Recently watched movies!

[O.Supreme]

Batman Begins Haven't watched this in a while, but I remember seeing this in the theater. People were still unsure based on the Shumacher films from 95 & 97, even though this was 7 years later (2005). I remember how amazing this film felt, and even now. In some add ways, I enjoy it more than The Dark Knight. Of course in TDK, Heath Ledger is amazing, all the actors are, but I think Batman Begins has just an overall better story, probably the best most compelling Batman origin story to date. I don't watch this one often, but when I do, it always reminds me just what a great film it is.

The Dark Knight - I really cant say much that hasn't already been said, though now that my kids are older, this was their first viewing of the film. The fact that my son was amazed how *intelligent* the Joker was in his madness was a pretty good testament. Sure in reality we can all poke little holes in the plan, but the film was well executed. Also I find it a bit odd now that Joker was explaining to Harvey how he didn't plan things out, that he was "like a dog chasing a car"...but as the film moved from one criminal act to the next, they all had to be very well planned out. I still wonder what the 3rd film would have been like had Ledger not taken his own life.

[canofhumdingers]

Batman Begins is great! I agree that it’s actually probably the best live action Batman film ever made.

As for the Joker “dog chasing cars” comment; he wasn’t telling Harvey the truth. He was telling Harvey what Harvey needed to hear to give him that “little push”...

[klen7]

[lhb412]

^

[MekaGojira3k]

Communion (1989)
Well, it certainly is a thing. I feel as though Walken's weirdness is the only thing worth watching, and there's some interesting ideas, but none of it really plays out in a cohesive way.

[jellydonut25]

Shape of Water - Much like GDT’s other movies (almost all of them), it’s very fairytale driven and trades in on a lot of tropes and stereotypes. That does kinda hamstring the movie, but it will play nicely to the Hellboy 2 crowd. It’s far from perfect but really damn fun. Somewhat similar to La La Land last year for me except not QUITE as high on my list. Still, solid 4/5.

[lhb412]

The Green Slime

Linda Miller is in this movie for like 20 seconds!

You know, Commander Rankin really is a jerk. I've seem this movie three or four times at this point and I'm still not sure the movie's stance on whether the character is right or not. For the first half it seems we're supposed to agree with his 'he's harsh, but he gets results' methods, but a lot of the time he just seems to be an ass for no reason. When the first creature appears and he wants to shoot it and Commander Elliot wants to capture it and then the capture fails and people get hurt we're supposed to agree with Rankin's position, but Elliot's was much wiser: they'd know more about what they're dealing with if they could study one of them. It was unsuccessful, but that was just bad luck. Pretty much all of the successes and failures on the part of their war of ideologies can be drummed up to luck, since they're dealing with an alien with unknown abilities and they're just making the best guesses they can.

[klen7]

Linda Miller ::swoons::

[Dr Kain]

Darkest Hour - What a damn good "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" movie this was!!!!!!!! Everyone did an excellent job, especially Gary Oldman who was nearly unrecognizable. Everything worked so well and the film went into areas I did not expect to see. There was never a dull moment as the pacing was outstanding. If I have any minor nitpick with it it is that it was way too short. They could have easily added on another hour. 10/10.

[lhb412]

Watched The Shape of Water!

Yes, finally!

After almost two months the movie is finally in true wide release after playing in most major metropolitan centers since December. I loved it, but I've still got a lot of stuff swirling in my head about it and want to see it again before I write abut my thoughts about it in detail.

- but the day before I saw it I watched GDT's previous film, the tragically underrated gothic romance (with ghosts) Crimson Peak. Dig this flick. It's more like one of GDT's blockbuster action films than his smaller films, but unfortunately audiences didn't share his belief that women in sumptuous, ornate dresses walking through creepy, ornate, sumptuous gothic corridors was as enjoyable as superheroes fighting monsters or robots fighting monsters. This is really a film were you've gotta be down for what he's selling. If you don't want to see a film that looks like what one of those Edgar Allan Poe films starring Vincent Price would look like if they had 50 million dollars to spend then you're probably not going to like the movie. The movie isn't going to convert people who don't like the genre with some greater message or something, instead it leans hard into the tropes of the gothic, of the haunted house movie, so much that if you're the type to complain about cliché your head will spin, but it's GDT's love of those clichés that made him make the film in the first place, you see? The only subversion to the tropes is in Edith's sexuality. GDT loves a lot of the old fashioned stuff but has no patience for the belief that virginity equals goodness, which was probably the most steadfast trope of all. In Crimson Peak Edith is both sexual and full of goodness, a clear subversion to the past, but not enough of a subversion for people who'd prefer the movie was more of a commentary or modern take on the thing instead of the thing itself.


Also, Burn Gorman kills it in this film and he only has three short scenes. I'm so glad his character from PacRim is back and seemingly more prominent in the sequel!

[eabaker]

Finally got around to seeing The Shape of Water last night, and I am very much not a fan. It was heavy-handed, ponderously paced, and burdened with a ton of redundant scenes and go-nowhere narrative threads. Lots of great ideas, but Del Toro really needed to kill a lot of babies.

[lhb412]

^ Totally disagree. I think the plot was secondary to the minutia.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

^If you like Vincent Price/Roger Corman movies you'll probably like Crimson Peak.

Maybe.

It's totally tropey. You'll figure out where it's going immediately. I don't care.

[eabaker]

[jellydonut25]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - It’s a movie that I’ve now seen. That is a statement of fact and also the extent of my review.

[Dr Kain]

I love the Vincent Price movies, but I thought Crimson Peak was subpar at best. Not the most boring Del Toro film I've seen (that still goes to Pan's Labyrinth), but it was pretty generic.

[canofhumdingers]

[eabaker]

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

^I don't understand. When watching a film you realize is a different genre then what was sold don't you readjust your expectations?

Deep Red

A psychic giving a lecture senses the presence of a murderer in the theater audience. Later than night she is murdered, a murder partially witnessed by another tenant of her building, a pianist. The pianist (and not, say, a cop) decides to follow the clues and find the murderer, and the bodycount mounts.

Dario Argento did this movie right before Suspiria, and it's similarly stylish and with a thunderingly awesome score by Goblin. Sadly, it seems the US version (the one on Amazon Prime) is cut by about 20 minutes from the Italian original.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

^