Topic: The Movie Thread

Movies I've watched over the past couple weeks:

Blazing Saddles (Blu-Ray) - Definitely delivers quite a few laughs during it's runtime (I especially liked the Looney Tunes-esque bits), and I can definitely see why it would have been such a seminal satire for it's era, but like most films made before the 80's I kinda found it hard to really connect to it on a personal level (just a bit too far culturally removed I guess). Still a pretty good film though.

Heaven's Lost Property the Movie: the Angeloid of Clockwork (Blu-Ray) - Anime film that follows up the two HLP TV series. Kinda disappointing as the first half is just an abridged retelling of the preceding shows, and once it does get to the meat of things it feels more like a side step narratively than a way forward, but if you liked the shows (which I'd only recommend if you like raunchy comedies), it may be worth a watch.

Kingsman: the Secret Service (Blu-Ray) - Perhaps the best action flick of the 2010's? Every single action scene is just as exciting today as they were when it first released, it successfully modernizes the "Bond" archetype movie going experience by making dapper chaps in suits with fancy gizmos awesome instead of cheesy. It maybe loses a bit of something once Colin Firth is written out, but is still highly enjoyable.

Troy (Blu-Ray) - the Extended cut. Absolutely fantastic historical epic. Top notch acting performances from everyone involved, incredibly immersive epic scale recreation of Troy & the battles surrounding it, and some great action (especially that fight between Hector & Achilles). My only criticism is that I got a little tired of how constantly brown/beige the whole color pallet looked, but that's a small issue.

Watchmen (*Blu-Ray) - The Director's Cut. I have quite a bit of nostalgia for this one, though I'll admit I didn't quite like it as much this time as I did in the past. Still a great film though, and much more interesting take on the superhero genre than most of the "cinematic universe" superhero films we get these days.

Films I watched over the weekend.

Alien Romulus (Cinema) - No overwrought lore and overbearing technical jargon kept to a limit, this is a back to basics affair that follows a group of scared youths fighting for their lives against unimaginable horrors amongst the decaying husk of an orbital research station. It's absolutely stunning, brutal, tense, icky, and the best thing I've seen in theatres since Dune Part 2. If you have even a passing interest in deep space/future sci-fi you owe it to yourself to see this.

Gran Torino (Blu-Ray) - Every once in awhile my parents will introduce me to a movie that I otherwise wouldn't watch but end up loving, and this is one of those films (though this isn't the first time I watched it). Clint Eastwood plays the role of a crotchety (& kinda racist) old man who forms a connection with a new immigrant family next door, and in his own way tries to keep their teenaged children from falling in/victim to the local gang(s).

Heaven's Lost Property Final (Blu-Ray) - What a load of crock. Following on from the preceding two TV series & film in the HLP franchise, this film seeks to be the big finale, or at least the title would lead you to believe so. However in practice this has to be the most ill conceived/mismanaged efforts in closure I've ever seen (even by anime standards of "we're cancelling the series before reaching the manga's conclusion", it's terrible). Starts out in the middle of the big climactic final battle with no context as to what's going on, precedes to have a 40 minute long flashback (which is like 90% of the film's runtime) that never gets around to addressing how the final battle begins, then in it's final moments returns to the "present" only to not show how things end either.

Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs (Blu-Ray) - For the first ever feature length animation this has a lot of elements that still impress (like a lot of the water effects, such as when the camera is looking up at the titular heroine from the inside of a well), you can really tell that the animators really poured their heart & soul into this as they had everything riding on it. That said it's characters don't have much in the way of character, especially Snow White (and her "Prince Charming", who shows up like twice), although the dwarfs have a few good comedic relief bits.

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).

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.

@RR529 You watched some solid films.

@MsJubilee, thanks for taking the time to read!

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.

I watched Furiosa, which I thought was terrific, it does everything you’d expect from a Mad Max film, very visual and kinetic and also odd and funny.

@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.

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.

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).

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).