It's also a theme in The Devil's Backbone. And... you know, kind of the monster movie genre in general.
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Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews
- Thread starter Rascally Badger
- Start date
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- movies
Benedetta good. Want to watch more Virginie Efira movies and Verhoeven's, particularly ones I haven't seen. (incl. some classics like Robocop and Total Recall) Also of course this has been a great year for Charlotte Rampling playing nun antagonists.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was pretty stupid but kind of fun. Just about what I remember from playing Resident Evil 2 on arrange mode 20 years ago bc I'm bad at video games. Leon Kennedy's hair perfect. All you need.
Typing on my computer here (usually on my phone) and the bold function is simply too aggressive. Refuses to believe me when I turn it off after I'm done bolding something, even when I press spacebar. Especially when I press spacebar - just snaps me right back, wouldn't I like to type more bold text. I have to fight with it. It's my enemy, my Resident Evil: Nemesis.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was pretty stupid but kind of fun. Just about what I remember from playing Resident Evil 2 on arrange mode 20 years ago bc I'm bad at video games. Leon Kennedy's hair perfect. All you need.
Typing on my computer here (usually on my phone) and the bold function is simply too aggressive. Refuses to believe me when I turn it off after I'm done bolding something, even when I press spacebar. Especially when I press spacebar - just snaps me right back, wouldn't I like to type more bold text. I have to fight with it. It's my enemy, my Resident Evil: Nemesis.
Nuntagonists, if you will.
Purple
(She/Her)
So a bit ago a friend realized I'd never seen Ginger Snaps and sat me down to watch it, and as I had been told, grading on the curve of werewolf movies, it's a pretty darn good one, which means on the scale of movies in general it's, eh, pretty OK. The two lead actresses were both pretty good though so we looked up what else they'd done and OK, 4 years after this movie was made, both of them returned to star in, shot back to back: A direct sequel, and one of those... past incarnations of these same characters in like the 1700s prequel things.
We assumed both of these had to suck, because the latter is just one of those concepts that literally never works at all, and the original movie... really just does not end in a way where a direct sequel would make any sort of sense at all. Not thematically, not structurally. If I were forced to write one I'd end up turning in some "right so the main character from the first movie ends up playing a sort of mentor role to some new character also dealing with werewolf related family problems."
But turns out Ginger Snaps 2 is great somehow? It actually DOES find a way to work organically as a direct sequel. Turns out the cure for werewolfism in the first movie was actually more of an ungoing treatment that prevents the advancement of werewolfism, so we can keep playing with that angst, plus shooting up with weird poison and acting all feral tends to get you sent to shady involuntary rehab, AND as an added bonus that other random bite victim from before is a good excuse to now have a proper fully-wolfy werewolf in the mix too. And then while you're sitting there impressed at how they threaded that needle there is this whole other basically unrelated plot that slowly and quietly pushes its way out of the background until you get what I can only call a really gutsy choice for an ending.
I assume the prequel still sucks though, but, I'm willing to be proven wrong now?
We assumed both of these had to suck, because the latter is just one of those concepts that literally never works at all, and the original movie... really just does not end in a way where a direct sequel would make any sort of sense at all. Not thematically, not structurally. If I were forced to write one I'd end up turning in some "right so the main character from the first movie ends up playing a sort of mentor role to some new character also dealing with werewolf related family problems."
But turns out Ginger Snaps 2 is great somehow? It actually DOES find a way to work organically as a direct sequel. Turns out the cure for werewolfism in the first movie was actually more of an ungoing treatment that prevents the advancement of werewolfism, so we can keep playing with that angst, plus shooting up with weird poison and acting all feral tends to get you sent to shady involuntary rehab, AND as an added bonus that other random bite victim from before is a good excuse to now have a proper fully-wolfy werewolf in the mix too. And then while you're sitting there impressed at how they threaded that needle there is this whole other basically unrelated plot that slowly and quietly pushes its way out of the background until you get what I can only call a really gutsy choice for an ending.
I assume the prequel still sucks though, but, I'm willing to be proven wrong now?
I liked Matrix Resurrections. Not the best of the series, but better than Revolutions and provides some resolution I always felt was missing from it.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Rewatched The Shop Around the Corner and this needs to be higher on people's radar for being among best Christmas movies ever.
Encanto was delightful to look at and listen to but the story was full of arbitrary beats, particularly around the climax and resolution. Strange that a film that advocated strong foundations would have such a weak one. Still, leagues better than Frozen 2.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I think I like A Muppet Christmas Carol now more than ever. Also, I think this might be my favourite Michael Caine performance. I feel like he's bringing the same gravitas as he brings to an overly serious Christopher Nolan movie but here he's playing off against felt chaos machines while he remains in a complete zone of completely playing it straight and perhaps more even toned than any other Scrooge. I also saw A Mickey Christmas Carol, which is a good short film but in being short also excises a lot of the nuance of the character of Scrooge because the McDuck version is joyfully greedy but I feel Scrooge isn't evil by action so much as evil by his his inaction. Yes, he's evicting people we are told but I always feel the character's great sin is simply to not care, allowing greater evils to happen. And Caine sells it and his slow march towards caring.
The Devil All the Time is one of the most miserable movies I've ever seen.
In one of the making-of specials, Caine says that he was intentionally doing exactly that.
The hottest take I have is that Muppet Christmas Carol is pretty disappointing as a showcase for Muppet hijinx, but it’s easily one of the strongest Christmas Carol adaptions.
And that’s thabks largely to Caine never once giving the impression he’s talking to a singing frog
And that’s thabks largely to Caine never once giving the impression he’s talking to a singing frog
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Co-signed. Comedically, there's little going on here. In terms of comfort, this is the first movie without Jim and the sense of continuity remains strong, even if you can hear classic characters being slightly off. People working on it still know these characters and they work very well and give the movie's warmth.
And yeah, I love even if his rat's suddenly wear tropical clothes, Scrooge doesn't seem to notice.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
We just watched this, and yeah, agreed. I do love it for trying something different than most Disney films, in that it stays rooted in one place instead of pining for the great wide somewhere. I also just love the idea of a family of superheroes that primarily uses their powers for public works projects. It also palpably depicts the tension and pain of large families, to the point where I had a hard time watching parts of it.
I'm curious if there will be a backlash in the Discourse, as can happen with anything Lin-Manuel Miranda has a large part in. I think the story it's trying to tell is about the pressures of leadership and that it's okay to be ordinary and imperfect, and to need help. But part of it also feels like a story about how hard it is to be rich and powerful, where all your less fortunate neighbors mainly exist to bask in your greatness and worship you.
Anyway, it's good! A solid B for me.
I watched Being the Ricardos, which was fine, I guess. It seems weird to base a movie around Lucille Ball being questioned about being a communist by HUAC and not engage with Ball's political beliefs at all, or to even really question the legitimacy of HUAC hearings. Instead, we get a rousing climax of Desi Arnez putting J. Edgar Hoover on speaker phone in front of the live studio audience to personally clear Ball of being a communist. I mean, if someone as upright and respected as Hoover vouches for her, what could be the problem? It is a movie about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez that seems to pointedly have nothing to say about Lucille Ball or Desi Arnez.
I also watched Don't Look Up. I've seen a lot of criticism of the movie that it is smug, obvious, and preaching to the choir. While I didn't find it particularly smug, the latter two complaint are true, even if I don't consider them flaws. It also has the advantage of being bleakly accurate. "Clever" satire can be misinterpreted; (I want to say that this is too obvious for that, but I know for a fact it is not) Don't Look Up is going to hit you with a hammer over and over about the bleak absurdity of our response to climate change. Scientists are able to identify the problem and point to solutions, but politicians are not interested, business ghouls are only looking to profit, and the media only cares about ratings. The darkest part of the movie is the inevitable conclusion: that we as individuals cannot really do anything to fix the problem, and the only useful choice is to cherish the time we have with the people we love. It is not a perfect movie, but I laughed until I cried.
I also watched Don't Look Up. I've seen a lot of criticism of the movie that it is smug, obvious, and preaching to the choir. While I didn't find it particularly smug, the latter two complaint are true, even if I don't consider them flaws. It also has the advantage of being bleakly accurate. "Clever" satire can be misinterpreted; (I want to say that this is too obvious for that, but I know for a fact it is not) Don't Look Up is going to hit you with a hammer over and over about the bleak absurdity of our response to climate change. Scientists are able to identify the problem and point to solutions, but politicians are not interested, business ghouls are only looking to profit, and the media only cares about ratings. The darkest part of the movie is the inevitable conclusion: that we as individuals cannot really do anything to fix the problem, and the only useful choice is to cherish the time we have with the people we love. It is not a perfect movie, but I laughed until I cried.
Two movies in a row last night; that’s uncommon on a work night.
The Little Mermaid I don’t think I ever actually watched in full, I just picked it up through osmosis. It was, in fact, pretty darn good. I was surprised at the sheer volume of songs about killing and eating fish.
Godzilla (original, Japanese version) also remains very good, but this one I had seen before, and repeatedly. More surprising was that I watched it with my father who is normally really dismissive of old monster and sci-fi movies, and he was enthralled by it.
Notable quotes
“Why are they on a party boat when there’s a god damn Godzilla in the water?”
and, after the final monologue about the futility of an arms race and nature pointing out the folly of man
“Oh! The movies got a message”
The Little Mermaid I don’t think I ever actually watched in full, I just picked it up through osmosis. It was, in fact, pretty darn good. I was surprised at the sheer volume of songs about killing and eating fish.
Godzilla (original, Japanese version) also remains very good, but this one I had seen before, and repeatedly. More surprising was that I watched it with my father who is normally really dismissive of old monster and sci-fi movies, and he was enthralled by it.
Notable quotes
“Why are they on a party boat when there’s a god damn Godzilla in the water?”
and, after the final monologue about the futility of an arms race and nature pointing out the folly of man
“Oh! The movies got a message”
He likes them if they have really good special effects, and has a hard time understanding how I can genuinely be impressed with movies with just puppets and makeup; but he was genuinely surprised that it had a story it was telling.
Im also tickled that he kept referring to the monster as *A* Godzilla.
Im also tickled that he kept referring to the monster as *A* Godzilla.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
He's not wrong. It's a different Godzilla in Godzilla Raids Again.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
For New Years Eve, I watched two Hitchcock movies I hadn't seen before.
First was Rope. I was a little disappointed by it as I didn't find it quite as gripping as I hoped but I still like it. It's got a killer premise and is probably the first movie to have the "one long take" gimmick (even though there are invisible cuts, some of which are super obvious. It's doing a lot of smart things with composition and REALLY going hard on Hitchcock's "bomb" under the table as it wafts dramatic ironic constantly under our nose. There's also a good but really on-the-nose speech at the climax that feels more Jimmy Stewart than Hitchcock. The film zips at a quick 80 minutes and makes the most of it. That said, I think it's strongest aspects are it's most technical, as I just wasn't super into the villain, who doesn't really get many levels beyond "fucking smug".
Then I watched Family Plot, which feels more inessential. It is a shame because it really starts out on the right foot and I was thinking that with people saying Frenzy was his last great movie that this was an unsung gem (people sing about gems, right). But it really started to lose me as it went on. I definitely like Bruce Dern in a detective role, but he and Barbara Harris sadly don't have a lot of chemistry. The last act is a bit forgettable and there's a "wacky" thriller scene involving a runaway car that is technically clunky, particularly coming from the era of the next wave in stunt driving, which this noticeably sidesteps. It's a completely watchable and competent movie but you hope for more from the master of suspense.
First was Rope. I was a little disappointed by it as I didn't find it quite as gripping as I hoped but I still like it. It's got a killer premise and is probably the first movie to have the "one long take" gimmick (even though there are invisible cuts, some of which are super obvious. It's doing a lot of smart things with composition and REALLY going hard on Hitchcock's "bomb" under the table as it wafts dramatic ironic constantly under our nose. There's also a good but really on-the-nose speech at the climax that feels more Jimmy Stewart than Hitchcock. The film zips at a quick 80 minutes and makes the most of it. That said, I think it's strongest aspects are it's most technical, as I just wasn't super into the villain, who doesn't really get many levels beyond "fucking smug".
Then I watched Family Plot, which feels more inessential. It is a shame because it really starts out on the right foot and I was thinking that with people saying Frenzy was his last great movie that this was an unsung gem (people sing about gems, right). But it really started to lose me as it went on. I definitely like Bruce Dern in a detective role, but he and Barbara Harris sadly don't have a lot of chemistry. The last act is a bit forgettable and there's a "wacky" thriller scene involving a runaway car that is technically clunky, particularly coming from the era of the next wave in stunt driving, which this noticeably sidesteps. It's a completely watchable and competent movie but you hope for more from the master of suspense.
I got some late 2021 movie watching done in the last few days. I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home, and liked it a good deal less than most people apparently. I liked the multiple Peters, maybe the movie could have done more with that. It was certainly more effective than the Dr. Strange stuff. I also really liked Willem Dafoe. It was broadly pretty good, and I don't see returning to it other than for scenes in the spoiler above.
I also watched Hilda and The Mountain King. Hilda is an altogether excellent children's cartoon on Netflix, about a little girl having adventures in modern fantasy Scandinavia. The movie is a feature length episode. It was delightful.
I also caught up with Luca. That's Pixar's best movie since Inside Out. I don't know what else I have to say; it was really, really good.
And sneaking in under the 2021 wire was The French Dispatch, which is now my favorite movie of the year. Wes Anderson just keeps getting better as using the artifice of his dollhouse sets to tell his stories. It is beyond an affectation and actually integral to the films. I might have liked for a stronger central narrative tying the episodes of this movie together, but man, I really enjoyed this.
I also watched Hilda and The Mountain King. Hilda is an altogether excellent children's cartoon on Netflix, about a little girl having adventures in modern fantasy Scandinavia. The movie is a feature length episode. It was delightful.
I also caught up with Luca. That's Pixar's best movie since Inside Out. I don't know what else I have to say; it was really, really good.
And sneaking in under the 2021 wire was The French Dispatch, which is now my favorite movie of the year. Wes Anderson just keeps getting better as using the artifice of his dollhouse sets to tell his stories. It is beyond an affectation and actually integral to the films. I might have liked for a stronger central narrative tying the episodes of this movie together, but man, I really enjoyed this.
Don’t Look Up was painful and miserable. Absolute dog shit movie.
FelixSH
(He/Him)
It totally was, what a great way of ending(?) the show. I love the show, I love how warmhearted and good-natured it is, and the movie ended by showing exactly that. One of my favourite shows of the last ten years, or so, it just makes me feel so good.
Apparently the show is getting a 3rd and final season.
FelixSH
(He/Him)
Oooooohhhh...while the movie would be a great ending, I wouldn't say no to spending more time in Fantasy Canada. I hope for more witches, and more fluffy, flying catballs. Also, please no new antagonist-ish character, the show is stronger without one.
Whatever, more Hilda would be great.
Still feel like it’s one of those movies where the finished film isn’t as fun as the trailer, but Willys Wonderland holds up a lot better on rewatch.
Highlight is definitely Nic Cages pinball dance
Highlight is definitely Nic Cages pinball dance
The sequel's pretty good too, and spaces out the songs a bit better so you don't end up with the last third of a musical having no songs.
Hah, when watching the original I found myself more struck with how the first half seemed to be almost nothing but songs, with vague sketches of a plot connecting them, and I appreciated the second half giving the characters a little more room to breathe and act. But I guess you're also right, thinking back, there was surprisingly little singing at all toward the end.