@Bunkerneath There are various arenas around the country doing Muppets Christmas Carol with live orchestra in December too. Got my tickets booked as soon as it was announced. One of the few decent things to actually come up to the north of Scotland recently...usually have to travel to Glasgow for the good stuff.
@Bunkerneath Yeah, I guess you are even more remote than I am. I often think it's pretty grim up here in Aberdeen for entertainment, but I guess there's even less in the way of gigs and events etc in Guernsey.
Has anyone here seen The Garfield Movie yet? I saw it... and it is legitimately my tied for my least favorite movie ever. (The other one is Ron's Gone Wrong, for those wondering.) I won't go into why because that rant could take a week or two to write out lol... unless you guys want to hear it!
@SlamDunk22 I'll give the bullet-point reasons....
SPOILER WARNING
It was nothing like Garfield
Chris Pratt (though I like him in general) was wayyyy to energetic and not grumpy enough.
John was nothing like the version in the comics.
Vic's "betrayal" was easy to see coming and was just a lame version of RJ's in Over the Hedge.
The villain was boring, and her plan made no sense.
The humor was not enjoyable IMO.
I felt like a movie with (a ripoff of) Garfield, not a movie about (a ripoff of) him.
SPOILER WARNING OVER
No hate to those who enjoyed it, but those were (a small fraction) of the reasons I for one will not be rewatching that. (I should add, my family watched it 3 separate times and not once did I actually stay for the whole thing. It annoyed me so much that I got up and left. But over the course of all those times, I managed to see every scene.)
I should mention, when I say my "least favorite" movies, i mean only mainline media. I an not counting b-rate films with noname actors and whatnot. That's why I count Ron's Home Wrong and The Garfield Movie, but not something like I Believe (there is a reason you haven't heard of it).
I am back to watching more movies, there are a few I didn’t talk about on here.
All Dogs Go to Heaven - YouTube is offering a few of Don Bluth’s films for free, and this was one that they had on there. I have seen this one as a kid alongside some of the sequel, but it’s been a while and I couldn’t recall a lot of what happened in this. I really liked this one, especially with its themes of redemption and friendship with its protagonist Charlie, who acts very dishonest and immoral, and I found parts of the story to be sad and sentimental, especially the ending when Charlie goes to say goodbye to Anne-Marie, the girl who’s life he saved in exchange for losing his life, one last time before he leaves to go to Heaven. The themes were beautiful and I think it’s a nice film, though some criticisms I have is that sometimes some parts of the narrative do feel a bit random and kind of contribute little to the story, one example being this random part where Charlie and Anne-Marie fall into the lair of this giant alligator that is going to eat them but then the alligator and Charlie bond over music and sing, and I just feel like that scene contributed little to the actual story of the film, plus the songs in the film aren’t really memorable. I was a bit surprised by how dark the film was cuz I did not ever remember there being so much smoking, drinking, and a part where one of the antagonists has a real gun and shoots at Charlie multiple times to kill him.
Rock-a-Doodle - This is another one of Bluth’s movies, but it’s a bit more obscure and not that well known compared to Bluth’s other movies like All Dogs Go to Heaven or Secret of N.I.M.H. I also saw this one when I was a kid and rewatched it yesterday cuz why not.
Its a musical film set in the 1950s and is about a rooster named Chanticleer who lives on a farm and crows every morning to raise the sun, and leaves one day to become a popular singer after being tricked by a sun-hating owl and his men into thinking that he can’t raise the sun. However, it causes eternal darkness and rain around the country without him, which causes excessive flooding, so a dog, mouse, magpie, and a boy turned kitten go on a journey to the city to get him back to raise the sun.
A lot of people actually didn’t like this movie, but I loved it when I was younger. Now rewatching it, it isn’t an entirely bad movie, but not a memorable or great one either. I think the singing is done well (the dude voicing Chanticleer is really good at sounding like Elvis) and the animation and setting I liked a lot.
However, my main issue with it is that it feels like the story progresses too fast, and it doesn’t give enough time to know or connect with the characters. I would have loved to see more of the city in the film, and I feel like the movie didn’t really show a lot of it off when the city is the main setting for most of the movie.
I didn’t find the characters memorable or interesting. Some of them were silly, but I feel like that was all that there is to them, and they came off as either unmemorable or annoying (ESPECIALLY Snipes and Goldie Pheasant) and when you compare the writing of the film and characters to Bluth’s more well-known or critically acclaimed works, say All Dogs Go to Heaven, you can see that Rock-a-Doodle has a narrative and writing that is more weaker and unmemorable. The film also has some live-action segments a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the live-action parts felt unnecessary and they aren’t even in the film for long. It did have some good stuff to it, but it isn’t a good movie in my opinion. It isn’t as good as I remember.
Alongside those, I was also watching The Secret of N.I.M.H. for the first time, but I watched it too late and fell asleep, so I’ll finish it later today.
Saw Coco on Disney+. I wasn't feeling very entertained by its Footloose meets Beetlejuice plot (Footjuice?). But then it got me at the end. Tears flowed. You win again Pixar.
In preparation for Smile 2, saw the original Smile. But I found it a boring, derivative copycat. So cancelled plans to see Smile 2.
Saw Raw, a French horror film. Artsy-fartsy waste of time.
Saw Terrifier 3. A B-movie gorefest. My first Terrifier. My last Terrifier.
Saw Anora today. It is currently the bookmakers' 2nd-favourite to win Best Picture at the Oscars next year. IMDb says it is a "romantic comedy". Only problem? There is no romance. There is no comedy. Very disappointed with this, as I had such high hopes after enjoying the director's previous The Florida Project and Red Rocket, which were each 100x better.
Finished watching The Secret of N.I.M.H. yesterday and that was a pretty good film!
I also watched this via YouTube Movies for free, and this is also a Don Bluth film. I never watched this one when I was younger, and the only films by Bluth I watched was All Dogs Go to Heaven and Rock-a-Doodle. After I finished my recent rewatch of Rock-a-Doodle, I wanted to check out another Bluth film I haven’t seen, and I put on N.I.M.H, which I had heard before and found that it was one of his most critically acclaimed movies.
I really thought this was an awesome movie. It tells a story about a recently widowed mouse who planned to move to a new home with her children to avoid plowing time (which could destroy their home) but is prevented from doing so after one of her children is struck with pneumonia, so she seeks help from a special group of rats.
The plot sounds plain, but the story is really sad but mature and deep, and has some mystical and fantastical elements to it. Out of the three Bluth movies I’ve seen as of late, I’d say out of all of them, this was maybe the best, and paired with the beautiful animation and backgrounds, it’s just a really nice film. It’s a bit more gritty and darker than his other films, but I really liked it. I also liked the way the characters were written, and all of them didn’t come off as one-note, annoying, or boring, even the bumbling comic relief character I didn’t find annoying at all. It’s a really good movie and I’d recommend it if you like animated fantasy movies!
As for movies I plan on watching soon, I saw that Barnyard was on YouTube Movies for free, so I’ll watch that soon, though mainly for the funny (as people online say). I already know what I’m going to get into when watching it thanks to all the memes I saw for it online lol. I think I did watch that years ago, but I could also be mistaking it for the television show they had for it.
It’s a Nickelodeon film released back in the 2000s, and it’s a bit of a random one, but it’s kind of well-known and I’d say a tad bit iconic (though mostly with 2000s kids) and I watched this yesterday to end the night with something random and irreverent, but also because I didn’t know what films to watch after seeing a few of Don Bluth’s films lately.
The film is set on a farm where a group of farm animals secretly party inside of a barn when their farmer goes away. One of the animals, a carefree but irresponsible cow named Otis, tries to live up to his adopted father Ben’s expectations of being a leader and protector of the farm animals after Ben is killed by coyotes while also trying to balance his fun time partying, and a lot of random and goofy comedic hijinks ensue throughout the film.
This film is popular online, though mainly coming from meme culture. The movie is really stupid and irreverent, and it has quite a lot of “lol random” moments (the Wild Mike gag was one, there wasn’t really an explanation for it) and jokes that don’t quite land, plus some parts of the film’s story felt like random subplots. I think the only joke I kind of thought was funny was this gag where a donkey hits the farmer three times in a row after he finds the animals partying and Otis’ getting increasingly annoyed over it. I’d say that the opening part with Otis and his friends going surfboarding on the hills and flying in the sky, getting covered in a geyser of oil and a bunch of chicken feathers was kind of cool to watch, I won’t lie.
However, I say that this film is very fitting to watch if you feel very bored and want something random to watch, cuz what happens in this film is slightly entertaining. Some moments in the movie were insane! I found it crazy how the cow’s milk the animals drink in the film is their equivalent of alcohol/beer (since this ferret character goes crazy and begins acting drunk and weird toward Otis after he drinks a lot of it, plus the way a group of cows act when one of them is carrying glass bottles of milk) and there was a part where Otis and a group of cows get revenge on a boy for cow-tipping and what ensues after that was INSANE, because the cows escape the boy’s house in a car they stole from a couple and go crazy drinking cow’s milk while also getting chased by the police (who are under the assumption the car is being driven by teenagers) and the cows’ freaking out about how their lives will be over if they get caught, and I was pretty much going “what even is this movie?” and just laughing out loud from how weird it was. It fails at comedy, but it absolutely succeeds in having such a strange plot that is just so insane and hilarious to laugh at.
But, despite the strangeness of the plot, the film is sometimes sad and has a few moments I’d say are heartfelt. I’m not joking, even though this movie is stupid and not even close to a masterpiece, it had some genuine moments mixed in with the stupidity and unfunny comedy, mainly coming from Otis and his relationship with his dad. The part where Ben sings a cover of “I Won’t Back Down” and then goes on to fight off a group of coyotes with his guitar to protect hens while the song plays, followed up with him succeeding in his effort in protecting the hens and then dying from his wounds was actually sad, and the final battle with Otis going up against the same group of coyotes while I Won’t Back Down plays as a callback to Ben’s battle with the coyotes earlier in the movie actually made me feel kind of sad and sentimental, and I thought it was cool. It’s surprising how a film so unfunny (besides just a few moments) and impertinent actually had a few deep moments that made me feel something, not to mention the themes about learning responsibility, prioritizing your tasks, learning that everything can’t all be fun, and maturing that go alongside those moments too.
It’s not a great film, far from it, but I kinda liked it despite how some people think this film is bad. It’s definitely not good at being super funny, but if you are feeling bored and want some random movie with random stuff and a random plot to watch to satisfy your boredom, I’d say watch this. I’m actually probably going to rewatch this later today for fun.
I've been watching more movies as a more regular thing instead of...what feels like barely more than bi-monthly. Watched Secret of the Wilderpeople. I think that's the title, I dunno. It was good, if not something that's going to mean anything to me in a week. It's a type of troubled youth trying to avoid going back to child services again story, he slowly forms a friendship with a flawed uncle figure. It has a very funny villain who shouldn't be a villain yet takes the role of trying to find this kid to 80s movie levels of absurdity.
It's a Taika Watiti movie, and boy did it feel weird watching it after seeing his last superhero movie. It was impossible for me to not keep thinking "wow, this movie has a focus on creating an atmosphere and good comedy that isn't as crammed down your throats as possible". There are effects in what seems like a largely New Zealand funded film that barely needs any effects that are better than a decent amount of effects in that last Thor movie as well, which is just a perfect example of how pointlessly mainstream cg movies embarrass themselves.
But it was a good movie on its own. A perfect showcase of how all consuming Marvel is though is that it has the kid from Deadpool 2, and in both of those movies he's a highlight, being apparently typecast as a troubled youth. He's a very natural for his age, but in that way where it barely feels like he's acting, he's just a young teen saying things. Honestly the only part of the movie I didn't like was when Taika himself had his obligatory cameo and it felt like he was trying to do standup more than anything for his scene, it was weird. Otherwise, it is a good movie, end of statement.
Saw Frenzy for the first time. Pretty good. More risque than older Hitchcock films with rape and nudity and such (this was 1972, the second-last he ever made, his first was directed 47 years prior in the silent era). I never hear it mentioned alongside his classics, which I suppose is understandable, since he made so many.
Intruder (1989). 80s Slasher movie with Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi, and Bruce Campbell. It was marketed as STARRING Bruce Campbell, but he appears at the end for less than 2 mins as a cop. He is my favourite actor, so even a cameo is worth my while. Also, probably one of Sam's biggest acting roles.
Supermarket staff get picked off 1 by 1 in a gruesome manner. It seems a done deal who is doing it, but then you are not sure.
I would not watch a pure Slasher film were it not for the involvement of people in this film, as not really my thing, but quite liked this one.
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