Movies you've just watched

[Satan]

[BIL]

Super (2010) Violent DIY superhero black comedy. Neurotic loner savagely maims crooks to win his estranged wife back from Kevin Bacon. A bit affectedly kooky, but the writing is sound - Frank's a bitter vengeful lunatic with a lot of issues and a Quixotic heart mostly in the right place. Bit like Taxi Driver via Looney Tunes. Or a live-action Sonichu. Had a good time with this! Gleefully bloody and irreverent, tentatively optimistic. Worth a hearty "dats gotta hoit!" or two with its nasty low-tech violence.

[JBC]

I liked Godzilla 2014, but it's best viewed in the theater with the giant screen & booming sound. I loved it in the theater, but struggled to stay awake once it came to home video. It's the difference between riding a roller coaster & going down a playground slide.

Pretty much all giant monster movies come off that way to me. Well, except Final Wars. I can watch that one any time.

---

All I expect from Ant-Man is something surprisingly decent & funny like Guardians. I don't think I'll make a special trip to see it in theaters though.

[Stevens]

On the suggestion of some here I watched the Monsters sequel, I would give it a solid good on a scale of 1-10. Not great, not bad, just good.

Reminded me a lot of the 1st actually, neither is a by the numbers horror movie and both were pleasantly surprising.

[Ixmucane2]

Spy

Excellent, despite some overly coarse and silly jokes.
It's like two good films combined into one: both a 007-like spy story, with the traditional elements (cruel villains, terrorists, incredibly competent agents, glamorous locations, secrets and betrayals, etc.) arranged in an unusually reasonable plot, and a comedy with very witty and/or silly characters in funny situations and a focus on love, sex, and other important life issues.
Linking the two sides together are a great script and the talented Melissa McCarthy; the egregiously stupid characters of Rose Byrne and Jason Statham are also central to the plot and essential to maintain a silly tone.
Quite unexpectedly, there are really outstanding action scenes, mostly involving Melissa McCarthy fighting people.

[BIL]

The House of The Devil (2009) Aww sheeit, it is the 1980s and Satan is terrorising suburban America. Cute sophomore Samantha takes a babysitting job at a mansion in the woods, but just what are her creepy employers really up to ?!

"Satanic Panic" 80s horror homage - very competent, ultimately prosaic. With the cat torpedoed from its bag at the opening title, lamb/slaughterhouse dramatic irony is all the bulk of the movie has to work with. Whether Sam's increasingly fidgety nosing around the house overshoots suspense into tedium will depend on individual charity. I loved the persistent, knowing innocuousness of the place - I might've been genuinely on edge were the script not so broadly apparent. Objectively, things go exactly as you'd expect, just with more preamble.

Where the more recent It Follows wove classic influences into its own distinct image, HOTD is express replication. The aesthetic is warmly authentic, and probably worth seeing it for if you're of a certain age/inclination... just a shame the script is limited by its dealing in the same nostalgia.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) I didn't give one good FUCK about the previous three whenever they popped up on daytime cable, but this one's a quality popcorn movie. Compact, well-defined and likeable cast on a blood-simple mission to avert apocalypse. Raucously improbable yet plausible and therefore interesting stunts. Sharply performed, surprisingly bruising fights - someone on the crew really likes the sound of tearing ligaments.

Not something I'd watch twice, let alone over and over like Die Hard or The Raid, but it's good efficient high-budget fun. Last one of these I saw was fucking Transfomers 4, FML!

[jonny5]

The House of The Devil (2009) Aww sheeit, it is the 1980s and Satan is terrorising suburban America. Cute sophomore Samantha takes a babysitting job at a mansion in the woods, but just what are her creepy employers really up to ?!

"Satanic Panic" 80s horror homage - very competent, ultimately prosaic. With the cat torpedoed from its bag at the opening title, lamb/slaughterhouse dramatic irony is all the bulk of the movie has to work with. Whether Sam's increasingly fidgety nosing around the house overshoots suspense into tedium will depend on individual charity. I loved the persistent, knowing innocuousness of the place - I might've been genuinely on edge were the script not so broadly apparent. Objectively, things go exactly as you'd expect, just with more preamble.

Where the more recent It Follows wove classic influences into its own distinct image, HOTD is express replication. The aesthetic is warmly authentic, and probably worth seeing it for if you're of a certain age/inclination... just a shame the script is limited by its dealing in the same nostalgia.

It has a great soundtrack too!

[BIL]

Yeah, loved it - you can't do a 70s/80s horror tribute without good tunes!

[Skykid]

I liked Godzilla 2014, but it's best viewed in the theater with the giant screen & booming sound.

I saw it on a screen almost Godzilla size, and I was still fighting the urge to leave the theatre. The only thing a big screen and booming sound does for that horrible turkey is make its awfulness bigger and louder.

[boagman]

The only thing a big screen and booming sound does for that horrible turkey is make its awfulness bigger and louder.

'merica.

[JBC]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Godzilla fan, but I don't think a lot of folks take a very fair mentality about the new movie. When you compare Godzilla 2014 to literally every other Godzilla movie ever made - & be honest with yourself - it's the most watchable one there ever was.

Giant monster films are something most people find endearing because of how hokey & ridiculous they are. Rarely ever do you see an attempt to make one of these flicks into something you could take seriously, but G14 makes a good effort at being convincing with it's special effects & depictions of environmental devastation. It's the closest to realism one has ever gotten, even managing to show society's reaction to something so outlandish happening in a more heavy handed light. It at least makes an attempt at being believable, rather than just having guys in rubber suits pretending to smack each other.

Like I said before, it still ends up being flat & one dimensional but that's due to the core concept. No matter how real they get with it, it's still just a movie about big monsters stomping on our stuff.

I've seen all of the Godzilla films. I've liked them since I was a kid, but I really only care about the goofy monster fights. Godzilla is a vehicle for toys & video games. Merchandise meant for kids, but still enjoyable for adults. If you expect it to be anything more, you're watching it for the wrong reasons. I didn't go into that movie expecting the next Citizen Kane. I just went in expecting to see exactly what I got - the modern equivalent of guys in rubber suits smacking each other.

Final Wars is the closest I've ever gotten to giving a shit about the people on the ground during these scenes before G14, & that's because it at least knew not to take itself seriously if they are still doing the rubber suits. Instead it went full on Saturday morning cartoon. Most of the earlier Japanese flicks try to have believable characters and interpersonal drama, which is just so impossibly boring when you're only waiting to see Ghidorah breath lightning at something.

[Squire Grooktook]

It's the closest to realism one has ever gotten, even managing to show society's reaction to something so outlandish happening in a more heavy handed light. It at least makes an attempt at being believable, rather than just having guys in rubber suits pretending to smack each other.

IMO that's the problem.

You can try to be "realistic" when you have no business being realistic, or you can run with the nature of your concept and make something that's escapist and fun to the max.

Just making one adventure story more fun then another takes a lot of talent, there's no shame in making something fun for fun's sake.

[drauch]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Godzilla fan, but I don't think a lot of folks take a very fair mentality about the new movie. When you compare Godzilla 2014 to literally every other Godzilla movie ever made - & be honest with yourself - it's the most watchable one there ever was.

Giant monster films are something most people find endearing because of how hokey & ridiculous they are. Rarely ever do you see an attempt to make one of these flicks into something you could take seriously, but G14 makes a good effort at being convincing with it's special effects & depictions of environmental devastation. It's the closest to realism one has ever gotten, even managing to show society's reaction to something so outlandish happening in a more heavy handed light. It at least makes an attempt at being believable, rather than just having guys in rubber suits pretending to smack each other.

Like I said before, it still ends up being flat & one dimensional but that's due to the core concept. No matter how real they get with it, it's still just a movie about big monsters stomping on our stuff.

I've seen all of the Godzilla films. I've liked them since I was a kid, but I really only care about the goofy monster fights. Godzilla is a vehicle for toys & video games. Merchandise meant for kids, but still enjoyable for adults. If you expect it to be anything more, you're watching it for the wrong reasons. I didn't go into that movie expecting the next Citizen Kane. I just went in expecting to see exactly what I got - the modern equivalent of guys in rubber suits smacking each other.

Final Wars is the closest I've ever gotten to giving a shit about the people on the ground during these scenes before G14, & that's because it at least knew not to take itself seriously if they are still doing the rubber suits. Instead it went full on Saturday morning cartoon. Most of the earlier Japanese flicks try to have believable characters and interpersonal drama, which is just so impossibly boring when you're only waiting to see Ghidorah breath lightning at something.

For writing a paragraph that is so completely disrespectful, rude, and hateful towards the series, using words like "goofy," "boring," and "flat & one dimensional," you hardly come off as a "big fan."

Using Citizen Kane as the gold standard of movies is like comparing all the food you eat to McDonald's.

[Skykid]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Godzilla fan, but I don't think a lot of folks take a very fair mentality about the new movie.

I don't know what mentality that might be. It's a terrible piece of shit movie. It's poorly written, cast, acted, plotted and paced. It's leaden with cliché, dulled by its human characters and totally underwhelming in every possible respect.

It's not just a shit Godzilla movie, it's a shit movie full stop. That said the rubber suited predecessors are far more successful at what they attempt to do, which is monster mash for kicks without all the *reel-lyfe* (TM) love story feelz and lead actors who look and act like they've just been lobotomised.

It's trash, basically.

Using Citizen Kane as the gold standard of movies is like comparing all the food you eat to McDonald's.

Although I have a sneaking feeling most of the folks who use Citizen Kane as a comparative tool for film mastery haven't actually seen it, let's just be clear here: you're saying comparing almost anything to Kane is like comparing junk food to caviar, or that Kane IS the junk food?

[drauch]

Using Citizen Kane as the gold standard of movies is like comparing all the food you eat to McDonald's.

Although I have a sneaking feeling most of the folks who use Citizen Kane as a comparative tool for film mastery haven't actually seen it, let's just be clear here: you're saying comparing almost anything to Kane is like comparing junk food to caviar, or that Kane IS the junk food?

Nah. Kane is fine. Calling it a classic or one of the greats is appropriate and acceptable, but comparing it to every film or using it as some sort of standard is just such a vacuous, empty statement. I feel like Columbus and all these people telling me the world is flat, because the general notion seems that once you get to Kane that's basically the end of movies. Silly phrases like "it's no Citizen Kane," has become such an overused axiom at the beginning of so many terrible reviews and awful forum posts, and for some reason it's acceptable as a form of respectable criticism. We shit all over people here for saying Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy VII is the best game ever made, because that's such a ludicrous statement and two completely different game genres, but for some reason it's A-okay to compare everything to a 40s drama/mystery. It's like movies can only be divided into three categories: Films that try to be like Citizen Kane but fall short of its brilliance, films that don't try to be Citizen Kane because they're inept, and documentaries. The McDonald's comparison was much more a joke, but in regards to overall popularity and food types and what people think food is, I think it sums up the silliness of such a claim. It's like a Southern redneck comparing traditional American BBQ to Korean BBQ because they're familiar in name only. McDonald's is the most popular food franchise, so they must be doing it right.

I guess with anything, really, I have a big problem with saying one thing is just THE BEST. Breaking stuff down into genres or time period or whatever specification until you have a clear, concise subject to compare others to at least makes sense, but making such a broad statement as one film is simply the best film that all others shall be judged by is pretty goddamn ignorant.

In short, PET PEEVE.

[pokemon123]

Just watched the movie "Pulp Fiction". Was really good, far better than django unchained IMO.

Even cooler is that I found out the person on the cover is my dad's friends daughter. (Okay she also apparently stars in the kill bill films too.)

[Mischief Maker]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Godzilla fan, but I don't think a lot of folks take a very fair mentality about the new movie. When you compare Godzilla 2014 to literally every other Godzilla movie ever made - & be honest with yourself - it's the most watchable one there ever was.

Giant monster films are something most people find endearing because of how hokey & ridiculous they are. Rarely ever do you see an attempt to make one of these flicks into something you could take seriously, but G14 makes a good effort at being convincing with it's special effects & depictions of environmental devastation. It's the closest to realism one has ever gotten, even managing to show society's reaction to something so outlandish happening in a more heavy handed light. It at least makes an attempt at being believable, rather than just having guys in rubber suits pretending to smack each other.

I wouldn't use the word "literally" here, because that encompasses the original Godzilla, which barely has anything in common with the films that follow, and arguably does deserve to be mentioned alongside Citizen Kane. (I'm talking the uncensored Japanese original, not the watered down Raymond Burr version).

As strange as it sounds in the post-"Godzilla vs the Smog Monster" world, the original Godzilla was a horror film. It was directed by a collaborator of Kurosawa, who witnessed the atomic bomb devastation firsthand. Godzilla's attacks were recreations of the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in slow motion. The later Godzilla movies upped the tempo on the music to sound more "heroic" but at the original tempo it's the sound of irresistible doom. It also helps that the original movie had all the Godzilla attack scenes at night, making the (brand new) suit ever so slightly more believable.

You want the human element in a Godzilla movie? It has a mother clutching her children inside a collapsing building and saying, "Soon we'll be back with your father..." You have fire trucks rushing to the rescue and being annihilated. You have a doctor in the aftermath of an attack waving a giger counter over a small boy then shaking his head at the parents. What's more, instead of just getting out of Godzilla's way and letting him beat up Lord Zedd's latest minion before returning to the sea, human actions DECIDE the ending of the movie. The pivotal character is a tortured scientist who has just discovered a new weapon of mass destruction, the secret of which he desperately wants to keep secret from the world, but when it's clear that Godzilla WILL destroy Japan (and probably the world) he realizes the only way to stop this madness is to deploy his new weapon.

The fact that Godzilla even had a sequel was incredibly disrespectful. The fact that it quickly devolved into "a vehicle for toys & video games" just adds insult to injury. It's like if Seven Samurai birthed an increasingly goofball series of sequels, with scenes of fat 8 year old kids poking bandits in the butt with bamboo spears.

Hell no Godzilla 2014 is not the best of the series. Watch the uncensored Japanese original and that fact will become abundantly clear.

[Lord Satori]

Why are people arguing about Godzilla again?

Talk about a more recent film like this.

[Mischief Maker]

Why are people arguing about Godzilla again?

Talk about a more recent film like this.

When the subject is whether an Adam Sandler movie is a piece of shit, there is no argument to be had.

[iconoclast]

I wanted to make a post about the original Godzilla, but Mischief Maker said it much better than I could. That's still a great film to this day. Godzilla 2014 really isn't half as good.

[drauch]

Why are people arguing about Godzilla again?

Talk about a more recent film like this.

Yeah, not even worth the time. A film marketed towards the lowest common denominator. To go in with any expectations other than "I am wasting my money and my time" is ludicrous. Reading a hateful review or attempting to break down what is already at its lowest form is completely pointless when the faults are already so ostensible and the cast is so widely accepted as trash.

[blackoak]

I've actually never seen the original Godzilla, but will definitely make time for it now.

[soprano1]

I've actually never seen the original Godzilla, but will definitely make time for it now.

Oh, please do, such a great movie. I wish Toho made something like Godzilla 2000 to wash our mouths of this latest movie.
I actually watched the 1985 movie last week with a friend, that first scene when he appears in front of the nuclear plant and when he smashes against a building in Tokyo still looks great today, i think.

[Mischief Maker]

I've actually never seen the original Godzilla, but will definitely make time for it now.

Just make sure it's not the censored-for-50s-America version with Perry Mason in it.

[Skykid]

PET PEEVE.

Well I get that. I also tend to get a little irked by it being used as a sort of gold standard. But at the same time it must be noted, and regardless of vacuous name droppers who haven't even seen it, that is really is a gold standard for film.

In terms of craftsmanship it's a nigh-on flawless exercise of film as both art and entertainment. Welles invention in every facet of making that movie, from camera to dialogue to scene structure to performance, really is a masterclass in one possible way film can be executed.

I think that's really the problem right there. People are identifying it as some kind of be all and end all, when in reality there can't ever be a rank number 1 in filmdom - such an idea is preposterous. I value it as one of many masterpieces of film that's unique and wonderful, but personal to Welles in the same way the films of Kubrick and Polanski are personal to them.

[Mischief Maker]

PET PEEVE.

Well I get that. I also tend to get a little irked by it being used as a sort of gold standard. But at the same time it must be noted, and regardless of vacuous name droppers who haven't even seen it, that is really is a gold standard for film.

In terms of craftsmanship it's a nigh-on flawless exercise of film as both art and entertainment. Welles invention in every facet of making that movie, from camera to dialogue to scene structure to performance, really is a masterclass in one possible way film can be executed.

I think that's really the problem right there. People are identifying it as some kind of be all and end all, when in reality there can't ever be a rank number 1 in filmdom - such an idea is preposterous. I value it as one of many masterpieces of film that's unique and wonderful, but personal to Welles in the same way the films of Kubrick and Polanski are personal to them.

Well there's a level of historical context to keep in mind when discussing Citizen Kane. It was a thinly veiled biography of William Randolph Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his day. Hearst was not pleased with how the film portrayed him and used his considerable media might to squash Welles' career and tried to destroy every copy of the film. There's a reason wunderkind Welles ended up a fat miserable old transformer.

Citizen Kane was years ahead of its time, but there's also a level of populist defiance against the bullying tactics of a Media Oligarch in giving Citizen Kane immortality as "the greatest film ever made."

[RHE]

Terminator: Genisys

...when I thought it cant get worse than Rise of the Machines.

[Skykid]

PET PEEVE.

Well I get that. I also tend to get a little irked by it being used as a sort of gold standard. But at the same time it must be noted, and regardless of vacuous name droppers who haven't even seen it, that is really is a gold standard for film.

In terms of craftsmanship it's a nigh-on flawless exercise of film as both art and entertainment. Welles invention in every facet of making that movie, from camera to dialogue to scene structure to performance, really is a masterclass in one possible way film can be executed.

I think that's really the problem right there. People are identifying it as some kind of be all and end all, when in reality there can't ever be a rank number 1 in filmdom - such an idea is preposterous. I value it as one of many masterpieces of film that's unique and wonderful, but personal to Welles in the same way the films of Kubrick and Polanski are personal to them.

Well there's a level of historical context to keep in mind when discussing Citizen Kane. It was a thinly veiled biography of William Randolph Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his day. Hearst was not pleased with how the film portrayed him and used his considerable media might to squash Welles' career and tried to destroy every copy of the film. There's a reason wunderkind Welles ended up a fat miserable old transformer.

Citizen Kane was years ahead of its time, but there's also a level of populist defiance against the bullying tactics of a Media Oligarch in giving Citizen Kane immortality as "the greatest film ever made."

Of course I'm aware of the Hearst subtext, but personally I wouldn't recognise an aspect of once-controversy as a factor in why the film itself is such a masterwork. In reality Kane is not a complex film as a text, it's more the psychological depths of its protagonist and the nuance of its reveal.

Welles absolutely crafted that movie, to the second, top to bottom. From a practical standpoint - real-life elements aside - it's about as finely composed and spun as film gets.

Most certainly one of the greats.

[JBC]

For writing a paragraph that is so completely disrespectful, rude, and hateful towards the series, using words like "goofy," "boring," and "flat & one dimensional," you hardly come off as a "big fan."

Using Citizen Kane as the gold standard of movies is like comparing all the food you eat to McDonald's.

Are you saying that at least 28 out of the 30 Godzilla movies aren't goofy & shallow? Being a fan of something doesn't require one to be oblivious to it's faults or to pretend it's something it isn't.

Since you disapprove of the use of Citizen Kane then you can Google 'Most critically renowned movies of all time' & use the #2 entry, the point is still the same. You can't expect genius out of a Godzilla movie.

I think fans should be thankful it was better than G98', & that we got a decent take on how a Hollywood Godzilla could be. If something new & different is too offensive there are 28 Japanese films available on home video to cleanse the palate.

[drauch]

For writing a paragraph that is so completely disrespectful, rude, and hateful towards the series, using words like "goofy," "boring," and "flat & one dimensional," you hardly come off as a "big fan."

Using Citizen Kane as the gold standard of movies is like comparing all the food you eat to McDonald's.

Are you saying that at least 28 out of the 30 Godzilla movies aren't goofy & shallow? Being a fan of something doesn't require one to be oblivious to it's faults or to pretend it's something it isn't.

Since you disapprove of the use of Citizen Kane then you can Google 'Most critically renowned movies of all time' & use the #2 entry, the point is still the same. You can't expect genius out of a Godzilla movie.

I think fans should be thankful it was better than G98', & that we got a decent take on how a Hollywood Godzilla could be. If something new & different is too offensive there are 28 Japanese films available on home video to cleanse the palate.

Funny, but I never shit on the new Godzilla film in the first place, just your ignorance.

Shallow or goofy? No. They're fun, entertaining films that do what they intended to do. After Raids Again they never tried to be anything but entertaining monster movies with sci-fi subplots. You act like they aren't aware that people know these are dudes in suits or giant creatures on wires and are trying to pass it off as genuine. Hell, even some of them readily add humor like Son of Godzilla, Vs Megalon, Vs Gigan, etc. I'll admit faults in films and still love them, but I would never shit all over them like you do with your ironic "appreciation."

Sorry, but I don't need to Google to have an inflated sense of what a film should be due to how renowned it is. Again, you seem to be missing the intention as if every film is trying to portray the same "genius." You know what's genius? Godzilla doing the running jump kick against Megalon or the brutal beatdown of Ghidorah in Destroy All Monsters. Genius on the level of intention.

Since you obviously need the reassurance of the public or overpaid critics on what a great film should be, you might stick with Mystery Science Theater so you can know when to laugh at the shitty movies you're such a fan of. That way you can still keep your junior film critic badge and watch movies that aren't on the AFI Top 100 List!