Last movie watched...

[Keef Monkey]

A bit late to the party,  but am soaking up several movies at the moment due to just getting Amazon Prime.

So I watched Pacific Rim the other night,  and despite expecting to absolutely loath it as ' over blown and ludicrous tripe', I found myself enjoying it immensely. Ok, it's not the greatest film I've ever seen, but it was extremely watchable and thoroughly enjoyable.
Provided that you switch of the real 'thinking part' of the brain, ( and don't question the plot too much ),  relax and immerse yourself in it,  there is a hell of a lot to enjoy here.
Cheers

While you could reasonably argue that one might have to 'switch their brain off' to enjoy a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters in the first place, I don't actually think there's anything wrong with the plot of Pacific Rim. It's simplistic, formulaic, a little derivative and littered with corny dialogue, but to my mind (unlike with certain other giant robot franchises) there aren't any particular plot-holes or logical inconsistencies. As modern popcorn movie scripts go I'd hold Pacific Rim's up as one of the more solid examples. As for being a modern, loud visual effects extravaganza, it's actually pretty restrained, well-paced and surprisingly non headache-inducing.

People tend to talk about it like it's some 'guilty pleasure' film that you have to apologise for liking, but I think it's legitimately decent, and easily my favourite blockbuster of that summer.

Yeah, I love it guilt-free too. It is what it is, and it's a very well crafted example of what it is that stands head and shoulders above a lot of the films it gets lumped in with. Watched it again a couple of weeks ago and it had lost none of that giddy excitement I got the first time I saw it.

[Satanist]

TED - Absolute, utter dogshit from start to end! The very worst part is that the ghoul in me is tempted to watch the sequel just to see if it can out-shit itself.

[Spaceghost]

The Cove. Must admit I didn't make it to the end of this doc. As well-intentioned as the protestors were, in all honesty I felt a little uncomfortable that these Americans are going over to Japan and getting all judgemental and condemning the food production practices of a foreign culture. Is there a Japanese equivalent doc about the suffering of cows? I dunno, I don't want to sound heartless. Animal slaughter is never palatable, but it's sadly a fact of life. I just feel it's little disingenuous to get all hand-wringy about one species over another.
cold.

I think we've had plenty of debates on here about animal rights and the meat industry. While I'd love to see stronger regulation and a reduction in meat consumption in our own country, our practices are still vastly preferable to indiscriminately slaughtering wild animals in their natural habitat, while they are in their family groups.
Culture is an excuse, the slaughter of Dolphins is fucking horrific and needs to stop.

Agree 100%. I've visited Japan a number of times but I never fail to be disappointed in the general lack of any sort of respect or empathy with animals.

I've been to restaurants where people eat raw squid while it's still alive and sliced up, tentacles squirming as it watches you ingest it's body. I've seen people literally crucify octopuses alive and leave them to die and dry in the sun to be eaten later as a beer snack. I've seen restaurants where fish, swimming in a large pond are caught to order, sliced open and served raw and still gasping to eager punters. Occasionally, the fish have one side of their body sliced off to be eaten and are put back into the water to die whilst swimming forlornly around.

I've also, much to my regret, unknowingly eaten whale on THREE occasions whilst in Japan ("WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?!"), such is the prevelance even today of killing and eating these endangered animals.

Now, I'm far from a vegetarian (my wife, unusually for a Japanese person, is), but what I find shocking is the general, widespread acceptance of these practices. I've spoken to several Japanese people about it, but they don't seem to be able to think past "If it's really fresh, it tastes nicer", or "Whale meat is delicious". That's where most people's thought process ends.

Right, sorry for the threadjack. Back on topic -

Took the family to see Bill the Film, the new project from the super talented team behind the Horrible Histories TV show. If you've never seen it, it can best be described as Monty Python for kids (although it's a genuinely funny watch for adults too) with a few educational titbits thrown in.

Bill the Film mines the same type of surreal, irreverant humour as Horrible Histories and the script is packed with little gags and vignettes as well as an overarching story telling a fictionlised early history of William Shakespeare.

It's not as quick fire funny as the HH series, due to the fact that the long form story demands more structure and less pratting about, but the performances are all spot on and it kept us all interested and laughing all the way through.

One thing I love about Horrible Histories are the musical numbers that pepper each show. These are often innovative parodies of existing pop songs, re-tooled to fit the subject matter of that sketch and are always a highlight. That being said, I was disappointed that barring one song half way through, we didn't get any of this musical genius in the film.

A minor criticism though. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this fantastic family comedy to literally everyone.

[Professor Bear]

Agree 100%. I've visited Japan a number of times but I never fail to be disappointed in the general lack of any sort of respect or empathy with animals.

The dfarm77 channel over on Youtube is three generations of a Japanese family and their massive huskies in a tiny, tiny home, and often looks like a behind-the-scenes video of a gimmicky sitcom.

Vaguely back on track as a film thread, there's a very famous Japanese film, Hachiko Monogatari, that shows the general turning point of pets in Japanese culture from communally-owned working animals (usually for vermin control) to actual family members.  Watch it cold if you can, but be prepared for manly tears.

[Spaceghost]

Agree 100%. I've visited Japan a number of times but I never fail to be disappointed in the general lack of any sort of respect or empathy with animals.

The dfarm77 channel over on Youtube is three generations of a Japanese family and their massive huskies in a tiny, tiny home, and often looks like a behind-the-scenes video of a gimmicky sitcom.

Vaguely back on track as a film thread, there's a very famous Japanese film, Hachiko Monogatari, that shows the general turning point of pets in Japanese culture from communally-owned working animals (usually for vermin control) to actual family members.  Watch it cold if you can, but be prepared for manly tears.

I'll have to seek that out.

Obviously there are exceptions, and I'm sure there are people who love their pets, but I was really talking about the national perception of animals.

In addition to the above, some of the animals I've seen in zoos over there are living in pretty poor conditions and there don't seem to be any animal cruelty regulations. Not on the scale we have in the UK anyway.

[Professor Bear]

I haven't done any society-boffin studies or owt, but as I understand it, in Japan until fairly recently, there used to be communally-owned animals used for vermin control of streets, neighbourhoods, villages, etc, but actual Western-style "pets" of a single home was seen as a postwar affectation of the middle and urban classes influenced by the occupying Western culture, and thus there remains a certain cultural stigma what with Japan's well-documented problems ratifying its forward-looking technologically-literate younger generations' outlook and its deeply conservative older members who still have a stranglehold on the media and political establishments.

Coming back to Hachiko Monogatari for a moment, I should also probably point out there's an English-language version called Hachi: A Dog's Tale, starring Richard Gere.  It's not as good as the Japanese original for many reasons, but it does at least come with the tacit assumption that someone had to cast a movie about a man with an unnaturally close relationship with a small animal and the first person they thought of was Richard Gere.  FOR SOME REASON.

[Hawkmumbler]

Sometimes it takes a good old genre mash up to truely appreciate how great two franchises are on their own. Wyrmwood Road of the Dead is one of these movies. Functionally, it only exists to make you want to watch Mad Max or read The Walking Dead instead, and it would succed. If it wasn't so damn entertaining in it's own right, as it's one of those movies where, 30 minuets before the end, you wonder weather your just watching this for a laugh or genuinly enjoying yourself. I think it was when they [spoiler]realised they could power a car off the fumes the zombies make[/spoiler] and tooled up that I realised the movie was destined to be a cult classic. Huge fun if you can tune your brain into the right wavelength.

Zardoz shouldn't (and in many ways doesn't) work. Overt penis metaphores, giant floating paper mache heads, and Sean Connery in a giant red nappy. Surely a recipy for disaster, no? Actualy no, as it's so off it's own rocker it's never boring or lacking of weirdness to be bad. Whats it about other than equating my manhood to an AK47? God knows, buy the dvd and find out. Utterly perplexing.

Buckaroo Banzai Adventure across the 8th Dimension is the greatest movie you have never watched and you should fix that. Pete Weller plays Buckaroo Banzai, a bushido practicing, trans dimensional rockstar who inadvertenly allows an alien race from another universe to invade earth. From their all hell breaks loose and some of the madest spectacles ever to grace sci-fi ensue. Utterly delirious and worth every penny for the new blu from Arrow.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Sometimes it takes a good old genre mash up to truely appreciate how great two franchises are on their own. Wyrmwood Road of the Dead is one of these movies. Functionally, it only exists to make you want to watch Mad Max or read The Walking Dead instead, and it would succed. If it wasn't so damn entertaining in it's own right, as it's one of those movies where, 30 minuets before the end, you wonder weather your just watching this for a laugh or genuinly enjoying yourself. I think it was when they [spoiler]realised they could power a car off the fumes the zombies make[/spoiler] and tooled up that I realised the movie was destined to be a cult classic. Huge fun if you can tune your brain into the right wavelength.

Zardoz shouldn't (and in many ways doesn't) work. Overt penis metaphores, giant floating paper mache heads, and Sean Connery in a giant red nappy. Surely a recipy for disaster, no? Actualy no, as it's so off it's own rocker it's never boring or lacking of weirdness to be bad. Whats it about other than equating my manhood to an AK47? God knows, buy the dvd and find out. Utterly perplexing.

Buckaroo Banzai Adventure across the 8th Dimension is the greatest movie you have never watched and you should fix that. Pete Weller plays Buckaroo Banzai, a bushido practicing, trans dimensional rockstar who inadvertenly allows an alien race from another universe to invade earth. From their all hell breaks loose and some of the madest spectacles ever to grace sci-fi ensue. Utterly delirious and worth every penny for the new blu from Arrow.

I have a copy of Zardoz on a VHS tape. (Remember those!) Purchased from the video rental store roughly 20 yrs ago. Your right, it certainly is bonkers. Like there is guy wearing a towel on his head , I think his name is Nile Buggy who get's shot by who ever Sean Connery is and does this....

I am Arthur Frayn, and I should remind you my beard has only been drawn on by a sharpie

Everything coated or separated from each other in clear plastic like material. I think it's the stuff that can't be understood that spoils this film and the rest is just trippy.

See this film just to find James Bond wearing a wedding dress!

I didn't know about this musical or if it's even legit, but that song sounds very familiar.

Original film shot entirely in Ireland.

As for Buckaroo-Banzai, how about a revamp or television series. (They did this with Dusk Til Dawn and even improved on it in some parts!) Some of it is good and otherwise lacking. Never getting the attention of other films of the same ilk.

[Buttonman]

Woeful 80's monster romp Watchers starring Corey Haim and Michael Ironside. And a super intelligent dog that plays Scrabble.

[JamesC]

I finished work early this afternoon so I finally got around to watching Ex Machina.

It was quite good but a little too downbeat for me to be able to say I really enjoyed it.
I had some problems with the story/direction too.
[spoiler]The main problem for me was the character of Eva and her relationship with the main character. She seemed so robotic to me that, though I could understand some level of empathy, the main character's actions seemed a little unbelievable.
I think if Eva had a little more warmth and the relationship between her and the main character had been shown to have some humour or at least to have some natural flow beyond the 'questions and answers' it would have improved the film. It would certainly have given the ending more impact.[/spoiler]

Having said that, I'd happily watch it again and it was certainly thought provoking in places.

[radiator]

A bit late to the party,  but am soaking up several movies at the moment due to just getting Amazon Prime.

So I watched Pacific Rim the other night,  and despite expecting to absolutely loath it as ' over blown and ludicrous tripe', I found myself enjoying it immensely. Ok, it's not the greatest film I've ever seen, but it was extremely watchable and thoroughly enjoyable.
Provided that you switch of the real 'thinking part' of the brain, ( and don't question the plot too much ),  relax and immerse yourself in it,  there is a hell of a lot to enjoy here.
Cheers

While you could reasonably argue that one might have to 'switch their brain off' to enjoy a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters in the first place, I don't actually think there's anything wrong with the plot of Pacific Rim. It's simplistic, formulaic, a little derivative and littered with corny dialogue, but to my mind (unlike with certain other giant robot franchises) there aren't any particular plot-holes or logical inconsistencies. As modern popcorn movie scripts go I'd hold Pacific Rim's up as one of the more solid examples. As for being a modern, loud visual effects extravaganza, it's actually pretty restrained, well-paced and surprisingly non headache-inducing.

People tend to talk about it like it's some 'guilty pleasure' film that you have to apologise for liking, but I think it's legitimately decent, and easily my favourite blockbuster of that summer.

Yeah, I love it guilt-free too. It is what it is, and it's a very well crafted example of what it is that stands head and shoulders above a lot of the films it gets lumped in with. Watched it again a couple of weeks ago and it had lost none of that giddy excitement I got the first time I saw it.

I think what I really liked about Pac Rim is that it had three big action set pieces, and while these were pretty over the top, they were also fairly equally spaced within the movie. So many of these big franchise movies - I'm thinking primarily of stuff like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World - just feel like a cluttered sequence of noisy action from start to finish and it all - to me - just becomes a malaise.

[radiator]

Woeful 80's monster romp Watchers starring Corey Haim and Michael Ironside. And a super intelligent dog that plays Scrabble.

I remember that movie. Doesn't Michael Ironside end up getting pinned to a tree with crossbow bolts and set on fire? I wonder if anyone has ever made a supercut of every grisly Ironside death scene?

[Buttonman]

[spoiler]He gets his throat slit, shot a few times and set alight - he is a balding lab experiment after all![/spoiler]

[Buttonman]

Irish drama What Richard Did.

[shaolin_monkey]

John Wick - woah! I heard it was good, but wasn't expecting that!! Best Keanu Reeves film since The Matrix. Excellent!!