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Showing posts from July, 2026

The Dark Tower (2017)

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A major frustration with many Stephen King adaptations is that, due to copyright or other issues, the interconnectiveness of the stories never shines through.  Even a story like Hearts in Atlantis , which was integral in introducing Ted Brautigan, a character that would figure heavily in the last few Dark Tower  books, got adapted in a way to where it left the important parts out and concentrated on the coming-of-age story.  After ignoring all the connections for so long I was surprised to find out that an adaptation of The Dark Tower series was a thing. Then came the bad news.  The movie is only 95 minutes, hardly the time needed to encapsulate eight books' worth of material, even if it skipped some of the parts that felt more like wheel-spinning on King's part or the awful decision of including himself as a character in the last couple tomes.  It also did what too many movies do these days and race swapped Roland Deschain, who in the books is obviously modeled...

The Super Infra-Man

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Shaw Brothers, one of the most famous movie studios in Hong Kong, was known for their grand martial arts epics and period dramas.  However, they occasionally branched off into stranger realms.  Influenced by Ultraman and many other Japanese films director Shan Hua and writer Kuang Ni came up with a kitschy, hilarious and often fun sci-fi film of their own. When a series of disasters begin to strike the world Professor Liu Ying-Te (Hsieh Wang) uses his advance scientific laboratory to investigate.  It doesn't take long before the source of the problems reveals itself: the Glacier Queen (Terry Liu), Demon Princess Elizebub, has gathered a number of creatures from the ice age to wreak havoc upon human civilization in an effort to reclaim the surface world.  In order to combat this threat Professor Liu recruits one of his best agents, Lei Ma (Danny Lee), to undergo an experimental procedure.  The result is that, when needed, Lei Ma turns into Super Infra-Man, a cybo...