Recently watched movies!

[jellydonut25]

I loved Nightcrawler. Gyllenhaal is great and Rene Russo still looks fantastic.

Wolfcop was entertaining, imho

[Dr Kain]

Atragon - I just watched this for the first time and it was quite good. I do feel like the movie dropped in quality during its last 20 minutes because they just killed the Mus in cold blood, but other than that, I enjoyed it. The effects on Manda were not the greatest though and he really didn't do much. Overall, I'd give it a 7/10.

[lhb412]

King Kong (1933)

"Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen! Those chains are made of chrome steal!"

I finally replaced my decade-old 720p HD set (which was having sound issues with my new Blu-Ray player) with a proper 1080p TV and I felt the need to put in and watch little bits of many of my favorite films. I put Kong in and ended up watching the whole thing!

[lhb412]

Daimajin Strikes Again

You know, this used to be my second favorite of the franchise after the original, but now I see it as the weakest. I think part of that is that I'm used to watching all three close together, and this one benefits from being more different while the first sequel, Return of Daimajin, is practically a remake of the original. Seeing them far apart from each other makes the awkwardness of this one stand out, while Return of Daimajin's anchoring itself on the satisfying formula of the original comes off as something of a virtue. Plus, Return of Daimajin has some super-cool set pieces.

Part of the problem is the kids in this movie. The filmmakers never seem entirely comfortable with putting the child actors in an action series like this one, and they err on the side of caution and end up with a lot of clumsily executed scenes of them in peril.

The Majin sequences are still satisfying, and the scene where he awakens and revives the kids and the falcon is very cool.

[XvGojira]

When Marnie Was There- A slow start but got me teary by the end. A wonderful haunting and beautiful movie.

Jurassic World - A slow first act but it quickly amps up. There's not enough animatronics for my liking. But HOLY CRAP! I'd pay $50 just to watch the last 20 minutes. It seriously took me an hour to catch my breath after the movie. The ending, it felt like they took what I wanted in sequel from my heart and soul as an 8 year old kid. I got to say, that this the best movie I've seen all year. I loved Mad Max and I might have less issues with it than JW, but god DAMN does JW hit all the right childhood notes for me. I want to see this movie on a loop.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[DannyBeane]

[Psycho Soldier]

[klen7]

With Wolfcop, I thought it did decent until the end, which felt incredibly low budget compared to the rest of the film. It's like the film climaxes with the Meth barn.

[Dr Kain]

Jurassic World - If there is one thing that the previous JP sequels have been, it was being less than stellar. Thankfully, this movie is a lot better than those even though it is still not even close to being a great movie, it is an entertaining one. There is barely any character development, but for what little there is, it is done fine. The Indominous Rex is an okay villain but the whole concept behind him makes the movie just another generic monster movie using the world of Jurassic Park as a catalyst for it to exist. The CGI is also pretty bad in a lot of areas as you can cleary tell the dinosaurs are not actually there, especially the raptors. Thankfully though, the one liners, the action, and the music do keep it an enjoyable piece so that it is not as boring as The Lost World or down right stupid as in JP3. On the down side, these are some of the dumbest characters in a movie to come out this year. Who the hell would it was smart to start cross engineering dinosaur DNA? These morons deserve Darwin awards. For what it is though, I give the movie a 7/10 stars. It isn't going to be anywhere near the worst movie of the year, but it is most certainly not even going to be close to the best.

Terminator - This is my second time ever watching it and it is quite good. I love the horror movie feel the movie has and Arnold is a beast in it. There are a few aspects that don't make sense when you go into detail with them, but that is just how time traveling plots work. Overall, I give it an 8/10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

The dinosaurs are crossbred mutants from the outset anyway. They're mutated with frog DNA, so they're not even "real" dinosaurs to begin with.


And I've now see The Lost World twice in the last few days (once on Blu-ray once on TV) and I think it's a ton of fun. I don't think it's boring at all. It's just a wildly DIFFERENT movie than the first, which is fine because the second book ISN'T wildly different. They did admirably with the material they had to work with and I think it's an awesome-sauce fun monster movie.

Also, Terminator RULES, and I agree with the horror atmosphere. I know we're NEVER going back to that feel again (sigh) but I would LOVE to see another Terminator movie with a more horror bent to it instead of JUST action.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Speaking of Terminator, the new one looks like an absolute train wreck. The preview featured some of the worst CGI I've seen since...well the last Terminator that thought it was a good idea to make Arnold look young again. It also rehashes several lines from previous T movies. Meh.

[jellydonut25]

Terminator has been re-hashing lines and catch phrases since T2. I enjoy T2 but insofar as the path it set the entire franchise on, it kinda bugs me.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Killer Mermaid - an English language Serbian horror film starring Francis Nero in a supporting role. There is a slasher character which gets too much screen time compared to the titular killer mermaid. The movie has a cliffhanger ending which I wish had been the end of Act 2. The CG is also better than the practical creature effects

[lhb412]

The Wicker Man (1973)

Such a brilliant film. Christopher Lee said it was his best film, and I'm not sure anyone can contest that (though I dearly love him in the initial Dracula, Frankenstein, and Mummy films from Hammer).

[klen7]

A Walk Among the Tombstones I was expecting a modern noir film.. and it sort of hits some of those marks, but the rape, torture and violence toward women and children prevalent throughout the film kept me from finding much enjoyment in the noirish mystery elements. It's a shame because there are some interesting ideas in here, but by the third torture scene i found myself hitting the fast forward button.. which is not something i often find myself doing while watching a movie. I can't say i'd recommend this one at all.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Kingsman: The Secret Service - I liked this movie, but I wasn't quite expecting all the over-the-top antics. Samuel L. Jackson is hilarious and there was enough action to keep me entertained...though some of it should have been trimmed down. I kept wondering if the church scene would end...it felt too long. 6.5/10

[Dr Kain]

The church scene was perfect. It wouldn't have worked had it been any shorter as it was the best scene in the movie. So intense with a lot of great cinematography.

[Dr Kain]

Inside Out - We got to see an advanced screening of Inside Out and it was down right phenomenal. It had a perfect mix of everything from drama to comedy and the story was well told. The characters were awesome and each of the emotions had a nice distinct personality that none of them felt like they were the same character the way it should be. There is a lot of details that go on in the movie I can not speak of without spoiling it, but it is one of Pixar's best movies. I give it a 9/10. Also, the Lava short before it, while a bit sappy, was good too.

[Dr Kain]

Dogora - This movie was really really good. It was like watching a diamond heist movie with kaiju in it. I also loved that they got the actor back from Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster to play the main cop, but it was weird that he was just playing a new instead. Overall, I give the movie an 8 because it was really enjoyable to watch and Dogora was a unique idea. My only complaint is that it does drag in parts, which is a little problematic when the movie is only 80 minutes long. Oh, but man, this movie is in need of a serious remaster. Media Blaster's video quality looked like it was frankensteined from various sources.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Inglourious Basterds - i watched this movie in theaters when it first came out. Tonight was probably my third viewing or so, and man I love me some Christoph Waltz. He's incredible in this film...what a great movie.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

Daredevil (2003) - For science. It's ATROCIOUS. And I'm sure there are at least a few dozen ways to point that out with its characters, but the two biggest, for me, were that it's UNBRIDLEDLY boring, and in the first scene of the movie, Daredevil kills a guy because HE was too crappy a lawyer to bring him to justice. Though I will admit, I kinda like the radar vision, the movie actually makes you hate the character because he's just such a dick.

[klen7]

X-men Days of Future Past: I was in the minority that thought First Class was pretty middling, so I guess i shouldn't be surprised to have the same feeling here. I found myself wishing I was watching Michael Fassbender/James McAvoy/Jennifer Lawrence/Peter Dinklidge/Famke Janssen in some other movie. The best thing to come out of this is that they trashed the broken continuity. I also found it terribly distracting with its pseudo science approach to technology that was anachronistic at its best and pure fantasy at its worse.
I think the only scenes I truly enjoyed were with Wolverine.