Movies you've just watched

[EmperorIng]

I was about to say, when I watched Gojira, I was really surprised that it was an honest-to-goodness good, serious film (50s camp aside). My visions of Godzilla were colored by entirely different movies, so it was surprising to see a very well-done cautionary fable about human hubris and nuclear war (made all the more poignant by its Japanese setting) at the genesis of the franchise.

Gamera, Defender of Children is still pretty fucking awesome though. The theme song will never leave.

GA - MER - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
GA - MER - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[mesh control]

Contact, again.


The first scene bugs me: they misinterpret the speed of light. At one point music from the 40's is being played as the camera passes by Jupiter, but in the real world Jupiter is 45-ish light minutes a away! The music should be long out of the solar system and possibly the galaxy.

[EmperorIng]

Oh, this reminds me, I made a 5-minute film for my university's "Film a movie a week competition"

Surprisingly, and hilariously, my trashy ninja tribute to z-movie master Godfrey Ho is beating out all the serious, artsy 'deep' student films - even with its numerous intentional and unintentional editing errors.

NINJA BLOODLUST

So if you want yourselves a laugh (or not) at some ninja action, you can check out us non-asians keeping the spirit of the best hong kong film-director of all time alive.

[njiska]

Beverly Hills Cop

Eddie Murphy at his finest. Great humour, good use of casual profanity to make characters sound natural and god damn do I love the music. Both the theme and The Heat is On. Haven't seen it in probably 10 years, but it's aged very well. Action scenes are also pretty good considering the movie is a comedy first and foremost.

On to Beverly Hills Cop II and possibly III.

[CMoon]

NINJA BLOODLUST

Get the right soundtrack and work a bit on those sound levels and you might have something here!

It's almost a little too cheesy for me, but is pretty much a dead on homage to what every other kung fu movie does.

[EmperorIng]

The deadlines forced us to be really sloppy in sound-editing - we actually had a cheesy 80s soundtrack planned (example) and actual effort placed into sound effects etc.

But we had six days to make a movie, which caused a bit of a downturn in quality due to rushing. We literally through in the music at the last minute right before we submitted the film.

The "extended" cut would (due to us having about 12-15 min of footage) would have a lot more scenes, better dubbing, better music, etc. As it stands, the fact that this beat out so many art-trash student films is infinitely amusing and satisfying. Thanks for putting up with it!

[njiska]

Beverly Hills Cop 2

Apparently this is considered inferior to the original, but I think I may actually like it more. At the very least it's on par. The plot is more complex and there's more humour and action, but most of all it sees a huge expansion of Rosewood and Taggart. Their relations with each other and with Axel make the film for me. Judge Reinhold really does an amazing job with Billy and showing his growth since the previous film. Plus, Dusters and Aviators can't go wrong.

Update:

Beverly Hills Cop 3

Oh dear god is this film uninspired. It's not bad, per se, but it is certainly nothing special. The lack of John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Ronny Cox really hurt the film and make it feel more like a forced sequel, rather than a genuine one. The plot regarding counterfeiting at a theme park is alright and gives the film a few fun set pieces, but that's pretty much it. Even Judge Reinhold, a key component of the humour of the first two, isn't well used.

Not as bad as something like Robocop 3, but still not a worthwhile addition to the franchise.

[drauch]

Atragon - Early 60s Toho sci-fi. Theoretically a Kaiju film, but not really a monster movie. Manda's first appearance, but he's probably better known in Destroy All Monsters as a giant serpent who derails a train and helps Godzilla and crew fight King Ghidorah. A fairly good sci-fi film, although it starts to drag at the hour mark. Manda only has probably a literal minute of screen time, so that's kinda disappointing from Toho. Great sets and good effects make it worth watching, still.

Yor, The Hunter From the Future - Antonio Margheretti's 4 part mini-series condensed into an hour and a half film. Rockin' Maurizio and De Angelis score, pterodactyl knock-out/glider(!), cavemen and men from the future. I hope before I die that 4 part surfaces and gets translated. I won't die happy unless.

[CMoon]

Stalker. I've only seen two Tarkovsky films (the other is Solaris) and clearly they are long, and meditative. Obvious formula: Amazing cinematography + slow, poetic dialogue. Story left open to interpretation. Not the kind of thing you can watch often, but Tarkovsky is one of the great interpreters of this medium. As far as cinematography alone, I would place him among the greatest directors of all times, but his movies are mostly inaccessible, and generally philosophical and difficult. I have several of his other films and haven't actually gotten around to all of them because of this difficulty. Also, there's a great use of soundtrack, and this is true in Solaris as well. I really need to watch his other films, but need to build up the stamina.



The dog is everything inexplicable in this film. Everything that can't be explained. I am an atheist angry about those who have nothing left to believe in. Uroboros indeed.

[GaijinPunch]

The Weatherman

Saw it years ago, but rewatched it. Easily Nicholas Cage's 2nd best movie. Would order the BluRay but it doesn't exist. Funny as shit... and the low rating on IMDB leads me to believe it's one of those shows Americans just don't get.

[Acid King]

Dredd 3d was pretty fucking sweet. Shame to hear it did so shitty at the box office, I'd like to see a sequel or two.

[njiska]

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

I love films that make fun of genre conventions and this is certainly one of the better ones. I mean hell, the description says it all:
"Tucker & Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are attacked by a group of preppy college kids."

Good script, good acting from Tucker and Dale and lots of laughs. Deaths are ridiculous and a bit predictable, but it doesn't take away from the experience at all. Unfortunately the ending goes from being good parody to being straight horror and that does take away from the film, but it's still very much worth watching.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Man, has this film ever aged. The message is still good, but the film itself feels dated and falls flat in a number of places. The music is still the highlight of the film and hits like Blame Canada are as good as ever. Jingoist Yankees...

[system11]

Good to see Tucker & Dale get some attention, I really liked that one.

"WE'VE GOT YOUR FRIEND!"

[Necronopticous]

The Weatherman

Saw it years ago, but rewatched it. Easily Nicholas Cage's 2nd best movie. Would order the BluRay but it doesn't exist. Funny as shit... and the low rating on IMDB leads me to believe it's one of those shows Americans just don't get.

Totally agree, man. I've always been mystified at the overwhelmingly poor reception of that movie.

[lilmanjs]

The Weatherman

Saw it years ago, but rewatched it. Easily Nicholas Cage's 2nd best movie. Would order the BluRay but it doesn't exist. Funny as shit... and the low rating on IMDB leads me to believe it's one of those shows Americans just don't get.

I don't get the horrible ratings at all! I loved this movie and saw it when it was in theaters. I do own this and probably should watch this sometime soon. As for the last movie I watched, that would be Shaolin. Not seen the movie this is a remake/update of, but I liked it save for the first part of the movie. They just throw you into the movie thinking you already know what's going on. other than that the action is great. Some great set pieces of action.

[drauch]

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. - 2nd to last Godzilla film (thus far, maybe?) Millenium era stuff, and while it has a ton of fights, they still don't care the love and fun of the older stuff. Too much CG missiles and Mothra zooming by at high speeds. Still, a fun Godzilla film, regardless.

Robot Jox - Stuart Gordon's life-action Gundam. Not really, but an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic sub-genre. Amazing stop-motion with one of the most ridiculous endings I've ever seen.

[GaijinPunch]

Glad to see some other people like The Weatherman. It showed that Nicholas Cage can pick a role and deliver. Something he doesn't have the best track record at.

[EmperorIng]

Bad Lieutenant remains one of the best Cage movies if only for how absolutely bonkers it gets.

Fuckin' iguanas, man.

[CMoon]

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. - 2nd to last Godzilla film (thus far, maybe?) Millenium era stuff, and while it has a ton of fights, they still don't care the love and fun of the older stuff. Too much CG missiles and Mothra zooming by at high speeds. Still, a fun Godzilla film, regardless.

Have you seen the 90's Godzilla films? In particular, G vs King Ghidora, G vs Mothra and G vs Mechagodzilla 2? I rather like this period--actually I prefer it to the 70's G flicks. I liked the original G films up through Monster Zero and then lose interest--but some of those 90's G films have just the right amount of camp for me.

[drauch]

Yep! I own just about everything that's been released. I've actually yet to watch the GvGhidorah and GvMothra 90s stuff yet. I really liked Godzilla vs Destoroyah, and it's funny you mentioned it, but I just got done watching Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla (II), which I really, really liked.

The title is a bit misleading, especially since it's actually the third appearance of Mechagodzilla. And while it's not a sequel, it's not a retelling, either. This time humans make Mechagodzilla to combat Godzilla, which was seen again in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, as well as the aforementioned Tokyo S.O.S.. Lots of fun, this one. Baby Godzilla is super cute--unlike Minilla. Rodan gets pissed and becomes Fire Rodan, burning everything around him. Non-stop action. Easily one of my new favorites! I'm getting closer, but I think I've got only a handful of films now before I've seen all 28. Hopefully by the end of this month, except I'm gonna wait for the December release of Vs. Biollante.

[CMoon]

GvMG2 is one of my favorites from that series. Really great balance of action, cheese and fantastic music by Ifukube. Did that guy even know what he was making music for at this point? Did he care? It might even be one of his best soundtracks!

Space Godzilla is the worst. I hope you dig King Ghidora...it is like Godzilla as a Doctor Who episode and really works for me. Oh yeah, King Ghidora is long too...is it over 2 hours? I don't think Godzilla even show up in the first hour. Goddamn, I should give you my phone # so you can call me when you see this movie, it is so fucking stupidly awesome. Godzilla proves that he is fucking tougher than anything in the universe!!!!!

Love the Mothra 90's flick as well. The ending...oh shit, just wait for it! Every viewer has to make a vow at the end of that film

[drauch]

Yeah, I checked the run time on those. Looks like most of the 90s stuff runs at about the 103-109 mark. I still haven't watched Space Godzilla as well, even though I've had a figure of him on a shelf for over 5 years. I didn't realize it, but I guess almost everything I haven't watched is the later stuff.

Gah! Now I'm super excited to watch those. Shame those U.S. double-bill copies are dubbed. I'll let ya know when watch them, which will possibly be this week--or tonight.

[CMoon]

I've got mixed thoughts on the dubbing. That's the way I know Ghidora and Mothra, and they only make those films cheesier (which maybe isn't good), but still, they are as camp as any kung fu movie, and in that sense it is probably appropriate.

[GaijinPunch]

Bad Lieutenant remains one of the best Cage movies if only for how absolutely bonkers it gets.

Fuckin' iguanas, man.

Yeah, I heard this one was great, and one day I will check it out. Wasn't a fan of the Keitel rendition. No matter what Nick Cage does though, he will always be H.I. McDonnough to me.

[xbl0x180]

I don't like Nicolas Cage's acting (Jake Gyllenhal seems to have taken acting lessons from him). I usually avoid any movies with him, except for a few here and there. Rumble Fish and Wild At Heart are the only two that come to mind where I went in to see them in spite of knowing he starred in them. The original Bad Lieutenant was great, so I don't see the necessity of seeing the remake, although I love everything Abel Ferrara has directed

[GaijinPunch]

I usually avoid any movies with him, except for a few here and there.

Yes, that's basically what I said.

[drauch]

Abel Ferrara is a pretty cool dood. I still need to see Ms. 45! I'm a big fan of the original Bad Lieutenant, yet I still really appreciated Herzog's ridiculous Cage film. Definitely worth seeing, especially since Cage is in top batshit form.

[emphatic]

Adaptation is a great Nick Cage film.

[Skykid]

Went to see Untouchable last night. We were the only ones in the theatre, so helped ourselves to free VIP seating.

Terrific French film about a quadriplegic aristocrat and the down and out carer who gives him a new lease on life. Funny, well scripted, and a true story that's stranger than fiction. Anyone wants to see another example of how film is actually made, as opposed to banal Hollywood templates, go and see this, it's great.

[jonny5]

Abel Ferrara is a pretty cool dood. I still need to see Ms. 45! I'm a big fan of the original Bad Lieutenant, yet I still really appreciated Herzog's ridiculous Cage film. Definitely worth seeing, especially since Cage is in top batshit form.

Ms. 45 is awesome! Check it out for sure!