What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[pzeke]

Goodfellas somehow exceeded my expectations.

It "somehow" exceeded your expectations?

Just look at those mugs...


Anyway, here's some stuff I've watched lately...

Inside Man
The Jungle Book (2016) - Bill Murray.
Assassins Run / White Swan - God-awful movie.
Slender Man - The dumbest POS I've ever seen.
Snatch - Pitt's Irish accent was stupid funny.
The Equalizer 2 - Good action flick; I really like the song that plays when the credits roll.
BlacKkKlansman - Good film; it took certain liberties, but still a good film, nonetheless. Also, I like Topher Grace and all, but every movie he's in all he does is play Topher Grace.
The Shawshank Redemption - Classic.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Liked it, but I think I like the first one more.
Unbroken - Great film, I can't recommend it enough.
Lethal Weapon - This movie never gets old!
Fight Club - I feel there are stories that are best left without continuation, and this was one of them.
The Glass Castle - Really nice biopic. I'm not particularly fond of Brie Larson, but the praise she received for her performance are definitely well-deserved.
Alpha

[Cartagia]

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla - This one is a blast.  It hooks you up front with plenty of Kaiju action, then goes with the human story for a bit.  The biggest issue is that King Caesar is totally unnecessary.  It could have just been G v. MG and it would have been fine.
Terror of Mechagodzilla - Not as good as the previous title.  Pacing suffered a bit and Titanosaursus is just a boring kaiju.  Not had, just kind middle of the road

[weirdfeline]

Goodfellas somehow exceeded my expectations.

It "somehow" exceeded your expectations?

Just look at those mugs...

Yeah, meaning that despite it's reputation as one of the best movies ever made it was still much better than I expected.

[Cartagia]

Shin Godzilla - Hell yes.

The Little Things was a total snooze.  Denzel was asleep the whole time, Rami Malek was actively bad, and Leto, while the best part of the movie, does not deserve all the praise he's been getting for it.

The OG King Kong.  Still the best version.  Almost half as long as the Peter Jackson one, which in itself is a huge plus.  So impressive that it was made in the early 30s.

Watched Godzilla 2000 for the first time in like 20 years - I think I literally just didn't pay attention when I watched it back then.  Actually pretty fun. Moved it up a couple of spots on my list.

[Cartagia]

Godzilla (1998) - Not as bad as I remembered.  Still not good, but an ok monster movie if you can remove yourself from thinking of it like a G film.  That last Act is kind of a dud, too.  Moving it up a couple of spots.

The Return of Godzilla - Good, not great reboot entry into the series.  Slightly inconsistent tone, and doesn't have the original theme!
Godzilla vs. Biollante - OG theme in the first 5 minutes!  Great start.  Maybe the best human story of all the vs. movies so far.  About my only complaints are that the score often doesn't mesh tonal with what's on screen, and it drags a hair towards the end.

[pzeke]

Goodfellas somehow exceeded my expectations.

It "somehow" exceeded your expectations?

Yeah, meaning that despite it's reputation as one of the best movies ever made it was still much better than I expected.

Gotcha.

And while I'm here, I recently watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and goddamn is that freaking movie a snoozefest.

[Cartagia]

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah - Oh man this was so bonkers.  It's not really a *good* movie, but it was so freaking entertaining.  I loved it.
Godzilla vs. Mothra - Another good entry.  It's a better movie than KG, but not as fun.
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II - The Heisei series is just so much more consistent than Showa, it's ridiculous.
Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla - Pretty easily the worst Heisei film.  It's not awful, it's just kinda boring and derivative.

[kamikazekeeg]

With the Snydercut of Justice League coming out, and my curiosity about it being peaked due to what turned out to be a mess of a movie the first time around, I thought I'd give the previous movies another go.  Not all of them, just the main ones, so Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and the original Justice League.  Maybe Aquaman because I watched Wonder Woman recently, but that is it.

Man of Steel I remember being okay with, it was what came after that really soured me on everything and in some ways tainted my views abit, as I softened with Wonder Woman after a rewatch.  Having watched it again, I still think it's just okay.  It's kind of an ugly film, with a drab palette, the story is paced sorta weird, like I'm fine with it not being a standard origin story, we don't need it that, but when you got stuff like Johnathan Kent saying he probably should've just let those kids die rather than save them, and not allowing himself to be saved, it's so lame and feels counter to what a Johnathan Kent should be, even if I understand the point behind it.  This kinda becomes a reoccurring aspect with Snyder in that it feels like he doesn't really like the characters as they are, he wants to make them more like what he feels they should be, as stuff has come up in interviews on his view with like Batman and such.  He shouldn't be doing DC, he should be doing something from Dark Horse, or Image, or just straight up Spawn or something would probably be right up his alley, something more edgy and darker.

Action wise it's better than I remember, I remember from Justice League and Batman v Superman and even parts of Wonder Woman that I kinda don't like how they do a lot of their fights, because it's so stylized and over done, they start to look like cutscenes from an Injustice game.  It can be kinda floaty and it doesn't have that right feel that I think Marvel handles better, even in the more crazy fights, though Marvel has gotten it off to at times.  I also don't like all the random destruction, it feels as if Superman is rarely trying to hold back on property damage and saving people amid the battle, which makes sense at some points, but it all culminates in Zod's death by neck snap where you go "That's not Superman"...It's the same for Batman in the next movie who just outright kills people too.  It's annoying.

So yeah, I think this movie is just okay, I don't love it, and I don't say this as someone who's got serious nostalgia for previous Superman movies or a deep love for the character (I'm more about Batman), though I do like Henry Caville as Superman, but at the time the movie came out, I acted like "Oh, this is alright, I wonder if we'll get a real cool Batman movie set in the same world, or a good sequel that kinda nails the character better for Superman"...and then we got Batman v Superman...Bad times ahead lol

[weirdfeline]

Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell

It was not that interesting. Pretty common knowledge stuff if you know anything about him. The thing that made it worthwhile was that they had so much footage of him. The guy that did all the filming should have went to YouTube instead of Netflix and uploaded raw clips. He probably could've made more money in the long run that way.

[Cartagia]

The Hesei Gamera trilogy, Defender of the Universe, Attack of Legion, and Revenge of Iris.  This was pretty incredible.  Better than 85-90% of all the Godzilla films I've watched so far.  Same director ending up doing GMK for the Toho folks.  I should be to that one next week or so.

Big Trouble in Little China - First time I'd watched it since I was little kid.  I remembered very few things about it, but this a good a time, and the soundtrack was incredible.

[burningdoom]

With the Snydercut of Justice League coming out, and my curiosity about it being peaked due to what turned out to be a mess of a movie the first time around, I thought I'd give the previous movies another go.  Not all of them, just the main ones, so Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and the original Justice League.  Maybe Aquaman because I watched Wonder Woman recently, but that is it.

Man of Steel I remember being okay with, it was what came after that really soured me on everything and in some ways tainted my views abit, as I softened with Wonder Woman after a rewatch.  Having watched it again, I still think it's just okay.  It's kind of an ugly film, with a drab palette, the story is paced sorta weird, like I'm fine with it not being a standard origin story, we don't need it that, but when you got stuff like Johnathan Kent saying he probably should've just let those kids die rather than save them, and not allowing himself to be saved, it's so lame and feels counter to what a Johnathan Kent should be, even if I understand the point behind it.  This kinda becomes a reoccurring aspect with Snyder in that it feels like he doesn't really like the characters as they are, he wants to make them more like what he feels they should be, as stuff has come up in interviews on his view with like Batman and such.  He shouldn't be doing DC, he should be doing something from Dark Horse, or Image, or just straight up Spawn or something would probably be right up his alley, something more edgy and darker.

Action wise it's better than I remember, I remember from Justice League and Batman v Superman and even parts of Wonder Woman that I kinda don't like how they do a lot of their fights, because it's so stylized and over done, they start to look like cutscenes from an Injustice game.  It can be kinda floaty and it doesn't have that right feel that I think Marvel handles better, even in the more crazy fights, though Marvel has gotten it off to at times.  I also don't like all the random destruction, it feels as if Superman is rarely trying to hold back on property damage and saving people amid the battle, which makes sense at some points, but it all culminates in Zod's death by neck snap where you go "That's not Superman"...It's the same for Batman in the next movie who just outright kills people too.  It's annoying.

So yeah, I think this movie is just okay, I don't love it, and I don't say this as someone who's got serious nostalgia for previous Superman movies or a deep love for the character (I'm more about Batman), though I do like Henry Caville as Superman, but at the time the movie came out, I acted like "Oh, this is alright, I wonder if we'll get a real cool Batman movie set in the same world, or a good sequel that kinda nails the character better for Superman"...and then we got Batman v Superman...Bad times ahead lol

I loved this one. My favorite of the DCU extended universe great action scenes, cool effects, and it was neat seeimg Superman find his footing. Plus the Krypton scenes were spectacular.

Definitely felt it was better than Batman vs Superman and Justice League.

[kamikazekeeg]

I went into Man of Steel with the idea of whether I was still alright with it, if my views of the later films skewed things too much, and in general, not a lot changed, it's just an okay film.  Batman v Superman though, I went in knowing I thought this movie was just all wrong and on a new rewatch with the Ultimate Edition that adds an extra half hour, I found more things to dislike about it lol

Something I never noticed before was why did Bruce show up to Metropolis? An alien threat appears and his first instinct is to not suit up, get in his jet or car, and try to do something, he instead decides to just rush to his building in a civilian car? Why not take the helicopter he was already riding in if he was just gonna try to evacuate the building? I know this was all so they could fit Bruce into things after the fact, but it doesn't really make any sense and I didn't realize it on first watch.  It's also really dumb that Jimmy Olson makes an appearance just to turn out to be a CIA agent who gets killed. 

While I do like how Batman looks in this, I think Affleck is fine for the role too, I hate what they do with him, making him brand criminals so they can be killed, he has this completely random, yet incredibly specific nightmare/vision of Superman taking over that makes no sense because it also uses Darkseid related imagery for it, they just have Batman using guns and killing people outright, both in that nightmare, and in the real world, and I don't think it's clear that the Flash bit is connected to that vision, because the vision is a dream within a dream.  Its baffling and I know they are bringing the "Nightmare" stuff back in the Snyder Cut of Justice League, something I don't remember if it was in the original JL movie or not.

Lex Luthor sucks in this, I know they try to say he's not THAT Lex, even though it is, it still doesn't work at all.  They have him play it like he's The Riddler or something, it's completely awful.  I will say that I think this movie looks slightly better maybe than Man of Steel, it's not quite as washed out, but I still don't particularly love how it looks.  It's just the Snyder style, it's dark.

To me, the greatest problem of this movie is what its about.  Batman v Superman.  It's two very well known DC storylines, the Dark Knight Returns, and the Death of Superman, all at once, in a movie that also establishes their Batman, Wonder Woman, and is setting up the Justice League.  This was DC rushing to catch up to Marvel as fast as they could, without putting the same work in to set up everything.  They took two great stories and ruined them.  Like Batman v Superman should've been it's own thing later on.  The Death of Superman could've been a multi-movie long thing where the different character movies dealt with what happened, bringing in all the different Supermen, it would've been awesome...but it just...wasn't.  Doomsday is just a bio-engineered Zod.  Batman v Superman is a fight scene stopped because they both have a mom named Martha.  The Justice League is created without a Superman.  Heck, Luthor somehow figured out both Superman's and Batman's identity.  This is all in one movie.  It is nonsense and not nearly as epic as they tried to make it out to be.

I will give this movie one thing...I think the fight between Batman and Superman is pretty good.  It's honestly kind of a weak movie up till this fight, it's so much setup, there's not a lot of great Batman stuff, no good Superman stuff, it's all put into this ending, which again, I do like, the following Batman fight is cool too, even if he is killing people with guns, but I got nothing for the Doomsday stuff, it's just an iconic villain wasted in an over stylized, mess of a fight that the DCEU stuff generally likes to do.  Like I said before, it's like watching video game cutscenes.  I can admit to seeing Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman all posed up as being kinda cool lol

In the end, I still think this movie mostly sucks and a new watch only didn't improve it, it mostly made it worse.  This is what turned me against the DCEU completely with only a few bright spots after this with Wonder Woman, Shazam, and even Aquaman for how goofy it is.  Though it took a turn for the worse again with Birds of Prey and and WW84.  Original Justice League is next.  I am going into it with a very different mindset having learned what that movie went through, which is a lot...This will be more about how it compares to the Snyder Cut and what Snyders vision for Justice League actually was.

And because I couldn't sleep and I had trouble getting Justice League to run right for whatever reason, I saw X-Men: Dark Phoenix and figured I'd watch that, finish up the X-Men series as it was.  I heard it was bad beforehand, though I always meant to watch it, but I honestly just found it kinda boring.  The villains are nothing, most of the character stuff and action has been done before in previous films, and none of the action is exciting until the final fight on the train.  If you haven't seen it, there's really no reason to see it unless you are a die hard fan who just hasn't seen it already for whatever reason, and even then, there's not alot here for the end of the series.

[kamikazekeeg]

So I came out of Justice League, not hating it.  In fact I would say I was okay with it.  Not as much with Man of Steel, which was like a 7 out of 10 for me, that's a much more cohesive film, but I think even with having some leftover Snyder stuff in it, it was alright.  It was very clear the studio wanted nothing to do with previous take on things, trying to make it more fun, less edgy and dark, and I like that, it works most of the time.  All the Superman stuff is just awful though.  Like they were forced to deal with Death of Superman nonsense due to the previous movie, but I'd rather they had just left him dead, he's completely unnecessary to the film, he's brough back with multiple macguffins, he plays bad for like 5 minutes, before he's back to normal with no ill effects, and while I think they touched up his face somewhat from the original theatrical run, it was super bad, he absolutely still looks super weird, it just looks like he's had plastic surgery and its distracting.

I wouldn't super recommend it, it's one of the lower end films to me, above at least Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, and Wonder Woman 84, but it doesn't have a whole lot that I hate like I did with BvS, so if I had to watch it again, I wouldn't really hate to.  I still feel like Wonder Woman, Man of Steel, Shazam, and sorta Aquaman are the best ones of the DCEU right now.  Gonna rewatch Aquaman next probably.  Very curious how the Snyder Cut will turn as it sounds like he wants to go full edgelord with his take.

[Cartagia]

So, I watched Rebirth of Mothra last night.  What a disaster.  The human story was pretty intolerable.  Once the kaiju story started it was actually pretty good, but then the ending stretched out for way too long.  The kids were dead-eyed and soulless.  Trim it by 20 minutes and maybe you've got something.

[kamikazekeeg]

Went from watching a review on the early 00's horror movie Ghost Ship, to someone talking about Deep Blue Sea and that, and then my brain remembered Deep Rising, a deep sear creature flick that I remembered liking as a teen and haven't seen since.  Gotta say, fun 90's action movie shlock.  I had it in my head that Thomas Jane was the lead in this, but he was actually in Deep Blue Sea lol It's got some good practical effects, mostly with the sets, all that stuff looks pretty good for the big parts they use them in, like the boat stopping and tossing everything around looks great and there's some good stuff they do with like the ship walls crumpling from the monster.  The CG on the otherhand can look okay for the time in some parts, but then it also looks like CG from the time and doesn't blend at all.  The monster dying in particular looks awful, though the actual cruise ship explosion is a model and looks great.

It's a shame the movie flopped, not like it's a great film, but it's fun enough, I remember liking it as a teen and watching it a few times as I'm always into big creature flicks.  It ends with a tease that could've made for a fun sequel.  Also randomly just starting an underwater themed marathon as I'm gonna watch Aquaman next and then I was reminded of an old 80's film called Leviathan that I want to check out.  I might also go watch Underwater again and I like that movie, saw it in theater last year before the pandemic shut everything down.