Actionfest: Day 3

Well I have wrapped up my third day at the action movie festival and boy are my arms tired.

Wait what?

Another day full of a wide variety of a mixed bag of action flicks. I woke up around 9:30 this morning immediately remembering that up until this point I had completely forgotten it was Record Store Day! Fuck!

I went exploring downtown looking for record stores, only to find two holes in the wall that didn't even open until 11am, so I just grabbed a chai and bagel to wait awhile. To waste more time, I went on the hunt for a new tshirt that didn't cost 25 bucks because I was painfully aware that the one I had on was too small for my pudgy tits.

No luck.

Hoodie coverup to the rescue!

Record store finally opened and of course they didn't have shit, but someone there told me the cool record store in town was a bit of a drive. So I packed up my shit for the day and headed out for Harvest Records.

It's a great store, but I didn't find too much...just a couple rereleased LPs from AD! and Tutu & the Pirates. Unfortunately I got lost as I am prone to do, so I was ultimately late for the start of the noon film...

The Good

The Bad

The Weird!

It sucks that I missed the first 40 minutes or so, but not a complete tragedy as I have seen the movie twice before at home. It was still incredible to see it on the big screen.

The second film was the new Michael Caine action flick called Harry Brown, and...wow! It was gritty and tense and pretty fuckin great. I had only minor complaints really, and it was awesome to see Caine in this sort of role again. It was like a Death Wish kind of story, and I found myself involved emotionally more than any film I've seen here.

Around 3pm there was a stunt show outside that I missed due to Harry Brown, but I am quite alright with that. There was a dude with a rocket pack apparently.

Anyway, next on the docket was a Donnie Yen wiu xia called 14 Blades. I posted this on Twitter earlier, but it bears repeating. This genre is one that I am confused the most by yet admire the most. I'm not saying that wiu xia is my favorite genre, but that of all the genres that typically go over my head, this one I still manage to enjoy more often than not.

And 14 Blades tried its damndest to confuse the piss out of my fragile brain. I think I caught it for the most part though. The costumes were amazing as usual, but some of the coreography at times seemed lacking. Also, there was a bit too much cgi that really didn't need to be there. Donnie Yen was a badass and helped me to enjoy the film overall but it didn't blow me away or anything.

Next was one I was really looking forward to from the trailer, but as a result ended up being the biggest let down so far. That would be an Indonesian film called Merantau. I was very much into the trailer when I saw it a few days ago, but outside of some amazing action sequences, some stiff acting, a couple highly annoying characters, and a story that just went on for too long really hurt my enjoyment of it. It was still better than Raging Phoenix, but just wasn't what I was hoping for.

Finally we had the world premiere of Isaac Florentine's new direct-to-dvd movie Undisputed III. Florentine and one co-star Marko Zaror were on hand and it was a great, lively crowd. They cheered whenever Scott Adkins or Zaror would do some insane move, which is pretty often, and it made the film fun. If you have seen Undisputed II, you know what to expect here. It's wet punchy fun in a prison fighting movie kind of way.

So now I'm back in the hostel boarded up in my sarcophogus recharging for the final day. I've heard Beck and now Radiohead playing at the bar downstairs, so it must be the coolest fucking bar in town.

So why am I lying here in my underoos? Anti social prick I am...

I'm really looking forward to Valhalla Rising tomorrow, and Robo Geisha should be a hot mess.

I really owe GGTMC (http://www.ggtmc.com) a voicemail! Fuck! Sorry guys...