Watched the Ghostbusters movies on Netflix tonight. Both movies are great but my unpopular opinion: Ghostbusters 2 is better than Ghostbusters, I love it and don't understand why it doesn't get the love that the first movie gets.

I found Escape From Sobibor on the Roku Channel and watched it tonight. I seen this movie in the 6th grade, our teacher showed it to us when we were learning about the Holocaust, we had to get signed permission slips from our parents to watch it. This starred Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin and was a made for TV movie in England in the mid to late 80's based on what I've read. It's pretty damn strong stuff for a made for TV movie. It's hard to image that a story like this was real life and that such an evil really existed in this world. It blows my mind that there are Americans in 2018 that associate themselves with Nazi's knowing stories like the one told in this movie. Of course the whole time I'm watching this I had my phone out researching the real story of this death camp and it's truly terrible stuff. The movie was really good, the final escape scene was pretty gripping, the way the prisoners were trying to get through the barbed wire fences while they are being gunned down was pretty intense. 

Actually found the full movie on Youtube while searching for a trailer to link, it's well worth a watch(definitely going to download it to my hard drive):

Watched the Last Jedi, better than TFA, not as good as Rogue One, still better than all the prequels. Solid flick all around, nothing amazing, though it looked great. Fanboys can be funny giving it 1's and 0's, average at its very worst.

I'm getting that shit on 4K blu ray this weekend. I see all the hate but take it with a grain of salt, everybody was hating on The Force Awakens but I fucking loved it.

I watched Road To Perdition tonight. I remember liking this movie back when it was a new release VHS probably 15 years ago. I never really went back to it though. I found it on DVD at a shop that was running a 20 for $20 sale over the Summer so I picked it up and it's been sitting on the shelf since then. I've got some mad insomnia going so I randomly picked this out to watch, it's been so long that it was almost like watching it for the very first time again(the ending caught me totally off guard). This is a legitimately great movie, I loved everything about it. Very very well made movie.

Mar 14, 2018 6:28:26 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Watched the Last Jedi, better than TFA, not as good as Rogue One, still better than all the prequels. Solid flick all around, nothing amazing, though it looked great. Fanboys can be funny giving it 1's and 0's, average at its very worst.

Haha, what! I thought The Force Awakens was way better than The Last Jedi and that Rogue One wasn't as good as any other Star Wars movie.

I also think the prequels are better than all three of these newer ones.

It's like you said the exact opposite of my opinion. :lol:

Black Panther
It's OK. Good even. Maybe I'm just burnt out from seeing the same superhero movie remade by Marvel over and over again. I guess what is also failing me these days is, it's hard for me to root for a hero that is almost never the underdog. It's almost similar to the 'Super' Cena complex. Presented here is an extraordinarily exceptional human-being, gifted with size, strength and super-human conditioning and resilience. And most of the time, either power or money. Most of the time, the villains are more interesting characters, yet never survive more than one outing.

*** 

I was OK with the Force Awakens. It was always going to be a tough job marrying the new direction of the franchise and reuniting us with the older elements but they did it in the safest way imaginable. Personally I preferred it when they focused more on the newer characters since they had more freedom to explore their personalities while the older cast were treated with kid gloves. Being a Star Wars movie, invariably you hear all about the criticisms and while a lot of them were valid, I presumed a lot of them were there as a hook for an ongoing trilogy. I've yet to see The Last Jedi, but a lot of them weren't followed up from what I heard.

I didn't care for Rogue One at all. I thought it had some of the worst characterization of any Star Wars movie and the narration made it impossible to connect with any of them. We were jumping around so much and for what? Just so we could have a few details in the original movie expanded upon? The first half sucked and while the second half had a lot of action, the characters were so half-baked I couldn't care what happened to them. I'm sure somebody will correct me, but it seemed like most of the events that occurred are irrelevant to the current events of the movie. It just felt like unnecessary padding and the toys...I mean characters they introduced failed to leave an impression.

I'm indifferent to the prequels. I haven't watched them since they came out in theatres and I'm more familiar with the Plinkett reviews than the actual movies. I didn't despise them as much, but certainly felt alienated by them. They reminded me a lot of the later Matrix movies, just a lot of babble and the odd choreographed fight sequence. Somewhere in there Annakin turned heel, which we all knew was coming, but they didn't give us enough reason to care.

Blame:
It's fairly cliché teacher/student romance spliced in with some mean girl stuff. Feels a bit Life Time at times but really it wasn't bad and it didn't go quite in the direction I thought they would take it which was nice. So yeah, it's worth a watch. I give it a C+


I love you Beth Cooper:
This is a fucking weird movie because almost everything about it feels like a Disney channel original movie while at the same time your hearing words like "fuck" and "shit" which wouldn't dare be on Disney channel. It was just odd. Anyways I've seen it before but it just happened to be on the other day and got lost in a hayden panettiere trance. It's cheesy but it's got some odd charm to it that just kind of makes it work. C+

All I see is you:
Blake Lively is just so damn pretty. Doesn't matter if she's being attacked by a shark or getting nailed by Taylor Kitsch, I'm on board for her in anything. This is about a blind woman played by lively who gets an operation done to restore her sight. After this the dynamic in the relationship with her husband changes and they both kind of start to view each other in a different light. I thought it was strong showing but I thought it did start to fall apart towards the end. I thought they could have kept his desperation to keep his wife a bit more grounded and not make him so unlikeable in the end but they didn't. So it was ok for me but probably wouldn't bother a second viewing. I give it a C-

Mar 16, 2018 14:27:22 GMT Big Pete said:

I didn't care for Rogue One at all. I thought it had some of the worst characterization of any Star Wars movie and the narration made it impossible to connect with any of them. We were jumping around so much and for what? Just so we could have a few details in the original movie expanded upon? The first half sucked and while the second half had a lot of action, the characters were so half-baked I couldn't care what happened to them. I'm sure somebody will correct me, but it seemed like most of the events that occurred are irrelevant to the current events of the movie. It just felt like unnecessary padding and the toys...I mean characters they introduced failed to leave an impression.

While I enjoyed Rogue One, this is a pretty accurate and solid description of it. It was basically just some stupid fun with random characters who weren't developed well / at all. I am actually kind of offended they made this greedy spinoff just to hold audiences over and fatten their wallets as much as possible with almost zero effort. Sure, I enjoyed it, but it just seems a tad bit disrespectful is all.

But I guess they needed the money for the two new Star Wars theme parks that are apparently costing them $1 Billion to make.

I smoked a couple of doobies and watched Heavy Metal on my 55 inch 4K curve. This is what dreams are made of bro. What a fun movie. I didn't realize until watching it that the whole Star Man thing was from Heavy Metal:





I lol'd at all the boobs and pantie shots. Cartoon nudity does nothing for me but it makes me laugh how over the top they went with it in this movie. My favorite stories are the Harry Canyon taxi cab driver in New York, B-118 Zombie War Plane, and the best was the finale about Taarna the Terakkian female warrior. Death... DEATH!!! DEATH TO ALL WHO APPOSE US!!!!

The soundtrack is great. I reviewed it over on the old PW a few years back, my final thought on it was that the music was excellent in the movie but the soundtrack needed more real heavy metal, some Judas Priest or Iron Maiden would have been excellent, I don't know it just wasn't as heavy as I was expecting it to be. But the songs have such a charm about them because of their role in the movie, Radar Rider for example, I wouldn't normally listen to something like that on it's own but just hearing it makes me think of the scene from the movie and makes me feel good.

The soundtrack gets a lot of love but holy shit the film's original music score is off the fucking charts. Simply amazing shit, maybe massively underrated score especially for an animated film.







I started digging around on the special features for this DVD and there was an excellent documentary about the film. They really brought the old comic books to life in this movie. Also there was a gallery of all the Heavy Metal magazine covers all the way from 1977 to 1999, unfucking-believably awesome shit, all kinds of artwork from Boris Vallejo and even HR Giger. I never seen this magazine back in the day but would love to score a few of these somehow someday.

This is the coolest animated movie ever made. Should have finished WAAAAAAAAAY higher in the countdown.

The Neighbor:
I like William Fitchner in everything he's been in weather it be big roles or small roles and while he's good in this, his performance alone can't save a mediocre film. This movie just builds to a very lame climax. It just kind of felt like they didn't know what they wanted this movie to be and in the end the build just doesn't feel justified for that ending. I give it a D+ . Wondering where it was going did make it somewhat engaging for a time but once you finally got there it just felt like a waste of time.

The soundtrack gets a lot of love but holy shit the film's original music score is off the fucking charts. Simply amazing shit, maybe massively underrated score especially for an animated film.

Courtesy of Elmer Bernstein, one of the great ones. Right up there with John Williams and Ennio Morricone as far as film composers go.

Treasure Planet

In 1985, Ron Clements had an idea for a movie. It was Robert Louis Stevens' novel Treasure Island...In Space! Katzenberg knocked the idea back and instead went with The Little Mermaid. Clements wasn't to be denied and after doing their silly movie about Greek mythology, he was finally given the green light for his own personal project.

The movie bombed at the box office, failing to meet it's hefty production costs and falling into obscurity. I really can't blame anyone for not seeing Treasure Planet in theatres because I was one of them. In America it faced stiff competition in the form of the Chamber of Secrets while in Australia it came up against the Two Towers on boxing day. I barely remember any promotion for the movie and word of mouth wasn't strong.

Did it deserve better? In a word, no. You would think given the span of time, Clements would have found a new spin on Stevens' story, but nothing in Treasure Planet is truly imaginative. Treasure Planet is merely a change of scenery, from the ocean to outer space with minor differences through out. Instead of a treasure map, it's a treasure sphere, instead of a peg-leg, Silver has a mechanical arm etc. It's like the writer's room had an entire weekend to come up with ideas and they only arrived to a handful before they gave up. I'd also like to see what was cut out, because if an alien that speaks in farts somehow made the movie, you just know they were going for the bottom of the barrel.

Still, it wasn't an awful movie. The animation is really good, the actors all give good performances especially Bryan Murray who captures the nuance of Silver quite well. It's just one of those movies you'd likely watch once and then never bother with it again.

Justice League
For the life of me, I couldn't understand why no-one was talking about the up coming DVD release. Now, I know. What a piece of shit.
*

Bushwick
Starring Batista and Brittany Snow. Texas is seceding from the United States partnering with other Southern states. Their plan is to invade The Northern cities and force the United State's hand. Story however follows Batista in aiding a young woman escape to the DMZ. Set in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the neighborhood fights back. A lot of long continuous shots, that almost feels like a video game. In fact, it would make a great game. Better than expected.

**.5

Brother Bear

So I forgot to mention another reason why Treasure Planet slipped between the cracks. When Disney was going through their renaissance, most of their features took a year to come out. That gave each movie enough time to leave a mark on kids, allowing them to buy all the merchandise, collect all the happy meal toys and see the movies in theatres on VHS before they'd do it all again the next year. In 2000, they decided to speed things up by shortening the gap to six months, cheapening the value of their movies. This certainly played a factor in Treasure Planet's lukewarm reception, particularly here down under. In contrast to the States where there was a 5 month gap between the releases of Lilo & Stich & Treasure Planet, in Australia, it was one school holiday, or 3 months. Kids had their fix and given the stiff competition from LotR it was always going to fail here.

Fortunately for Disney, they had scheduled a one year break at just the right time. Originally Disney were going to release Home on the Range during the holiday season and then Brother Bear in Spring. However, something caused them to switch the releases around in early 2003 and Brother Bear was pushed up to a Halloween 03 release in the US and a Boxing Day release in Australia. I've yet to see Home on the Range, but if it's reputation is to be believed then it's not hard to imagine Disney execs turning their nose up on it. 'Ewww get that country bumpkin film out of here and replace it with literally anything'. Hence we got 2003's Brother Bear.

Like Treasure Planet, Brother Bear is an OK movie that leaves something to be desired. Joaquin Phoenix plays Kenai, a young hunter who kills a bear out of spite and nature plays a trick on him. He's transformed into a bear and if he wishes to regain his old life, he must travel to a specific mountain where he'll regain his humanity. It's one of those movies where you know how it's going to play out as soon as you watch the trailer. Kenai is going to be a jerk, he'll realise the bears aren't so bad and then be forced to defend them and yes, that's the entire movie.

One interesting aspect of the film is that there really isn't a villain. The biggest source of conflict in the movie is Denahi, Kenai's brother who mistakenly believes that bear-Kenai killed his brother. They cross paths a couple of times and just when it appears to be a life & death situation, the spirits set Denahi straight and we get our happy ending. What I like about this is that they didn't try and force an evil animal or human into the mix just to make the resolution more dramatic than it needs to be.

Another aspect I enjoyed was Jeremy Suarez' performance as Koda. Koda is the little bear that tags along on Kenai's journey and I thought they nailed the little balance well. He's an obnoxious talkative character but at the same time he means well and deep down he's just lonely because his mum is dead. Koda is the heart and soul of the movie, and it could have easily backfired but they hit all the right notes.

Aside from that, it felt like Disney were mailing it in on this one. In a movie that's all about a character's transformation, Kenai goes from a selfish jerk to an empathetic character in a blink of an eye. Not to mention, Kenai doesn't have much of a character to speak of. When he's a human his personality can be summed up as an impulsive screw-up. Outside of that there's no weird quirk or skill to seperate him from other characters and he isn't particularly charismatic. A few side characters pop up, but they're usually just in a scene or two before they disappear. None of them make much an impression beyond the two mooses who's gimmick is that they're Canadian. It's really lazy humour as well and while they're likeable enough they don't add a lot to the story. So what you're left with is a pretty bland road/self-discovery movie. It's so bland infact, the main character realises he really isn't missing anything and just decides to remain a bear, because at least that's something.

Finally before I wrap this up I've got to touch on one last thing: Phil Collins. After the success of Tarzan, Disney decided their 'Bear' movie needed some pizazz so they got Phil to write a couple more songs for the movie. It's OK, but there's an integral scene in the movie where Kenai is explaining to Koda that he was the hunter who killed his mother and the entire thing is blurted out so we can listen to Phil sing one of his mopey ballads. It was right then and there that I realised I was watching a C-grade Disney movie.

Next up in Home on the Range, a movie that on the surface has sabotage written all over it.

Home on the Range

As small as Treasure Planet and Brother Bear were, I at least have some recollection of their marketing. I have the faintest recollection of there being a McDonalds tie-in for Treasure Planet and I remember rolling my eyes at the Phil Collins song in the Brother Bear trailer. With Home on the Range, the only recollection I have is stumbling upon a leaflet at the local cinemas. I couldn't believe Disney had stooped so low and were so out of touch. The movie didn't make it's way over here until five months after it's US release and only lasted one week in theatres, earning a gross of $300K Australian.

The movie came and went and outside of knowing that the movie starred Roseanne Barr as a cow, I knew nothing about the movie. In a perverse way, I was looking forward to watching the movie, just to see how bad Disney could get.

Even at their most uninspired, Disney can still churn out an OK kids cartoon. Home on the Range is a western satire about three middle aged cows looking to save their farm by claiming the bounty of the biggest outlaw in America. The outlaw turns out to be a giant ham who loves to yodel and uses it to brainwash the cattle and hide them in his secret cave. His goal is to buy up all the property in America, so everyone can respect his 'art'.

It's a silly concept, but the film seems perfectly aware of this. At times it even feels like a Warner Bros. cartoon as everyone is aware of how silly the movie is and just has fun with it. It even handles the poignant better than the other movies and it presents the stakes quite well. The protagonists go close to losing everything and you see all their friends question what's going to happen as they're being prepared to be auctioned off and presumably to be eaten.

Once you get over Roseanne Barr as a cow and you're prepared for it, Home on the Range is a perfectly OK kids cartoon. If it wasn't a Disney theatrical release and rather a Disney Channel original, I actually think it would have a cult following.

However, that's operating under the belief that Disney wanted this film to be successful. I think Disney knew that Home on the Range was never going to be their finest outing and was going to be the push they needed to realise 2D animation was dead and they could finally move to 3D animation. I hate how self-fulfilling that idea sounds but there's no way they thought a Roseanne Barr Cow movie would sell to the masses.

The killing of a sacred deer:
I enjoyed it. It was very unsettling and when the actual plot of the movie kicks in it's just kind of like a "damn!" moment. You can really feel the hopelessness of our characters just drenched in every scene with this father having to make an impossible choice. I really like that Colin Farrel is kind of redefining his career after years of just being a cute irish guy and not much else, he's really stepped up his game with roles like The Lobster and now this. Also the eyes of the antagonist were creepy as fuck. He really brought a very understated menace to the role. Just a very dread filled movie and it executed it very well. I give it a B+ . Maybe I missed it, but was it ever explained how the boy cursed this family? It's just one minute he's laying it all out to Colin Farrel what is going to happen but I don't recall the film ever going into the details of how his family was put in this position.  I did watch some analysis videos on youtube though and they go into how Martin is actually a god like figure or at the very least harnesses some supernatural abilities that just can't be explained.  I feel like knowing this I need to watch the movie again.  

I thought the new Star Wars The Last Jedi movie came out on home video last week so I went to Wal Mart after work Friday all excited to pick it up and watch it on 4K Blu Ray. To my surprise it actually doesn't come out until next Tuesday. So to hold me over I finally broke down and bought the Blu Ray set with episodes I through VI.

I didn't care too much for the prequels and was actually kind of dreading watching through them. I started with Episode I last night and was fucking blown away at how great these look on my 55 inch 4K curve(with the 4K blu ray player). I watched Episodes I and II last night and just finished Episode III. Was really like watching it in a movie theater but better because it's my house.

I've been really harsh on these in the past but I'll be damned If I didn't really enjoy them on this go around. They certainly did a great job of remastering the prequel trilogy for blu ray, they look and sound absolutely fucking excellent. The prequels could have been way better, they never lived up to my expectations I had for them, they certainly all had their fair share of cringe but overall these were really nowhere near as bad as I once thought they were. 

Transporter 3

I watched the first two of these over a year ago and forgot to watch the third, but unfortunately I just suddenly remembered and watched it. I really like Jason Statham but he sure performs in a lot of terrible movies. However, the first Transporter was actually a pretty good movie. I really liked it. The second Transorter was a complete 180 and pretty awful film, but it was okay because it was still somewhat enjoyable the entire time and I was glad I watched it. The third one? Well, it was both much worse and not very enjoyable for a lot of it.

I think the primary reason for this is the lead actress, Natalya Rudakova. She put on a performance equal to that of Tommy Wiseau in The Room. I'm not even exaggerating. It literally seemed like it was Tommy Wiseau dressed as a girl. She uttered lines in the same weird robot-like monotone manner, complete with awkward mannerisms. When she was trying to seduce Statham, it looked like when Karen Gillan was trying to seduce the guards in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. It was a joke in that movie because Gillan's character wasn't supposed to know how to hit on a guy and so she did these ridiculous over-the-top moves for a laugh, but Natalya was actually trying in Transporter 3. The whole time I sat through the film I was thinking it seemed like Natalya has never acted before and they must have picked her up off the street for this role.

As it turns out, I looked her up on IMDB after and they literally picked her up off the street and gave her that role. "While working as a hairdresser at a salon, she was discovered by Luc Besson, the co-writer of Transporter 3, in New York, when she crossed a street. He gave her acting lessons and cast her as the female lead in Transporter 3."

What...

Some of the action was still kind of cool, but you can find much better action elsewhere. Overall, it was not worth watching by a long shot.

A Quiet Place:
Very good film, didn’t wear out its welcome with its short run time.
Was worried it would be a bit gimmicky but it worked well. Cinema was so quiet in the beginning I could hear the carbonation in my partners drink 😂.

Apr 11, 2018 14:00:21 GMT System said:

A Quiet Place:
Very good film, didn’t wear out its welcome with its short run time.
Was worried it would be a bit gimmicky but it worked well. Cinema was so quiet in the beginning I could hear the carbonation in my partners drink 😂.

Every hand into popcorn. Every crinkle into a candy wrapper. The sound of ice shaking in a cup. The true horror was beyond the screen.

I thought the movie was good. I thought it would probably have been better if the girl at the top of the theater wasn’t giggling from the end of the first scene on.

The short run time really helped. I also think the less time with the monster visible the better, and that once you spent much time with it roaming around the screen the less anxious I became.

I saw Tigers are not Afraid last week. It was so good. Del Toro himself has been pushing the movie and said it was one of his favorite films of 2017 and considers Issa Lopez the future of Mexican filmmaking. The film is classic Del Toro in feel, except a bit darker than Del Toro likes, a bit gritter and much faster paced. The kids here are in real danger, grouping together to stay alive, and arming themselves against the gangs that are destroying Mexico. So not getting a real US release.  Kids playing kids, kids getting killed, gangs shooting up a school and kids playing with guns means there is no way this film can get an R rating.  Trailer below.



Also saw I Kill Giants. Was exactly what I expected and IMO almost as good as Tigers are not Afraid. A much safer film that really does not break new ground, but borrows from many other films and combines them really well. Should be a better version of We Have Always Lived in the Castle than the actual film will be. Trailer for giant killing below:




And sadly not much on rader now for me.  Those were the two big ones I was waiting for.  Hereditary is in June, but people are saying it will be like the Badadook and disappoint most people.  Meg is in August I think, I am huge fan of the books, so giant shark should be fun.  The House with a Clock in its Walls may be good but Eli Roth burned me so many times not getting my hopes up.  Anna and the Apocalypse comes out at Christmas and was said to be a lot of fun.   Then into next year already for Neil Marshall's Hellboy,  team Starry Eye's Pet Semetary and Nicolas Pesce's The Grudge.  Suspiria remake has been quiet for a while and not convinced We Have Always Lived in the Castle will be that good.  Taissa Farmiga I just cannot see doing Merricat justice.  No clue what the status is for Haunting of Hill House.  Karyn Kusama's Breed has been silent for ages now.  Ben Wheatley's Freak Shift should be starting production soon, which I am super excited for.  Mary Harron's Charlie Says goes into production soon too.  Matt Smith is cast as Charlies Manson.  Her films tend to be absolutely amazing (see American Psycho).  Mike Flanagan is supposed to start work on Doctor Sleep, but not hearing anything from his camp.  Oz Perkins is starting on Head Full of Ghosts soon, which is a great modern take on the Exorcist.  

But figure half of these may never see the light of day, and the of those released, half will be let downs, not much to get excited for horror wise.

I watched Molly’s Game last night. It was fine, but I feel like in the hands of a tight editor and a good director that the material should’ve been much better. It’s too entertaining of a story to have felt so not entertained by it. Not sure if it was the look (it was darker than I’d expect it to be) or the long monologues that occasionally were required to build up the joke, or really anything to do with her Dad that threw me off the fun, but it just wasn’t fun.

Good joke at the start and an interesting story, but definitely the lesser of Sorkin’s work (I’d go Social Network, Moneyball, A Few Good Men, Jobs, Charlie Wilson’s War, Molly’s Game)

I watched RAMPAGE starring THE ROCK yesterday.

It was slightly better than expected. Not much to say about it. Dumb action movie but enjoyable and funny throughout.

Oh, and that Jeffrey Dean Morgan guy is actually a great actor. I didn't expect to see one in this.

Apr 16, 2018 16:19:14 GMT mikec said:

I watched Molly’s Game last night. It was fine, but I feel like in the hands of a tight editor and a good director that the material should’ve been much better. It’s too entertaining of a story to have felt so not entertained by it. Not sure if it was the look (it was darker than I’d expect it to be) or the long monologues that occasionally were required to build up the joke, or really anything to do with her Dad that threw me off the fun, but it just wasn’t fun.

Good joke at the start and an interesting story, but definitely the lesser of Sorkin’s work (I’d go Social Network, Moneyball, A Few Good Men, Jobs, Charlie Wilson’s War, Molly’s Game)

Bummer, I was really hoping to see him break out in his directing debut.

I watched A Quiet Place in an uncommon venture to the movie theater. To me it was everything Signs wanted to be but wasn't. It was interesting to see as I walked into with the notion someone had told me about how they felt that some liberals would be bothered by it as it was in someone's perception pro gun, pro life, patriarchal, family prayer and such orientated.

Apr 19, 2018 17:03:50 GMT theend said:

I watched A Quiet Place in an uncommon venture to the movie theater. To me it was everything Signs wanted to be but wasn't. It was interesting to see as I walked into with the notion someone had told me about how they felt that some liberals would be bothered by it as it was in someone's perception pro gun, pro life, patriarchal, family prayer and such orientated.

I didn’t really get any of that.

It also had someone who was literally barefoot and pregnant. A conservatards wet dream.