Recently watched movies!

[lhb412]

^ They are collections of folktales and urban legends, campfire stories, coupled with these absolutely disturbing yet beautifully rendered pencil drawings. It seems like everyone knew about them when I was growing up in the 90s. Just looking at the covers was enough to make me terrified!

[Dr Kain]

[O.Supreme]

I was probably too old for either of these, but I definitely remember Goosebumps, as my younger cousins were into them. Never heard of *Scary Stories* though, even though that preceded it. I wonder if it was a regional thing? I heard a couple fans online who grew up in the southern US were really into it. ON the West coast none of my peers ever heard of this, even in those scholastic book fairs we used to have, do I ever recall this series appearing.

[lhb412]

^ Well, the three books were published between the early '80s through the early '90s, so they're kinda the direct predecessor to something like Goosebumps.

Scary Stories for Sleep-overs, Tales From the Midnight Hour (which actually came first), and In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories were other story collections of similar ilk.

[O.Supreme]

Clue 1985 As a kid, I never really appreciated this film, though It was definitely highly talked about on the playground. Now as an adult however, it really impresses me how smart and funny this film is. What's even more impressive is how much my daughter enjoys it, as she was the one who really wanted me to purchase it on DVD (we have a local media store closing, and got it for like $2). I would think most kids today would not *get it*, or not care, but my daughter very much does. It's not often we can laugh together as a family, and this is one of those films.

That being said, I always wondered why other films didn't take advantage of the multiple ending gimmick to try to get people to come back for additional viewings? I mean in this day and age, everything would be spoiled online, but up until say- 15 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, it might have worked.

[XvGojira]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Iron Man- Got my 4K release in today and now that the entire Phase 1 of the MCU is out on 4K I decided to pop this in tonight. I honestly haven't watched it since it first came out and remember not caring for it that much. Upon a second viewing I find the movie rather enjoyable, while not as good as the later MCU films it still is fairly enjoyable. As for the 4K release I thought the picture quality was fairly decent, its spotty in some scenes and barely looks better than BD. The HDR is fantastic though especially for explosions. Overall I'd give the picture a 7.8 or even an 8.0, I wouldn't recommend upgrading to the 4K if you already have the BD.

I'm going to take Loopers suggested viewing order for the MCU films so next up will be Iron Man 2 followed by The Incredible Hulk, then Thor, then Captain America and finally Avengers.

[Dr Kain]

I'll get the Pre-Phase 3 stuff in 4K when they do a box set (though it has to be a combo set).

I really hope the 4K version of the original Iron Man doesn't sound like the trash can dogshit the BD does.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Iron Man 2 (4K)-Like the first one I haven't watched this since it came out. As for the movie itself I enjoy it but still find Iron Man 3 to be the best out of the trilogy though that may change after my second viewing. The 4K picture is nice it looks a lot better than the first Iron Man but still looks barely better than BD in some stuff, but again like the first IM HDR really makes the movie look good. I really can't comment on sound since I don't have a decent sound set up my ultimate goal down the line is to build a kick ass home theater setup with a nice Dolby Atmos receiver hopefully that'll happen in the near future. Not sure if I want to do a projector yet or a TV; most likely a nice TV.

Kain I don't think we'll get a boxset, Disney isn't really known for doing boxsets but you never know.

[Dr Kain]

Iron Man 2 to me is the second worst of the MCU while the third movie is the fourth worst.

[O.Supreme]

Avengers: Endgame Picked up the inevitable BRD day one purchase. 9/10. The film is spectacular, and a nice ending to a 22 film saga. More than this, more than even being the highest grossing Box Office hit of all time, I believe it signals the end of an era overall. Jaws is *arguably* what many consider to be the first Summer Blockbuster ever. Which coincidentally came out the year before I was born, so for 44 years (with few exceptions) there have always been big summer movies with fun and entertainment/escapism. I believe that Endgame is truly the end of an era. The only reason why it isn't a perfect 10, is because it just has a bit of that forced interjection that is plaguing more and more movies. Moving forward I see this as the norm, rather than the exception which is sad. For the most part, movies aren't fun escapism anymore. Sure there will be few exceptions, but I've looked into part of the next year, and I see myself *maybe* going to the theater twice between now and whenever Godzilla vs Kong comes out in 2020, an all time low. Thus the reason why I have built up such a large media Library of films and older TV shows. It is odd that in a era where more content is released than ever, hardly any of it is worth watching.

[lhb412]

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Hmmmm... not terribly good. I feel it's success stemmed from tapping into that '70s - '80s interest/fear in all things Satan. It's a pre 'Satanic Panic' movie, and its based on a true story plausibility plays on that. Still, good cast, but Rod Steiger's subplot could be left out entirely.

[Benjamin Haines]

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019) - Outstanding! It's right up there with Tarantino's best films, a riveting showcase of style, atmosphere and strong performances. It's cinematic in the best possible ways, definitely worth seeing in a theater.


The Lion King (2019) - This is a lot of fun. It's like watching real animals act out The Lion King as a play, only with $200m+ worth of photorealistic CGI animals instead of any actual animals. The voice actors do a great job.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

The Incredible Hulk- Like most of the phase one MCU this is the first time I've watched it since it came out 11 years ago. The movie is ok, not as bad as it gets made out to be. The 4K HDR weren't anything to right home about either.

Thor- This is easily my second favorite of the phase 1 movies. So far its the best looking of the Phase 1 MCU movies. HDR is used to full effect and the film just looks overall crispy.


Two more movies to go then I'm done with Phase 1. I could watch most of Phase 2 but I'm going to wait until Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-man come out 4K, which is hopefully soon on to move on to Phase 2 unless they're released in October which case I'll put that off till November.

[Dr Kain]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Captain America The First Avenger: My opinion of this has changed, the first time I watched it I didn't really care for it but after rewatching it, its grown on me as a movie. The 4K presentation is spotty its defiantly the weakest of the Phase 1 films in terms of PQ, there are some excellent scenes that really take advantage of the HDR, mainly spectral highlights (explosions) but other than that meh.

Avengers: Easily the best of the Phase 1 films. Now that I've seen the entire MCU there where so many easter eggs in this that point to further films which I'm sure they had no idea just how far this rabbit whole was going to go. This is also the best looking of the Phase 1 films in terms of 4K and HDR and easy 10 on picture quality.


That concludes my rewatching of Phase 1 on 4K, hopefully I don't have to wait too long for Ant-man and GotG.

[Dr Kain]

The more I watch the first Captain America movie, the better it gets. It might even be my favorite Phase 1 film, which is hard to accomplish considering how amazing Thor and Avengers are.

Scary Tales - It was good, worth a one time watch, just nothing mind blowing, but it does have some legitimate suspenseful moments despite being utterly predictable and cliche.. 7/10

[Dr Kain]

Battle Angel Alita - HOLY FREAKY EYES BATMAN!!! It's like she's staring into my soul. Stop it. I SAID STOP IT!!!! Anyway, the movie was complete crap. Well actually, I shouldn't say complete crap, as it did manage to encompass the story, but the pacing was crap. It took way too long to build up anything and then when it actually did get into stuff happening, it rushed right through it to get to another plot point that took forever to move. However, after all of that sluggish slop the story just stops without giving us the actual final battle. What the "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" hell? I sat through 2 hours of a pacing nightmare and I don't even get an ending? Did they really think sequel baiting was the best option? My god, what the hell? Now I do give them credit for adapting the manga far more accurately than any Hollywood filmmaker has ever done before. That alone gives 5 points to the movie, especially since they worked with the original creator. However, the horrific eyes, the terrible looking faces on fully mechanical bodies, and the piss poor pacing with no payoff leaves me giving the movie a generous 6/10.

Oh, and my quickie review for Scary Tales:

[lhb412]

^ Love Alita! The action is spectacular and it really gets across the feel, not just the look, of a Sci-Fi action anime.

Attack of the Crab Monsters is supposed to be one of the better Roger Corman sci-fi films of the 50s, and I guess it is. It's got some novelty in that the Giant radioactive mutants absorbed human intelligences and can talk. I still think It Conquered the World is his best b&w film though.

Was happy that a local theater actually showed the indie flick The Farewell. This is based off a true story, and the main character is based off the writer/director of the film who, in the several years it took to actually find someone to finance the film, actually told the story as an episode of the radio show This American Life. I heard that a while back, so I got the rather discombobulating feeling of remembering the story as told by her just as the movie hit those individual story beats. It's about a Chinese American family going back to China to see the grandmother who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but everyone's decided not to tell her and effectively lie by staging a wedding as a pretense to all see her.



Quatermass II

Wow! This is the only one of the three Quatermass movies that I hadn't seen before, and it's pretty awesome. First of all, it does the whole 'body snatcher' thing only a year after the Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie (this story originally appeared as a TV serial, release the year after the Body Snatchers novel and a year before the movie) and the entire story has this gritty, action oriented vibe that just makes the movie feel a couple of decades ahead of its time. Also, some kaiju style shenanigans in the finale.

Millenium Actress

After renting Satoshi Kon's beautiful film Perfect Blue a few months ago I was happy to be predisposed to the latest re-release of one of his films and got to see this one at the Fathom Events theatrical screening this weekend. It's an awesome film, and I feel my knowing nothing about it just enhanced my reaction to it, so I won't say too much about it other than it relates to Japanese film history, specifically starting at wartime films and then the few decades immediately following. I should think that everyone here has some knowledge of that era of Japanese film!

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Dumbo (2019)- I actually watched this on Saturday but forgot to post about it. I thought it was a decent remake though I prefer the animated version much more over this.

Dinosaurus!- Watched the Blu-ray which was released yesterday as I hadn't seen it in ages. Still an amazing dinosaur movie with excellent special effects for its time. The BD is fantastic colors really pop and its a nice clean picture with no DNR so the grain is intact where it needs to be. Keep in mind I haven't watched this movie in probably 25+ years since the VHS I had so I'm not sure how the transfer compares to the DVD releases.

[klen7]

Starship Troopers 2: I remember thinking this movie was a lot better than i expected when it came out. Rewatching it now I think that was largely in part to the special effects work being pretty top notch compared to a wide release while this was straight to home video. They really aren't working with much with respect to sets, but the miniatures are solid and the CG work is ahead of its time. There's a little of the dark satire (that makes the Verhoeven adaptation such a great flick) sandwiched on either end of the film but it's absent from most of the runtime.

[lhb412]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

I can understand why audiences were disappointed that this film was so different from the original, but I also understand why director Tobe Hooper wouldn't be interested in doing a straight follow-up and would want to essentially parody his previous movie Gremlins 2 style. The cleverest thing is that the cannibal family has now fully acclimated back into American society vis-à-vis capitalism. Their food truck is a successful business and they're worried about taxes and competitors! They even have a portable phone in 1987 - they're practically yuppies!

Chop Top and The Cook are far more interesting than Leatherface in this one.

Oh, and it's strains credulity that this Texas radio station would be so hip. The Cramps followed by Oingo Boingo? Are there that many Concrete Blonde fans in the heart of Texas?

[Dr Kain]

Hellboy - What the friggin hell was that? It's like they took all of these actors and had a bet on who could give their worst performances imaginable, and that is saying something considering this movie has Jovovich in it. Hell, Shane Black was the biggest disappointed as he was clearly just reading his lines, even in the opening disjointed narration. I felt like I was watching some high school film project where actors just agreed to be in it because they felt sorry for these students. The editing was terrible, the entire fight against the giants looked like they had Harbor running on a treadmill in front of a moving screen, and none of the plot made any sense. It was like they just took a bunch of random scenes out of the comics and stitched them together with a paper thin plot and called it a movie. There were no proper introductions to any of the characters and some of the best parts came with the side kick girl, who did absolutely nothing for the entire movie. Oh, and the f bombs felt extremely forced as if they were just there to make the movie feel edgy and shriek, "WE HAVE AN R RATING! CAN'T YOU TELL OUR MOVIE IS RATED R!! IT'S RATED R, COME WATCH IT!!!" Oh, and then it's trying to pull a Marvel by putting in a trio of sequel bait scenes. The only reason I won't decalre this movie the worst movie of 2019 is because I already had low expectations of it, but it is definitely up there. The only reason I'm giving it a 3/10 is because the Baba Yaga scene did actually geel genuinely creepy. Nevertheless, son of King Arthur my ass. The Kid Who Would Be King did this story far better.