"Druk" (eng t/l: Another Round)- 9/10

My second favorite movie of 2020, another superb performance by (my admittedly favorite actor) Mads Mikkelsen. Four friends who all teach at the same highschool decide to try an experiement in which they go about their daily lives maintaining a consistent 0.05% blood alcohol content (an average person's 'tipsy' state) in order to be more confident and easygoing. While at first they all seem to experience a youthful sort of renaissance, they begin to increase the amount of alcohol they consume daily and the experiment begins to spiral out of control. An interesting film in that it neither condemns nor condones excess drinking, it just portrays it as is.

Berserker wrote:I'd say my expectation was too high as it being a multiple Oscar winning movie. It was good, not gonna lie. But wasn't as much as I thought it'd be.

I only had a vague idea as to what it was about and it didn't sound all that interesting to me. So there was nowhere to go but up.

I don't do streaming services and I don't go to the theater that much anymore (duh), so I'm pretty sure that makes Sonic the Hedgehog the best movie from 2020 I've seen so far.

Man, I hope this year gets better soon....

Sleight

To be truthful, I had bought it years ago and only recently watched it for the first time. The appeal to me was that Seychelle Gabriel (the voice of Asami Sato in The Legend of Korra) was in the movie. As for the plot, it's very centered with the magician working a double life as a drug dealer until the life gets too complicated due to an extremely fucked up boss who in one scene forces him to cut off a rival's left hand. The way that he gets out of it in the end was a bit wacky with him using his magic tricks to intimidate the dealers into letting him leave which included him stopping a bullet Matrix style. I would recommend it for a little light viewing.

FreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:I don't do streaming services and I don't go to the theater that much anymore (duh), so I'm pretty sure that makes Sonic the Hedgehog the best movie from 2020 I've seen so far.

Man, I hope this year gets better soon....

That's a shame you don't do streaming, because Da 5 Bloods was probably my favorite film I saw of last year. Hopefully that gets a nice blu-ray release somewhere down the line.

Though I am still waiting on a nice The Other Side of the Wind blu-ray too, and that's been released through Netflix for several years at this point...

^ I do have a profile on my parent's Netflix account, actually. I just keep forgetting it exists because I don't pay for it. (And I don't voluntarily pay for it because I'll never seem to watch anything on it.)

I should get around to watching Da 5 Bloods at some point, then. It sounded really good.

The Atomic Submarine (1959)
- Decent cheap 1950s Naval oriented alien invasion movie.
- Inside of the UFO is suitably surreal & Twilight Zone/Outer Limits like.
- A few enjoyable minatures & puppetry.
- Some surprisingly brutal deaths.
- Some genuinely intriguing big picture ideas (american/soviet relations are decent enough to allow for trans-polar travel by nuclear powered commercial passenger submarines?) that sadly aren't expanded upon at all.

Poster!

Moana (2016)

Eternally grateful I decided to watch this on a whim. The songs "How Far I'll Go" and especially "You're Welcome" will be stuck in my head for weeks but I will gladly be humming along to my brain's recollection. I also like that this "princess" Disney film proves you don't need a man to solve your problems, all you need is the courage inside you as well as a few friends.

Titan A.E. (2000)
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWDQOB1cy7g

Saw in theaters as a kid, a fresh review of it after watching it a few weeks ago.
- Really underrated. Damn good.
- Good voice work for everyone.
- Akima is lovely.
- The Dredge have elements that seem influenced by Independence Day but generally are fairly original, sleek & stylish in design and look.

- Some of the 3D animation for ships/rooms is weak but the characters all look and move solidly.
- Score is good.
- Gune (like Mole from Atlantis - The Lost Empire) is one of those genuinely endearingly eccentric background characters.
- Film isn't afraid to show a few graphic deaths (a splattery disintegration, a snapped neck)

Titan A.E. is such a good movie, yeah. Everyone who hasn't seen it, go fix that

Film isn't afraid to show a few graphic deaths (a splattery disintegration, a snapped neck)

That's Don Bluth for ya. Titan AE is easily his tamest work.

Ray wrote:That's Don Bluth for ya. Titan AE is easily his tamest work.

I recall The Land Before Time pulling no punches, and he was forced to tone that down by the studio not to mention that film deals with racial prejudice right on the nose, it's not even subtle.

I still have my VHS copy of Titan A.E. as well as the soundtrack CD. The mix of electronic and heavy rock tunes were and still are a treat for me to hear.

As for Don Bluth films in general, I think his philosophy is that children can go through the most insane things imaginable just as long as you give the movie a happy ending for all that one sat through. Also, Land Before Time and All Dogs Go to Heaven are somewhat uncomfortable to get through when you take into account the Ducky/Anne Marie voice actress Judith Barsi didn't live to see them because of her whack job father. RIP!

silvermoonlight wrote:

Ray#908966 wrote:That's Don Bluth for ya. Titan AE is easily his tamest work.

I recall The Land Before Time pulling no punches, and he was forced to tone that down by the studio not to mention that film deals with racial prejudice right on the nose, it's not even subtle.

The fights are also brutal  SPOILER: Show

Oh and Simba has it easy compared to little foot  SPOILER: Show

All Dogs Go To Heaven had the main character literally go to hell.

Why was The Pebble and the Penguin disowned by Bluth? I thought it was all right.

Ranking my favorite western animated films of my childhood & even now (aside from superhero animation)
Several I need to re-watch and am going off purely nostalgic memories.

> The Land Before Time
> The Rescuers Down Under
> Atlantis - The Lost Empire
> The Secret of Nimh
> Titan A.E.
> Balto
gap
> The Land Before Time 4 - Journey through the Mist
> Aladdin & The King of Thieves
> Hercules
> Aladdin
> The Land Before Time 5 - The Mysterious Island
> The Land Before Time 2 - The Great Valley Adventure
> The Rescuers
gap
> The Land Before Time 7 - The Stone of Cold Fire
gap
> The Land Before Time 6 - The Secret of Saurus Rock
> Mulan
> DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (the overall film is weak but the Indiana Jones type opening + the warlock villain & finale where he transforms a normal building into a foreboding grey skull type castle and launches into space is fairly epic)

Gus Hanson wrote:Why was The Pebble and the Penguin disowned by Bluth? I thought it was all right.

I remember it being decent as well. That said it's been 20+ years since I have seen it.

I recall The Land Before Time pulling no punches, and he was forced to tone that down by the studio not to mention that film deals with racial prejudice right on the nose, it's not even subtle.

It's easy to forget with how Universal milked the franchise to death and beyond with all the horrible direct to video sequels, that the original land before time was a genuinely great movie.

Ray wrote:It's easy to forget with how Universal milked the franchise to death and beyond with all the horrible direct to video sequels, that the original land before time was a genuinely great movie.

I never saw the sequels I remember watching the first one and saw the instant tone change and that they were singing like a Disney movie and realized it was not for me, though I know for some people it's a huge nostalgia thing, but I do prefer darker kids films that don't talk down to the audience and have a point to make or something very important to say and are not afraid to show the darker side of things.

This might just be my upbringing as The Dark Crystal was a movie I watched till I wore out the VHS and I was shown the original Watership Down very early on, and one thing I loved about the land before time was it showing food is not in excess this was not the dinosaurs glory days this was the end of their reign as it made Little Foots struggle so much more rewarding as the stakes are higher making character death all the more tragic.

Edit --- I messed up my quote & reply. Sorry.

IDK if it's unfortunate to say that when I was a kid, the first Land Before Time film I saw was number three The Time of the Great Giving. It's still my favorite of all the sequels I have seen right next to Land of the Mists. As for going from the kid friendly sequels to the original where everything is no holds barred, bit jarring to say the least. Any of you hear the theory going around that when they reach the Great Valley, it really meant that they all went to Heaven?