Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

Halloween III - 9/10

[lhb412]

^^ That movie is a pretty big deal. I've heard and read multiple times that it was the first Hollywood movie to treat ghosts seriously, not in a comedic way or by explaining the haunting away Scooby-Doo style at the end (which was a very common plot device in the first part of the 20th century). Add that to the fact that it was a higher-profile movie with name stars and not some lowly B Movie so it got more respect, too.

Wat1ched Jason Takes Manhattan and oh boy, isn't this a movie that fails to deliver the bare minimum of what you want it to. There's about 4 minutes in there where Jason is menacing the passengers of a subway and then stomping through Time Square that feels like the movie you wanted to see. Also, it seems they coated Kane Hodder in glycerin to make Jason always appear wet, but depending on the lighting he sometimes just appears to be covered in goo.

Wolf Guy is a Sonny Chiba action movie where, in addition to beating the stuffing out of various groups of people like always, he's also supposed to be a werewolf. We don't see him transform, however, because they don't have the budget to show it. Still, the film assures us that he is a werewolf.

... aaand watched the original The Wicker Man

[Dr Kain]

Godzilla 54 - 10/10

Halloween II- 8/10

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I did end up giving up on a movie a day but since I last posted I watched the following movies

Ginger Snaps 2- Was an ok sequel but I prefer the first movie. I kind of want to see a sequel to this because they left it wide open for one at the very end. 7.5 out of 10.

Bonehill Road- A terrible low budget werewolf movie, the only redeeming thing about it was the werewolf costumes which looked amazing. 6 out of 10

An American Werewolf in London- I just got Arrow's new set in and watched this last night. My god they did an amazing job with the remaster and the only thing that could have made it better is if it had been a 4K disc with HDR. As for the movie itself its easily my second favorite werewolf movie of all time. The original Wolf Man from 41 barely beats it. 10 out of 10

The Wolf Man (41)- This has become a spooky season tradition for me easily the best werewolf movie ever made in my opinion. 11 out of 10.

[Dr Kain]

Godzilla Raids Again - 7/10

King Kong vs Godzilla - 8/10

[Dr Kain]

And finishing off Halloween for 2019 we watched Trick r Treat, which sticks with its nice 9/10 score.

[lhb412]

[klen7]

I haven't had much time/energy for movies lately, but I did revisit '28 Days Later' for Halloween - The soundtrack for this is easily my favorite outside of nostalgic favorites like Indiana Jones or Star Wars. I still really dig this movie but man I need to upgrade, I got the DVD when it was first released (which proudly proclaims its the Widescreen version all over the packaging). The rage infected are a nice twist on the zombie genre before the zombie wave hit.

[lhb412]

^ I believe there's a limit to how good that movie can look because it was filmed on a low quality digital format, one of several movies from the turn of the century that experimented with digital filming and weren't done any favors by the HD revolution a few years later.

[Dr Kain]

Terminator Dark Fate - This wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. It's cliche, very predictable, and doesn't have an original idea at all, but it does have some cool concepts, it drops Skynet and replaces it with a different program that was developed, and the acting is not bad. It may actually be the best movie in the series since Terminator 2, though that isn't saying too much considering you have Salvation in there. Also, the T1000 2.0 was neat. If you are looking to be entertained, you could do a lot worse with some of the movies that have come out this year, though, it will most definitely won't win you over if you already know you want to hate the movie. I'm giving it a 6/10.

[lhb412]

For anyone sad Halloween TV programming is over: IFC is doing 'Halloween After Halloween,' so horror until tomorrow evening!

[Dr Kain]

Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster - 9/10

Invasion of Astro-Monster - 9/10

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[lhb412]

^ Thanks for the tip!

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[lhb412]

Watched the remake of The Blob and it's a lot of fun. It updates it with 80s creature effects and a pretty big plot twist, but it still retains that Drive-In Creature Feature feel and teen-centric storyline that were the defining features of the original.

The Blob effects are awesome, but sometimes I'm of two minds about them. Often The Blob appears to take a semi-solid form, like a mass of cancer, and in addition to its standard absorption it also secretes a kind of acid that starts burning and dissolving before it even gets on you. Those creative decisions make sense and are applied in interesting ways in the movie, but at the same time I wonder if it takes away from the essential
blobiness; the simplicity of a blob that is just a blob.

[Dr Kain]

Annabelle 3 - The sequel to the prequel's prequel that might actually be a sequel to the sequels the prequels were a prequel to, or some "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" like that. I have no friggin idea what the hell is going on in this timeline anymore, but it's more convoluted than necessary, though it matters not because this movie is just as cliche and boring as the rest in this forsaken crapfest of a universe. A ghost throwing up on someone? Check. A fake jump scare immediately followed by an actual jump scare? Check. Someone falling to the ground and then the camera shows them getting dragged away from the front? Check. On the positive side, there was at least a cool scene in the daughter's room dealing with a lamp with a spinning color shade that looks like a Simon Says machine. I'll give this one a 5/10 because it was at least better than the other two. I guess third time's the charm on making a less "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" movie, right?

[klen7]

Jojo Rabbit - I got a chance to see this one last weekend. There's some dark humor and heart throughout, great performances from Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant, and the three main younger actors. The trailers tend to avoid giving much outside of the first 20 minutes away, so I won't say much else about it, but it's a heartfelt WW2 dramedy that echoes "Life is Beautiful" more than "What We Do in the Shadows". It's very interesting to see the narrative from the perspective of a child that is brought up in Nazi Germany. I think that aspect really stuck with me the most and is what makes it a unique experience humor or not.

[Dr Kain]

I started watching the Heisei Godzilla movies since I finished the Showa set and decided to just make up some alternate names for each film I've watched so far.

Godzilla 84 - It's Time to Get Serious!

Godzilla vs Biollante - Feed Me Shirogami.

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah - Back in Time to Bone Your Ancestor!

Godzilla vs Mothra - Y'All Suck!

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla - Godzilla and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad English.

[lhb412]

Happily, in the last week the two big art house features making the rounds throughout the country finally came to my local theaters.

In The Lighthouse Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are newbie and veteran lighthouse keepers stuck together on a small island manning the lighthouse. Well, Dafoe's character really mans the lighthouse and he gives all the grunt work to Pattinson's character. That's one of the many sources of friction that develops between the two as they're forced to spend time in isolation with one another. Things get weird... and grueling. It's a weird, grueling movie that is certainly not for everyone. I'd say it's a pretty clear example of a love-it-or-hate-it movie, but you can't deny the extraordinary strength of the two performances nor the fact that is incredibly beautiful film shot in gorgeous black and white.

Parasite is everything you've heard it is. This is director Bong Joon-Ho's new thriller/drama/comedy about a poor family that cleverly cons their way into becoming the household staff for a rich family. I don't want to give away any of the surprises of the movie and I recommend you not look up any spoilers.

If you loved The Host; Parasite is to the Old Dark House genre what The Host was for creature features - a funny, modern, and very political take on a genre.

[XvGojira]

Lady and the Tramp 2019 - Watched this after the first awesome episode of The Mandalorian last night.

There's some dodgy animal CGI, but mostly relegated to background dogs (mostly the pound scene/musical number). I was surprised at how much CG was used, as I thought it going to mostly be CG mouth movements on live footage of dogs but there's a lot more whole CG dogs than I expected. While it might not be Lion King level of "real" looking (I admit i haven't seen it but I've heard the CG looks great in the Lion King), it is more than serviceable to me.

The voice cast does a fantastic job. Sam Elliot was perfect for Trusty and having an actual Scott for Jock is wonderful. There isn't any real "bad" voice acting. The Siamese cats do show up, but only have one scene, singing a new song that's not racist, but felt like they had less screen time than the original pair.

It's not a big production of a film, compared to Disney's recent theatrical remakes, and I think it is better due to that. Expanding this to epic proportions would have ruined this simple story. If Disney treated most of their remakes like this instead stuffing the box office with them, then there wouldn't be as much decrying about them. They'd just be like the DTV sequels from the 90's.

When all's said and done, this movie is just adorable and I love it for that.

[Dr Kain]

Jesus, Disney just isn't laying off the unneccessary "live action" adaptations even on their streaming service, huh? There's a reason it wasn't brought to theaters.

Anyway, I couldn't decide which title to give Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla, so I am posting all of the ones I thought up. Tell me which is your favorite.

Godzilla Hits Rock Bottom
The Insomniac Killer
The Day Insomnia Died
Hello Sleep, My Old Friend

Godzilla vs Destoroyah: Godzilla vs The Totally Most Definitely Not Crustacean Xenomorphs

[lhb412]

* banging pots and pans *

Tetsuo The Iron Man is now on Shudder

* banging pots and pans *

[XvGojira]

Dolemite Is My Name - A great film. Touching, funny, and a fantastic feel good movie. Apparently it some sort of theatrical release just so that it COULD be considered for the Oscars, which I think it deserves to be at least be nominated.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I've finished off Phase 2 of the MCU in 4K so I'll give a brief thought on the movies and how I thought they looked in 4K

Thor: The Dark World- The movie was okay I think I prefer it slightly better than the first movie, but its nowhere near as good as Ragnarok. The 4K was okay, not as good as The Winter Soldier's 4K transfer but fairly decent.

Iron Man 3- I really enjoyed this my first viewing in Theaters but the second viewing I thought it was just ok, I think my favorite of the Iron Man trilogy is IM2. The 4K transfer wasn't that great it only had a few scenes that really popped for 4K and HDR.

Guardians of the Galaxy- The movie itself is great. I really love this movie. The 4K was probably the worst of the bunch which is a shame because Vol 2 from my understanding get excellent marks for 4K, I still haven't watched it in 4K when it first came out I rented it from VUDU and didn't have a 4K HDR TV yet.

Avengers: Age of Ultron- I like this movie I got some enjoyment out of it, Spader does an amazing job as Ultron and the events of this have some serious ramifications for the rest of the MCU. The 4K HDR transfer was good no where near as good as the first Avengers but good.

Antman- When this movie came out in 2015 I had no interest in it but I watched it any way because I wanted to see all the movies in the MCU and to my surprise it was a really enjoyable, fun film. As for the 4K HDR transfer, like the movie itself it really surprised me and was easily the best of the phase 2 MCU films.

Overall I thought phase 2 was excellent, it did a great job of introducing new characters that would become major in the grand scheme of the Infinity Saga as well as introducing the infinity stones.

That being said I'm now going to work on the final phase of the "Infinity" saga, which I started tonight. I'll give my final thoughts on that when I go through all the films in it.