Last Movie You Watched

[cyharding]

Last night, I watched Star Trek: Nemesis, in order to prepare for the upcoming Picard series. It has been over ten years since I last seen the film. I remember watching it with my brother during that time, and he was just listing off the things wrong with the movie. I remember thinking at the time that it was the most terrible and beautiful thing I had ever witnessed. There were things he was saying that I haven't considered, but he did, based on his experience as a mechinical engineer. Watching the movie now, I can see certain points of stupidy that he has mentioned along with some things that doesn't make sense to me knowing what I know about Star Trek. The basic plot isn't bad and there are some good scenes with the starship battle at the end very exciting, barring some of the above mentioned stupidy. This raises a question for me, does Hollywood expect an audience for a movie to be swept up in the emotions they want you to feel, such as excitement or tension, despite flaws in other areas like story or characterization?

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

i watched 984 - Prisoner of the Future. Here’s a video I did on it: https://youtu.be/MUll4doXWUQ

[robersora]

^
This was very well made, I like the neon lighting! Consider to have gained a sub; really looking forward to going down this rabbit hole of obscure movies.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Thanks! The lighting will change colors from video to video, but the same neon aesthetic will remain. There’s some non-obscure stuff coming in the future that has been shockingly un-watched for someone who claims to be into film. (But that’s not for another view videos, so enjoy the obscure stuff while it happens.)

[kuribo-04]

Gonna check it out when I have time. :)

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Outside of dusting off my old movie shelf, I also saw Weathering With You this week. I don’t think it’s as good as Your Name, but it’s still really good. Actually, I think I can relate to this film more than I could Your Name. (And I found both films to be emotionally rewarding to watch.) I like more as a follow up to Your Name, in fact. Your Name was all about localized devastation, but looked at the flip side of “Hey, at least we still have Tokyo!” WWY, on the other hand, threatens that reliance on Tokyo, kinda like how Shin Godzilla did. It’s just that, instead of Hideaki Anno’s giant, mutating, radioactive monster causing a political, economic, and social crisis, it’s Makoto Shinkai’s etherial, spiritual, cosmic phenomenon threatening the main characters’ interpersonal, romantic, yet dysfunctional day-to-day lives.

As for the un-watched movies in my collection that I’m still going through, I saw Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe. Expect a video on that in the coming weeks.

[kuribo-04]

While I enjoyed Your Name, I found it to be a film somewhere between OK and good, with an overdose of what I'd call melodrama. With so many people enjoying it so much, I feel like I'm missing out on something or there's something I just don't get.
It was really beautiful to look at though and a cute fillm overall. And I'll most likely end up watching all or most of Shinkai's films, including Weathering With You. (I have also seen Garden of Words, not a fan of the story, but beautiful visuals as well).

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

^ I guess I’m more appreciative of that kind of stuff now. I definitely remember a time where I didn’t like melodrama or anything too whimsical. Maybe I was too strung up on the types of movies I wanted to make and how everything else should also be made that way, I dunno. Now I kinda unironically love the melodramatic stuff. I still can’t see my creative tendencies following suit, but I like it nonetheless.

In that sense, saying that Your Name overdosed on melodrama is like saying Mad Max: Fury Road overdosed on action; you’re not wrong in thinking that, but that’s also kinda the point of the movie.

[kuribo-04]

I definitely don't think it's wrong to enjoy melodrama, I do myself.
I just think melodrama is often manipulative and strays too far from reality to give the audience truly meaningful things to think about. And Mad Max Fury Road...well, I did think that movie was sort of empty, even if it is perfection as far as action goes.

[movieartman]

A Cold Night's Death / The Chill Factor (1973)

- Fantastic (but broken) snowy paranoia bottle film.

- Almost certainly influenced John Carpenter's The Thing. Sequences where a frozen body is found next to radio equipment is nearly identical minus the wrist cuts. Film's mood & tone is extremely similar.

- Mostly subdued electronic store is good.

- Main 2 actors do a damn good job and never go into hysteria or notable overacting.

- Highly recommended for people who like slow burn paranormal mysteries.

- Full film has multiple uploads on Youtube for those who are interested. Wikipedia claims it's been released on DVD under the 2nd title but I could not find it on Amazon.

THAT BEING SAID...

- The very last shot of the film pretty much breaks it and gives absolute zero explanation for the reveal of the film's culprits.

SPOILER: Show

- Zero explanation on how the Monkey's could have gained what we must presume are telekinetic powers in order to move things around the station while still confined in their cages.

- Zero explanation on how the Monkey's gained abnormally high intelligence (which would be required for them to understand how a recorder works and the fact that it needs to be erased to cover their tracks)

- Why didn't the monkey's try to talk (telepathy?) to Frank or Robert like Vogel claimed they did to him?

- Are the Monkey's suicidal? Why didn't they learn from being at death's door after killing Vogel and no one was left to run the heater.

- Why didn't Vogel & Frank either (a) Use some of the heavy equipment in the electronics room to smash the window of the door to said room in order to escape? (b) Why didn't they climb out the open window and run to the other end of the station and climb in through the window used for shoveling snow into the water maker? Yes it's hyper fucking cold but the station isn't that big.  Robert was able to drag himself from the snow port to the locked front door midway through the station's length and then back to the snow port while he was already hyper exhausted from shoveling snow.

Despite this I still think it's very much worth watching.

[movieartman]

Underwater (2020)

Saw last week.
Not quite great but damn good monster movie.
Sets & Props are magnificent.
Cast all does a good job.
Kristen Stewart does a good job as the lead, her physical acting and mannerisms in particular are note worthy. I have only seen her previously in Snow White & The Huntsman and she is notably better here. That being said 1 important line she had at the very end was weakly done, too deadpan/flat when it should have been more defiant, spiteful, smug and snarky.

SPOILER: Show

"You got 60 seconds"

Vincent Cassel is great here, I want to see him in more major films.
Monsters are cool although not super unique or interesting, that being said most of the shots of the kajiu sized creature at the end was too murky.
Score was largely unremarkable but every once and a while it stood out nicely, mostly in the last 3rd.

[fnikhall]

watched Bumblebee the other day and enjoyed it. I thought it was fun and heartfelt although it was dragged down by some very cliche and hammy performances from John Cena's character and Dr. Powell. But I thought the dynamic between Charlie and Bumblebee was well done and the emotional beats landed for me. Overall I enjoyed it a lot for what it was

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I saw what appeared to be a made-for-TV movie (maybe?) called Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe. Watch my video on it here.

[Gus Hanson]

Frozen II

A near perfect sequel that stumbles on a few aspects. While it's great to see the bond between Anna and Elsa, a lot of moments have me questioning whether Anna loves her like a sister or is just plain in love romantically with her ... She doesn't spend a lot of time with her boyfriend and when they do, she gets all confused over Elsa while Kristoff keeps fumbling his only plot point which is the proposal. I do say that if no further sequels come out, this one settled things on a high note and i wouldn't want Disney to repeat history by making further purely for cash grab material that wouldn't please anybody. As for the soundtrack, Idina's "Into the Unknown" is a slight step up from "Let It Go" and the Panic at the Disco version brings joy to me even more than the Snow Queen's rendition.

[silvermoonlight]

Frozen II

A near perfect sequel that stumbles on a few aspects. While it's great to see the bond between Anna and Elsa, a lot of moments have me questioning whether Anna loves her like a sister or is just plain in love romantically with her ... She doesn't spend a lot of time with her boyfriend and when they do, she gets all confused over Elsa while Kristoff keeps fumbling his only plot point which is the proposal. I do say that if no further sequels come out, this one settled things on a high note and i wouldn't want Disney to repeat history by making further purely for cash grab material that wouldn't please anybody. As for the soundtrack, Idina's "Into the Unknown" is a slight step up from "Let It Go" and the Panic at the Disco version brings joy to me even more than the Snow Queen's rendition.

This reminds me of when I watched When Marnie Was There by Studio Ghibli which has gay vibes to the max then the story does the thing....

SPOILER: Show

She finds out it's her grandma and its a time loop where she is seeing her as a very young girl.

and your left going oh I feel really weird now and kind of cheated and queer baited.

I do hope Frozen's next sequel if it gets one really just has Elsa come out and get a girlfriend as I feel this deal with her sister is the CEO's fault but he's just stepped down, so going forward I hope they lean away from the sexual for your sister thing...because doing this is bad form and can viewed as queer baiting.

[Blockio]

I watched Airplane! with a few friends the other day - honestly one of the most hilarious movies I have seen in a very long time. Had me nearly rolling on the floor a few times

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I introduced some friends of mine to Godzilla (2014), which I still hold to be the best American Godzilla movie ever made. (Though, perhaps not the most fun one to watch. KotM is certainly there to throw a party.) I also found that it is the best Godzilla movie to use to introduce Godzilla as a franchise to someone who's never seen any of the movies before. One of my friends knew nothing of Godzilla prior to seeing this movie (outside of my slight obsession over the franchise), and her jaw hit the floor upon the reveal of Godzilla's death breath. It blew her mind! You can't get that reaction from a grown adult by watching any of the other Godzilla movies. It was great to see that reveal come in stages too, from her confusion and bewilderment as the spines slowly glowing from the tail up to the head, to utter shock and awe as the flames leap out of the monster's mouth, scouring its target. And that Kiss of Death is perhaps the best finishing move this side of a Mortal Kombat video game. Every frame of this film is visually perfect, and the sound fx are a marvel to hear in surround sound. The consensus at the end was that the story was a bit lacking in some areas, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson can't compete with Brian Cranston and Elizabeth Olson hitting performative home runs and adding nuance and a felt backstory to otherwise shallowly written characters, but over all it was a great cinematic experience.

On my side of having seen this thing 5 to 6 times already, I'm realizing that all American Godzilla movies feel the need to be globe-trotting movies. I mean, sure, some of the Japanese Godzilla movies might feel the need to visit a single, remote island every so often (with Godzilla Final Wars being the only exception, trotting all over the globe), but both Godzilla (1998), Godzilla (2014), and Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019) seem to feel the need to take on Around the World in 80 Days while trying to tell a different story entirely. I think this is a large reason why these U.S. Godzilla movies lack in the story department. Ishiro Honda kept his Godzilla movies in mostly in one country (Japan, of course), which allowed his to just focus on characters living their daily lives before the monsters attack. I think this is in a large part due to the writers feeling the need to keep Godzilla a Japanese monster (Which, ya know, duh), while still having him stomp around in American landmarks and cities. It's a Herculean narrative effort, to be sure, but, unless you have really good writers taking ages writing the perfect script, this globe-trotting comes at the cost of character growth and exploration. These issues were less noticeable when the characters were portrayed by Brin Cranston and Elizabeth Olson, but only became far more prevalent when Arron Taylor-Johnson was on screen. (Strangely enough, many of these scripting issues might have been resolved in the unproduced American Godzilla script from 1994, where Godzilla was an ancient Atlantian monster.)

Anyway, Godzilla (2014) FTW!

[Zoop]

Anyway, Godzilla (2014) FTW!

I had seen the 1994 Godzilla back when it came out, it was ok, but otherwise not very memorable (actually the soundtrack, Come with me and Deeper underground lingered far longer than the movie itself).
Only seen tiny tidbits of original Godzilla movies, and it largely reminded me the cheeziness of Power Rangers.
So in short, the Godzilla franchise never really captivated me.

I just love scary monsters tho. For all the shit Prometheus and Alien covenant got (in terms of story telling, they are pretty bad), I simply love the Xenomorph lore, and was grinning from ear to ear during both movies.
Same with the new Independence Day, probably pretty horrible movie, but had me grinning when Queen Alien popped up (reminded me lots of WH40K Tyranids)

So I saw Godzilla 2014, and woo, is this awesome. I love that the monster isn't just portrayed as a calamity, but actually as a savior. I audibly cheered when he got back up at the end of the movie. "King of monsters" oh yiss!
Later saw Kong, I also once saw Peter Jackson's version, but I dont think I ever finished it (fell asleep halfway). Knowing that this one is in the same MonsterVerse, made it a lot more interesting, and the same coolness factor as Godzilla. Not just some calamity that needs to be killed, but again, a savior (and also funny that it contains lots of Marvel actors, Fury, Cap Marvel, Loki, Dey).

Recently saw Godzilla King of Monsters, and they really upped it a notch (a bit too much for a single movie in my opinion tho). But I really like where this is heading.
I suspect that Godzilla vs Kong will end up being Godzilla & Kong vs New Enemy (Mecha Gidorah? Seeing the aftercredits scene in KoM)...

Anyway, I gladly gobble this up, and I hope they'll milk this for the forseeable future, I think it's all very awesome.

So, Legendary MonsterVerse FTW!

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

^ The original Godzilla movies can be a little cheesy, aside from the original black & white movie. The first Godzilla movie I saw as a kid was one of the campier Godzilla movies called Godzilla vs the Sea Monster. Right after that, I saw the black & white movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters featuring Raymond Burr. That movie was far more scarier than the Sea Monster one, and even as a kid I noticed the difference in the tone in these two movies. That black & white movie redefined Godzilla for me, to the point where every time I saw a video rental for a Godzilla movie I hadn't seen yet (say, Godzilla vs Gigan or something like that), the name "Godzilla" printed in the title made me think back to the scarier B&W movie, and I was hoping that this would be the movie that was as scary and as devastating as that movie, but with the added monster fights. But every "Godzilla vs" movie I saw was always one of the campier ones. While I enjoyed those campy Godzilla movies, as a kid I was still on the hunt for a "Godzilla vs" movie that was as menacing as the B&W movie. It took until my adulthood for a movie like that to finally come out, but Godzilla (2014) was the first Godzilla movie to really do that for me.

[movieartman]

1 - On my side of having seen this thing 5 to 6 times already, I'm realizing that all American Godzilla movies feel the need to be globe-trotting movies. I mean, sure, some of the Japanese Godzilla movies might feel the need to visit a single, remote island every so often (with Godzilla Final Wars being the only exception, trotting all over the globe)

2 - (Strangely enough, many of these scripting issues might have been resolved in the unproduced American Godzilla script from 1994, where Godzilla was an ancient Atlantian monster.)

1 - Some interesting trivia the Mothra vs Bagan script that was suppose to be made after vs Biollante was going to be set all across Asia. With battles and events occuring in Thailand, Nepal, China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

2 - Yep his origin in that script was basically the same as 90s Gamera, I wonder how that origin would have gone over with fans (I would have been ok with it), say what you will about the 1998 film but that film at least kept the nuclear origin intact.

Only seen tiny tidbits of original Godzilla movies, and it largely reminded me the cheeziness of Power Rangers.
So in short, the Godzilla franchise never really captivated me.

I just love scary monsters tho.

I love that the monster isn't just portrayed as a calamity, but actually as a savior. I audibly cheered when he got back up at the end of the movie. "King of monsters" oh yiss!

If you wanna try some of the more menacing Godzilla films check out the original, 1984 and vs Biollante.

The Legendary ones are probably the best of the savior films, the 2 1970s Mechagodzilla films are also up there but still have the cheese/cheapness factor (altho they do look far better then the earlier 70s G films)

I HIGHLY recommend the 1990s Gamera trilogy if you like the films to be serious but with the lead Kajiu still a savior. They are fantastic. You don't have to watch any of the 60s/70s Gamera films beforehand, the 90s trilogy is a completely reboot. Also it's not cheap at all the effects still largely look pristine today.