Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

I saw Ant-Man again and it was even better the second time. Still an 8/10.

Also,

The Fly - This was nothing like I was expecting, which was nice. In fact, The Simpsons parody of it was a lot closer to the movie than I thought it was. Vincent Price was great as always but the way the narrative was done was really interesting and it kept you wondering how everything is going to fall into place. I also was expecting things to be a lot more gruesome than they were, which is nice that it relied on actual suspense more than gore. Funny enough, I also thought the movie was in black and white, so I was quite surprised that it was in color. Overall, I give this an 8/10 as well because it was such a simplistic, yet, compelling movie.

[XvGojira]

Little Monsters spoiled the ending to The Fly for me as a kid.

[Dr Kain]

The Fly remake - It was meh. Jeff Goldblum was just being the same character he is in every movie and his transformation was stupid. He didn't even look like a fly. Thankfully the make-up effects were top notch and made up for it. The overall story was quite boring and it was borderline generic. Not to mention the abortion dream scene was just unnecessary and gross, and that is coming from me. As far as remakes go, there have been worse ones, but I really couldn't care less if I ever watch this movie again. I'll give it a 6/10 because I'm generous and it wasn't a horrible movie, just an uninspiring one.

Now that I think of it, I am 2 for 2 in not liking a Cronenberg movie. I guess that man just isn't in my taste of horror. Well, I still have Scanners to watch, so we'll see what comes of that.

[klen7]

i really like The Fly remake. It's usually on my lists of films that i use as an example of how sometimes remakes are better than the original, especially by taking the concept and heading in a different direction with it.

I watched Why Don't You Go Play in Hell after some urging from KiryuGoji..Overall, some of the characters and plots i enjoyed, others annoyed me, so it kind of averaged out. I guess I liked most of the Yakuza characters and humor, and disliked most of the film maker characters and humor.

[O.Supreme]

Monsters -Dark Continent on Netflix - not nearly as interesting as the first film. Sure you get to see more of the Monsters, but the plot about a bunch of Thugs from Detroit all enlisting in the armed forces (and yes all being assigned to the same location, because that really happens...) , didn't do it for me. I don't need to see this again, but a fun drinking game may be to see what occurs more. Fbomb's, or a monster sighting. I know Gareth Edwards really had nothing to do with this, and it was a sequel that really didn't need to be made. Unfortunately it was.

[Dr Kain]

Alice in Wonderland - I have so many mixed feelings about this movie. I've only seen it twice now and I enjoy it, but it doesn't make sense to me why Disney would put in some things from Through the Looking Glass, but not others, along with cutting out bits from the original novel. I love the conversation between the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle in the book, so that not being present in the movie (or any movie for that matter) is quite disappointing. I also wish they would have done the Jabberwocky since they did the Tweedles and Flowers. Overall, I give it a 7/10.

[EricDent]

Saw Ant-Man today, it was pretty fun.
Not sure why everybody leaves the theater during any Marvel movie, cause 99% of the time there's something fun/cool at the end of the credits.

[klen7]

Whispers of the Heart - I blind bought this used for $4 since its a Ghibli film and i was under the impression that "The Cat Returns" was a sequel to it... well i really like "The Cat Returns" but the films have very little to do with each other. Definitely not the kind of movie i was expecting. it was cute enough, but im not sure there are any repeated viewings in my future.

[EricDent]

Hey at least you can learn how to sing Take Me Home (Country Road) in Japanese...

Yeah the only real connection is that brief mention of the cat statue.

[klen7]

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

^ I reckon the fact Hayao Miyazaki wrote it is why it's automatically on a different level

[jellydonut25]

[O.Supreme]

[Dr Kain]

Justice League Gods and Monsters - We watched it tonight and I must say, I was impressed. This was easily the best DC movie to come out since Flashpoint. It was entertaining, interesting, and well told. Yeah, the plot twist at the end was predictable as all hell, but it was still a well done movie. NOt to mention it actually gave us character development for the heroes, which I was not expecting. I kind of want to buy it, but I'll just wait for an eventual special edition that includes those online webisodes (or whatever they are). It was also nice getting to see the Metal Men even if they aren't the true versions. Overall, I'm going to give it a nice 7/10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

Landis, Carpenter, Cronenberg, Hooper, Romero...and now you can add Joe Dante to the heap of ever-growing genre filmmakers who've just lost their touch. The Hole was not bad, not good, but marginally successful at being a kids' horror movie...but I just watched:

Burying the Ex - this is just flat-out bad. Looks like it was made for an episode of Goosebumps or some other such low-budget show, and though it's got a decent cast who are TRYING, they aren't given anything to work with as the script really feels like an out-of-touch man pushing 70 made this who doesn't understand "kids these days" with their "internetting" and "the vegan" and "retro-ness". There are tons of little Italian-horror posters and stuff in the background all the time and lots of classic movies referenced or shown, but about halfway through the movie, I just wanted to be like, "Okay. I get it. You know old and obscure horror. Now will you PLEASE make this movie be ABOUT something? Have it be funny or scary or SOMETHING other than an excuse to throw a bunch of horror memorabilia in the background, please."

[Dr Kain]

Goldeneye - A great start for Brosnan even though they should have just brought Dalton back. The story is well done and tries to do some new things with the plot. Not to mention it doesn't try to over sexualize the Bond girl, which is nice. That's probably because of Onnatop, but still. Oh, and it was also nice to not have any girls just flaunt, "OH JAMES!" as the movies from the last 20 years were doing. Overall, I give it a solid 8/10 stars and it is in the top 10 Bond movies ever made thus (closer to 10 though).

[klen7]

Birdman - I really wanted to like this, but the story was kind of standoffish and the characters were mostly unrelatable. There were a few chuckles and interesting philosophical musings, but the technical work was phenomenal. I am sucker for long takes, so there was a lot to like in that respect. I'd probably watch a feature length behind the scenes rather than watch it again.

[Dr Kain]

[Hybrid Gojira]

Inside Out - Judging from the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, I'm one of the few people who are "meh" towards this film. There are some clever ideas and some laughs, but it lacked the charm I found in something like Big Hero 6. The middle of the film bored me and from that point on it simply couldn't recover. 6/10.

Also, "Lava" was awful. For a Short, it was far too long and dawdling.

[Dr Kain]

[The Shadow]

In my continued efforts of introducing my nephew to great movies (and television shows too) I showed him Tron and Tron Legacy; surprisingly my nephew had seen neither movie before.

Tron is always great, and proved a mighty attention grabber for my nephew as he actually put away his 3DS to properly watch the movie.

Tron Legacy proved equally attention grabbing for my nephew, no 3DS for it either. My appreciation for the movie has grown after watching it again; when I first watched the movie (in theaters) I had thought the Grid was too dark compared to the one in Tron. However, the darker tone of the TL Grid visually displays the steel grip that the dictatorial Clu had on it; crushing the life out of it in order to create the perfect system. And of course seeing User Flynn interact with the Grid is great, everything fits smoothly with the world created by the first movie.

It's a real shame that it took so many years for Disney to do another Tron movie, and an even greater shame that they have yet to build on Tron Legacy. I have long thought that Tron as a property, if Disney pursued it, out of all the sci-fi & fantasy movies produced in the 80s could have been a genuine Star Wars challenger. Tron Legacy only reinforces for me the idea that Tron could be a true juggernaut, seeing master User Flynn go into action at the End of Line Club has all sorts of wow factor. Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm/Star Wars and is intent on pursuing it full bore, we can only hope that we'll see even a tenth of that fervor behind any potential new Tron films...

Bonus! Earlier this summer I got my nephew to watch Fantastic Voyage (still working on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) which he enjoyed quite a lot -- he even commented that it reminded him of the Teen Titans episode where Beast Boy and Gizmo shrink down to go inside Cyborg (obviously I informed him that the episode was a homage to FV). I think he's surprised to find out that he enjoys these movies once he actually watches them, he seems to be more willing to watch these movies now too. It's a shame that no sequels have ever been made, we find out enough about the C.M.D.F. in the movie to have many directions a sequel could go.

[klen7]

I really like Tron Legacy

I watched 'The Guest' last night (it's available on Netflix streaming now).. seemed heavily influenced by John Carpenters early films to me. Definitely a bit of a genre bender. An interesting movie that features an interesting soundtrack and pretty solid performances across the board from actors and actresses i am mostly unfamiliar with. If you like action/thriller/horror from the late 80s, early 90s then you'll probably find a lot to enjoy in this movie. I'd prefer not to say much about the plot because watching it unfold is probably the biggest selling point and the film synopsis gives it away a bit. Between this film and "You're Next" i feel like the US adaptation of "Death Note" might be in good hands.

[lhb412]

[Dr Kain]

39 Steps - I'm really sure it is fair to give this one a score right now because I watched it even though I am quite tired and was not really in the mood for a movie. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it, just not as much as I hoped because my attention was elsewhere. I can definitely see how this movie would go on to influence Hitchcock's story for North by Northwest and the acting was great. The escape scene in the fog halfway through the movie was absolutely breath taking. The characters were good and it was nice to not see some suddenly romance break out. Right now though, I'm giving it a 7/10.