Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

Crazy Rich Asians - Hands down the best romantic comedy I have ever seen. It was funny, it was engaging, every character served a purpose, and it was entertaining from start to finish. It still followed all the normal rom-com tropes and it did have some moments where it felt like it was dragging on a bit, but overall a solid movie that was far better than several of the movies to come out this year so far.

Gatchaman 2013 - Wow, it's like someone hired the Japanese equivalent of Zack Snyder to turn Gatchaman into a soul less, deadpan serious, grim dark for the sake of grim dark, joyless, borefest. Did the person behind this film even watch the original series? If you want to see Gatchaman done right in live action, watch Jetman. If you need to cure your insomnia from a plot that makes absolutely no sense with actors who either forgot how to act or just don't know how to in the first place, this is the film for you. None of the villains received any sort of development at all, in fact, it looked like the production team just decided to rip off Kojima's Beauty and the Beast Corp with the villains of this thing. Not to mention the villains went from being a terrorist organization headed by an alien to some virus turning you into monsters bullshit. Oh, and where the hell were all of the mecha? It's hard to believe that this movie starred Shinken Red, Ultraman Geed, and the Spider Orphenoch. I can not believe the Japanese were willing to watch this piece of "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!". Not only is it worst than last year's Ghost in the Shell adaptation, but it's on the same levels as Dragonball Evolution and Netflix's Death Note film. Ugh. I'm giving this thing a generous 2/10 just because Jun used her yoyo attack.

[O.Supreme]

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

Molly's Game - Very good movie that was interesting and well acted. It did have its slow moments, but overall a very solid piece of entertainment. 8/10.

[lhb412]

Finally got around to watching Disney's movie Frozen. I know, I know, took me long enough. Two things a) I had no idea that were cute trolls in this movie. Did they not merchandize those guys? They're adorable! b) I know Idina Menzel gets all the props for her powerful pipes singing Let It Go, but Kristen Bell sings more in the movie and her songs tend to do the hard work of the plot, meaning she has to do a ton of acting in her singing and she does a great job. Love is an Open Door is actually the best song in the movie; most fun, most musically complex, and it's subtly dark.

Watch The Lost Boys for the first time and what was certainly more than a decade. The movie does a pretty great job straddling the line between horror movie with great monster makeup and and a not insubstantial amount of gore while at the same time being a kind of blockbuster rump that everyone in the family could conceivably like. That's a hard needle to thread, right? The muscle-bound saxophone singer guy has to be the most 80s human being to have ever existed.

I was kind of scratching my head at just how the half vampires could go so long without drinking any blood... as plot contrivances go, it seemed just a little bit too much of a stretch.

[Godzilla Vinyl Mania]

[canofhumdingers]

The Mysterians - I’ve been reading the recent Honda biography which has made me want to go revisit some of his early films. I haven’t watched this in many years. It’s a real shame there’s not a better quality copy available. I really enjoyed it and thought it must look absolutely glorious when seen in a better presentation than the old media blasters dvd (which is surprisingly poor quality...). It’s not a film I’d watch frequently, but it’s definitely a great piece of 50’s scifi. I also forgot how much influence this film seems to have had on the makers of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah ‘91.

Half-Human - sought this out because of the Honda book as well. It’s alright. I can see why there’s people offended by the hill people, but at the same time I think suppressing this is doing a disservice to history and progress. If you can’t see the sins of the past, how can you learn from and rise above them? Anyway, it’s an ok monster film. Not something I’ll be in a hurry to see again.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - watched this Netflix film with the wife last night. It’s a decent romantic period drama. The cinematography is pretty great. The lavish period sets and magnificent location shoots make it very nice to look at. The story itself is good enough, if a bit predictable and the acting is as good as you’d expect with a bunch of top notch BBC actors. It was interesting to see the actress who plays Jen on The IT Crowd in a different role.

[Dr Kain]

See, maybe it's because I grew up in a household that taught me to treat everyone equally, or maybe it's because I don't understand the discrimination against Ainu people (since all Japanese are of Ainu descent), but I saw nothing offensive in Half Human at all. They were just a bunch of villagers to me, no different than the Islanders in Mothra, the miners in Rodan, and the people in Varan.

[Godzilla Vinyl Mania]

Well, I saw Mission Impossible - Fallout last night. Awesome movie. Non stop action made 2 1/2 hours seem like nothing. Added bonus was seeing Godzilla - King of the Monsters trailer on the big screen. Damn, ....May is a long time away it seems.

[lhb412]

[canofhumdingers]

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

^ .... that's not how emotions or reactions work. King Kong '33 is my favorite movie, but it's also hella racist and makes me uncomfortable in parts the more I learn about history and the way stereotypes were propagated in popular narratives. I'm not being punished for liking the movie, it's just that I've learned more. Life is complicated.

[O.Supreme]

[lhb412]

^Holiday Inn is on TCM right now and Fred Astair is in blackface doing a minstrel show.

[O.Supreme]

Black Panther Just dropped on Netflix yesterday, and I watched it for the first time since my initial viewing in the theater. It's still a solid film, but not nearly as re watchable as I initially thought, it will probably get viewed less often than other MCU films. I find the backstory way more interesting that what goes on currently in that film. But unfortunately there's one line I forgot about that took me totally out of it:



I mean, I know Marvel films are filled with religious deities from many different cultures, but it doesn't quite make sense how a Central African culture could come to worship a Hindu deity? It would be like people in China revering Egyptian gods...

[Psycho Soldier]

There was some trade between India and East-Central African peoples/countries before colonialism and modern times, so Hanuman being worshiped by Wakandans begins to make sense. It does, however, raise questions about the history of Wakanda's isolationism.

[lhb412]

I imagined that Hanuman merged with or supplanted an earlier African gorilla deity. I really like that line, because, to me, it reflected the way religions change and merge with each other over time.

Orpheus

Jean Cocteau's classic film that stages the Greek myth in then modern France. The incredible, dreamlike in-camera effects are always well-loved in his films, and for good reason. There's nothing that beats simple tricks, when done well. They have an uncanny quality. Interestingly, just as Cocteau made the Beast more of an audience identification character than Beauty was in that film, so is Death a more sympathetic presence to the audience then Orpheus himself (who's a jerk).

[lhb412]

Finally caught the Tom Cruise version of Universal's The Mummy today. You know, it's not like anything in the movie was egregiously bad, save from a few awkward parts setting up its respective cinematic universe, it's just that nothing came together in a satisfying way for this movie. If the horror elements had been more, well, horrific, or if the action elements had been more legitimately thrilling the film would mostly work. As it is, merely being proficient just doesn't serve the film. Tom Cruise is likeable and charismatic , but the writing and the other characters don't support his performance in any way. It's a shame, if someone like Guillermo del Toro or Sam Raimi had directed this film, it's easy to see how they would sell the action/horror combo with a bit of humor (Cruise is funny in this, at certain points he's almost Bruce Campbell-esque). The female lead is dull and uninteresting, Jake Johnson is a funny actor yet his comic relief character is rarely funny in scenes where he's supposed to be playing off Tom Cruise who is funny in this movie (that's probably the most head-scratchingly bizarre thing about this film) and the titular mummy is interesting but underserved.

The film does get points for including Crusaders, Crusader tombs, and then bringing them back as a zombie Crusaders. That's just horror 101, but the somewhat intangible nature of the CGI zombies just means they lack presence in every sense and can't be truly scary.

[klen7]

^ i think thats fair. There were glimpses in the movie of something really good, but overall a big miss - now i am wondering if someone can sign Cruise to film full of one-liners

[O.Supreme]

X:Men Days of Future Past: The Rogue Cut This was something I always meant to see, but just forgot about, and figured was long OOP, but low and behold I just found it at the bargain bin at walmart! DOFP is my 2nd favorite X film behind First Class, so it was interesting to see a slightly different version of it-Anyway, the things I liked- a lot of additional tiny details. Just single lines of dialogue scattered *here and there* throughout the whole filmed, added just the right amount of story element. For Example, when they go to recruit Quicksilver, his little sister looks up at Logan and says "I'm a princess", and Logan drops his shades and says "I'm the Wolverine", to which the mother tells her "Go upstairs and play with your sister" -Indicating there is in fact another sister, perhaps Peter's twin, which we never see...Also some scenes were reworked such ads when Hank/Beast asks about his own future, and Logan tells him he doesn't make it (a quite moment in the mansion as opposed to placed elsewhere in the theatrical version). Things I didn't like- -President Nixon dropping the f-bomb needlessly ,Blue CG *almost* sex scene, and ironically, the whole "Rogue" subplot to rescue her as a replacement for Kitty. In the theatrical version, Kitty endures through her injuries long enough tofinish the mission, which makes the stakes seem much higher, than just having Rogue step in as *relief pitcher* for Kitty 3/4 of the way through the film.

So basically in my mind, there is an *ideal perfect* cut of this film which keeps the theatrical version, but just adds all the smaller dialogue additions and scenes form the Rogue Cut, but keeps out any scene rearrangements, or Rogue herself, except for at the very end.

[Dr Kain]

[eabaker]

We saw Searching over the weekend.

The whole computer-screen approach to telling the story was really effective, and they managed to use it in very clever and compelling ways. In particular, the opening minutes establish character and backstory very inventively.

However, in order to make such a complex storytelling device work, the story itself had to be extremely generic.

It was a great one-time viewing experience (and I'd definitely recommend viewing it in theaters, as that really contributes to the immersive impact), but I can't really imagine getting much out of a second viewing, except maybe to study the techniques. But I doubt there'd be anything much new to find re-watching for story.

[Dr Kain]

Oh, is that that stupid movie about the father looking for his missing daughter?

[lhb412]

Hmmm... I hear that movie is really good.