Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

Assault on Precinct 13 - This was my first time seeing it and it was very good. I loved how the whole movie comes together for its first half and then becomes a siege movie afterwards. As usual, Carpenter is a master of his own work as both the score and cinematography were as incredible as the movies that came after this one. In fact, I am going to say this straight up, but he is the Quentin Tarantino of the 70s and 80s. I love the dialog between the characters. I really enjoyed seeing how it does not matter if you are a cop or a criminal, you are all pretty much equal when it comes to being fodder. My only complaint about the movie is how emotionless the cop lady was. Of course, it did make for a great scene inside the holding cells when she is shot in the arm, just stands there, and then kicks the crap out of the thug. Overall, I'm giving this movie a nice 8/10.

Assault on Precinct 13 - Holy crap, as a remake, this movie sucks ass. As a movie, this movie sucks ass. What the hell is going on here? There is absolutely no build up to siege on the police station. The characters are cliche and boring. The music is bland. And between the two, it is kind of sad that an unruly gang of thug lowlifes were better organized for an assault on a police station on a whim to take out a man who fled to it over trained military personnel who planned to take out one prisoner. What the hell?! Another thing that made the original unique is that there was no main leader. They were there just for the sake of being there. Here, we have to have some big man giving orders with a complete reason for doing what he is doing. The acting in this movie was down right atrocious, especially from the police lady and her sex addiction. I am not sure what the director was going for, but it came off as annoyingly laughable more than anything else. WIth that said, I want the $4 I spent to rent this movie back because this piece of **** was not even worth a penny. It gets a 1/10 from me.

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

NO, I give both Star Trek and The World's End a 9/10 as well, but my order would go TWE, ST, MU, Thor 2, and CF. Again, in time, when I compare them to movies overall, their scores will lower most likely, but right now, I compare them to movies I have seen in 2013, not their overall lasting appeal. That will come when I rewatch them. I gave Avengers a 10/10 last year when I first saw it, back now I give it an 8. The Dark Knight Rises was a 9, now it is an 8 as well. On the other hand, the first time I saw Dredd I gave it a 7 and now I give it an 8.

Hold up, you know what, I'm sorry, I gave Pacific Rim a 7, not an 8.

The only movies I can think off the top of my head that I have given a perfect score to are A Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Shawshank Redemption.

As for the movies this year, this is what I found to be good, 8+:

Star Trek
Monster's University
Thor 2
Catching Fire
Man of Steel
THe World's End

Movies that were average at best 5-7:

Iron Man 3
Kick-Ass 2
Pacific Rim
The Conjuring
The Wolverine
This is the End
Riddick
Fast and Furious 6
Ender's Game

Movies that sucked, 4 and below:

The Great Gatsby
Oz
Hansel & Gretel
GI Joe 2
Gangster Squad
Evil Dead
Mama
Percy Jackson 2

Now to be fair on Catching Fire, I thought the first movie was nothing but Battle Royale Lite. I went into this movie expecting nothing more than Battle Royale Lite 2.0, and what I got was a movie that was more about its characters and forging loyalties with each other during the games instead of everyone being out for themselves.

[jellydonut25]

Evil Dead was awesome.

[lhb412]

Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan

A wonderful tribute to Ray, and it's great to hear for Ray and see new footage of the existing models... but I gotta say that the less than feature length doc from the '90s, 'Ray Harryhausen Chronicles,' is a bit better. Chronicles is less talking heads gushing about Ray and more in-depth discussion with Ray himself, and that one has Leonard Nemoy narrating!

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

Akira - Got to see this at the Alamo Drafthouse a little bit ago and it was quite awesome on the big screen. The animation was so nice and crisp that it was just gorgeous to see. Unfortunately, nice animation still cannot fix the convoluted plot, but that is okay, it still tells a great story despite its confusing ideas and symbolism. I still think the movie should have a subtitle called The White Reset Button. ANyway, great animation, an excellent score, and likable characters make me give this movie an 8/10.

[jellydonut25]

I'd be a little less generous with Akira, but it is a really wild, fun film.

Just got done watching Pitch Black. I like this movie. I hated the second Riddick film, but I really like this. It's a solid sci-fi film and even though it might not live up to it in every possible aspect, it's got one hell of a premise.

[MouthForWar]

[lhb412]

^Chronicles is also special for me because it came out when I was 9 years old, just as I was watching his films for the first time - so I was pretty well filled in on who Ray was and how he operated right from the beginning.

[klen7]

i just rewatched Vanilla Sky for the first time in a few years. It's a movie that I loved the first time that I saw it and loved it more the second time i saw it when i caught a lot of the subtle references and foreshadowing. Seeing it now, there is nothing subtle about it to me, but i still enjoy it for being a daring film. It was funny to see a few actors that have just now started getting attention and bigger roles showing up in really small roles in that film. Overall I'm still a big fan of Cameron Crowe and his ability to put together a soundtrack in a way that transcends both the song and the film by creating an iconic moment (for instance whenever i hear 'Your Eyes' by Peter Gabriel i immediately think of 'Say Anything' or 'Secret Garden' makes me think of 'Jerry Maguire')..

[Dr Kain]

One Piece Strong World - Wow, this movie was well worth the four year wait. It was great. I would say it is by far the best One Piece movie, but that isn't saying much considering its competition, but this was great. Characters did not go out of character (if that makes sense), the story was well told and fun, plus it as action packed. Not just that, but Ian Sinclair was amazing as Brook and I really hope Funimation has licensed the rest of the series so we don't have another year and a half wait between volumes (plus, so we can get to Brook's introduction). I'm giving this movie a nice 9/10 stars because it was great.

The Devil's Carnival - The first time I saw this, I hated it. I love Repo The Genetic Opera and wanted something like that. This time around though, this movie was much better but I still have some issues, specifically with the Kiss Me song. That scene just does not seem to fit at all with the rest of the movie and feels like it was there just to give Alexa a role. I do like the idea they were going for and the last 10 minutes of the movie are awesome (love the Devil's invasion song and the one during the end credits about the ship). I do still think the movie feels short changed though because it wanted to tell a story but 55 minutes is way too short to tell it. Overall, I give it a 7/10 this time, but still a little skeptical of where it is going to go.

[lhb412]

The Tale of Zatoichi

The greatest non-Godzilla film franchise begins! A lot of the ingredients are here in the beginning, but this initial offering is a bit more drama and a bit less action thriller when compared to the series it becomes. Perhaps the best film in the series to introduce someone more used to the more austere samurai pictures also released by the Criterion Collection.

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

We inch closer to final form Zatoichi with this sequel's greater emphasis on splashy-action. We've still yet to settle on the classic formula, as this film (a direct sequel to the first) has a rather chaotic plot that ricochets between various groups of bad guys, instead of the good vs. evil format the series becomes known for.

[jellydonut25]

Ratatouille - First time I've seen this one. It's well animated, surprisingly full of heart, and overall enjoyable.

Cars 2 - Finally bit the bullet and watched this...it's not good. I was kinda prepared for that, but this series really is the worst thing Pixar has. Of all their films the first Cars film is the only one I don't love and the second one is the only one I don't even like. (I have yet to see Brave or Monsters University, though).

[XvGojira]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

I don't understand the hate for Cars 2. It was vastly superior to the first one and it was a homage to spy movies. What more do you want? It's Cars, not Finding Nemo, Incredibles, or Toy Story.

[jellydonut25]

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

New Tale of Zatoichi

Now we're in color (as the studio realizes they've got a series on their hands). Still largely in the more reserved mode of these earliest stories - i.e. more morally gray instead of the clearly defined good guys v. bad guys stuff, less emphasis on the action scenes and more on personal drama, and Zatoichi's skills aren't quite up to the one-man army he becomes. Not that this film is in any way not good: Katsu's performance as Ichi gets better and better; the supporting roles are, as usual, pretty strong; and there's those wonderful little vignettes (little incidents that often have no bearing on the plot) that are a big part of what makes this series so great.

I kinda look at Zatoichi's backstory the same way I look at Godzilla's powers and abilities in the Showa series: I figure they'll just introduce stuff to drive the plot in this particular movie without thinking about how it jives with one consistent picture through the whole series. You just have to accept it!

[jellydonut25]

The Heat - surprisingly funny. I usually hate Melissa McCarthy, but I found her to be really funny here. It's too long though. Why can't even comedies be under 2 hrs long anymore? EVERYTHING has to be 2 hrs long now...geeze.

Prisoners - Talk about overly lengthy movies. Good GOD. No need for this to be over two and a half hours long...and honestly, what's the POINT? I mean, at some point, you expect the movie to take on a meaning, with all its "gravity" and gloom and desperation seeping into every pore of the the freaking celluloid, but it never gets around to having a point. A movie where a mild-mannered man tortures somebody for days to try to get his daughter back never touches on the torment it must be causing his soul. And worst of all, after 2 frigging HOURS of running length, it wraps up in a few minutes with some pretty lazy/lousy storytelling. If you don't care overmuch about spoilers, read the Wikipedia entry. It's like 700 words long, HALF of which is devoted to the final 15 minutes of the film.

[Hybrid Gojira]

@Klen - Vanilla sky is a great movie. I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it.

Red 2 - I liked it. The first two-thirds of the movie are fantastic, but the last third was kinda "blah" overall. I still love the cast of characters but I do miss Morgan Freeman. John Malkovich is hilarious as always.

Total Recall (remake) - Meh. There was nothing about this movie that stood out. The characters are bland and the SPFX are uneven.

[Dr Kain]

To kick off my Godzilla-thon (even though I won’t be watching all of the movies in a small time span) I decided to change up my order and start with Final Wars. Why? Well because next year will be its 10th anniversary. Plus, I wanted to relook at the final, and most controversial movie, first.

So with that said:

Godzilla Final Wars: First I’m just going to straight off say that this movie is bad, very bad. As a Godzilla movie, it is downright terrible. Godzilla does not even show up until an hour into the movie, and by then, we have been given so much exposition, so much filler, too many characters and monsters without any rhyme or reason for it, that you are ready for the movie to be over when the big G finally shows up. This movie feels more like Kitamura was planning to make a Matrix type super hero movie when he was asked to do Godzilla, so he just adapted his script to include as many beloved Toho kaiju as possible into the movie regardless of whether or not we see them on screen for more than 10 seconds. Honestly, there was no need to even bother with “Zilla” or Hedorah, as their scenes are just pointless and add nothing to the so called plot (other than showing how much they hate the US version).

The human characters feel like they are just going through the motions of the movie to the point that you cannot even take them seriously. Don Fry seems to have these reactions as if he has no idea what is going on outside of his own lines, so they feel forced and very much scripted. The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable, which is a shame since they even have Kane Kosugi in this movie. His talents are definitely wasted as instead of utilizing him, he is there to give one bad line in English and become nothing more than background for the remainder of the movie until he ID4’s himself. Ozaki has more personality in his hair than his entire performance, while both Anna and Miyuki are there just to have some fan service added to the mix. I’m not sure if Miyuki figured she was going to die and wanted to look pretty when she kicked the bucket on this mission or what, but who the hell is going to wear high heels to a big battle like this? Even the X Alien villain of the movie seems to not even be taking this thing seriously, but at least he appears to be having fun with his role.

As for the monsters, they are a mixed bag. Some of them, such as Gigan and Hedorah, look great, while others, like King Ceasar and Anguirus just look goofy. I don’t hate their new designs, it is just that their heads really look like the rubber they are made out of instead of monster heads. If there is one thing they did not look like in the originals, it was rubber monsters. Speaking of modern inferiority, what is up with Kumonga’s spider web? It is clearly just rope tied together. Did they run out of a budget before they filmed his battle with Godzilla and just used the first thing they could find at a dollar store? I do like Kaiser Ghidorah’s design even if it does stray from the King Ghidorah we all know and love. He feels like that final boss he is supposed to be, so it works despite how ridiculous it is to see Godzilla just tossing him over his back as if it he was hollow on the inside. Speaking of Godzilla, that brings me to my final piece when it comes to the monsters, I do not like his design at all. I get what they were going for by making him thinner, but it makes him look more like Godzilla Jr than Godzilla. Most of all, his back looks lazily put together. The spines just look so far apart from each other and too small. One of the best things about the Godzilla designs from the Heisei era was his back, and here there is nothing to praise outside of giving the designs an E for Epic Failure.

The movie itself is quite subpar. It definitely feels like a Kitamura movie, which is great if that is your thing. I definitely enjoy a bunch of the man’s movies, which is why I do not outright hate this movie. On the other hand, if you do not like Kitamura’s movies, or was just looking for an updated version of Destroy All Monsters, you will be disappointed. Aside from being an action movie first and a Godzilla movie second, the movie suffers from pointless characters, subplots that did not need to be there (seriously, there is no reason for Minilla to be in this movie at all), monsters that were there just for the sake of being there, and a score that is a mixed bag. There are some great pieces to be found, with some homages to the music of old, but then there is a lot of crap that sounds like it was ripped out of a Nintendo game from the 80s. Overall, I’m giving Godzilla Final Wars a 4/10. Sadly, it isn’t the worst Godzilla movie ever, and it does have action to make up for everything else, but it is not even that good of a movie in the long run.

North by Northwest - This movie was pretty good. It is the second Hitchcock movie I have now seen and while it isn't as good as Psycho, it was still good nonetheless. I liked the characters and the story, but I do feel it was a little slow movie and the movie could have easily been about 15 minutes shorter. I love some of the camera angles used in the movie and the music was good, but I was hoping for something suspenseful as I have been told Hitchcock is a master at that. Nevertheless, I give this movie a nice 7/10 and look forward to watch the other 13 movies I now own.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Just saw Hunger Games: Catching Fire and really enjoyed it.

[lhb412]

Zatoichi the Fugitive

This is it! The first three films established the skill, humility, humor, and tragedy of Zatoichi. The plots were tragic melodramas. This film retains all of those elements, and important elements they are, but with this one we also get the added sense of fun, best conveyed by the wonderful final action sequence where Zatoichi faces a real army of opponents for the first time (and in a neato set piece to boot!). Add to that an expanded space for Ichi's little side adventures (his brief wrestling career!) and the sweet scenes where he befriends a supporting character - now everything's in place that makes the Zatoichi series so classic!