Recently watched movies!

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

i did enjoy it but Mrs Klen7 wasn't a fan of one of the third act twists, and she typically has better taste than i do.

::EDIT::
I think what i really like is that the movie is a total throwback to different time, but with all the modern polish and production. It's not like the wave of grindhouse movies a couple years back that tried so hard to recapture the aesthetic and be the epitome of the over the top nature of the genre. It's now and it's modern, but it captures a spirit we haven't seen in a long time.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Expendables 3 - Loved it. It's pretty much what I expected - over the top action and non-stop fun. 7/10.

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

Dragonball Z: Resurrection of F -

I caught this in the theater tonight (about 90% full). It was ok. The animation is certainly improved and there's enough humor to get a few laughs, but it felt sort of empty. Granted, this was the dubbed version and I strongly prefer subtitles. The story is alright and works well enough in the context of the series, but it also feels like it kills the value of the Frieza saga.

Honestly, I felt bored during the fighting, something that should never be said about DBZ. The music is oddly out of place and there are many scenes where there is no music at all when there probably should be..it seemed so off.



This is definitely a movie in similar flavor to Battle of the Gods. If you enjoyed the humor and battles there, this is something you'll enjoy. I'd go 6/10....and I really wanted to like it more than I did.

[Psycho Soldier]

I haven't seen the film, but it still strikes me as odd that they'd choose to resurrect Frieza. Frieza is a great villain, one of my favourites, but I never found myself wishing for his return. I'm not sure if any explanation can sell it to me.

[Dr Kain]

[Psycho Soldier]

[jellydonut25]

I thought the movies were not canon anymore with Super essentially un-doing what happens in these last 2 films.

[eabaker]

I'm not gonna go through all of the movies I've watched in the year and a half or so since I last posted , but, over the next few days, I'll go through the stuff I've watched in the last couple weeks. So, let's step into our time machine, and pretend that I'm posting this back on July 18th:

Because Jenn and I love nothing so much as juxtaposition, last night (which was, of course, July 17th) we watched Sylvia (2003) followed immediately by The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942).

Sylvia - I have mixed feelings about basically every aspect of this movie. First of all, it suffers from the basic problem of most biopics, which is that it goes for a naturalistic, immersive style, but it completely sacrifices the unity of time and space, a fundamental building block of naturalistic, immersive drama. Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig both give excellent performances... as people I intensely don't want to be around or listen to. The rest of the cast is full of great actors... being given nothing to do, because, like most biopics, it allows us almost no opportunity to really explore the supporting characters. Nearly every shot is painterly and beautiful, but, as if bowing to the expectations of modern cuts-per-minute, there is needless coverage of scenes that should be static, so that we have individually lovely shots that simply don't intercut with each other pleasingly or naturally. The music, at times, is quite powerful, but it also feels like it's overstating its case; is the score knocking it out to the cheap seats, is it being brilliantly OTT, or is it tongue in cheek? Ultimately, a lot of god elements add up to a worthwhile viewing experience, but not anything greater than the sum of its parts.

I had, of course, seen The Ghost of Frankenstein many times before. I’ve been having the urge to watch the Universal monster flicks a lot since my dad got sick/passed away, since they were so much a part of how we bonded when I was a kid. This one was never one of his or my favorites – it’s probably my least favorite in the Frankenstein series – but it was the next one up, as Jenn and I have (very slowly) been watching them in chronological order. In taking about the movie later, Jenn said that she really found the Monster’s desire to have little Cloestine’s brain interesting enough to make up for a lot of the movie’s dramatic flatness, and then surprised me by adding that she liked it better than Son of Frankenstein; it wouldn’t surprise me if she is the first person ever to have expressed that sentiment in history.

For my thoughts on Universal's Frankenstein series as a whole, check out this article I wrote for The Blood Shed http://www.theblood-shed.com/is-univers ... best-ever/

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

[eabaker]

Thanks!

[Dr Kain]

The Lady Vanishes - This was really really good. There were times it felt more like a comedy mixed into a suspense thriller, and yet, the blend was perfect. The characters were all interesting and had their own little quirks to them. The plot was intriguing even if the outcome was slightly predictable (but it probably wasn't back in 1938). And everything just kept you engaged. It also had a great build up and never felt like it was dragging on at all. I give it a nice 8/10 stars.

[eabaker]

Stepping back into the slightly-back machine, I am now posting from July 19th:

Saw Mr. Holmes last night. Great cast (especially McKellen, obviously), beautiful photography, the usual solid direction from Bill Condon, and a very smart, affecting script. It starts to drag a bit near the end, but overall a very solid flick, and I'd highly recommend it.

[Gwangi]

[eabaker]

I'm seeing more Cthulhu there than Dogora, but either way I'm happy.

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

Kingsman - I was kind of worried about rewatching this since I wasn't sure if it was going to be as good as the first time, but it was. The church scene is still hands down the most fun and gorgeous scene of the movie and is probably the greatest cinematic experience to come out this year. The choreography and cinematography is exotically breath taking. It still doesn't feature the greatest character development ever, yet, it has a lot of heart and is just a well made movie over all. I think I'm going to up my score from a 7 to an 8.

[sentaison]

Just saw Kingsmen for the first time yesterday. This was a great action/adventure film, and I agree that the church fight scene was incredible. All of the fighting was extremely well done when you come down to it, especially the final fight with Gazelle. (A villains heavy worthy of Bond there) It was fun all the way around, I'm glad I took the chance and bought it.

[Dr Kain]

Scanners - Well, it was at least the best of the 3 Cronenberg movies I have watched. I did like Michael Ironside in it and it did have great make up. However, the first half hour was really rough to sit through because it felt like I started watching a sequel or something. It got better as it went along, but as I guess, Cronenberg is just not for me. I give this one a 7/10 stars.

The Gift - I'm not sure how I feel about the ending to the movie, but that aside, this was a really good thriller. It had a lot of suspense and tension to build up and then delivered on it. The few jump scares it had were well placed and effective. Most of all, the acting was really good. As a whole, this movie is probably one of the closest things we will ever get to something Hitchcockian in this modern age. I give it a nice 7/10.

[eabaker]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

And I've seen Videodrome, which I thought made absolutely no ****ing sense and was a waste of my time.

The Fly was just disgusting and had Mr Mumbles Goldblum.

[jellydonut25]

I don't want to keep pushing a guy on you if you don't like him, but seems that thus far you've only seen Cronenberg's body horror stuff (and as for The Fly 'only' being disgusting, seems you missed the point that it is supposed to be a metaphor for cancer, and/or aging and death. The grossout stuff is an intentional, HARSH way to hammer home the horror of withering away into some version of yourself that's not even really you can just becomes this monster living in utter agony).

He's done stuff other than body horror...personally, I don't like A History of Violence, but I'm like the ONLY person who feels that way. You should probably check it out. It's only Cronenbergian in its directorial style, it's a significant departure in terms of tone and sci-fi and horror and gross-out than Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly


And I like Videodrome. It's not really SUPPOSED to be comprehensible as it's a descent into madness.