What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

[kamikazekeeg]

Uncommon Valor - Random movie night again, delving into "war" films, this one less of a war film, leaning more "action drama".  Something I've enjoyed doing with these war flicks is go and see the reception it got on Wiki back in the day, and I'm kinda more in line with Ebert on this one, where it's fine, but it's kinda just a lot of action movie/war cliches.  I wasn't expecting it to be like Platoon or anything, but nothing really stood out to me.  Felt like it could've used a tad more of an ending cap, as it kinda just ends once they get back, but I guess it didn't need too much more.  Not something I'd super recommend, but nothing bad.

We Were Soldiers - Back to a regular war film, more in line with what I was looking for.  I had seen this one before in the past and I remembered a few scenes.  It's a solid war film, feeling like it does a decent job selling the horror of that battle, the chaos.  They did a very impressive job with the chopper action, along with the general battle destruction, but the chopper stuff stood out to me in particular as I've watched a couple Vietnam flicks at this point and they did a lot of work to really show them off, even from the beginning of the film.  It's a good build up to the war, letting you get to see a number of these characters, which makes them easier to follow compared to some other war films.

I also appreciate showing the battle from the Vietnam side, showing their tactics and how the Americans were able counter most of it, but that as far as battles go, it was a major loss for both sides despite it likely being promoted as an American victory.  Add to that the bit of drama from back home with the wives, just enough to really show how dire things were, but not spending too much time away from the actual conflict.

I'd recommend this one, it's a reasonable enough Vietnam flick, good actors, Gibson does a good job (It can be tough going back to films after people like Gibson showed themselves to be real shitty), I liked Sam Elliots very hard edge veteran of multiple wars, who sorta feels like a walking cliche with his behavior, but it works as kinda of contrast to all these younger soldiers struggling with the chaos and horror of the situation.

[sworddude]

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - I'm sorry, but has anyone saying this worse than Crystal Skull watched that movie lately? This succeeds in pretty much every way that movie failed, and succeeds where that movie also succeeded. Sure, it's not Spielberg, but it addresses Indy with some actual pathos while being a mostly engaging action-adventure movie. Biggest faults are a couple of spots of shaky effects, bad green screen in a couple of places, and, as is the case with practically every big studio release these days, about 15-20 minutes too long.

Enjoyed said movie allot, it doesn't beat the classics but definitely better than crystal skull.

That nazi train scene at the beginning was peak indi though. It's like we got back to them good old days. That de aging tech is pretty impressive just felt like young indi to me.

Also props that the guy actually still makes movies and them being good while the lad is 80 years old also heard the guy still did the stunts himself in this latest movie

Sad it's the last one but gotto end it someday. My critique is not enough temple esk trap scenes like the old stuff I missed that.

[weirdfeline]

No Hard Feelings is fairly decent R rated comedy even though they kind of gave up on that idea halfway through it was still nice to support an original R rated comedic theatrical release. Looking forward to Strays as well.

[kamikazekeeg]

Top Gun - I was gonna watch Maverick, but I hadn't seen the original...or I don't remember, it's been a long time, but I got lucky and I found the bluray/4k at a thrift shop, so figured I'd give it a go.  A decent bit of it is ingrained in pop culture, so of course I recognize some things, but overall this is a pretty dull movie for lots of it lol It's a very 80's movie, not to its benefit I feel.  I just feel like everything outside of the specific flight school stuff is just not that interesting.  Like I'm watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Risky Business, kinda goofy dialogue and interactions, but there's also a more serious drama about an out of control pilot who trying to be the best, but is his own worst enemy until a harrowing event shakes him.   When it gets more serious, which is after the first 2/3rds of the film, it gets a tad better, but it's the end of the movie.

The actual air stuff is decent.  I'm not saying anything is bad here specifically, maybe it's just not a movie for me.  I am still going to check out the sequel, could be one of those situations where I like the sequel more than the first one.

Top Gun: Maverick - Overall an improvement for me as there's more of an outright goal in mind for the flick to keep things interesting.  It benefits alot from a bigger budget and modern effects and cinematography, especially with the vehicles they use that let them show more of the world around the jets as they fly, rather than shots back and forth between a cockpit and then jet footage.  The goal of having a group of Top Guns brought in to handle a threat definitely comes across more action heavy, but I think that's what I needed from the first one.  It follows similar patterns to the original, but handled better, and because it's more about Maverick, an older man, than the cocky, younger, team, it's all abit less cheesy.  Some cheese, but it feels like less of a college 80's romp, which never worked as well for me before lol

It hits a lot of the same notes as late sequels sometimes do, but when I don't have an attachment to the original, and I like this more, I'm fine with it.  Also nice to get Val Kilmer back, even with his condition to play a small part (I recommend the recent documentary about him as it was real good.)  The finale was also pretty solid, adding a fun little twist it that I enjoyed.  Nothing amazing to me, but I was fine with this.

[Cartagia]

Showdown in Little Tokyo - Dumb, fun, and under 80 minutes.  Definitely spent my time in worse ways.

[kamikazekeeg]

Nimona - Fun flick, the medieval/future combination is entertaining, and I love the manic energy of Nimona herself.  I sorta feel like some elements of the story were overlooked a tad, that I guess could be explored with a sequel, but who knows if that'll ever happen.  It's light-hearted, the animation is great, again with Nimona who's this little fireball of energy and gets to be wildly expressive. Definitely recommend this.

Hotel Transylvania - Something about how Nimona could be animated at times gave me sorta vibes of this movie, less stylized than that, but very exaggerated and I realized I hadn't seen it in awhile.  It's still generally fun, I don't think I like it as much as I use to, some of the bits don't hold up as much for me, but I feel like when the animation is really amping up how goofy stuff can be and it's playing more directly with its world, and not doing like a pop song dance or montage or a reference, that's when I like it more.

I might go and watch the rest, I've only seen up to the second one, and the fourth isn't even directed by Gendy, so we'll see if I care enough after the 2nd one to keep going lol

[Cartagia]

Mission: Impossible II - It's definitely the worst entry in the franchise, but it isn't unredeemable.  It's got loads of style, and the action is generally strong.

The Purge: Election Year - Not as good as the previous entry, but still making good use of the overall concept. It's big, broad, and obvious, but I really appreciate that it's trying to actually say something.

[kamikazekeeg]

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World - Since I can't watch Cannonball Run right now, I thought I'd watch another older comedy race movie.  I don't remember if I ever watched this before, but I figured it could be fun.  I didn't know this was a two and a half hour long flick lol This movie is easily like 45 minutes too long.  It's kinda fun having all these old comedy stars in a slapstick romp, a couple scenes I enjoyed throughout, a few gags I liked such as the firefighter crew awaiting the plane being the Three Stooges. 

This movie is just plagued with scenes that drag on for too long, with so many obnoxious characters.  If the one police captain didn't factor into the ending, they could've removed everything with the police as they add nothing to the movie.  Heck, the movie has like 2 points where it feels like it could be coming up to end, but then there's still so much movie left.  This feels like a script in its first draft that has all these ideas and scenes it doesn't need and they just never went back to clean it all up.  Definitely don't recommend this one, it just has nothing going for it.

[Cartagia]

Joy Ride - Very funny, but extremely raunchy road trip comedy.  Really nails the emotional beats it swings for, and is barely 90 minutes.

Days of Thunder - The least of the Tom Cruise must go fast movies, but it still looks and sounds great and Robert Duvall is pretty good in it.

[kamikazekeeg]

Mission Impossible 1 - Kinda inadvertently on a Tom Cruise run as I randomly decided to rewatch the Mission Impossible series also with the new one coming out, though I won't be catching it in theater.  I did this back before the last one that came out, so it's been a few years since then.  Kinda interesting seeing Cruise from these different timeframes, as the original Top Gun, I didn't think he was that great, not bad, but it was still pretty early in his career.  Definite step up here, which is expected of course. 

I always loved this movie, classic feeling spy thriller, something the rest of the movies lose abit of for more action and larger action set pieces, not that they aren't also good, but this one always stood out from the rest and I just enjoy that spy shtick.  I kinda always remember this as my favorite, even if I like the other ones a good bit too while having the added nostalgia of the N64 game with it lol

Mission Impossible 2 - As a sequel? Awful.  Everything I enjoyed about the first movie? Non-existent.  It's all style, no substance.  It feels much more in line with what James Bond was becoming after Goldeneye, which wasn't great.  As a "turn your brain off" action flick, it's okay, it's really trying to hard to be "cool" lol But I know this is the worst one, so things can only go up from here.  I will say, I unironically love some of the music for the film, I was actually listening to the Limp Bizkit theme from this the other day lol It's so cheesy, but it's great.

[Cartagia]

Field of Dreams - Interstitial moments of ethereal perfection.

[kamikazekeeg]

Mission Impossible 3 - Right from the first scenes, absolutely better than MI2.  Great opening action scene, solid drama, not overburdened by slow motion nonsense or excessively flashy action scenes with backflip kicks and side dives.  Better overall story with an actual emotional core to it.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is solid as the bad guy, he's not technically the main drive of the film, he's a part of it, but that talk about what he's going to do to Ethan and his wife when he finds her is great.  I kinda wish he was in it more as he only has like two major scenes really, but he's very memorable.  This is the movie that kinda sets the tone for the future of the series, balancing that mixture of spy flick and action movie for the most part. Also with this being like my third or fourth time watching the film, I just noticed that Aaron Paul has a part in this, never noticed him before lol

[kamikazekeeg]

Mission Impossible 4 - Something I never really made note of before, but the Mission Impossible theme is really up there as a super icon theme.  I know the Bond theme is good, but those movies started to push intros based on the movie itself, and while the bond theme can be there, it starts to not be the focus, whereas the MI theme is always there.  It's just great.

This movie is solid, I think I generally like the action set pieces more than three, the villain is less memorable to me compared to Hoffman from the last one, though nothing bad, he works for the story.  Renner is a nice addition to things, but yeah, spectacle set pieces getting bigger and grander was definitely where it started for the series.  It was like "How do we top this?" with each one and they usually do lol  Don't have too much to say on this one in particular, just that's its a good watch.

[Cartagia]

The Enforcer - The first Dirty Harry to completely feel like what the popular idea of these movies is. An angry police captain, Clint's personal politics, shooting first and asking questions never. It's not a poorly made movie, though. In fact, the action is generally solid, but the script is heavy handed and it lags a bit for barely being over 90 minutes.

Babe - What a perfect little storybook of a movie.  Forgot how kinda darkly funny it is.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One - When it is an action and / or spy film it is the best of the best - simply top tier stuff. When the movie stops to talk about the McGuffin, and oh man does it love to talk about it, and it grinds to a halt and really loses me. I could see this losing a half star on rewatches, without the benefit of the big theater presentation.

The Man with the Golden Gun - It's not the worst Bond, but definitely the most languid. Christopher Lee pretty much single-handedly keeps this away from being closer to the bottom of the list. Ace heel turn from him.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Not just the best Star Trek movie, but one of the best sci-fi films ever made.

[redblaze57]

Adventures in Game Chasing - a pseudo prequel to the  Game Chasers' Youtube Channel. If you're a fan of their channel you'll definitely enjoy it. I think even if you're not there is enough relatable things I'd say you should at like try to give it a watch. I'd say it's up there as far as independent movies that youtubers make, it's one I would absolutely recommend to people on this site.