Recently watched movies!

[lhb412]

Bob Clark has to be one of the most imitated directors whose name no one knows. I saw this brought up somewhere on social media recently; think about how A Christmas Story (nostalgic dramedy looking back at the childhoods of the creators), Porky's (raunchy teen sex comedy), and Black Christmas (the prototypical slasher film) have all been relentlessly imitated over and over again in the decades since.

[Dr Kain]

Crawl - A girl and her dad get trapped into a basement surrounded by alligators during a Florida hurricane. Sounds cool, but it did not need to be almost 90 minutes long. It had a lot of legitimate moments of suspense and tension, and you wanted to see both characters make it out alive, but then the film started to get a bit over the top as looters got introduced only to be eaten a minute later along with a couple of rescue workers. It felt like unneccessary fluff. It would have fit much better had it been part of an hour long anthology horror series or something, but for what it was, it was entertaining. 7/10.

[Dr Kain]

Fx's A Christmas Carol - If you want to see Ridley Scott and his worthless gang of hoodlums bastardize the greatest story ever written into a grim dark, pretentious, shitstain garbage heap as if his name were Zack Snyder, this is the film for you. It's as joyless as can be and completely misses what the entire purpose of the book is supposed to be. The acting is as stilted as a dead tree and none of it makes any sense. Worst of all, it is trying to be edgy by making the characters drop F-Bombs as if that is supposed to mean something. It's 3 hours long and Scrooge doesn't even meet Marley until the hour mark. Oh, and there is a scene where Scrooge rapes Mrs Crachit. Not to mention Scrooge's boarding school teacher was a pedophile and did stuff to him when he was a boy. So yeah, if you are tired of this story getting adapted and want to see the Twilight equivalent done, check this out. If this were an actual movie and not a 3 part TV series aired as such, this would be without a doubt the worst movie of the decade! 0/10.

[sentaison]

Logan's Run. It's been a long time since I watched this old classic. While practically forgotten these days I remember reading in a magazine at the time that it was the best sci fi film made since Forbidden Planet in terms of creating a "futuristic" world. It won a Special Oscar for the f/x and six Saturn awards. While it does look dated in ways it still has a certain amount of power in it's narrative, and it doesn't hurt that it has a cast of stellar actors. I enjoyed watching it again for the first time in probably 10 years. Of course Star Wars came out a year later and blew away the idea of a sci fi film as an obvious social statement.

[Dr Kain]

Black Christmas 2019 - Until the big battle action scene in the third act, the movie was not that bad. Nowhere near any of the worst movies I have seen this year and way better than Rise of Skywalker.

[lhb412]

Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks

This is a pretty awesome new documentary on Netflix that's half about the history of kung fu films, primarily from Hong Kong, and half about how those films traveled around the world and inspired various other cultures to create their own art. Basically, you learn about Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest and breakdancing! It's pretty awesome, and there's a ton of great interview footage from various people.

[Benjamin Haines]

Knives Out (2019) - A wonderfully delightful all-star murder mystery! Avoid all trailers and just enjoy the ride! This is worth catching in theaters.

[lhb412]

^ I was so enthralled with Knives Out that I forgot everything I had seen in the trailers! I mean, I was surprised by things that happened in the movie that, after my initial shock of surprise, I realized I shouldn't have been surprised by since I had seen a short snippet of the scene in the advertisements. That's the magic of the movies, baby!

[Dr Kain]

Radioland Murders - Well that was interesting. That's all I've got, but it was really good. 9/10

[H-Man]

Gamera vs. Zigra

And you know, it's not nearly as bad as I've previously thought, although at times it's hard to watch as an adult because it's pretty infantile. As far as the production is concerned, it's astep up from the previous few Gameras (except Jiger). The film's scale is larger than that of Viras or Guiron and was filmed mostly on location. There's a large cast for one of these movies, and the characters feel mostly real because they're not all reporters, scientists, and military men. The special effects sequences rely on virtually no stock footage (if not at all) and the miniatures, while limited, are acceptable. Having Gamera and Zigra fight mostly underwater allows for Yuasa's crew to continue breaking physical laws as they always did, but without those sequences now seeming so insane. (Although, of course, the climactic Gamera xylophone solo is as absurd as anything they ever did.)

Where the movie suffers though is in its pacing. This is a long movie compared to most of the others in the series, and it really feels it. This time, although I had the movie on in the background, I tried to absorb some of the film's slowest and most baffling scenes from a child's viewpoint: no, the infamous seafood ownership argument doesn't make any more sense this way, nor does it advance the narrative, but I suppose some kids might find it funny. It seems to have been a showcase for two comic-actors, although I think (as an adult) it really missed the mark. There are a lot of comic bits in the movie that fall flat, but I'm also not 6 years old anymore.

Usually fans will complain that the kids in these movies are really annoying, and they tested my patience a little here, but for the most part I think Ken and Helen's roles make sense. It's arguably unforgivable that they stowaway into harm's way twice, but at least this time there's a rationale for why they are able to outwit the alien villain (as "Lora Lee" says, children can sometimes perceive fantastic things where adults cannot). I found myself buying into the logic here simply because the film made a case for it. It doesn't have to reflect the way the world really works, it's a Gamera movie. To that point, Zigra's reason for attacking Earth is poorly conceived, but it's acceptable for children: giant monster fish wants to conquer the Earth, and by so doing, he will avenge the Earth sea creatures that have died by man's environmental mayhem.

I don't know if Yuasa deserved much credit as an artist, but I do enjoy how the introduction of Ken is juxtaposed with the dolphin show. For example, the film cuts between Ken brushing his teeth and the dolphin trainer brushing the dolphin's, etc. This is high art for a late Gamera sequel! It's a clever way to introduce the characters and the setting all at once.

I'm not sure that my appreciation of the movie today will hold, however, and I still think it's very near the bottom of the series. In the end, it's just not as entertaining as most of the other entries: it may be more competently produced than Viras but it's not as insane. Even with the lengthy stock footage montage in Viras, that film never slows down as much as this one does once the bathysphere is launched.

Also, I watched the dubbed version: I'm aware that the Zigra henchwoman is an astronaut in the Japanese version, but I like that the dubbers tried to account for her fame by making her a film star. However, I don't recall that they gave an adequate (if any) explanation as to why an actress would be manning a scientific vehicle on the moon, d'oh!

[Dr Kain]

My top 10 movies of 2019:



My top 10 worst movies of 2019:

[EricDent]

All Monsters Attack (AKA Godzilla's Revenge) via the Criterion set.
Looks good, sure the story is a bit goofy, but overall has a fine message.

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there's just something about this movie that makes it seem better each time I watch it.
Sure it's not as good as the others, but it's not "dumpster fire" as some people think.
Though to be fair, I'm not sure how they are gonna pull off Indiana Jones 5, since Harrison Ford is getting way too old to do this stuff.

[sentaison]

I'm on a jag of watching some favorite older comedy films right now.

The Addams Family (1991) While not the greatest comedy around, it does a very good job of paying homage to both the 60's tv show and Charles Addams original cartoons. Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd are great as Gomez and Fester, but young Christina Ricci steals the show as the sinisterly cute Wednesday.

The Great Race (1965) This one's a slapstick comedy based on a historic motor race that took place in 1908. It has Tony Curtis as the blandly perfect Great Leslie and Jack Lemon as his dastardly rival Professor Fate. Add in Natalie Wood as the girl with Keenan Wynn and Peter Falk as Leslie's and Fate's respective sidekicks and you have a fun, if uneven, comedy.

[superhedorahsaiyan]

First Men in the Moon (1965)- 9 out of 10 fantastic Harryhausen fantasy spectacle,
Night of the Comet (1985)- 8 out of 10, funny sci-fi horror comedy from the Eighties
Queen of Blood ( 1966)- 7 out of 10, interesting sci fi vampire tale that's somewhat light on character development
the Green Slime (1966)- 8 out of 10, fun and silly creature feature from the sixties

[O.Supreme]

Rise of Skywalker. Finally took the family to see this yesterday. Well...It certainly was a LOT of movie. Instead of hating it, I just feel sorry for Abrams. He had the impossible task of fixing something beyond broken. It almost Jedi Mind Tricks you into liking it in that every nonsensical thing happens so fast, and your on to the next scene, you almost forget to question what happened. It's not a film completely without merit, but an unfortunate victim of bad timing and poor planning.

[Dr Kain]

Pretty much. They should have just decided to turn this story into a quadrilogy instead of cramming 2 movies into one just for damage control.

The Grudge:

[lhb412]

Ring (1998)

It's almost a shame this is one of the most influential, iconic horror films of all time. This really set off an explosion of creativity in the genre that's now just baked in. I said it's a shame, because it puts a lot of expectations on this film, like it's going to be some sort of epic that blows you away, but no; Ring is a low-key, modest affair and that's also why it's so great.

Some of my favorite parts of the movie had little to do with horror, like the moody shots of landscapes or the many moments of silence between the ex-wife and husband and their son. Of course, the most famous part is at the very end, and while ingenious on its own it's really helped by the fact that the movie has built to a previous climax and this is happening after that. An extra climax that blows the previous one away! It's not unlike the skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts... I mean, structurally.

[Dr Kain]

I never understood the love for The Ring. I found it boring at best. Ju-On and One Missed Call were better.

[lhb412]

^ Well, you're wrong.

[Gentleman]

Just watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
It was surprisingly underwhelming. I wasn't bored, but I never felt as though the story gripped me. I feel like all of the leads have given better performances, the chemistry between DiCaprio and Pitt felt forced, and apart from two scenes there was no real tension, nothing that grabbed my eyes and wouldn't let go.

I'm not sorry I watched it, but I don't see me going back for a revisit.

[Dr Kain]

[EricDent]

Via Netflix

Klaus: very charming & fun movie about the "origins" of the Santa Claus myth.
Illumination's The Grinch Who Stole Christmas: more fun than the live action version, but still can't touch the Chuck Jones animated version.\\

Via Redbox

Batman: Hush seemed more focused on the love story of Bruce & Selina than the actual Hush character.
Freaks: weird movie about people with special powers trying to hide from "normal people".

Via purchase

Reigo King of the Sea Monsters: not bad, but also kinda goofy effects.

[lhb412]

The Thin Man

Favorite of mine. Frequently shown on Turner Classic Movies and whenever it's on I can't help but leave it on no matter where we are in the movie. I've practically memorized it by now.

Blu-ray transfer is terrific. I hope the Warner Archive does the same for the further five installments in the series!

On the last leg of my watching the entire Criterion Godzilla set. In the seventies now, and after that I dig into the extra features!

[superhedorahsaiyan]

Underwater- 9 out of 10- fun aquatic sci-fi horror with some neat monsters and decent acting.

[Dr Kain]