Recently Watched

I honestly don't see the problem with The Killing Joke, the comic's still good, the movie was good. I really enjoyed it.

TTB, that is the opposite of Simian's post, because you've said the film is trash but after your post I genuinely want to watch it.

testtubebaby wrote:

Fight Valley

Never underestimate the power of a good, solid, apology to the family of your murder victim.

testtubebaby wrote:

Fight Valley

You guys remember that post simian put up about mass effect andromeda being a great game and then and writing an essay on what was wrong with it? well this post isn't like that one...

To be fair, I said it was a good game - not a great one - and I did then go on to post another essay about what it got right.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2


It's a bit predictable about where it's going, especially if you know the comics and Ego, but I really enjoyed it. Great humor mixed up with some seriousness, Groot is cute, Drax is even funnier, Stan Lee cameo was fun. Great flick.

Yeah, I really liked it. Although I knew Ego was a thing, I actually completely forgot about it until he gave his origin story. I also enjoyed young Groot heaps more than I thought I would - I expected to be irritated by his antics, but he was genuinely endearing. Drax was basically the same character as he was in the first, but that's fine, because that character is great fun.

I also really enjoyed that it maintained that over-arching theme of family throughout it - actually had a lot more heart to it than I expected.

Just got back from seeing Guardians Vol 2 and to echo the above, I thought it was pretty much the perfect Guardians sequel. It felt like a very personal story and was told with wit, imagination and no small amount of heart.

It was terrific.

Got around to seeing Rogue One the other day. Christ, was it boring. No one in the cast had any semblance of charisma. NO ONE. That includes the robot, Donnie McBlindguy and his hetero lifemate, Shootnstuff. Humor can only take a character so far when the rest of their dialogue is just a bunch of exposition and tired speeches. I still have to care about them at the end of the day. I cared for no one. NO ONE. Even Anakin had more going on with him than these people. Petulant and aggravating he may be, but at least there was an attempt to give us an emotional arc and make us feel what he felt. We still saw him as a person. Who is going to remember Jyn for anything (other than her constant wide-eyed staring)? NO ONE!

Spoiler:

At least the music's gud.

Sock wrote:

Who is going to remember Jyn for anything (other than her constant wide-eyed staring)?

haha, the fact the first thought it had was "Who the fuck is Jyn?" probably says enough.

Fuck you donnie yen is awesome.

His character wasn't, though. There was so little to him other than being some blind guy who had a hard on for the Force (haw haw, blind faith, I geddit).

Sock wrote:

His character wasn't, though. There was so little to him other than being some blind guy who had a hard on for the Force (haw haw, blind faith, I geddit).

Pretty much, but he was a badass when he took down the stormtroopers and every film needs a bromance.

Seriously though it felt like they wanted a Jedi in the film, but didn't have one so we just got a weird monk. I can't see any sensible reason why he wouldn't have a light sabre, as seeing as he was using the force to fight something i'm pretty sure jedis are supposed to be doing. Unless Jedi school has a no blind people policy.

They wanted to have a guy who adamantly believed in something. It's harder to do that with a proper Jedi, as they know they're always surrounded by the Force and could do the things they do so they went with a disabled preacher. Everyone has a beginning and end point that fits this narrative. They just don't have the meat to make it all work. They don't play with this guy, having his faith get challenged and waver all that much. He just repeatedly spouts his chant until it pays off.

Fuck. I can't believe I didn't see the blind faith thing before. I'm a fucking Arts major. Fuck.

I guess that part of my brain kinda turns off a bit when I watch Star Wars.

Fast and Furious 8

The F&F films are a guilty pleasure of mine. Objectively they're not great films, but they're simply really good fun. This wasn't much different. It gets more and more ridiculous as it nears its conclusion, with most of the set pieces giving minimum fucks about what makes sense and maximum fucks about things that are either wryly amusing or simply put a stupid grin on your face.

Yes, there are some missteps but for the most part it's a riot.

Cube its a 1997 film where a bunch of people were trapped in a cube, the whole film is filmed using one and a half rooms using camera trickery. Very suspenseful film and despite some cheesy and bad acting is well worth the watch a remake is coming.

Superbuu3 wrote:

Cube its a 1997 film where a bunch of people were trapped in a cube, the whole film is filmed using one and a half rooms using camera trickery. Very suspenseful film and despite some cheesy and bad acting is well worth the watch a remake is coming.

You should see Hypercube and Cube Zero as well. I found all three to be quite entertaining.

Eevil-Psycho wrote:

Superbuu3 wrote:

Cube its a 1997 film where a bunch of people were trapped in a cube, the whole film is filmed using one and a half rooms using camera trickery. Very suspenseful film and despite some cheesy and bad acting is well worth the watch a remake is coming.

You should see Hypercube and Cube Zero as well. I found all three to be quite entertaining.

I've seen Hypercube before but that was kinda crap because of the time travel/alternate timelines/time dilation I mean it was an alright film, but it was missing something. I will check out Cube Zero though, hopefully it gives a few more answers as to what is going on in the world.

When Marnie Was There

The last film from Studio Ghibli before their self-imposed (and hopefully not permanent) hiatus, it's based on an old english novel and sees an emotionally reclusive 12 year old girl spending a summer in the country and stumblin across a familiar looking marsh house, and the girl who lives there.

It's typically charming, witty, wonderfully animated and bittersweet. It may not quite be up there with the absolute best of Ghibli's work, but if you can get through the wonderful ending without a tear at least starting to well up in your eye then you're a cold-hearted bastard.

If it's the last thing Ghibli ever do, it's a fitting emotional swan song.

Miyazaki recently came out of retirement to work on one last film.

The Mummy


I was perfectly fine with the movie and was enjoying it right up till the moment

Spoiler:

John Wick 2 was rad. My opinion is relatively similar to Simian's, so to avoid echoing his too much I'll keep it brief. The premise isn't quite as original or interesting as the first, but it serves to be a decent middle-step to raise the stakes for the third pretty well. The plot is really not the point of this film. I actually really like the world-building, even if this one did lean into the wackiness of it way more than the first. It's just something that sets it apart from other action films, and I enjoy the way it explores it. A lot of the action scenes were just really cool and satisfying to watch. I hope the third is good.

Logan is another movie I really enjoyed. I had lost all hype going into this, but that was probably a good thing. I had also forgotten it was supposed to be hyper violent, so when Wolverine started ripping people's throats out immediately I was a bit surprised, but not displeased. Laura was great, the little girl they got to play her killed it. James and Charles buddy-copping around was also great. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart are still fantastic in their roles, and have top chemistry. Lastly, I dig the whole western thing they had going on - I've decided that although regular westerns don't do a lot for me, I quite enjoy movies that play on the tropes and take the western some place else.

Could be. To be fair, that could improve a lot of movies I've found lacking.

Not sure if i mentioned it previously but Paranorman is awesome and I also watch one of the other films by Laika called Coraline thought that was pretty damn good though i preferred Paranorman. Going to watch their other movies soon.