Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

[Hybrid Gojira]

Copying my post from the GXM talkback thread:

I just finished watching this.

There are some good ideas in this movie. I liked the battle between the swarm and Godzilla. The notion that Japan would look for a new energy source because of Godzilla's attacks is actually quite brilliant. The fact that the government would keep up their research on plasma energy even after they know Godzilla is drawn to it is also a very solid in premise.

But...the rest of the movie kinda just sucks. The characters are bland, despite having the backstory not to be. I didn't care about any of them. Megaguirus is a nifty monster, but the prop is mostly lifeless except when hiding behind the CGI effects. The fight scenes with Godzilla were comical, but there was just that sense of awe missing in this movie. Godzilla mostly looks dopey and the suit comes off as flat and very fake/plastic looking. Much of the CGI is horrible. The miniatures look uneven...the backdrops and city skylines looks dead to me. The matte shots are horrific at times, and the constant switching between mattes back to miniatures is jarring. I also dislike the "Megaguirus view" camera work done here. It's not convincing and it adds nothing of merit to the film. There are some funny moments between G and Meg, but it still falls short of the stuff we saw in GvsMegalon (the monsters being overly demonstrative, etc.). I'd rather see Gigan and Megalon cackle and slap their hands together than a CGI-rendered Megaguirus "smile".

And the whole nurse computer program thing? Completely stupid and unnecessary.

Godzilla's beam charge looks cool, as does the beam itself, but I still prefer the original blue. I also hated the revised scenes from 1954. They don't work and look terrible....plus the opening scene where G treks through the city and garbage cans fall over? Atrocious. The movie is sloppily edited together as well.

GXM flat out sucks. I like Godzilla movies, but this isn't a good effort.

Bleh.

[Dr Kain]

I still need to watch the BDs of SpaceG and Megaguirus. I've never seen SpaceG subbed before and I hvaen't seen Megaguirus subbed since I replaced the VCD with the R2 DVD back in 2002.

[Dr Kain]

Oculus - I'm not really sure what I can say about this movie other than it sucked. I went in to it knowing it was not that good of a movie, but I at least expected there to be something I could like about it. Instead, all I get is a predictable boring movie that tries nothing new nor is it even the least bit suspenseful. It's like they wanted to make a Paranormal Activity movie that wasn't a found footage movie, and so, this is the best they could come up with. It was lame, it was boring, and it was just down right dumb. Go watch something else instead of wasting your time on this crap stain of a "horror" movie. I give it a 3/10 stars.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Watched GXMG. I liked it quite a bit...see the talkback thread.

[DannyBeane]

Empire of the Ants
I watched this film because of the (shameless plug) weekly movie viewing threads in the Fandom Activities forum (Which could use some new posters as our numbers have thinned over the past year. We won't bite. I promise)
It was a very cheesy 1970s monster movie but I enjoyed in a MST3K type of way. Great movie to riff with friends.

I also watch my new Blu Rays of The Big Lebowski, (one of my favorite comedies) Austin Powers 3 Goldmember, and Godzilla vs Megalon.

[jellydonut25]

Brick Mansions sucked.

And The Fault in Our Stars is exactly the movie you think it is. Whether that's good or bad to you (bad to me) is up to your personal tastes.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[lhb412]

Safety Last!

Harold Lloyd's most famous film, you know: that famous shot of him hanging off the hands of the clock 10 stories above Los Angeles! Pretty cool film. I was an instant Keaton fan, I'm warming up to Chaplin in a major way, and now I'm liking Llyod (this is just the universe conspiring to make me buy Blu-Rays!). One amazing part of this film is just all the LA circa 1923 location footage, a window into the world of 90 years ago...

[Hybrid Gojira]

I watched Godzilla (84 Japanese version) tonight. I posted my review in the talkback thread, but I was amazed at how much I actually preferred the American version at times. The Japanese film does have better qualities to it in some parts, but the "85" film does in segments as well.

[ebirahsmeg1]

Just watched the The Quiller Memorandum...very underrated, old school 1966 cold war spy flick starring George Segal, Alec Guinness, and Max von Sydow that I hadn't seen since my college days. It's rather hard to find this title in the states let along in Japan.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Rebirth of Mothra- I hadn't watched this movie in ages since I got a boot VHS back in the late 90s. If you watch it as a children's film it's alright. I liked the suit design of Death Ghidorah (I refuse to call it Desghidorah) and Mothra Leo/Rainbow Mothra was pretty cool. As for the new BD it looked really good for an 18 year old movie.

Rebirth of Mothra 2- Same situation as above. I think this is my favorite of the trilogy I like the monster Dargarla and would love to see it make a return sometime either in a game or a future Godzilla movie.

Rebirth of Mothra 3- Probably the best looking KG since the Showa design. This looked film looked the worst IMO out of the three though.

GMK- I've never been a fan of this movie always found it boring. Rewatching it on BD my opinion hasn't changed.

G x MG and Tokyo SOS- They are a lot better than I remember but still kind of boring.

[Dr Kain]

How can you find GMK boring? It has some of the most monster action out of any of the Godzilla movies? Add on top realistic effects, an interesting plot, and an incredible score.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

People have different opinions? I also find the Gamera trilogy boring.

[lhb412]

^I find the Gamera trilogy and GMK rare examples of post-Showa kaiju films that aren't boring!

We are opposites!

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I didn't really care for the story in GMK I think the only thing I liked about it was Baragon anda few pieces of the score. I hated the designs for the rest of the monsters, didn't like how they made Ghidorah a good guy. To me the film just dragged on and on.

As for the Gamera trilogy the film I liked was Gamera 2 the others I find to be a chore to sit through.

[lhb412]

^GMK isn't perfect (and I'd rate each of Kaneko's Gamera installments higher), but I consider it quite a few wrungs above most '90s/'00s Godzilla movies, quality-wise.

Our Man Flint

It's hard for me to be objective about the Flint films because my mother loves these movies so much she frequently showed me them as a kid (Flint and Mr. Spock were her ultimate childhood crushes).

... anyway, Flint is the James Bond parody that inspired the Austin Powers films decades later, but instead of a somewhat buffoonish spy (as with Powers) what makes Derek Flint funny is that he's just so super-competent it's ridiculous. James Coburn's charm as Flint is what makes the film work, as any other actor would make a know-it-all with a harem living in his ultra-plush apartment completely insufferable. It's super-'60s, really in the Batman '66, Pink Panther, and (of course) James Bond wheelhouse, and if you like those you'll probably like this.

The two Flint movies ran together in my memories. While it's regarded as the lesser, I realize that a lot of my favorite gags were in the sequel.

[The Shadow]

Thinking on it, the Austin Powers movies seem like they take equal inspiration from the Dr. Goldfoot spy-parody movies (produced by AIP and shares cast with AIP's beach party movies). The Dr. Goldfoot movies focus on the titular villain, played by Vincent Price, rather than the heroic spy. There are a few clips up on Youtube, here are some from the first movie Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (apparently uploaded by one of the actresses playing a female robot, Salli Sachse)

[jellydonut25]

I've got a bit more negative to say about GMK than the average individual...but I don't think boring is a very valid complaint, personally. I don't think the movie is anywhere NEAR as good as it seems most of the fanbase does...but it's certainly not boring.

[Dr Kain]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I find the whole mythological themes that Kaneko uses in his kaiju films boring. So when he did the same thing with Godzilla I find it boring.

[lhb412]

[Dr Kain]