Movies you've just watched

[drauch]

Since you seem to be on an HK kick, you should check out some of the other bonkers movies from The Story of Ricky director, Lam Ngai Kai if you haven't already. The Seventh Curse (finally come out on Bluray soon from 88 films--HD print already exists digitally) and The Cat (1992) are his craziest, on-par with the antics in Riki-Oh. He also did two adaptations of Kujakuu Oh, aka Peacock King, aka MYSTIC DEFENDER for Genesis. First one is just called Peacock King, which is pretty rad. The second one, Saga of the Phoenix I'm not that big a fan of, but it's got some fun in it.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Since you seem to be on an HK kick, you should check out some of the other bonkers movies from The Story of Ricky director, Lam Ngai Kai if you haven't already. The Seventh Curse (finally come out on Bluray soon from 88 films--HD print already exists digitally) and The Cat (1992) are his craziest, on-par with the antics in Riki-Oh. He also did two adaptations of Kujakuu Oh, aka Peacock King, aka MYSTIC DEFENDER for Genesis. First one is just called Peacock King, which is pretty rad. The second one, Saga of the Phoenix I'm not that big a fan of, but it's got some fun in it.

Many thanks for the excellent suggestions - I have an old VHS of Sevent Curse flying around somehere; I remember it was pretty faaaarrr out (Chow Yun Fat?!), but I love having copious amounts of gore in my films so I prefer Story of Ricky. Haven't seen any of the other films, I'll try to get hold of them!

[Vexorg]

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension: **

1984 Homage to / parody of old pulp Sci-Fi, but with way too much budget to actually be one of those types of movies. As is typical of a lot of things from that era it originally bombed in theaters but eventually turned into a cult classic. Also one of the most confusing movies I've seen in a while. Especially during the first 45 minutes I felt like I would need to pop a Ritalin just to have any chance of being able to keep track of any of it. Lots of scenery chewing going on here, especially from John Lithgow and Christopher Lloyd as the villains.

[BIL]

The Boogeyman (1982) Impressively bald dad's kids have all died violently in their beds. Cops aren't thrilled with pops' fingering of the titular fiend, while his shrink lends a professional ear.

Short student adaptation of the eponymous story, from Stephen King's Night Shift anthology. Good attempt at capturing the text's primal fear and pending doom, with some cleverly discomforting shots, a credibly unhinged lead, and a soundtrack that's by far its best asset, blending moving lyricism with bloodcurdling horror.

I don't think they quite stuck the ending, a memorably chilling scene given a bit too much willy here. Still, a spirited adaptation, and easy to fit into a late night curio watch. Like many fine horror films, is be on teh toob in full

[Ixmucane2]

The Batman

Plot: about two years into his rather flourishing vigilante business, Batman (together with his friend Gordon) faces a serial killer, the well-organized Riddler. Bruce Wayne is also involved in the plot. Meanwhile SPOILER pushes Selina Kyle into action against look, our enemies are the same, as two fellows who dress in black and dispense violence in the night we should work together, and think of the romantic potential!
Both main characters mature, several deaths create job openings (I'd expect Gordon as chief of the police in a sequel) and the Arkham Asylum fills up.

An unusually pseudo-realistic approach to Batman material, very distant from comic book style: instead of icons and grotesque monsters, relatively normal people; instead of bizarre stages, a sad modern USA city; instead of an origin story, an intense week in the night-by night activity of a well-known public figure; instead of cosmic threats and epic fights, a noir entanglement of secrets and revenge of medium-high complexity.

Traditional silly or camp elements are minimized and/or twisted in serious and low-key directions, for example:

• Bruce Wayne is a resourceful recluse with an obsession, not a billionaire cool guy with a secret
• Catwoman has a few cats at home but no cat-related weird traits whatsoever, just a special but mundane criminal background
• the Penguin is just a level-headed cunning gangster with a scarred face and a curious pointed nose
• nobody unmasks Batman because it wouldn't be nice
• Batman's costume is extremely bulletproof because having villains shoot him less would be far more implausible
• the Batmobile appears to have a jet engine, but no other gadget; the more frequently used motorcycles are perfectly normal models, except for a hint of bat ears in the front
• no Robin (he would be not only superfluous but, with such a loner as a boss, positively unwelcome); no Joker, and none of the even more exotic villains

Highly recommended, particularly to compare it with The Lego Batman Movie (similarly one step ahead, despite being its polar opposite) and with Nolan's trilogy (far more spectacular and, in retrospect, immature).

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Brother of Darkness - 6/10
Same director made Run and Kill, so maybe I had too high expectations; while there is a fair amount of sleaze in this, there's too much boring softcore bullshit and not enough insanity. Also, it has Anthony Wong, but he plays a prosecutor and not the baddie?! Huh, interesting casting choice...

[GaijinPunch]

The Batman

I liked it. Good modern day noir for the most part. The running time is not for everyone. I guess the thing I liked about it the most which isn't really a spoiler is that he is very rough around the edges. Not a lot of gadgets. He misses every now and again. Fighting is more effective than graceful. Paul Dano delivers exactly what you expect if you're familiar with this previous work.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Nightmare Alley - This movie is really slow. Not much going on. It does have some really cool looking sets and looks really interesting. But I did not finish it. Probably the worst Del Toro film. Really disappointed me because I like his other films really well.

Against the Ice- I thought that this was pretty well done. Really shows how hard it was to map out these areas back then. Really shows how brutal it is dealing with that kind of environment. Recommended. If you enjoyed Lighthouse I’d imagine this would be in your wheelhouse.

[vol.2]

I went last night to see our local screening of the 2022 Oscar nominated animation shorts. There were five of them, one sucked (THE WINDSHIELD WIPER Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez) , one was good (ROBIN ROBIN Dan Ojari and Mikey Please) , two were very good (AFFAIRS OF THE ART Joanna Quinn and Les Mills, BOXBALLET Anton Dyakov), and one was fantastic (BESTIA Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz).

Bestia is a Chilean short that seems to be about some kind of secret police murders in the 80s. It's extremely intense, psychological and violent; it's also really well done. https://bestia-shortfilm.com/

[EmperorIng]

Yesterday was realistically my only chance to see the shorts in the theater, but I ended up passing out (instead of doing the work I was supposed to do after getting home). I kind of wanted to see the Robin Robin one the most.

[xxx1993]

Finally saw The Batman. It was pretty good.

[vol.2]

Yesterday was realistically my only chance to see the shorts in the theater, but I ended up passing out (instead of doing the work I was supposed to do after getting home). I kind of wanted to see the Robin Robin one the most.

It was good. It actually made me cry, but I'm a sucker for wholesome crap like that so YMMV.

Beastia was on another level though, it was gripping and intense. Real edge of the seat shit. Also Affairs of the Art was really, really good. It wasn't super dramatic though, it was a narrated autobiographical story about a woman artist and how her family defined her life and how she struggled to overcome that in her own way. It was presented in a light hearted manner, but the material was very adult and serious.

[xxx1993]

Got Turning Red out of the way before the Internet ruined it for me. It was pretty good. I know it has the obligatory “protagonist hits rock bottom” moment that the other Pixar movies have before the climax, but I still liked the movie overall.

Spoiler

I knew Mei would retain her red panda form rather than seal it.

[xxx1993]

The Adam Project was yet another fun time travel movie!

[Vexorg]

Caught up on the last couple of Pixar movies.

Luca: **1/2
A literal Fish Out of Water story. The town of Portorosso is a nicely done environment, but apparently the entire town turns into a harpoon wielding mob the minute anyone happens to look like a sea monster, which seems rather implausible. After all, if movies have taught us anything, it's far more likely that a bunch of scientists would immediately rush in, capture the protagonists and start performing highly unethical experiments...

Turning Red: ***
This one features a 13 year old Chinese girl living in Toronto with your standard issue Asian tiger mom (it's a real thing, I had an Asian tiger parent for a boss at a previous job), who just happens to have inherited the ability to turn into a giant red panda from her ancestors, something she learns at a rather inconvenient time. Naturally hijinks ensue. The movie is set in 2002 and much of the plot centers around a concert for a fictional boy band, which seems to suggest that nostalgia for the Oughts is a thing now. I liked this one a bit better than Luca, but I'd put it somewhere in the middle tier of Pixar stuff. Uncharacteristically for Disney and Pixar films, I'd also put Encanto ahead of either of these.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Sausage Fest - 7/10
Some of it is as entertaining as the better South Park episodes, some of it is made up of the kind of American stoner humour I can't abide. It's a decent watch, all in all.

American Pie - The Naked Mile - 6/10
Call me an old softy, but I enjoyed the relaxed attitude towards nudity and boners.

Millionaire's Express (1986) - 6/10
Star-studded snoozefest that takes three quarter of an hour to introduce a huge amount of uninteresting characters until the first fight between Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung starts and then ends quickly again. Another half an hour of braindead HK comedy follows, then a pretty decent finale. It's enough if you watch the last 20 minutes.

[xxx1993]

Black Crab, a dull and depressing war thriller.

[vol.2]

Spiderman: No Way Home 7/10

I liked it. It wasn't quite as fun maybe as the first one, but better than the second. Good dialog and witty banter; clever throw-away lines. I stand behind my feelings on Cumberbatch as Strange. I never liked him as an actor much but he's so perfect for the role it won me over. The old villains coming back thing was well done without being overdone and it all made sense the whole way through. They really pulled off a lot of impressive things that are easy to fuck up in general.

Maybe the weakest part of the movie was action. It was action packed, but I didn't really feel like any of the battles really took me to the edge of my seat or anything. Also, the plot had so many moving pieces that they couldn't really spend much time on character development for anyone besides Peter. I suppose that's the trade-off, but this also could have been two movies.

[null1024]

I saw The Batman and thought it was very solid. I liked the comparatively down-to-earth designs of the characters and equipment, even if it ends up clashing a bit with some of the other aspects [Batman takes a lot of gunfire and his less bulky design really did hit on my immersion every time he took more machine gun fire at point blank]. The movie had a few jarring moments, but really, at no point did it feel like was nearly 3 hours long. It could have been even longer, and I wouldn't have minded. Very entertaining.

I'm watching Sonic the Hedgehog right now almost entirely because people are getting excited for the second movie, and it's quite painful.
I'm pretty sure people were too enamored with the fact that movie Sonic visually looks quite nice to actually bother with how corny and trite and quippy the writing is. It has its moments, largely in the latter half, but it was a slog for the most part.

[emphatic]

The Adam Project. 3/5

I think this was really warm actually.

[Mischief Maker]

Doctor Sleep aka The Shining 2

Much better than expected. A grown up Danny Torrence, recovering from the alcoholism he used for years to dampen his shining abilities (and in a weird way connect with his dead father) becomes psychic pen-pals with a girl who also has the shining, only to learn that monsters who feed on children with the shining have their sights set on her.

If you're looking for Kubrick, you won't find it here, the director has his own vision and if anything it resembles Cronenberg's Dead Zone more than The Shining film. As much a character study of grown-up Danny Torrence as a horror film, if you like more adventure-y Steven King, you'll like this. Better than the IT reboot IMO. It's on HBO Max.

EDIT: Holy shit, watch the Director's Cut, important scenes got cut.

[xxx1993]

The Lost City. Average.

[xxx1993]

Finally got around to seeing Blacklight after failing to see it in theaters last month. It was decent.

[BIL]

EDIT: Holy shit, watch the Director's Cut, important scenes got cut.

This rang a bell - yep, concurred. One of the occasional films where the DC is decisively superior. Overall I thought it was pretty decent, with my main caveat obvious from that spoilery post.

[Mischief Maker]

EDIT: Holy shit, watch the Director's Cut, important scenes got cut.

This rang a bell - yep, concurred. One of the occasional films where the DC is decisively superior. Overall I thought it was pretty decent, with my main caveat obvious from that spoilery post.

Yeah, I concur with your criticism, that frame is indeed the low point of the movie.

The obligatory dialog makes it even worse.

Spoiler

Why no blowjob bear?

[BIL]

Regrettably, BJB's trademark super attack would've been a mandatory NC-17 and required expensive China reshoots (bit close to ol' Xinnie Teh Pooh for comfort )

[XoPachi]

Watched a few movies recently. Annihilation, Margin Call, Life of Pi, and Casino Royale. Great movies.
Really needed all of those honestly.

EDIT: And now I just watched American Psycho for the first time. That was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.

[vol.2]

Saw Batman. It was a good movie, but not a great one. Was too damn long for it's own good and the pacing suffers for it. Also there wasn't much character development at all, especially considering the length of the movie. Beautifully shot though.


EDIT: downgraded to a 6 out of 10 because after thinking it overnight. the endiing just sucked too bad

[vol.2]

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension: **

1984 Homage to / parody of old pulp Sci-Fi, but with way too much budget to actually be one of those types of movies. As is typical of a lot of things from that era it originally bombed in theaters but eventually turned into a cult classic. Also one of the most confusing movies I've seen in a while. Especially during the first 45 minutes I felt like I would need to pop a Ritalin just to have any chance of being able to keep track of any of it. Lots of scenery chewing going on here, especially from John Lithgow and Christopher Lloyd as the villains.

It's a silly movie targeted at the YA crowd in the early 80s. It made a shit ton more sense in the cultural context of the time to young people. I'm pretty sure if I didn't watch it until now, I wouldn't really care.

[drauch]

No way man. I watched Banzai as an adult and thought it was rad. It's just a fun movie with a lot of cool doods. Aliens and rock n' roll and adventure--that's all ya need.