Movies just watched - Theatre V1

[Gentian]

Se7en (1995).

Nightmare and I have been on something of a David Fincher binge and given that this movie is about a police invistigation of a serial killer, it seemed right up my alley. I was right. Compelling, great story from start to finish, and John Doe is one of the most fascinating villains I've ever seen. It's easy to see why so many movies have tried to, in some way, copy off this one.

I remember watching this in junior high. The "Sloth" guy scared the hell out of me, and the Library scene was what first got me in to classical music, to say nothing of it's juxtaposition of the beauty of Bach's Air, and the horrors in the books, and photographs. Two sides of human nature frequently seen as being at odds with one another on display at the same time. It was captivating. And the ending? Well, it's imitated for a reason.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

Yakuza Apocalypse (2015).

This movie is just...I...the words "What the fuck?!" don't do it justice.

It's amazing.

[Gentian]

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

I remember when the OVA was released in 1995. Anime was pretty much unknown at the time, yet they had television advertisements for this one. Not your run-of-the-mill commercials, mind you, neither of the cheap kind I'd find advertising phone-sex on the public access channels late at night while trying to watch The Miss Nude Tampa pageant, and Lifestyles of the Up and Coming with the volume turned waaayyyyy down after my parents had gone to sleep. No, this was a sleek ad with great sound, smooth editing, that rad 90s narrator telling us how awesome the movie was, and that we should call the toll-free number to reserve our copy today!

Being a tween at the time, I had neither money, nor my parents permission to use the phone without asking first. Heaven help me if I somehow found a way to get their credit cards, so no Ghost in the Shell for me. But I remembered, and years later after growing up and moving out, I found it in a video-rental store (anyone else remember those?) and finally got to see it.

It's awesome. It's not as deep, or mind-blowing as people claim, but it is a good story, and has a great art-style. The animation is smooth, the action, and Not!boobies of Motoko's thermoptic camouflage made it one I was glad to have seen. When I heard they were remaking it in a live-action style I was thrilled. There were doubts, but there are doubts about anything, and most of them I found seemed to devolve to racist arguments about casting Scarlett instead of an Asian person.

Never mind that in the comics Motoko was explicitly said to prefer a caucasian-styled robo-body. Never mind that the same racist shits don't care when a white character is changed to black, or hispanic, or whatever. Apparently it's only a problem when a character "becomes" white, even though she's always been that. So after the 10 billionth time hearing the same racist comments, I stopped looking into the matter.

Well.

The movie was terrible, and not for any reasons having to do with the casting.

Spoiler

In the OVA, and comics, she was an agent working for Section 9, and had been a cyborg almost all her life, following an accident that left her body destroyed, and the doctors no choice but to attempt an experimental procedure of putting her brain in a synthetic shell. In this film, however, they went with the tired, cliche "secret" of her being not the first of her kind, even though they told her she was! They decided to make her a brainwashed political prisoner, whose mind was taken from a perfectly healthy body and stuffed in a bot. They decided to make her creators the bad guys, and the bad guy the good guy! How original!

And I hoped, I hoped, I hoped! That the bad guy was going to be project 2501. I mean, that was the whole point of the series; what does it mean to be human? With Motoko herself they played the Ship of Theseus angle, but 2501 was an entirely artificial intelligence. He was the main plot device that said you can be sapient without biology, and he was the original "villain," anyway. They would have to include him, right?

Ha! No, let's just replace that modicum of intellectual stimulation with a romance! Yeah! And lets make the bad guy her boyfriend, who was also a political prisoner, and made into the model before her, who, surprise surprise was defective! Yeah! Then, lets completely drop the whole point of the series, and replace it with a ham-fisted moral about our actions defining us, and not our memories. I'm not even going to touch how idiotic that "moral" is. Let's also not question what is moral, why it is, or is not, or any other of the extremely basic questions which leap to mind at such an absurd premise. That would be, like, hard for the audience, or something. FFS.

Another thing. The cross-language dialogue was terrible. I get that the Japanese actor can't speak English. He's pretty popular, and I see him on TV here doing guest-spots all the time. I get that Scarlett can't speak Japanese. But damn it, they can't get her to parrot a few memorized lines? It's awkward to have her speaking English, and him replying in Japanese, or him speaking Japanese, and every single other person in the room using English. Though, I admit, it would be a neat little nod to the imminent collapse of the language barrier that translation tech promises, if I thought they put enough thought into this thing for it to be anything of the sort.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

Nightmare and I watched two films today.

Without Warning (1980).

Basically what happens when you combine Predator (which is ironic because this movie predates it by seven years) and Friday the 13th (minus gratuitous nudity and sex) with a dash of 1950s sci-fi charm. Not the best movie ever, but once it got rolling it was mostly pretty entertaining and had a cool alien monster.

Razorback (1984).

I know the premise of a "rampaging killer boar" may not sound good...but oh trust me it is. Definitely one of the best killer animal on the loose movies, gritty, horrifying and violent. Plus the cinematography is just gorgeous! Would recommend if you want a good horror movie.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

Dark Star (1974).

A perfect sci-fi black comedy satire commentating on human apathy, mindless destruction, ignorance (both willful and unintentional), and the struggle of an ultimately meaningless existence.

One of John Carpenter's best works.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

Wonder Woman (2017).

Honestly I think this is the best superhero movie in years. And this is coming from someone who is a bit...worn out when it comes to the genre. I feel like I can't say much else than that.

[Rares]

I finally saw Transformers The Last Knight.

Oh boy.

Well I guess it was a Transformers Movie/10? It's exactly what you'd expect I suppose. I feel cheated and lied to. Spoilers below.

Spoiler

But at the same time it is fucking anything but what you'd expect ad is just a complete clusterfuck, and that's an understatement. The film feels so bloated with too many characters and too much going on it really needed to cut the fat, and there's a lot of it. It feels like there are multiple plots going on at once, and evil Optimus is barely in it. There are also way too many characters that just don't contribute anything at all in the film, they just kind of are there briefly then never seen again, or don't do anything.

Let me talk about Megatron, because he's my favorite Transformers character. Megatron had a great design, and it's awesome to have Welker back in the role. But that's where the positive aspects stop for me. Megatron is really weird in this film as he's around for the first 20 minutes and vanishes from the plot up until the last few minutes. The final fight with him is pathetic and actually annoyed me. He's seen fighting every single one of the Autobots, but the catch is the fight takes place in the background of uninteresting human shenanigans. Whose idea was that, no one wants to see that, they want to see Megatron's fight. And there is no fight with Optimus Prime and Megatron, Prime sorta jumps on Megatron, cuts off his arm, and tosses him outside and that's it, there's nothing.

Evil Prime is completely wasted, it's only like a single scene. It's like they got chicken and were afraid to use the concept. There's too much stuff going on and they drop a big bomb that Earth is Unicron several times in the movie, then say it in the end credits scene as if it's supposed to be a shock. Unicron being Earth is another thing I don't like, it's taken from the Transformersrime cartoon and it wasn't a very good concept in there either. The Decepticons are used a bit better but still completely wasted, and Anthony Hopkins is the only interesting human in the movie, he has a fun relationship with Cogman.

I don't think I even let out half my thoughts. Wew. Normally I'm more lenient on these, but geez.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

Nightbreed (1990).

This movie couldn't decide what the fuck it wanted to be. A straight forward movie about a guy becoming a monster? A role reversal of monsters and humans with the theme of prejudice? Well when it does become that it's so ham-fisted and horribly done it's comical, the humans are caricatures and watching them massacre the Nightbreed has little impact because we're given zero reason to like or care about them. They're a dime a dozen misunderstood race that you could in a dozen other movies.

Oh, plus they managed to sneak in a Jesus metaphor at the end with Boone being "the savior." They tack it on at the last possible second.

And why is Boone having dreams about the Nightbreed in the beginning? Fuck if I know, it doesn't say. I guess "because the prophecy" am I right? And why was he talking about murder to Decker in such detail that it allowed Decker to frame him? And why did no one investigate the fact his fucking doctor gave him hallucinogens?

Only redeeming quality is Decker, but even then he has little motivation aside from "I like to kill people and oh look, monsters! Guess I better kill them all!"

Honestly I think this is the worst movie I've watched all year, fucking hell.

[NightHorse666]

Ponka and I watched Interstellar for about the 5th time earlier today, and we just got done watching Gravity for the 2nd or 3rd time.

I recommend both of them, but ESPECIALLY Interstellar, it's an amazing movie.

[Heather Rose]

Ponka and I watched Interstellar for about the 5th time earlier today, and we just got done watching Gravity for the 2nd or 3rd time.

I recommend both of them, but ESPECIALLY Interstellar, it's an amazing movie.

Those are both fantastic movies. Interstellar is probably my favorite overall movie. Awesome soundtrack (dat organ) and amazing IMAX visuals.

Gravity is really intense. Awesome in 3D too.

You two have great taste in movies.