Movies - Take Two. Action!

[Rogue Mail]

Godzilla Minus One.

This surpassed my expectations. It had a very minimal cinema release, in the UK, and I dont have Netflix so Iwent for a Japanese blu ray with English subs, which was very good quality.

This really gives you the best of both worlds...incredible action and mayhem from the titular beast, great acting and a very human story. I found it easy to connect with the characters, and there are some powerful emotional scenes.

The realisation of Godzilla is possibly the best yet. Huge, menacing, wily and with a few tricks up his sleeve.

This movie shows the US iterations of the character for the nonsense they are, and they really should stop making them.


Ghostbusters - Frozen Empire. Not as bad as some reviews would have you believe. This movie grounds the action in New York this time, and uses the original firehouse extensively.

The team are up against a demon that can lay waste to the city with ice.

I was not too keen on the callbacks, such as original cast members (Murray, Hudson, Ackroyd and Potts...and Slimer), and the use of locations from the first movie.

I feel that these movies should be able to stand on their own two feet, and in fact I find the new cast members are developing nicely in their roles.

Not sure about UK comedian James Acasters casting though...

[hippypants]

Kim's Video--2023, Kanopy, was a doc about an young Asian, Youngman Kim. In 1987 he started a video store in NYC out of his dry-cleaning business, his franchise eventually amassed 55,000 rental titles and several other stores. The film touched on some of the nostalgia of the era, but then takes a hard right on him sending the collection to Sicily, dealing with the townfolks, etc. Overall I enjoyed it, more the first part of the film over the latter part, a little more on the nostalgia would have been nice, but even the tangent in storytelling was interesting. Overall a good watch.

[mozo-pg]

I picked up Problemista from the DVD store today.

Avoid this movie at all costs. Totally a train wreck. 1/10

[hippypants]

Lynch/Oz Kanopy, 2022 compares and illustrates how The Wizard of Oz influenced many of the things in David Lynch's various films. Some of it might be a stretch, hard to say, but an interesting investigation.

[Lou]

Due Justice on Prime

Nothing new here revenge movie. Wife and daughter killed. Man seeks violent revenge. Horribly acted. Only saving grace is that Jeff Fahey is so ridiculously
bad that I actually laughed out loud a few times at him.

Madame Web on Netflix

Very meh offering from the Marvel universe. I really liked Dakota Johnson in this, but the rest of the movie was pretty weak. Not nearly as bad as the above film,
but disappointing for a Marvel film.,

[Paulie]

Lynch/Oz Kanopy, 2022 compares and illustrates how The Wizard of Oz influenced many of the things in David Lynch's various films. Some of it might be a stretch, hard to say, but an interesting investigation.

I'll have to check this out! It's plainly evident that Wild at Heart is his twisted homage to TWoO. Would love to see what else they come up with.

[SteveSly]

Horizon: This new epic western from Kevin Costner is the first film of a planned 4 movie series. The film is over 3 hours long and features multiple story lines beginning in the 1850’s and covering events up to the civil war. This movie has gotten mixed reviews from both critics and audiences alike and I can see why. The pacing is rather slow and bouncing around to different stories sometimes gets confusing. Since this is only part I of a series, nothing is resolved in any of the plots by the end of the film. I was expecting the cinematography to be epic, but to be honest it was not that impressive for a film of this scale. There are a lot of great individual scenes in the film, but there are also some that left me scratching my head. The writing and acting I found inconsistent. Some of the dialogue didn’t really work for me and the acting ranges all over the place. Overall, this is a good, but not great western. It will be interesting to see where it goes in part II.

3 out of 5 stars

[Hal...]

Out of Darkness (2022).

A small boat reaches the shores of a raw and desolate landscape. A group of six have struggled across the narrow sea to find a new home. They are starving, desperate, and living 45,000 years ago. First they must find shelter, and they strike out across the tundra wastes towards the distant mountains that promise the abundant caves they need to survive. But when night falls, anticipation turns to fear and doubt as they realize they are not alone.

I thought the synopsis made it sound interesting. But pretty much right off the bat, I had issue with the dialogue sounding anachronistic. I expected something more akin to Clan of the Cave Bear not the late 20th/early 21st century.

Anyway, the part that should have been scary, wasn't. Altho, it was somewhat suspenseful and mysterious. Still, by the denouement, I was pretty disappointed, since it was so obvious a story with a moral.

The pluses: the acting was actually really good and the cinematography was pretty fantastic and fit with the bleak landscape of Scotland, where it was shot.

Overall, tho:

[nosebone]

Horizon: This new epic western from Kevin Costner is the first film of a planned 4 movie series. The film is over 3 hours long and features multiple story lines beginning in the 1850’s and covering events up to the civil war. This movie has gotten mixed reviews from both critics and audiences alike and I can see why. The pacing is rather slow and bouncing around to different stories sometimes gets confusing. Since this is only part I of a series, nothing is resolved in any of the plots by the end of the film. I was expecting the cinematography to be epic, but to be honest it was not that impressive for a film of this scale. There are a lot of great individual scenes in the film, but there are also some that left me scratching my head. The writing and acting I found inconsistent. Some of the dialogue didn’t really work for me and the acting ranges all over the place. Overall, this is a good, but not great western. It will be interesting to see where it goes in part II.

3 out of 5 stars

I mostly agree, but I still enjoyed it

[hippypants]

Heroic Times an interesting knight's tale done in animation. The animation was the draw for me looking like oil paintings. I watched it over at Tubi for free.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

That looks interesting.

But it's hard to think of three serious medieval fantasies more disparate than Excalibur, Game of Thrones, and The Lord of the Rings...

[SteveSly]

I mostly agree, but I still enjoyed it

My review may have come across too negative. I did enjoy it too and will be in for the next chapter, but it was not as good as I was hoping it would be.

[Klonk]

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

A classic! Alien clowns invade earth to turn humans into cotton candy for food. Fun kills and lots of stupidity. Pure late night joy! The 4K restoration is amazing

7.1 out of 10 deaths by shadow puppet

[boilk]

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

A classic! Alien clowns invade earth to turn humans into cotton candy for food. Fun kills and lots of stupidity. Pure late night joy! The 4K restoration is amazing

7.1 out of 10 deaths by shadow puppet

I need to get around to watching this!

Neil

[SteveSly]

Anatomy Of A Fall (Hulu): I have been curious about this film for a while based on the lofty ratings of both critics and audience on Rotten Tomatoes, so finally decided to give it a watch tonight. I can’t say that it lived up to the hype. The film is French with parts of the dialogue in French and parts in English so you have to use subtitles. The plot is part murder mystery and part courtroom drama. At 2.5 hours the movie drags and could have used some filler cut out. The acting is decent. The ending will be satisfying to some and frustrating to others. It was an ok movie, but not as good as ratings indicated IMO.

3 out of 5 stars

[mozo-pg]

The Fall Guy. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. It's about a stunt man and his woman of desire. The special effects - stunts - were cool. A real story was absent. 6/10

[nosebone]

Oddity (2024)

Another summer horror I saw tonight, and not bad at all.

Very suspenseful in an old fashioned house of Hammer style

That's how I perceived it but YMMV 7.5/10

[SteveSly]

The Fall Guy. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. It's about a stunt man and his woman of desire. The special effects - stunts - were cool. A real story was absent. 6/10

We saw it in the theater. Didn't love it or hate it. Agree, that the stunts and effects were well done. Not a bad way to spend 2 hours but also not essential viewing.

[hippypants]

Abigail--I wasn't too interested in watching this after seeing the trailers, plus the trailers give away, kinda sorta, some of the story. But it was handled and directed well. Not bad, but not classic.

[SteveSly]

Abigail--I wasn't too interested in watching this after seeing the trailers, plus the trailers give away, kinda sorta, some of the story. But it was handled and directed well. Not bad, but not classic.

Agree, the trailers gave way to much away. I think it would have been a better movie not knowing what / who Abigail was.

[Hal...]

Which one are you talking about?

Abigail (2023)

Abigail (2024)

[mozo-pg]

Bob Marley One Love - I enjoyed it. 6.5/10.

[Hal...]

I was watching Jaws, just now, and I was reminded of something I've always wondered about.

I saw it opening day. Sat through two showings, in fact. And I distinctly remember that in the scene where Sheriff Brody is sitting on the beach listening to the radio, the Chicago song Old Days was playing. The problem is that every time I've seen the movie on TV since, it's not Old Days playing on the radio.

I know that with licensing agreements, they may substitute something else for the original song so that they don't have to continue paying royalties, like with WKRP in Cincinnati.

I had begun to think, over the years, that I was misremembering or maybe I dreamt it. But I looked them up, just now, and Old Days was released in April of 1975 and Jaws was released 2 months later. Which reminded me of my reaction when I first saw the movie because the song was kind of a big hit at the time and I recognized it, which really stood out for me.

Does anyone else remember that song in the movie?

[SteveSly]

Which one are you talking about?

Abigail (2023)

Abigail (2024)

I assumed Hippypants was talking about the 2024 film, but not totally sure on that.

[SteveSly]

Bob Marley One Love - I enjoyed it. 6.5/10.

Saw it in the theater. I enjoyed it, but the lead actor's accent was so on target that it was sometime difficult to tell what he was saying. If I watched it at home i would probably use subtitles. Not a great movie, but I thought it was pretty solid.