Topic: The Movie Thread

A Time Slip of 10,000 Years: Prime Rose (Retro Crush)

Early 80's science fantasy anime flick. Starting out either in "modern day" or the near future (It's not made really clear) a space station known as "Death Mask" (with an appearance to match) breaks apart and it's debris wipe both a Japanese city & Dallas, Texas off the face of the Earth. It's quickly descerned that the two cities were actually transported 10,000 years into the future, and time agent Gai (who's superior officer is totally Spock from Star Trek, for some reason) is tasked with investigating the incident.

I thought it was a pretty interesting curio from a bygone era of anime. Interestingly it makes a pretty drastic change in focus after Gai arrives in the future, as he winds up involved in a war between ancient Roman/Egyptian styled civilizations and it essentially drops him as the lead in favor of Emiya (a local girl destined for greatness, it pretty much becomes a standard fantasy story, though it eventually ties things back around to the original narrative).

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Typical PG-13 language.

Violence (Average) - there is some blood, but it's not gory. Again I'd say it's probably PG-13 levels.

Sex/Nudity (High) - There's one pretty lengthy gratuitous bathing scene involving Emiya. Otherwise she takes on a warrior persona with dominatrix styled skimpy armor. I found out after the fact that the film was produced by Osamu Tezuka's studio (the guy behind Astro Boy), and that this film is in oddity in his lineup because of the fanservice, which apparently isn't something usually present in his works.

Ha ha you know I'm not as up to my sonic lore as you @RogerRoger so I really didn't know about Mushroom Hill Zone... Green Hill really is the extent of my knowledge! (I also completely forgot about the Mario film but it's being made by the dispicable me/minion people... so no thanks lol )

I can safely assume Longclaw was an original character made for the movie right? She doesn't appear in like the archie comics or any of the cartoons? Plus the people attacking them in the begining were echidna's? So Knuckles might potentially be in the sequel too perhaps?

Maybe not day one (Especially if by the time it releases it's a buy to stream only kinda thing) but I'll be sure to watch the sequel as soon as

Ninja Scroll (Hulu).

Anime action film from the 90's set around the Edo era, that follows a wandering warrior known as Jubei who gets caught in a shadow conflict between the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate & the remnants of the Toyotomi clan, which is employing the aid of the nation's most powerful Ninja in order to take control.

It's a beautifully animated film, with a lot of stunning action sequences that'll please any fan of Samurai or Ninja film, and I enjoyed the sort of supernatural elements they added (they kind of reminded me of the kind of supernatural/inhuman abilities of the bosses in MGS3. One even controlled a swarm of bees). It is an exceptionally explicit film though, which is sure to turn some off. The exceedingly gory combat & general nudity is one thing, but it actually involves the female lead in not one but two on screen depictions of outright rape. Intentionally unsettling as it may be, there's no doubt it's inclusion is surprising.

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Surprisingly given the rest of the film's content, I didn't notice anything here to write home about. The only thing here that could be described as PG-13.

Violence (Extreme) - Rape notwithstanding, it also includes much gore as characters are stabbed & ripped asunder any number of ways, including a scene in which a villain drinks blood out of a freshly severed limb.

Sex/Nudity (Extreme) - At this point I think this goes without saying.

@RR529 That’s a true classic of the genre like Akira and Ghost of the Shell. I can’t say I was overly fond of the exploitation angle as I felt Kagero somewhat summed up every single trope about women in anime in one fell swoop. I was pretty disappointed by it given its reputation.

@nessisonett, yeah, it was a favorite of mine as a young teen due to the taboo content, and while it holds up for the most part, going back to it I was surprised how far they went in that regard.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Hulu)

The live action big screen debut of one of gaming's biggest mascots. This was pretty cute to be honest. I found the "alien" thing a bit weird at first, but in the end it's a lot better than the "escaped to our world from the game/cartoon" setup that these types of things tend to have. Provided a few decent chuckles, some fun action scenes (kinda reminded me of the Flash tv show, but with a larger budget), and all the little nods to the franchise's history (like one of the crossed out worlds on Sonic's list was represented by a Sega Saturn logo). I'll definitely watch the sequel when it releases, and hope it lives long enough for them to run it into the ground with a live action Shadow, lol.

Content Guide:

Language (Mild) - There's like one or maybe two minor cuss words during the entire film, both during the climax I believe.

Violence (Mild) - There's some slapstick violence (I liked the bar brawl scene) & destruction of robots.

Sex/Nudity (None) - Unless you count a cartoon anthropomorphic blue hedgehog running around in nothing but a pair of shoes... which I don't, but you do you.

@RogerRoger, yeah, last week I saw it was up on Hulu, so I decided I should fit it into my schedule sooner or later. I need to look to see if they have Detective Pikachu as well, as I think that one was supposed to be decent too.

Lupin the 3rd: Legend of the Gold of Babylon (Retro Crush)

Early 80's anime film in the iconic Lupin III franchise. When Lupin & the gang get wind of the legendary gold of Babylon (a mythical treasure of the Biblical age that God himself supposedly sought), they're off on a globe trotting adventure from New York, Paris, to Iraq to locate it. Complicating the matter however is the fact they have to compete with the Marciano Mafia family for the prize, with series regular Fujiko Mine playing both sides for her own gain, and the interference of Inspector Zenigata in his never ending quest to catch our lovable thief (this time with the aid of a bevvy of beauty pageant policewomen for the ride!).

This movie was a heck of a lot of fun. I can't be sure, but due to the era & theming it seems like they were influenced by the popularity of Indiana Jones (they even went out of their way to showcase that the Nazi's had previously sought the mysterious treasure), and I thought it blended nicely with the typical Lupin shenanigans. I remember liking one of the older Lupin TV anime back in the day back on Adult Swim, and while one of the newer interpretations I've seen never really grabbed me, this was an absolute delight. I also thought it was amusing that it was clearly from an era of anime less concerned with copyright, as there were blatant Sony, Coca-Cola, & even Star Wars logos visible during the New York portion.

One point of contention for today's viewers will definitely be the outdated stereotypical depiction of Black people. I don't think it's intentionally meant in a negative way, as they likely would have just been influenced by how Black people were depicted in older American animation without a proper understanding of the stereotypes (and it's not quite Mr. Popo from DBZ levels of bad), but it's very apparent in the early parts of the film (an early scene involves a lengthy motorcycle chase on top of a giant animatronic head of a stereotypically depicted African American).

Content Guide:

Language (Mild) - I was surprised at how little swearing there was in this. Maybe one or two mentions.

Violence (Mild) - There's a ton of gunplay, but it's a bloodless experience from my experience. It's really slapstick in it's depiction, with a lot of scenes involving people being blown up but only having torn clothes and covered in soot to show for it. Two people do die of poisoning, though.

Sex/Nudity (Average) - There's one scene involving a "goddess" that's clearly wearing a sheer top. Otherwise you have a "blink & you'll miss it" bit of nudity on behalf of "Fujiko", and an occasional bit of light fan service involving Fujiko or the Beauty Pageant cops.

@ZoeSutherland
Yeaaah, Marvel. i love it as well!
I've watched like 5 times The Iron Men all movies. he's my favourite. And Avengers? How cool he was there! i'm feeling that my skin is covered with goose pimples now

Relic. Not to be confused with The Relic from a few years back. This one is not your typical quiet quiet bang bang horror flick, but one which gradually creeps and slowly build. I found this really effective, more so than the aforementioned shock and gore approach. It only has small cast who all do a fine job and I ended caring about them, probably down to the quality of the writing in the film.

I found it a fascinating take on the effects of dementia can have on a family, which was quite heartfelt and emotional in the end. When watching it i was reminded of the Babadook and Dark Water which deal with a similar subject in similar ways.

Beware if you have any history of dealing with dementia, as I know some people found it did hit hard for them, but still appreciated what the film did.

This starts off a few film films for me which I've been looking forward to for awhile: Saint Maud, Possessor (directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David) and Host. All which I should be watching in the coming weeks.

@Arugula Yeah one critic review mentioned that he was in tears after the film but would still rate it as one of his films of the year (2020). The ending I thought was handled really well and at one point I did think it was going down the same old road I've seen many times before, but it managed to steer away from the usual cliches. It left me both happy and sad at the same time.

@Arugula @JohnnyShoulder Yeah, Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are doing a movie about dementia too but I don’t know if I can put myself through it. There’s something uniquely terrifying about the whole thing.

That Coming 2 America really wasn’t that bad to be honest. It was maybe a little bit of a retread of the first movie but it was fairly sweet and you could tell they were all just happy to all work together again. Leslie Jones was fantastic and Eddie Murphy reined in his performance enough to accurately recapture the magic he had back when the first movie came out. Perhaps not the greatest movie of all time but I enjoyed it for what it was.

@nessisonett
Yes, I wouldn't be able to watch that, sounds like quite possibly the most depressing thing, ever.

@nessisonett I wasn't so keen on Coming 2 America, although not a bad movie it felt a bit flat and lost some of the edginess and cleverness from the original. I thought Wesley Snipes was the best thing in the film, his entrances always raised a laugh. I've seen the first movie countless times, but I can't see myself choosing to watch the sequel again.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, it clearly wasn’t as good as the original and it all felt a bit redundant but I think it was just charming enough to slip by. If it had felt like a cash grab rather than a passion project then I’d have been a lot harsher on the actual film.

Cool World (Amazon Prime Video)

It's 1945 and Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) has just come home from the war. Taking his mother out for a drive on his brand new motorcycle, things take a turn for the worse when a drunk driver causes them to crash, killing his mother. When the police try to tend to Harris himself he vanishes, transported to the "Cool World" (the universe where cartoons reside) by the invention of a Cool World scientist. Fast forward to modern day (the 90's) we meet up with Jack Deebs, a man in prison for killing his wife's lover (this is only touched upon once, apparently deemed unimportant) who has made a name for himself by creating a series of comic books based on Cool World (he has been transported there in his sleep for years for some unknown reason, though it's inferred that it's not all that uncommon for humans to temporarily visit in this manner), thinking it's just something he's dreamed up. During his trips he's regularly seduced by the sultry Holli Would, a "Doodle" (the film's term for cartoon characters) who believes that by copulating with a human (referred to as Noids in Cool World) that she can become real & escape into reality. Unfortunately for her, sex between Doodles & Noids is the only taboo within Cool World, and Frank Harris (who hasn't aged, I guess because it's not his universe?) is now a cop within Cool World who makes sure that taboo is never broken. Of course, we wouldn't have a movie if things always went according to plan...

If that sounds like a totally bat**** premise, it's because it is, and this is a totally bat**** movie. Apparently intended to be a graphic, R rated take on films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the original script called for a horror premise wherein Jack & Holli conceived a homicidal half real, half toon offspring that would attempt to murder it's parents, but the studio stepped in as they wanted it to reach a wider audience & get some of that Roger Rabbit money, so the threat was toned down to a more generic "world's colliding" apocalypse, and they simply cut out the worst parts of what's clearly an R rated world so it could squeeze by with a PG-13 rating (the cartoon world itself is absolutely nightmarish in appearance, and I'll even say aesthetically quite impressive, and full of off kilter toons that are consistently as naughty as they're allowed to be within the rating & so zany it's quite often a sensory overload, and although there's no nudity, Holli is depicted as an absolute slut that tries to get into the pants of every man that comes her way & regularly dry humps the environment). It's certainly not a good film, but was definitely interesting to experience at least once. Even in it's final toned down form this isn't a film I'd ever suggest to watch with kids.

Content Guide:

Language (High) - PG-13, but definitely pushes it at parts.

Violence (Average) - It may have a twisted & nightmarish appearance, but at the end of the day cartoons really can't get hurt, no matter how bad they're being. A few humans die, but it's not a gory or even particularly bloody.

Sex/Nudity (High) - There's no outright nudity, but I've already explained Holli's consistently shameless persona, and there's tons of other innuendo as well.

@RR529 I’ll leave the immortal Roger Ebert’s take on ‘Cool World’.

The DJ who was hosting the radio station's free preview of "Cool World" leaped onto the stage and promised the audience: "If you liked "Roger Rabbit," you'll love "Cool World'!" He was wrong, but you can't blame him - he hadn't seen the movie. I have, and I will now promise you that if you liked "Roger Rabbit," quit while you're ahead.

I watched News of the World today, and enjoyed it very much. One of my favourite Paul Greengrass films probably

@nessisonett, I was honestly kind of hoping my write-up of it would be a bit of a surprise, as I honestly had never heard of it until some related YouTube videos were recommended to me by the algorithm for some reason, and had no idea if it was well known or not.

It's so haphazard I wonder how much was screwed up due to the studio interference, and how much of it was bad from the get go. So much of it is random & just doesn't make sense (like having characters from two different eras in time for no particular reason). Maybe it would at least make a bit more sense had the studio not intervened (maybe there would have been some sort of difference in societal values at play between Frank & Jack, I dunno)? Certainly an odd case.