TV/Movies Megathread

[viper37]

A trio of 90s movies
Passenger 57
With Wesley Snipes, the dude who did jail for smoking too much pot instead of paying his taxes.

A British terrorist is transported in a civilian airplane with only two agents as his guardian.  Even though it was a last minute transfer and supposedly secret, he had time to smuggle weapons and crew on board.  These are the good old days or airplane travel, I guess

So, obviously, Snipes is not having any of it.  Kills the bad guys one by one until the end, with the final showdown between him and the bad guy.

Pretty generic action movie, nothing really interesting.


Air Force One

You remember the days when the only Russians we needed to fear were in Hollywood?  yeah, these were the times

So, back then, aerial travel was so unsecure that terrorists & criminals found it easier to hijack Air Force One than storm the White House.

With the help or a rogue agent, for reasons unknown, President Harrison Ford escapes the bad guys and kills them one by one until the showdown with their leader, and the rogue agent.

Pretty decent movie. Second best of the lot I've recently seen   It really rests on Harrison Ford's shoulder though.  There's no notable roles outside of his, no one that really shines, except the lead bad guy, Gary Oldman.  Now, that is one hell of an actor.
Glenn Close is VP, on land, negotiating with the Russian terrorists.

Notable appearance from Jürgen Prochnow (of Beerfest fame ) in an epic silent role as the emprisoned Kazakhstan leader the Russian communist-nationalist (it's confusing who they are, exactly ) are trying to free.


Executive decision

With Steven Seagal and Kurt Russel.  Probably Seagal best movie to date.

Muslim terrorists hijack a plane and hold the passengers hostages (I know, such an 80s concept ).  Seagal and Russel devise a strategy to board the plane in flight using an experimental tech.  Does not work as expected, Seagal is killed within 30 minutes of the movie, the aerospace engineer is caught on the airplane with the soldiers, as well as Russel, since he's the only one who can identify the bad guys.

So, not only were terrorists able to smuggle themselves on board, with their weapons, but they could also smuggle a very sophisticated bomb with a lot (a lot) of integrated counter-measures.  Why would they need such sophisticated measures for a bomb that would only be discovered inside an airplane midway between Europe and Washington DC?  Anyway.  Bad guys are killed, bomb is disarmed, hero walks with the girl and lives happily ever after. 

Nice action movie.  Also stars Halle Berry as a flight attendant.  Very decent acting from her.  The best of the current lot, imho.

[Tamas]

If you are doing plane hijack action movies then Delta Force is a must.

[Sheilbh]

It's so odd. I mean, aging action stars going the B-movie route is hardly a new phenomenon, but Willis has a bunch of truly iconic films, and was a bit of an indie darling in the 1990s-2000s (Pulp Fiction, Moonrise Kingdom, What Just Happened, Fast Food Nation, Looper, etc...). I feel he could have parlayed that into a better late career. Then again, Cage was in a similar position and that didn't save him (but at least he seems to be enjoying doing crap, Willis looks truly miserable).

Also Twelve Monkeys

It really is weird especially as Willis started in rom coms and his thing as an action hero was generally the wisecracking funny guy stuff - it feels like that variety of action star should find it easeir to transition than, say, a ridiculous 80s style action star.

Having said that - looking back I don't think I'd really realised just how much he's always worked. Most years it seems like he's doing about 3-4 films a year even at the peak of his career:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Willis_filmography

[Eddie Teach]

Unlike Tom Cruise, Willis has aged.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Unlike Tom Cruise, Willis has aged.

He decided that quantity is a quality all its own. 

[The Larch]

It really is weird especially as Willis started in rom coms and his thing as an action hero was generally the wisecracking funny guy stuff - it feels like that variety of action star should find it easeir to transition than, say, a ridiculous 80s style action star.

It's one of the reasons why his John McClane is much more relatable than any other big 80s action movie character. He actually gets hurt and battered, and is noticeably worse for wear by the end of his adventure.

[Admiral Yi]

Willis gets the snot beat out of him in a lot of his movies. 

I'm surprised too that he made eight stinkers in 2021.

Shelf, by rom com do you mean Moonlighting?  I thought that was his first gig.

[Darth Wagtaros]

It really is weird especially as Willis started in rom coms and his thing as an action hero was generally the wisecracking funny guy stuff - it feels like that variety of action star should find it easeir to transition than, say, a ridiculous 80s style action star.

It's one of the reasons why his John McClane is much more relatable than any other big 80s action movie character. He actually gets hurt and battered, and is noticeably worse for wear by the end of his adventure.

At leas tin the first movie. By the mid way point of those movies he'd get shot, stabbed and thrown out of a window into a moving car without pauysing, like Jason Vorhees.

[The Larch]

Unlike Tom Cruise, Willis has aged.

He's always kinda looked middle-aged, must be the baldness. I mean, in Pulp Fiction he already plays an over the hill boxer, and he was only 38 when he shot it, and that was less than 10 years into his career (counting it since he started doing Moonlighting in 1985, when he was already 30).

It really is weird especially as Willis started in rom coms and his thing as an action hero was generally the wisecracking funny guy stuff - it feels like that variety of action star should find it easeir to transition than, say, a ridiculous 80s style action star.

It's one of the reasons why his John McClane is much more relatable than any other big 80s action movie character. He actually gets hurt and battered, and is noticeably worse for wear by the end of his adventure.

At leas tin the first movie. By the mid way point of those movies he'd get shot, stabbed and thrown out of a window into a moving car without pauysing, like Jason Vorhees.

Well, it's still a Hollywood action movie, a normal person would have died several times over in each one of them.

[mongers]

'The Hunt' an enjoyable film, doesn't take itself seriously and is under 90mins I think.

[viper37]

If you are doing plane hijack action movies then Delta Force is a must.

Chuck Norris, IIRC?  I'll have to search for this

I wasn't looking for this, there was some kind of 90s marathon on Sci-Fi, so I recorded many movies.

[Syt]

Willis was also excellent in The Fifth Element. His no nonsense, sarcastic style worked really well with the over the top world and story of that movie. Not sure if the constant exasperation of the character at all the weirdness around him was intended or just how Willis felt about the movie but it works to great effect.

[Syt]

Watching the last two episodes of Season 3 of BoJack Horseman over breakfast was a great idea to set the mood for the day.

[celedhring]

And that's why I only watch the show when I'm on a stupendously great mood 

I'm two seasons behind 

[Syt]

And that's why I only watch the show when I'm on a stupendously great mood 

I'm two seasons behind 

Up until then I thought, "Yeah, it has its dark and depressing character arcs and moments, but the comedy kinda makes up for it. But the penultimate episode of that season ("That's Too Much, Man!") ... damn. Tragic self destruction always gets me. And the flashbacks in the next episode and some of the background details don't make it better, to the contrary, actually.