What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[bikingjahuty]

First and foremost I am not a Harry Potter fan. On paper it seems like something I would like, however since trying to read one of the books back when I was in middle school I've never been able to get into the franchise. I've tried watching the original movies as well, and while I think the first movie is okay, the two that follow bore me to tears, and I've never been able to get to the fourth movie. The charm and allure of the Harry Potter franchise has escaped me for years and it just never clicked like it has for so many others.


So why did I watch a movie based off the Harry Potter series? My girlfriend who is a huge Harry Potter fan asked me to give it a shot in return for watching the Predator movies with me on order to prep for The Predator, which ended up being a huge disappointment btw. With the sequel to Fantastic Beasts coming out this week and her wanting to see it I needed to at least see the first one to find out what was going on.


Surprisingly I thought this movie was pretty good. I'm certainly not inspired to watch the other Harry Potter films, but for what it was it was an entertaining, fun movie with an enjoyable story and cast. Luckily this movie requires very little knowledge of the previous Harry Potter films or the Potter universe to understand what's going on. There were no more than a couple of times where my GF had to explain to me what something was in regards to references to the Harry Potter universe. Overall though, it was a creative movie and I'm actually looking forward to seeing the second one this weekend, which is surprising since I didn't think I'd like this movie prior to watching it.

[tripredacus]

The Thin Red Line (VHS)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Red_Line_(1998_film)

A lot less of a war movie, more about what soldiers' inner toughts are. Was way longer than I was expecting.

[bikingjahuty]

This movie has been on my list of movies to watch for a long, long time, and I finally got a wild hair to sit down and watch it for the first time tonight. I was only 2-years old when this movie came out, I didn't own an NES growing up, and I found out about this movie in the late 2000s, so I literally have no attachment to this film or the games featured in it. And I think that is honestly the problem with this movie.


Tear away the late 80s nostalgia when Nintendo and the NES were on top of the world, the scenes with Play Choice 10s, references to various NES games, and the Video Game Armageddon tournament at the end and you have a pretty bad kid's movie with bad acting, a plot that barely makes sense, shit writing throughout, and characters that make little to no sense. This movie is terrible, and that's with me going into The Wizard knowing little about it beyond AVGN's review and that a bunch of the NES collecting community adores this film. And I don't think their love of this film is ridiculous or strange; if I had been a little older when this movie came out and had an NES in the late 80s I'd probably have the same insane rush of wonderful nostalgia at the simple mention of this movie. However, neither scenario was a reality for me, and watching this movie for the first time in 2018 was a difficult, cringy experience that left me confused and going wtf more times than I could count. I did laugh at a few things that happened and I really dig the late 80s feel, but other than that this movie was pretty bad, even for a kids flick. So unless you fondly remember the NES golden years I think this movie would be hard to stomach.

[tripredacus]

The Thing (HD-DVD)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)

For some reason, the menu is really laggy when going through options. I'm not sure if I had noticed it before. It is as if the framerate of the animation is lower than the framerate of the "scene." Also uses false Dolby 5.1 for non-movie portions, as opposed to what you would normally experience with a DVD or BD. Dolby 5.1 was enabled during the menu, FBI warning and even end logos, however the audio (where it existed) was not in 5.1. It was in 2.1 with the sound from the front is also sent to the rears. I am not sure if this sound arrangement has a name. Center channel wasn't used. The movie itself was in 5.1 however. It reminded me of my Sony days (the first time) when HD satellite receivers would turn on the Dolby light just because of the carrier signal, irrespective of what audio codec was being used. In other words, Satellite companies would broadcast stereo broadcasts with the Dolby flag set, the light would turn on the set top box, but you'd only get stereo or sometimes mono. A similar scenario had presented itself years later when some Verizon FiOS TV channels would have the set top box turn on the 1080p indicator, but the video content was actually 720p.

[bikingjahuty]

I first became aware of Sailor Moon back in 1998 when I used to wake up really early during the week in order to watch the Pokemon anime, but before that came on Sailor Moon would be airing and I'd often catch the last 10 minutes or so before the show I actually wanted to watch came on. Watching Sailor Moon this way made it impossible to know what was happening, but as an 11-year old boy I really didn't care; the show looked very geared towards girls and to me it was about as unappealing as you could get. Fast forward a year and I began really getting into Anime, mainly stuff like Dragon Ball Z, Neon Genesis, and Gundam Wing, all anime that was definitely geared more towards males. At this time Sailor Moon was taking off in popularity in the US and I remember a group of female anime fans I went to middle school with were really into it. Of course, being the little shit I was in middle school and to prove my masculinity I had to make fun of them for this, which they all seemed to justifiably hate me for. Despite this I never really disliked Sailor Moon or really liked it either; it was just something at the time of its popularity that just didn't appeal to me as a young male adolescent.


My girlfriend has been a longtime Sailor Moon fan, and a couple of months ago while looking for games and other things we collect for, we came across the entire first season on Bluray for a steal and decided to pick it up. After some research into how heavily Sailor Moon was changed when it was originally brought to the US, and also that neither of us were that impressed with the new English dub, we decided to watch it subtitled in English with Japanese audio in order to experience the show as authentically as possible. I went into watching Sailor Moon with no expectations and an open mind, and I was actually pleasantly surprised!


Just to be clear we watched the entire first season of Sailor Moon, and the show was almost entirely good except for a handful of mediocre episodes. The show does an excellent job at making you like the Sailor Scouts, various side characters, and even several villeins that greatly redeem themselves towards the end of their time on the show. Combine this with some really hard hitting things that happen throughout the season, especially the last few episodes and Sailor Moon season 1 shows why it is among the most essential anime of the 90s. It truly is a excellent anime through and through, especially where it matters the most.


My main issues with the show are the frequent recycled animations that reappear in nearly every episode, as well as a few reused plot elements that did hurt the show's entertainment value at times. Without spoiling anything, there's another thing that happens at the end of season 1 that I found a little unsatisfying, but luckily it was mitigated after watching the first episode of R, the next season. Other than that it's hard to fault anything else in Sailor Moon seeing how all I want to do is watch Sailor Moon R now. Sailor Moon is truly a classic anime and I really hope the rest of the series holds up as well as the excellent first season.

[Cartagia]

The new season released on Thanksgiving, the 30th anniversary of the show.  This shortened season was more tailor made specifically for Netflix, and designed to binged watched, which is a bit of change in pace for MST3K, which was always a tad difficult to watch more that one episode at a time.  These episodes are a bit shorter, and the host segments (particularly the cold opens) are a bit shorter.  It's still a ton of fun, with so many good jokes its difficult to recall even half.

[kamikazekeeg]

Doing another Godzilla marathon, going through the Heisei Era of Godzilla, which starts up in 1984.  Originally watched these in a very mixed up way, checking them out as I was able to get them on Bluray and DVD.  Now that I own basically all of them other than I think 2, I felt like watching them in their full release order.  Getting prepped for that killer looking Godzilla: King of the Monsters next year (and the less interesting Godzilla anime finale that'll show up on Netflix in probably the next few months).

Beginning with Return of Godzilla, starting with the good, I overall think this is a real solid Godzilla design.  Not the best, but it's kind of a return to form after all he went through over the years and feels like a proper update to the original design, which makes sense as it is technically a sequel to the original Godzilla.  His eyes aren't great though and they had problems with them that are very noticeable when you get even close to his face.  The set stuff is good here for the most part, though they don't do a ton of city destruction, but the final area is good with the huge buildings surrounding him.

The negatives to me would be that the audio is kinda poor, with the edits being choppy or mixed wrong or just lacking any at all.  It makes scenes feel off.  The story overall is well handled, though I feel like the human stuff gets fairly weak in the latter half, especially the whole thing with the people trapped in the building, or acting like it, but they could clearly and easily get out after they try to leave by chopper.  The little comedic bit with the bum was so unnecessary too.  I also didn't like the Super X got no real buildup.  Maybe have the story be less about the reporter and fisherman, and more with the scientist and perhaps the Super X team, like they do in the later movies.  Also was sorta half and half with the English dub on this.  It's not terrible, but I don't think it's as good as the original Japanese.  Not a purist, I just feel like it lacks the sincerity of the original audio.  Did watch the finale in English just so I could do something on my phone while I finished up, but wasn't a fan.  I'll keep checking out the English dubs when I can though in the future.

Overall, like a 6/10.  Feel like this could be the baseline for the rest of the movies, as it's functionally fine, but it isn't all that exciting and some weak decisions with the story and audio make it feel like it falls sorta flat.

[bikingjahuty]

This was the movie that got me into Godzilla when I was very young. Growing up I used to have a independent video store near my house and they had a pretty large selection of old Godzilla movies on VHS. This was always my favorite and the first one I remember renting. I get a massive amount of nostalgia whenever I watch it now which heavily contributes to why it is one of my favorite Godzilla films.

[bikingjahuty]

Every few years or so I get on an AVGN kick and begin rewatching many of his videos on youtube, which naturally made me want to rewatch the AVGN Movie which I have not seen since around the time it came out. Oddly, I don't remember this movie very well despite having seen it last probably 3-years ago or so. But anyhow, I rewatched it again and unfortunately I feel like I enjoyed it less the second time around.


I feel like all the elements that make AVGN reviews so great are mostly absent from this movie, even though a self contained review of E.T. is in this movie, but even that is a below average AVGN review when watched alone. I feel like the biggest flaw however was trying to turn a character that exists within 15-minute youtube videos into a 2-hour motion picture, throwing a uninteresting plot, forgettable characters, and bland action scenes into it. The overall effect is a movie that outstays its welcome way too long despite various laugh out loud moments throughout. It's just not a very entertaining movie imo, and honestly this felt like more of James Rolfe's realized dream of finally being able to create a full length motion picture rather than him creating a movie that actually worked. I felt like he had various ideas of what he wanted in the movie and how he wanted it to look, and these took precedents of the actual story, plot, pacing, and characters. I can't be too hard on him since this was a first attempt and the budget was relatively low, but overall it just isn't that great of a movie. There are various other things I can gripe about as well, but that is sort of the gist of why this isn't that great of a movie, especially compared to the AVGN episodes online. Just stick with the youtube series, it's way better.

[kamikazekeeg]

This was the movie that got me into Godzilla when I was very young. Growing up I used to have a independent video store near my house and they had a pretty large selection of old Godzilla movies on VHS. This was always my favorite and the first one I remember renting. I get a massive amount of nostalgia whenever I watch it now which heavily contributes to why it is one of my favorite Godzilla films.

For me, I more remember watching VHS rentals or Mystery Science Theater or maybe even TV showings of the earlier 70's stuff, though I then started renting others and watched most of them up to Godzilla 2000 as a kid.  I also have a better connection with the movies after this one because it starts introducing more of the cool monsters again, so Return of Godzilla is in this weird place for me where it doesn't have quite the nostalgia factor and it doesn't have the better action and monsters that will be coming up.

[bikingjahuty]

This was the movie that got me into Godzilla when I was very young. Growing up I used to have a independent video store near my house and they had a pretty large selection of old Godzilla movies on VHS. This was always my favorite and the first one I remember renting. I get a massive amount of nostalgia whenever I watch it now which heavily contributes to why it is one of my favorite Godzilla films.

For me, I more remember watching VHS rentals or Mystery Science Theater or maybe even TV showings of the earlier 70's stuff, though I then started renting others and watched most of them up to Godzilla 2000 as a kid.  I also have a better connection with the movies after this one because it starts introducing more of the cool monsters again, so Return of Godzilla is in this weird place for me where it doesn't have quite the nostalgia factor and it doesn't have the better action and monsters that will be coming up.

The Nostalgia factor is a huge part why I love it so much. If not for that I'd probably agree with you about the contents of the movie. But yeah, the Heisei films after this are great for the most part. I've never seen Godzilla vs Space Godzilla and only bits of Godzilla vs. Destroya, but they both seem great.

[bikingjahuty]

While i have seen Akira before it has been so long since I watched it that I literally remember almost nothing about it other than the fairly famous ending which has been copied and spoofed in many other movies, shows, and other media. I got an itch to rewatch it and see if I could appreciate it seeing how it is often considered one of the best anime movies ever made. I will say that after watching it I can understand why I barely remembered any of it after all these years.


First off, Akira is an incredible movie from a visual point of view; there is so much attention to detail in every shot, the animation is smooth and appealing, and the overall cyberpunk setting is among the best I've seen in any medium. However, my praise of this movie literally stops there.


The plot, if you can even call it that, is a convoluted mess that leaves you scratching your head often in terms of what's going and why certain things are deemed important and other things are not. What plot there is that does make sense seems to have various holes in it, and overall it wasn't that interesting. The characters are shallow and just and confusing as the rest of the movie, and for the most part are fairly unlikable in their own right. The soundtrack is pretty bad as well, often sounding like tribal chanting or screaming, which seems to clash heavily with what's actually occurring on the screen. Overall, the movie is incredibly forgettable at the best of times and just a mess at the worst.


After watching Akira I am left wondering why in the hell this movie has this glorious reputation for being one of the best, most essential anime to come from the 80s. Sure it looks awesome and if you have a cyberpunk fetish it's hard to beat, but outside of that it's just bad. I can only imagine the incredibly small anime fandom of the early 90s watching this movie for the first time and either due to lack of experience with the genre or unfiltered pretentiousness, they praised this movie until it unfairly gained a reputation for being a must watch anime. I can't remember exactly how I felt after watching this anime for the first time, but seeing how I forgot almost everything about this movie shortly after is a testament to the film's mediocrity. Watching it now I can easily say this is an overrated anime movie, albeit a pretty one.

[tripredacus]

Thundercats vol 5: The Ghost Warrior (VHS bootleg)
http://thundercats.org/collectibles/classic-1980s-merchandise/audiovideo/family-home-entertainment/#Vol5

Not bad quality for a VHS copy.

[kypherion]

Hellsing Ultimate! I binged this over 2 days and it was fantastic. Pretty graphic too.

[kamikazekeeg]

Hellsing Ultimate! I binged this over 2 days and it was fantastic. Pretty graphic too.

Now that you watched that, gotta check out Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.  They are about to finish up the final episode soon and it's such a fun take on everything if you like the humor of it.