Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Had a fun movie night on Saturday, just a bunch of friends, all in our 40's watching old movies, and my son, who had to endure our "old guy" talk....

Tron -I had not seen this in so long, I definitely have more of an appreciation of it now.

Tron Legacy- A way better sequel than I believe it gets credit for. Its one of the many late sequels, nobody asked for, but it does a really good job of creating a compelling story, and of course the updated effects are amazing.

Krull I still love this film. James Horner's score is about 80% the same as Wrath of Khan though, which is itself a great movie score, but we had a lot of fun with that.

Considering how much people drag on it nowadays I think Godzilla '14 is rapidly becoming one of the most underrated Godzilla movies.

Suffered through Insidious: the Last Key last night.

Lousy structure, painful exposition, repeated expectation that we'll be emotionally invested in reveals involving characters we have no reason to care about, agonizing attempts at comic relief, and... jesus "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" christ... in the end it turns out that the real "last key" was family...

Night of the Demons (1988)

This is such a Halloween movie, you know? All latex and cobwebs - it's like a Goosebumps episode with gore and nudity. I watched this film because the VHS cover scared me as a kid (and '80s VHS covers are the scariest thing ever), and I appreciate how the cover didn't mince about with the some hide-the-monster bull and just said "lets just show off the best makeup effect in the movie."

Had fun watching junk with some friends on a projector.

The Stabilizer - An Indonesian movie about cops busting up a drug smuggling operation that's part kung-fu, part Rambo, and uses Count Floyd's dungeon set.

XXX - Return of Xander Cage - Stupid but fun. Also they do their best to hide how flabby Vin is in this film.

Kung Fu Yoga - Didn't watch the whole thing. But the Lord of the Rings meets Dynasty Warriors complete with CGI Jackie Chan opening was great. We are fine with dumb, but not dumb and borning we moved on to....

Die Another Day - Aside from some wonky CGI, I honestly don't see why this one gets such a bad wrap compared to some of the other Bonds. But I guess when your "serious" spy movie is as ridiculous as the Mike Meyer's spy-spoof movie it might turn some people off.

Lupin III The Castle of Cagliostro - What a damn good movie that was! It had a few slow parts in the middle as that first hour did drag a little, but other than that, it was fantastic. 9/10.

The Beyond

Lucio Fulci movie about an old hotel being renovated, only for a portal to hell to be discovered in the basement. By the end of the movie it's about zombies. Lots of extended gore sequences, some rather creative and interesting, but there's just so much of it that by the end I was a bit sick of it. You can only have so many scenes of people having their eyes gouged out.

Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell. I guess Michael Gross needed another payday. . But seriously, it almost seems like this film was made just to make sure there are more films in this franchise than in the Sharknado series. Admittedly, these still seem somewhat professionally done, even if still schlocky (Universal still puts their logo at the beginning) . Admittedly it was different, sending them to the Canadian Arctic this time, with a supposed Bio-weapon twist, and Gummer's life on the line in this one (has Graboid poisoning...) . I guess the next Logical step is Tremors in Space. C'mon Kevin Bacon, stop teasing the fans and just make your comeback....

^Kevin Bacon was supposed to come back in a new Tremors TV show. I think they even shot the pilot (I've seen pics of Bacon in costume as the older version of his character - complete with Graboid tattoo) but recently it was announced SYFY wasn't going to pick up the series.

Maybe they'll shop it around to other networks/streaming services?

Alec Gillis posted on his instagram that he had pitched Graboids in the subway system of New York for Tremors 2 - with the tagline "The Big Apple has worms" - it apparently climaxed with a scene involving the graboids rushing up the elevators of the Empire State Building.

^I just mean that Spielberg is better at scene geography and composition and editing and all the other little things that are so important especially in an adventure movie.

Netflix has the live action Full Metal Alchemist movie. I haven't seen the anime and only read the first volume of the manga 15+ years ago - so i really didn't remember much about it beyond what happened with the kids mother and the arm and leg. So i didn't really have a bias on this one like my friend that is into anime (who said it was terrible) - There were plenty of visually interesting effects shots and it would be easily described as horror in a few spots. I think the last 15 minutes of the movie lasted about 30 minutes too long on account of not actually accomplishing much, and as a standalone film we didn't really get a satisfying arc, mostly just the first film in series. Ultimately that is the movies biggest flaw, and an unfortunate pattern i feel like is showing up more often, imho each movie needs to stand on its own, its why i typically prefer movies to television - just give me a satisfying story and i will be back, dont string me along in hopes that you make enough money to complete the story years from now. I will say that the CG work, was plentiful, creative and well used moreso than a lot of other Japanese flicks.

^I heard that they tried to cram the entire storyline of FA into that one movie... and I was like "that can't be right?"

After Death Note, Ghost in the Shell, and Attack on Titan, I have no interest in FMA. I'm tired of Asian washing my white characters and white washing my Asian ones.

Infinity War again - 10/10

Deadpool - Getting ready for the second one, so had to watch it. 10/10

ZËIЯAM 2 - It had been a while since I had seen Zeiram, so I rewatched it first. It still holds up pretty well despite feeling little derivative at times, which is a little disingenuous as a criticism because it is pretty uniquely original in more ways than not... Anyway, the second movie seems to embrace all the things good about the first film and runs with them. Iria is even more badass this time around and the action choreography has improved. Yukijiro Hotaru hams it wonderfully once more. Teppei and Kamiya still play off each other well. Keita Amemiya's unique designs and eagerness to blend many different special effects techniques continues to be reason enough to check out his films. I am looking forward to checking out "Moon Over Tao"

Deadpool 2 - It was good. I think the pacing in the first was better. While there are some great laughs I feel like I laughed more consistently and throughout the first. But that's because the second one has a plot that wants to be serious (or at least more serious than the first) causing longer patches of "serious plot" between jokes about genitals and 80's references. And it's the whiplash between the comedy and the scenes trying to making an emotional connection with the audience that disrupts the flow of the movie, like if a roller coaster suddenly shifting to a log flume for long stretches.