I saw Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders in theaters. It was one of those special events and they were only showing it tonight.
The movie captured the essence of the '60s series with zany fights, alliterative speech, and good silly fun. Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar voiced their respective characters so it even sounded authentic. Truth be told, I think Adam West is my favorite Batman.
And holy crap, I would have had such a huge crush on Catwoman had I been a young adult in 1966.
Bunch of college buddies were getting together to see it tonight.
I couldn't get the day off. Everyone else is still sick. Bleah.
Now I wonder if I'll get the chance to see it later.
I learned about its date too late, and all ready decided to see Godzilla this week, since its only one day only in Philly...seriously. One day only...Godzilla. GODZILLA! PHILADELPHIA! A CITY! WHERE LOTS OF PEOPLE WHO LIKE MOVIES ARE! The world is run by MORONS!
Running FOUR days up in some theaters in Jersey, but fuck if I could get a ride to one of those.
Just got back from Hell or High Water. Overall a pretty great film. Really well shot and Jeff Bridges brings the thunder as usual. His performance really stood out to me, especially for the small details he added. It's the kind of roll that someone like Tommy Lee Jones could have done just fine in but wouldn't have added the little things that I think made Bridges stand out so well. Chris Pine did just fine as well and really seemed to sell the role. Gil Birmingham was really great as well. He's got a little speech in the middle that really sells the heart of the film.
Story wise, things are simple enough. Two good ol' boys from west Texas are gonna rob some banks to save the family ranch and there's a couple of Walker Texas Rangers out to find 'em. That's basically it, really. There's no real big twist that throws the movie off course or anything to get in the way of what's really just a simple story being played out.
I guess if I have to subtract points for anything it's that the overall message of "kinda fuck banks" gets played out a bit too much but they at least still do it in different ways. In one scene Chris Pine leaves his diner waitress a 200 dollar tip which then Jeff Bridges has to take from her because it's evidence even though that 200 bucks was enough to REALLY help that lady out.
Some really great acting and a simple plot really move along this low key heist film. 9/10
Shin Godzilla was pretty good. It's a highly political movie; it's clear the creative team has some things to say about the current state of the Japanese government and its relation with the U.S. government, and they take their time with that stuff. If those inner workings of Japan aren't of interest to you, or the human drama generated by it, it'll be a long sit.
Fortunately that's some of my favorite stuff from The Return of Godzilla/aka Godzilla 1985, so I was onboard. Plot is very simple, giant creature shows up, Japan wrings it hands on what to do about it. Our main character Yaguchi is a young politician within the meeting of the Prime Minister and the various section ministers, and it clearly frustrates how slow his government is to react to a crisis and how quick they are to bend to American demands. A lot of the movie focuses on him and his small team trying to do something about this crisis without the in-fighting and avoidance of responsibility that plagues the rest of the departments, the Diet, and the Prime Minister's office.
Godzilla himself is unlike he's every been seen before. This version is an interesting blend of the more animalistic qualities of the 1998 Godzilla and the godlike qualities seen elsewhere. There are some references to other movies while they discuss possible plans, some of which were actually used in earlier films. This is not a sequel though; it's really the first total reboot on the Japanese side of Godzilla movies, with the original film having not happened in any capacity. This allows Godzilla to have new rules and a lot of unexpected surprises.
I appreciate that the music used some stuff from the 1954 original without remixing it, but still conducted it again in places so there was a nice blend of old and new. There's new music too, of course, with the movie's main theme being excellent.
Without giving spoilers, there are some loose plot threads that make it clear the movie makers have a larger vision here, less about making Godzilla sequels and more that this is just the beginning of a bigger story. To discuss that more, I'll have to get into spoilers:
Godzilla's origin story is divulged as a creature living in the ocean that was exposed to radioactive waste and mutated to absorb it instead of being killed by it. Over the course of the movie, Godzilla continues to mutate depending on the environmental factors and hostile forces he encounters. However, there are hints that something more sinister might be going on. There's a scientist who went missing early in the movie, and he had a great deal of hidden research about Godzilla from years before the movie begins. Does he have something to do with Godzilla's creation? With why Godzilla is attacking? This isn't really answered in the movie and may be being left open for a sequel.
There are some other bits about Godzilla's genetic sequence, a subplot between two characters' political goals, and the structure of the Japanese government that are left up in the air. The biggest is the final image of the movie--it's unclear what we're seeing, and yet also chilling. The finale involves freezing Godzilla with a blood coagulent, meaning Tokyo now has a fucking huge statue on one side. But the very end of the movie, the camera follows up Godzilla's tail to the tip, where the weird coiling bone structure there has splintered, revealing what looks like humanoid skeletons coming out with Godzilla dorsal spines on their backs. It's sequel-baiting ... and I want that sequel. This is the most exciting thing in the climax, as sadly like with many kaiju movies, the second act's big event steals the movie, leaving the finale to be underwhelming. But those first two attacks are incredible.
Overall, I would've some more energy in the last third of the movie, but it was an interesting, enjoyable watch with some moments of true horror. Being shot like a disaster movie or news coverage of a disaster make it feel almost too real at times. I'm hoping there will be a sequel soon so the director can build off the ideas introduced here.
Saw it with my bro today, an interesting take...though I will admit I found it a LITTLE weird how the lady who was supposed to be born in America...had a worse English accent than most of the Japanese people speaking English. Minor qualm though, still loved it.
Saw it with my bro today, an interesting take...though I will admit I found it a LITTLE weird how the lady who was supposed to be born in America...had a worse English accent than most of the Japanese people speaking English. Minor qualm though, still loved it.
Yeah, my wife pointed that out too. Which would make sense if they said she was born in America, raised in Japan, but she kept referring to it as her grandmother's country, implying she really hadn't spend much time there as a kid, really only more present in her ambassadorial role as an adult.
Oh Japan, even when you HAVE accurate Americans in your films, you just can't help having one Japanese actor speak English poorly can you? Outside of the accent her character was good though, I'd say.
Oh Japan, even when you HAVE accurate Americans in your films, you just can't help having one Japanese actor speak English poorly can you? Outside of the accent her character was good though, I'd say.
She spoke English just fine, she just had an accent. That's not poor speaking. Actually, I was impressed with the English in this one. In the 90s movies, the criteria for English speaking parts was "can you speak English?" In this one, it was "can you act in English?" Thus we don't have stupid shit like "HE'S RIGHT!" from Return of Godzilla or "Take that, you dinosaur!" from Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. Actually, the entire American navy in that was awful acting.
Hey Yosh, how did the people at your screening react to the final shot?
At mine, everyone was silent as the camera panned over Godzilla, and then when it hit the tail, there was a lot of "what?" and "what's that?" Cut to credits, commotion through the theater . It was great.
It's unfortunate that the director says he won't be coming back for a sequel. I hope Toho starts rolling these out annually as they've done in the past. We could be up to movie #4 by the time Legendary finally gets a sequel to their 2014 film out the door.
Hey Yosh, how did the people at your screening react to the final shot?
At mine, everyone was silent as the camera panned over Godzilla, and then when it hit the tail, there was a lot of "what?" and "what's that?" Cut to credits, commotion through the theater . It was great.
It's unfortunate that the director says he won't be coming back for a sequel. I hope Toho starts rolling these out annually as they've done in the past. We could be up to movie #4 by the time Legendary finally gets a sequel to their 2014 film out the door.
Saw Cooties last night. It was alright. A good horror comedy with an ok blend of each. The infected kids are done well and are pretty creepy at times. Some of the humor is off though. Like, the weird science teacher examines Frodo's poop to see if he's infected and says "it's ok I was wearing gloves!" And holds up his hands to show he isn't wearing gloves and didn't realize it? Like what the hell?
It was pretty satisfying to see a bunch of kids get the crap beat out of them though. I hate kids. 6.5/10 plus points for a kid named Patriot being the main villain minus points for Hurley from LOST spending the whole movie in a van and not killing a single kid. Spoiler.
I watched it tonight as well. I still stand by that they sound SO OLD. But it was the best thing DC Animation has done in a long time.
Nitpicks kids like me would notice because we spent all our time as kids watching this show:
- The Batcave was backwards.
- Commissioner Gordon had a mustache.
- Joker didn't.
- No narrator.
The good:
Everything else. I haven't laughed that hard at something in quite a while.
I almost fell out of my chair when Catwoman stepped on Robin's face.
The new Rocky Horror was okay. Cast was pretty solid but I feel like Laverne Cox was trying too hard to be Tim Curry at first. She's also not as solid a singer as the rest of the cast so the Frank N Furter songs fell kinda flat.
I actually got a little sad watching Tim Curry. I know he's been through a lot and it was great to include him, but you could see it was a struggle for him.
I actually got a little sad watching Tim Curry. I know he's been through a lot and it was great to include him, but you could see it was a struggle for him.
Also after thinking on it, I realized what it was that was bothering me through the whole musical. Everyone looks too clean. Cox sings the line about not being freaked out about how she looks, but her and everyone else in the castle dress like a Vegas stage show, not a bunch of super-creepy, overtly sexual aliens.
Yeah, I noticed that. It was just a tad too polished. And I guess since it was on a main network at 8 PM, they weren't going to let Frank get quite as handsy as Tim Curry was in the original.
It also felt like it was sped up a bit, as far as the line delivery. It made it hard to shout back at the tv.
Also after thinking on it, I realized what it was that was bothering me through the whole musical. Everyone looks too clean. Cox sings the line about not being freaked out about how she looks, but her and everyone else in the castle dress like a Vegas stage show, not a bunch of super-creepy, overtly sexual aliens.
Yeah. Like I think the perfect example is the end of Eddie's segment. Curry is honestly terrifying as he approaches, attacks and calms down, where Cox just kind of sneered and stabbed.
Big Trouble in Little China is a 10/10 movie and I will not hear otherwise.Just as much fun as the first time I watched it, no matter how many viewings I get through.
I read a review years ago that discussed the nature vs nurture questions brought up by the events of the movie, particularly the climax, and that it ends abruptly because the movie doesn't have answers to those questions.
Still love this film, great comedy, great mystery but one minor qualm...anyone else think they should've gone whole-hog with the Danny/Angel possibly romantic sub-text? I say minor as I still love the movie either way, but it IS there.
Also wish there WAS like...some sort of sequel, I say some-sort as this was the second of a trilogy of films, but 'twould be nice. Short film at least.
. It was great.
