Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

Now with your endorsement, Stephen, I really want to see Ad Astra. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll get to see it in theatres.

 

I wanted to see it but it disappeared pretty quickly here.

 

Oh I hadn't actually checked. Looks like it's out of my local theatre too.

 

Jay & Silent Bob Reboot


In an emoji:

So, Jay & Silent Bob Reboot was a Fanthom events presentation, meaning it was a special engagement where the film would play in certain theaters for a night or two rather than the usual wide longer term release. And so, the people that attended the film were all fans of Kevin Smith and his films. As such, it was like seeing the film at a panel at a comic book convention. And since it was a Fanthom event presentation with a two night showing, the theater was nearly sold out and the crowd was very enthusiastic, which helped my overall experience of the film. Moreover, I did not see any trailers or promo footage for the movie so every cameo and appearances were a pleasant surprise to me.

The film, is as meta and forth wall breaking as Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back and is a reboot of sorts of that movie, which Jay & Silent Bob Reboot unshamefully tells the audience more than once. And like previously films that feature Jay and Silent Bob, this isn't for everyone as the humor is often crass and low brow and there is of course the gratuitous use of foul language. For fans of Kevin Smith and his films, this is just standard materials that's expected to be in the film. The movie is silly and very much inside nerdom jokes.

Jay & Silent Bob Reboot is definitely a story told by Kevin Smith at this stage of his life as there are some elements and moments where Kevin Smith shares his thoughts through the certain monologues from various characters.

I enjoyed Jay & Silent Bob Reboot more than Jay & Silent Bob Striker Back as there aren't those subplots of a Will Ferrell or diamond heist. The flick focuses on the two lead characters and their mission. Additionally, there's a nice character arc. The film is not very original as it's a reboot, but I feel is better than the film it's rebooting as there's more heart to the film and it's more focus in it's story telling. And there's the fact that the characters I watched in the 90s are now grown up like me. I felt like I was in on everything having watched all of Kevin Smith's films and a listener to his various podcasts. Plus the world of Jay & Silent Bob is something I've very familiar with. I enjoyed the movie and left with a smile on my face. Thus my emoji of


There's cutting room footage and clips that played during the credits that worth watching. However, after the film there was an interview with one of the actors that has a surprise appearance in the film as bonus material (not an end credit scene). I watched about five minutes of left and then left because the actor really didn't talk about the Jay & Silent Bob Reboot movie but how they broke into the business of acting. I'm sure that will be part of the bonus material that will be included on the home release.

 

Isn't It Romantic


In an emoji:

Going into the film, I didn't know if it would be more of a parody or spoof. My wife and I were pleasantly surprised that is was more a parody. It's like what Scream is to horror movies; rather than what those Scary Movie flick are to the horror genre. So, although Isn't It Romantic points out and mocks all the various RomCom tropes, it incorporates them for their own story and character arc.

Isn't It Romantic isn't a great RomCom, but rather a slightly below average one. My expectations for the film were pretty low and the movie manage to step over that bar easily, thus my emoji of

 

saw Joker last night.

...jesus christ. I mean I think it is a really brilliant brilliant film and that performance by Phoenix is astonishing , but it's incredibly upsetting/ sad/ grim etc.
Is there a particular thread discussing it?

 

The Laundromat-The Big Short covered similar territory in a more entertaining way.

 

Barefoot in the Park (1967)
As funny as it ever was, Redford and Fonda shine in the film adaptation of Neil Simon's play about a newlywed couple. Neil Simon's script is just so witty... I'd remembered that it was a film I'd enjoyed, but I'd forgotten just how good it was.

 

You're spot on. I enjoyed that movie myself.

3 From Hell (2019)

Hrm...it's unfortunate that Rob Zombie waited too long to mount the third chapter in the Firefly family story. It was cool to see Bill Moseley back as Otis, but the story is a very uninspired, less shocking and much less gory retread of The Devil's Rejects. (I watched the unrated version and it's surprising how much editing there was with the gore).

Everyone's older and that doesn't bode well for the characters. Moseley sounds weary, and most of Otis' greatest hacks and slashes are retread here shown as after the fact rather than before-during-and-after (that's actually a good thing considering how brutal his crimes in Rejects still are).

Sheri Moon Zombie does this movie no favors, except for allowing Dee Wallace to steal every scene they share. Again, too many years away from the character makes Baby less appealing. That the film focuses on her is problematic.

It's not really worth going into the plot because even in Zombie universe terms a lot of it just doesn't make for a good story. I guess I'll end this with I am sorry this was Sid Haig's last movie (he still had Spaulding's laugh), but he deserved much better than the 2 minutes he received (though the "end" for Spaulding made sense since his scene took place in a prison).

I do hope Rob works with Bill again at some point, but I'd rather see an original story than another go around with these characters. Their story should have ended with The Devil's Rejects.

Oh well.

 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Follow-up to Maleficent: when Prince Phillip proposes to Aurora and she accepts, Maleficent is opposed to it. Little do they know that Phillip's mother is plotting a war between humans and the Moors folks.

Both Phillip and Aurora take a more active role in this one than Maleficent.

Also, there is a reference to the original animated Sleeping Beauty at the end.

 

All Monsters Attack (1969) Oh gracious it's the donkey braying Minilla (Baby Godzilla)... I've forgotten how kiddie-centric this movie is. All the better to segue into Godzilla v. Hedorah (1971). That's the one with the hilarious ravers wearing fish-head masks. I love that scene.

 

Ghost in the Shell. So I am not a fan of anime at all, but I figured I might as well give one movie a try. This is supposed to be good, it’s on Amazon Prime, and I’m a sucker for cyberpunk, so I took a shot.

It’s no coincidence that my favorite part was the montage of the main character traveling across the city. There’s some pretty cool cyberpunk cityscape art. The rest of it didn’t do a ton for me. The story is generic cyberpunk and kind of shoddy, and the characterization is thin to say the least. And the animation style is not as obnoxious as most anime, but it’s not really my thing either. It felt like pretty bland post-Blade-Runner, post-Neuromancer cyberpunk. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t make any impression on me as some classic. I don’t regret giving it a watch, though.

 

The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) – Hiromasa Yonebayashi

The Secret World of Arrietty isn’t a Miyazaki film as far as the direction goes, though he did contribute to the screenplay, but it is a Studio Ghibli production and Yonebayashi has lovingly crafted a film that feels, all the way down to the bones, like a Miyazaki film in all the right ways and none of the wrong ones, not that are that many wrong ways to feel like a Miyazaki film. I don’t want to say that Yonebayashi has just done a tribute film or just tried to copy Miyazaki; I’m trying to pay him a compliment. In this film, Arrietty is a young Borrower; along with her mother and father, she lives beneath the floors of a simple country house and her family makes their living by “borrowing” things that won’t be missed: the odd sugar cube here, a square of tissue there, etc. But when Sho, a young boy suffering from a heart ailment, comes to the cottage in order to rest up for an upcoming surgery, Arrietty finds herself being drawn to and ultimately forging a strong emotional bond with him. Long story short, this is an absolutely delightful movie. It has all the hallmarks of a great Studio Ghibli film: a minimal story, compellingly drawn characters, a wonderfully detailed world and a rich emotional payoff. The stakes aren’t super-high for most of the story and it’s really a film that is focused, first and foremost, on the friendship between Arrietty and Sho. About half-way through the film, I realized that there essentially aren’t any jokes in this movie; there are some comedic moments, especially toward the end, but they all flow out of character, not out of funny dialogue. That’s kind of astonishing for a kid’s movie. But this movie does what Ghibli has always done: treat kids without condescension. They assume they can simply tell a rich, engaging story with interesting characters and kids will be interested, even if there are no real action scenes or hilarious gags. I don’t know how I would have reacted to a movie like Arrietty as a kid, but I certainly know how I reacted to it as an adult and that was with absolute satisfaction. This movie is a kind of contented sigh of a film, a sweet, earnest fairy-tale that evoked a sense of peace and emotional fulfillment. I’d rank this one higher than even some of Miyazaki’s most beloved Ghibli films (Howl’s Moving Castle, for one, and possibly Kiki’s Delivery Service); it’s a quiet, thoughtful masterpiece. 4 stars.

tl;dr – kind of the Platonic Ideal of a Studio Ghibli film; a rich emotional palette, engaging characters, a wondrous world and a sweet, earnest heart all add up to make this one of Ghibli’s best. 4 stars.

 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

My problem with most of the Disney live action remakes are they’re very cookie cutter, and this is no exception. It’s good. But that’s it. It doesn’t try to be anything better than good. It’s the same story we’ve seen a thousand times before - evil queen causes conflict between two kingdoms, then they work together to take her down. Very predictable. Jolie was good as Maleficent. Fanning was fine. It was enjoyable, but I’ll probably forget all about it tomorrow.

7/10.

 

Fractured Netflix movies starring Sam Worthington as a father who takes his wife and daughter to a local hospital after the daughter falls at a building site near a gas station and hurts her arm. He suspects something sinister is going as his wife and daughter go missing in the hospital. They have no records of them ever arriving and no one believes him, so he has to try every way possible to find them and discover what’s going on at the hospital. This was pretty grim throughout with unsettling angles and music to reflect Worthingtons state of confusion. Not the best film in the world but worth a watch, maybe not as predictable as you’d expect either.

 

Crawl

As Geoffrey Rush says in Shakespeare in Love, all I really want from entertainment is alligators, a hurricane, competitive swimming references, and a bit with a dog.

 

The Yearling (1946)

I get it's an Oscar winning classic, I get that it's based off a Pulitzer prize winning novel, I get that it's one of the best films ever made. It did nothing for me. Besides Gregory Peck, there's nothing to write home about. Am I supposed to feel something about the wretched baby deer that grows up and destroys the family's crops over and over while the poor kid works his *** off because his father is bedridden? Kill the mother******. Cut it's ****ing head off. Have an alligator eat it in the slowest, most grisly way possible. I ****ing hate deer, always on the roads where they shouldn't be, putting drivers in mortal danger. This movie had a happy ending, shut the **** up kid.

 

Joker in the theater on 10 October. I'm going to see Maleficent: Mistress of Evil today.

 

Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971)


fan art by kaijusamurai

I haven't seen this in a very long time. I think it might be in my top 3 Godzilla movies now.

This is actually timely with our industry, pollution etc. bringing about climate change.

So all the pollution, post-atomic fallout and smog combine with meteorite dust to create Hedorah, a shapeshifting, red eyed blob of corroded goop whose sulfuric acid gas can atomize people (or make them look like broken mannequins).



Godzilla takes a back seat to the Professor who single handedly (okay his young son helps) finds out what Hedorah is and eventually how to stop Heodorah's death smog/goo.

There's some wonky stuff, like a cat surviving
being smothered in Hedorah goo, no one in the main family mourning the loss of their sibling, a wannabe hippy youth. Also great, Hedorah nourishing itself by toking industry smoke from the factory stacks (Why yes, it looks very bong-like ), the same teen hallucinating his club buddies wearing fishhead masks during a psychedelic rave, and Godzilla flying via his fiery breath.

The animated interludes and use of liquid light shows makes this a wonderfully visual and colorful kaiju romp, while Hedorah is a wonderfully ridiculous Toho monster (He's kind of cute in his bipedal form).

My question about these Toho Godzilla movies is why do the little boys run around in shorts all the time?

I couldn't stay awake for Rodan (or Sugar Hill which I haven't seen in eons. Seriously, TCM why show that so late)...

but I am hoping Godzilla vs. Megalon is aired next Friday.

This was lots of fun, but even though the humans actually have a decent role here, I want more Godzilla. I also wanted more of the animation and psychedelic club bits. Those were great. I'd buy this one digital.

BTW the clarity of this print makes me think TCM are airing the upcoming Criteron versions.

Darn, seven year old me would have written a much better review of this (She's telling adult me to find a Hedorah figure stat!)

 

BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Warmer and wittier than I anticipated - considering the subject matter I wasn't expecting it to be more entertaining than preachy. Now I'm looking forward to watching John David Washington in Tenet.

 

In theaters, Joker. Outside of theater, The Dead Don't Die.

 

King of Thieves

This is a very strange movie.

The marketing would have you believe this is a comedy caper, or a humourously told tale of crime and, for a while, it sort of does that. It contrasts where the characters are with where they were, with a lightness of tone that skates over the actual violence of their crimes.

As the film goes on, it becomes very apparent that this bunch really are a load of very unpleasant, old bastards. If you think of Broadbent as playing genial old codgers, he really goes against that here with aging psychopath but no less psychopathic Terence. Winstone is more typecast as Danny. And there is the clear sense that, if the cops hadn’t swooped on the lot of them, they would have ended up killing up each other.

Even after the film has decided to make it very, very clear that These Are Not Nice People, it still sometimes flits back to jaunty caper sequence, like when they are stashing the loot, which makes for a very weird, off-kilter feel.

What is darkly amusing is the way the cops go about getting them. The entire gang, with the absence of Basil, has no tech awareness whatsoever – they are on CCTV, their faces and car number plates are visible, their phone conversations are intercepted, they had no chance of getting away with it. But let’s say they were more tech aware, I don’t think they would have cared. These were a bunch of arrogant, nasty, manipulative and violent individuals – with a very fast willingness to turn all of those aspects onto each other. There’s no honour among theives? There really isn’t and the fallout isn’t pretty to watch.

Still, so long as you go in not expecting what it was marketed as, this is a well-executed movie.

 

I just saw Maleficent 2 with friends, and I liked the film. But I am beyond tired of these Coca-Cola commercials they have before playing movies. If only they knew that I never drink coke during movies, and I haven't drank any coke or Pepsi since 1994. I didn't like the taste of either one!

 

Annabelle Comes Home. Almost didn't watch this cause I saw the first two and didn't really like them, but I picked it up from the library so it was free. I had low expectations for this and liked it well enough, although a lot of it made no sense to me. Basically a girl comes over to babysit the Warren's kid, she has a friend show up who's not suppose to be there. The friend goes looking into the room she shouldn't and weird stuff ensues, blah blah blah the end. I didn't find this film scary although there were a few scenes with some interesting camera angles.