What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[Cartagia]

Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The most like an actual comic book the MCU has felt in a long time, and maybe the first time NYC has felt like Marvel's NYC. On paper I don't like the idea of [REDACTED] being the primary antagonist of a Spider-Man movie (he has one of the best Rogues Galleries in comics... use them!), but I thought they actually really pulled it off, and gave us one of the best depictions of the character in film.

Some of the dialogue is stilted, and you can feel them really tugging on Bernthal's reins, but overall, solid as hell!

Open Range - Very possibly the greatest Western of the 21st Century with a terrific turn from one of the last great Western stars, and one of the all-time great Western shootouts. Wonderful picture.

[burningdoom]

Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The most like an actual comic book the MCU has felt in a long time, and maybe the first time NYC has felt like Marvel's NYC. On paper I don't like the idea of [REDACTED] being the primary antagonist of a Spider-Man movie (he has one of the best Rogues Galleries in comics... use them!), but I thought they actually really pulled it off, and gave us one of the best depictions of the character in film.

Some of the dialogue is stilted, and you can feel them really tugging on Bernthal's reins, but overall, solid as hell!

Open Range - Very possibly the greatest Western of the 21st Century with a terrific turn from one of the last great Western stars, and one of the all-time great Western shootouts. Wonderful picture.

Right? I loved how the new Spider-Man felt. I've always had issues with Tom Holland's Spider-Man. He always felt like a teen sidekick looking up to the Avengers, which was NEVER the case in the comics, he held his own. Here, he felt like his own character, the character from the comic books. And I loved that.

[Cartagia]

Wandering Ginza Butterfly - There's a bit too much plot crammed in here for an 85 minute runtime. Thought it was cool it turned into The Hustler for 10-15 minutes before a pretty violent finale.

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones - It was already an uphill battle when George decided he was going to write a romance. It became an insurmountable summit when he cast two actors with absolutely zero chemistry to be the heart of that poorly written endeavor.

John Williams and the big action finale are what save this from being totally worthless.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - Thought this was much better than the first one. Jokes and references not as forced (for the most part), and it looks incredible.

[Cartagia]

Rear Window - One of those films where I knew a huge amount of it going in, but I had never sat down and watched it front to back. Not much to say that hasn't been said before. It's Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, and some of the best set design of all time.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - Best of the prequels, and the most I've enjoyed it maybe ever, but it is still a deeply flawed movie.

I know he has his defenders, and his performance is much better here than Attack of the Clones, but I think Hayden Christensen is just not good in this. His physicality is fine, even good in places, but he just does not have a handle on this dialogue. It is an issue that is exacerbated by the fact he shares most of his scenes with Ewan McGregor or Ian McDiarmid who are both really good, bordering on great here. Just makes his shortcomings with the material even more apparent.

Plotwise, Anakin's turn to the Dark Side works more than I remembered, but it is just how thoroughly evil he immediately becomes that is a tough pill to swallow. I get why he'd fall in with Palpatine, but to go from "Let's not summarily execute this guy, who I know has been manipulating an intergalactic war," to " I'm going to kill children for him," is insane.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie - Impressed by how much it made me laugh jyst as much as I was by the production itself. Might have had some of the luster taken off by how much I learned about it ahead of time, but there's also a good chance I would have never seen it with zero context or hype.

Normal - It's fun! Good action, memorable characters, decent set-up. It has a couple of extra twists and turns that don't quite work, but overall it was a nice surprise.

[burningdoom]

Rear Window - One of those films where I knew a huge amount of it going in, but I had never sat down and watched it front to back. Not much to say that hasn't been said before. It's Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, and some of the best set design of all time.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - Best of the prequels, and the most I've enjoyed it maybe ever, but it is still a deeply flawed movie.

I know he has his defenders, and his performance is much better here than Attack of the Clones, but I think Hayden Christensen is just not good in this. His physicality is fine, even good in places, but he just does not have a handle on this dialogue. It is an issue that is exacerbated by the fact he shares most of his scenes with Ewan McGregor or Ian McDiarmid who are both really good, bordering on great here. Just makes his shortcomings with the material even more apparent.

Plotwise, Anakin's turn to the Dark Side works more than I remembered, but it is just how thoroughly evil he immediately becomes that is a tough pill to swallow. I get why he'd fall in with Palpatine, but to go from "Let's not summarily execute this guy, who I know has been manipulating an intergalactic war," to " I'm going to kill children for him," is insane.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie - Impressed by how much it made me laugh jyst as much as I was by the production itself. Might have had some of the luster taken off by how much I learned about it ahead of time, but there's also a good chance I would have never seen it with zero context or hype.

Normal - It's fun! Good action, memorable characters, decent set-up. It has a couple of extra twists and turns that don't quite work, but overall it was a nice surprise.

Episode III makes sitting through Episodes I & II worth it.

[Cartagia]

Last Stand at Saber River - It has the structure and characterization of an Elmore Leonard story but none of the fire. It's not bad, merely servicable. Looking at the director's filmography I would not be at all surprised if this was the best thing he ever put his name on.

Congo - I love this stupid crappy movie.

Kingdom of Heaven - The kind of Director's Cut that gives studio interference the reputation of ruining movies. It can't fix all of the problems in the 3+ hour version, with most of that coming down to some very on the nose dialogue and a ho hum performance from Orlando Bloom, but it is tremendous step up in quality to a masterpiece nonetheless.

Coyote vs. Acme - I think my favorite thing about movie is that it never forgets to be a Wile E. Coyote movie. There's not more than a few minutes that goes by where he's not exploded or crushed or just generally getting dumped on.

Unbelievable that this almost became lost media.

The X-Files - It's wildly impressive just how seamlessly this slots into the show as an extension of the mythology arc while also being totally accessible to newcomers. It's a bit more successful as the former but it really is firing on all cylinders here.

The first 70 minutes or so are practically perfect as an X-Files conspiracy story, and while the main flaw of the back half is sidelining Scully, it was a Mulder plot first and foremost, that (wisely) expanded to Scully more and more as time went on.

[kamikazekeeg]

Got around to watching Weapons, mostly due to the director being the one on the new Resident Evil movie, which I might go see in theater possibly as I really want to see something good that is Resident Evil lol

That being said, I don't know if I liked Weapons a ton, it's overall very creepy, good tone, there's interesting camera work, and the movie broadly does a decent job...I guess my issue is with kinda the...overall reveal and ending, I'm generally someone that likes to know more about what is going on than having to piece it together.  Not that I need it for every movie, like if it's a ghost movie, I don't need that explained, but the stuff that happens in this is very weird, very little is explained, and I don't even know if there's enough to piece together.  Like they sorta have nods to what it might involve, but they don't really say anything explicit.  It's hard to explain while keeping it spoiler free, but it's such a weird ending to me.

Like of what I heard of Barbarian and now this, I am interested to see what the director does with Resident Evil, it should be actually creepy, and hopefully kinda weird and messed up, which is what I want.   Is it gonna be technically "true" Resident Evil? I've heard a few liberties are being taken as it's not REALLY adapting the canon, but I think this will be the closest thing we'll likely get to something that at the very least isn't just Paul W.S. Anderson wanting to make cheesy action movies with his wife, or low budget slop that pretends to adapt the actual games lol

[Cartagia]

Blue Steel (1934) - Meh. The first 10 minutes felt like it was setting up a chamber piece that seemed like it could have been interesting, but it went in such a boring and predictable direction.

Motor City - I admire the swing, even if it only clipped the ball. The big action climax is pretty rad, but it comes too little too late.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas - Well, I just absolutely loved this. My opinion might be slightly tinged by seeing it on the big screen so soon after Dolly's passing (I definitely got emotional when she sang 'I Will Always Love You'), but it just an absolutely charming musical that is wildly ahead of its time while also feeling like downright old-fashioned from an overall production standpoint. It does wrap up kinda quickly, but as a whole package it is wonderful.

Mutiny - Statham seems a little more disengaged than usual, but the plot is fine, action is fine, it's 95 minutes. Great villain death.

Stowaway would probably be more accurate, but it doesn't sound as cool.

tony - Loved this. Loved that they didn't sand the edges of Bourdain. He's such a asshole. Other modern biopics are so lionizing. It reminded me of All That Jazz in that way. It's funny, it's heartfelt, and it has Antonio Banderas's best performance in years... maybe ever?

Maybe my favorite of the year, but with one big caveat. I hate that they felt the need to Hollywood-ize the ending with a big dramatic event. If it had a more low key climax this would be 5 stars.

The Blue Caftan - Wonderfully tender exploration of love, death, and new beginnings via a pretty specific relationship dynamic I have never seen before.

Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest - Appropriately increased stakes from the show and an interesting Hitchcockian premise with lots of red herrings. I think the increased runtime doesn't quite work here, though, as it let's you marinate in the clues and mysteries longer, which has the side effect of making it all feel kinda obvious.