Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

Howl's Moving Castle - Next to Mononoke, this is the Miyazaki movie I've seen the most and I still don't completely understand this tale. I'm not sure why, but I feel it kind of loses itself when Sophie goes to meet the sorceress in the wheel chair. Part of it might be how they just randomly wipe out the entire threat of the Witch of the Waste without any sort of conflict, another part might just be how poorly paced the last 40 minutes feels. I'm also not a fan of the sudden ending. "Oh, they're happy, let's end the war." Because that's exactly how wars end, on the whim of someone's mood. -_- Then there's also how Sophie just randomly transitions from young to old throughout the film without any explanation as to why or how, it just happens and no one seems to bother reacting to it. They just ignore it. Fortunately, those are just minor nitpicks in a very magical tale that is great fun. I just wish it was as good as some of Miyazaki's other works. Still, it does get a solid 8/10.

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

A Futile and Stupid Gesture - This is a comedy biopic about the rise and fall of Doug Kenney, the creator of National Lampoon, Caddyshack and Animal House. It walks an interesting line in telling a true story about a troubled but successful comedian, kind of like 'Man on the Moon' or 'Lenny' but more relevant to my interests because the work of these comedians I am more familiar with. It didn't seem too kind to Chevy Chase

Last Jedi - I actually enjoyed this considerably more the second time I watched it. There's a couple scenes that still feel off kilter, but I do enjoy how subversive the film is in addressing the criticisms of the new SW universe. In a lot of ways it could have been a better starting point for a new story than TFA. Maz Kanata should have been cut or reworked.

[O.Supreme]

Incredibles 2 Took the family to see this on Saturday. To me this felt a lot like GotG2 in that, during the film, there were some good laughs, but it is more or less forgettable. I'm not saying it was a bad film, but other than what was already shown in the trailers, there isn't much that sticks with you. What I thought was odd was, before going in the theater, and even onscreen before the film itself, there were warnings about "light sensitivity" in some scenes. I understand some of the Screen Slaver scenes had that effect, but I'm not sure if this was the same effect that Pokémon incident from 20 years ago had. Were people actually having seizures or complaining about illness because of the effect? Or was this just a case of Disney being proactive and CTA?

[klen7]

i posted an article in one of the threads around here about it, but they added it after the opening weekend after the concern was raised. It wasn't a "mass seizure" situation like Pokemon, but for people with migraines, vertigo or epilepsy it could really ruin their day.

[lhb412]

[Psycho Soldier]

- Don Frye finally plays the role he was born to play: Mike Haggar, the wrestling mayor of Metro City. But he spends most of this fan film delivering lines from behind a podium, which is definitely not his strong suit. The real focus is on Cody, who throws down with some Mad Gear goons as Metro City's crime rate skyrockets. His bloodthirsty love of fighting alarms his friend Guy, however. The short film is a deliberate throwback to the '80s, with its synthwave soundtrack and colourful lighting, and features some nice cinematography and fight choreography. A few aspects reminded me that it's ultimately a fan film -- Guy's outfit, some of the acting -- but for a 30-minute fan film based on a beat-'em-up, it's pretty damn good. It'll convince you a feature-length, big-budget Final Fight movie is more than doable. I'll give it a 7.5/10.

[lhb412]

I splurged on Criterions 'cause of the sale. First up: the original, Val Lewton produced Cat People. The first of Lewton's string of cheap, B-horror pictures for RKO that were actually dark, psychological fantasy films set in realistic environments that Lewton was able to pass off as populist exploitation pictures because they had two or three great scare sequences per movie (including really pioneering the jump scare). This ended up being a really interesting series of films with really great subject matter, but it's hard to beat the hook of this one: a beautiful but shy women is afraid of becoming sexually excited because she believes it'll cause her to become a enormous cat and kill her man. The fact that it's so dark and complex a subject for the '40s and must be told by suggestion and visual metaphor just makes it more compelling to watch now.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

The Company of Wolves

Adaptation of Angela Carter's short story from her book The Bloody Chamber (actually it contains elements from at least three stories in the book). It's mainly a kind of psychosexual reading of Little Red Riding Hood, but also contains stories within the main story. Besides having a wonderful, dreamlike feel that captures the uneasiness of real fairy tales and has some really cool werewolf effects what makes this film a must-see is that it's the most accurate to folklore representation of werewolves I've ever seen onscreen. These are truly distinct from the Universal Studios descended lychanthropes that constitute 99.9% of all film and television werewolves.

I'm happy to finally see this; it's now on Amazon Prime. This has been something of a hard-to-find film for me for years.

[Benjamin Haines]

Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018) - Really damn good. I was expecting something about as good as the first Ant-Man but it's much better. Everything feels more confident and ambitious without ever losing sight of the story's personal stakes. The world isn't in danger but the characters are a delight to watch and that keeps this zippy adventure compelling throughout. Evangeline Lilly shines as The Wasp, Paul Rudd and Michael Pena are hilarious, Michael Douglas brings gravitas to Hank Pym, and Randall Park is a welcome addition as FBI Agent Jimmy Woo. The film uses the heroes' size-changing and the villain's matter-phasing abilities inventively to make for some of the most original action sequences in the MCU thus far.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

^ As someone who loves books of fairytales I love the format of the movie. I love the idea of characters within a story telling a story.

[Dr Kain]

Ponyo - The first time I watched this I absolutely despised it. Now watching it again, it's really not all that bad. It's still easily Miyazaki's weakest film, but it's pretty sweet and is effective in the narrative it is going for. I do feel like the lack of an actual villain, or some sort of antagonist, hinders the film, but for what it is, it's cool. Also, while I know it isn't in every film of his, I always find it odd when there isn't an airship of sorts flying around since that seems to be something Miyazaki loves. Anyway, I give the film a nice 8/10.

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla - 9/10

[O.Supreme]

Stargate On the very short list of "Films by Devlin and Emmerich that are actually good" Stargarte has always been a film I've enjoyed and had fun watching, its been at least 5 years and wanted to revisit it again. I still wish we would have gotten proper sequels. I mean SG1 was a pretty good show until the last couple seasons, Atlantis was *meh* and Origins was garbage. But it reminded me of a creativity in Hollywood that seems to be missed, or at least is a conundrum. people say they are tired of sequels, reboots, etc... and want more original films, but when original films come out, they very rarely do well financially. Stargate just reminds me of a time when things weren't so complex, a nice fun action movie, that doesn't make sense, but isn't insulting either. Besides that, Ego and Ultron get to hang out together

[Dr Kain]

The Wind Rises - Such a beautiful, yet tragic movie. There is so much suspense going into the film given you know where Jiro's dream will lead to Japan and everything that occurs throughout is so well done. His dream sequences are exceptional and I kind of feel like Caproni also symbolizes Miyazaki in a way. Overall, just amazing and easily Miyazaki's best film (even though it isn't my favorite). 10/10.

With that said, I have now watched all of his films in release order, so here is my ranking of them right now (I say right now because repeated viewings on some of them could elevate them):

1. Princess Mononoke
2. The Wind Rises
3. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
4. Spirited Away
5. Lupin III The Castle of Cogliostro
6. My Neighbor Totoro
7. Howl's Moving Castle
8. Kiki's Delivery Service
9. Porco Rosso
10. Castle in the Sky
11. Ponyo

[jellydonut25]

Annihilation - Amazing. Movie of the year so far (keeping in mind my 'to see' list for the first half of the year is still like 10+ movies)

[lhb412]

^ Hell, yeah!

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

Watched Mad Ron's Trailers From Hell, a collection of horror movie trailers punctuated by skits from the '80s. Some of the movies look pitiful, some look interesting (is 'Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things' good?), some are movies I knew about, and others are just vile - including a 'tribal cannibalism' movie and exploitation documentary footage featuring heaps of real dead bodies in Africa. Really disgusting. In terms of content, I don't know if anything in the American mainstream can top the bad taste of the grindhouse era. Also on Netflix, I watched the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential, about the squeaky-clean '50s star and how he was a closeted gay man. Tab actually died about a week ago, and the takeaway from this movie is that even in his 80s Tab seemed just like the handsome, decent guy he played in the movies. Seriously charming!

Saw Sorry to Bother You this weekend. I definitely recommend this crazy movie, but it does have that 'first-time director' problem where the director has put all of his lifetime of good ideas into this one movie and it feels like they're crowding each other out and stepping on each other's toes. It's about a down-on-his luck black guy who finds success in telemarketing after discovering his ability to do an impeccable 'white voice'... and then things become far stranger and even more surreal after that. My favorite bits of this movie are actually on the margins, like how Tessa Thompson's character makes anti-establishment art that we later see being displayed in an establishment type's house (that's pretty much the entirety of art history condensed into a haiku).

[Dr Kain]

The Breaking Point - Excellent movie that I had never heard of until earlier this year when Criterion released it. Well shot, a couple of twists and turns I didn't see coming. Lots of great cinematography and dialog. Now I really have to see this Bogart adapation that was talked about in the bonus features to compare. If I had any complaints it would be his kids really needed a good spanking for the way they would talk back. I give it a solid 10/10.

[UltraDada72]

I recently saw a Netflix original called The Discovery with Robert Redford as a scientist who's recently revealed his findings about there being life after death. It was an interesting, slow burn film.

[The Shadow]

I went see Ant Man and The Wasp this week. The movie is great, I loved it, AMaTW is at least as good as the first movie, maybe even better. (I definitely agree with everything Benjamin Haines wrote) The movie is solidly fun to watch throughout, the story is well done and the characters are (and continue) to be great. I like that the they movie team chose not to go with typical "big world ending disaster" type of story because the story we have tells the story of the characters well. The action scenes are great, and whoever developed the fight choreography for the Wasp deserves an award -- the Wasp fights distinctly different from Ant-Man (and male characters in general).

[Dr Kain]

North by Northwest - 10/10

[O.Supreme]

Finally rented Rampage at Redbox. I don't know...I guess it wasn't my thing (despite really enjoying the video games). I know it was not trying to take itself seriously, but it was more intense than I expected, and it wasn't "fun" like so many other people I heard say it was. There were a couple "Hay That's Rampage" moments in the 3rd act, but that's about it. I found George as a whole lackluster, I was way more fascinated by Ralph (which they showed little of), and Lizzie was by far my favorite. None of the human actors were that great, but I guess when compared with the brother/sister villain team (which were cringe worthy), that doesn't seem too bad. I don't exactly know why a lot of people are comparing this with PR: Uprising, maybe because they came out around the same time, and both involved monsters, but I much prefer PR: U to Rampage, but that's just me. Poor Dwayne Johnson hasn't had a good year, looks like he's be banking on his FF spinoff, or the next Jumanji to put him back on top.