This is a classic femme fatale icon of the yakuza film genre. Red Peony Oryx is the daughter of a yakuza boss that is killed, so she walks the road of vengeance. It's got style, like many of the chanbara films of the late 60s early 70s - cool, classy, stoic, with oafish villains and somewhat stilted choreography and scenes that were probably shocking in the day. In this one, there's a close up of a yakuza man cutting off his finger, obviously a prop finger, but well actualized for that era. Ultimately it all hinges on Red Peony, Junk Fuji, a timeless beauty that exemplifies elegance. She has a red peony tattoo across her shoulder, yakuza style, and wields a flute that conceals a dagger and hairpins (because all female martial artists wield hairpins). The film is a tad weighed down by the content repetition of the fact that women aren't permitted to live the yakuza life, but Red Peony does anyway in an unapologetic way. What works really well is that Red Peony never stoops to wanton sexiness. There's constant blather about her beauty from the male characters, but she remains poised throughout. 

This film launched a 7 film franchise. The next two installments are available on Hoopla, which is where I watched this. I may watch another. This is my first taste of the franchise, something I've been meaning to check out for years. 

However I was having some issues with the sound, which kept coming off track just enough to get really confusing with the timing of the subtitles. It may be my AppleTV which is making a new clicking noise across platforms - sometimes the sound drops out completely and must be restored with a reboot.

I feel the urge to mourn by watching Kung Faux. I only saw a few episodes back in the day.

Punisher: One Last Kill. May 12. I guess I'm hanging on to Disney for one more month.

This started out great. A stylish period piece where the images were bleached almost to B&W, with only flesh tones and some accented colors. The first scene, which you can see in the trailer above, had some nice bokken and spear sparring. I was like 'yeah! ultravi samurai style!'

After that, it's talk, talk, talk. Lots of discussion of the political issues they have when the Tokugawa shogun is demanding contributions for a dam project and that would tap this clan's secret cash cache. And it turns out that the sword master is a spy for the shogun, so he must be taken out. And someone must be blamed. But talk, talk, talk, with no soundtrack, gets tiresome. Stab someone already.

Then at the end, the fall guy gets hunted down by the rest of the clan and has to take everyone down. That was ok, kinda frenetic fight choreo, but by then, I was so exhausted from all that talking, that I was nodding off. Had to rewind to see the final duel because they started talking before it. 

To it's favor, there are two characters named after my dog - Yukii, a background swordsman and Yuki, the only female character and sister of the fall guy (yeah, this fails the Bechdal test pretty badly). 

Not D00M recommended unless you have trouble sleeping. If so, just watch the middle part.

Tollywood Scarface but instead of cocaine, this syndicate smuggles red sandalwood. It’s tollywood big with dance numbers using 50-100 backup dancers, some sprawling truck convoys through scenic mountain forests, and some weak cgi of logs going down waterfalls. The rise is straightforward. A cocky coolie with no fear and ridiculous fighting skills works his way up into a family of smugglers. There’s a rival cop hit on his tail. And there’s a silly romance with wild dance scenes. 

The fight choreo was over th top slo mo, with Pushpa sending bodies flying. At one point, he kicks a villain in the nuts and sends him flying like 10 feet in the air. Ow. There’s another fight where his hands are tied behind his back and he has a sack over his head being chased by a few dozen baddies through the jungle and he takes them all out (one of the best flying head butts ever). 

At nearly 3 hours, it could’ve finished but no - this is part 1. Part 2 - the Rule - came out in 2024 and I’ll have to hunt that down.

Not D00M recommended. D00M ain’t tollywood ready yet.

See? All the crimes take place along the 101 Freeway in LA. But people are missing the point what this really is is an undercover MCU project.

Thor is an emotionally stunted high class jewel thief. Hulk is a detective on the way out with his police peers because he has a wild theory about the MO for the thief. Meanwhile, Storm sells insurance to billionaires. She is also dissatisfied with her job because they keep passing her over for promotion despite landing some really big clients. The Hulk creator fences the stuff Thor steals. The Eternal Druig is a hot headed who wants to take Thor's place as the premiere thief along the 101 corridor.

I liked this movie based on a book by Don Winslow. Had a good look and feel. Thor gets to stretch a little as a thief with no life because of his abusive childhood. Storm continues to turn her acting up to 11 every chance she gets, but she is kind of good as a fading beauty about to be discarded. And schlubby Hulk fights to prove he's right.

The only problem with this film is that the ending is a bit weak. You can see the bit zinger coming from a mile away and some of it doesn't make much sense. But up until that final scene or two the show was doing a good job of keeping me interested. This despite the fact the movie (and my whole house) kept switching off and on the first time I tried to watch it.

Roofman.

Channing Tatum robs McDonald's. He gets caught. He escapes from prison. He hides out in a Toys R Us.

I was hoping for some yucks from this absurd based on a true story tale. Yeah, no. It's all very earnest and dower. Peter Dinklage plays a prick of a store manager. Kirsten Dunst is a Toys R Us employee who gets involved with the robber when he ventures from his hidey-hole. It took some work to get through.

(12-09-2025, 12:08 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: Mercy



thot I posted this one earlier but it didn't pop on a search...

Steve Carrell plays author Greg Russo who goes to the college where his daughter Kate teaches in order to cheer her up after learning she has broken up with her husband. Greg is an author ala Carl Hiassen and his most famous character is Rooster. One of the things Greg does is give a talk about his most famous character. The Dean of the college wants Greg to become a writer in residence at the college, which Greg eventually agrees to after some light blackmail.

Rooster is made by the same people who make Scrubs and Ted Lasso. There is even a Ted Lasso alumni in the form of Kate's ex-husband. The whole show has the kind of gentle humor you find in Lasso and some of the situations are generally funny. The Dean for instances is fond of taking meetings while doing cold plunges and saunas.

I say watch it.

The opening act sucks - a DJ dropping messy bass bombs, an emo singer with a scythe.
I’m enjoying the costuming. Merch line is cleaning up.
Young crowd - 20s - a lot in white face paint with black highlights. Skull & crossbones theme.