Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Uuugghhh... hearing that Underwater is a pretty solid base-under-siege type of monster movie. Still need to see Uncut Gems and Little Women. Kind of want to see Parasite and Knives Out again before home video... the films they are a'piling up! So many good movies lately.

^ It's and iconic, beloved story and I know absolutely nothing about it - so I'm looking forward to finding out about it.

^ Second chances!

Uncut Gems

Absolutely dynamite crime/thriller/dark comedy starring Adam Sandler as a jeweler and gambling addict who, despite being in deep trouble, can't resist the compulsion to make bigger and bigger wagers. Terrific film. Great performances, and nice use of non-professional actors in small roles essentially playing themselves as well as a few celebrities who pop-up playing themselves (one brief cameo is especially funny).

Underwater at the local City Lights Theater. It was pretty decent.
The effects were good, the story was decent, and man did it feel like you were underwater.

Thunderbolt Fantasy-The Bewitching Melody of the West - Another great entry in the fantastic wuxia series. It focuses mainly on the origins of Lang Wu Yao and how he met and eventually joined Shang Bu Huan. If you're a fan of the series you won't be disappointed with this entry.

Ringu - All right, this movie is actually really good. I could have sworn it was more in your face with its scares, but they actually slowly build up Sadako for the entire movie before fully showing her off and the characters are really well written and acted. Consider me impressed.

^ Glad you enjoyed it!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The story is a massive dud. It fails as a finale for this trilogy of films in a desperate bid to try to be a finale to all nine films... of which it also fails is a finale. The plot is the worst kind of ramshackle, hastily constructed Hollywood Blockbuster tripe. Nevertheless, it's fairly light on its feet and entertaining as you're watching it. There are some cool puppets and Anthony Daniels really gets to shine as C-3PO in what I understand is his final performance of the character.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Whoa, Nelly! Now this is a fun action adventure film. It attempts to essentially do what the Mission Impossible movies did in adapting an old spy show into a modern James Bond alternative, this time with a bit more humor and an absurd amount of style - and I must say it's a smashing success! Too bad it failed in the box office and the planned series never continued. This would have made a great franchise.

Parasite - We originally planned to see Color out of Space tonight but every showing through Monday is sold out, so we decided to see Parasite instead. I have to admit, I was disappointed in some regard as the trailers made this seem like it was a horror movie and it most definitely was NOT a horror movie. Moving past that, holy christ this movie was "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" phenomenal! This is actually the first Korean movie I have ever watched and now I have a whole new area of movies to check out. Is this how poor people are treated in Korea for real? Because if so, that's "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" disgusting and every rich person there should die a painful death!

Jumanji: The Next Level

Huh, who would have thought that Sony Pictures would have turned Jumanji into a wildly successful and, more importantly, good franchise!? This film carries over the same fun character stuff from the first reboot but adds a few new characters and interesting twists along the way to keep things fresh. It's like the textbook example of what most people want when they want a sequel.

Color Out of Space - 7/10. Not the worst Lovecraft adaptation ever, but certainly not even close to the best.

Ring - Just as good as it was in theaters two weeks ago. 9/10

Spiral - Wow, just wow. I would ask if the director even bothered to watch the previous movie, but apparently it was released as a double feature with Ring, so he clearly did not. You would think they would have had the directors actually communicate with each other so that they could actually be on the same page. Instead, Sadako is now a friggin virus that kills people and no one has their faces twisted up. Wow, that's friggin dumb, really dumb. Oh, and Reiko's son dies despite them establishing at the end of the first movie that copying the tape and showing it to someone removes the curse. Way to do your freaking research people. Not to mention that Ryuji didn't even feel like he was the same character and the whole movie made no sense whatsoever. Also, Sadako did all that to get reborn? What the hell? It doesn't help that the movie had absolutely no sense of suspense or atmosphere at all. I guess the only positive I can say is that I've seen worse Japanese films. 3/10

Ring 2 - A much much better sequel compared to Spiral, though I have to feel back for Reiko since things do not go well for her in either sequel. Regardless, unlike Spira, this one actually has suspense and tension in it, especially the scene in the Inn with Sadako and her mother infront of the mirror, which was awesome. As was the scene when the phoographer was taking a picture of reconstructed Sadako skull. Sure, it isn't as good as the first one, but it didn't have to be, it just need to be good and that is exactly what it was.

Two things I do want to note for the discs themselves:

1. I'm not sure I'm a fan of Arrow not having the US release have the subs for American English. It just looks so odd seeing "Mummy" in the text instead of "Mommy." If she were a mummy, she'd be wrapped up in bandages and having everyone around her chant, "Imhotep."

2. Why didn't they make it a FULL collection and include the Sadako 3D and VS films? It sounds weird being the Ring Collection, but only including four of the 9 movies. Ring Trilogy would have made better sense, especially since they count Spiral as a bonus feature.

Being a Liam Neeson fan, my wife rented a recent flick of his called COLD PURSUIT. OMG... one of the stupidest films I have ever had the displeasure to watch. I'm guessing Liam took the job for a few months worth of free skiing at the resort in the film ... and of course the paycheck. But UGH! what a flippin' mess of a movie. Avoid at all costs.

^^ Eh, I don't mind Arrow's subs being British English. I understand they're primarily a UK distributor and their US releases are a side business.

I think the other movies are claimed by different distributors. Arrow's set, however, contains the original run of films from the series' heyday (with overlapping cast and staff between them, unlike the more loosely connected reboots and distant sequels) so it's complete in that regard.

^ Apparently the US licensor insists on "Ringu"

Ring 0 - While it started out quite a bit slow for its first half, it ended up being really good. Perhaps even better than second film in the series as it had a lot more suspense and tension built up before it went all out crazy. I thoroughly enjoyed it immensely. Despite being a prequel, it doesn't contradict everything that came beforehand and while it does get a tad convoluted, it still manages to tie everything together nicely. The color being sucked out of the film when Sadako goes into rage mode was pretty clever. Overall, despite being a prequel, it is a nice conclusion to the trilogy.

I'm actually quite glad I bought this box set. Not just because I ended up enjoying the movies more than I ever thought I would, but the bonus features were outstanding. This is the first Arrow release I have ever bought and I would say they are on par with Criterion. In fact, when it comes to cover art, I will say they one up Criterion in that regard for also having the cover art be reversible with the original posters. The only bonus feature I did not care for was the one on the first movie's disc that had this lady talking about the series as she was very monotonous and repeated herself quite a bit. The best feature was the one on the Ring 0 disc that showcased many of the horror films Japan has released.

I think I'm going to try and set some money aside to get the One Missed Call trilogy box set at the end of the month. And hopefully they do the Ju-On series next with both the two theatrical films and the two TV films.