Movies you've just watched

[Skykid]

Bonus video, the new openings they made for the Japanese dub:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs

Now that's what I'm talking about! Awesome stuff. (Shame about the shitty JP elevator rock, but it's still cool)

[Zen]

Seven Days in May (1964) - John Frankenheimer

One of the last Frankenheimer films I had yet to see, this one is a disappointment. Biggest problems are with the story:
1. The utterly naive concept of nuclear disarmament.
2. The preposterous idea that the political class is more trustworthy, sane or righteous than the military brass.
Also, the usual reinforcing that the public is a mob, does not know what the fuck it wants and will tun on a dime is in full effect here.

I have not read the book. I would hope that it is more nuanced than the film.

[z0mbie90]

Bonus video, the new openings they made for the Japanese dub:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs

CRY FOR THE MOON!

Shame the whole series wasn't animated in that style

[soprano1]

Yeah, pretty much. I felt surprised on how they treated Xavier.

Spoiler

Yeah, let's bury the old man on the side of the road, he's just the motherfucking Professor X

Spoiler

Yeah, and you know what? Let's put the protagonist in the ground, only in short walking distance to his country of birth. X marks the spot, baby. Unbelievable!

Yeah, that crap too!

[soprano1]

Bonus video, the new openings they made for the Japanese dub:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs

CRY FOR THE MOON!

Shame the whole series wasn't animated in that style

Notice in the second OP how they even referenced the love triangle between Cyclops, Wolverine and Jean.

[Stevens]

left you feeling empty handed and low after stringing everything out for far too long.

Yeah, pretty much. I felt surprised on how they treated Xavier.

Spoiler

Yeah, let's bury the old man on the side of the road, he's just the motherfucking Professor X

The best adaptation of the X-Men is still, imo, the 90's Animated series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAkL2-vh2Sk

Bonus video, the new openings they made for the Japanese dub:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs

Great series and you're right about it being the best representation outside the comic.

Speaking of awesome 90's cartoons is anyone else here familiar with Exo Squad?

Shit was straight up dope, shame it only got two seasons.

[Mortificator]

I saw those intros some time ago, but they're still absolutely awesome.

Concerning the '90s X-Men TV series, it had to soften a lot of elements due to being a Saturday morning cartoon. I still have affection for it, though, and the voice acting was memorable (with some performers crossing over to the fighting games).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I don't know maybe it's time to make Alien movies without any humans at all.

Couldn't be any worse.

The concepts they've been using is like the dog that returns to its own vomit; we already have Alien and Aliens. Anything else in the same vein would be redundant at best, or inferior at worse. Whenever I keep going on about how being first is almost the only thing that matters, this is one of the reasons why. How many goddamn different ways can you retell King Arthur? I think we've got it, and are good on that front, thanks.

That is what art is supposed to be about - making something new or different from what came before. Myself, I'm of the opinion that something like Zombieland is more in tune with the modern audience - as we've grown up with zombies and moved on from the simple basics, so has it.

My personal xenophobic alien slasher movie of choice here in 2017 would be about a guy who works as a space mercenary, that works as a guard for various groups of planetary colonists. At first he is young and naive, but quickly becomes jaded as the various types of aliens he runs into doing his job over the years turn out to be universally murderous.

Still can make a Zombieland II sequel considering that Hostess was brought back to market when the usual Mexican snacks from the likes of Bimbo Bakery were used to fill the empty Hostess shelves across America for about 8-9 months when the old Hostess company was listed for sale. Was glad to see Hostess snacks, especially the classic Twinkies (not to mention 'em Suzie Qs as well), return in fine form.

Write a short story/script and see if that attracts the attention of directors, BryanM -- they're always looking for new material to direct if the right and innovative scf-fi/horror script/story comes their way.

I've yet to see within the horror film genre that combines the arcade game scene with horror using practical EFX, real-time puppetry EFX, blood and gore, body parts strewn around (and none of this shitty CG EFX either as the horror audience doesn't like shortcuts in going that particular route -- sure, by going all-out with practical EFX to sell/move the story along means having to spend more $$$ during initial shooting/bigger production budget but well worth it in the end with the end results, right?) -- it's never been done before. Of course within the horror genre, T&A along with nudity goes hand-in-hand as usual -- whatever it takes to spice up said horror flick (it's not necessary to use but is merely another plot device to move the story along if it needed be -- implied nudity within certain scenes/situations could work as well).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[xxx1993]

Enjoyed Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

[Mischief Maker]

I stopped partway through the Sam Neil "Merlin" miniseries.

I remember hearing someone say once that Excalibur's story was able to proceed at a fast pace by relying on the audience to know the story well enough to follow along. Well "Merlin's" story proceeds at a breakneck pace by relying on the audience to have already watched Excalibur. Breakneck to the point of slamming into a brick wall.

It actually starts off really strong in the early story before Excalibur, where they have to establish the setting and let character development sit a little bit. The CGI has aged terribly, but there was a real creativity to the design, Mab's kingdom was nifty, and I loved Rutger Hauer as an exasperated tyrant whose castle tower keeps collapsing.

But once "Merlin's" timeline caught up with Excalibur's, everything fell apart. Merlin's disgusted by Uther's willingness to cause civil war so he can fuck Igraine, takes away. In the next breath he's helping Uther rape her. Wait, why? Silly! You know from Excalibur that Merlin had a vision that good King Arthur would be born from the union! But you never actually said that in THIS movie!

But even worse is when "Merlin" breaks with Excalibur's story. In the original, Morgan Le Fay had such hatred for Merlin over the rape of her mother that she went so far as to sleep with her own brother to give birth to a knight who would destroy everything Merlin created. In "Merlin" she does it because she has a crush on Martin Short who literally pimps her into it.

And Sam Neil plays Sam Neil in every role.

Blah!

[soprano1]

And Sam Neil plays Sam Neil in every role.

Which is a shame, really. Ridiculous as they were, i liked the Merlin miniseries. At the time, I didn't saw much like them, fantasy stuff I mean.

[lilmanjs]

Once Upon A Time In America
Never seen this before, and was impressed that it kept my attention during the full nearly 4 hour runtime. I liked some of the era transitions, and the phone during the first little bit of the movie. Gotta get onto watching the extended version at some point. Is it as good as The Godfather movies? Well I'd say it is, but it is quite a bit different in tone.

[BrianC]

Once Upon A Time In America
Never seen this before, and was impressed that it kept my attention during the full nearly 4 hour runtime. I liked some of the era transitions, and the phone during the first little bit of the movie. Gotta get onto watching the extended version at some point. Is it as good as The Godfather movies? Well I'd say it is, but it is quite a bit different in tone.

I haven't seen that one, but I just watched Once Upon a Time in the West and enjoyed it quite a bit. Surprised to hear Paul Frees' voice in it (he did the voice for Morton). Jill McBain (Caludia Cardinale) was also the princess on Pink Panther. I liked Charles Bronson as Harmonica. The Blu-ray information is slightly misleading since the theatrical is actually an extended version from the 80s (which is why it was re-rated PG-13) and the restored is only a few seconds longer. Both are almost 3 hours long.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) - if you fancy watching a 1938 movie, you certainly could pick worse than Alexander Nevsky AND this. Hearing that Marcel Carné films had a major influence on W. J. Has (of The Saragossa Manuscript fame) piqued my interest in the former title, but that's just my story. Hard to imagine a single filmmaker you admire who hasn't, at least indirectly, learned a thing from it. Take film noir for example - German expressionist film is typically credited with influencing the latter's hard-lit visuals, but guess who filmed Port of Shadows? Eugen Schüfftan did. Its visual style, coupled with the subject matter (kids on the run, really), does make it seem like a film that simply had to appear somewhere around that time, in-between art movements and pulp writings of post-Great War period.

On a side note, it's perhaps my being dad-aged taking the floor again, but I just could not get enough of Michèle Morgan* in this one. Seeing an actress this young, who is already any good at all in doing her job, brings me to...

Crime or Punishment?!? (2009, Japan) - Riko Narumi is a bulldozer awakening in this one (see the previous paragraph), not diminishing all the other actors (as a matter of fact - nobody here seemed miscast to me). The movie is, in a nutshell, as close to something like Gintama I recall having ever seen embodied in live-action.

*) The StudioCanal-restored version I got on Blu-ray does come with somewhat no-hum English subs (I would like to give the Criterion DVD a go at some point and see how they handled Jacques Prévert's fabled writing), but I'm so grateful for embedding her voice recorded A.D. 2012 in one of the extras!

Ridiculous as they were, i liked the Merlin miniseries. At the time, I didn't saw much like them, fantasy stuff I mean.

Having re-watched it lately, two things stood out for me this time:

a) darn well-written & delivered dialogue lines. Can't say I'd read or heard much like those ever since way back when the series was new. Not in English anyways.

b) Somebody on the production team (director of photography?) must be one hell of an Eisenstein buff. If it's possible to develop a master-apprentice relationship between the living and deceased, I think those two have some of it going on. Very serious job made of the picture: see all that overexposition in pretty much every take, which nonetheless always fits in the assigned luminance range. I've some suspicion what purpose it serves, but am not feeling like elaborating on this right now.
Just to give you a blatant example of said effect - the Round Table scenes lighting lends it opalescent glow, much needed to give an impression of enormity (so it looks like a ROUND table inclined rather than oval table). There are such tricks applied everywhere in this one, hence it never looks lit quite like a sitcom about cosplayers.
No such luck with some of the cast, alas, especially sir Lancelot's direct-to-video appearance (then again - John Boorman's Excalibur's Lancelot was hardly much easier on the eye). Mordred's class, though.

[Ixmucane2]

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

An enjoyable space adventure, with a traditional (and harmlessly predictable) plot backed by an excellent setting that represents a superior "missing link" between Star Wars and Star Trek: Earth in the future is a leading power in a federation of planets, and the galaxy is full of very alien aliens and strange and wonderful things.
The extremely competent and well equipped federal agents Valerian and Laureline, pushed by gross coincidences and pulled by assignments with secret purposes, uncover and solve a problem.

Quite unusually for the genre, there are two equally important protagonists and they are an established team and in the process of falling in love with each other; some overly romantic dialogues are the price to pay, but overall it's a better setup than lonely action heroes like James Bond or teams of grim professionals who care about the mission and about being cool and witty. Generally, it's a film about nice people with good feelings.

[kaicooper]

Cult of Chucky

one of the worst movies..wtf did i just watched?
Director Don Mancini should never direct at all..poor directing
and dumb plot..and yea this time mostly gay stuff
--------

Childs Play 1 & 2 = Classics

[soprano1]

Cult of Chucky

one of the worst movies..wtf did i just watched?
Director Don Mancini should never direct at all..poor directing
and dumb plot..and yea this time mostly gay stuff
--------

Childs Play 1 & 2 = Classics

ANOTHER Chucky movie?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

An enjoyable space adventure, with a traditional (and harmlessly predictable) plot backed by an excellent setting that represents a superior "missing link" between Star Wars and Star Trek: Earth in the future is a leading power in a federation of planets, and the galaxy is full of very alien aliens and strange and wonderful things.
The extremely competent and well equipped federal agents Valerian and Laureline, pushed by gross coincidences and pulled by assignments with secret purposes, uncover and solve a problem.

Quite unusually for the genre, there are two equally important protagonists and they are an established team and in the process of falling in love with each other; some overly romantic dialogues are the price to pay, but overall it's a better setup than lonely action heroes like James Bond or teams of grim professionals who care about the mission and about being cool and witty. Generally, it's a film about nice people with good feelings.

I've read that Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets had a whopping $180 million dollar production budget to work with. It only earned something like $40+ million at the US box office though.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Skykid]

I actually thought War for the Planet of the Apes was... somewhat of a letdown compared to Dawn. There isn't any real action sequences, except for the beginning and the end.

Sounds good, looking forward to it.

Finally saw it after China's 2 month foreign movie blackout to artificially propel Wolf Warrior 2 into the box office stratosphere - and yeah, there isn't any real action sequence except for the beginning and the end and it was fucking great.

I'm REALLY impressed that Fox passed the script for this considering it's such a small and focused story that borrows largely from Apocalypse Now as well as Joseph Conrad, and works itself out using a small cast of characters rather than the full scale genocide you were expecting to see. I mean that's ambitious in this day and age, especially for a series finale; I just suppose this reboot had earned its stripes already and the studio were comfortable with what it had already achieved along the same lines.

Was it the best of the three? No, I'm not sure it was. Although the first is the least dark and more Hollywood, it's also probably the most entertaining. This one had pros and cons over the sequel. But they're all really very good, and have done justice to the franchise. War isn't what you would call satisfying in a wrap up sense, but it certainly is in a film-making sense. It borrows a hell of a lot, but imitation is flattery, and if you do it well nobody will get upset about it.

I really look forward to seeing them do another arc and I hope they maintain the quality standards here. It's been really good fun.

[BrianC]

I actually thought War for the Planet of the Apes was... somewhat of a letdown compared to Dawn. There isn't any real action sequences, except for the beginning and the end.

Sounds good, looking forward to it.

Finally saw it after China's 2 month foreign movie blackout to artificially propel Wolf Warrior 2 into the box office stratosphere - and yeah, there isn't any real action sequence except for the beginning and the end and it was fucking great.

I'm REALLY impressed that Fox passed the script for this considering it's such a small and focused story that borrows largely from Apocalypse Now as well as Joseph Conrad, and works itself out using a small cast of characters rather than the full scale genocide you were expecting to see. I mean that's ambitious in this day and age, especially for a series finale; I just suppose this reboot had earned its stripes already and the studio were comfortable with what it had already achieved along the same lines.

Was it the best of the three? No, I'm not sure it was. Although the first is the least dark and more Hollywood, it's also probably the most entertaining. This one had pros and cons over the sequel. But they're all really very good, and have done justice to the franchise. War isn't what you would call satisfying in a wrap up sense, but it certainly is in a film-making sense. It borrows a hell of a lot, but imitation is flattery, and if you do it well nobody will get upset about it.

I really look forward to seeing them do another arc and I hope they maintain the quality standards here. It's been really good fun.

I enjoyed the first two movies and can't wait to see the third one. I also like the original 60s movie quite a bit (though it's insane how it got away with a G rating).

[BryanM]

James talks about the 'reboot'. Looks like it'll be going the Sarah Conner Chronicles route and pretending everything past part 2 never happened.

[Leandro]

After Terminaor Genysis I'll never pay to watch a Terminator movie again

[Obiwanshinobi]

Loving Vincent - I just was at the first night theatrical screening. Some of the original hand-painted frames made for the sake of animation displayed there (sorry for the mobile phone quality).



I so am curious about other language versions (had my share of problems with the Polish one, which is not to say it's all bad - far from it - but it gave me strong reminiscences of the 1978 The Water Babies* film - a similar co-production, come to think of it).
That out of the way, it's must-see, plain and simple. If only to witness with your very own eyes such a thing was possible to produce. Like, the concept was daring to say the least, but the story of funding it must be like no other.

*) How weird - when re-watching The Water Babies lately, with my nephew, who was deeply into it at the time, I was certain it was made during the Iron Lady years. Turns out it's one year older after all.

If you are trying to quit smoking and/or drinking, however, Loving Vincent is gonna be rough on you. Think Chinatown.

[GaijinPunch]

IT

Scary movies aren't my thing, but the GF was down to see this. Pretty good. Nothing amazing, but what it aims to do (throwback horror) it does quite well.. definitely better than just about anything that comes to memory in the era that it claims it's roots from. Not totally unpredictable, and not seemingly watered down, but I've not read the source material so take that w/ a grain of salt. Horror films so often rely on their cast to be complete and total dipshits... and the writers made these 13 year olds somewhat capable of not doing that. In fact, this cast would have fared much better in Alien Covenant then those space people did.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - one of my mom's favourite films from back when (along with Rosemary's Baby, make of it what you will). Oh boy. At least they saved us the Sam Peckinpah kind of splatter in the end.
One more thing, though - I am much awed by the infantry movement near the end. Some real-life infantrymen acted there, didn't they?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

IT

Scary movies aren't my thing, but the GF was down to see this. Pretty good. Nothing amazing, but what it aims to do (throwback horror) it does quite well.. definitely better than just about anything that comes to memory in the era that it claims it's roots from. Not totally unpredictable, and not seemingly watered down, but I've not read the source material so take that w/ a grain of salt. Horror films so often rely on their cast to be complete and total dipshits... and the writers made these 13 year olds somewhat capable of not doing that. In fact, this cast would have fared much better in Alien Covenant then those space people did.

The thing about most modern-day horror films is that they usually have a running time of about 90 minutes to tell the entire story from beginning to eventual conclusion whereas with the 2017 theactrical release of IT, it breaks the time barrier with a whopping 135 minutes in overall duration + the fact that it will get a part II (aka Chapter 2) to conclude the story as well. Not to mention that the IT flick had an estimated $35 million dollar production budget to work with (according to imdb.com).

It earned on Opening Weekend -- $123,403,419 (USA) (10 September 2017) (4,103 Screens) -- according to imdb.com (which is quite impressive for a horror film in this day of age).

Most horror films at the US box office play for a mere two or three week tops and then disappear from the radar thereafter before being released to the home video market (The "Curse of Chucky" sequel {circa 2013} was one major notable horror film that I had high hopes of seeing on the big screen but it was released directly to home video instead).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[NYN]

Watched Alien: Covenant and a second time with the Director's Commentary.

Speaking about the project, it is obvious that he approaches clearly as a production desginer. Meaning he gets ideas for key points, themes and topics, develops them, encounters problems and intents to solve them. And the writers are send off to connecting the dots.
Maybe that's what makes other viewers so dissatisfied. As in it feels not whole. Or very seldom.

On the subject of the 'far-to-blatant' "twist" in the movie, he says, pointing to Beavis and Butthead, : "Duh. There's a Doppelgänger. What did you think was gonna happen?"

Me, it doesn't phase me. I came far to late to the Alien party and it didn't materialized as an icon. Blade Runner impressed.
Covenant was nice on the visuals and some of the topics made it into a conversation later.
So, yeah.

[Xyga]

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

An enjoyable space adventure, with a traditional (and harmlessly predictable) plot backed by an excellent setting that represents a superior "missing link" between Star Wars and Star Trek: Earth in the future is a leading power in a federation of planets, and the galaxy is full of very alien aliens and strange and wonderful things.
The extremely competent and well equipped federal agents Valerian and Laureline, pushed by gross coincidences and pulled by assignments with secret purposes, uncover and solve a problem.

Quite unusually for the genre, there are two equally important protagonists and they are an established team and in the process of falling in love with each other; some overly romantic dialogues are the price to pay, but overall it's a better setup than lonely action heroes like James Bond or teams of grim professionals who care about the mission and about being cool and witty. Generally, it's a film about nice people with good feelings.

I've read that Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets had a whopping $180 million dollar production budget to work with. It only earned something like $40+ million at the US box office though.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I haven't seen the movie yet but knowing the absolutely great comic and knowing Besson I know what to expect, it was foolish to try a grandiose feature film adaptation and push it on the US market first, especially considering it's known mainly in Europe and more to people the age of my parents.

In tone, writing and atmosphere the original work has more to do with golden era scifi than SW and even ST (though the original ST is more like it and dates from the same era, Valerian having started publication in 1967, and SW shamelessly recycling a lot of what was invented by others back then including Valerian). It's lighter in tone than Vance for instance thanks to the fresh bondesque couple, but the dense plots, pulpy epic and weirdness aren't really the kind of stuff a family or millenial audience force-fed with 21st century superhero and SW shit would appreciate. And well, as I said I never expect the genre Valerian takes its roots in to end up well in feature form no matter who the director is.

The 40 episodes cartoon/anime adaptation from 2007 although different and inferior to the comic, is a considerably better format for Valerian, not to be underestimated despite the meh production value. If you pass the moderate script and pacing issues, some cgi and obvious censorship to make it family-friendly, it's really a good scifi show without too many boring fillers and quite enough of well-written central and subplots until the end. I consider it a hidden gem, or well, 'pearl'. Too bad it wasn't made with a bigger budget for a more adult audience.

[Vexorg]

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery : ☆☆1\2

This is the type of movie that ends up being known more for a handful of quotes and clips than for any of its merits (which, granted, are rather thin.) I've always liked the Dr. Evil character (I've always had a thing for incompetent villains) but watching the whole movie all at once rather than in a handful of YouTube clips makes you realize that there isn't much more substance to it than what you get out of said clips.

I've heard the sequels are basically trash; anyone who can confirm of deny?

[Mischief Maker]

I've heard the sequels are basically trash; anyone who can confirm of deny?

Confirmed.

Did you like the jokes from the first movie? Do you want to hear them repeated over, and over, and over, and over?