Star Trek 2009 (Blu-Ray) - I may be a bit biased as it's one I watched in theaters when it first came out, but this one is a blast. The cast has great chemistry & seems to be having fun, and it's a big fun roaring sci-fi film. I can't really speak on it's qualities as a "Trek" film as it was never really an important franchise for me growing up, but on it's own merit I always have a good time watching this.
Cutthroat Island (Blu-Ray) - I hadn't heard of this until now, but as I didn't yet have any seafaring/pirate movies in my collection, I picked up the BD when I saw it at a thrift store. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but it's a fun enough swashbuckler (I really liked the big ship battle in the climax though).
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PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
I know this will probably be a bit TL;DR for most, but here's a list of all the films I've watched over the past few weeks.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - After a wartime video goes viral showing the titular Billy Lynn heroically protecting his commanding officer's body from being taken by enemy forces, his entire squad is sent on a publicity tour back in the States where they must face how disconnected the populace is from their struggle (outside of vague patriotic platitudes) and what it really is they're fighting for.
Godzilla 2014 (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - I think this one is sooo close to being something great, but just makes too many mistakes to quite get there. I love that it spends time building up suspense (the best Godzilla films often don't have much of Big G and have great human drama, after all), but Bryan Cranston is the only one who really puts in a noteworthy performance & it really loses something once he's killed off. Again, I don't really have an issue with the amount of Godzilla, but rather how that time is used (oftentimes it'll completely cut away to something entirely else as soon as he clashes with one of the MUTO, dodging the actual monster fighting). That said, there are some good shots, and a satisfyingly brutal finish. It's also waaay too dark (in terms of lighting), the scene where the MUTO attacks the train is a huge example of this where I could barely see anything except it's glowy spots & the flaming wreckage in the river at the end. A real shame too as it can be a real looker when you can actually see what's going on (like the sequence in the rain where Godzilla & the MUTO descend on San Francisco).
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - A tonally confused affair, on one hand resigning itself to being nothing more than popcorn entertainment (any poignant "man vs nature" themes are undercut by Monarch transforming into a facsimile of the MCU's SHEILD, and it starts to dive headlong into the "Hollow Earth" nonsense), but on the other hand it seems like it wants to take itself waaay to seriously with an overdramatic environmentalist message & visually gritty aesthetic. As a big Godzilla fan there are things for me to like here (there are a lot of fan favorite Kaiju here, including a pretty cool version of King Ghidorah that goes pretty hard, though it's so much that it teeters along a similar issue that Spider-Man 3 had with too many big names for one movie), but I wouldn't blame anyone for not liking it.
Godzilla VS Kong (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - At this point the Monsterverse has given up any pretense of offering any sort of compelling human drama (which it was rarely good at anyways, at least not on the level of stuff like Godzilla: Minus One) and lunged head first into being a big dumb monster punch 'em up flick, and honestly, it works. Revelling in the absolute dumbest aspects of it's convoluted lore, it's a film more concerned with having fun than trying to say/do anything meaningful, and boy is it a fun film. Godzilla & Kong's fights are awesome (the best in the franchise), and you never go too long without them tearing through things on screen.
Hancock (Blu-Ray) - Before we had like 6 different versions of "Superman but Evil", we had "Superman but just kind of a jerk in need of some good PR". I think this is pretty fun in the first half when it's working on that core concept, but kinda loses itself when trying to explore lore/backstory & forcing and endgame villain.
the Killer's Game (Cinema) - Dave Bautista plays the best assassin in the game, but wants to get out once he finds a woman and starts developing health issues. Soon it's learned he's come down with an incurible disease, so he puts a hit out on himself so she doesn't have to watch him slowly die & can get his life insurance. He learns that the diagnosis was a mistake and he's going to live, but now only if he can survive the onslaught of eccentric assassins out to get him. I'm pretty sure this just bombed, but honestly I kinda liked it. It's not a masterpiece (and I think kinda tonally inconsistent), but with a lot of creative (& bloody) kills, explosions, and some light female nudity, it's an enjoyable enough "Dude/Dad" film if that's something you're into (not as good as "the Beekeeper" from earlier this year though).
Kong: Skull Island (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - Even as someone who is much more of a Godzilla fan, I'll say that Kong's solo movie is probably the Monsterverse's best. It's really the only one that successfully invests you to it's human cast (you really want to see John C. Reilly's character make it home, and Samuel L. Jackson's Packard is a compelling villain, jaded after pouring his military career into Vietnam with nothing to show for it, he becomes obsessed with taking out Kong, even if it means the deaths of his men that he supposedly cares so much about). There's a lot of imagination on display when it comes to the flora & fauna of the titular island itself, which leads to a lot of exciting encounters, whether it be our group of survivors finding themselves underfoot a massive spider, or the various punch 'em ups Kong winds up in with other beasts. Just a really enjoyable time.
the LEGO Movie (Blu-Ray) - Who knew that a movie about LEGO would be so solid(ly built)? At it's core it's just a family film with a message about how we're all special in it's own way, but it's still one of the most visually stunning/unique CGI animated films from a big studio and the cast is pretty fun, whether it be Will Ferrell hamming it up as unrepentantly evil "President Business" or Will Arnett's "Batman" trying to hard to be cool. Enjoyable watch.
Lone Survivor (Blu-Ray) - Speaking of "Dude/Dad" films, this one goes pretty hard. I can understand that glorifying war (especially something as modern/touchy as recent Mideast conflicts) is going to rub some the wrong way, but I honestly liked this. Based on a True Story (but obviously embellished for movie's sake), it follows Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of a small band of Navy Seals who found themselves surrounded by a couple hundred Taliban fighters after getting found out during a reconnaissance mission.
Ranma 1/2: the Battle of Nekonron: the Fight to Break the Rules! (Blu-Ray) - Very by the numbers movie adaptation of a long running Shonen anime. New one off villain shows up to antagonize our protaganists, has just enough henchmen that almost every recurring cast member gets to tag along as they get a fight (though I'm a little salty that Ukyo & Kodachi were who were left behind this go around, lol), but the good guys save the day in the end and go home. For die hard fans of the franchise only (even the animation is nothing special. There are some TV & OVA episodes that look better).
Ranma 1/2: the Battle of Togenkyo: Rescue the Brides! (Blu-Ray) - Much like the first film, it sees the extended cast facing off against a one off movie villain, and although the concept wasn't anything new, I think it was much better executed here. The animation quality was a pretty big jump up (not up there with something seminal like Ghost in the Shell or Memories, but still nice 90's anime vibes), and it was overall much more fun and the cast has never looked better. I'd still likely say this is one for existing fans of the property only, but as a fan I couldn't much tell you what more I could want from a film in this franchise (other than the fact that it completely snubbed Kodachi, the only extended cast member to be left out).
the Shallows (Blu-Ray) - While surfing off of a secluded beach in Mexico, a woman is injured by a shark (which is stalking the area due it being the site of it's latest kill, a whale) and must find a way to get back to land. There's a few contrived moments narratively (how did no one see that huge whale carcass just a few hundred feet from the shore while they were surfing?), but overall it was a tense ride that gripped me throughout and it has some of the most gorgeous scenery shots I've seen in a film.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - This is perhaps one of the most epic superhero films ever crafted. Now, I get that a 4 hour+ runtime is a huge ask and that a better storyteller may (should?) have found a way to trim some fat (I could have probably done without the lengthy epilogue added, which was a lot of buildup to stuff he knows he was never going to get to do), but at least it now has the time to build up characters like Cyborg & some of the greater lore behind what is going on. It's certainly better than the theatrical cut though, and the definitive way to watch the film if you decide to do so.
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Only a couple this past weekend, but both pretty amazing.
Braveheart (4K UHD Blu-Ray - Blu-Ray) - I think this may be the first time I watched the whole thing, and it ended up being a pretty great watch (granted, I'm not judging it on historical accuracy as I don't know jack about Scottish/English history). I just love the historical epics of the 90's - 00's (the Patriot, Gladiator, Troy, the Last Samurai, 300, ect), and this fits along nicely. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, brutal large scale battles, it's all here. Unfortunately my 4K copy is borked and turned into a slideshow with no sound around the 55 minute mark, but luckily I was able to finish it as it came with a regular BD copy as well which worked.
Schindler's List (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - Probably the most important film of Spielberg's filmography. I had seen parts of this in class in high school, but this was the first time I watched it in it's entirety, and man was it maybe the best film I've seen in a long time. Certainly brutal & hard to watch at many points, but essential viewing. Really underlines that the Nazi's weren't some over the top cartoon villains, their evil was cold, calculated, and played out on an industrial scale. Chilling stuff, and I absolutely started bawling when they jumped to the modern (well modern in the 90's) footage of the survivors he saved visiting his grave.
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@RR529 No problem friend, keep on doing it. Hey. I have been wondering if you don't have a Letterboxd account. Because I think it will do wonders for you, I can tell that you're a huge movie fan.
The Harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Watched Luca last night on Disney+ and honestly I didn't enjoy it. I don't know if I am getting older or if it's the direction Disney has gone but I just didn't find it interesting at all. There didn't seem to be a plot at least that I could see and the characters were boring. Maybe I will check out Inside Out 2.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
Watched the entire Back to the Future trilogy over the weekend (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - These were probably my favorite movies as a kid growing up, so it's absolutely impossible for me to give them an objective look. In fact the second is probably my favorite because of the Super 80's... err, 2015, even though it probably has the biggest plot holes given how time travel works in universe. Never had these on physical media until now (even to this day it seems like they pop up somewhere on cable every other month, so I've never felt the need), but I picked up the 4Ks on Prime Day earlier this year and it was a great way to revisit them. Had lots of fun extras too, like two episodes from a 90's cartoon that I didn't know existed (unfortunately those weren't remastered), and a few shorts they came out with in 2015 in celebration of "Future Day".
Riding Bean (Blu-Ray) - Anime homage to American crime/cop action flicks of the 70's-90's (think stuff like Dirty Harry or Lethal Weapon). Bean Bandit, the "Road Buster", is the best courier/getaway driver in Chicago, and when he's framed for kidnapping he hits the streets to take out the gang who set him up, but he'll have to do so while avoiding Chicago's finest. The dub is absolutely terrible (but kinda charming in a way), and it's so over the top it's pretty fun (Bean is a beast of a man who can rip off car doors with his bare hands and tank gunfire thanks to a bulletproof leather jacket & headband), and at a pretty brisk 45 minutes it sticks to the (ultraviolent) action.
@MsJubilee, thanks! And yeah, I do have a Letterbox account (I think I use the same username there).
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Dune 2021 (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - My second time watching this (my first was last year around this time on Netflix). Don't think I loved it as much as I did the first time around, but it's still a solid watch and provides a lot of world building for what's to come in the sequel.
Risky Business (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - Despite it's fame I've never actually watched this before, and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting a goofier teen debauchery comedy like Weird Science based solely on the infamous dance scene (which is the only thing I knew about the film beforehand), but it ended up having a bit more of a dry satiric wit. Not a bad thing though, I'll just have to watch it again in the future with the right mindset (which is something I'll definitely do, as my dad spent like 60-70% of the film's runtime listening to social media videos really loudly on his phone, so I couldn't focus well).
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PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
1917 (4K UHD Blu-Ray) - It's been a few years since I last watched this (first time on 4K disc though), and it's still as fantastic as I remembered. Wonderful set design and the "single take" gimmick do an incredible job immersing you into the horrors of WWI, and it had just been long enough since my last watch that I couldn't remember if/when either of the two core characters died, so the journey was just as tense as it was the first time around.
Dune (Blu-Ray) - The 80's version. I really wasn't feeling this one. I think it certainly had big ambitions with some really memorable & trippy visual sequences, and many set pieces felt "big", but I think it's just too much book to fit into one movie (IIRC, it's not quite as long as even the first movie of the modern duology), with the last 3rd of the film really moving along at a breakneck pace (with Chani being nothing more narratively than some random Fremen girl Paul loves). There are some other oddities as well, such as the fact that they largely abandon the personal shield generators after their introduction (envisioned here as a bunch of polygons that surround the wearer, making them look like vaguely human shaped polygons, which while sort of impressive how they brought it to life, looks silly), and they spend largely the rest of the movie shooting each other (including with some sort of sound guns, which may be more accurate to the books AFAIK, but again look silly in practice). It certainly doesn't help that the Harkonnen come across as merely generally gross rather than truly intimidating, and a lot of the tech & ship designs personally didn't land with me, often times coming across as lame or plain ugly.
Jonah Hex (Blu-Ray) - More westerns need horse mounted Gatling Guns. I'm admittedly not too familiar with the comics it's based on, but on it's own it's a serviceable enough & sometimes fun post Civil War actioneer with a supernatural twist, if nothing remarkable. It feels 10-20 minutes shorter than it should though (they never explain how those special cannon balls are supposed to work, which is a pretty big deal since the bad guy's plan hinges entirely on them. That, and Jonah was clearly supposed to find himself in that fighting pit against that weird snake guy they set up, and then it just doesn't happen), which doesn't make much sense as it's pretty brisk at just under an hour and a half & it could have easily used the extra time.
Kite (Blu-Ray) - Ultraviolent & taboo 90's anime OVA that I think even surpasses Ninja Scroll & Wicked City in terms of how far it pushes the envelope. Sawa is a teen assassin who kills the absolute dregs of society, but the corruption runs deep as her handlers (a pair of police detectives) are just as twisted as those they order her to take out. The new Discotek Blu-Ray includes three different cuts (all remastered), including two different earlier western releases which cut back on the most taboo content (to various degrees) and condense it to "film" format, plus the completely uncut version (a two episode OVA) how it originally released in Japan. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or those who (understandably) shy away from some very questionable content, but it had a very grungy vibe (not unlike Perfect Blue), which I really dug.
Toy Story (Blu-Ray) - Time to wash the above away with something much more wholesome. I don't think I've actually watched this in it's entirety since I was a kid, but it's still a really fun watch that provides a good amount of laughs. Visually it's starting to look really simple, but I really dug the neon lit interiors of Pizza Planet & some of the glow in the dark elements of Sid's room. I liked noticing some things I missed out on as a kid, such as the Binford tool box (a Home Improvement reference), and the "Whack-A-Alien" game at Pizza Planet that features knock off chest bursters popping out of a bloody Astronaut corpse (this probably wouldn't pass the test in a modern Disney cartoon, lol, though I don't think they completely owned Pixar at this point).
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PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Battle: Los Angeles (Blu-Ray) - Advanced alien invaders may be capable of interstellar travel, but there's no way they could ever be prepared for "the Few, the Proud, the Marines™". I didn't like it as much as I'd remembered (it doesn't have the charm of an Independence Day & it has a bit too much shaky cam), but it still has some pretty cool battle sequences, and I generally love movies where aliens are fought off with largely contemporary military abilities, so it'll stick around in my collection (maybe one day I'll do a triple feature with the aforementioned ID4 & Battleship). Unfortunately the BD I picked up thrifting skipped once or twice (small enough not to ruin the watch), but luckily I found another copy the very next day (this time in a snazzy slip cover), so I took that as a sign and grabbed it (hopefully this one doesn't have any issues).
Grumpy Old Men (Blu-Ray) - I'm probably overrating this a bit because it invokes a lot of nostalgia in me (we used to take fishing trips to Minnesota every summer, my earliest memories of which were in the 90's, so the vibe of this just hits with me. Plus, the movie takes place over Thanksgiving & Christmas, so that's a whole lot of cozy baked into it), but I really think this is genuinely enjoyable. The banter between Lemmon & Matthau is often hilarious (the guy playing Lemmon's 90 something year old dad is by far the funniest here though), and it has some good emotional beats to boot.
Spaceballs (Blu-Ray) - I've seen bits & pieces of this before, but never watched the whole thing because my dad said it sucked (to be fair, we generally have different taste in films). I seen the BD while thrifting however & figured it couldn't hurt to give it a watch, and I really ended up enjoying it quite a bit. I can totally understand why Blazing Saddles was a more important & seminal film when it comes to Mel Brooks' comedies, but in terms of personal preference I liked this more (it helps that I like future/space sci-fi a lot more than westerns).
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PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
watched Terms of Endearment on Paramountplus earlier tonight. good movie but pretty long.
Now i need to watch Evening Star which I havent watched in a long time ever since it came on HBO in the mid late 1990s.
these days thanks to "accurate" imdb and wikipedia, i hear that Debra Winger is still bitter about Shirley McClaine etc from the old Terms of Endearment movie.
Anora (Blu-Ray)
Watched it to see why it got the Best Picture Oscar for 2025. I did like it, but don't think it is Best Picture Winner. This is the 1st time saw a film by Sean Baker, and never heard of Mikey Madison. The first 40 or so mins has many "ahem" moments, then turns into a racous comedy once the Armenians showed up. This is when the very frequent high-level swearing kicked in.
A Clockwork Orange (UHD Blu-Ray) - Brutally dark, but it's a beautifully shot film and while it's largely about free will (is anything, even torture, permissable in quashing bad behavior, or do we try to rehabilitate criminals into choosing to be good of their own choice), it does also have some warnings about authoritarian governments that are relevant in the current landscape. I'll admit it can be kind of hard for me to get into older films a lot of times (by my standard, anything made before the 80's), but this had me completely transfixed.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (UHD Blu-Ray) - On the other hand, here's another 70's film that didn't quite land for me. Don't get me wrong it's still a good movie, but I'd imagine a huge part of the appeal is the mystery behind it all and the film is just so ubiquitous (at least for those of my generation) that it just can't possibly surprise (even though I haven't fully seen it until now). Likewise, while I'm sure the visuals were breathtaking at release & still have a noticeable sense of vision to them, it just doesn't really awe in that respect either (I do like the scene with the child being "called" by the lights while all the electronics in the house go haywire. That was evocative). There's some good character work too, such as Roy driving his family away over his obsession. Definitely worth a watch though, especially if you somehow are in the dark over it's influence.
Deadpool & Wolverine (UHD Blu-Ray) - First watch since the theatre. It is still loads of fun with a lot of bloody action & the crass humor still elicits some laughs (though everything that's just "ha ha, this is an R rated Disney movie!" doesn't hit as well after you've seen it once), though I think it's the weakest of the franchise. Again, most of it is just poking fun at the fact that it's Disney/MCU now, and doesn't have the emotional core that held the first two together in spite of their raunchiness (that being his relationship with Vanessa, which has been unceremoniously done away with off screen here). They pay some lip service to him wanting to join the Avengers/MCU to "matter" for her sake, and it's hinted that they still have a future together, but this is very much a side concern at best. That said Ryan & Hugh had some fun chemistry & I'll probably be there for the next one.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (Blu-Ray) - Both stylistically & in terms of animation this is the best Dragon Ball has ever looked, and even if any future movies follow in Super Hero's footsteps in being CG (which TBF still looked fine) I'll be forever glad we got this. Probably won't be of any interest if you're not into whatever Dragon Ball is all about, but if you are this is a rip roaring fun time. Though I didn't notice until now that it's completely sanitized of any blood whatsoever (not that it's a huge deal or that I need it to have 80's ultraviolent OVA gore levels, but with how much our heroes get rag dolled around & the few people that get shot, just a little bit would have made the already visceral action hit just a tad bit harder).
Dragonheart (UHD Blu-Ray) - This was always a favorite of mine as a kid & I watched it every time I stumbled across it on TV. It may not be a "great" movie, but it's a lot of fun having Sean Connery chew the scenery as a dragon with a sense of chivalry, and although it took a bit to get used to the aged CGI I had a blast revisiting this.
Dune: Part 2 (UHD Blu-Ray - My first watch since theatres, and I'd honestly say I even enjoyed it a bit more this time around (probably because it was easier understanding everything that was going on the second go around). Narrative is pretty gripping seeing Paul as he tries to avoid becoming what he's going to have to become if he wants to win, and otherwise it's just a slick looking modern sci-fi blockbuster (really love the black & white arena scene on the Harkonnen home world).
Field of Dreams (UHD Blu-Ray) - Farmer hears voices telling him to build a baseball diamond in his corn field, and dead baseball players come back to play ball. Seriously though, I don't care much about sports, but this was actually a solid movie & pretty emotional (you just kinda have to watch it for yourself). He thinks he's healing old wounds for the dead, but ends up healing a hole in his own heart sort of deal. There's also a scene involving a debate over banning books in schools that unfortunately still feels relevant.
First Man (UHD Blu-Ray) - Biopic of Neil Armstrong starring Ryan Gosling. Every time I watch a movie about early space travel I just can't imagine the kind of willpower these guys would have to have in order to climb into these claustrophobic tin can death traps & be shot into space (and this film specifically makes it known how common death was for these men, and the impact it had on the survivors), and even more miraculously how anyone managed to survive when something goes wrong. It features some stunning visual shots as well.
Forbidden World (UHD Blu-Ray) - A mercenary(?) is contracted to go to an isolated research facility on a remote planet in order to help the scientists contain a strange creature, but of course they don't tell him everything & soon chaos ensues. Just a schlocky sci-fi B-movie from the 80's that rips off a number of more prominent films from the era (like Alien), and although it's not "good" per-se, it has all the ultra gore, sex/nudity, and hilariously dumb decision making from the cast of supposed geniuses you could ever want from a film of this type. A fun watch if that sounds up your alley.
Hot Pursuit (Blu-Ray) - 80's comedy about a preppy college student who just misses out on getting to go with his girlfriend's family on a Caribbean vacation & spends most of the film's runtime going on all sorts of misadventures across the isles trying to catch up to them, before having to use a bunch of skills he learned along the way to go full commando & rescue the family from pirates. It's not a must watch, but I enjoy the vibe of 80's comedies so I liked it (also has Ben Stiller in an early roll)
Interstellar (UHD Blu-Ray) - When ecological collapse has brought human civilization to the brink of collapse, a former engineer/pilot turned farmer is given the chance to potentially find a new home for humanity thanks to a wormhole discovered near Saturn (there's a lot more to the set up than this, such as the government officially embracing conspiracies that the space race was a hoax, and a mysterious "ghost" leaving his family messages, but I don't want to be here all day explaining). Absolutely beautiful both thematically & visually. It may get a bit sappy at the end, but that's just the magic of movies as far as I'm concerned & it may be my favorite film of the bunch I have listed here.
King Kong 2005 (UHD Blu-Ray) - I remembered this was a pretty big deal back in the day, although for whatever reason I never saw it then (I was 14 when it came out, so you'd think the prime target for the "giant monkey movie", lol), so I decided to rectify that. I don't think I'd call it a masterpiece, but it's definitely worth the watch if you have the time. Perhaps a bit too long, I wouldn't say I need instant gratification, but an entire hour before reaching Skull Island is maybe a bit much (although it has amazing set piece after amazing set piece once they land, especially the Kong vs T-Rex scene). Some of the visuals are starting to stretch thin/show their age (like a laughably green screen looking underwater shot during the swamp attack), but it mostly holds up & is often still breathtaking (really loved how well realized the 30's New York looks). Didn't really connect to any of the characters, but Jack Black's role became easy to hate by the end.
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Air Force One (UHD Blu-Ray) - Action packed political actioneer that sees political extremists hijack Air Force One in an attempt to get the dictator of a former Soviet republic released, and only the president himself has a chance of taking the plane back. Honestly just really fun flick & I can't place my finger on it but I just love the vibe. As an aside I always thought this was based on a Tom Clancy book (similar theme, Harrison Ford was in a few of those adaptations just a few years prior so it lines up in terms of "sequel timing", and the couple of Tom Clancy books I read in High School were at a later point in the timeline where Jack Ryan was indeed president), so I picked up the 3 80's/90's Tom Clancy movies as well as I planned to watch them in order, only to find out this actually has nothing to do with them, lol.
Death Wish (UHD Blu-Ray) - Charles Bronson plays the part of a pacifistic everyman who descends into violent vigilantism after his wife & daughter are assaulted by hooligans & the law seems ineffective (maybe even apathetic) towards finding the culprits. It sure has some messaging that probably wouldn't set too well today, but even so it's a great film. It really captures the grime of the New York of the era, with what would probably be an unconvential at the time outlook showing that law enforcement isn't always competent/infallible.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (UHD Blu-Ray) - Although I know I've seen this once when I was younger, I was always more enamoured with part one since it was more laser focused on paying homage to Japanese media specifically (and yes, I've rewatched that one recently as well & still love it). Giving this one a fresh watch I've really come to appreciate it more & think it's a great conclusion to the saga however. I especially loved the training flashback & how it was filmed to look like an old school kung fu movie.
Super 7 (Blu-Ray) - Off beat Japanese crime comedy that sees a low ranking Yakuza trying to hide out in the "New Mexico Hotel" (an obscure establishment themed after a dingy American motel) after stealing a suitcase of the family's cash, and having to deal with a lot of strange individuals (the hotel's weird staff, an ex girlfriend looking for him to pay off a debt, her new dorky fiancee, etc.). Kind of an acquired taste, and humor can be a tough sell cross culturally to boot, but it definitely had it's funny moments, and an absolutely awesome anime style intro introducing the players.
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City Hunter: Angel Dust (Blu-Ray) - Newest entry in this franchise that follows flirty sweeper (a gunman who takes on jobs people can't go to the police for) Ryo Saeba & his partner/romantic interest Kaori Makimura. It's been a few decades since the series was in the zeitgeist (though it got another film a few years earlier called "Shinjuku Private Eyes"), but they're finally after all these years animating the final arc(s) of the manga as movies, of which this is the first. This time they're after an experimental super soldier drug called Angel Dust (hence the title), which has links to the crime syndicate that murdered Ryo's first partner (whom was also Kaori's brother), as well as a man tied to Ryo's past. It certainly doesn't have the budget of one of today's big hits like Demon Slayer or whatever, but it gets the job done & is a fun watch for fans of the series.
Devotion (UHD Blu-Ray) - Another Hollywood tale of an unlikely Black & white friendship during a more prejudiced era, this time following Jessie Brown & Tom Hundley, fighter pilots during the onset of the Korean War. Narratively it doesn't really do anything all that new for the theme, but it's well made & pulls at the heart strings nonetheless. Definitely worth the watch for all the absolutely gorgeous flight footage too (there's just something about 30's - 50's propeller based fighters, amazingly beautiful machines). Reminded me a lot of Dunkirk in that specific regard.
Full Metal Jacket (UHD Blu-Ray) - Now for a much more cynical war film. Follows a batch of Marines (largely "Joker", who takes on a war correspondent position for the military paper) from boot camp to the jungles of Vietnam, where you'll see the mental toll the meat grinder of a war they're starting to lose (& where our the locals don't even seem to want them there) is starting to have on them, as well as the ways they cope (or fail to). It's hard stuff, but an absolute banger of a film.
Godzilla: Final Wars (Blu-Ray) - Made for the 50th anniversary of the franchise & the final entry in it's "Millennium Era" (after which it'd take a decade long break before the 2014 Hollywood film), it sees Big G & humanity facing off against alien invaders in control of a who's who of Godzilla's famous foes, whom have unleashed them upon the world's greatest cities (including the monster from the '98 Hollywood effort, here redubbed Zilla). Really feels like a celebration of the entire series as it indulges in a plethora of thematic call backs (aliens, psychics, mutants, magic, & more), but it really succeeds it making this seem like a true world ending event. It may feel a bit excessive at times, but it's a ton of fun for fans of the franchise.
Kingsman: the Secret Service (UHD Blu-Ray) - Looking back on it now the plot to this has some suspect elements (probably satire, but the villain is a wealthy environmentalist who's evil plan involves free phones/Internet for everyone, and even Obama is on board, lol), but even so this has to be one of my favorite spy flicks, & even action films in general. The action is visceral, and at a time when Bond (& other films of the genre) were trying to downplay fancy gadgets, this really doubled down on them & made them cool as heck.
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Topic: The Movie Thread
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