[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo

Covar said:

Objectively Tokyo SOS is probably the best of the Millennium series. I need to watch those two again, it's been a few years and I remember really liking the fight scenes.

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I was more impressed with it than when I first watched it. Hard for me to say between GMK or this--there's so much great about GMK. On the other hand, I have hang-ups with it as a Godzilla fan for what it could've been had Toho not meddled with Kaneko's intentions, and while GMK is impressive throughout and does more with Godzilla as a character than any other Millennium movie, Tokyo SOS gets the feelings going. It's less "let's show what could be done with Godzilla" and more "let's do Godzilla's thing really, really well." Plus I love the hell out of Mothra and she definitely comes across better in Tokyo SOS than GMK.

Yoshimickster said:

Its a little confusing being a sequel to the original Mothra...but no to the original Godzilla flicks which it crossed over with. The multiverse is a fickle fickle place. I wish we could get another solo Mothra movie again, I remember the one where Mothra Leo went AQUA MOTHRA pretty fondly. Need to see the third one some time.

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Gojira, Mothra, Godzilla X Mechagodzilla, Godzilla Tokyo SOS.

No Godzilla has been seen since 1954 until 1999. Meanwhile, Mothra was around in 1960 and can be assumed to be the same adult form in Tokyo SOS. Which makes more sense, having a 43 year lifespan than the Showa series, where apparently Mothra is ready for a new young body to house her divinity in just a few years.

You kind of have to be ready to juggle these things or assume some of them are soft references. I mean really, it doesn't matter if Gaira was killed by lava like in War of the Gargantuas or by masers as said in GxM, or that there's no reference to Frankenstein. The movies can't get their own continuity right--in GxM, it's stated that they use a cyborg because the DNA can process smoother and faster than binary 0's and 1's. Then in Tokyo SOS, as the screen is screwing up in Kiryu, it shows a bunch of 0's and 1's.

I suggest this thread be renamed "Zero watches a whole lot of Godzilla movies"

Ravenpoe said:

I suggest this thread be renamed "Zero watches a whole lot of Godzilla movies"

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Maybe I should've made a Godzilla thread, like a hype thread for Toho's 2016 movie (which starts shooting next week!) and just posted these there. Or perhaps just a giant monster thread since we're also getting new Kong and Pacific Rim movies.

If it helps, I've watched almost two-thirds of them now.

In other non-Godzilla news, I finally saw Mad Max: Fury Road tonight. Like everyone said, it was a good, solid action flick. Short on plot, high on action. I loved that they managed to take a series of car chases and make them visually unique each time. (Like the Cirque du Soliel soldiers!) Definitely enjoyed this far more than the previous Maxes.

MST3k: Time of the Apes: This movie is just baffling. The direction, the editing ... this isn't Joel and the bots' best work (though "Jack doesn't care" is a fun running gag) but the movie by itself is so hilariously inept that it's doing the work for them. It's so bad I had to research it, and apparently it was cobbled together from a one-season TV show, which explains why nothing makes sense, although I can't imagine how incredibly boring the actual show had to have been.

I'm not even finished watching this. We had to take a break last night and will finish it today. The movie feels like it's almost over, but there's still 40 minutes to go.

I finally saw CHAPPiE. It was okay, but compared to how powerful I thought District 9 and Elysium were, emotionally, it was pretty flat. If you like Die Antwoort, then you'll probably enjoy the movie more, but essentially it was a mashup of Robocop and Short Circuit, except instead of Johnny 5 getting adopted by a granola girl with a food truck, he was adopted by South African gangsters in Joburg. The bright spot was definitely the VFX - the team that did the Tetravaal robots NEEDS to be involved in any live-action Robotech film. The Scout robots were excellent and it was amusing to hear Peter Weller's Robocop voice being used for them.

GasBandit said:

I can't think of a live action adaptation of an anime I actually enjoyed watching.

Though I think I've only ever actually seen one... Death Note.

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The Phoenix Wright movie is literally the only good anime or video game live action adaption I've seen come from Japan.

GasBandit said:

I think, also, in general, I just don't particularly enjoy Japanese cinema.

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They do really great horror movies and gangster movies, but yes... it's generally very hit or miss. I am looking forward to Ryuzo and his Seven Henchmen though... Beat Takeshi always does a good flick. It's basically old school, hard criminal yakuza retirees getting revenge on new school, scam artist yakuza kids after one of their members gets caught up in a scam and loses some money.

Mad Max Fury Road: It's time again! Now on home video!

The colors are so much crisper than on whatever shitty projector AMC had us using. Though I do miss the surround sound.

Movie is still fucking amazing.

GasBandit said:

I think, also, in general, I just don't particularly enjoy Japanese cinema.

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Kurosawa!

Zero Esc said:

Mad Max Fury Road: It's time again! Now on home video!

The colors are so much crisper than on whatever shitty projector AMC had us using. Though I do miss the surround sound.

Movie is still fucking amazing.

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Pfft, I've been watching it at home since May.

Zero Esc said:

Mad Max Fury Road: It's time again! Now on home video!

The colors are so much crisper than on whatever shitty projector AMC had us using. Though I do miss the surround sound.

Movie is still fucking amazing.

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You know.... this is the first movie that has made me seriously think about getting a blue ray player.

Zero Esc said:

Mad Max Fury Road: It's time again! Now on home video!

The colors are so much crisper than on whatever shitty projector AMC had us using. Though I do miss the surround sound.

Movie is still fucking amazing.

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I suddenly want to create a Fury Road/Godzilla/Planet of the Apes crossover just to see you nerd out so much it causes a nuclear holocaust.

...especially when Elsa shows up at the end and defeats all of them.

ThatNickGuy said:

I suddenly want to create a Fury Road/Godzilla/Planet of the Apes crossover just to see you nerd out so much it causes a nuclear holocaust.

...especially when Elsa shows up at the end and defeats all of them.

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Blocked.

Zero Esc said:

Blocked.

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The Return of Godzilla: In a way I've seen this before and in a way I haven't. I've seen Godzilla 1985, a version I've largely forgotten and that is apparently so chopped-up that I need to watch it again just to see the differences. As for the Japanese cut I watched, it's certainly a unique Godzilla movie. It feels like it's some other kind of monster or horror movie. The music especially shifts the tone to being serious and sounds more like a traditional movie score as opposed to a Godzilla score.

This and vs Biollante really get into how the world would be affected by the existence of Godzilla, which is pretty cool. Lots of talk about finances, diplomacy, politics. It feels so different from the usual kaiju movie, even down to the way the political debate scenes are shot, really getting the feel of how exasperated the prime minister is, without a line of dialogue from him on it. The thing I like the least of this movie is Godzilla--I don't think the suit looks great, and whoever was working the close-up animatronic who was in charge of the arms needed to be told he didn't have to move the arms at all times so they don't wiggle around all stupid when the action is focused on the head. But it doesn't ruin what's a really interesting movie that has a lot of focus on Godzilla.

Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth: Then there's a Godzilla movie with practically ZERO focus on Godzilla. You could cut him out and have a decent enough Mothra movie. I don't think this is as terrible as some say, if you look at it as a Mothra movie. It's not even bad. But I've seen better Mothra movies cover the same material (namely Mothra and the original Godzilla vs Mothra) and this does nothing new except Battra. Again, it's not bad, but it feels a little redundant if you've seen other Godzilla movies. Godzilla's cameo appearances are still good--though the Japanese government comes off as kind of stupid thinking that lava will kill Godzilla, when just a few years earlier they trapped Godzilla in a volcano, knowing it would only hold him but not kill him.

It's certainly my least favorite of the 80s/90s Heisei series. I'm really up for a rewatch of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1993) for some reason.

Probably going to be watching Tokyo SOS again this weekend as my wife wants to see it, but I promise not to mention it again unless I notice some really interesting detail.

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster: First time watching the Japanese cut of this movie. It's better than the English dub, but that can't stop it from being a really stupid movie. Which would be fine, but it also feels a lot longer than it is, and while the English version is shorter, you then get back to the awful dub. Rodan looks terrible, both Godzilla and Rodan act like morons, Mothra's eyes look painted on when she's on the island. Ghidorah looks fantastic and I'm guessing he soaked up most of the budget.

Godzilla 2000: I watched both the Japanese and English cuts, and I think deep down I just don't like this movie.

The Japanese cut drags horribly through most of the movie, even in the final battle which should be really exciting.

The English version improves the pacing considerably, adds in more Akira Ifukube music, and makes the final battle a lot more enjoyable, but the dub makes so many characters act like jerks when they were reasonable or likable in the Japanese version. Everyone's calling each other idiots and assholes. This happened with the English dub for Godzilla: Final Wars as well. Why do the dub scripters think the Japanese are so angry? Not to mention, the dub acting isn't that great. I feel like it was only in the 60s and 70s that the people doing the dubs actually tried, because a lot of the later movies have voice acting that sounds like it's just the producers and a couple friends trying to wing it over a weekend.

I can understand people liking this, especially if the last Godzilla movie they'd seen before it was Godzilla 1998, but it's just not for me.

Godzilla's Revenge:

Zoolander

Finally saw it all the way through instead of in pieces like I did with every movie that was on Comedy Central when they aired movies and made a big deal about it. Damn fun movie, not the best thing I've seen but it had a lot of good elements to it.

Everest

Decent film, this. Tons of beautiful sweeping shots of the Himalayas, and the all-star cast all deliver strong performances. Plot doesn't go anywhere surprising, but I guess that's to be expected since it's based on a true story.

Oh god, I turned on Hackers because it was free on Xfinity and I needed background noise, and I can't stop laughing.

I DON'T HAVE AN IDENTITY UNTIL I HAVE A HANDLE MAN!

GasBandit said:

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Wasn't that from Sneakers?

Wife said she was in the mood for a kaiju movie if I had one I wanted her to watch (haha, do I?!) so we watched Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion. The Blu-Ray has some occasional subtitle delay, but otherwise it's nice to see that the effects hold up even in high definition. Still an awesome movie, wife enjoyed it, and unlike after Guardian of the Universe, she's curious about what happens next. This one's such a great sci-fi film that the kaiju stuff is just icing on the cake.

Insidious, Chapter 3

Tonight was the late start for Nicktoberfest, my annual month of horror movies. And I thought I'd start it off with a horror flick I meant to see in theatres. Because this is probably my favourite new horror series. I loved the first two and this one was no different. Sure, it got silly at points, much like the other two, but I don't mind a bit of silliness in my horror movies.

Justice League: Gods & Monsters

This was okay. Great animation and action (even if how two of the monsters' defeats were via old superhero cliches). It was an interesting, if really dark and gritty, world to visit. They could've shown how the world was more different because of these three "heroes," because it didn't seem all that different. The villain's mystery was interesting, at least, and a neat reveal (even though I suspected it early in). One twist with Wonder Woman's backstory felt like the writer was just saying, "Oooh, look! Edgy and unexpected!"

Honestly, though, I thought the three main characters were rather bland. There wasn't much heart behind any of them. I didn't feel connected with them and their motivations to be heroes weren't very apparent. At least the characters they were named from had motivations for doing what they do. I didn't get that from these characters.

Anyway, yeah, it was okay. I don't regret watching it. I'm just tired of the DC Universe (in whatever version) trying to be extreme.

Just coming back from the Martian. Agreed. Great movie.