Recently watched movies!

[Inferior Rodan]

Recently re-watched the Little Mermaid on Blu-ray that came out. My god this film is pretty, it's not the most beautiful Disney film (I'd give that to Sleeping Beauty) but the colors are so vibrant its hard not to love it. As an animation nerd, i feel this is a must own and not because of fish girl that does a thing, sings a thing and marries what's his face, but do to this film being a bit of a historical changing point in Disney animation. Disney spares little expense on making their animated films really pop on Blu-ray and Little Mermaid does just that. Checkout these stills:

[jellydonut25]

did I already mention that The Howling V manages to be even more boring than the Howling 4? if not, I am now, because it does.

it's awful.

[MekaGojira3k]

Just watched Twilight Zone The Movie.
The second half is actually pretty decent and the first half is blech.

[jellydonut25]

The Howling 6 is not terrible. With bwtter wolf effects it might be pretty fun. It's just odd that they'd go ALL OUT on a crazy vampire design but downplay the wolf so much...in a HOWLING movie...

Howling 7 is cancer-inducingly bad. Oh God, my eyes and brain and ears hurt having watched it.

[lhb412]

I continue my annual tradition of catching Horror of Dracula on TCM. One of my three favorite versions of the story (along with Lugosi and Nosferatu), with Cushing's Sherlock Holmesian Van Helsing being a particular highlight. I continued to watch the channel with Isle of the Dead. I dig these subtle, slight, wonderfully atmospheric Val Lewton pictures. I should really try to see all of them.

Really liked Bill Hader on the hosting duties.

[DannyBeane]

[jellydonut25]

Howling Reborn - it's probably the first film since the second one to actually feel kinda like it deserves the "Howling" moniker. I mean, with films 3-7 I can honestly imagine the films' geneses going as follow:
Filmmakers - "Hey, we've made a really horrible werewolf movie. It's called [The Marsupials/The Original Nightmare/The Rebirth/The Freaks/New Moon Rising]"
Studio - "Here's $50. Go reshoot a couple of scenes to reference an earlier movie and slap the Howling name in front of that title."

At least Howling Reborn is a movie. It's a bad one, but compared to part 7, it feels like Citizen Kane.

[lhb412]

The Mummy (1932)

I didn't like this as a kid because I wanted more traditional Mummy action (like in the Hammer film, which I think I saw first). It helps when you realize the plot was just supposed to be about an immortal sorcerer and during production someone had the bright idea of: 'Hey, let's make him a Mummy!' Like a lot of these Universal films it's a weird, atmospheric little film. Highly enjoyable. Now I think Karloff's Mummy, in both his incarnations, is probably the most amazing makeup Universal (i.e. Jack Pierce) ever did.

[Dr Kain]

I have only seen Hammer's Dracula movies (whichever 4 were on that 4 movie DVD set I used to own), so I have never seen their version of The Mummy. Is it available on Netflix (doubt it, knowing Netflix)?

Scream - This movie is very good. I just love how the movie breaks down the typical slasher film tropes and does a good job of imitating it while putting in a competent story with characters. It is also interesting to have finally seen the Halloween series and understanding some of what Randy talks about while they are watching the movie as it feels like a reflection to that one in general. Overall, I give this one an 8/10 as it is also really fun in the process.

Scream 2 - Not as good as the first one, but again, I like how it breaks down the tropes that a sequel will very rarely, if ever, be better than the original. It does not try to out do the movie in its wit, but just carry on the expectations of what a sequel is supposed to be. I am still not a fan of Mickey and Billy's mom being the killers, as I just don't get how she could have been strong enough to pull Randy into the van, but it does make sense on some level given she is just out for revenge. Mickey, on the other hand, was just stupid. I give Scream 2 a 6/10.

Scream 3 - This one is not really all that good. It has some great moments within it. It does talk about the redundancies of trilogies, but for a movie that likes to play on what trilogies do, it isn't all that intelligent in its execution. The new cast of characters are terrible when it comes to acting (and if that was the point, it was not well done) and the plot twist at the end just feels tacked on as if they just needed a reason to tie the movies together and "go back into the past." Overall, I'm giving this movie a 4/10 because it makes some really good jokes (like Carrie Fisher) and knows what it wanted to be even if the end result was not stellar.

[jellydonut25]

Cube - a smart, inventive film, with a solid premise. its one flaw is that it kind of leaves with a "so what?" feeling. we don't know who these people are, why they were chosen, what the point was, or much of anything. the whole point of the movie is the clever puzzle, and that kind of makes it less effective than its full potential.

Cube 2: Hypercube - ummm...what? maybe i wasn't paying close enough attention, but i also am convinced the movie is overly convoluted, and ultimately ineffectual. not only does it continue to answer none of the important questions posed in the first film, it answers few (if any) of the questions posed within itself. so now i've watched two movies and still don't know what the point is. Cube Zero, here I come...?

[Silver Kamen]

[klen7]

[jellydonut25]

[Silver Kamen]

[jellydonut25]

Cube Zero is a thousand times better than Hypercube.
name-wise.

[Silver Kamen]

[Dr Kain]

The Invisible Man - I always fond this movie to be quite boring so I haven't watched it in about 9 years. What has time done to this movie for me? Made it great!! I'm not sure why, but this is the first time I was ever fully invested in the characters and their actions, especially Griffin's character as the invisible man. And what a performance it is with his voice as the character. This movie is great and Universal has done another great remastering job. It still isn't my favorite of the Universal horror series, but I have a new interest in this movie. I'm giving it an 8/10 stars.

[Silver Kamen]

[lhb412]

^^The Invisible Man is awesome!

You know, I'm not really one to qualify 'kill counts' as an important thing in horror or actions films... but it occurred to me that Griffin probably kills more people in this film than any of the Universal Monsters: he gleefully strangles people, pushed guys off cliffs, causes horrible train accidents...

[Silver Kamen]

[XvGojira]

While I was in the hospital for pnuemonia I sort of watched several films. I mostly napped through them though.

Furry Vengeance - Hilraious for all the wrong reasons. It's a prefect film to entertain little kids but nothing more. Although I do like the looney tunes-ness of the animals though.

Robot and Frank - Missed the last half of it. Drempt a different ending with a chase scene in a mall/factory. I'm sure the actaul fim was better.

Amazing Spider-man - Passed out before he donned the suit. If there was no Raimi Spider-Man this would be a great intro to the character, but as it is it's too long for something we already know what's going on.

Cars 2 - I watched this when I first went into the ER. While I dislike Mater, I still liked the movie but it was much better while on morphine, but then again anything is.

A few days ago I had a b-movie marrathon with friends with...

Age of Dinosaurs - Crap-tastic Asylum Jurassic Park Rip-off.

Sharknado - It's as good/bad as they say. A barrel of fun to watch. Although It's more like Storm Sharks than Sharknado.

Shark Attack 3 - Megalodon - While it was filmed in 2002 it looks like its from the 90's DTV market. John Barrowman (aka Jack Harkness of Torchwood and Doctor Who) is always fun to watch and has one of the greatest pick-up lines in history.

Every Saturday the Godzilla subreddit hosts a viewing of a Godzilla film. This week was Godzilla 2000. It was better than I remeber, the miniatures were amazing looking although the CG and composite shots were a bit rough. Orga is a neat monster but REALLY needed more screen time to mean anything. The movie just lags in the middle. And while I do like my Godzilla/Kaiju centered military units, the idea of Storm Chasers following monsters is something I wouldn't mind being toyed with again. I just wish there was an explanation of what, if anything Godzilla had been up to before the movie started. How much of a menace has he been? Was '54 the worst? Did he hit other cities, countires since then? Also I really didn't like most of the musical edits in the US cut (asaide from the extra Ifukube stuff), a lot of it just sounded like generic action temp tracks. And I SWEAR that they put in some Zilla roars in there too. I really need a Japanese copy to verify, but all I got is a VHS buried somewhere deep in my closet.

[Silver Kamen]

[Dr Kain]

Scream 4 - This is by far the best Scream since the original. It really rips into the current crop of remakes while also keeping itself as a sequel that breaks down what has happened to the horror genre in recent years. I love the twist on the original's ending and while I know there are some that say it should have ended when Jill was placed in the ambulance, that would defy the point the characters were making throughout the movie that the remakes never end where they should because it needs to add a spin on it. And of course, if it had, we wouldn't have Syd's best line of the entire movie, "Don't **** with the original!" It isn't a perfect movie, but it makes some great points. I give Scream 4 a 7/10.

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

Dracula (Spanish Version)

Pretty much the same thoughts I had when I first saw this last year: some nice stylistic flourishes and a few added bits that make the story more coherent - but it's also too long, doesn't get the same sense of creepiness across, and has a largely inferior cast (a thoroughly un-menacing Dracula as the worst offender) when compared to Todd Browning's English language version.