What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[weirdfeline]

I rewatched Sonic the Hedgehog and then watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2. 2 definitely could have been tighten up a bit, the dance off in the bar did not need to be included and some of the wedding stuff could have been trimmed down but overall I liked it a lot. Looking forward to the Knuckles series and Sonic the Hedgehog 3!

[Cartagia]

Wayne's World 2 - Broader, more commercialized, and not as slickly told as the first, but it's still extremely funny.  Also, Kim Basinger gives an all-time, under-recogized straight man role here.  Just phenomenal.

Dune: Part Two - I haven't felt quite like this leaving a movie theater since The Dark Knight- maybe since The Fellowship of the Ring (easily the best in that series). It's that kind of film - defining a genre with technical achievement, scope, world-building, and performances. It's not a perfect movie, but it's close. Better than the first in almost every way.

Kung Fu Panda - This works so well because it is a straight up kung fu film first and foremost.  It's just also happens to have cool characters and fun vibrant designs.  Plus James Hong crushing it as always!

Assault on Precinct 13 - Pure 1970s grime and grit. Carpenter is obviously still getting his legs completely under him, and it's cheap as hell, but he makes it work.

[marvelvscapcom2]

The greatest Beer Run Ever - A vibrant true tale about a man and his Journey to deliver his friends a cold one in the middle of the vietnam war. It combines political turmoil, the battle between angsty hippies and war sympathizers in this tug of war that permeates through the movie. What entails is some of the most engaging Vietnam war movie I have seen. It's funny. Starts with comedy but blends in the tragedies of war like slowly sprinkling in parmesean into the gumbo of life.


Zac Efferon surprised me with versatile acting as this is my first foray with him. He sells the underachieving but over aspiring legacy of Donohue. The beer run is filled with action, conspiracy and spies. I enjoyed the film. The connection built with Oklahoma a key Vietnamese man in the movie is gripping. The way you can feel the tension between the love for the soldiers but sympathy for the violence of war is palpable. And the corresponding photographers add a depth to the movie.


It's neat, funny and entertaining. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

93/100



Tetris


The shit these mofos did over a video game lol. I don't know how many liberties were taken. But this is an absolute high pace action packed whirlwind like a poliwag stomach lol. It tells the story of the greatest marvel in video game history. Dimitri being robbed of rights to earning for one of the best selling video game empires of all time is kinda fascinating to say the least. But the battle for publishing rights? Anyone engrossed or interested in video game history will love this. But it goes beyond gaming to a land of friendly bonds, business betrayals and the story of a man risking his family and wifes happinessover the sake of a dream and a chance.

The layouts are great. The settings are well done. It presents well. And amazingly so.

85/100


Finch


Finch is the tale of a lone wandering Tom Hanks in a post apocalyptic world. It is fascinating the true grit. Think Fallout New Vegas meets borderlands but the greatest enemy is an encompassing sun that seeks to devour and melt anything that moves with radiation. And in this world. We get Jeff and Dewey. A clumsy sometimes half assing Robot that loves finch with all of himself. To some a robot accompanying a man. But to the viewer. A man in a robot accompanying a pile of bolts through a tech heavy adolesence. Like a robo coming to age film. It builds character development well. And carries an overall feeling of strength and love. A solid movie.

85/100

[Cartagia]

Kung Fu Panda 2 - A hair better than the first, I think.

Queenpins - Really great cast, but the script isn't super strong and it gets a little too outlandish and silly in spots in the back half. Fun enough all around.

The Legend of Tarzan - Yes, it is bad, and yes, it has terrible visual effects, but it's also strangely watchable?

Poor Things - Technically and aesthetically astounding, with everyone turning in stellar performances, but the script, while wildly hilarious, is super on-the-nose on not quite as clever as it thinks it is.

Brotherhood of the Wolf - Terrific action and beautiful landscapes alongside some pretty rough CGI.  There's like 30 different genres at work here, and they are each executed pretty well. They just don't always gel together, and there's not quite enough going on plotwise to fill the 2.5 hour runtime.

Caddyshack - As a kind of parody it played everything far more straightforward than I expected.  Way more of the humor actually comes from silly (usually dirty) puns or is dialogue driven than I expected.  Maybe my favorite Chevy Chase performance.

The Truman Show - One of those rare films that was acclaimed in its time and is even more widely acclaimed today. Just astonishing on a production standpoint. A complete masterclass on environmental storytelling in the first act. I would love to have gotten a little more on the crew's side because it's just so damned fascinating. Peerless filmmaking.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter - A good concept and impressive production can only get you so far when you're a 2 hour movie that should have been 90 minutes. The whole thing just feels stretched thin.

The Fugitive - I just watched this about 6 months ago, but We Hate Movies just did an episode on it and that was all the reason I needed to buy a physical copy to watch it again.

[weirdfeline]

Ricky Stanicky is a classic early 2000s comedy. Very funny Peter Farrelly went from winning a bunch of Oscars including Best Picture to just going back to his roots a few years later.

I also watched the 1994 live action The Flintstones movie. I definitely understand the hate and did not enjoy the plot but The Flintstones is an adult thing after all so having an adult premise isn't really a problem it just didn't deliver. Worth watching for the great set design.

Watching the prequel that released years later currently and it is much better.

[Cartagia]

U.S. Marshals - It's obvious in the first 60 seconds that this quasi-sequel is inferior to the sublime The Fugitive.  It's bigger, broader, dumber, twistier, and more bombastic, but it's not necessarily a bad movie.  In fact, it's watchable as hell.  The setpieces all work, and the performances are mostly solid.  One of those flicks where the biggest crime is not being the predecessor.

Night Game - I don't know if I've ever seen a movie that was less than the sum of its parts than this. Cool conceit, fun cast, killer soundtrack, but just completely asleep at the wheel.

Dune: Part Two - I've seen this twice now, and my biggest issue is that there isn't more of it.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller - Totally delightful when it plays to Altman's strengths, like dialogue and character work (especially in the first act).  While the climax is quite revisionist for the era it is easily the weakest part of the film as it mostly does away with those aspects.

Point Blank - Way more experimental than I was expecting, but that was mostly frontloaded. It gets more straightforward as the story goes on, and it makes the pacing feel a little funky. Obviously the inspiration for a lot of crime thrillers that came after.

Love Lies Bleeding - A gorgeous, raw, seductive, and brutal film. All of the performances are top notch, and there's an amazing attention to the grit and grime of the details. And that pitch perfect soundtrack!

However, I dont know that the reveal in the climax works. I get it on a metaphorical level, and the movie was obviously foreshadowing it pretty hard, but it just didn't really land for me.

Troll (2022) - This is unfortunately really flat.  It takes itself to seriously to have fun with the premise, which is really unfortunate, because if it leaned harder into the camp it could be a good time.

Road House (2024) - This is fine. Not trying to be the original, which is good, but it also makes it have little lack of personality.

Slither - There's a lot to love here, but it's got some pacing issues, it has a little trouble balancing tone, and Fillon's character is just 'Well that happened' personified. Those are overall minor things that just stop a really good flick from being a great one.

Wonka - What were they trying to accomplish giving Willy Wonka such a depressing motivation?  I dont see a world where this sad sack Wonka becomes Gene Wilder, at least not from this pretty mediocre Timothee performance.  I just really wish they used all the obvious creativity of everyone involved to make something original.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Better than Afterlife by virtue of the fact it feels like an actual sequel and not solely a hollow nostalgia mine - though it does have intermittent doses of that. It's definitely got problems, most notably the overabundance of characters and plotlines, but I had fun just watching a ghost busting mystery unravel.

Starman - It's might be Carpenter's most family friendly film, but it's filled with such beautiful and mature themes you'd be forgiven if you don't think of it as such.  Bridges gives a terrific showy performance, but Karen Allen's soulful and melancholic Jenny Hayden is just stunning.

[kamikazekeeg]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - As always, if a movie is gonna get me to the theater, it's going to be Godzilla.  Didn't see Dune 2 in theater, but I watched both Godzilla: Minus One and this one right there in Imax lol

I had a blast with this one, because it was exactly what I was expecting it to be.  I saw some folks kinda ragging on it beforehand, because Minus One came out, big favorite, lots of love, and then people see Godzilla running with Kong to punch another giant monkey and they scoff at that like it's beneath them.  Which to me just shows they aren't really that big of Godzilla fans, because Godzilla has been like the Monsterverse movies than they have been the serious allegorical/politically driven dramas like the original or Shin Godzilla.  This movie calls back to like the Heisei/Milleniumera of Godzilla, where it does get more over the top and crazy, but is fun.

I think my only real complaints is that they may be pushing the "spectacle" too far, they want crazy action visuals and sweeping camera shots and cool stylish stuff for the Titans to do, and it looks sick, but also it loses the size and impact of them when they move around so fast.  It was something that greatly hurt Pacific Rim: Uprising, because the first movie does so much to push the size of the Jaegers, but in Pacific Rim: Uprising, it's like watching the Transformers fight.  In this movie, it's similar, but they still do a lot of low shots looking up, so it's kind of an inbetween take on it.  It's not bad, but to me it's losing abit of what what sells their immense, terrifying, nature.  They need to tweak it abit with the next one for sure.

It's all good fun though, I would say I may prefer this one abit more to the last one, the overall story is more engaging, the human stuff is better, the only negative between how the action is portrayed abit like I brought up before.  I think King of the Monsters is still my favorite, but once this one comes out on home video, I'll give it all a rewatch to see how it all feels at this point. 

For a future one, if they get to continue the series, I'm hoping it's a proper Godzilla solo flick, PLEASE...I like these last two movies, but they are absolutely more Kong movies than they are Godzilla.  I understand Kong allows for them to have more of an emoting character along with his story of being without his kind, but I just want more of my giant stompy lizard beast lol They've done most of what they can with Kong at this point, so let Godzilla go wild again, maybe look into the alien stuff that has been teased with Ghidorah.  Would make me so happy to get a new Gigan or something.

[Cartagia]

The Producers - It brings me no joy to report that this didn't really work for me. I found Zero Mostel in particular to be grating rather than funny. The concept does nearly all the heavy lifting here, at least until play actually starts.

[weirdfeline]

I've been meaning to watch the 1995 Casper movie for most of my life. I finally did and it sure is weird.

[Cartagia]

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Hadn't seen this in a few years.  Still maybe the most kinetic movie ever made.

The Terminator - Just an absolutely perfect sci-fi premise that gets to the action and skips the all tech jargon because it "doesn't know tech stuff."  James Cameron is unimpeachable in just his softmore outing.

[weirdfeline]

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is very silly but good.

[Cartagia]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Liked this way more than I thought I would, especially since the MonsterVerse has been running on diminishing returns since its debut in 2014's Godzilla.  Does a much better job of balancing Kong and Godzilla through the whole picture than GvK did, and, unlike that film, it has a strong emotional throughline.

I still stand by what I said in 2019, however.  Introducing (and killing) King Ghidorah in Godzilla's second appearance was a terrible decision because now you're building up to what... just another giant ape?  Pleasantly surprised by the return of another Titan, though!

[kamikazekeeg]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Liked this way more than I thought I would, especially since the MonsterVerse has been running on diminishing returns since its debut in 2014's Godzilla.  Does a much better job of balancing Kong and Godzilla through the whole picture than GvK did, and, unlike that film, it has a strong emotional throughline.

I still stand by what I said in 2019, however.  Introducing (and killing) King Ghidorah in Godzilla's second appearance was a terrible decision because now you're building up to what... just another giant ape?  Pleasantly surprised by the return of another Titan, though!

I'm hoping the next movie will be Godzilla focused again like King of the Monsters and they can delve into the alien side of things, because I feel like they've done a lot to deal with the Hollow Earth for a few things now really, and while there is plenty of room to explore that, make that the next King Kong movie, let Godzilla have something else.  I do sorta agree that going with Ghidorah so quickly, just to end it in the second movie was too soon, but I would love a new alien threat alongside someone like Gigan, who is another favorite of mine.  A possible alien invasion story will also give the humans something to deal with too.

[Cartagia]

Planet of the Apes (2001) - Is it good? Nope. Is it impressive?  Very much so.

[doafan]

After years without going to a movie theater this past Saturday I went with my wife just to enjoy a good dose of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, she isn't a big fan of this franchise but his stupid husband is a hardcore fan so I have to be there, guess she came with me not because she loves me, she came because at the movie I love to eat as much as possible while am watching am movie as well cause after she wanted to have dinner in a specific place