What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

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28 Days Later - Haven't seen this since like 2003.  First act remains an absolute masterclass, and the third act works way better for me now, but it is still a pretty jarring shift in tone.  Mixed results from the SD picture quality.

A Real Pain - Funny, touching, tremendously acted, and barely 90 minutes.  A real triumph.

Predator: Killer of Killers - It looks stunning and it's the absolute best use of the overall premise since the original.  Uses the medium to show some real balls out action sequences that would never work in live action but feel right at home in animation.  It starts to stretch credulity a bit too much by the third act, and the connective tissue aspect that marries the eras together robs a bit of the tension.  I'd watch 2 or 3 more of these, but the basic concept would start running itself dry by then.

Pale Rider - Feels like a more traditional Western than Clint's other works in genre, but it's no less a well-crafted film than the majority of those, either.  Just a little sillier and a little lighter, it's still a very entertaining time at the pictures.

28 Weeks Later - While I liked Days a little bit more on this revisit, I liked Weeks a little less.  Bigger, shinier, and more bombastic, it just doesn't hit on the same emotional level, despite having a couple of sequences that put the first to shame in the horror department.

Popeye - Like a series of SNL sketches where the first one bombed, but the cast loved it, and kept bringing it back.  There are a few laughs scattered throughout, and the cast is 100% committed (obligatory Shelly Duvall shout-out), and the production design is impeccable.  All that being said it's aimless, paced pretty poorly, and the songs all basically dirges that are not helped at all by the piss poor sound mixing.  Handily the worst Altman I've seen, but worth watching at least once as a curiosity.

Austin Powers in Goldmember - Absolutely the worst of these, but was still better than I remembered.  Has a fair number of new ideas, but it also recycles a fair few bits, which was also a major flaw in the second film.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The Neary family drama stuff is tremendously acted, but it just doesn't engage me the way the logistical side of things does.  Watching people figure stuff out is one of my favorite things to see portrayed on screen, and this movie does it phenomenally well.

It also looks like a million bucks.  Maybe the most well-shot of any of Spielberg's work.

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Finished the first season of the new Rurouni Kenshin series, and I liked it fair amount.  Occasionally had some tonal whiplash, but I was generally into it by the end.

For a Few Dollars More - Almost unfathomably cool.  Makes more use of idiosyncratic filmmaking flourishes than Leone's other spaghetti Westerns, and, like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Clint arguably isn't even the main character. Oddly not as well-paced as Leone's even longer films.

In a Violent Nature - The concept is really strong, but it needed to commit to it 100%.  Every time the focus actually shifts off Johnny it gets a little bit worse.  The (purposely I assume) generic dialogue would have gone down a lot easier with better performances, and that might have helped.

Kindergarten Cop - I think the problems a lot of people have with this movie is that they think just because it has kids in it that means it is a kids' movie. It's not. It's an action conedy that has kids as a plot element. This movie wouldn't work if Arnold didn't have excellent chemistry with the children, and thankfully it's fantastic.

Zodiac - Paced perfectly and plotted immaculately. Amazing cast, incredibly editing... just incredible filmmaking.

The In-Laws - Peter Falk is so goddamn funny in this. It's a bit like George Clooney in O Brother, where every single line is hilarious. And Arkin is one of the finest straight men of all-time here.  I've never seen a character be so utterly finished with the movie around them.

Really liked the second season of Rurouni Kenshin.  Better overall plot, more interesting animation, more consistency.

The Terminator Zero anime on Netflix has a ton of really cool ideas, but there's also a fair amount of padding.  There's also a pretty big problem with either the capability of the terminator or the plot armor of the lead... probably the latter since we see rooms full of cops and soldiers get merc'd.

Coogan's Bluff - What an odd picture.  It has the standard bits and bobs from 60s pictures that haven't aged too well, but they aren't really the problem here.  Tone is all over the place, and the humor and romance are both kinda flat.  Cop stuff is fine, it just takes too long to really get going.

The Wedding Singer - My favorite of Sandler's 90s output by a pretty wide margin.  Not as ridiculous or high concept as the others, which lets Sandler turn in his best performance of the decade.  It's easy to see why he and Drew made a few more after this, but never quite captured the magic again.

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28 Weeks Later - I think the biggest issue with this movie is the fact that it's really just two different movies back to back.  But both are pretty good!  It also completely sidesteps one of my least favorite zombie / dystopia tropes, which was enough to offset how perplexed I was by the final moments.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen - A bit more slow-paced than I recalled, but still a delight.  Just amazing art direction here.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Still arguably the best popcorn blockbuster of the century.  The pinnacle of the franchise, and in an industry that learned all the wrong lessons from it.

Rio Bravo - Didn't expect this to be such a low key kind of hangout film.  It's got your typical Western tropes, like shootouts, black hats, and saloons, but it's almost leisurely paced.  The Stumpy character leans a bit too much on the stereotypical side, and I don't care that it's Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin, there's only 30 minutes left why are they only just now singing?  Minor issues, but what keeps it from feeling like "perfect" picture.

The Aviator - A three hour biopic about an engineer slash filmmaker that just flies by. That said, I think it could have still had a little fat trimmed.  Some of the CGI and green screen really stands out these day, especially against the attempts to imitate classic Hollywood styles.

The Day the Earth Blew Up - Something about this just didn't really click with me.  It's got its moments, and it looks phenomenal, but I really only laughed a couple of times.

The Man From Snowy River - Pleasant low-stakes coming of age Aussie Western.  Gorgeously shot, excellent score, but not quite enough going on narratively.  Kirk Douglas dons a wonderful fake beard, though.

Finding Nemo - This still looks incredible.  Like, it could be released for the first time today, and it'd still be one of the best looking films of the year.  Ellen is fun as Dory, but Albert Brooks' work here is really what makes the whole thing work. Especially in that insanely dark opening. Biggest issue is that the story beats do start to get a little repetitive after a while.

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Ballerina - Sloppier than any of the 4 mainline Wick films, which is totally understandable if you read about the behind the scenes happenings.  However, it does find itself not quite as bogged down in the mythology as those films can (particularly 2 and 3), which gives it really good pacing. What should be no surprise from this franchise, though, is that the action is absolutely top notch, often feeling even more brutal than what we get in those films.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park - Every setpiece is incredible, but everything else is pretty bland, aside from Pete Postlethwaite, who is basically the only interesting character in the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - It's too bloody long and disjointed.  The Davy Jones stuff is killer, but other than the first 10 minutes or so, it takes way too long to get going.  That whole questionable cannibal island sequence could be cut and the movie would be so much better for it, pacing and content wise.

The Aristocats - 60s-70s Disney animation is one of my favorite aesthetics, and Aristocats makes really good use of it, even if it is narratively super simple.

Jaws - Perfect film.  No notes.

Fried Green Tomatoes - Good in that way that makes you want to read the book so you can spend more time with the characters. Not the biggest fan of the framing device, but Kathy Bates makes it work.

Pee Wee's Big Adventure - Absurdist masterpiece. I don't think there's more than a 3 minute stretch in this movie when I'm not at least chuckling.

Heads of State - 1990s ass movie. Not even close to high art, but the action is all really good, and the characters are fun. A bit too long and overly-twisty, and it could have benefited from an R-rating, but whaddya gonna do?

Pee Wee's Big Vacation - While I'm very happy we got another Pee Wee film before Paul's passing, I do wish it was sooner than what we did get.  While this isn't bad, and has some great moments, it doesn't feel quite right.  It's too clean looking, Mothersbaugh is no Elfman, and Paul's voice just isn't there anymore.

[Cartagia]

Superman - There is a lot going on here, which makes things feel a bit messy and overstuffed.  What works, though, really, really works, and offsets that messy feeling.  Corenswet is terrific, and his chemistry with Brosnahan is off the charts.  The action ranges from good to great, and the VFX are solid all around.  I should also note that John Williams' Superman theme is a cheat code to my affection, and it worked for me every time it popped up here.  Gunn knows what makes comic book movies work in a way that I don't know any other filmmaker comes close.

The Outlaw Josey Wales - Not quite as iconic as the Dollars trilogy, but it's still a hell of a motion picture.  Easily my favorite of Clint's pre-Unforgiven US western output that I've seen so far.

Big Jake - Quick!  Picture in your head what a John Wayne movie looks, moves, and sounds like!  Congratulations you just came up with about 95% of Big Jake.

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Superman is excellent. Looks amazing, the cast is great, Mr. Terrific (who I never heard of before) kinda steals the movie from how cool he is, Superman saves a squirrel. A great movie I would watch again.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a boring slog. Pretty much nothing happens until Galactus shows up for the only fight scene at the end. The majority of superpower usage in the movie was shown in trailers. The Thing pretty much does nothing the whole time. Human Torch is distractingly similar to Robert Downey Jr. The set design is alright I guess?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Superman

DC's history with superman is sketch to say the least, like in every media medium they fumble. Superman 64 trailed Spiderman 64.  Superman vs Batman was a disaster. Batman and Spiderman seem to always be the golden kids at Thanksgiving getting the first spoon of cranberry sauce despite superman being so powerful. With so much legacy to build off of. This movie is DC's much needed Babe Ruth homerun.  The visuals are deliciously lush. Little details bring it all to life. It also introduces other DC icons. But best of all. Bar none. Is the casting and delivery by Lex Luthor.  Goodness gracious that man can act.  Not to mention sell the dread, zaney jealous/evil hybrid that is the character.   The brutality is refreshing in a world of nonsense.  James Gunn is talented with this style of story telling. I think superman lends himself to his style better than suicide squad did. Backstory is rich. The love angle is dense.  It all feels authentic.  The media pundit fun police can sit around crying while box office speaks for itself.  Its a great film. 97/100

I know what.you did last summer (2025)

High highs and low lows.  The cast is believable and casted well. I do think the star studded cast drenched in both nostalgic icons and modern star kids balances well. It sorta plays on the original. I do find Danica and Teddy's tumultuous unite under dark circumstances vibe to be cute. And I like their love arch.  Freddy Prinze Jr. Crushes his role.  Overall it has all you'd want. Until the ending.  The ending is absolute ass. It is not only statistically, ethically and bogusly improbable but doubles down on absurdity.  It is layers of nonsense. It feels shakey on its feet.  Like an old Mike Tyson fighting Jake Paul.  It has its nostalgia. Its sentimental. It has the 90s tropes.  But it has a few dry periods.  It isnt what the original was. But its a fun time. Overall I enjoyed it. It's not even near the scream sequels. But its not as bad as a horror movie can be.  I also think the way they made modern alternatives to the original cast clever and not all the turns are seen coming.   77/100

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KPop Demon Hunters - This is so much fun!  And drop dead gorgeous, to boot.  Catchy songs, great action, it just gets kinda muddled over its messaging towards the end.  Like what really sets the demons apart from humans?  It's never made really clear, but it's a huge part of the plot.

Collateral Damage - Just not the right action vehicle for Arnold, who is also not giving a particularly good performance, even by his standards.  It doesn't have the proper balance between earnestness and bombast.

The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Yeah, it's a totally unnecessary remake, but overall it's still a pretty good time, with a (mostly) great cast.  Hilarious clunker of a last line.

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Happy Gilmore 2

Netflix streaming has brought a meriad of adam sandler films but none as high stake and highly advertised as the sequel to his quintessential 90s comedy Happy Gilmore.  Whenever you see 2 in comedy movies. You typically go in hesitant.  Anchorman 2, Grown Ups 2, Hangover Part 2. Theirs been examples where it just misses. It's so rare for comedy sequels to work and I think the main reason is that jokes in general only work once. Some comedy movies tend to desire to be what they were but they cant because time evolved along with peoples perception of funny.

Happy Gilmore 2 doesnt try to be happy gilmore 1. It tries to beat it. It drags it down to the gallows and fist fights it. It doesnt live in its shadow like a wounded Raven beneath the crow. It goes for it. And quite frankly? It kicks ass. It succeeds in every way.

It's drowned to the gils in cameos. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.  But it never feels forced somehow. Social media icons. Rappers. Wrestlers. Comedians. Some of Adams friends.  Sandler takes the role of a more seasoned Happy on the yesteryear of his career and that in itself kinda hit my feels.

Adam Sandler defined my childhood. To many he's like a swcond uncle. And now i'm almost 30. Hes over 50. But I remember being that kid. 10 years old. Laughing at Happy Gilmore beating bob barker in fist to cuffs.  At times with the cast being partially dead.  It felt like a memorium as much as it did a movie at times.  A sweet symphonic kiss to the 90s. And heroes of my youth.

Adam killed it. He was funny but not trying too hard. He knows where he is in life. He knows hes a legend. He knows the character is legendary and he plays that into the script. Its well directed.

Two of Adams daughters and his wife star in the movie and I always say this. You can feel when a person loves their costar. Genuine love cant be acted. Adam has dad energy in his comeback. Because he literally is dad energy. His daughter being in direct proximity gives Adam this softer aura thar makes him more believable as a man. Not just a comic relief pun.  Hes more human in this film.

But that doesnt mean its not without raunchy wild humor. It's a blast of a good time. 

They hit it out of the park with this one.  And I cant imagine them doing the sequel any better in the modern ahe.  Theirs a lot of ad placement. Maybe a tad too much. But I dont mind because it makes it feel closer to home.

 Happy gilmore 2 is a star studden glam fest on surface. But it also digs deep into Happy.  Makes unsusepcted twists. Has villains that are detestable. It's mostly family friendly but still raunch heavy like Adam is known for. And his family and costars bring out the most of his talent as an actor. It was a well oiled machine. I laughed at least 50 times.

Rating - Amazing.  (Not feeling a number on this one. If I had to? A 97/100)

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps - The most purely standalone Marvel film in years, and that alone is worth some points.  Loved the retro-futurism aesthetic and score.  Generally hit or miss on the VFX, but not outright terrible, except a shot or two.  Wasn't impressed with Pedro's performance at first, but once I realized what they were going for it clicked with me.  Paul Walter Hauser is an inspired choice for Mole Man, but the writing for him feels like it came from a different, far inferior, MCU flick.  The movie hits our heroes with an interesting moral dilemma, bit it becomes apparent pretty quickly they are only interested in it at a relatively superficial level.  Between this and Superman a couple of weeks ago fans of colorful and true-to-character comic adaptations are eating good.

Stuber - A cast full of people I like, consistent laughs, and servicable action.  Sure, why not.

Red Heat - It's got a good cast and a nice grimey vibe, but it's just a tiny bit too tight and boring when the bullets aren't flying.

The Night Comes for Us - Probably the most bloody and violent action film I've ever seen. Just a bunch of real brutal stuff here. The story is a bit overly convoluted, and some of the action, while well choreographed, doesn't quite have quite the visceral bone-crunching needed to put it quite on the same level as The Raid. A spectacle, but just a hair too silly for me to let that completely offset the meandering plot.

The Big Country - An epic scale production for a surprisingly low stakes, but compelling, story.  Gregory Peck trying solve grievances of the Old West just by being a decent man.  A terrific picture.

Together - Dug this a lot, even if it does try to be another modern horror film about trauma.  Thankfully it doesn't lean that heavily into it, but, because it is there, it makes it feel a little at odds with itself tonally, especially in the third act. There's some gnarly imagery here, and it's more of a straight up horror film than The Substance. Franco and Brie are unsurprisingly great.

No Country for Old Men - Career best work from like 85% or more the people involved, including Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones.  They've just been overshadowed by Javier Bardem's towering monster of a performance.

Non-Stop - Fun action thriller with a great cast that gets dumber by the minute.  Total waste of Lupita.

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Weapons - Weapons isn't gonna be for everybody, but it was definitely for me.  Weird, funny, scary, structured masterfully.  Don't say this a lot, but maybe it should have been a TV show.  I could have watched 3 or 4 more vignettes about this whole messed up scenario.

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Captain America: Brave New World - Finally getting around to watching this as there was no rush, heard it wasn't good and was not expecting much.  Something I feel like pointing out, but in a post-John Wick world...How do we still get big budget action movies that don't have high quality action scenes? Sure, it's a comic book film and you gotta work in more cartoonish things like ricocheting shields and bird suits, but a lot of these fights are just normal dudes fighting, as Sam doesn't have powers (Though they make it feel like he does at times), and they just feel weak, hell they don't even match up to fights we had in previous movies, like the action was better back during like Winter Soldier.  Just feels lacking proper punch and real good choreography and camera work just isn't here.

This movie I feel like doesn't work, because it's not a Captain America movie, it's a Hulk movie.  It's a Hulk movie without the Hulk.  It's functionally a sequel to the 2008 Hulk movie, but for some reason it's about Captain America trying to prove himself as Captain America with a story that isn't about Captain America really.  Yeah it puts him up against a threat that would make even Steve Rogers struggle with, but I don't know, it doesn't feel like it works.

The bad guys in this are boring, a waste of Giancarlo Esposito, they half-assed The Leader, about the only good things I think are Harrison Ford and the guy who plays Isiah Bradley, they definitely put all they had into the role.  I did like the backdrop of the dead Celestial and how they are connecting it with Adamantium, and the brief finale of the White House and Washington Monument getting wrecked, but...this is just another middling MCU movie.

Predator: Killer of Killers - Now this was sick as hell.  Three different eras, three different protags, basically getting right to the action of each story.  This is such good Predator media, as it gives us a wide variety of Predators, each more different than the last, with leads having their own unique skillsets from a Viking Valkyrie to a Samurai/Ninja, to a fast talking American pilot.  I think the pilots story is maybe the weakest depending on how you want to look at it, it has the good moments, and it introduces a completely different type of Predator who fights in the air, but as a story, the Viking and Samurai are the most interesting, all three stories leading to a very interesting finale. 

Dan Trachtenberg really understands Predator, he did Prey before this which brought Predator back in a damn good way and this animated movie was fantastic.  Has me really excited to see what he's doing with Badlands coming up later this year and I would love to see a sequel for Killer of Killers because the things they are setting up are pretty awesome.  I think with Alien revived and Predator going strong, and the idea of Badlands being a runt Predator teaming up with a Weyland-Yutani Synth, I hope Dan also directs a potential Alien vs Predator to make for the first two dumb movies lol

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Dog Man - It's a ton of really good jokes that are probably too clever, abstract or self-aware for your average 5 year-old to really understand why they are funny, but told with the constant freneticism of a TikTok for toddlers. I also love the way it looks.