What are you watching?

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Watched the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie last night. Good flick, lots of cameos and callbacks for old school fans. Plus, one entirely unexpected person who I never thought I'd see again:
Ugly Sonic!
 
Saw Top Gun 2. People online have called it Ace Combat: The Movie, and I can see why. That said, I'm a little annoyed that half the supporting cast got short shrift--for example, the pilots who weren't selected for the actual strike pretty much exist as name cards, while Maverick's superior officers were basically stock characters--and the other half had characters and storylines that were woefully undercooked. Except Rooster, to a certain extent.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Enola Holmes. I enjoyed it, and the actress who plays Enola does a really good job. Complaints...the plot twists were all obvious from a kilometre away. Soon as they showed her mother's secret meeting I was pretty sure it was going to be about women's suffrage. They did Mycroft dirty. And Enola actually does almost no real detective work in the film. It feels like it was literally all cryptography stuff and nothing else. Meanwhile, Sherlock in two scenes does more deductive reasoning stuff.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I finally got around to watching the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie since it leaves (Canadian) Netflix on the 14th. I enjoyed it. It seems just a little...generic, I want to say? Like, it exploits the Sonic mythos well, and isn't afraid to have fun, but it feels like the movie is weirdly split into three parts: a 'I'm lonely' beginning, a cross-country romp middle of the film, and then an action-packed last third. And somehow, it feels like a generic alien with superpowers could have been substituted in the entire film easily.

The ending credit roll pixel animation is pretty great.
 

Zetas

Lurking upon the deep
Saw the D&D movie, my real main complaint is they had so few monsters. Seriously if your going to the Underdark have more than a few Intellect Devourer and chunk the tragic dragon show up on screen.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Watched John Wick Chapter 4 & The Super Mario Brothers tonight. Loved them. JW went out like a boss, on his own terms.

The SMB film was amazing. All the little Easter eggs, the interaction of the characters... damn. Also, Chris Pratt was unfairly judged, in my opinion. He did a fine Mario voice, and his take on the classic 'Mario' lines was fine - I think people got a little too wrapped up in the 'We want the Mario voice from the games!' spiel to realize that voice would be kinda grating for 90 minutes. That's my opinion, YMMV.
 
Watched John Wick Chapter 4 & The Super Mario Brothers tonight. Loved them. JW went out like a boss, on his own terms.
And they did it in such a way that let's them bring him back for another movie, if Keanu decides he wants to do one.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
And they did it in such a way that let's them bring him back for another movie, if Keanu decides he wants to do one.
While I would love to see Mr. Wick return, I kinda feel it would be a mistake. The ending brought the series full circle, and it works perfectly. I think the studio/producers need to learn when to leave things alone.
 

mgsaintz

Well-Known Member
Honestly studios and producers really don't care about stories coming to a proper ending or the quality of the story, they care more about the revenue that they bring in. If there was enough interest in a movie they'll make it no matter how bad it was as long it brings in the cash.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Watched the 2012 version of Total Recall. Absolutely amazing dystopian setpieces and good choreogrpahy. Absolutely terrible characters and plot development, and the Rekall angle gets teased a few times before just being completely ignored instead of being used to set up ambiguity in the ending.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
John Wick 4, finally. While the choreography is still spot on (and some amazing camera work. Late in the movie, one fighting scene goes to a top down section for a two-minute shot with no cuts), I feel like the story pacing was really lacking here.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
The 2023 Super Mario Bros. movie

While the plot is just so-so, it's a little bit refreshing that instead of making Princess Peach the damsel in distress, they actually switch the roles around and make Luigi the person who needs to be rescued. Truly unironically some girl power. Bowser having a musical side is pretty neat. And the visuals, especially of the Mushroom Kingdom and warp areas, are absolutely stunning. Simply beautiful, and it makes me more and more excited for the future of animated movies.

Something that amuses me is that I work in an industrial setting with process lines, so I know what big pipelines should look like. The little bit with the sewer in Brooklyn, the piping is spot-on, down to flanges and safety valves.
 
The Last Voyage of the Demeter, A Haunting in Venice, Dumb Money, and The Kill Room were all really good. Also, Gran Turismo was much better than it had any right to be. A bit late, but I also watched Tetris on Apple Movies not too long ago and thought it was fantastic. Air is also worth a watch if you skipped it back in the spring.
 
Isn't it the winter holidays? How was I the only person watching the 1:30 P.M. matinee of Godzilla Minus One?

Anyway. This isn't so much of a monster movie but rather a disaster movie (think Dante's Peak or Twister), except with Godzilla as the natural disaster. Very much driven by the human drama elements, much more so than the similarly human-focused Shin Godzilla, likely because Godzilla takes even lesser screen time in Minus One than Shin. The film is a touch more apologist for WW2 Imperial Japan than I'd like--apparently all the problems of the IJ military stemmed from the government and the populace bore zero blame? Still, a very solid movie. Shin Godzilla's collection of plucky bureucratic misfits were more colorful and quirky, but Minus One's band of heroes feels more grounded.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
I watched Rebel Moon.

It's not good.

While it's fine to be inspired by various things and pay homage to them, Star Wars was inspired by Flash Gordon and various samurai movies after all, but you need to do something original with that influence.

There's nothing original with Rebel Moon. The plot is stale, the characters bland and the dialogue is tedious.

There aren't even iconic shots that make you go "wow, what a visionary!" like with the opening to A New Hope. And the antagonist's entrance is just so meh. It's all so generic and boring.
 

Lord Raa

Exporter of Juice Tins
Caught Dune part two, the first movie I've seen in the cinema in over a year.

Pretty good.

Needed to do more with Christopher Walken.

Any comparisons between the battle scene and The Two Towers is laughable and anyone who claims it's as good has a problem with recency bias.

Would recommend seeing it.
 
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