[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo
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figmentPez
Staff member
Rim of the World
From the trailer I thought this was going to be Stranger Things meets Attack the Block. Nope. This is a big ol' block of cheese. Stranger Things is 80s aesthetic, but smarter and clearer. Rim of the World is campy and implausible. Without remarking on it's quality, it's tone is Troop Beverly Hills, The Breakfast Club, and Adventures in Babysitting, with a slight filter through Tumblr and maybe a bit of Escape from New York and the Terminator. (Sorry I've never seen Meatballs or any other 80s summer camp movies to compare it to. It doesn't actually spend much time at summer camp, though.)
I have no idea if it's good, but I had a lot of fun watching it. It's dumb at points, almost criminally so, but it recovers and has some genuinely good moments. This is not going to be a classic, but it's got charm. Other people can weigh in on if it's a good movie, a good-bad movie, or just a plain bad movie, but I think it's worth a watch, especially if you go in expecting cheese.
From the trailer I thought this was going to be Stranger Things meets Attack the Block. Nope. This is a big ol' block of cheese. Stranger Things is 80s aesthetic, but smarter and clearer. Rim of the World is campy and implausible. Without remarking on it's quality, it's tone is Troop Beverly Hills, The Breakfast Club, and Adventures in Babysitting, with a slight filter through Tumblr and maybe a bit of Escape from New York and the Terminator. (Sorry I've never seen Meatballs or any other 80s summer camp movies to compare it to. It doesn't actually spend much time at summer camp, though.)
I have no idea if it's good, but I had a lot of fun watching it. It's dumb at points, almost criminally so, but it recovers and has some genuinely good moments. This is not going to be a classic, but it's got charm. Other people can weigh in on if it's a good movie, a good-bad movie, or just a plain bad movie, but I think it's worth a watch, especially if you go in expecting cheese.
It's probably more enjoyable on the other end.
Godzilla King of the Monsters was disappointing. Story was a mess. None of the monster fighting was anywhere NEAR as interesting as the last Godzilla movie, as little of it as there was in that movie.
I dunno, it didn't work for me. It's not Pacific Rim 2 shitty, but it's also not good.
PS: How is Zhang Ziyi 40 years old? She looked like..20 in the movie.
I dunno, it didn't work for me. It's not Pacific Rim 2 shitty, but it's also not good.
PS: How is Zhang Ziyi 40 years old? She looked like..20 in the movie.
The monsters never felt as BIG in KOTM as in Godzilla 2014, but I think that's 2014's director being Gareth Edwards. Between that, Monsters, and Rogue One, I've noticed he's better than anyone at making stuff feel enormous even if it's just CGI.
Because they split her in two. 
*brazzers logo*Because they split her in two.
Aladdin
I rather liked this version, actually. There's a lot of heart, a lot of charm, a lot of great visuals, and a lot of heartwarming moments. The overall story and structure was the same as the animated version, but there were enough differences to make this movie feel like it had its own identity.
In terms of the cast, this was Will Smith's movie to carry, and he pulled it off wonderfully. While he didn't try to recreate Robin Williams's performance, he matched the original genie in terms of the energy of the performance by injecting all the Will Smith-ness he could muster into the role, and it actually works. Mena Massoud is full of charm as Aladdin, and Naomi Scott is the perfect blend of beauty, strength, intelligence, and innocence in this updated version of Jasmine. She's also got a great voice, and the new show-stopping number she gets shows off her singing wonderfully.
Also, I liked how this genie will twist your wish into something nasty if he doesn't like you, like the djinn of legends were known to do.
I rather liked this version, actually. There's a lot of heart, a lot of charm, a lot of great visuals, and a lot of heartwarming moments. The overall story and structure was the same as the animated version, but there were enough differences to make this movie feel like it had its own identity.
In terms of the cast, this was Will Smith's movie to carry, and he pulled it off wonderfully. While he didn't try to recreate Robin Williams's performance, he matched the original genie in terms of the energy of the performance by injecting all the Will Smith-ness he could muster into the role, and it actually works. Mena Massoud is full of charm as Aladdin, and Naomi Scott is the perfect blend of beauty, strength, intelligence, and innocence in this updated version of Jasmine. She's also got a great voice, and the new show-stopping number she gets shows off her singing wonderfully.
Also, I liked how this genie will twist your wish into something nasty if he doesn't like you, like the djinn of legends were known to do.
Well, Naomi Scott is incredibly hot...
Apart from that though, I disagree that this movie lacked heart. The cast all attack their roles with gusto, and the movie treats the original with respect while also updating it for modern audiences. I feel like it was made by people who loved and got the original animated film.
As for the songs, I don't understand how anyone could say they were bad. Sure, Naomi Scott is no Lea Salonga, but then again who is? I thought the cast all did great with their songs. There were some changes, for example Never Had a Friend Like Me gets a rap segment, which I suppose might rub people the wrong way, but that ties into what I said earlier about Will Smith going full Will Smith. It works for him.
Though I'm not sure why I liked this version of Aladdin while feeling meh about the live action Beauty and the Beast. The two films pretty much do the same thing, ie recreate the original animated movie while adding some modern touches to it. It can't be because Emma Watson isn't hot enough, cause she definitely is. I guess Aladdin 2019 just tickled me in all the right places.
Apart from that though, I disagree that this movie lacked heart. The cast all attack their roles with gusto, and the movie treats the original with respect while also updating it for modern audiences. I feel like it was made by people who loved and got the original animated film.
As for the songs, I don't understand how anyone could say they were bad. Sure, Naomi Scott is no Lea Salonga, but then again who is? I thought the cast all did great with their songs. There were some changes, for example Never Had a Friend Like Me gets a rap segment, which I suppose might rub people the wrong way, but that ties into what I said earlier about Will Smith going full Will Smith. It works for him.
Though I'm not sure why I liked this version of Aladdin while feeling meh about the live action Beauty and the Beast. The two films pretty much do the same thing, ie recreate the original animated movie while adding some modern touches to it. It can't be because Emma Watson isn't hot enough, cause she definitely is. I guess Aladdin 2019 just tickled me in all the right places.
Just got back from "Godzilla King Of The Monsters". I really enjoyed it. The plot was stupid, but it didn't matter. And the human characters were a lot more engaging than in the previous outing. I thought the monster battles were fucking brutal spectacles.
It's a big dumb kaiju movie and I am so happy I saw it on the big screen. Thumbs up.
It's a big dumb kaiju movie and I am so happy I saw it on the big screen. Thumbs up.
Finally saw End Game. I want more Ronin. Hulk was funny. I teared up over Black Widow. Captain America really pissed me off rather than giving me warm fuzzies at the end. Overall I walked out feeling a little disappointed, and a little heartache-y, but satisfied.
Godzilla King of the Monsters
I've never been a big Kaiju fan. Certainly not like @Hailey Knight. But this made me feel like an awed 4-year-old at time. I loved it. Just unbelievably fun. The plot is pretty stupid, as Null says, but I'll agree that the characters were engaging enough to keep things moving. The technobabble was a lot of nonsense, but unlike the first Godzilla movie, they kept rewarding the audience with awesome fun. And I actually dug the mythology that these creatures are centuries-old titans. For some reason, I thought Godzilla was a mutated lizard from nuclear testing. Maybe that's other origin stories.
Oddly enough, I felt compelled to see this in IMAX. Not 3D. Just IMAX. My gut told me the giant screen would showcase the sheer scale and spectacle. I was right and I'm glad I made that call.
But yeah, I dug the hell out of this. I haven't seen Kong Island, but I think I'll fix that soon. I hear it was pretty good.
I've never been a big Kaiju fan. Certainly not like @Hailey Knight. But this made me feel like an awed 4-year-old at time. I loved it. Just unbelievably fun. The plot is pretty stupid, as Null says, but I'll agree that the characters were engaging enough to keep things moving. The technobabble was a lot of nonsense, but unlike the first Godzilla movie, they kept rewarding the audience with awesome fun. And I actually dug the mythology that these creatures are centuries-old titans. For some reason, I thought Godzilla was a mutated lizard from nuclear testing. Maybe that's other origin stories.
Oddly enough, I felt compelled to see this in IMAX. Not 3D. Just IMAX. My gut told me the giant screen would showcase the sheer scale and spectacle. I was right and I'm glad I made that call.
But yeah, I dug the hell out of this. I haven't seen Kong Island, but I think I'll fix that soon. I hear it was pretty good.
I recall that, but I thought that particular origin was from other, earlier works, too. I could be wrong. Keep in mind, I am not even remotely well-read on Kaiju stuff.
In the original, he was awoken and irradiated by atomic testing. The mutation thing was kind of muddled by the English version's butchering.
But it didn't become a big thing until the 90s movies, where a docile Godzillasaurus was mutated by atomic testing.
EDIT: By 90s movies, I mean the Japanese ones, not "that's a lot of fish."
And there's Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, a stand-alone movie where Godzilla is the souls of WWII soldiers who died and we're forgotten.
Kong: Skull Island is fun, though now I mostly associate it with the director calling out CinemaSins and making the internet collectively go "hey, you're right, this YouTube channel is awful."
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The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
A bit behind talking about this one, we saw it in...March, I think? (EDIT: It was the last wk of Feb)
I was not sure they'd be able to capture the magic of the first film. I went in expecting it to be good, but not great. I was wrong. Fantastically, magically, wrong. It's just as great as the original (and deserves to be sold as a 2pk bundle!). It builds (heh) on it, takes it places. Takes the premise and the continuity and does things with them. In-jokes. Character development. References. Sight gags. References of references. Cameos. Will Arnett's Lego Batman. Tiffany Haddish's Wa'Nabi portrayal. The songs they sing. The song they sing back and forth to each other. Even Maya Rudolph's...unexpectedly lukewarm portrayal. And oh, God. The puns. So many. I mean, this movie's writing was at, like, S4 Simpsons-level. And, just like the first movie, it subliminally tells a serious story so seamlessly that you usually can't even tell where one ends and the other begins. One moment you're laughing your butt off, and the next you're pleading with imaginary plastic people who can't even hear you about how they're about to make a huge mistake and they just need to listen. Ten minutes after that, you're sniffling. Again, over imaginary plastic people. The ice cream cone gets so many good lines. The title card "Five Years Later" busted me up. The changes in plot direction kept me guessing. Mayhem is a champion pleader, able to beg for mercy at a level on par with Puss in Boots. And the cameos and gags and sneaky feels kept right on hitting me through the entire movie like a towel-wielding octopus tied to a boxer's stomach. Ow! Ha ha haha! <snap> Ow!
And that twist at the end? GA
......................................SP!
Random comments: "Everything's Not Awesome" is one of THE best songs to ever come out of so-called "kids'" fare, and I will not even deign to entertain attempts at dissent. This was the first movie I can remember where I didn't have to beg everyone to hang out through the credits. Oh, and that song did NOT get stuck inside my head, it was gone in under an hour and didn't even stain the carpet.
Additionally, I get the feeling that there were some BTS Will Ferrell shenanigans, considering how often he shows up in the film.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)
I was not expecting that.
Keep in mind that I have little-to-no experience with Pokémon in general, having dumped both daytime cartoons and CCGs right about the time Pikachu & Co. were becoming popular, and I haven't gotten on the Reynolds train yet with Green Lantern nor any of the Deadpools (though I have seen Blade: Trinity, if that counts), so I likely watched this movie from a different vantage point than the rest of you.
Went to see it blind (I avoided all the spoilers!) with my son and Cranky in order to give my wife some much-needed Me Time. Justice does his role...well, admirably. He plays the part with a nice, steady undercurrent of frustration that makes him feel like the most human character in the entire flick. Kathryn Newton brings the bhamvs and provides multiple additional sources of frustration for our hero. Ryan Reynolds ad-libs his way through pretty much the entire movie (which I'm sure is part of the reason they hired him), but he does apparently take his Ritalin just in time for the Big Scenes. I'm sure that the Pokémon fanservice was top notch, as it was constantly on display throughout the movie.
That said, there is an actual movie in there, one with cinematically poignant cuts/transitions, actual emotional material, and a real message that, while being prominently presented, surprisingly didn't feel like it was being shoved down my throat (I felt it was presented in a very "show, don't tell" manner), and was able to coexist alongside the "show-me-more-cool-Pokémon" movie which was going on.
Also, the ending? I was not expecting that. I mean, sure, there were points where I could see what was coming, but until that final flashback, I really didn't see it coming.
Random comments: The theater was so cold that I had to take off my shirt to give to my son (calm down, I had an undershirt). The gesture was totally lost on him, which I found ironic given the movie we were watching. Ryan Reynolds drunk'd his way through that song so well. Newton's face bugs me because I know I've seen something else that reminds me of her somewhere before. I laughed at the Home Alone cameo...but I was apparently the only one in the theater who caught it. For a moment, I almost thought the opening scene was taking place at Farpoint Station. And it's a damnable shame that Williams couldn't be in it. Also, his last name is "Goodman?" That's almost like naming him "Pro Tagganist."
--Patrick
A bit behind talking about this one, we saw it in...March, I think? (EDIT: It was the last wk of Feb)
I was not sure they'd be able to capture the magic of the first film. I went in expecting it to be good, but not great. I was wrong. Fantastically, magically, wrong. It's just as great as the original (and deserves to be sold as a 2pk bundle!). It builds (heh) on it, takes it places. Takes the premise and the continuity and does things with them. In-jokes. Character development. References. Sight gags. References of references. Cameos. Will Arnett's Lego Batman. Tiffany Haddish's Wa'Nabi portrayal. The songs they sing. The song they sing back and forth to each other. Even Maya Rudolph's...unexpectedly lukewarm portrayal. And oh, God. The puns. So many. I mean, this movie's writing was at, like, S4 Simpsons-level. And, just like the first movie, it subliminally tells a serious story so seamlessly that you usually can't even tell where one ends and the other begins. One moment you're laughing your butt off, and the next you're pleading with imaginary plastic people who can't even hear you about how they're about to make a huge mistake and they just need to listen. Ten minutes after that, you're sniffling. Again, over imaginary plastic people. The ice cream cone gets so many good lines. The title card "Five Years Later" busted me up. The changes in plot direction kept me guessing. Mayhem is a champion pleader, able to beg for mercy at a level on par with Puss in Boots. And the cameos and gags and sneaky feels kept right on hitting me through the entire movie like a towel-wielding octopus tied to a boxer's stomach. Ow! Ha ha haha! <snap> Ow!
And that twist at the end? GA
......................................SP!Random comments: "Everything's Not Awesome" is one of THE best songs to ever come out of so-called "kids'" fare, and I will not even deign to entertain attempts at dissent. This was the first movie I can remember where I didn't have to beg everyone to hang out through the credits. Oh, and that song did NOT get stuck inside my head, it was gone in under an hour and didn't even stain the carpet.
Additionally, I get the feeling that there were some BTS Will Ferrell shenanigans, considering how often he shows up in the film.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)
I was not expecting that.
Keep in mind that I have little-to-no experience with Pokémon in general, having dumped both daytime cartoons and CCGs right about the time Pikachu & Co. were becoming popular, and I haven't gotten on the Reynolds train yet with Green Lantern nor any of the Deadpools (though I have seen Blade: Trinity, if that counts), so I likely watched this movie from a different vantage point than the rest of you.
Went to see it blind (I avoided all the spoilers!) with my son and Cranky in order to give my wife some much-needed Me Time. Justice does his role...well, admirably. He plays the part with a nice, steady undercurrent of frustration that makes him feel like the most human character in the entire flick. Kathryn Newton brings the bhamvs and provides multiple additional sources of frustration for our hero. Ryan Reynolds ad-libs his way through pretty much the entire movie (which I'm sure is part of the reason they hired him), but he does apparently take his Ritalin just in time for the Big Scenes. I'm sure that the Pokémon fanservice was top notch, as it was constantly on display throughout the movie.
That said, there is an actual movie in there, one with cinematically poignant cuts/transitions, actual emotional material, and a real message that, while being prominently presented, surprisingly didn't feel like it was being shoved down my throat (I felt it was presented in a very "show, don't tell" manner), and was able to coexist alongside the "show-me-more-cool-Pokémon" movie which was going on.
Also, the ending? I was not expecting that. I mean, sure, there were points where I could see what was coming, but until that final flashback, I really didn't see it coming.
Random comments: The theater was so cold that I had to take off my shirt to give to my son (calm down, I had an undershirt). The gesture was totally lost on him, which I found ironic given the movie we were watching. Ryan Reynolds drunk'd his way through that song so well. Newton's face bugs me because I know I've seen something else that reminds me of her somewhere before. I laughed at the Home Alone cameo...but I was apparently the only one in the theater who caught it. For a moment, I almost thought the opening scene was taking place at Farpoint Station. And it's a damnable shame that Williams couldn't be in it. Also, his last name is "Goodman?" That's almost like naming him "Pro Tagganist."
--Patrick
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figmentPez
Staff member
I Am Mother
In three words: Watch Moon instead.
Actually, there are a lot of things that you'd be better off watching. This movie is pants-on-head stupid. The longer I think about it, the more plot holes I notice. Nothing about this movie is smart. I could say so much more, but this movie doesn't even deserve my time spent ranting.
In three words: Watch Moon instead.
Actually, there are a lot of things that you'd be better off watching. This movie is pants-on-head stupid. The longer I think about it, the more plot holes I notice. Nothing about this movie is smart. I could say so much more, but this movie doesn't even deserve my time spent ranting.
Other than the two Guardians of the Galaxy, I stopped watching the Marvel movies at Iron Man 3. Roommates really want me to watch the third Thor and Black Panther, so those'll happen eventually, but that's about it.
Dave
Staff member
Unless you're a comic nerd and loved Planet Hulk. Then Ragnarok will just piss you off.
I like Planet Hulk a bunch too.
"Hulk not entertaining unless Hulk angry. Hulk about rage, not pathos." -- Some studio exec, probably.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
The MCU in general does that. Did you gripe that Zemo in Civil War WASN'T an immortal hydra baron?