Recently watched movies!

[O.Supreme]

^ I remember being at the SDCC panel that showcased this film. I member wondering why, although it was based on Batman:TAS, none of the series regulars (Timm, Dini, Murakami etc...) were involved. We found out later it was because they had all moved onto working on Superman and the new look for Batman. It is an odd entry in the wider DCAU, and while not great...I'll watch it over either Shumacher film anyday....

[EricDent]

Ready Player One was really fun!
Pretty much anybody that posts here (especially anybody over 40) should see this!

BTW I live near Austin, and have spotted the authors car, it's a Delorean set up to look just like Back to the Future.
Though apparently he added the Ghostbusters logo on the doors (showed him at the preview in the newspaper).

[Dr Kain]

A Quiet Place is a new horror film about creatures that attack whenever they hear a noise. How does this film fair? Watch to find out.

[O.Supreme]

^ Thanks for the review. I've been doing some research on this film. It intrigues me because my daughter has taken an interest in ASL and has been learning it for the past year or so. In your opinion, like you said, there was a lot of *body language* and made up signs to be sure, but do you think there was enough actual ASL to hold someone's interest who is learning, or for someone who is actually deaf? Normally I would not have my daughter watch a straight up horror film, but this seems to me, to be filled with more psychological horror, than anything else. I may be wrong, but in terms of actual violent content, do you think this would be on par with say Jaws or the Jurassic Park films?..My gut says *yes*, because of the PG-13 rating but I'd rather take the word of someone who's seen the film. Any response would be appreciated. I would probably not take my kids to see this in the theater, but if my daughter continues to learn ASL, I may rent this when it comes to home media format.

[Dr Kain]

Well one thing to know is the girl who plays the daughter is deaf herself, so it is all legitimate with her.

As for the violence, I would say there's nothing to that would make it any worse than Jaws and JP. It's not psychological, but it's not gore or torture porn either. It's good ol' horror in a more traditional sense. The bloodiest moments include

[eabaker]

I watched Power Rangers last weekend. Obviously it didn't make a huge impression on me, since it took me this long to even bother to mention it.

I really can't offer much that hasn't been said. The pacing is a little clunky, mostly due to the largely innate structural awkwardness of origin stories, and a few characters are badly under-served (Trini is the most glaring example, followed by Zack, and I would have appreciated a lot more Rita screen time). But the performances were good, and I liked the overall approach to the story.

My favorite aspect, though, is the juxtaposition of the dour first two acts with the bright, wacky third act. The movie spends 3/4 of its runtime telling you, "Okay, I'm a Power Rangers movie, but I'm not that kind of Power Rangers movie." And then, suddenly, it pulls off its disguise and yells, "Fooled you, suckers! I was that kind of Power Rangers movie all along!"

I wish more mainstream movies had the courage to twist their genres and tones this way. It makes for a really effective volta.

[lhb412]

Svengoolie showed Dinosaurus!, a not terribly good childhood favorite. The stop motion for the Rex and Bronty is sometimes good but oftentimes poor. I think I actually preferred the puppets for the heads (and in Rex's case, torso) used in the closeups. I was surprised to hear Svengoolie say the great Marcel Delgado constructed the dino models, as they look pretty frumpy and Delgado built the original King Kong and did miniature work for The Wizard of Oz and whatnot so this is below his level of quality - then Sven explained the reason: Delagdo expected to have six weeks to make these guys but was forced to make 'em in two!

[O.Supreme]

Valerian - On Amazon Prime. What can I say? I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, a solid sci-fi entry. I did question some of the protagonists decisions..., and it was kind of his fault some of the events at the end occured...odd that it was glossed over. But seeing as how this film was not the phenominon I thought it might be, this can be forgiven, a solid 7/10

Flash Gordon. I've always loved this film, but I watched the Blu Ray with an old friend yesterday. He pointed out things I always took for granted. How amazing the costumes and set pieces look in HD. This film truly is lightning in a bottle. There's no way any studio today could pull off something with so much cheese, and make it so fun and enjoyable. He said it was a perfect film. As a fan of the original pulp series, I dont know if I'd go that far...but its pretty close. 9.5/10.

[jellydonut25]

A Quiet Place - Wow. Last year, I was pretty taken aback that a movie like It was released theatrically AND became a huge hit. Not that IT is hugely groundbreaking, but a movie where kids are killed and then their body parts are used to taunt other kids isn't the typical formula for a major studio release.

A Quiet Place took me back in a somewhat similar way...a movie that has literally two scenes of actual dialogue isn't the typical formula for a wide release and a huge hit.

It's a very bold film in that way. Sticks to its guns. I really appreciated that. Beyond that, it's just a really tight film. The tension consistently ratchets up, the pacing never lags, and the climax has some really spectacular sequences. I love when a movie like this knows both what it is and doesn't really try to be anything more, but also how to push itself and pull something a little bit more out of its audience. Yeah, it's just a monster movie at its core, but there's also an emotional strength to the movie that I wasn't expecting. I really enjoyed this a LOT. 4.5/5.

[Dr Kain]

Jelly, I think this is the first time we I have agreed with you on a movie in a long time.

I'm hoping that It and A Quiet Place both show studios that a well written horror film can be profitable and critiqued quite well.

[DannyBeane]

All three of us agree on A Quiet Place. It was a wonderfully intense film that would have come off heavy handed by most other directors.

[Joseph Goodman]

The Death Of Stalin - The word I'd use is "misfire". You know your comedy-of-errors farce has a problem when A, none of the farce is funny, and B, once the plot truly starts moving, it rapidly crowds out any chance at comedy with political intrigue that's far more compelling than any of the painfully forced attempts at comedy. You end up with 1/3 of an unfunny comedy, and 2/3 of an interesting bit of intrigue that's totally miscast, having been intended to be a comedy. Oh well, сука блять.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

The Brood- It was on TCM last night so I DVRed it and watched it while cable was out today. It's my very first Cronenberg movie I watched all the way through (I have seen bits of Shivers) and I thought it was okay. It did get kind of boring in some parts but for the most part the pacing was good.

Spider-Man- I got the 4K UHD set a month or so ago so I decided to rewatch it again while the cable was out. The 4K transfer is really nice it keeps some film grain to give it a "cinematic" feel too it. Colors really pop and you can see details you never really could notice before like Toby Maguire has some acne and stubble in some scenes.

[Dr Kain]

I finally got to see Pacific Rim Uprising.

[klen7]

Rampage - i wrote about this in its respective thread, but i enjoyed this considerably more than PR:U. I liked that they weren't afraid to make the monsters monstrous, and the destruction sequences and monsters aggressively engaging humans was pretty refreshing. It's definitely a vehicle for the Rock, but its a fun B movie with an A-movie treatment. I am looking forward to seeing this again and hope for a sequel.

[angilas]

Had the pleasure of seeing some great movies lately
1. Black Panther- what a ride. Wittiest dialogue in a marvel film since the avengers easily (outside of Peter and Tony in Homecoming maybe). Felt a bit too short but just a fun film from beginning to end that is deserving of its success and a great build up to infinity war.
2. A Quiet Place- what can I say. Saw it early so no expectations but was blown away. Well acted. Believable monsters. Good timing and pacing. It got a standing ovation at the end in my multiplex. The opposite of horror films that let you down in the end like Cloverfield or Signs.
3.Ready Player One- as a child of the 80s and 90s this is my kind of movie. As a Kaiju fan everyone who posts on this board needs to see this. Had no idea to expect the cameo we got but good to see WB taking advantage of those licenses.This is not too dissimilar from my own vision of the future, minus the trailer park tree house assemblies I hope tho

[lhb412]

Dario Argento's Suspiria. Like a hypnotic, menacing, and thoroughly engaging music video in the shape of a horror movie. The plot is actually pretty basic: young woman arrives at a ballet school, people mysteriously die, school has a dark secret - but it's the way the story is told, with standouts like Goblin's electronic score and the outrageous color pallet assaulting your senses (in a good way!).

The new Blu-Ray is awesome!

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

The Black Scorpion

An otherwise standard '50s B-movie with a solid cast (a south-of-the-border remake of the peerless THEM!) that's elevated by some really fun stop motion by Willis O'Brien and Pete Peterson. Sure, there's the unfortunate, humanlike scorpion head prop used for closeups that doesn't match the stop motion models at all, and yes; the terrible matte shots of the big scorpion entering Mexico city are way below par, but things like the sequence in the cave with all the scorpions (and a few other giant bugs!), the train attack, and the final showdown with the big scorpion in the stadium are all pretty awesome.

I'd put it in third place when ranking the 'big bug' movies of the '50s, behind THEM! (#1) and Tarantula (#2).

[lhb412]

Rampage

I don't have a lot to say about this one. It's exactly the movie you think it is from the trailers: the Rock does his charming stuff as an action hero, the bound between Dr. The Rock and his gorilla pal is the emotional through-line they hang the movie on and it's a pretty solid one, and the the last act is all monsters smashing stuff and fightin'. Special shout-out to the coolest monster, Lizzie, who's quite a beaut what with her multiple jagged rows of teeth, neck frill, and elongated back spines. She gets to do the most kaiju-y activities in the movie.

If I were to rank all the Hollywood kaiju/giant monster movies of the last few years I'd rank this above Jurassic World and Pacific Rim Uprising (they're the bottom) and just below the solid mid-tier movies like Power Rangers '17 and Colossal.

[lhb412]

Clive Barker's Nightbreed (Director's cut)

A young man named Boone has dreams that he belongs in Midian, a secret city where the shapeshifting races that our idea of monsters are based on live free from human oppression (pssst: it's kinda a metaphor for gay and otherwise LGBTQ folk). Fortunately, this isn't just a dream and Midian and the monsters (or 'Nightbreed') are real, but unfortunately Boone's therapist is actually a brilliant serial killer with his own plans for Boone and the Nightbreed and he's a lot scarier than any monster - and he's played by David Cronenberg of all people!

There's a lot of creatures on display, but for me the coolest by far is the porcupine lady. I also really dig the mask Cronenberg's character wears. The Danny Elfman score feels so evocative of the other scores he did at the time (this was 1990) that, as someone who's never seen this film, it gives the uncanny impression I'm watching a far sexier, violent version of all the circa 1990 movies I grew up with.

At one point in this movie a country music cover of an Oingo Boingo song is playing over the radio and that illicited the biggest "what the hell?" reaction from me. Nice one, Elfman.

[eabaker]

The director's cut of Nightbreed still feels incomplete to me. A lot of characters and story point remain underdeveloped. It's a movie that I find really interesting in concept, with individual scenes that work really well, but as a whole it just fails to engage or satisfy me.

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

I had no preconceptions about Nightbreed as some sort of lost classic or some-such, so I simply enjoyed it for what it was.

[eabaker]