Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews

[Aurelia]

Watched both Nosferatu and Sonic 3 across two nights and enjoyed them both.

Nosferatu was incredible, honestly shocked at how good it was. I expected the movie to be great considering Robert Eggers’ previous work but I was kinda blown away by it, and how well the films cinematography and lighting was composed combined with the acting.

Sonic 3 was fantastic too. I have a lot of nostalgia for Sonic Adventure 2 and I thought it was a fantastic adaptation of the games storyline. There’s cuts and changes but all of them seemed logical considering you’re adapting a large scope game plot to a film. Also wish that

Spoiler: sonic 3 movie spoiler

live and learn had more time to play in the movie versus it just being used for like a minute.

fantastic film though and I’m excited to see how Sonic 4 is.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Two older horror movies this week;

Nosferatu (the Werner Herzog one) prominently featured one of the most loathsome and vile marshaled entities to ever be committed to celluloid; Klaus Kinski. Who was playing the vampire with a weird creepy frantic child in gross rat guy body that was… really off putting. His Dracula was giving about the same kind of performance as Nic Cage in Longlegs. While the original Nosferatu was pretty much precisely Dracula with the names changed, this one kept the plot of the original and reverted to the Bram Stoker characters which, in fact… really shows how different those two were.

Changing gears tonally pretty severely is An American Werewolf in London, where the only thing I knew going in is “friggin’ wildass werewolf transformation”, and indeed… that is very much the case. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be as funny as it was. Not, like, uproariously so, but considerably more so than I was expecting. Enough that I like the guy when he isn’t being an implacable murder machine (though to be fair I think the wolfs bodycount is way lower than the panicked civilians). Good movie, but it takes a while for there to be an American werewolf in London.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

One of my favourite gags was the porno movie within the movie. It feels much sillier than the rest of the film but they are good gags.

 

[Octopus Prime]

The porno definitely got the biggest laugh

 

[Voncaster]

Nosferatu was incredible, honestly shocked at how good it was. I expected the movie to be great considering Robert Eggers’ previous work but I was kinda blown away by it, and how well the films cinematography and lighting was composed combined with the acting.

I saw Nosferatu tonight. It was a great movie.

I agree: the cinematography, lighting, and acting were all top notch. Glad I made the trip the the theater to see the film on the big screen.

I really liked how the good guys were all white and clean shaven and Nosferatu was dark, dirty and brought the plague. It felt like a classical story tale.

Really did not like the mustache on Nosferatu.

Really did like the Raiders of the Lost Ark style face melt ending!

Rating (Out of 5):

 

[Lyrai]

I really liked how the good guys were all white and clean shaven and Nosferatu was dark, dirty and brought the plague. It felt like a classical story tale.

....what does this mean? Like, this is a weird sentence to me. Can you elaborate on what you mean?

 

[Voncaster]

Maybe should have said wore light colors instead of white.

Mainly I was trying to say visual design of the core characters contrasted with the visual design of Nosferatu felt like classical heroes versus villains contrast. The visual design felt like a old Disney Animation to an extent. I liked the visual design of the film a lot.

 

[Pombar]

Sonic 3 was fantastic too. I have a lot of nostalgia for Sonic Adventure 2 and I thought it was a fantastic adaptation of the games storyline. There’s cuts and changes but all of them seemed logical considering you’re adapting a large scope game plot to a film. Also wish that

Spoiler: sonic 3 movie spoiler

live and learn had more time to play in the movie versus it just being used for like a minute.

fantastic film though and I’m excited to see how Sonic 4 is.

Also had a blast with this the other week. I have mostly second-hand nostalgia for SA2 (my initial familiarity with the story came from a fanfic continuation of the UK Sonic comic that adapted SA2, oops) but it still worked for me here. I was a little sad the facility with Shadow and Maria was just a bunker rather than the Space Colony Ark but it makes perfect sense in the movie for it to be so - making the space laser thing the reason Gerald is able to get out, escalating the stakes into space only at the end, and letting them explore the ruins earlier before going to space, etc. But still, an unreasonable part of me just wanted to hear them say Space Colony Ark, I guess!

I’m wanting to see Nosferatu but it might have to be a home viewing at this rate, as my wife doesn’t truck with horror and she’s here till the 28th.

 

[Aurelia]

Also had a blast with this the other week. I have mostly second-hand nostalgia for SA2 (my initial familiarity with the story came from a fanfic continuation of the UK Sonic comic that adapted SA2, oops) but it still worked for me here. I was a little sad the facility with Shadow and Maria was just a bunker rather than the Space Colony Ark but it makes perfect sense in the movie for it to be so - making the space laser thing the reason Gerald is able to get out, escalating the stakes into space only at the end, and letting them explore the ruins earlier before going to space, etc. But still, an unreasonable part of me just wanted to hear them say Space Colony Ark, I guess!

I’m wanting to see Nosferatu but it might have to be a home viewing at this rate, as my wife doesn’t truck with horror and she’s here till the 28th.

Glad you enjoyed Sonic 3! I do agree that the decision to move the ark away from being the main spot for research was a weird one, but from a plot perspective of having them discover the research base without knowing it makes sense.. Hope you’re able to watch Nosferatu afterwards at least but your reasoning makes complete sense.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Chimpanzee Robbie Williams

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

The chimpanzee’s fur is bleached blonde at a certain point. I knew who Robbie Williams was before but I feel like I learned a lot too and that’s the most important thing…

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Chimpanzee Robbie Williams

 

[Kirin]

Unfortunately direct linking discord attachments doesn’t work.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Noooo.

But it's this.

 

[lincolnic]

Unfortunately direct linking discord attachments doesn’t work.

For what it's worth, JU's original post wasn't/isn't broken for me (I saw it on Monday).

 

[Octopus Prime]

Discord imbeds work, but they’re on a time limit.

 

[Voncaster]

Mark of the Devil (1970)
Format: Blu-ray

Horror movies are my favorite genre of movies. I mostly like them for the atmosphere and the larger than life villains. I'm not generally a gore person.

Mark of the Devil starts off with a text crawl stating that 8 million people were tried or convicted of being witches during the middle ages. The movie is a historical account of 3 of those trials. (No idea if that is accurate or not.)

A witch finder and his apprentice come to a town to replace the current witch finder.

Corruption abounds.

The witch finders rape women and convict them of witchcraft if they speak up against the assaults. The witch finders coerce men into signing over their property to the church or they will be convicted of sorcery.

There are lots of scenes of torture in the film. Men and women are tortured until they confess to being a sorcerer or a witch. At which point they can be executed for crimes against the church.

I don't know if this movie is reveling in the torture (an early example of torture porn) or an attempt show what medieval witch trials were really like. I suspect its the former.

I was hoping for some a fun 70s horror movie. This one is pretty joyless.

There were some positive aspects of the movie. The production values are pretty good for a 1970s horror or exploitation movie. Udo Kier, the apprentice witch finder, and Olivera Katarina, a bar maid accused of witchcraft, have very good screen charisma.

Rating (Out of 5): 1/2

 

[Beta Metroid]

The Wild Robot is a beauty of a film! It hits on a lot of themes that I feel very strongly about (the delicate state and value of nature, parenthood, finding a community where you "belong"), and is also willing to peek at some of the tougher aspects of those things (the death and competition that is an inextricable part of nature, the struggles and self-doubt tied to parenthood). Great voice cast, and a very "sincere"-feeling work all around. If I were pressed to find a knock against it, I'd mention that it's not the most original premise. But I really love the things it's most reminiscent of (WALL-E, specific parts of Chrono Trigger), so even that's...like the opposite of a backhanded compliment?

 

[Exposition Owl]

Flow is absolutely gorgeous on every level.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Mars Express is absolutely worth your time and effort to track down (I don't think it's streaming anywhere, but it's available through cough cough). It's a French animated detective thriller from 2023. A mystery unveils a conspiracy, it's got a lot of really good tense scenes and setpieces, it's really well-animated, the characters are great. I'm not sure it's particularly deep or cerebral, but I think there's plenty there to examine if you want to dig.

 

[Pombar]

Mars Express is absolutely worth your time and effort to track down (I don't think it's streaming anywhere, but it's available through cough cough). It's a French animated detective thriller from 2023. A mystery unveils a conspiracy, it's got a lot of really good tense scenes and setpieces, it's really well-animated, the characters are great. I'm not sure it's particularly deep or cerebral, but I think there's plenty there to examine if you want to dig.

Oh hey that sounds super up my street, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Octopus Prime]

Huh, it turns out First Blood is a really, really good movie.

I’d always heard that and assumed so, but now I can say it with some degree of first hand experience.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Boy are the subsequent films... very different.

 

[Olli]

It's a weird trajectory, for sure.

 

[Voncaster]

I randomly got an interview with Stallone on my Facebook feed this week and he was talking about First Blood.

Apparently, the first cut of the film was like 3 hours and according to him super boring. So boring in fact, that he wanted to buy the rights to the film and destroy it so it could never be released.

If the 3hr cut is true, the released film trimmed it to half the running time.

I'm a fan of First Blood. I also think Stallone's acting in First Blood is pretty good.

 

[Octopus Prime]

In the storied history of the “Murderous Ghost Makes You Hallucinate to Death Until You Make It Someone Else’s Problem” genre, I would say that Smile is way better than It Follows, but not even close to being in the same ballpark as The Ring or Babadook

 

[Octopus Prime]

Smile 2 is one of the rare horror movie sequels that’s way, way better than the original.

Like, I would still say that of the “Murderous Ghost That Makes You Hallucinate to Death Unless You Make It Someone Else Problem” genre it’s still behind The Ring and Babadook, but that’s because those are two of the all time greats in the Horror Genre, rather than because I was making up a ludicrously specific genre.

 

[Issun]

The Gorge is a fun popcorn flick, definitely in the upper quadrant of made for streaming action movies. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are an appealing duo, and while the majority of the action sequences are contained to the back half, when the movie kicks into high gear it really starts humming. Lots of tense moments and icky creatures.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Finally watched Sonic the Hedgehog and was… honestly surprised at how much I liked it. I expected something to be *okay* by video game movie standards bolstered by the fact that I love Sonic, but no… it was a genuinely really fun movie.

Though, to be fair, if it was anyone except Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog, I would find a lot of his antics really annoying; as is; perfect casting. And, If anything, Jim Carrey is more of a cartoon than the animated space hedgehog. He’s operating at a Tim Currey in Muppet Treasure Island level of blurring the lines between A Human Guy and a Cartoon Guy.

Anyway,
D easy to see why this got a bunch of really popular sequels and now I want to watch them all.

 

[Pombar]

It was definitely a pleasant surprise for me too, on release. I honestly think that series gets better as it goes, as well. Fades the human stuff more into the background and cements Robotnik and the cartoons as the real focus.