Tag: action

Bloodshot A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Bloodshot – A Movie A Day #92

I’m been a huge comic book nerd for nearly all of my life, but even though I knew of Bloodshot, I never read it. It looked interesting enough, but for whatever reason, I just never gave it a shot. The trailers for the new Bloodshot movie had me very interested though. 

For one thing, I’ve grown to be a pretty decent fan of Vin Diesel over the last few years. I wasn’t a fan when he was doing stuff like XXX and the early Fast and Furious movies, but I jumped into the Furious series at number 4, and I absolutely love it. That led me to being a fan of Vin Diesel. Plus, when I learned that he’s a bug nerd in real life to, I became an even bigger fan.

Also, I’ve been a huge fan of Guy Pearce since Memento. I adore that movie, and Guy Pearce is great in it. He’s great in everything. Even Lockout (which I also enjoy). So seeing Vin Diesel and Guy Pearce in a comic-book based sci-fi action movie with strong overtones of Memento in the trailers had me hooked right away. I didn’t expect Bloodshot to be superb, but I expected it to be fun. It definitely is fun, and I was definitely satisfied with what I saw. 

Vin Diesel plays Ray, a bad-ass Marine who handles his business with brutal efficiency. Ray is killed after a mission, but he is resurrected by Dr. Harting. Harting uses technology to rebuild wounded warriors, and the nano-technology used to bring Ray back from the dead is Haring’s crowning achievement. Ray’s memories are spotty, but as flashes his own death begin to come back to him, Ray sets off on a mission of revenge. But not everything is as it seems. 

I don’t want to spoil any more than that setup, but you can watch the trailer if you want to know why I got such a strong Memento vibe. Bloodshot really does have a similar setup to Memento, but Ray is way more violent and murderous than Leonard was.

Overall, Bloodshot is a fun action movie with neat effects and likable characters. The plot is in no way surprising, but I don’t think it really needs to be. It’s just good, violent, pulpy fun. It won’t be for everyone, but I certainly liked it. I’d love it if they went ahead with a sequel or started a small shared universe with the Valiant Comics brand. A lot of things are up in the air right now with, well, the world, but also with movies and theaters. Bloodshot‘s theatrical run got cut way short, so hopefully once the industry recovers they’ll give this potential series another shot.

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Velvet Smooth A Movie A Day Journal Entry

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Velvet Smooth (RiffTrax version) – A Movie A Day #80

I love Mystery Science Theater 3000. I started watching the show during Mike’s reign as the main host, so Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy became my favorite hosting trio. So naturally, I became a huge fan of RiffTrax when they started up a bunch of years ago. I go to the live shows (via theater), and I regularly watch their streaming movies and shorts online. I also regularly watch old episode of MST3K. And by “regularly,” I mean at least weekly if not more often.

If you’re not familiar with RiffTrax, it’s a site where Mike, Bill, and Kevin do comedic commentary tracks over movies and shorts where they generally riff on the content. They also have guests including former MST3K cast members do riffs. It’s one of the greatest things on the internet, and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t already: https://www.rifftrax.com/

All that said, I’ll watch anything they put out. It’s just a bonus when the movie ends up being something I’d watch without the RiffTrax crew sitting there with me. Velvet Smooth isn’t a good movie, but it is something I would absolutely watch on its own.

Velvet Smooth is the title, and it’s also the name of the lead character. Ms. Smooth is some sort of detective (I think). She’s called in by King, the leader of some sort of crime syndicate, when his criminal activities are disrupted by some other criminals. Guys in masks are going around and kicking and punching all of King’s men, so Velvet Smooth is tasked with finding out who’s behind it. Velvet gathers her small crew of kung-fu-fighting females, and the three of them start shaking down the streets. 

I’ve been intrigued by the blaxploitation era for a long time, but I haven’t seen nearly enough films in the genre. Velvet Smooth isn’t the most well-made movie in that canon, but is absolutely fun to watch. The fight choreography is laughable, and that’s really the biggest draw for me. The plot and acting are fine, standard fare, but the fight scenes are glorious. People clearly miss punches and kicks only to have their opponent take a fall, assailants politely wait their turn in the background before attacking, and the interactions look like a first-time half-speed run-through rather than the final, filmed scene. I love it. 

I also had to roll the movie back at one point, because I saw, for a spit-second, what I thought was a cameraman. Sure enough, in a scene fairly late in the movie, there’s a full shot of a camera guy just standing there. Other movies from the era have had similar production issues, Dolemite being a great example of having the boom mic in what seems like half the shots of the movie. But Velvet Smooth did even better and got a full-body shot of a cameraman in the film while he was holding the camera and shooting the scene. It was great.

As much fun as I had with Velvet Smooth, the RiffTrax crew helped make it even better. I know I’ll be watching this many more times in the future.

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