Recently watched movies!

[lhb412]

^
I hated this restaurant!
7/10

[Benjamin Haines]

Jojo Rabbit (2019) - Amazing film! It's a dark comedy that takes a poignant look at WWII Germany from the perspective of a little German boy who idolizes Adolf Hitler. Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are terrific as always but the real stars of the movie are Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo and Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa, the Jewish girl being hidden by Jojo's mother. This is a brilliant film with timeless relevance. With a PG-13 rating, it isn't a gory war film and it's a good parable for any kid who's old enough to know about WWII. For me personally, this movie is a welcome throwback to when I was a kid and stories with strong anti-Hitler, anti-Nazi, anti-fascism morals were as American as apple pie and not controversial at all.

[lhb412]

The Andromeda Strain

You know, with this and The Day the Earth Stood Still (not to mention The Haunting) under his belt you'd think Robert Wise would be more famous among genre fans.

[superhedorahsaiyan]

Gojira (1954)- 10 out of 10
X..... the Unknown- 9 out of 10

[klen7]

Timmy Failure -- Oof. If this is what kind of movie Disney+ is going to be putting out, then they are going to have issues. The story is about "being yourself" but the main character is delusional and literally a danger to himself, his family, his fellow students and his teacher. He needs professional help, not a quirky guidance counselor feeding his paranoid delusion. His mother has a moment of clarity at one point but by the end it's back to the status quo. This was a big misfire for me.

Addams Family - It's hard for me to rate this because I loved the old television show and enjoyed the live action flicks. I don't see this reinvigorating the franchise despite an allstar voice cast

Spectre - I enjoyed this one more on this viewing. The cinematography and a number of camera shots are very impressive, really escalates the film, initially I was disappointed that Deakins didn't return as cinematographer, but the opening "long shot" really won me over. As much as I like Christoph Waltz as an actor I didn't find him particularly menacing so the movie stalls a bit for me after the train sequence, still highly anticipating the follow-up effort especially with Fukunaga at the directorial helm.

[XvGojira]

The Lion King (2019) - Wow, those were some spectacular effects! It looked so real. Which is also it's main issue. It's too real. There's no anthropomorphism with the characters. They didn't have facial expressions. Seth Rogan and Billy on the Street work for Timon and Pumba's voice but they can not sing. Yikes. And when Disney has the chance to redo one of their greatest villain songs which wasn't entirely sung by it's voice actor (Jeremy Irons apparently hurt his vocal chords and couldn't finish it and was replaced with a Disney standard VA Jim Cummings) but what they doesn't even feel like a song. Again, due to the animated movie going wild with the colors and styles with their songs and this movie trying to be very "real" you don't get an army of goosestepping hyenas in a cave shooting out pressurized green gas to lift the villain into the air, you just get a lion standing around repeatedly saying "Be prepared" for like a minute and a half. All the songs have the same issues with the realistic visuals. By being so real it just feels dull. You're already doing a musical about lions doing Shakespeare, why not have fun with it? And I'm sure the guy who voiced Scar did his best, but it's so damn hard to fill the shoes Jeremy Irons left. Although I will say Han Zimmer coming back and basically doing the same score but pumped to 11 is great and the Beauty and the Beast joke instead of hula gag got a good hearty laugh from me. A great tech demo, an average movie if you never seen the original.

[Dr Kain]

One Missed Call - I watched this one probably about 12 years ago and quite enjoyed it. My thoughts this time around? I still really enjoyed it, however, it does suffer from being about 10-15 minutes longer than necessary as there are a few scenes that drag on a bit. Nevertheless, once the film moves into the abandoned hospital and gets its inner Silent Hill on, it really picks up and flies by. Of course, the ending is a tad too convoluted for its own good, but the negatives aside, you have a pretty soild horror film with a lot of neat ideas and terrific moments of suspense and tension. 8/10.

[Dr Kain]

One Missed Call 2 - Well they really phoned that one in, didn't they? This felt like some bad American remake of One Missed Call with how much it tried to repeat the same beats as the first one while also lacking atmosphere and have the characters try to find the original origin of the ghost call because apparently the ghost from the first movie was just another ghost from 100 years ago in Taiwan in diguise or some convoluted bullshit like that. I really have no idea exactly what happened, it just did. Granted, it's not the worst J Horror film ever, but of the ones I have watched in the last few weeks I'd say this barely ranks higher than Spiral. I'll give it a 6/10 since I think that is what I gave Spiral.

The 3 minute short film feature on the disc was better than this one.

[EricDent]

Random movie/anime night on Tuesday.

Star Wars Episode 7 The Force Awakens.
Still a decent movie.

The other thing I watched is discussed in the Anime section.

[Dr Kain]

One Missed Call Final - What's the best way to make a horror movie be utterly boring? Have every character in the film be an outright despicable human being to the point that you couldn't care less if they lived or died. Even the teachers were unlikable jackasses in this thing. Not to mention the plot just blantly ignored the whole thing about the coal dust girl from the last movie. This whole thing was just awful as it had no suspense or atmosphere whatsoever. In fact, I felt like I was watching some cheap Syfy Channel made for TV film. I'm going to give this thing a generous 4/10 and that's really just because of the Candid Mimiko bonus feature on the disc that was far more entertaining that the movie itself.

[lhb412]

The Invisible Man (2020)

I hope this will prove to Universal Studios that you don't need 100 + million dollars and a Marvel-esque shared universe for these concepts. All you need is a smart filmmaker who knows how to do something new and thrilling.

[Dr Kain]

Yeah, I just can't get behind seeing The Invisible Man. It doesn't even resemble the book in the slightest and instead is just some abusive relationship SJW agenda film like Colossal was. No thanks, I've seen enough of those.

[lhb412]

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

- an old quote often apocryphally attributed to either Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

It's a man. He's invisible. He's doing bad stuff. What else is there? It's a horror movie about an Invisible Man. Why adapt the original story again? The original already did it so well, and Hollow Man updated the basic concept as a modern techno thriller two decades ago, so that's already taken.

His last name is even Griffin, and there's a nice little visual callback a quarter of the way through the movie where Elisabeth Moss's character is in the hospital and looks at a burn victim's bandaged face that doesn't quite make sense in-story but the audience understands is a visual Illusion to the original movie and Claude Rains bandaged face.

It's suspenseful, has a few really cool action scenes, some gasp-ilnducing twists and turns, the cast does a great job. It's just a good movie. Mind you, I think the director's last film, Upgrade, was just about a modern classic. This one isn't quite as good as that one, but I love that he's getting some success here.

[Dr Kain]

I want a real new adaptation to Well's book, not this SJW attempt and not that "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" ass garbage Hollow Man tried to do.

I will agree that Upgrade was amazing.

[lhb412]

Christ.

[Dr Kain]

Onward - A really fun movie, though no where near Pixar's best. Sadly though, I'm not sure I really have any desire to ever watch it again, so I guess a 7/10.

There was a Simpsons short with the movie that was freaking awesome though dealing with Maggie at a playground. It's been the best thing related to The Simpsons in a decade, so that was a nice surprise.

[Dr Kain]

Boogiepop and Others - While it doesn't have the budget to accomplish what it should, it is a really solid adaptation of the novel. 8/10

[lhb412]

Watched Perfect Blue and Millenium Actress because I'm seeing Tokyo Godfathers in the theater tonight! I'm happy to finally see all these together, but at the same time it's bittersweet because Satoshi Kon died so young that it's too easy to watch his entire life's work in a short time.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

^ The original negative is lost, right? Man, the late 90s and early 2000s is this weird black hole of strange picture quality (because of all the format changeover at the time?).

Anyway, Tokyo Godfathers is a masterpiece. Very happy I got to see it on the big screen.

[lhb412]

Man, when this forum shut down and it was the early, sitting and doing nothing era of covid and I needed a little project: I combed this entire thread, as well as others on this board, and my bag of movie ticket stubs, online receipts, my own memory, etc. all to assemble a watch log that extends back a decade.

Hey, it's what everyone does on letterboxd, essentially! Right? I don't use that site.

[DannyBeane]

Just watched the 50s Russian fantasy epic Ilya Muromets and loved it. It was a fun story with a gorgeous print. Debating on if I should preorder Sampo directed by the same director

[lhb412]

^ Do it!

... I just pre-ordered Sampo a few hours ago.

There's simply too much excellent stuff being put out by boutique labels these days. I've got a terrible pile of a backlog to get through already - and we're already in Criterion/Arrow sale season!