothing still does.  Shit I even had some of the action figures they made for that movie although strangely not one of the Willow star Warwick Davis.  Anyways, 1988 was a good year, mainly cause I was 3 and Willow came out.  While I am certain my feeble mind couldn’t grasp the movie, it wasn’t until my later years that I got to witness an epic, fantasy movie.

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Movie of the Day – Death Trance

I am in a pretty good mood this evening, so instead of picking a movie that requires a lot of insight or thought, I just want to pick a movie when I can shut my brain off, have a drink and watch ridiculous action scenes unfold before my eyes.  In order to do that, I got to go with some Japanese cinema in the form of Death Trance.  If you watched the trailer, yes it is as ridiculous as it seems.  Yes I enjoy the mindlessness of this movie to its fullest extent.  Why?  Because it is done by the same people who made the awfully wonderful movie Versus.  That’s why.  Let me explain just a little bit more.

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