|
Post by kaoru on Jun 12, 2019 1:50:26 GMT -5
I want to respect Godzilla 2014 for trying to go low key and down to earth by barely ever showing the monsters for a long time and handling it all more like a catastrophe movie than a monster movie, showing most damages even only after the fact. I simply find it somewhat boring because it forgets to fill the running time with anything else interesting to latch onto, especially the main characters are super boring paper cutouts with nothing interesting going on. I'm not a Godzilla expert by any means, just saw the most recent ones. Any recommendations for the older ones besides the original?) Pretty much the whole Heisei era (the 90s ones) are very watchable. It gets a bit spotty in the original Showa run, and most of the Millennium era is honestly kind of boring. Final Wars is a great big ball of dumb fun, though!
|
|
|
Post by X-pert74 on Jun 16, 2019 2:03:24 GMT -5
I recently saw Ralph Breaks the Internet. I love the first Wreck-It Ralph, but was kinda hesitant about seeing this because it's more about the internet in general, rather than video games specifically. It ended up being pretty good; there's still some game-related content in this film, and I liked that it followed a noticeably different structure than the first film's story did (for one thing, there really isn't any particular character you can point to as a "villain" in this story, yet there's still definitely a character arc going on, which keeps things interesting ). I still like the first Wreck-It Ralph more, but this is a nice follow-up. That said, I hope that the third Wreck-It Ralph focuses more on video games again. Something focused around console gaming, for example, would be pretty sweet Maybe Ralph could run into an NES-era port's version of himself? haha
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on Jul 5, 2019 1:07:53 GMT -5
Caught up to all MCU films up to Endgame by now.
Thor: Ragnarök. One of my favorite ones, which is surprising, because I would put the two previous Thor movies towards the bottom of the bunch. It's just super fun and super stylish. Chris Hemsworth actually has real good comedic timing when given the right script too. Makes me almost want to see the new Ghostbusters where he plays a ditzy Janine.
Black Panther. Similiar to Spider-Man: Homecoming this is technically not an origins story, since he has his powers already, but since it is his first standalone movie, it still goes through a lot of similar beats. He just doesn't have to prove he's worthy of his powers but worthy of being king. Makes it not very memorable, but it doesn't really dwell on characters or story much to begin with and is mostly non-stop action, and entertaining one at that. And at least the "technology meets tribalism" look makes it unique.
Avengers: Infinity War. Almost disjointed, because it feels like we drop into a different movie every time the focus changes to a different group of characters, but that's to be expected with these very different kinds of ones coming together. Lots of misery porn towards the end, but the Tony-Peter scene did get me. It's almost as good as the similarly but more tight Captain America: Civil War.
Captain Marvel. I have the same problem as with Doctor Strange with this one. It's been ten years since the first Iron Man, we are now in phase three and so close to Endgame... we've clearly moved past these kind of standard ass origin stories by now. At least Brie Larson plays off her co-stars better than Cumberbatch did, but it was honestly kind of "meh" overall to me.
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Jul 22, 2019 12:03:38 GMT -5
Battle Angel Alita
Decent movie. They really tried to condense all the major points of the first half of the series into one feature film. Odd design choice to make Alita the only cyborg with oversized CG eyes. Not when all the other cyborgs have relatively untouched human faces. If they wanted to get around casting Salazar as Alita/Yoko, they could have just went the happa route that Kung Fu took with David Carradine. The overall backdrop to Alita is quite impressive. The scrapyard town is very lively and busy; tons of fast paced action and detail for the motorball scenes as well. Jennifer Connelly still has a very nice body, owning those thigh high stockings; her character is non-existent in the manga. It seems like they only wrote her in to give Ido some back story, and as a bit of a plot device to reveal some of the nature of the land. As casting goes, I like Christoph Waltz as a westernized Daisuke/Dyson Ido.
It'll be interesting to see why they chose to make Nova a character that is pulling the strings from the city in the sky. I think the original depiction of Nova as a kooky outcast, interested only in experiments, was much more compelling.
|
|
|
Post by Woody Alien on Aug 10, 2019 5:46:39 GMT -5
The Suspiria remake from last year.
While not a huge fan of Dario Argento's, the original movie is one of my favorite horror/dark fantasy films, and this "remake", well... It's pretty much the stereotype of arthouse films: overly long, slow, meandering, pretentious, droning soundtrack by Thom Yorke, full of political and historical references that go nowhere, and it's not even all that scary or unsettling, more nauseating maybe. The cinematography is good obviously (though maybe some scenes are a bit too dark), and Dakota Johnson is much better than I thought, but for the rest it was a disappointment.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Aug 10, 2019 13:27:37 GMT -5
pretentious
droning soundtrack by Thom Yorke
Thanks for the warning. I will never, ever watch this.
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Aug 10, 2019 14:50:50 GMT -5
Tolkien
Melodramatic biography of JRR Tolkien, covering his childhood up to when he returns from the Great War. I do enjoy it for its sense of time/era; the manner of dress, the manner of speaking. There is basically no interaction with his little brother. The movie focuses its 1 hour and 50 minutes on all the focal relationships that influence Tolkien towards the culmination of his ideas that lead to him writing "The Hobbit." Interesting to watch once, for a glimpse into his upbringing and lifestyle.
|
|
|
Post by Woody Alien on Aug 18, 2019 13:09:36 GMT -5
Wild Wild West, it's 20 years old but I had never watched it until now. And, yes, it does suck as almost everyone says. I'm not familiar with the original source material but it seems it hasn't much to do with this. I read that the script was changed and modified countless times, and it shows, the film doesn't make much sense and for an action-comedy is not especially funny. Kind of hilarious how Will Smith turned down the role of Matrix's Neo to star in this crap! The only good things are a couple of steampunk designs and two seconds of Bai Ling's asscheeks at full screen.
A-wicky-wicky Wild Wild West!
|
|
|
Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Aug 22, 2019 17:11:32 GMT -5
I caught Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in the theatre this week. First Tarantino movie I've seen on the big screen, and it's pretty different from what I've seen before. The lead is Leonardo DiCaprio's best role, from what I've seen in him, at least. High point of the movie is DiCaprio's character talking to a child actress on the set of a western. Pretty much the funniest scene in any Tarantino film.
Watched some other good stuff recently too. No Country for Old Men, the best Coen bros. movie I've seen by far. Some Like it Hot, which to my surprise holds up really well for a comedy made 60 years ago, considering a lot of comedies less than half that age feel outdated now. And The Verdict, which has one of the best lead performances I've ever seen in a movie (from Paul Newman).
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Aug 26, 2019 11:32:21 GMT -5
Golgo 13, live action.
I enjoyed it. It captures much of the spirit the manga. It was hard for me to imagine a live-action Golgo 13, but Ken Takakura is a pretty good likeness. Also amusing to find that, while all the events take place in Iran, everyone is speaking (presumably dubbed) in Japanese. What I do love about the movie is that it kind of serves as a snapshot time capsule of early 1970's Tehran. The fashion sense, the hotel design, it all harkens to a very contemporary time. There are some moments towards the end where it gets a bit silly. Like the chase scene. But for the most part, it feels textbook Golgo 13.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Aug 26, 2019 14:38:12 GMT -5
Golgo 13, live action.
I enjoyed it. It captures much of the spirit the manga. It was hard for me to imagine a live-action Golgo 13, but Ken Takakura is a pretty good likeness. Also amusing to find that, while all the events take place in Iran, everyone is speaking (presumably dubbed) in Japanese. What I do love about the movie is that it kind of serves as a snapshot time capsule of early 1970's Tehran. The fashion sense, the hotel design, it all harkens to a very contemporary time. There are some moments towards the end where it gets a bit silly. Like the chase scene. But for the most part, it feels textbook Golgo 13. Yeah, I thought it was surprisingly good, too. I liked the documentary feel of the scenes shot around Tehran, some really skillful 70s Toei camera handling. There are some great contre-jour shots in the desert, too, even though that scene goes on for too long, and the ending is nice. What did you think about him shooting the parrot after he finally gets his guy? I figure it was revenge for the death of the woman earlier (the one he slept with, I can't really call her a love interest since Golgo may or may not actually feel anything), since the bird is shown to be the only thing the target actually cares about throughout the movie. I heard Takao Saito didn't like the movie cause it humanized Golgo (just barely), and I figure that plus the long walk in the desert where he looks half-dead are probably the parts that bothered him. I also liked how the movie would just let you figure out just what Golgo was doing at times, rather than stopping to explain. Seems like they wouldn't trust the viewers as much today. There's an interview with the director (Junya Sato) where he says the movie did pretty well, but it was too expensive and complicated to shoot, which is why they only made one more a few years later. We can be thankful they didn't just have a bunch of Japanese actors pretend to be Iranian. The second movie has Sonny Chiba playing Golgo instead. He's a really, really good fit, as he looks meaner than Takakura (who was also very good, regardless), but the movie is a lot more ridiculous and pretty poorly-made. I can't remember if it takes place in Hong Kong or Macao, maybe both. Anyway, if you've ever seen a Yukio Noda movie, it's about as slapdash as you'd expect.
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Aug 27, 2019 10:37:06 GMT -5
What did you think about him shooting the parrot after he finally gets his guy? I figure it was revenge for the death of the woman earlier (the one he slept with, I can't really call her a love interest since Golgo may or may not actually feel anything), since the bird is shown to be the only thing the target actually cares about throughout the movie. I heard Takao Saito didn't like the movie cause it humanized Golgo (just barely), and I figure that plus the long walk in the desert where he looks half-dead are probably the parts that bothered him. I also liked how the movie would just let you figure out just what Golgo was doing at times, rather than stopping to explain. Seems like they wouldn't trust the viewers as much today. There's an interview with the director (Junya Sato) where he says the movie did pretty well, but it was too expensive and complicated to shoot, which is why they only made one more a few years later. We can be thankful they didn't just have a bunch of Japanese actors pretend to be Iranian. That whole end scene trudging through the desert in a suit also felt out of place with me. It certainly makes him more human, in terms of enduring hardship. And the parrot getting shot was ludicrously hilarious. While I enjoyed that bit, that also felt out of character for manga/anime Golgo 13. I did catch the Sonny Chiba Golgo 13 film a while ago. Part of me wonders if there was some continuity between the 1st movie and the 2nd. The Iranian agent that falls for Golgo 13 slipped in that gold locket into his pocket at the hotel. It seemed like the same locket that Golgo leaves behind for the girl that lives on the boat, after he treats his bullet wound. I'm not totally sure, I'll have to go back to it. Sonny Chiba did a good job of portraying the character I think, the attitude and mentality of Golgo 13. Even though the curly hair and facial structure wasn't as accurate Takakura's, Sonny Chiba had more piercing facial expressions and more refined fight choreography. Although the striped suits they had him wear for Assignment Kowloon felt more 70's groovy than the usual timelessness of a dark suit and turtleneck sweater. Most of the events happen in Hong Kong, with a brief detour to Japan. Macau may have been towards the end, as they were chasing the diplomat informant. I can see why these movies are so expensive to produce. The mood and scale is something I would compare to some of the early 007 films, like From Russia with Love, but without the box office sales and marketing.
|
|
|
Post by windfisch on Sept 2, 2019 17:22:31 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Sept 2, 2019 18:53:13 GMT -5
Watched Captain Marvel over the weekend.
I enjoyed it. It started a bit slow for me, but it picked up once the setting changed focus to planet Earth. Even though I still think of Nick Fury as "that other guy you get to play as in The Punisher arcade game," Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury gives the story some campy life. Especially once the cat gets thrown in as a running gag throughout the film. I think the only anti-climactic part for me was the lack of strong villain/rival to Captain Marvel. She is the most powerful, dominant force as far as the film goes.
I would be interesting if they made a sequel that steered toward the 1990's X-Men cartoon canon, where Mystique gets Rogue to drain and usurp Captain Marvel's power.
|
|
|
Post by kaoru on Sept 3, 2019 1:28:21 GMT -5
Yes, that Captain Marvel is so overpowered was clearly a big problem in the narrative for me too. I mean, the movie basically takes until the very end for her to become Cap just so there can be a movie to begin with, and then the final battle is more played for laughts because she has it so easy. There's no way a second movie won't find an excuse to nerf her and even the playing field.
|
|