The Raid (2012, Indonesian) Review Off Between That Film Guy and Le Filme Guy

The Raid

The Raid: "We go in, we take him out and we get out. I don't want to see any empty chairs in this vehicle when we're leaving."

Following on from the success of the last ‘Review Off’ for This Means War, the new Indonesian martial arts action film The Raid gets reviewed by That Film Guy Thomas Patrick and Le Filme Guy Dave Rogers. One comments on The Raid‘s inability to portray real characters or a coherent, interesting plot while the other just gets caught up in a hail of flying fists, bullets and exploding fridges.

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The Dictator (2012) review by That Film Guy

The Dictator

The Dictator: "Ahmadinejad, he is still around, but he is still an embarrassment. He looks like a snitch on 'Miami Vice.' I mean, why does he not wear a tie? Does he think every day in Iran is Casual Friday?"

Having made a name for himself in the late 1990s as part of The 9 O’clock News team and latterly with his own show, Sacha Baron Cohen’s list of characters have each gone on to star in their own self-titled films. Starting with Ali G in Da House, which was an irreverent and fictional look at youth culture at the time. The phenomenally successful Borat followed and then Bruno, which both put this fictional characters in the real world, interacting with real people and Cohen’s vicious satirical side really came to the surface and so did the controversy.

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Die Hard (1988) review by That Film Guy

Die Hard

Die Hard: "You know my name but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshal Dillon?"

The 1980s brought a rejuvenation in the very definition of action films. The likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal released huge commercial success after huge commercial success playing alpha males who could fight their way out of any situation. In the Christmas of 1988, one actor, with no background in action helped create one of the most iconic action heroes, a man who was just an ordinary New York City cop placed in extraordinary circumstances. That actor was Bruce Willis, that cop was John McClane and that film was Die Hard.

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Top 10 Action Films of All Time

"This is the countdown from 10 to 1 of the all time greatest action films."

"This is the countdown from 10 to 1 of the all time greatest action films."

Catering for the teenage boy and young male adult market in films is almost entirely left up to comic book genre these days. But there was a time from the early 1980s to the late 1990s when this demographic was cornered by the action film genre. Action films‘ big actors like Arnold SchwarzeneggerSylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis ruled the roost as pumped up, muscular, macho alpha males. These action film adonis’ didn’t need secret identities or special powers, they just needed a roundhouse kick, a bullet shot or a solid right hook followed by a quippy one-liner to dispatch an enemy.

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Marley (2012) review by That Film Punk

Bob Marley

Marley: "The good thing about music, is when it hits you, it doesn't hurt."

With Marley, Director Kevin Macdonald adds to his increasing roster of fine documentaries, presenting an energetic and moving portrait of arguably the 20th century’s greatest musical icon. Right from the off this is a film packed full of character, verve and passion. Macdonald clearly embraces this aesthetically, with colours bursting forth from the screen at every opportunity.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) review by That Film Guy

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2: Judgment Day: "The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it, for the first time, with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too."

When James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger collaborated on The Terminator in 1984 they created a franchise that has run for over two decades. The most successful both critically and commercially of the franchise is its immediate sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which reverses the role of Arnie’s character from killing machine to protector of a young John Connor (Edward Furlong). Terminator 2: Judgment Day was phenomenally successful at the box office taking over $500m from its budget of $100m.

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Suspiria (1977) review by That Film Guy

Suspiria

Suspiria: "I had no idea you were so strong willed. I can see that once you make up your mind about something, nothing will change it for you. My compliments."

The 1970s were something of a golden era for the horror genre. Following the success of Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead and latterly the critically acclaimed The Exorcist, a new wave of director’s pushed the boundaries of the genre both in terms of narrative and theme. Dario Argento, one of the new wave of directors in the 1970s created Suspiria, the first of what would become a trilogy of films that used new directorial techniques which are evident in all aspects of the horror genre.

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Lethal Weapon (1987) review by That Film Guy

Lethal Weapon

Lethal Weapon: "Everybody thinks I'm suicidal, in which case, I'm fucked and nobody wants to work with me; or they think I'm faking to draw a psycho pension, in which case, I'm fucked and nobody wants to work with me. Basically, I'm fucked."

The late 1980s was a hotbed of action films with fast-talking dialogue, big explosions and over-the-top action scenes. One of the finest examples, and one that was so successful that it spawned a host of hit-and-miss sequels is the Mel Gibson star-making vehicle, Lethal Weapon. Directed by 1980s supremo Richard Donner, Lethal Weapon would turn Mel Gibson into a megastar while reinforcing the dominance of the action film during this era.

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Labyrinth (1986) review by That Film Gal

Labyrinth

Labyrinth: "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child, and wanted everything to himself, and the young girl was practically a slave."

There are many of us out there who lovingly watched Labyrinth so many times that the image of David’s Bowie’s bulging (and probably stuffed) crotch, as he pranced about in skin-tight leggings -throwing babies in the air and singing ‘dance magic, dance,’- is now permanently ingrained into the collective consciousness. Bowie’s Goblin King is an iconic image for many children of the eighties, but Jim Henson’s first puppet-meets-live-actors film is an enduring classic for many other reasons.

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Predators (2010) review by That Film Guy

Predators

Predators: "We're being hunted. The cages. The soldier. All of us. All brought here for the same purpose. This planet is a game preserve. And we're the game."

After one sequel and two spin-off films, the eponymous Predator was brought back to the silver screen by Robert Rodriguez in 2010 in Predators. Pitched as the true sequel, and ignoring the events of Predator 2, Alien vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, Predators takes the franchise back to the jungle atmosphere of the original and cleverly uses the ‘slasher horror’ mould of narrative that made Predator such a classic action film in 1987.

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