Movies you've just watched

[soprano1]

Prometheus (2012)
Poor, poor SciFi movie. This is the future of Alien movies? Let's hope Alien Covenant is better than this.

[iconoclast]

Why Don't You Play in Hell?
Such a campy movie in all respects. Yakuza war being filmed as a movie to save an actress's career is just one of the strange things this movie does. I enjoyed the heck out of it though.

Still my 2nd favorite Sion Sono film, after Love Exposure

[kaicooper]

After Hours 1985
Crazy amazing movie from Martin Scorsese
its just one crazy night u wont forget

[Sumez]

Honestly, they could've randomly cast anyone, even a dude, and they would do a better job than Scarlett Johanson at conveying emotions.

At least her character isn't really supposed to convey any emotions.

[null1024]

all this news on the new GITS has me disappointed
like, I'll probably go watch it in the theater anyway when it's out
but what I've seen so far, it wants to be a less stylish, more Hollywood version of the '95 movie [which is easily one of my favorite pieces of animation of all time, I absolutely love that movie, it's just completely ace]

Prometheus (2012)
Poor, poor SciFi movie. This is the future of Alien movies? Let's hope Alien Covenant is better than this.

Man, I went in hoping that there was something good about it.

well, it's a good looking movie
That's about it. Kind of really wish I spent that time I wasted on it years ago re-watching Alien [on that note, I haven't seen Alien in years and probably should go rewatch it].

[soprano1]

null1024, the plot seemed all over the place, really. The

Spoiler

xenomorph's creation was mindfucking and doesn't make much sense, since Alien 4 exists.

[vol.2]

Gimmie Danger

Recent Jim Jarmusch documentary about The Stooges (the band)
It was good but not great. If you already pretty much know about the band, it's not going to tell you a lot of new things, but it's still fun to listen to Iggy Pop telling stories about the old days. Also, there are lots of images and clips that I have never seen before. My main criticism would be that it didn't get into the activities of musicians outside of the context of the Stooges. I would have liked to have learned more about the side projects and such, but this really just focuses on the Stooges while they were together initially and then for their reunion(s).
Also, they covered the formation of the band in much greater detail than they did the demise.

[vol.2]

Ghost in the Shell Reboot Trailer
Eh...
Feels like it's trying to copy the original movie TOO much, what with some shots directly copied over and a misguided focus of style over substance.
ScarJo as the Major is a mistake. She comes over as the Driver instead of the dutybound woman the Major originally was.

According to the comments, if you complain they didn't cast an Asian actress you're a SJW.

Viacom is clearly paying people to defend white washing in comments. common industry practice.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Ghost in the Shell Reboot Trailer
Eh...
Feels like it's trying to copy the original movie TOO much, what with some shots directly copied over and a misguided focus of style over substance.
ScarJo as the Major is a mistake. She comes over as the Driver instead of the dutybound woman the Major originally was.

According to the comments, if you complain they didn't cast an Asian actress you're a SJW.

Viacom is clearly paying people to defend white washing in comments. common industry practice.

If you take the basic concept of GiTs (the 1995 anime film), it's Makoto's AI that can assume any identity with virtually any prosthetic body by diving into it, it's just that the Section 9 branch had her prosthetic body done in the likeness of a white gal.

If you remember, the "Ghost" aspect in the GiTS mythos/universe really pertains to one's "soul".

If you recall ScarJo was cast in Luc Besson's Lucy film some time back (I thought that was an interesting action/sci-fi hybrid film in dealing with the novel concept of using 100% of one's brain). Fascinating Hong Kong-based background scenery nevertheless (with all the cool real-time holographic advertising & whatnot) considering that the live-action version of GiTS was filmed there. The planned March 2017 film debut isn't that far off anyways. I like the "Beat" Kitano cameo appearance as well + we're shown a brief shot of Makoto taking cover behind a pillar whilst trying to dodge some serious firepower coming from a heavy-assault tank-type mecha (that particular mecha which isn't shown in the trailer) -- should make for an exciting live-action scene indeed.

It's interesting to learn of the original tagline of the 1995 GiTS anime film with it's "People love machines in 2029 A.D.".....

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Skykid]

Dr Strange

OK. Better than Avengers 2 and Civil War. I preferred the first half to the second: after the origin story is pretty much complete it gives way to CG filler to extend the remainder and distract you from the fact there's zero plot - just like all the other Marvel movies really. I realise I don't really get anything from CG when it's just used to dazzle like a tech demo; I only notice it when it's subtly used to enhance the actual movie. So I was a little bored by the big fight stuff at the end.

Made Mikkelsen gave a flat, poor performance as the antagonist and brought nothing to the production and the black guy is far too theatrical, but Cumberbitch and Swinton were fine.

[Ed Oscuro]

Ugh, everybody's talking about hollywood superhero demakes with CGI. Well, I'll add one more: Solomon Kane. Damn, this film is 7 years old?

I picked it up 'cuz it's one of Peter Postlethwaite's last films, and indeed I was able to enjoy the main character's redemption story with the pilgrim family - until Pete's character leaves the film. The rest of the running time is padded out with brutal, grimy scenes with all the tonal splendor of mud. The few exceptions include the big goofy CGI demon at the end, and a divine intervention! Well, I did like the pagan woman.

The monochrome look of the pilgrims, Kane, and his world isn't the least bit true to history, but of course that's what Robert Howard was aiming for. That appears to be one of the few things the film plays straight, at the same time updating to all the modern filmmaking touches like horribly executed slo-mo (there's one of the hero which is redundant, technically deficient and plain goofy looking), as well as some godawful CGI, especially mirrors with creatures in them (at both the beginning and end of the film). The casting choices seem pretty good generally, but the direction of the film and its generic origin story plot conspire to make this seem derivative of Sommers' Van Helsing from 2004, along with other films as old as the original Blade and 1999's Sleepy Hallow. The inclusion of the pagan healer scenes seemed like a "look, we're sensitive modern people making this film, not fundamentalists" feels like a cheap shot to absolve themselves of responsibility for adapting tales of a dour Puritan from the 1920s, before even Conan the Barbarian. At the end, the film direction earns no credit from this approach: It wastes running time dueling with caricatures wandering through the apocalypse, in dead-end scenes with no payoff, while the main evils are given absolutely no screen time for development. Maybe it's too much to ask the filmmakers to suspend their own disbelief for the sake of making entertainment, but this approach is a total failure. There are limp puppets in place of primeval horrors to challenge humanity, and the human side of the cast forced to chant "I do believe in spooks, I do, I do." It is a sad thing because there was so much promise evident here.

Coincidentally, lead James Purefoy has been in some other films that were on my radar for reasons: Ironclad, John Carter, and even A Knight's Tale. I hope that at least one of these films delivers us from evil.

[Xyga]

Cumberbitch

I like Cucumberpatch, very Hollywood-like material with his fantasy cartoon face, recognizable voice and even acting in every movie he plays.
Directors hire him because they know the audience will be happy to watch Benedict being Benedict.

[Skykid]

Cumberbitch

I like Cucumberpatch, very Hollywood-like material with his fantasy cartoon face, recognizable voice and even acting in every movie he plays.
Directors hire him because they know the audience will be happy to watch Benedict being Benedict.

I have no problem with Cucumberfuck, I just like playing with his name.

The film was just above average though, and no more. Mikkleson was seriously shit.

[emphatic]

Mikkelsen wasn't exactly Cumbersome. I thought Swinton was too theatrical, her dialogue sounded so forced.

[Zen]

DISCLAIMER: The following review may contain trigger words. I do not use these words to cause offense or to troll. These words are used because they most succinctly sum up the ideas I wish to describe.


Don't Breathe (2016) Fede Alvarez
Question;
How do you take a blind 60+ year old U.S army vet, who's daughter has been taken from him via vehicular manslaughter, who lives alone with his dog in a decayed empty neighborhood, who is being cased-up by a wigger, his cute little blond white girlfriend and their cuck (seriously, I'm not making this up), for the court case pay-out from his daughters death and, wait for it . . . . . make him the bad guy?

Well, first you make him Caucasian . . . . and the rest writes itself. Sounds like a bad joke, no? Unfortunately Mr. Alvarez is serious and wants to push your credulity to its limits.

Now, you could just watch this film as the thriller it was billed as. Which is all I wanted to do. But Mr. Alvarez just wont let-up with the old evil white man propaganda.
Its like Fede Alvarez watched Gran Torino, got triggered the fuck out and thought "fuck you, clint. FUCK YOU! Get off MY lawn!"
Lets check the director. Hmmm, Fede Alvarez. Alvarez, eh? Thats the dude that directed Evil Dead (2013). Lets check his twitter . . . . . . . Sweet mother of God! Well that explains a lot.

I don't care what race, creed, colour or sex you are. Frankly, I'm too intelligent for that to matter to me and I hope anyone reading this is also intelligent enough to see that I'm not "literally Hitler" for calling this bullshit out.
(There are a lot of other contrived racial/sexual swipes, both Freudian and graphic, at clint, whoops . . . I mean whitey . . . shit, I mean "the blind man" (yes, the blind man is a "man with no name"), in the film but I don't wish to post any spoilers.)

Alvarez socio-political views are his prerogative. Unfortunately his vitriol is so blatant in this film that it ruins the film itself, which is unforgivable.

[Skykid]

Mikkelsen wasn't exactly Cumbersome. I thought Swinton was too theatrical, her dialogue sounded so forced.

Mikkleson was utterly useless. Zero expression. The extent of his performance was a lick of glam rock makeup.

Swinton is theatrical, she's generally overrated, but gave more than Mikkleson. Neither was as theatrical as the black dude though, that guy's a joke!

[Mortificator]

Star Trek Beyond

Garbage.

[xxx1993]

The Nice Guys.

[soprano1]

The Fugitive (1993)
Tommy Lee Jones was pretty badass. I kind remember when it came out how heavily publicized it was, and how awesome the jumping scene was.

[GaijinPunch]

Cold in July
Pretty good - in a similar vein to Blue Ruin, just not as gritty or intense (pretty fucked up shit though). Can recommend it if you like hillbillies with guns. Don Johnson, and especially his attire, are fantastic.

Melancholia
I'm all for end of the world movies, but this one just didn't click with me. Every character, except the kid, was so annoying you're rooting for the stray planet by about halfway through the film, which should have been 30 minutes shorter. The soundtrack was far, far too repetitive. Ironically I had seen many key bits of the film in a fan-made video to M83's Outro, which was far more befitting than the original score, I found. It's not that the film is bad, per se, I just didn't jive with the way it was done. Definitely give the guy props for doing something different. Glad I watched it. Kirsten Dunst's cans are larger than expected.

[emphatic]

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them - 4/5.

Some goofy Ace Ventura antics that goes on too long, but a nice opening chapter for these adventures.0

[soprano1]

Rain Man (1988)
Oh man, beautiful movie. Dustin Hoffman did some excellent acting, Tom Cruise acted like the perfect ignorant yuppie i love to hate, growing and learning like Denzel Washington did in Philadelphia.

[Zen]

Melancholia
I'm all for end of the world movies, but this one just didn't click with me. Every character, except the kid, was so annoying you're rooting for the stray planet by about halfway through the film, which should have been 30 minutes shorter. The soundtrack was far, far too repetitive. Ironically I had seen many key bits of the film in a fan-made video to M83's Outro, which was far more befitting than the original score, I found. It's not that the film is bad, per se, I just didn't jive with the way it was done. Definitely give the guy props for doing something different. Glad I watched it. Kirsten Dunst's cans are larger than expected.

Perhaps I just don't get Lars. Maybe didn't watch enough of his films but I find his work to be transparently that of a hack and poseur. "Melancholia" was, for me at least, insultingly bad. It might have worked as a silent movie ? Is Lars trolling his audience?
Maybe missing something obvious here but all I see is a naughty, nasty, naked little emperor, lionized by luvvie trash.

[GaijinPunch]

Wouldn't go so far as to say insultingly bad (I did enjoy some of it) but yeah... didn't move me. Not sure if I've seen anything else he's done, so can't really comment on that either!

[Vexorg]

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: ***1/2

If you enjoyed the Harry Potter movies or books you'll enjoy this as well, even though the connections are tenuous at best (basically it's a couple of name drops and that's it.) If you aren't a fan of Harry Potter you probably won't care much for this either.

[GaijinPunch]

Arrival

Best sci-fi I can think of in recent history. Far more cerebral and less action than the genre usually offers. This is more like a linguistic nerds Contact. The audio throughout is amazing. Pretty high intensity as well. Makes me think we have hope for Blade Runner 2049.

[xxx1993]

I originally didn't want to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, because it wasn't on my list of movies to watch for this year, nor did I care about spinoffs or prequels. But I decided to anyway.

[Aleksei]

I haven't seen a good movie in all of 2016 it seems so I went back to watch my two favorites,

There Will Be Blood & American Psycho.

I can't decide which one is better. Any recommendations of movies along these styles? I've seen No Country for Old Men but I can't think of any which involve a seemingly normal man do crazy things.

[GaijinPunch]

II've seen No Country for Old Men but I can't think of any which involve a seemingly normal man do crazy things.

Well, that's pretty much the best one ever. How about...

Falling Down
Sling Blade (more like a crazy guy do normal things, but worth watching)

[soprano1]

Batman: Return of The Caped Crusaders (2016)

All fans of Batman '66, be sure to watch it, it's really good.