Movies you've just watched

[soprano1]

National Lampoons Vacation (1983)
Ha ha ha, haven't seen this crazy movie in years. So much wrong shit, though, the early 80's were something.

[GaijinPunch]

Uncle Eddie was next level.

[soprano1]

Uncle Eddie was next level.

Expert in French kissing, apparently.

[GaijinPunch]

Dead.

I miss the 80's. PC wasn't even invented yet.

[Stevens]

Dead.

I miss the 80's. PC wasn't even invented yet.

Me too.

Revenge of the Nerds is another wonderful example of early non PC awesomeness. If they remade ROTN they would have to take out (almost) everything that made it great.

[Steamflogger Boss]

I had a friend pick up a huge LD lot for me (multiple players, 200+ discs) and I think Nikita was in there, so I'll just watch that release. Want to make sure either way before just going and buying the BD.

IIRC the english dub is crap, they even removed music that's absolutely crucial to the film. If you get a BR make sure the very unaltered original is there w/ subs.

No worries there my friend. I always watch films in their original language. Both LDs are subbed but if it is there I hope it's the 2:35 release with subs out of picture. The first LD doesn't even have the dub track but has a shitty aspect ratio.

[boagman]

That said this needs to end in chapter four.

That's certainly a fair take, I'd say, having seen it myself. There needs to be some actual closure with the character, his mission/vocation juxtaposition, and the outside forces which commit him to need to be both. There has to be some kind of denouement.

I liked it quite a bit, and I understand why some might give this the edge over Chapter 2, but I thought that 2's plot/writing/character motivation was just better, all-around. 2's cliffhangery was semi-satisfied, but not enough to really be wrapped up before there's a FINAL VICTOR OVER EVERYTHING, I guess. I appreciate that Reeves' character conflict continues, but I guess the idea is wearing a bit thin: you're either in or you're out.

It's time to find out which, next time, however that has to pan out.

[GaijinPunch]

Kwaidan 1965

Pretty creepy shit. Cinematography not as good as the other Kobayashi works I've seen in the last few pages, but still quite a feat. The atmosphere is the real gem here, with eccentric painted backgrounds and music taking center stage. As per usual, a pretty long run time at 3 hours and 3 minutes, but dialogue is quite sparse.

[EmperorIng]

Oof. it's been a long time since I've watched a movie that long that wasn't suffering through Endgame. Do I still have it in me?

A theater in Evanston played Nausicaa, subbed. It has been probably a decade since I saw the movie, so it was like seeing it for the first time. Man, how awesome. I sometimes forget how early Ghibli was in love with dieselpunk machines, a lot of the airships in Nausicaa are very Garegga-esque. The much-vaunted Anno bit with the God Warrior - I had forgotten how short that was. Still a beauty to look at. The movie is so upbeat, borderline saccharine, given its pretty grim setting. Speaking of Garegga, the few scenes of aerial combat got my shmup brain working.

I also have to mention how unlike Joe Hisaishi's other Ghibli scores this one is. It is downright psychedelic, 70s-style organs/keyboards trilling all over the place with sitars. It's a pretty far-out score. Is this an alternate? Youtube has a lot of swelling symphony stuff when I type Nausicaa in, but that is NOT what I heard in-film.

Makes me wonder if Miyazaki watched La Planete Sauvage, as the flora/fauna of Nausicaa reminded me of that wild ride.

[GaijinPunch]

The Seven Samurai

Fucked my back up somehow, so stayed home from work. i'm in the long torso club, so not the first time I've done this, but was the first time I was unable to pinpoint an exact dip shit move on my part that landed me in bed. Anyway, figured I'd make the best of it and watched this beast which could easily have been a TV mini-series.

I'm way late to the party on this one I know, but at 3.5 hours it's quite a commitment to fit in my schedule (and I would assume a lot of adults, as per EmperorIng's comment). Anywho, this was quite a delight, as the long exposition gave most of the cast a lot of character. Hard to put this one in a genre, which is probably what makes it so entertaining. Toshiro Mifune absolutely steals the show with his cartoonish behavior, charm towards children, and of course, prowess in combat.

[Steamflogger Boss]

I've had to stop at the half way point on longer movies before to finish them. It sucks but it's sometimes unavoidable.

[BrianC]

I've had to stop at the half way point on longer movies before to finish them. It sucks but it's sometimes unavoidable.

At least with Ben Hur (which I still haven't watched yet), the movie is split up on 2 Blu-ray discs.

[GaijinPunch]

My GF says she'll put her phone up to watch Gone w/ the Wind some time. Yeah right.

[lilmanjs]

A Better Tomorrow II
Yeah, obviously the drama sections are awful and the plot being written to get Chow Yun Fat into the movie also sucked. Holy crap though whenever this thing went into an action sequence. That final showdown was amazing, and I liked the jokes about the grenades as well. Still, thankfully the 3rd movie wasn't a Woo directed movie.

[kitten]

just saw john wick 3 and adored it. it's my favorite part yet! it has the kind of sillier demeanor of the first movie, which i prefer quite a bit - part 2 felt a little bit too much of a downer, for me. i also feel it understands more than the second movie that the meat of these films is simply chaining together utterly, delightfully violent setpieces. wick gets a couple of good partners in this one and i was having a blast for the entire runtime.

my roommate was really down on it ending on a cliffhanger, and i think i'm in the minority in not being bothered by that. felt obvious they couldn't conclude things with this one and i'm glad they just ran with that to get the frankly uninteresting plot out of the way.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Interesting kitten, I've been reading so many conflicting reviews of JW3. I'm planning to watch it but I'm waiting for the BD.

[kitten]

i feel like caring about the plot of john wick is like playing a third-person shooter ~for the lore~. the choreography in this one is utterly superb and blows the first and second movie out of the water, imho. just immensely satisfying to watch play out on the big screen, i could watch this again tomorrow and have a good time.

[Squire Grooktook]

i also feel it understands more than the second movie that the meat of these films is simply chaining together utterly, delightfully violent setpieces

I've only seen 1 so far (and enjoyed it), but honestly, the action was actually my least favorite part of it.

A lot of people talk about the action/gunplay/turn-off-your-brain-appeal, but what I really liked about it was the noir style dialogue and setting, and the graphic novel esque framing and cinematography.

I haven't watched 2 yet because I felt that 1 just left off on what felt like a perfect ending for that little story. So I've been waiting to see if the "trilogy" or whatever gets a conclusion or arc that's strong enough to justify proceeding past that end.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Well the 2nd movie definitely explores the world of the franchise more. So if you are more interested in the story than the action I would recommend it.

[kitten]

turn-off-your-brain-appeal

never implied that. i think the movie is incredibly engaging, i just don't think the character motivations matter much to me outside of "this dude is like, amazingly fucking mad they killed his dog. i'm really into how mad this dude is." some of the non-violent interactions help frame or pace things and give context, but i engage with a john wick movie like i do the raid or its sequel - just basking in delight. i'm not at all discounting the cinematography, here, either, i just think the characters are mostly an excuse for stylish violence.

[emphatic]

The Seven Samurai

Fucked my back up somehow, so stayed home from work. i'm in the long torso club, so not the first time I've done this, but was the first time I was unable to pinpoint an exact dip shit move on my part that landed me in bed. Anyway, figured I'd make the best of it and watched this beast which could easily have been a TV mini-series.

I'm way late to the party on this one I know, but at 3.5 hours it's quite a commitment to fit in my schedule (and I would assume a lot of adults, as per EmperorIng's comment). Anywho, this was quite a delight, as the long exposition gave most of the cast a lot of character. Hard to put this one in a genre, which is probably what makes it so entertaining. Toshiro Mifune absolutely steals the show with his cartoonish behavior, charm towards children, and of course, prowess in combat.

Saw the shorter cut on Swedish TV when they had a Kurosawa movies special many years ago and loved it. Then saw the full version in a nice cinema with some friends, it's such a funny movie too. Loved every second.

[Ixmucane2]

Brightburn

A variation on the story of Superman: the infertile couple who "adopted" this adolescent from space fails to turn him into a good human because he has been a sociopath all along, he only needs to discover he's invulnerable, super-strong, able to fly and shoot energy rays from his eyes, and most importantly not human to convince himself that he can kill us inferior beings.
Simple and straightforward, with an excellent creepy protagonist, and deeper than a typical slasher story.

[soprano1]

Sahara (1943)
WWII movie about a group of American soldiers in Lybia trying to survive the desert. Very propaganda-like, but taking the year it was made in account, it's no surprise. Great performance by Humphrey Bogart, as usual. The actor who played the Italian POW was great, too.

[Vexorg]

Detective Pikachu: ***1/2

I might be a bit biased on this one since one of the producers of the film is a vague acquaintance of mine, but I enjoyed it. Went with a couple of people who know basically nothing about Pokemon. Had to explain a few things (not that I know a ton myself but at least can recognize most of the gen 1 Pokemon from playing Pokemon Go for a while) but it explains enough. It's admittedly a bit odd seeing Ryan Reynolds in a non R rated movie (rumor has it there's plenty of R-rated outtakes from filming) and similar to Robin Williams in the original Aladdin you can tell he tried to get some crap past the radar. Not sure a film like this would have worked with anyone else in the role though.

[xxx1993]

Just saw Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It was definitely better than the 2014 one.

[Stevens]

I've never seen any, but with the help of the internets the Mrs. and I have come up with a list of Godzilla movies we want to watch. 1st up, as a result of this thread, is Shin.

Unless we should start with the original? What say you farm?

[Mischief Maker]

The original Godzilla (the Japanese cut, not the sanitized American cut with Raymond Burr) is in a completely different category than all the others.

It's the first Japanese film to explore the impacts of being on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. It's not a campy monster movie, it's a horror film. And I'd say it's as essential to Japanese cinema as Seven Samurai.

Just like Rocky never should have had a sequel, but Rocky IV is still hilariously entertaining for all the wrong reasons, Godzilla should have never gotten a sequel, but the good ones are hilariously entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

[null1024]

Rampage. You know, the "video game movie". My nephew threw this on the TV, so I sat and watched it with him.
It was... better than expected? Like, it was still kinda entirely a bit shit with a handful of moments where I was having fun with it.
Kinda wish the fight against the wolf lasted a bit longer, because he got a ton of screentime and buildup to just get done in like that. The giant gator [which was fucking huuuuge next to the other two monsters] was pretty damn cool.

Ultimately, it's got The Rock and a giant gorilla fighting giant monsters together at the end, and it delivered there.
I'm pretty sure I hated every character who wasn't The Rock or a monster, and it's not like The Rock's character was terribly good either.
The primary [human] villains were unbearably awful.

Oh, and I took my GF to see Detective Pikachu. Wasn't bad, had some real fun moments, but it was kinda really weird, and not because it was a Pokemon movie.

Spoiler

one bit that really caught me was the mountain-sized Torterra were startled -- really cool scene, but was just totally out there

...and the big bad's plot was entirely sensible when it first comes to light -- old man in a wheelchair wants the body of fucking Mewtwo, okay, that makes a bit of sense. There's probably better plans, but this is the one he went with, so that's okay.
Then for whatever reason, he decides to fuse the whole city into Pokemon. Wait, what?

[Steamflogger Boss]

The original Godzilla (the Japanese cut, not the sanitized American cut with Raymond Burr) is in a completely different category than all the others.

It's the first Japanese film to explore the impacts of being on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. It's not a campy monster movie, it's a horror film. And I'd say it's as essential to Japanese cinema as Seven Samurai.

Just like Rocky never should have had a sequel, but Rocky IV is still hilariously entertaining for all the wrong reasons, Godzilla should have never gotten a sequel, but the good ones are hilariously entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

Spot on, MM.

[Herr Schatten]

Spot on, MM.

I agree. MM‘s comment nails it.

As for recommendations, absolutely do watch the original. Shin is very good as a reboot in a more serious tone, although it‘s not quite as bleak as the original.

For mindless cheesy fun, pick any of the movies from the 70s. Since plots are largely non-existent in those, just pick one where you find the enemy monster interesting. The movies from the 90s and Noughties are okay-ish and some feature interesting adversaries, but they generally lack the adorable child-like fascination for rampaging giant monsters of their earlier predecessors. If you just want to get up to speed on classic Godzilla monsters, you can watch the anniversary movie Final Wars from 2004. The movie is not good, but it features every major monster from the franchise. In fact, it‘s worth watching for the scene with „Zilla“ (from Emmerich‘s misguided attempt) alone.

Speaking of the new King of the Monsters: If you can ignore that the humans, both the good and the bad guys, hilariously act like complete morons non-stop all the time, it‘s actually an enjoyable movie. The parts with giant monsters fighting are really fun to watch, and the depictions of classic adversaries Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidora are obviously made with a lot of respect for the franchise. I‘m not a big fan of the idea of mixing in mythology from all over the world, as I feel it might limit the inventiveness of future monsters, but who knows if the US branch of the franchise will run long enough for it to have an impact.