What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[Cartagia]

Major League - There are definitely problems with this movie, many of which have only gotten worse with age, but the biggest issue for me is that what is supposed to be the "heart" of the film is mostly just Tom Berenger stalking Rene Russo.

Rolling Thunder - In the hands of a slightly better director I think this would be a stone-cold classic. William Devane is flat-out fantastic, and once it really gets going its pretty great, but it meanders a bit in the second act and doesn't do quite enough to get you invested in anything other than Devane.

Speed - I forgot just how transfixing this movie is.  Totally at the top of its genre.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Even better than I remembered.  It knows the premise is silly and manages to balance the outlandish with just enough realism for everything to feel completely plausible. Top 3 in the franchise.

[kamikazekeeg]

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - Finally got to finishing this as I was waiting on the dub, and it's a really wonderful show.  It came around at a time where I was really wanting a proper fantasy show, because sword/magic anime these days is literally plagued with isekai based fantasy.  Everything with a fantasy setting has to involve a character being reincarnated in this world or transported into a game, and the majority of it is either bad or boring.  Wild that we got this and Dungeon Meshi back to back, of which I need to catch up with Dungeon Meshi.

This is a unique fantasy show, as it's actually more slice of life.  A story about a functionally immortal elf going through her life, after adventuring with her party, taking out the demon king, and then after that time has passed, having to come to terms with their loss and trying to better understand the time she spent with her party in the past, growing more emotionally because of it.  There is some action moments dotted throughout, but they aren't the focus.  It's definitely a show that tugs at the heartstrings, I choked up twice in the first two episodes lol It's more chill after that, but it's such a solid show with great character building interactions going on.

Really can't wait for the second season.  Hope they are able to get back to it soon.

[Cartagia]

Monkey Man - Hugely ambitious directorial debut from Dev Patel. It looks and sounds incredible, and it puts a nice spin on a pretty well-worn revenge trope. Though he uses the shaky cam well in both a thematic and technical sense I think he leans on it a bit too much, which is probably my biggest issue.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - It's wild how great this franchise is, even with the original sequel being a blatant cash grab and Burton's misfire in 2001.  I don't know that any other series comes close to this level of consistency.

Lightyear - Held hostage by its own premise, and further hamstrung by rather simplistic moralizing. Outside of those two (pretty big) issues it's a pretty fun entry level sci-fi romp. Sox is adorable and the voice cast is pretty solid.

War for the Planet of the Apes - Weakest of the new trilogy, mostly due being a bit more on the nose and not as finely paced as the previous two films, but it is still a damned good flick.

@zola - Totally wild and very funny based on a true story crime caper.  Really incredible performances from Colman Domingo and Riley Keough.

Kajillionaire - I kinda loved almost everything about this. Including how much it made me hate Old Dolio's parents for what they did to her.

Holes - Has the same problem that so many of these coming of age adventure films of the era, the kid story is mostly ok, but is completely outshined but what is going on with the adults. It also feels kind of amateurishly put together, which is weird from the director of The Fugitive.

Three Amigos! - Filled with big comedic swings, and when they connect it works, but when they don't it's kinda boring.  Based on hit rate El Guapo is funniest part of this movie.

Death Becomes Her - Not seen this in ages, and it's aged pretty well.  Still some good laughs throughout.

Abigail - It's a bit too long and the exposition isn't handled super well, but it's fun, the cast is good, and there's great gore.  I'll take it.

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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - You know what is always a surefire addition to a franchise? A baby.  Foolproof I tells ya.

Freelance - Maybe the first movie I've seen that understands just how hot Alison Brie is, but it also totally fails to realize how funny she is capable of being. The rest of the movie rests on Cena's buff shoulders.

Mars Attacks! - The only other Burton film that comes close to matching the vibe of Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  Starts losing a bit of steam towards the end as the jokes get repetitive, but most of the (totally stacked) cast is totally aware of what a dumb flick they're in and they make the most of it.

Josie and the Pussycats - This is a lot of fun and was definitely unfairly maligned during its original release, but I don't know if Rachel Leigh Cook really had the comedic chops to pull this off as the lead. It's not like she's bad (she nails the sequence where she breaks bad a bit), but she's a little outclassed by the manic energy of the rest of the cast, Parker Posey and Tara Reid especially.

Warlock - Cheap, cheesy, and earnest.

Next Goal Wins - It's a fine enough underdog sports bio, but there's too much focus on Fassbender, who is phoning a lot of this in, and not enough focus on the individuals on the team.

The Fall Guy - The setpieces are fun, and Gosling is 100% committed, but jeez this thing is overwritten within an inch of its life.

[kamikazekeeg]

Godzilla 2014 - With having watched Minus One and Godzilla x Kong recently, I wanted to revisit the modern Godzilla releases and see how I feel on them.  I don't think my personal listing of the movies will have changed a ton, but we'll see. 

This movie has always been a mixture of like and love.  I think it still has some wildly good moments, like insanely memorable, iconic, stuff, multiple scenes that give me goosebumps where they cut out the audio and just let the build play, it's absolutely some of the most striking stuff in the Monsterverse still.  I still think the movies biggest fault is that it teases the monster action for 90% of the movie.  I understand it, I see where it leads, it can have good impact, but this being like my 4th or 5th watch of the movie, I still want to see that Hawaii fight, I want to see more of the MUTO rampaging around, I want to see more of the San Francisco fight in the day, and even a lot of the end fight, they keep cutting to the human stuff.  I see where it makes sense writing and pacing wise, but I'm sorry, Aaron Taylor Johnsons character keeps on being flat to me, he's just generic soldier guy.  Bryan Cranston gives such a strong performance and I don't think Johnson can match that same pitch no matter how many near death scenarios he's in.  It's not bad, Godzilla has had so much weak human stories, before this and after this, and I don't hate it, but I don't love it, especially when we are cutting away from fights I want to see.

What I do love about this movie coming back to it after the Godzilla/Kong movies is how well it handles size and weight, to me, we are losing that more in the newer films.  The comparison is best made with Pacific Rim and it's sequel, where Pacific Rim has lots of low shots, the speed of everything is slow and heavy feeling, the camera and action is just handled in a way to make these things seem massive and powerful.  Uprising changed that, it's faster, the camera just flies around this CG space, the action starts to feel more like Transformers than Pacific Rim.  I think the recent movies are better than that, but Godzilla x Kong had a lot of that feel and while I'm cool with Godzilla being like this mobile beast and such, I can't say I don't miss how this movie and the following King of the Monsters felt.

I feel like I go back and forth with this movie every watch, the 4k update for the movie did a lot to improve it, and while I still wish we got more fights, there's a solid movie here that just makes me happy as hell we got to kick off this whole new era of Godzilla films.

Shin Godzilla - This one kinda continues to be on the weaker end of the modern movies for me.  I still like the movie, it's the most unique and horrific Godzilla has ever been.  I can't say I particularly love Shin in regards to being so immobile, this kinda became an odd thing with Japanese Godzilla films at the time, where they pushed Godzilla so massive in this movie and the anime movies with Godzilla Earth, Godzilla almost seems like less of a monster and more of a barely moving statue.  Shin does at least have its monstrous tail, it adds a good bit of motion that Godzilla needs.  So while I don't love Shin, it's a really unique and standout design.

The movie though, because it is so focused on bureaucratic grid lock, it's not the most exciting Godzilla film.  I'm not putting it down for that, the movie is an analog for the 2011 earthquake that happened, but it is mostly just a movie that is functionally people sitting in offices for like 80% of the film.  I does still have a pretty visually striking moment when Shin blasts the city, there will never not be wild and I do like first attack on Shin and the ending is solid.  I feel like the only big visual point that doesn't work is when Shin evolves from its 2nd to 3rd form, it's kinda this weird quick jump with an odd visual texture, but it's kinda the only part that I don't like about it.  A good watch, but I think it's still on the lower end of the films by the time I get through them all.

1. Godzilla 2014
2. Shin Godzilla

[Cartagia]

The Spy Who Loved Me - The best Moore Bond I've seen so far, but still kind of languidly paced. Kinda wish it leaned into the 70s funk music a bit more.

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Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters - I wasn't planning to rewatch this trilogy, was gonna focus on the live action, but since I'm not gonna do another modern era rewatch any time soon, I thought I'd confront these films again.  This trilogy of movies was previously my most hated Godzilla media as there was nothing else that frustrated me more within the entire history of Godzilla.

On rewatch, I'm actually more positive on the first movie.  This was originally the only one I was fine with it too, I thought it was a very reasonable start.  I still think this is one of the coolest settings ever for Godzilla, a humanity 20 years away from the fight against Godzilla, returning to an Earth that has evolved for 20,000 years, it's so rich with potential.  I like the eventual battle with Godzilla and how it ends, it's pretty intense and overall a very decent time.

It also looks better than I remember which surprised me, like it's not amazing, but at the time Japanese CG anime was a very mixed bag of quality, not everything could be like Land of the Lustrous, and more often than not, you'd get something like Berserk 2016, or there was an awful Fist of the North Star series I remember dropping after the first episode.  Lots of issues with low framerate movement and such.

But, after this, it's all downhill.  I'm curious on my view of the second movie if it's changed, as I hated the third movie with a passion.  I know I'm not gonna love the second movie a ton because of what they do with Mechagodzilla, but it's possible I'm going to have mellowed abit on it.  The third movie? Oh I know I'm gonna hate it still, but I'm interested to see if it pisses me off as much as it did before lol

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle - And yup, this is where it begins to fall apart.  We get talk of Mechagodzilla, but what we get is a nanometal city that just turns into a big trap for Godzilla and that's basically the movie.  It's boring for much of it, the city idea is kinda okay, but it just ends up being kind of a repeat of the previous movies final fight, just with more tech involved.  I'm pretty good with the first movie, but this one is just underwhelming.  I don't hate this one, I kinda just find it lacking.

Godzilla: The Planet Eater - Garbage is not a word I use lightly for things, and really, it should probably be left to really terrible, poorly made, projects far worse than this movie, but I hate this movie lol

I'm sure someone with a better understanding of philosophical topics could get more out of this movie, but I think this is just a terrible film.  The entire movie is mostly just discussions...long, boring, tedious, discussions.  Godzilla is asleep for the first half, and then in the second half, Godzilla is in a three pronged nerve pinch by Ghidorah and that is it.  The battle is entirely mental and it sucks.  We also get undercut expectations again with Mothra only appearing as a brief shadow in a dream state. 

The single positive I have for this movie is that the idea of Ghidorah being this terrifying death god, a being from another dimension, it's a cool take, but that's all, because otherwise Ghidorah does nothing of note other than squeeze Godzilla.  It's just nihilistic nonsense that rings completely hollow because the talk of humans and their hate and such comes from the aliens leading the death cult, who say they guided humanity forward, and another character even says that the appearance of monsters may not have just been because of humans destructive nature...so the movie ending with the idea that the cycle of hate can only be stopped by the demise of humans sucks.

I hate this, it's still my most hated piece of Godzilla media.  The first movie is decent, but then it just falls apart.  It's entirely wasted potential.  I thought I might've softened on this movie after all this time, but nope, not even a little lol

[Cartagia]

Moonraker - It's incredibly silly, but the pacing is solid, the setpieces are fun, and it is rarely boring.

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Yeah I think this is still gonna be my favorite of the modern Godzilla movies.  It's what I wanted out of the 2014 movie, which is more giant kaiju action and it still keeps the scale and impact of the monsters without getting too out there with it that I think the following two movies with Kong have.  I know the human stuff gets some flack in this one, but I think it's okay enough.  It does what it needs to.  I just love the set pieces with this, the fights, the final battle, it's a better overall package for me than 2014.  The only thing I felt was a little questionable was the sudden inclusion of the Oxygen Destroyer, it felt abit out of nowhere to include here, but it doesn't bother me at all.  I also love the sountrack for this one, Bear McCreary is so good and I love how the classic themes are used, especially for Godzilla and Mothra.

Also looking back on this movie, I like how they discuss Godzilla's ability to evolve, because I know some people didn't like his evolution in Godzilla x Kong, but Godzilla was showing his evolution capabilities back in this one.  I prefer chunkier Godzilla, but sleek pink Godzilla is still dope.

I really hope the next Monsterverse movie has a stronger Godzilla focus and that they decide that since we had 2 movies on the Hollow Earth, that we can see them explore the other thing that is only teased in this movie...Alien Kaiju.  I want original space alien kaiju, a Monsterverse Gigan, and the movie is about the titans of Earth fighting with Godzilla to stop an invasion force threatening to destroy everything.  Would be so sick.

[Cartagia]

Black Hawk Down - Still just an absolutely visceral experience. One of the best looking and best sounding war films of all time. Ridley Scott has always been a peaks and valleys kind of director, and this is the first stage of descent after Gladiator. It's another stunning technical achievement, but it's ultimately a bit shallow and overly jingoistic for me these days.

[kamikazekeeg]

Hellboy (2019) - Finally decided to just watch this, I kinda only ever did want to see it because I like David Harbour, knowing that the movie wasn't great and yeah...It's not great.  I don't think it's completely terrible, David Harbour did well enough for what was here, the movie just unfortunately feels like the "Straight to DVD Sequel" to the previous ones, even if it is a reboot.  It's not all bad, I think there are decent moments and scenes throughout, the Baba Yaga scene in particular probably the most standout of the whole movie because of how genuinely creepy and unsettling it was.

I think it comes down to the movie just doesn't have the right execution as the first Hellboy movie did, feeling like the lesser movie because of it.  Not that I wanted specifically a copy of Del Toro's film, but I don't think it did enough to stand out other than being far more excessively violent.  It's very much an R rated movie.

It did get me in the mood to watch the first Hellboy movie again, as it's been years.

[Cartagia]

The Marine - As a debut for Cena it's pretty unimpressive, as he hadn't really figured out how to relax for the camera yet.  The action is surprisingly decent, though, and Robert Patrick knows exactly what movie he's in. However, nearly every other aspect is some degree of inept.

The Great Train Robbery - An fun and relatively low stakes heist film that has great Victorian England production design.  Connery and Sutherland are great together, but the plot is a little too simple for runtime, and there are a couple sequences that feel like wheel spinning.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - Planet of the Apes continues to make an argument that it might be the best and most consistent film franchise of all time.  The first hour or so of this movie is some of the strongest world building in the entire series.  It gets a bit clunky in the climax, but the action and VFX are first rate. It's biggest flaw is probably that it is missing any character that is as fully realized as Caesar, but Noa is a fine lead.

For Your Eyes Only - Not quite sure what to make of that cold open, but overall I like this entry a fair amount.  It's got some really good action and two great dummy stunts. The most down to Earth of the Moore entries so far, which probably why I liked it so much.

Octopussy - Paint by numbers Bond.

A View to a Kill - All the ingredients are here, but it is just a complete haphazardly thrown together mess.  Moore is sleepwalking through it. At least the theme is an absolute banger.

Thunderheart - It doesn't make a fool of itself, or do anything overly insensitive that I could tell, but it is still 100% identifiable as a movie about indigenous people that was made a British guy.

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Mad Max - It's a wildly impressive debut, especially for the budget, but it struggles to fill 90 minutes.

The Road Warrior - It's crazy how much better Fury Road is than this, considering this is already one of the best and most impressive action films ever made.

Mean Girls - I hadn't seen this since it came out, and while I liked it more this time (it's got a good script and generally strong performances) it still feels like it's missing something to put it on the level of the similarly themed and plotted Clueless.

Mad Max Beyond Thuderdome - Yeah, it's messy.  Yeah, it's filled with disgusting irritating children. Yeah, it's the worst of the franchise. Buuuut I still kinda like it.

Waterworld - It falls apart narratively under the tiniest bit of scrutiny, but it's just too impressive for me not too like it.

Honefront - This is a lot of fun.  It's got a great cast and a surprising number of violent squib-filled deaths. It gets a bit soggy in the middle which is what keeps it from being really great.

[kamikazekeeg]

Star Wars: A New Hope - With all the anniversary talk lately for some of the movies, felt like doing a watch of all the movies as it's been awhile since I did that...I don't think I did everything before Rise of Skywalker, so maybe before Last Jedi? Either way, it's been awhile since I've watched the series and felt like it could be a good time to revisit everything, so all three trilogies along with Rogue One and Solo if I don't get distracted like I usually do with my marathons lol

The longer time has gone on, the more I wish we had the original trilogy in it's original theatrical release.  No special edition additions, just a clean, original, release.  I hate that nearly 30 years later, we still don't have that.  The CG additions always stood out like a sore thumb and they continue to age worse every year. At least in this one, it's not the worst, it's mostly shenanigans in Mos Eisley and then some ship stuff later on, but it will absolutely get worse the further I go lol

The movie itself is of course still a classic, even with the Special Edition parts tacked on, but can't really say anything new on it, both this and Empire are top favorites of the entire series.  It's just a great scifi adventure.

[Cartagia]

Mad Max: Fury Road - Absolutely insane motion picture.  There's really nothing else like it.