Recently watched movies!

[Hybrid Gojira]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - I enjoyed it. I can't say I loved it, but there is nothing overly positive or negative about the film. It's simply a well made movie that sometimes feels cliched but also is clearly trying to pay homage to previous entries...and most of it works.

[Dr Kain]

Christmas Carol 1951 - 9/10.

[lhb412]

[Dr Kain]

Planes, Trains and Automobiles - I wasn't sure what to expect when watching this, but it was a fun little movie. It isn't the most thought provoking or have the biggest plot ever, but for what it was supposed to be, it was great. I enjoyed the chemistry between Candy and Martin a lot, especially since I am not a huge Steve Martin person. I give it a nice 7/10.

[klen7]

Die Hard - 10/10. In my book this movie is the pitch perfect action flick. Love it.

[Dr Kain]

A Christmas Story - No matter how many times I see this movie it never gets old. 8/10.

A Very Murray Christmas - There is a reason this a Netflix movie. It flat out sucks. Unfunny and Bill Murray can not sing for ****. 4/10.

[Dr Kain]

The Hateful 8 - Damn, this movie was freaking awesome!!! The film itself looked so damn gorgeous due to it being shot in 70mm with extravagant wide shots that were breath taking. There was such much detail in everything around the characters. The story itself was fantastic as well and Tarantino continues to hit it out of the park. I wouldn't say this is my favorite of his films, but it was even better than Django Unchained, which is a feat of itself. Tarantino continues to pour out amazing dialog that builds every scene up with tension until the film's final moments. Lastly, the music is as great as it has been in his movie's of the past, but this may be his finest score yet thanks to Ennio Morricone's craft. In the end, I can not help but give this movie a near perfect 9/10 and it is easily one of the best films of 2015.

[lhb412]

Watched the delightful Christmas in Conneticut a day or so before Christmas, from a time in Hollywood where romantic comedy was one of the most consistently great genres; loaded with quotable dialog, the best character actors, and labyrinthine complications that prevent people destined to be together from getting together (naturally, overcome in the finale).

Last year's Christmas was a mess, and in the chaos I didn't really get to enjoy the various movies and books I got as presents (there are probably more than a couple from last year still in my 'to-watch/read' pile). Now that this year's festivities are behind me and I finally have a decent Christmas break (go back to work on Tuesday) I'm gonna enjoy my stuff as much as possible in these next few days. First up is the new Blu-Ray of one of my favorite films: THEM! My love for this '50s movie about giant ants is no secret. This is the first time the movie's been available in it's original aspect ratio on home video. It was filmed open matte, with the top and bottom of the frame cut off to create a widescreen theatrical presentation. On TV and video it's always been shown as originally shot: open matte and un-cropped, so you were technically seeing more picture than was intended to be seen. I believe this new presentation especially helps the scenes with the giant ant puppets. Shooting creature props is, of course, super tricky, and now with the proper framing I think the ants are far more effective, especially in the finale in the underground, which is much more claustrophobic

[Hybrid Gojira]

Battleship - I usually keep the TV on if I'm doing stuff around the house, and I caught this on today. What little I did pay attention to was pretty terrible. I mean, for a mindless kinda movie I guess it's alright, but the SPFX and acting were awful at times. I mean, really, really awful.

[Dr Kain]

Night of the Living Dead remake - I don't know why, I just think Savini's version is superior to Romero's. There are a few things I do like better in the original, but ultimately, Barbara is actually a worthwhile character in this and does something. Not to mention her actress is far better at acting than the lady in the original was. Todd does just as good a job as Ben as the original guy, but overall, I think this one is better. I give it a 7/10.

Ex Machina - Still a 9/10 but it was weird now since the two lead actors are Poe and General Hux in Star Wars.

Laura - Wow, this was a fantastic noir with some truly spectacular twists and turns I didn't see coming. Truly a remarkable movie that is right up there with Touch of Evil, Double Indemnity, and The Maltese Falcon. I give it a 9/10.

[lhb412]

[EricDent]

Star Wars A New Hope (most recent Blu-Ray Special Edition stuff).
My parents wanted to watch the "original" Star Wars and thought that Empire Strikes Back was it.
Netflix didn't have it (I left my DVD at home) so my brother bought it via Amazon instant video.
$19.99 just for that movie?
Then when we started it they got kinda confused about the "Episode 4" thing...
Anyhow it's still a good movie, the only really noticeable things that were different from the 2004 DVD Special Edition version was the rocks R2 hides behind are a lot larger (so much so, it makes you wonder just how it got in there), and the TIE Fighters during the shooting sequence on the Falcon had rather noticeable black squares in the tracking shots.

Then the next day (Christmas Day) we saw Star Wars The Force Awakens at the fancy iPic Theater.
This is one of those dine-in theaters where they wait on you (if you are in the expensive section).
That area has fully reclining leather seats, pillow & blanket, and they give you popcorn with your ticket.
The food is pretty good, obviously a bit expensive to go to all the time.
Movie was good, even though my mom didn't realize the time she chose was for 3D...
Oh well that was fine as well.
If you enjoy Star Wars go see it!

Today I went to the cheap theater to see The Martian.
It was pretty good, and rather funny at times. Makes you hopeful that soon we might actually go to Mars.

Then came back home and noticed there was a freak hail storm that made it look like it snowed in some places...
I also watched Death Kappa which was rather odd but kinda funny as well.

[Dr Kain]

[Dr Kain]

Not exactly a movie, but we spent the last 3 days watching the 7 hour Friday the 13th documentary Crystal Lake Memories. It was really awesome and had a lot of great information to it. Not just that, but they also talked about the good and the bad that occurred during the filming of each movie, which was nice since a lot of times all you ever get is the positive side of things. Also, I wish we had gotten the Freddy vs Jason movie where the devil turned it into a competition. That would have been so much better than the WWF event we got. If you are a fan of the franchise, you definitely need to check this out because it was well worth it and one of the most enjoyable documentaries I have ever watched.

[Dr Kain]

Prom Night - When I started to watch this, I thought I was going to be watching a horror movie, NOT a damn god awful disco music video. Then again, that is on a whole other level of horror in of itself, so I guess I did get a horror movie. Seriously though, what the hell does everyone see in this thing? Granted, it did build things up, but the pay off was not worth it. There was absolutely no suspense, the death scenes were barely shown, and the killer's identity was predictable. If anything, they should have actually shown the damn "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" be killed because that was supposed to be the most satisfying of the deaths, and instead, it wasn't even shown. There was no development for any of the characters and they were just around to do stupid ****. Overall, it's not the worst horror movie I have ever seen, but it was quite dumb. I give it a 6/10.

[lhb412]

Shadow of a Doubt

Loved this early American film from Hitchcock. Beloved uncle visits his sister's family in an idyllic small town, gradually one (and only one) of the family members begins realizing there's something not quite right about the guy. Pretty sure a bajillion other thrillers and horror films have borrowed this template, but I doubt many have done it as well.

[Dr Kain]

Prom Night remake - Oh god my eyes!!!! What the hell was that? It just jumped right into the kills without any suspense or build up to them and the killer was revealed right at the beginning of the movie, getting rid of any sense of tension. Then he just goes and randomly kills people just for the sake of it. None of the characters have any sort of development and it doesn't even feel like the people behind it even bothered to watch the original. Here is probably what happened:

"Hey, I got this idea for a horror movie about a killer at a party, but I'm not sure of the setting."

"How about make it a remake of Prom Night? After all, it has a killer right? Oh, and it takes place during a Prom, which is a party. There you go."

"PERFECT!!"

I might not have enjoyed the original as much as others, but this is just another remake that had no reason to exist. It gets a 2/10.

[klen7]

Man from UNCLE - Good fun spy flick. I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind it becoming a film franchise

[EricDent]

Pan & Seventh Son via Redbox.
Both were OK for rentals, but that's about it.

[The Shadow]

I just watched Pan the other day (OnDemand rental). I actually thought it was a pretty solid movie, if you like Hook I thought Pan made for a good What If? bookend around the core Peter Pan story (I think there were even a couple three nods to Hook in the movie). I like that the story in Pan didn't feel like it had been dumbed-down "for the kids", but rather was just a pretty good story for anyone who cared to watch it.

[Dr Kain]

Pan, where Neverland isn't really all that magical looking. In fact, it looks like the world from Gears of War.

[The Shadow]

Yeah, Pan's version of Neverland is underwhelming. When you first see Neverland it doesn't seem that big, and it seems like later scenes are working hard to dispel that impression. In some ways, even though the areas of Neverland are supposed to be big they many of them struck me as stage sets (as for a play); IE we know they're supposed to be bigger but we only get to see a defined area. In some ways, Pan's Neverland also seems kind of dull or even lifeless at times; if Neverland is supposed to be a place of magic and wonder Pan struggles at times to deliver that impression to the audience.

[XvGojira]

I'm in the pro-Pan group. Yeah, it's weird and goofy but the overacting of Hugh Jackman and Tron-guy as Hook was glorious. I know I'm in the minority, but I enjoyed the hell out of that movie.

[klen7]

I watched Zebraman and Zebraman 2. I liked Zebraman, didn't care for Zebraman 2. If I didn't know better I'd say they were by two different directors, but I guess it just goes to show what a different place Miike has gone with his very prolific career.

[Dr Kain]

Night and the City - I enjoyed it, but part of this movie was lost on me. I guess this must have been the time when wrestling turned from an actual sport to just entertainment or something. Either way, the wrestling match in the last third of the movie was boring as **** and really killed the pacing for what was an enjoyable ride. The only other negative is that none of the characters were really all that likable, but their acting made them work. Overall, not my favorite Noir, but I give it a 7/10.