Recently watched movies!

[jellydonut25]

Ragnarok - A middling family monster adventure movie. It's not bad, but it's not really anything special. You might get a better feel for it from its alternate title: "National Treasure: Viking Secrets of the Sea Serpent's Tomb." I would have liked it much more if the cast had anything to offer, as they comprise approximately 95% of the film, but I'm not gonna hold poor acting against a low-budget foreign film. I'd be curious to see what the directors (yep, a directorial pair of brothers) could do with a better budget and a bigger production. I don't hate myself or the movie for watching this, but I wouldn't really recommend this unless you're just lazing about.

[klen7]

^ i really liked that movie.

[lhb412]

Laura

This is an excellent film noir/romance/mystery film starring Gene Tierney (who I only recently discovered in the similarly noirish romance Leave Her to Heaven), Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and... (wait for it) Vincent Price! Man, when Vincent was at his young and handsomest he kinda excelled at playing spineless creeps, as opposed to the creeps he later played that displayed quite a bit of spine.

Really good. Brilliant script, wonderful black and white visuals, and great score. Apparently the theme music (which is purely instrumental) was so successful they later had lyrics written for it so it could be even more successful (which it was).

[Hybrid Gojira]

Little Shop of Horrors - I'm not a huge musical fan, but a story involving an alien, flesh-eating plant bent on taking over the planet? All of my yes. The songs, the characters, and the effects are terrific. Levi Stubbs is absolutely brilliant as he voices Audrey II - seriously, he makes this movie awesome. 8/10.

[Dr Kain]

Jaws 2 - I haven't watched this since the early 90s and it isn't a terrible movie, but it isn't very good. There just really isn't any suspense and something feels off about the characters. Not to mention you would think they would know to listen to Brody, but it is just being rehashed. I give it a 6/10.

Jaws 3 - Wow. I have never seen this before and it was bad, really bad. The effects did not even look like they tried and the movie was just flat out boring. No wonder people hate this piec eof **** because that is exactly what it was. I give it a 3/10.

[jellydonut25]

I wish Jaws 3 - People 0 would have happened. Good or bad, it'd be more interesting than what we got.

[lhb412]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[lhb412]

[jellydonut25]

This is Spinal Tap PRETTY funny? More like consistently HILARIOUS. I mean, it's British-styled humor, with it being more dry and dialogue-driven and everything, but goodness...
"I might want to be like a haberdasher. Like, what do you want a brown hat? No well, we have it in black."
'And is that something you think you might actually want to do?'
"Well, what are the hours?"
HILARIOUS.
Many, many other things too.

"Why not just make ten louder and have that be the highest still?"
"....these go to eleven"

"It's like, how much blacker could it be? None. None blacker"

I lub This is Spinal Tap.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

^ The original idea for the third Jaws film was a wacky parody, but that was shot down.

It Came From Outer Space

It's hard to believe I never caught this one before. It's pretty good, but man; is it hard to tell Richard Carlson (this, Creature From the Black Lagoon) and Hugh Marlowe (Earth vs. The Flying Suacers, The Day the Earth Stood Still) apart from each other! TCM had the two films starring Marlowe on before this, adding to the confusion.

Kiss Me Deadly

Whoa, what a wild film! It starts out like an especially stylish crime noir film, then it spirals out of control into a kind of nightmare with sci-fi elements.

Island of Lost Souls

This is another one I can't believe I haven't seen before! It's halfway between a Universal horror film and King Kong, i.e.: right up my alley!

[jellydonut25]

Yeah. Jaws 3 - People 0 was a proposed National Lampoon parody of the franchise because they figured they couldn't get Scheider back and there was no way to do a serious "Shark vs people" movie again. They had tapped Joe Dante to direct, but the script centered around a real shark killing people during the filming of "movie in a movie" Jaws 3, and the villains being studio execs who wanted to push forward with the movie anyway, so obviously the studio execs didn't want to bankroll it.

I've heard the script wasn't anything super special, but I imagine Dante could have done some tinkering and even if it had been bad, I think it'd have been more interesting than what we got.

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

The Living Daylights - Finally, a really great Bond movie again and it starts off Dalton's short changed career as Bond with a bang. I give it a great 7/10.

Minions - A great brainless funny movie with very little plot or character development. It has a lot of hilarious moments though, but ultimately, it is a one time watch movie. The minions just can not handle an entire movie on their own. Thankfully, the rest of the cast is great. I give it a 6/10.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Minions - A fairly disappointing effort for a kiddie film. The minions are great in supporting roles, but anything beyond that becomes too stale. The film is great for a few laughs, but I was fairly bored half the time - 5/10.

[The Real McCoy]

Last night I watched Hellboy: Sword of Storms. Going to watch Blood and Iron tonight. Not going to get into a massive review, but I'll just say that it was enjoyable. Definitely recommend it to Hellboy fans.

[lhb412]

The Baroness and the Butler was an uninspiring late '30s romantic comedy saved somewhat by a novel premise (the Baron's loyal butler opposes his lord politically and gets elected to parliament while still serving as butler!) and the fact that my man William Powell is the lead, and he's always great.

Ball of Fire, however, is a super-awesome romantic comedy from just a few years later. Directed by Howard Hawks, written by Billy Wilder (before he became the best director in the world), and starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and practically ever great character actor of the time in supporting roles... with a pedigree like that I don't think it's was possible for this film to be anything but great.

[Dr Kain]

Jaws 4 - What the hell did I just watch? None of it made any sense. THe shark is now Jason? It only goes after specific people, can stay still in the water, and can easily blow up when being stabbed? None of this movie made any sense. I'm also tired of Michael and Shaun have a new actor in every movie. Well, whatever, at least it is over. No wonder no one ever talks about 3 and 4, they are as horrible as the stories have said. Why do these even exist while good movies are lost or forgotten? I give this crap a 1/10. It is now on my list for one of the worst movies ever made.

[jellydonut25]

I'd rather watch Jaws 4 than 3.

But I would rather watch something just completely and utterly inept over something that's semi-competent but BORING beyond words.

[lhb412]

Watership Down

I read the book about five years ago, and the impression it left is still pretty fresh. It's that powerful. This movie can't quite capture the epic scope of the book, but it's very good, and the fact that it's that good with the technically limited animation and 90 minute run time (the book is quite long) is quite an achievement.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[EricDent]

Godzilla vs Megaguirius & GMK.
Both on Blu-Ray from Sony.

What was up with the random slow-mo stuff in Megaguirius?

Also did the DVD version have the after credits scene?
Cause I had never seen that before (man that little kid can never catch a break from monsters).

[The Real McCoy]

I think so. All I have is the DVD, and I remember discovering it one day.