So far I've seen these movies in theaters this year:
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Knock at the Cabin (2023)
M3GAN (2023) (x2)
Missing (2023) (x2)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Over the Hedge (2006)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) (x2)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
The Bad Guys (2022)
The Lorax (2012)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) (x2)
@jump
I've not seen Cowboy Bebop or Pierrot Le Fou (forgive), but I wonder if CB has any influence from Alphaville if taking about Goddard 60s sci-fi? I guess it's Le Samouri for Melville?
Speaking of 60s Goddard, have you seen Bande a Part? Whenever someone describes something as Tarantino-esque, they actually mean this film (and so does QT as it's the name of his production company). Jean-Luc also said, 'a film needs a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.'
About 15-odd years ago, I saw in one week, Perfect Blue, Ghost in the Shell, Blood the Last Vampire, Vampire Hunter D, and possibly Paprika - but it was a bit of wild time back then!
@JadeKitsune
Gosh dang. You must practically live there.
I saw Avatar Way of the Water and Mario. I was not impressed with Avatar. The first one was so good, but this new one was just boring. They even recycled the same bad guy.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
@JadeKitsune Cool, that's a lot. So far I've seen this year...
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
John Wick 4 (friend's pick for his birthday)
Super Mario Movie (my birthday)
Next few theatrical movies my friend and I plan to see will be Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and a local theater does "Family Favorites" once per month, May is Trolls World Tour, so friend and I may go see it again. Already saw Trolls World Tour twice at two other theaters last year.
The resident Trolls superfan! Saw Trolls Band Together via early access and absolutely loved it!
@Sunsy Oh yeah, earlier this year my theater also did the "family film" thing, every weekend they showed a different movie for $3. I didn't get into it until "The Bad Guys", hadn't thought I could do that for my current goal of seeing one movie a week for a whole year.
There's an indie cinema I like that does movie marathons during the night, sometimes it's Lord Of The Rings and other times it's a John Hughes movies. I've gone to it twice once for the Pixar all nighter where they showed about 7ish films from Toy Story to Up and the other time it was the Nolan Batman movies, it's a laugh as you great drunk with your mates, play party games in the foyer and then do a walk of shame for the first train home. There was one I wanted to go where they were showing the Edgar Wright films but I didn’t go as I had tixs for a gig already so my mates went without, they told me later Edgar Wright himself showed up unannounced and talked to the audience for a bit.
I did do a couple of double bills at the cinema last year too as there was so many interesting films getting released all the time. One was Smile followed by The Woman King, the other was Nope and then Three Thousand Years Of Longing.
@Rambler I've not seen Aphaville (it never comes up on my streaming thingies) but Le Samouri is a good guess as the Pierrot Le Fou episode (named after the movie) feels a lot like it with the subway shadow climax. Le Cercle Rouge is another one where it has an almost shot for shot remake of the pool game. Cowboy Bebop is just dripping with a French cool noir feeling in general.
Bande A Part rings a bell but I haven't seen it. Yeah it is funny when people try to copy Tarantino it's a lot of swearing, violence and pop culture references which ends up cartoony feeling when they should just do what Tarantino does and copy all those 60/70s films he takes influence from so there's less VHS coping style degradation.
Avatar: the Way of Water (3D) - This was actually the second time we've seen it, and unlike most here I absolutely loved it. The underwater scenery in 3D was absolutely magical & mesmerizing (I think it was more amazing than the first's 3D environments, and aesthetically I'm not sure how they're going to top it in the sequels), and IDK, it just really had the vibe of an old school epic scale blockbuster (similar to Top Gun: Maverick in that regard). Loved the tech design too, like the crab mechs.
A Man Called Otto - This was actually much better than I thought it'd be, and a real rollercoaster of emotions. Had some good laughs and genuinely brought me to tears at points.
65 - Pretty meh, but hey, what I'll give to see dinos on the big screen.
the Super Mario Bros Movie (3D) - Yeah it's not much for story, lore, or character development, but I had a big dumb grin on my face during it's entire runtime. I think playing it safe is exactly what was needed after the '93 disaster, and it was lovely in 3D.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
A Man Called Otto - This was actually much better than I thought it'd be, and a real rollercoaster of emotions. Had some good laughs and genuinely brought me to tears at points.
That movie is going to become one of those "underrated gems" in the future. I really quite liked the movie, it was a lot darker than I thought it was gonna be and I liked that it went to those places. That cat was 10/10 too lol.
@JadeKitsune Neat, I really like that some theaters do stuff like that. I didn't know about it until I saw Trolls World Tour last year as part of a local theater's Summer Series. Now I keep an eye out to see what other older movies the local theaters offer. I saw Illumination's Grinch movie as part of a Christmas event the same theater did.
Cool, hope achieve that goal. Meanwhile my movie goal this year is to see Trolls Band Together in theaters as many times as I can.
@jump That actually sounds nice. Honestly, I didn't know that some theaters showed older movies until last year when I saw Trolls World Tour. Now I keep an eye out for any showings some theaters in my state does. Actually, one of the theaters I saw the movie in actually holds movie festivals and does various events. They do family events, one that sticks out is they did a dinner and a movie for The Godfather along with an Italian dinner at a nearby restaurant.
The theater opened in 1926, closing down for a few months to replace seats and carpeting, and I hope it sticks around for a full 100 years. Really a nice theater, one of my favorite places to go to.
@Sunsy I actually tried that goal in 2020, but the pandemic hit and I only got to see 10 different movies before my theater closed. Luckily I saw "Onward" as my last movie of the year, so I still kept my Pixar streak (excluding Soul, Luca and Turning Red).
@JadeKitsune Yeah, no one could have predicted that happening. I remember being so devastated having to see Trolls World Tour at home like everyone else did, after years of waiting to see it on the big screen. It actually makes seeing the movie at a local theater last summer even more special. No really, I actually teared up during "Trolls Just Wanna Have Fun" as it brought me closure. I even keep the ticket stub in the Blu-Ray case.
At least things are better now and you can do that goal. Last year I went to the movies six times. Before the pandemic, I would go to the theater only once in a while for a movie I really wanted to see. Now I try to go more. It's like you don't know what you have until it's gone.
Learned why DTS:X wasn't working. It wasn't the PS5 or Series X. Apparently the LG C1 tv doesn't support DTS:X or even do pass-through for it, for some odd reason.
The only solution is to run directly into soundbar with eARC to TV for video, rather than run into TV with eARC to soundbar for audio. Problem with that is, the soundbar is not HDMI 2.1, so that would sacrifice the 4k 120fps, VRR and probably other features.
So getting a separate blu-ray player that runs directly into soundbar with eARC to the TV for video, that really is the best solution. Can't wait to get the UB820 delivered, hooked up and finally get Dolby Vision and not have to worry about DTS:X. Until it comes, I've got the Series X running directly into soundbar so DTS:X works (I expected most movies to have Atmos but it seems DTS:X is more common than I thought).
Was wondering why Waterworld sounded so... flat. Checked the codec, saw 2 channels and was like yup, that explains it. With Series X running into soundbar though, it sounded amazing. Proper audio makes such a massive difference.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
Makoto Shinkai's newest film Suzume has a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sounds like it's another winner, although I'm not expecting anything on the level of Your Name or 5 Centimeters Per Second.
Already have my tickets. Will be seeing it Friday afternoon!
@Ralizah
Are these must watch movies? Or "good, but there's dozens of others just as good".
Basically, should I make it a point to look into them, or are there better contenders to consider
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
@JaxonH I'll give one primary recommendation, because it's iron-clad.
Your Name is a 10/10 film. I've shown it to people who don't otherwise care about anime and they always invariably fall in love with it. it's the perfect mixture of romance, drama, comedy, and speculative fiction. It's twisty, but in an organic and brilliantly constructed way. I don't know if it still holds the record, but it set the Japanese box office on fire, and gained a massive amount of attention internationally when it actually temporarily outgrossed Spirited Away and became the most successful Japanese film of all time worldwide back in 2017 (although it has subsequently lost this title, now in third place behind Spirited Away and the first Demon Slayer movie). Its success vaulted the director, who was mostly known for making somber romantic dramas up until that point, to the very peak of the industry so quickly that is actually freaked him out.
It takes a well-worn Western comedy concept (body-swapping, like in Freaky Friday) and makes pure cinematic magic out of it. Absolutely unmissable.
His other work varies in quality, although all of it is similarly beautiful and much of it is worth checking out.
@JaxonH I'll give one primary recommendation, because it's iron-clad. Your Name is a 10/10 film. I've shown it to people who don't otherwise care about anime and they always invariably fall in love with it. it's the perfect mixture of romance, drama, comedy, and speculative fiction. It's twisty, but in an organic and brilliantly constructed way. I don't know if it still holds the record, but it set the Japanese box office on fire, and gained a massive amount of attention internationally when it actually temporarily outgrossed Spirited Away and became the most successful Japanese film of all time worldwide back in 2017 (although it has subsequently lost this title, now in third place behind Spirited Away and the first Demon Slayer movie). Its success vaulted the director, who was mostly known for making somber romantic dramas up until that point, to the very peak of the industry so quickly that is actually freaked him out.
It takes a well-worn Western comedy concept (body-swapping, like in Freaky Friday) and makes pure cinematic magic out of it. Absolutely unmissable.
His other work varies in quality, although all of it is similarly beautiful and much of it is worth checking out.
I still remember the day in February 2021 where I watched the film in the morning and sat down my family to watch it in the evening, and was nowhere near getting old. Such a great movie with some of the best visuals of any anime film I’ve ever seen (and I’m a Ghibli junkie). Managed to get my friend addicted to anime thanks to Your Name.
Currently playing:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Persona 4 Golden
Dragon Quest XI S
F1 23
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Yeah I’d second/third Your Name too. For me it works as it’s gives you the wacky premise up front and you think it’s an enjoyable but disposable film only it then it takes a turn for something more beyond a one note premise.
The closest film it reminds me of is oddly the non-anime comedy film Colossal. Where Anna Hathaway accidentally controls a giant kaiju monster that attacks a South Korea city when she is drunk which is a fun and whacky premise but as you watch it take a turn to be more than that premise.
Where Anna Hathaway accidentally controls a giant kaiju monster that attacks a South Korea city when she is drunk
what
That's... certainly a premise. Definitely adding that to my list.
@TheJGG I don't generally rewatch movies, but Your Name is endlessly rewatchable. Slowly, but surely, we're exposing more non-anime watchers to it over time. Its appeal transcends the medium.
And yeah, the animation is beyond stunning. Primarily hand-drawn too. With Disney fully down the CG rabbit hole and Ghibli largely irrelevant in this day and age, Shinkai films are one of the last major bastions of traditional animation in cinema.
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