That's like saying that a gaping head wound is a bit annoying.

I saw Supremacy in theaters twice. First time, friend of mine shows up already a bit late; we rush there, but alas: there are only three seats left. In the first row. If you've seen Supremacy, you already understand where this is going.

Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy that. The second time I saw it, I made sure we got there early and sat near the last row, and aside from a few moments of pretentious excess (fight with Jarda and Moscow car chase, specifically), I actually very much enjoyed the cinematography, but it's far too stylized for casual viewing. As for the film, it had problems, though I ultimately liked it.

Actually, I thought it was apt in the fight with the other agent (I assume Jarda, I wasn't paying that much attention). But for the rest... Let me just quote something I wrote elsewhere:

It wasn't the director of photography's fault. Paul Greengrass used the same technique in Bloody Sunday, and it's a pretty sure bet that the cinematography was entirely his call. And fault.

Has Gymkata been mentioned? Because I'll throw that in there too.

This Gymkata? I just might have to hunt down a copy.

Hell yeah.

Here's a good review of it. Number 6 on the list!

That's the one. It's cool to watch, but just don't expect realistic fight scenes or high-quality cinema.

Realistic fight scenes aren't that common anyway. When you think back over the great cinematic fight scenes, they don't really resemble real life violence. With good reason. I saw Hero a few months ago, and I kept thinking, "When did Chinese people learn to fly? Does our State Department know about this?"

As far as "realistic" fight scenes go, my personal favorite is They Live

Mad Dog and Glory had a couple of pretty good ones too, my fave is the one between David Caruso and Mike Starr, though the one between Bill Murray and Robert Deniro was also good, if only because its them.

So, Mad Dog and Glory and They Live, on the list.

Edit: I don't know if its been mentioned, but if we allow tv series in, I gotta put a big vote in for Venture Brothers. Anyone who hasn't seen that needs to.

It's the DP's job. I appreciate the Director being the last word, but the DP could have walked away if he had a shred of dignity.

They Live had a great fight as far as realism goes. Other than that, I saw one on TV the other day which was "realistic" to the extent that neither fighter knew what they were doing, and were complete and utter spazzes. But one good shot and it was all over.

There's another one I saw recently, but I can't recall. All I remember is that it was awkward, close-in, and over rather quickly.

I saw Ghost in the Shell: Innocence last night in a theatre.

My. God.

Un-freakin-believable animation, and thoroughly enjoyable. I'm still in shock.

Of course, who could forget Versus?

~J

<raises hand> But that's probably a voluntary forgetfulness. (Any zombie movie without even a little token nudity is not a good zombie movie, dammit!)

Shaun of the Dead gets special treatment 'cause it included a cricket bat and the use of L.P.s as weapons.

Shaun of the Dead, just in general, prodded serious buttock.

Just my two cents. Altho I think my fav scene is at the beginning when Shaun jumps in the game that the side kick is playing ("Player 2 has entered the game"), he's reminded of work, then you hear "Player 2 has left the game". Hehe.

Hello. This is my first post...well, ever. I glanced through the previous replies, and I am not sure, but I don't think anyone has metioned this movie yet. Called New Rose Hotel it stars Wilem Dafoe and Christopher Walken as two freelance corporate spies. It is a prime example how careful planning, good instincts and killer skills/talent can mean absolutely nothing when you trust the wrong person. It is also a cautionary tale of crossing the wrong Corp at the wrong time, the resulting consequences of said Corp's wrath, as well as one of the best examples of Coffin Hotels on film.

New Rose Hotel is directly based off a Gibson story by the same name., FYI.

Good to know, thank you.

How about Demolition Man for the rebel underground which was a good illustration of what the Ork Underground might look like...

Definitely Sneakers (is that the English title? The expert team led by Redford)

Escape from NY is not so much an illustration of the Barrens that a great depiction of the Chicago CZ for me...

"Face/Off" for way of the gun adepts (in fact pretty much all of Woo's movies...and yes, even MI2

a lot of films that have already been mentioned (Blade Runner, Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix series, Stange Days which is one of my favorite cyberpunk-without cyber movie...)

For films which (unless I was distracted) have not been cited:

- Robocop for cyberware of course, but mostly for cold uncaring all-powerful megacorps (OCP)
- American Psycho for the futile powergames among young corporate sharks (after all, the book is definitely tied to the 80s, like SR)
- Aliens for the Marines packing milspec gear that you get in SR, like a nasty Ares MPHMG on a Gyromount for example...and the other Alien films for the Weyland Yutani corp (except that stupid Alien vs Predator film...
- Predator 2 for the gang war in the beginning and the ethnic gangs (voodoo, latino...)
- Angel Heart for the private eye loser and the Voodoo folklore...
- that bad film starring sex-crazed Demi Moore and Michael Douglas for the VR scene in a database , very good way of explaining what the Matrix looks like for beginners with no familiarity with cyberpunk concepts...
- Training Day for gang atmosphere
- Candyman for the Cabrini Green Housing Project (hey, I'm just a French guy, I need some pictures to get the feel...) before the CZ.
- the Hulk to realize how bulky a troll is (just kidding)
- Abel Ferrara'sKing of New York and all the Scorcese movies for Mob stories
- del Torro's Mimic and Cronenberg's the Fly probably the best movies with Insect Spirits (Flesh form in the Fly, True Forms in Mimic) with the Alien movies for the ultimate predator behavior which fits the Insect Spirits so well
- Black Rain for the yakusa (with Crying freeman, which was mentioned by someone else)
- Spielberg's AI and Proyas's I Robot for wonderful cityscapes and design of 21st century everyday life design...
- Dead Man a very strange and crepuscular western but also one of the only movies showing Pacific Northwest Native Americans (probably Haida or Tlingit)
- 8 mm for the darkest corners of the underworld (snuff movies, etc...)
- Dead Zone for the Psychometry Metamagic
- a wacky HBO film with Dennis Hopper Detective Philipp Lovecraft for magic in a modern setting
- Ghost Dog for a wonderful adept character following the code of Bushido
- Underworld, a bad movie , but nice costumes
- Kiss of the Dragon (I'm not sure about the English title) starring Jet Li for a cool acupuncture adept...
- Fight Club for the best apocalyptic fight-the-system policlub ever...and for Tyler Durden, of course
-Ravenous for the Wendigo
- The Usual Suspects for a run gone bad and a double-crossing Johnson

....
and so many others...

oh yes, Harry Potter for a hermetic magical group

To see how it feels to be standing next to a big Ork or Troll, The Green Mile for Michael Clarke Duncan's awesome physical presence and gravelly voice

Did I simply miss it, or did everyone here fail to mention (surely you just forgot) the Shadowrun classic called Split Second?

Say it together now: Split Second.

. . .

We're going to need bigger guns.

Enemy At the Gates also, for city warfare. And I believe there was a movie called Drive with Mani from Brotherhood of the Wolf, Doug E. Fresh and Brittany Murphy before she started looking like a crackwhore (albiet, a hot one).

My intense distaste (or possibly, mild hatred) for BotW keeps me from putting it on the list, except in the form of this non-nomination nomination. My entire complaint can be summed up in this rant: "Hey, why don't I check and make sure this guy I barely know who has been lightly brushed to the ground is okay so my most trusted ally in the world can go off by himself to hunt down the giant, bulletproof monster that has killed countless men. And if I have to avenge him, despite the fact I am a poofy French scientist and he is a American Indian Warrior, no worries, because I'm actually a better fighter than he is! We're both kung-fu masters, you see! Except he wasted points on being able to see spirits and I went all Kung-fu apparently! Gee, I hope this doesn't end to some sort of giant end battle where everybody has fake ass Mortal Kombat weapons."

Remake, strongly inspired, phah. With the exception of Gus van Sants Psycho, no movie is ever truly a "remake" of the original. They always change essential elements. When someone stays close enough to the source material that they have to cite it, I feel justified in calling it a remake.

I probably will never see 8mm, citing the allergy to Nic Cage I spoke of earlier. He is in the group of actors that I used to enjoy and somewhere along the line came to despise. Raising Arizona is probably the only movie of his I could go back and watch today. Bruce Willis is in the same category. The only movie of his I could go back and watch is Die Hard, or conceivably, Blind Date (which was an excellent SR movie).

Which, if we include Blake Edwards movies, that'll put in Victor/Victoria, SOB, and the Pink Panther Series, dating back to A Shot in the Dark (which was before the Pink Panther diamond was ever mentioned, come to think of it).

And if we do that I'm putting in Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs.

But 8mm isn't a remake, nor is it even based upon Hardcore. The storyline is totally different, with really only the pornography aspect in common, and even is only very tenuous connection. Hardcore is not cited as it's source material, merely given a nod as one of many points of inspiration.

My apologies. In the review I originally read (which is probably what started me not wanting to see it), it was listed as a remake of Hardcore. If remake was not the term used, it may have been "updating" or something synonomous. My point is only that Hollywood consistantly "remakes" movies in which plot, characters and storylines are totally different. I think, if anything, its a legal term to describe who gets paid. I could remake Casablanca as a gay tap dancing movie set in Terra Haute Indiana, with Major Strausser replaced by a monkey, as long as I someone was willing to sell me the rights; whereas many films blatantly steal from other films. (In Hollywood I believe this is called "Creativity").

For instance, A Fistful of Dollars is only a "remake" of Yojimbo film because Kurosawa sued Leone over the rights. (Which is neat as Yojimbo was the Japanese film version of the American Dashielle Hammet's book "Red Harvest". Later, the Coen Brother's "Miller's Crossing" would borrrow direct elements of that book as well as one or two others, without attribution, even though it was plainly obvious where they got their inspiration, down to the names of some of the clubs. When "Last Man Standing" came out, it listed Yojimbo as its primary source, without mentioning the book Yojimbo itself was based upon.)

Edit: One last thing: Yojimbo itself never credited Red Harvest, either. So that's four movies from the same source, none of whom credit that source, but who have variously acredited, not acredited, or sued each other over the rights to the storyline (even though all the settings and characters are all different).

Every review I read of Irreversible, said it was was one of the most gut-wrenching, unforgivably brutal scenes in movie history. (I'm assuming they meant in wide release, as none of these people have seen my sister's wedding video. Ha! I kid the friend of the family who can't hold a camera still for four seconds.)

Every review of 8mm said, blah blah blah, Nic Cage. I'm not saying this is damning evidence one way or the other, as I have seen neither movie. I should point out I only read reviews of movies I don't want to see, as reviews always spoil the movies. Why would I, a person who has seen neither movie comment on them? Well, thats an excellent question. I don't really have an answer for you there.

Moving on, I never read ToP, so I wasn't disappointed in how the movie turned out differently, if indeed it did. (I don't know if Geoffery Rush played the same part in the book as he did in the movie.) I though Pierce Brosnan was very good in it. A friend of mine who likes Brosnan and is a big fan of the Bond movies bought ToP thinking it would be the same sort of thing and he absolutely hated it. All I knew about it going in was the basic cast and that it had something to do with espionage, but I thought the brutal send up of the Bond mystique was excellent. Brosnan looked like he was having a lot of fun playing the evil twin.

Depending on your GM, finding similarities in your SR game and the Venture Brothers cartoon...may be rather easy.

I don't know if it was as awful as people say it was, although I don't think when I was watching the DVD my tv was able to carry the bass line that made several viewers in Canne sick.

I also found "The Transporter" to be a good SR feel movie.

Fixed?

Read Arethusa's quote.

d'oh

I'll admit the guy was a little "too good" kinda reminded me of some of the Munchkins I've encountered. Rtg 6 in HtH, Cars, SUT, Ass. Rifles, Athletics, Getting away with it, Italian Coffee Drinking, Asian Chick Pickup lines, Self Grooming, and Architecture

Oh yes I forgot about this one: a French action movie called "Nid de Guepes" in French: about a small heist turned bad: a few guys who want to rob a warehouse and by sheer unluck, a group of SWAT soldiers transporting a terrorist bound for trial end up in the same warehouse which is soon besieged by terrorists...intense action, nice costumes..