Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Hey Rogue1-and-a-half, did you post a review of La La Land in this thread yet? I've been anticipating it, but it's end of March so I probably missed it.


Power Rangers (2017)

Knowing almost nothing about the lore (except the basics of 5 teenagers dressing up in bargain basement Halloween costumes to fight some mean lady with a goofy hat) I have to say...that I still don't care or get the appeal. The performances by the five leads are fine (especially the actor who played Billy who was, of course, my favorite character in the whole film) Bryan Cranston looks (heh) bored, and I don't know wtf Elizabeth Banks is doing in this. Did one of her family members need new shoes (but not that badly)? Is she not going to see this but will see the house that it built with her paycheck and it's terrific?

CHIPS (2017)

It seems like Dax Shepard is summoned via voodoo ritual every 5 years or so to direct and star in a film that does middling business. It's not terrible. It's not good. It's just...there.

 

tbf you're an adult.

 

Um, no, most people my age were excited for this movie, and the general consensus from said people was that it was a blast and the best thing since Tom Selleck's moustache.

 

yes, but they presumably had a huge nostalgia attachment to the franchise, which you admitted in your first sentence you did not.

 

Fair enough. Yeah, most of these people were deep into the lore and speculating what the sequels would focus on.

 

I watched Power Rangers and owned a few megazords (because glorified toy commercial). However, I am not nostalgic for it because unlike a good chunk of Gens X and Y I am not uncritical of things just because I liked them as a kid.

 

me neither. but then they keep making things i liked as a kid into films so unbelievably awful one would have to have a lot more than rose colored glasses to not see their flaws.

 

Crippled Avengers (1978) A popular SB film featuring the Venoms, in which the psychotic leader of a clan purposely handicaps anyone who stands up to his bullying. All this because of an attack which left his son with prosthetic (iron) arms and the Missues dead. Four young men stand up to the clan and left without senses or limbs (mute, blind, dumb and legless), the quartet eventually get their revenge proving you can't judge a book by it's cover.

I love Chen Kuan Tai as the deranged father, and while the Venoms give him some fun choreography, it is a bummer he only gets to strut his mastery of martial arts twice. His bully boys, and son (Venoms weapons master Lu Feng) do most of the bullying. Sure, the end fight is more circus acrobat (until CKT comes in) and yes it's very politically incorrect, but the message is pretty awesome. Just because you don't have use of a particular limb, sense or your mind does not mean you're handicapped.

 

Honestly, I never cared for Power Rangers even when I was a kid. Even as a kid, I thought the martial arts were cheesy, the creature costumes were rubbery and goofy, and the dialogue was cringey. My friends and I made better short films out in the woods with Halloween costumes and a cheap home video camera. I saw the new movie as nothing more than a cheap grab at millennial parents nostalgic for their own childhood. So far, the film seems to be cheesy and bad, but not in the way the original show was, but more in a "Independance Day: Resurgence" way.

Though, to be fair, I DID finally manage to catch ID:R yesterday evening and I thought it wasn't THAT bad. It's corny a lot like the original, but I didn't like that they essentially made orphans of the entire new cast.

 

Ponyo (English Dub): An odd but cute film. Pretty simplistic really it's a loose adaptation of the Little Mermaid and similar to Totoro where things happen and then we end up having a climax although this film builds to it a bit better. Animation is sort of like Cat Returns to where it's a little bit more cartoony than normal which makes it unique kind of. Voice work is fine and each person does a decent job. Again if you wanted to introduce your kids to Studio Ghibli this wouldn't be a bad one to show them.

 

Fantastic Beasts. Looking forward to the next one.

 

Rogue One lol. Before that I saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which was great.


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The Princess Bride, for the umpteenth time. It's been a few years. Some day I may get tired of this film. Not today.

 

It's funny, that episode of HDTGM is actually what inspired me to give it a go when it hits DVD. A friend turned me on to HDTGM a few years ago and I've gone through just about their entire back catalog and have been a regular listener ever since. Along with The Flop House (another favorite) they make bad movies fun.

Power Rangers hit when I was about 18-19, so a bit too late to hook me (though I've no doubt that had I been 8-10 I'd have been there in front of the TV with my Alpha Super Duper Zord or whatever). I was certainly aware of it because it just exploded into our popular culture in a way similar to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 6-7 years earlier.

This reboot looks for all the world like they're trying to Marvelize the Power Rangers property, which certainly makes sense. Heck, give 'em time and Disney will probably own PR too.

Like with the Ghostbusters remake, I just haven't been able to pull the trigger on this one. I have a warm spot for the original, and flaws and all I can still sit down and enjoy it (and appreciate what does work well about it). But this new one just looked like a big budget CW show.

Probably sacrilege to say it, but I actually prefer the somewhat similar Stardust, though they make for a good double-feature.

 

From Up on Poppy Hill (English Dub): An decent coming of age high school film. While the story is familiar what keeps it going is the likeable group of characters they create to where you're on their side and want them to succeed at their goal. Animation is okay and the voice cast I think helps with the characters with the late Anton Yelchin and Sarah Bolger in particular making a good pair. If you enjoy these kinds of stories of high school with an added element of drama about whether the two romantic leads are actually related you'll like it fine. While there have been a few coming of age films set in high school or younger this feels the closest to me like Ghibli making a teen film. I liked Whisper of the Heart more though personally as a coming of age story but I'd recommend this one.

 

Sing. Predictable but well made with a solid soundtrack. Not sure I would have cast Seth McFarlane as Mike, however. It was like listening to Peter in a jazz/Rat Pack phase.

 

I posted it on my website and I typically only do that when I've also posted it here (because I kind of view my website as a way to archive my reviews for easy access). But it's possible I missed posting it in the thread. Anyway, easiest thing is just to link you to it on my site. If the link doesn't work, let me know.

EDIT: I just read it again. Weird to say, but I'm actually pleased with that review. A lot of times I'm not that thrilled with my own writing, but that's a good review. "Pretty in a Vogue photoshoot kind of way" really nails it exactly right, I think.

 

i am so glad you hated it. basically completely agree with your review.

 

Caught the last half of Oz: the Great and Powerful today. Quite liked it. Franco seems to be having a good time in the role.

As a sidenote, it has the most seamless depiction of actors landing from "flight" I've seen on film. No matter how good the wirework, the actual landing from flight always seems to appear stilted, but they nail it here. Just a minuscule detail.

 

Here's the problem. I remember stating in the Oscars thread about that I had just seen it (day of actually) and how much I enjoyed it, and now I'm liking it less and less day by day. I'm worried that I'll come off as a huge hypocrite. The movie doesn't know if it wants to be a musical with romcom elements or a romcom with musical elements. It's so inconsistent.

Funny because a month after I saw it, I saw Lars Von Trier's Dancer by the Dark, and I'm stoked that you made the same connection that I made...only vice versa I guess.

 

The Wind Rises (English Dub): A pretty good fictionalised biopic. As I mentioned before when I talked about Porco Rosso Miyazaki has a fascination and love of aviation which definitely comes through in this film. Some have questioned whether it's right to tell a story about a guy that designed crafts for the Japanese military during WWII and making him a protagonist but I don't think it's a bad thing because the war isn't glorified or mentioned much as a big story point. Real...ly it's less about that and more about this guy and his passion that Miyazaki shares and wanted to tell this story even if Miyazaki himself is a pacifist because it interested him. I guess it depends on what you see it as. Animation is good and the voice cast once again is good too with Joseph Gordan Levitt and Emily Blunt both working as the lead and his love interest (Ironically enough her actual husband John Krasinski is in the movie obviously not playing that), Martin Short provides decent levity but also actually works against type for him and Stanley Tucci plays a likeable mentor that appears throughout in visions had by our main character. At this moment in time this is Miyazaki's last directed film (I'm aware he is making a new one) and considering it was a small personal project it could have worked as a last film. Some people maybe would have preferred something grander in scale but sometimes less is more. If you like aviation or learning about people you didn't know of before you might enjoy it. Granted I don't know much about the actual history so I don't know what's accurate and what isn't but as a story on it's own I liked it and I recommend it.

 

Ghost in the Shell explores the diminishing returns on advanced technology as an ever increasing percentage of the additional capacity created by new technologies has to go to solving all the advanced problems created by those new technologies. Framing the film on those terms kept me from falling asleep early in its run time. The opening credits are a reasonable big screen adaptation of the Westworld opening credits. Some people may prefer the Westworld opening credits, but I'm really torn.

 

I just assumed he was making fun of my mentioning a highly minuscule aspect of a movie by commenting on equally superficial minutia.

 

I've seen the Ghost in the Shell original, and I think it's fair to give it credit for inspiring the Westworld credits. no, I wasn't making fun of VVM. I was making fun of Ghost in the Shell. It's really pretty terrible.