@FuriousMachine I loved Melissa McCarthy in Gilmore Girls which is peak nostalgia for me as I watched it pretty young. Everything afterwards though, she just isn’t my kind of comedy. In fact, that entire group of them from Ghostbusters 2016 just aren’t my kinda thing, I’m not sure if SNL’s comedy doesn’t really translate to a British audience but I always found it a little cringey. That’s the thing, Ghostbusters 2016 isn’t good. Not at all, I just think it’s inherently less cynical than these later ones and at least it went for something rather than being happy to cash in the nostalgia bucks. Like they had to know it was going to be a controversial movie, although I guess they probably didn’t see the levels of vitriol coming, so part of me admires their willingness to stick to their guns.
@nessisonett@FuriousMachine What narks me off about the "Ghostbusters" situation is that not even the exact same creative team behind the first movie had the wherewithal to make a competent sequel - thst nobody else has been able to crack the code isn't really a surprise but that they keep missing by such massive margins is. Just accept that the first one was lightning in a bottle and go do something (anything).else instead..
I'm currently off as I'm getting a new bathroom fitted. Which leaves me plenty time for catching up on some movies. So far this week I have watched American Fiction which is one of the funniest films I've seen for some time (other than Poor Things). Shin Ultraman was last nights movie and l loved it!
My birthday is on Friday so going to see the latest monsterverse flick. Looks like silly fun.
@nessisonett That is a very good point, GB2016 took a swing whilst Afterlife played it mostly safe. Afterlife felt, to me, like a genuine effort rather than a cynical cash-grab, albeit a not entirely successful one (I still kind of like it). That the legacy characters' appearance amounts to little more than cameos also works in its favor. I'm still going to see Frozen Empire to make up my own mind, but I'm wary of it and is not a priority for a trip to the theatre.
I enjoy SNL for the most part, though I find it quite uneven. The alien abduction bits with Kate McKinnon is pure comedy gold for me and whenever she or Wiig appeared in a sketch it was, for the most part, quality fun. Lesley Jones I prefer when she's being her exuberant self over her acting, but love her overall. So everything was in place for me to really love GB2016, but alas...
@MightyDemon82 I have American Fiction on my list, just bumped it higher now
Hope you'll have an excellent birthday with Godzilla and Kong tomorrow! I'm heading to IMAX in just a couple of hours to see it, so I'm quite excited about that.
Spoiler-free post
As mentioned above, I saw Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in IMAX today, and boy was that a lot of fun! Light on plot but heavy on monster action, this is the opposite of (the superior) "Godzilla Minus One", but succeeds in what it attempts to do. Whereas "Godzilla Minus One" understood how to tell a deeply human story in a kaiju film, "Godzilla x Kong" has realized that the humans are secondary characters in its universe and makes no attempt to tell a compelling human story in a movie that just wants to be a monster brawl. And man, what a brawl it is
It's competing with "Kong - Skull Island" for the spot as my favourite "monsterverse" film, and that is down to Kong himself, again.
Before this series, if you'd ask me if I'm team Kong or team Godzilla, I would have sang "Go-Go-Godzilla" as loudly as I can, but the amount of personality they managed to give Kong in this series has put me firmly in Kong's corner. That's not to say the Big G isn't great, it's just that think Kong is even better.
I've not noticed this with the other movies in the series, but this one also works very well for the younger monster fans out there. My screening was full of kids that were having a blast as well, so worth considering bringing the "younguns" if you think they might enjoy a little monster mayhem.
I thought director Adam Wingard did a good job with "Godzilla vs. Kong", but I feel he almost knocks it out the park with this one. It moves along nicely and doesn't overstay it's welcome either, clocking in at just under 2 hours.
Great fun!
I watched The Goonies the other day on HBO Max and it was such a fitting movie to watch in between the serious TV shows that I'm watching now. It's just a chill and goofy 80s family movie, kinda like Home Alone. They certainly don't make movies like that anymore. I enjoyed it a lot!
"Red Rocket". A down on his luck 40-something ex-pornstar returns from LA to his dingy Texas hometown where he moves into an even dingier house with his estranged wife and her mother. From there he attempts to seduce and then lure a local waitress (about 30 years his junior) into the adult movie industry as a means to reclaiming his former (seemingly glamorous) lifestyle. Incredibly funny but also tawdry and discomforting - it trys that most difficult cinematic sleight of hand, to have the viewer rooting for a charming and charismatic character who also happens to be a unrepentant and thoroughly repellent scumbag - for the most part it succeeds thanks to the excellent performances and clever directing. A quintessential "not for everyone" movie - imagine John Waters meets Mike Leigh and you're in the right ballpark. I really liked it.
@FuriousMachine We had a great time watching New Empire tonight. Went tonight instead and had a lovely Thai meal beforehand. Some fantastic action sequences and plenty titans featured. If they do another one I've no idea what else they could do to keep monster brawls fresh!
I made the mistake of going to see Ghostbusters - Frozen Empire yesterday, in spite of all the warnings. I was always going to see it to make up my own mind and I was bored yesterday so I went (and if I'd remembered that WRC Rally Kenya was this weekend, I would have stayed home).
Production wise it is fairly competently made, but it is completely dull and lazy and missing the charm that could be found in the previous effort.
I think it takes a great amount of skill to manage to remove Paul Rudd's natural charm from a movie with such surgical precision, but I guess it was nigh impossible for anyone to muster any sort of enthusiasm for a movie that insists on tripping over itself in order to deliver poorly executed throwbacks to the original movie in the worst way possible.
@MightyDemon82@FuriousMachine Have you guys seen Zero One yet? I've not seen any news when it releases over these shores, either on physical or streaming.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder Minus one you mean 😉. I saw it on release. Fantastic movie. I've read online that it may be delayed whilst the legendary movie is on it's theatre run. Possibly some kind of deal between Toho and Legendary.
@JohnnyShoulder Not sure, but I assume Zero One is the movie that is called Godzilla Minus One here? If so, then yes, I saw it in the theatre last year and it was absolutely brilliant (and the complete opposite of the "monsterverse" movies). As far as streaming/physical releases, I've not seen anything concrete, other than it's supposed to get a physical release in Japan on May 1st
Made the mistake of giving Black Panther Wakanda Forever another shot. An almost 3 hour slog where basically nothing happens. I’m not even sure what I expected to happen, that I’d suddenly decide it was good or that the Oscar noms were somehow justified. It ultimately just boils down to ‘Mexicans vs Africans’ while the white people steal resources and come out of things much better off. Poor Chadwick Boseman but that movie didn’t need to be made. It’s ok to let people grieve off camera rather than attempting to channel that grief in a way that feels borderline exploitative.
On a lighter note, X-Men 97 is brilliant and an incredibly faithful continuation of the original series. Also Magneto is hot now. And basically right.
Godzilla X Kong: the New Empire 3D (Cinema) - Plot is about as dumb as a box of rocks, but man if this isn't the most fun I've had at the theatre this year. It's more Kong centric, but Godzilla definitely steals the show whenever he does show up on screen. The spectacle really shines in 3D too (whether it be Big G splattering bug guts everywhere, or all the dizzying twirling Hollow Earth shots & anti-grav shenanigans).
The Favourite (Blu-Ray) - Picked this up thrifting, and while it does have it's merits, I just don't think it's my kinda thing. That's okay though, it's good to take a step out of your comfort zone every once in awhile, even if it doesn't always pay off.
Summer Job (Tubi) - this 80's comedy doesn't have much in the way of a plot, just a bunch of college kids partying, pranking one another, & looking for romance while working a summer job at a beach resort, with a lot of screentime dedicated to beautiful beach bods, sunsets, and pristine waters (even with the effect a bit muted as it seems to be taken from a tape master, the definite SD resolution doesn't do it much favors). Still, it's fun if you're in the right mood.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
My brother got me a lovely set (complete with vintage style box art) of the recently completed "Star Wars" trilogy 4K restorations - otherwise known as Project 77/80/83 - on blu-ray. Interested to see how these differ from Harmy's much loved "Despecialised" versions, if at all. Also finally got my 4K blu-ray of "The Abyss" (the extra features blu-ray isn't region coded) from the US yesterday, so I've got plenty to watch this weekend.
Just got done with the Special Edition version of "The Abyss". Some extremely clunky dialogue (it's a Cameron script) and weird, misplaced misogyny aside (why does everyone constantly refer to Mastrantonio's character as "a stone cold b**ch" when she's perfectly reasonable and entirely capable?) it's a great movie with some top notch acting - particularly from a suitably deranged (and hugely against type) Michael Biehn . The incredibly tense drowning/CPR sequence is probably the best thing Cameron has ever put on film. Lovely 4K transfer and Atmos soundmix as well. It was worth the wait.
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