Same here, although I confess I wasn't blown away by this one. I often find that while Ghibli films always crush it on the imagination front, the writing can be hit and miss. I understood the autobiographical origin of the plot, but there were several parts that felt underdeveloped or poorly explained. Overall, was good but definitely not up there with Mononoke or Spirited Away, imo
Wes Anderson movies are an acquired taste. But this one in particular is very accessible, and very funny. And it has a very emotional ending.
The only thing an uninitiated viewer needs to know is that the effects are intentionally low-budget. Just take them as seriously as the characters do, you’ll warm to them.
My first time watching this movie I stopped paying attention about 30 minutes in. Some time later the final act started and I was drawn back in. I have since watched it from start to finish about 5 times. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't generally watch a movie more than once.
That's my favourite Wes Anderson film! The story and design are beautiful and the writing is brilliantly clever.
the effects are intentionally low-budget
Some of them are for aesthetic reasons, but this film was actually pretty expensive to make. Famously it did a lot of damage to WA's reputation among Hollywood execs because the studio greenlit a high budget for him and gave him a lot of creative control and the movie ended up doing really poorly at the box office. It cost 50M to make and only earned 25M in box office sales.
Right up there with Tenenbaums for me. Wasn’t as impressed with it when I saw it in theaters, but it really grew on me. Still get the feels when Queen Bitch plays at the end.
Yeah, that's the most recent movie for me, too. I thought it was all right; I've been listening to a lot of Insane Clown Posse recently so a lot of the jokes weren't as shocking/outré as I think they were trying to be. But it definitely had its moments, like the... uh... "fingers to the face" scenes and the... "skin-related incident".
Same! Loved it. Deadpool is now one of the best Marvel and Fox comic book movie trilogies in that it manages to nail all 3 movies. Have only seen that with Captain America and Guardians (imo).
Yes the first one! The TV show is alright but they have different voice actors and artists so it’s not as good but the story line is still wholesome af.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) - Aubrey Plaza in an engaging character piece that has hints of Eagle vs Shark among others. It's not outstanding by any means and not among Plaza's best, but still witty and touching.
In theater, deadpool and wolverine. Plot was silly but holy fuck the movie itself was incredible. Won't spoil it but they're are some great surprises for 90s kids. I felt pandered to in the best way.
At home, the mask. Girlfriend hadn't seen it. Warned her that I remembered it being amazing when I saw it ages ago, but it might not hold up. It held up. Chick chicky boom.
Nausicaa SLAYS. If you're in the US, there are often annual "Studio Ghibli Fests" that show Ghibli movies on the big screen, btw. The manga's amazing too, you can often find it in libraries.
Watched Dune pt 2. I personally didn't like the rewrites to the story, but I enjoyed Villeneuve's artistic style.
Regarding if I would recommend the movie, I'll paraphrase a video review I saw: "I would recommend it to anyone who liked the first one and hasn't read the books".
Yeah, I can see that as well. The storyline in part 2 felt very rushed imo, which might make the overall story confusing without the prior context of the books.
Treasure Planet for the first time... It was a ride, I liked the animation and the old Disney style actually got me thinking if it had gaming adaptations... And ofc it had them... I want to at least try one (for nostalgic reasons), but I am unsure if the PS1 or PS2 version is the right one to go.
I never understand people who make comments like this, what were you expecting going into Twisters? Citizen Kane? I watched Twisters today, it was a mindlessly fun little movie, exactly as expected.
Even mindless movies need a hook to pull you in. Fast & Furious has all that hokey family stuff, but the relationships between characters is the emotional core that makes you give a shit about all the garbage flying around on screen.
I'm sure this movie probably has/attempted something like that, but it doesn't hit for everyone and they're just left wondering why they're watching a pointless animation for 2 hours.
I've been in both sides of this. X-Men: Apocalypse stands out in my mind as being just a bunch of pointless tropey CGI garbage that I was relieved to finally walk out of. But I enjoy all the F&F movies just the same, even if I wait to catch them on streaming since Paul died.
I just watched one, like 30 minutes ago. It's Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Earth Symphony
It's about music, and honestly animated films about music are some of the coolest films, as they can have infinite imagination of synchronizing and visualizing the music.
I know Doraemon isn't that popular in the west, but it's one of the top franchises here in Asia.
My partner and I are watching every movie that Arnold Schwarzenegger has ever been in, no matter how small the role. We just finished watching Scavenger Hunt from 1979 and it was fucking horrible. By the far the worst movie from his early days in film. It's not that he made it bad, the movie in and of itself was bad.
Mad Max: Fury Road, it was just as good as I remember
Oops, forgot about watching Murder Mystery 2 and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire with my parents.
They were ok for a few chuckles, Ghostbusters had some fun easter eggs.
The idea that the supposed smart girl of the family would intentionally get into an untested machine (she literally asked if they had tested it on living beings yet, which they said they hadn't), with the intent of "only temporarily killing herself," so she could... do what? Kiss her ghost crush? when they had already explicitly said that her ghost form could interact with the physical world, so they could've kissed regardless? Then, take the other story arc, about the fire master, that could have been the main story arc! They could have kept some of the teenage rebellion of the two kids, while having most of the story revolve around him becoming fire master. Instead, they tried to shove 3 stories into one movie, and it just came out a garbled mess.
Vesper. It is imo a good sci-fi movie, but a tough one. The lives of the characters are not easy, but the movie doesn't tell you that, you discover it through details casually said by the characters. The movie itself is a post apocalyptic movie in a very original setting. It is about biotechnology instead mechanised or AI tech. It is worth it for this alone IMO. It was a great movie imo, but not one to cheer up.
Interstellar. It was like the 4th or 5th time I've seen it, so yeah, I'd definitely recommend it if you're into sci-fi epics.
The last movie I saw for the first time was Barbie. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. It also didn't take itself too seriously, despite having a very positive message for women.
Deadpool vs. (and?) Wolverine. Meh. They try to be funny by making fun of the megacorps that produce such movies (how witty indeed!) while being the same thing you've watched 1000 times before.
Perfect Days. Got it half-off from Criterion based on the trailer and little else. Absolutely gorgeous cinematography, and a subtle and compelling character study.
Thank you so much for recommending this movie. Today’s my birthday and, on a hunch, I decided to give it a go, I just finished watching it and I cannot explain how much I needed it and how much it’s helped me on this day. Thanks a million
Tbh I debated posting it because it was late and there were already dozens of comments and I didn't have it in me to write some big review. But I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Make sure not to miss the soundtrack.
Was my last movie too. I really enjoyed it, and even though some would say that it's slow/not much happens, it left a stronger impression on me than any other film I recently watched.
Nic Cage movie I heard about in a thread here the other day.
Cage is unemployed and down on his luck when he gets mistaken for a hitman and is paid to do a job. He takes the money and tries to run, but gets caught up in a more intriguing whirlpool of trouble than I expected.
Nothing groundbreaking here, but it had more surprises than I had expected and it's fairly well acted for a 90s movie. If you want something interesting that isn't too deep and has a vaguely No Country for Old Men flavor, this isn't bad.
This is blasphemy, but I prefer Ronin for my fix of a 90s crime movie with grounded, high planning gunfights.
Heat has fantastic gunfights. The the opening hit on the armored truck and the bank heist shootout is top notch, but I literally can't remember the rest of the movie.
Ronin's plot and quiet moments are as engaging as the shootouts.
Robocop & Robocop 2 back-to-back.
I’d recommend the first one but not the sequel. Even though it’s the same main actors, the writers seemingly decided to lower their IQ and make their personalities more shallow in the sequel.
I feel the second one is worth it for the warehouse attack scene and the press conference/final fight.
I don't feel it's a bad movie, but it's got more silly than satire and focuses too much on the bad guys POV rather than RoboCop. Plus they literally wreck his personality.
First movie is still amazing though. One of my favorites!
My GF asked me to come to it ends with us with her. I didn't see any trailer or read anything about it so I assumed it was a romcom or something, boy was I wrong...
The plot was quite gripping though and Blake Lively and the cast were really good in it. I'd definitely recommend watching it but keep in mind that it's a pretty intense movie with lots of dark content in it.
I watched the running man with some friends last weekend. I'd say it's a solid meh. It's the first time I've actually seen Schwarzenegger in a movie, and I gotta say, I don't understand why he's so popular. He's a pretty terrible actor.
That's a pretty early film. His acting and especially his comedy does improve a lot over time, though it's never amazing. I think he's a product of the 80's. If he were getting his start today I'm not sure he'd stand out. He'd be like a less charismatic Jason Momoa.
He tends to be in movies that don't rely much on emoting (Conan & Terminator) or with better actors (Danny Devito, Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bill Paxton—it's a very long list) and the action and effects were top notch for the day, and the stories usually had a good emotional core. I do think True Lies was probably his best movie even if not the most iconic. And it really holds up today - I would strongly recommend it.
His Mr. Freeze escaping Batman and Robin by way of various vault doors is absolutely one of the greatest achievements in western cinema so I really don’t know where you’re coming from.
I watched but did not finish inglorious bastards because we had to take iur kitten to the vet.
However, I watched and finished District 9 and it was unequivically a banger. I can't reveal too much without spoilers so I will only say this. It primarily takes place in South Africa and the history of apartheid is important to its message.
I also watched Starship Troopers not to long ago and it was a banger too. The history of American imperialism is incredibly important fot this one.
Both of these are very relevant to world events at the moment and watching them now will only do you good
Longlegs
If you like psycho horror it's fun. So yes :)
Takes place during the last years of the satanic panic. Not necessarily my cup of tea but nicely made. Not as jump scary as expected, but still some jump scares, so be aware.
My wife and I were staying in Bologna for 2 nights, and there was a big free open-air cinema on the largest public square that showed Italian film classics with English subtitles. We watched "La Dolce Vita" by Fellini on the first night and a satirical comedy called "Divorce Italian type" the second night. La dolce vita is great but not an easy watch since it deals with typical topics of early modernity in the 50s. It's kinda like the books from that time about existence and hedonism and the complexity of life. The other movie is about a guy who wants to murder his Wife so he can date his 16-year old cousin and is way funnier than the premise would suggest.
The crazy part, the absolutely crazy part, is that in the real life story, nobody got killed. You can see in the trailer they COMPLETELY changed that part. Nobody would believe it.
In a theater? Deadpool and Wolverine. Similar to other people here, I think objectively it was not good, but just a fun ride of fan service and cameos that was quite entertaining. I don’t know why I paid for 3d though: had to wear glasses but didn’t see any 3d effects.
At home? The Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies. Apparently I had never seen them and my teen insisted. I liked them. I don’t know why people criticize the actor: I’d criticize the writers. No one wants a moody emo self-centered Spider-Man. Toby McGuire does well partly because they wrote a more lighthearted playful Spider-Man for him, even in the face of apocalypse
I agree with you about Deadpool and Wolverine. The story was stupid but seeing Wolverine in the yellow suit in live action was worth it for me. I don't usually go for super hero/comedies but I was prepared for that going into this one so it didn't bother me much and a lot of the cameos were pretty cool.
I picked them up when they rolled it all into No Way Home, really had a tough time with them. The first one, the suit is all wrong. I don't know what they were thinking there. Fixed it for the 2nd one though! Looked great!
Role Models. Which I had completely forgotten existed until my wife asked if I had seen it.
Early 2000s, Paul Rudd and Stiffler get stuck doing community service in a Big Brother program. I laughed a few times, and there's a lot of LARPing involved.
It's not going to be anyone's favorite movie, but it was a fun way to spend an evening.
How I Saved the President also known as The Undercover Kid. It‘s a 90s kd adventure move in which a preteen who can talk to animals is somehow way better than the Secret Service at their full-time jobs.
Warmly recommended to kids and adults alike.
Fantastic style, cool action sequences, top-notch voice acting and cool story.
It may seem derivative of Spiderman Into the Spider verse, but it's better in many respects.
I watched Jeremy Renner's wired auto complete interview on YouTube and he mentioned that was his first role. So I looked it up and it had 0% on rotten tomatoes. And I thought to myself, it can't be that bad.
It was pretty bad, maybe not 0% bad, but I found very few redeeming qualities.
Recently rewatched “What If” as background noise. I had never heard of it when I first watched it, and came away really enjoying it. A really good cast, and a quirky rom-com plot made it a fun watch.
Second time watching the whole series + ending, understood things better this time around however still have some questions. Third time will be the charm I am sure of it.
It's a great storie revolving around the hedgehog dilema, change within ourselfs, and escapism, hitting too close to home at times.
What upfront looks like a freaking cool mecha anime, which it is, hides a narrative so human it gives you chill by how real it is at times. Really recommended the movie + series.
Back to the future. It was my wife’s first time seeing it all the way through. Yes. Watch it. It’s funny, dumb, and a clever story. If you can get past some of the classic campiness from the 80s you won’t regret watching it. However, my wife could not get past the campiness and would probably recommend avoiding it.
The original Twister (1996) is just so good. I love Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt already, but adding in Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the goofy sidekick and Carey Elwes (from Princess Bride) as the antagonist storm chaser? This movie had no business being this good. It's light-hearted but dramatic, scary yet heart warming, whilst being revelatory in it's authenticity. It was so informative about the nature of tornadoes, didn't have to dramatize a thing, just showcase their spontaneous destructive power, and that was enough. Such a good movie. I've yet to try the new one
The last kids movie: The Incredibles 2, great as always, and highly recommended along with the 1st. Very excited for the 3rd.
The last non-kids movie: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. I recommend this to anyone who likes movies similar to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Everyone in it does a great job and is interested that it is based on a true story, albeit embellished, but also the basis and inspiration for the James Bond books.
Perfect Days 2023
Excellent movie, simple story showing his simple every day life. It goes through his life, doing what he likes, and shows stories that happens every day.
Zoolander. It's nice to finally see the film that created a bunch of memes, most notably "What is this? A center for ants?!"
I can recommend it as a well-made comedy/satire. It didn't feel like anything groundbreaking. Maybe it was at the time of its release, I really don't know, but as far as I'm concerned its popularity is just luck of the draw
Ben Stiller seems to have a track record of playing characters where he is the butt of the jokes and I really appreciate that. His catalog of roles is a great starting point for a list of comedy gold movies.
Twisters. The twist at the end when 2 twisters became 4 twisters got me going! Ate twizzlers the whole time. spoiler: the guy with the big white teeth gets the lady