Topic: Movie thread.

Lupin III: The Secret of Mamo (1978)

I really liked the humor and plot, but the sci-fi stuff didn't make a lot of sense (at least to me).
There are four (!) different english dubs for this movie, and the one I watched was the Geneon/Pioneer Entertainment one, which was pretty good.

Rewatched Your Name in English with the rest of the family. They seemed to really enjoy it! And, rewatching the film, it's remarkable how much foreshadowing there is. Also noticing a lot of lovely symbolism connecting the various parts of the film. Even the plot development I derided as a deus ex machina in the later half of the movie is starting to be something I can appreciate (after having read up on Shintoism more).

I'm seriously debating whether or not I like this more than Blade Runner 2049. It's THAT good.

@Solea Shinkai has always been a fairly niche director. I imagine creating something that became this huge a blockbuster must be overwhelming for him. That sort of humility is pretty refreshing compared to the conceited jerks who infest Hollywood.

And yeah, "throttling the hugeness of an ideal" is a good way of describing this work. He often felt like he was working with themes too vast and close-to-heart to properly convey in his films, which simultaneously made them charming, unique, and very flawed. He has found a way to channel his emotional themes and deliver a compelling work of fiction.

@RancidVomit86 Oh no, they're torture-porning Hellraiser now?

I hate how the people in this creatively bankrupt industry keep digging up old franchises to ruin instead. There really needs to be a shake-up in American horror cinema.

Sonatine - Yakuza film starring Takeshi Kitano. I've seen it before, but as Netflix hasn't once worked for me ever since we installed our first Smart TV (go figure), I decided to give this another go since it's one of the few films I own on Amazon Video.

There's a reason I own it though, and that's because I do like it. Definitely worth a look if you're into Japanese films.

@Ralizah Just a quick question; have you seen ‘A Ghost Story’?

I may well be confusing you with somebody else elsewhere, but I watched it on my aeroplane journey home from my recent holiday in Barbados and I am quite eager to talk about the film! I can’t decide if it is a (quiet) masterpiece or a little bit preposterous and artsy-fartsy... or both.

I cannot believe there is a scene that lasts seven or eight minutes where we see one of the main characters eat a whole dish of apple pie. It shouldn’t work, but it somehow does...

@Peek-a-boo Oh yes. Yes I have. Months ago. And talked about it at length to anyone who would listen (and it's good fun to troll people by forcing them to sit through the entire pie eating scene).

It's... uh, different. There is certainly an admirable originality to its exploration of death, meaninglessness, and loneliness. The sheer scale of the film is also neat, seeing as how the titular ghost is consumed by the immensity of time to the point where he (it?) actually loops around into his own history after bearing witness to humanity's past (represented by a 19th century American family trying to eke out a life in the brutal vastness of the uncivilized wilderness) and future (towering, Blade Runner-esque monoliths fading into a spectacular high-tech skyline). And, you know, something can be said about the film using the pie scene to trap the viewer in the uncomfortable perspective of the widow who is, quite literally, eating her grief... or perhaps forcing the viewer, much like the ghost, into the role of a helpless bystander.

On the other hand, it's still eight minutes of Rooney Mara eating a pie! The film, at so many points, seems almost like a parody of itself, like a cinematic version of the Sokal hoax, daring us to call it on its almost unbearable pretentiousness. Long stretches of the film seem almost empty, bereft of meaningful content to pad out its runtime and justify the tortured metaphor at the center of it all. That's not to mention the way the film fails to integrate a lot of its themes into the fabric of the story itself in a coherent manner, using a seemingly random and long-winded monologue in the middle of the film to explain its themes to the viewer.

The film's biggest sin, I think, is that, for much of the runtime, it's just flat out boring. There's a really cool thirty minute short buried underneath the excess mass tacked on to turn it into a feature-length flick, but even given my fondness for its originality and ponderous weirdness (and pretty decent acting), I don't know that I could ever recommend this to anyone.

With that said, I don't regret watching it, either.

Shin Godzilla - While I'm not enamoured with it, it was a good watch. It's purpose as a critique of the Japanese government's reaction to the Great East Japan Earthquake is fairly obvious, and gives it more weight than most other Godzilla films. Anyhow, I'll probably find myself watching it again in the future.

Godzilla (2014) - Watching Shin Godzilla put me in a mood for the big guy, so I decided to purchase this as well. I absolutely loved it when I saw it in the theater, and while it wasn't as impactful the second time around, I still really liked it (easily top 5 Godzilla movies for me), and can't wait for the sequel (which'll have Mothra & Gihdora!) and the eventual King Kong crossover.

Violent Cop - The first Takeshi Kitano film I've been disappointed with. It starts out well enough, but I felt like it kind of drags on, and there's really no chemistry between Kitano & the antagonists. It seems like it's just a job to him (albiet a job he takes seriously) and even once they kidnap his sister within the last 30 minutes of the film, I'm not sure if it was even supposed to be in order to get to him. They make it seem like the lower ranking gang members kidnapped her at random. Not to mention what Kitano does once he finds her....

Summer Wars - I. LOVE. THIS. FILM. Seriously, this is the third time I've seen it, but the experience was just as magical as it was the first time. I'm kind of at the point where new anime isn't clicking with me as much as the anime of my adolescence did (becoming an old fogey in my mid, soon to be late, 20's), but Summer Wars (which I only watched for the first time in 2014 or so) definitely bucks that trend.

@Ralizah I wholeheartedly agree with what you wrote just there. For a 90 minute film, there is a lot of plodding around and ‘nothingness’ to endure, whether that arguably strengthens the film or not.

I liked what the guy had to say about the universe and how we could forget about Beethoven (I could be mixing up my composers) in the foreseeable future, because I can see it happening. It is how we are thought of by a handful of close friends and family or being known throughout history that got me thinking.

Questions whether ‘this’ is all for nothing and whether God is real or not.

It would be interesting to know what was written on the note at the end though, given that it was a tiny piece of paper. My assumption is that it could be one of his lyrics that the lady listened to near the beginning of the film, and wrote a line that resonated with her about the way she feels for the man/ghost.

It’s like the whisper between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation. We’ll never know!

The more I think about A Ghost Story, the more I come to appreciate my time watching it however, it is a rather difficult film to happily recommend to friends and family though...

The Shape of Water: A mute woman working as a janitor in a research facility befriends and falls in love with a water monster that was stolen from its home in South America and brought in for testing. A fairly run-of-the-mill "beauty and the beast"-esque fable that dredges up the usual tired cinematic tropes about the oppressive cultural evils of mid-20th century America, toxic masculinity, and whatnot. Guillermo del Toro is going for the same mix of whimsical fantasy and horrifying, grounded violence that defined the unique vibe of his masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth," but it all really fell flat for me. The film's villain... the actor performs his role very well, but the actual character is boring beyond words. The film is also periodically interrupted by unnecessary, and often disgusting, sex scenes, which really takes away from the mood it tries so hard to establish with its excellent set design (this has a retro-futuristic aesthetic not unlike Bioshock going for it). Its best trick is to establish the film's tortured monster man on a spectrum of oppression: he seems like a fellow social outcast alongside the African-Americans, homosexuals, and other oppressed people in this setting, which allows for a fairly smooth integration of biting social commentary into the plot. Overall, though, it was a massive disappointment.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: The mother of a girl who was violated and murdered rents out billboards in her small and poor Missouri community to taunt and challenge local law enforcement after they fail to find her daughter's killer. It has been a week or two since I saw this, and my thoughts on it still aren't entirely in order. It's a remarkable work of art, mixing absolutely vicious satirical jabs at rural white America, a well-paced plot, complex and very human characters, a savagely funny script, grounded acting, and the feel of a Flannery O'Connor story (there's no way she wasn't a huge inspiration on the writer) together to create something special. The writer was a playwright, and that comes across on screen, because this movie is driven by wonderfully written character exchanges. The ending is inconclusive, but so is life, and a neat story that can be tied up with a pretty bow is not what this film was going for. One of the best films of 2017, and an absolute must see.

Princess Mononoke: A warrior from a small Japanese tribe named Ashitaka is exiled from this home after being cursed by a tainted boar god that attacked his village. He sets out on a quest to lift his curse that eventually lands him right in the middle of a violent conflict between a burdgeoning mining town (led by the ambitious Lady Eboshi) and local animal gods who are fighting back against the destruction of their lands (joined by the titular Princess Mononoke, a spirited girl who was raised by wolves). I've actually seen this before, but it has been many years, so much of it was fresh to me. My memories of it were apparently spot on. This film is still an utter delight! Miyazaki's environmentalism and humanism are quite clearly reflected in this film, but it's much less naively optimistic in this regard than previous films of his that treated similar themes (most notably, Studio Ghibli's first major motion picture, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). It's his nuanced exploration of the "man versus nature" theme and its subversion of traditional cinematic tropes that makes it a really special film in his catalogue. The film is hardly hopeless, though, ending with a grounded and fragile hope. This continues to be one of the best animated films I've ever seen.

cloverfield paradox

meh. not totally bad, but everything is just meh. i don't even wanna talk about it. just meh. move on. nothing to see here

mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Godzilla: Monster Planet - The first in what is apparently going to be a trilogy of Netflix funded Godzilla anime films.

Simply enough, Godzilla succeeds in destroying humanity's civilization, causing what's left of the populace to take their chances in space (with the help of aliens, naturally). Now 20 years later (though it's really been thousands, due to the space-time warping nature of warp travel) they return to Earth in the hopes that the big guy has passed on, but they're dead wrong.

It was... alright. Some of the tech was cool looking, the action was cool, and it had a neat endfilm twist, but it gives you no reason to care about the characters, which is a big problem, given the core of the film revolves around the MC's underdeveloped obsession with killing Godzilla.

Freddy got [I don't think I can even type this word here] (2001)

A really bizarre comedy by Tom Green. The critics absolutely panned this movie.
I'm not the normalest person around, but this movie actually made me laugh quite a lot. I can't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situations presented in the movie, and how goofy the main character is.

There's also some shock humor bits, but to be frank I didn't even mind it too much. It was made in 2001, and shock humor back then wasn't near as shocking as stuff now.

@Vinny It was panned by crtics because it was not funny, and never will be. Just cringworthy stupidity which Tom Green did to make himself feel liked. Made at the same time as Jackass, but none of it is real so not shocking just crap

Black Panther - 8/10

Wow, this was certainly an interesting film to watch!

It didn’t feel like a typical superhero film (which is a positive) and that the colours, the sounds (native African chanting and the Kendrick Lamar soundtrack) and the character motives, especially Killmonger who is a baddie, but kind of isn’t due to his backstory, are all absolutely brilliant.

This is not a typical Marvel Comic film; the action is on a smaller scale and is mostly hand to hand combat, the story is self contained and is able to merge fantasy and reality together without becoming a messy fusion of the two. I would say this film has more in common with James Bond!

There’s a bit of a The Lion King theme going on too.

Only negatives are the surprisingly low budget-ish CGI in places that does take you out of the experience a little bit, and Andy Serkis character, whilst played very well, is quite pantomime-y and somewhat distracting in certain scenes, but that may just be me.

I really like the speech in the first (of two) post credit scene. It is a subtle political commentary about the state of America today, and that we “should be building bridges, not putting up barriers.”

It’s definitely worth seeing.

@Ralizah Aw, I am seeing ‘Shape of Water’ on Thursday evening. It took ages coming out here so, I shall just go and watch the film with an open mind. I’m also looking forward to ‘Three Billboards ... ‘ as well.

Annihilation: In this movie, a biology professor named Lena discovers that her husband, a man who she had died in a military combat mission a year ago, has returned home, but as a sickened and broken shell of his former self. On the way to the hospital, she's abducted by some government types and gradually comes to discover that her husband was the lone survivor of a mission to discover the source of "the shimmer," a strange, seemingly supernatural phenomenon that has engulfed a large area and is continuously growing. In an effort to save her husband, she signs up as part of a team of scientists who are embarking on a deadly mission to find out what "the shimmer" is and how to stop it.

This movie has such a good pedigree. I wanted to love it so badly! It's just not a great film, though. The movie is full of interesting ideas that are never explored, plot developments that never go anywhere, a premise that, while cool, is never developed into anything worthwhile, and, aside from main character Lena, expertly portrayed by Natalie Portman, no interesting characters. The outline and form of an interesting and intelligent science-horror film is there, but it's lacking, as I said, any developed ideas, or, for that matter, any sort of emotional investment or pay-off. It's also structured like a horror film, where the team is picked off one by one by monsters, both physical and psychological in nature, but this clashes with the more metaphysical and fantastical aspects of the film. It's like someone mashed together an art house film and a monster flick.

Which is a shame, because there is some good here. The film is filled with strange and wonderous imagery of a world that is continually shifting and mutating. While I wouldn't compare it to the great visions of cinema, I do feel like, on the level of pure spectacle, it's worth watching, at least on the big screen. And I do like some of the implied ideas embedded within the story. I just wish the writing and plot structure had been able to more adequately support them.

An interesting failure. I'd still rather watch this than your average hollywood flick.

@Bunkerneath Eh, there's a place for stupid humor in the world. Tom Green isn't my jam, because I'm sure some people enjoyed the movie, and if they did, more power to them.

Memento

I recently decided to watch all the films from my favourite director that I haven't seen yet (Christopher Nolan).

HOLY MOLY
this is one of the best movies I have ever seen! it's hard to explain why, because I could potentially spoil parts of the plot, but let me tell you this: no other film shows the potential of the medium film so good when it comes to narrative and storytelling. it is simply perfect. now i just wonder when this film will be part of my mediascience study. can't wait. amazing piece or art

@Peek-a-boo Yeah, absolutely. The vast majority of critics loved it, so maybe I'm just missing something. I stand by my analysis, but I really hope you do end up enjoying it. Please post your thoughts when you do.

Good to hear Black Panther is actually an interesting and unique superhero film. I'm looking forward to seeing it at some point (Marvel movies are never a priority for me). The amount of enthusiasm for this film from the black community where I live has been huge. Lots of people coming to the theater in African-ish garb, posing next to the film's poster, etc.

@6ch6ris6 It's brilliant, isn't it?

@Octane I was completely blown away by Memento and shocked that I have never seen it before. I thought I'd knew about most films that are legendary, but this film is totally under the radar it seems. I couldn't stop thinking about how great it is for days. damn it's so good!!!!!

Fullmetal Alchemist (Netflix Original Film) - The live action adaptation that released in Japan last year. It's a decent watch if you like the series. It generally follows the main points of the story pretty faithfully (naturally with some concessions), but it hasn't been translated to live action too well. Like most Japanese produced live action anime adaptations, it tries to capture the look of the anime a bit too much (some of the characters look like they're running around in cosplay, rather than "being" the character, if that makes sense), and while that's a better approach than how western adaptations usually take, it still has it's own problems.

Oh man, so I was able to see Black Panther on my birthday, the day it hit theaters, and boy was I satisfied. It may been a little (only to the very slightest degree) in your face politics and it didn't quite have the impact of the individual characterizations of other MCU movies, but it was still just fantastic. 3rd best MCU movie thus far in my opinion with Captain America: Winter Solider in 2nd, and Iron Man taking 1st