Last movie you watched ?

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)

Police Squad TV show years earlier was more deadpan and restrained, which fits the noir cop tone and music better. Music in the TV show was also more consistent. Still enjoyed the humor overall, baseball montage with tiger and head popping off made me laugh a little, but TV show was funnier, benefited from smaller stories.

O.J. Simpson has a role in this, Frank Drebin's hospitalized partner. Woman who played Tony Soprano's mother is the annoyed mayor.

I watched this six years ago and remembered almost nothing. Blame the story.

Dr. No.

I watched Dune 2 and it was OK.

Feyd Rautha was pretty cool though. Can't get his face out of my head.

The Heroic Trio (1993)

Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui

Some weird stylized girl power action movie with a somewhat hard to follow (because boring) fantasy story. Found it kind of shit and, um, charming at same time. Don't want to get rid of it. The world feels small. Don't think it was a good idea to make their own outdoor sets.

Thought I saw scenes from it in that French movie Irma Vep, where Maggie Cheung plays herself in the troubled production of an art movie for washed up director played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, but maybe it was Executioners (1993). Executioners is paired with The Heroic Trio. Hope it's better.

They kill a bunch of kids.

The sound was crappy. Music quiet or fluctuating in volume, sound effects quiet, then loud woman's voice.

Watched the 2002 Japanese maternal love horror movie Dark Water and thought it seemed pretty similar to The Ring (Ringu), then checked the director afterwards and saw it was the same guy. Was good, atmospheric, but somewhat generic and mostly not frightening (because generic).

When the Wind Blows (1986)

I went back to a paragraph I wrote about Threads in July of 2022, thinking that someone might have mentioned When the Wind Blows in response, about an old couple trying their best. Nothing. In some ways even more depressing. I just wanted them to die. But soulful.

Threads (1984, UK)

Direct to TV movie. People in an English city try to prepare as two nuclear armed superpowers come closer to trading fire. More devastating and dreary than any apocalyptic movie the Americans would have made. Feels very researched. The documentary style narration and how sort of impersonal it is with the different characters gave it another layer of realism. I like the look of 16 mm. Has a nice softness to it. I watched the DVD, which is enough for 16 mm, honestly. I'm sure the Blu-ray looks a lot better, though.

Basketball Diaries (1995). Less about sports, more about abusing drugs... 6/10

Watched the movie where Robert De Niro played the devil yesterday. Not gonna tell what the title is, because that would spoil it. It was alright. Liked the style, but wasn't that engaged. Might be more enjoyable to rewatch, now that I know where it goes. But it will be a long time before I rewatch it. Keeping it. Anyway, I saw a clip of De Niro on Bill Maher (I guess the last episode? Some pundits talked about it.) in which he said that he couldn't play Trump because there is nothing good (relatable) in him. You played the devil!

Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)

Fun movie that I find unconvincing because there's too much selflessness between the samurai and two women, including a noble's daughter who changes after seeing how the peasants live for one day. Look at High Noon. Nobody helps Gary Cooper's character. That's real human nature. I couldn't believe the one samurai left the widow just so that he could walk into the horizon like a man at the end. What an asshole.

Batman Begins.6/10

This weekend Im busy watching the Italian version of Phenomena

I have that film but haven't watched it yet.

Fallen Angels (1995)

This film was highly enjoyable. If I'd known easter eggs would be in it from Days of Being Wild, I would have held off. As it is Fallen Angels is lovely, atmospheric, with neon moods in the darkness. I recommend this Wong Kar Wai film to anyone who can bother reading subtitles.

I've now seen two films of Wai's and from what I gather about his six other films in this box set, World of Wong Kar Wai, I will not be disappoint.

Vampire Hunter D (1985)

Amano's concept/commercial artwork for this is more beautiful. Sadly, anime always has to capitulate to the generic style of the time. Enjoyed it, though. Rated it a 6/10 after two viewings in 2010, corrected that score to 7/10 with this third. I appreciate the fantasy. Far distant future, humans ruled by vampires and demons, foes that made me think, "What could video games do?" Was a little bored after the vampire hunter D left the castle and more than once couldn't follow how characters ended up in another place. You can do fanservice without it coming off as so immature.

The DNR was pretty distracting. Digital blotshes. Look under his eye, how it's gone in another second. Japan messed up so much of their legacy with this grain hate.

Chungking Express (1996)

1st half wasn't as enjoyable as the second. Got well acquainted with the song California Dreamin' and a Cranberries song I used to listen to in high school.

First episode of The Gentlemen from Guy Ritchie. Awesome show, and is absolutely worth a watch.

The Duellists (1977)

That one shot at the end of the film was masterfully done. I was in awe.

@DEVILinIRON: Yea that final shot looks like painting.

I wish Ridley Scott was this good again. Seems he peaked at Gladiator.

Creepy! Looks interesting.

Shutter Island (2010)

3.5:5

Rewatch, about twelve years later. Which identity was real? Who cares. I don't know why Martin Scorsese, with all the pull he has/had, used Leonardo DiCaprio again and again. Such limited emotional range.

Maborosi (1995, Japan)

4/5

Mother deals with grief, never really gets over it. Moves to an isolated village on the coast. Nice atmosphere. Want to say more, deserves a better post, but lazy. Pretty good.

@uninspiredcup: Did some investigating on Hiruko the Goblin. Hadn't realized the director was Shinya Tsukamoto. Have the boxset of The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto sitting on a pile in front of me. Hiruko is now a must buy. What are your thoughts on it? Doesn't seem to have a very good critical score.

@DEVILinIRON: It's a movie with cool scenes and ideas than something where I cared about what was going on.

Watched The Killing few months back, another of his movies, seems no one noes it exists and it was way better. Not an action movie or anything, small scale story, but it has a very good story about the idea of duty and what it is to be a samurai. Not for everyone's taste, but I guess that's him in general.

@uninspiredcup: Nice. Yeah, Killing is one of the films in the box set I now realize is entitled Solid Metal Nightmares. Guess I'll be watching that next.

@DEVILinIRON: What's you're boxset? Maybe pick it up.

Never seen this movie though with the upcoming remake thought I watch it. Definitely awesome movie in that it was Brandon Lee final movie before his death. Cast is great including Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame which I never seen him in other movies before. I can see where Sting got his impression for copying The Crows makeup and trenchcoat. 8/10

@DEVILinIRON: Get these all on terracotta so hold off.

His Girl Friday

3.5/5

Same rating I gave it six years ago.

It's weird to imagine every theater in 1940 in raucous laughter. I don't like it very much. Had to rewind several times because I became tired of following the fast dialogue.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

3.5/5

Spencer Tracy makes another meaningful speech. He's the guy studios looked at for those roles. His character's daughter wants to marry a black doctor (Sidney Poitier). The couple have to break it to their parents (her mother played by Katharine Hepburn). The doctor is professionally extremely overqualified in order for moviegoers to accept the premise. Nice movie. Story isn't that good.

Very medicore Bond entry, Rogers last as well. Everything about it is meh barring the soundtrack and Zorin.

Still more fun than the average the Craig suicide-fest.

Grace Jones is good as well I guess, even though she can't act to save her life her eccentric nature is actually perfect for this kind of movie.

Also these movies are like a linear snapshot of period of time. 60/70/80/90/20+ etc... so that's always interesting, always dig the 80s.

Godzilla (1954)

Cheesy speeches about nuclear war.

Scientist doesn't want anyone in the world to know about his evil creation, doesn't want to be father to another H-bomb (metaphorically), but tells woman who is like his sister. Perhaps, deep down, he knows that its implementation is necessary, but I amuse myself by believing that he thinks it's really freaking cool, can't keep the gnarly Oxygen Destroyer to himself. Her boyfriend asks him about it with her present later and he responds, like a moron, in a situation in which he can't even claim ignorance (and the actor doesn't play the scene so), "What Oxygen Destroyer?" The woman's father is a well-respected paleontologist who addresses the government. Convenient family, for the story. That confrontation about his invention is the best showcase of poor acting in this movie, mostly the woman, who fouled up scene after scene up to this point, but also the scientist and the boyfriend. The paleontologist is played by the lead in Ikiru and Seven Samurai, who does a better job than the three. (I know his name, but can't recall.) The adult orphan who starts working for them/helping them at home rubs his eye after the scientist dies as if he's sleepy, lol.

Difficult to tell how much of Godzilla's beastliness in this first appearance is actually from the H-bomb tests in the sea. The paleontologist only states that the bombs drove him out of the sea.

I know that they worked with a small budget. Can tell from the miniatures and oversized fire. But they couldn't even make or get a suit for deep diving for the final sequence. The suits look soft and ragged, with simple gloves.

The main theme is awesome.

"If h-bomb testing continues, then perhaps someday, somewhere in the world will be another Godzilla."

"Someday" being one year later, beginning the schlock that this IP probably largely became with the fourteen sequels in the Showa era (to 1975) and my reason for watching this movie again so soon. I watched this first movie in 2021, but not the rest, and it's been too long, I think, to just start with Godzilla Raids Again. I'm sure I'll have a good time overall, but am also prepared for boredom with some. Came out to 254 gigabytes after converting all the PCM tracks to FLAC.

I watched Hiruko the Goblin. Was kind of a let down. The stills looked awesome, I was expecting more. Especially since this film came from the direction and writing of Shinya Tsukamoto.

Kind of funny that I never put two and two together in that Shinya was one of the actors in Ichi the Killer. Haven't seen that in a while so I ordered it.

Still have a few of Tsukamoto's films to go from his boxset.

@uninspiredcup Have you seen Ichi the Killer?

@DEVILinIRON: Many years back, I honestly can't remember a single thing other than a man coming out of a suitcase.

And yea, agree about Hiruko The Goblin.

The Color of Money

3.5/5

Martin Scorsese directs Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. The elder schools the junior in hustling in a road trip to a pool tournament in Atlantic City. The junior is hotheaded, stubborn, doesn't like losing, which you have to in order to hustle. Newman emasculates Cruise, thirty years before he will know it. On the right is maturity. On the left is insecurity, a boy who never accepted ageing and now makes every movie he's in worse because of it.

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan.

Was going to say only that I was embarrassed to like it, but the unlikelihoods kept piling on for a love story that was ultimately completely inconceivable. Had something between a grimace and a smile on my face as the end neared. Kind of insulting. Can't rate higher than 3/5.

Really did not like. One of the remaining films in my Shinya Tsukamoto boxset. I felt like I wasn't going to like it going in, and it did not disappoint.

Basically a film about a mother who experiences horrific hallucinations. One of which being the murder of her child by an active shooter. Let me tell you, it is not cool seeing an infant child getting shot point blank in the face. It took me a lot to keep watching, which I only half did. I did not care about the mother's singing (actress is a J-Pop star) and her emotive dancing. I just didn't care. 2/10

IMO one of the most underrated Bonds. One of fav.

> Smaller scale story

> Changes formula which hasn't been replicated since

> Scaramanga is arguably cooler than James Bond

> Moore is kind of abit of a bastard in it

Goodnight sucks, solar stuff could have done without, the karate dojo escape scene still baffles me everytime I watch it etc...

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Mediocre. Felt like two different movies, structurally, first half with another Godzilla fighting another prehistoric monster in Osaka and second half months later when they find the winner (Godzilla) and the Air Defense Force (the two very lucky main characters being pilots -- lucky first for finding the second Godzilla after following schools for their fishing company and then just happening to run into a pursuit for escaped convicts, who weren't even restrained while transported) defeats him, which is a fake win. I won't spoil how, but I don't know why all would expect him to be dead. I dropped that 2019 American movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters a few years ago, was too bored. Didn't try the one that came before (nor the ones after). The relationships in these first two movies (the original and Godzilla Raids Again) aren't very good, but they do help keep my attention. I don't remember caring about anyone in King of the Monsters. Kind of hoped that wedding party would end in them all (or most) dying horribly, though. Have the movie just end there, with death. To set up movie 3, rather than continue into the rather lengthy second portion. But these aren't those kinds of movies and so much time is spent preparing for Godzilla's approach that it would have been impossible, unrealistic.

Whenever I see this in a Toho movie or in old French movies, I think to myself that the masters they have are of value and what they distributed is only product for the unimportant masses, so can be covered up with watermarks.

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

4/5

James Cagney plays veteran who can't find decent work after coming home, turns to bootlegging, becomes pretty good at it, and all the while wants a young woman who's too pure for him. But he's not really a bad guy, he's a product of an unjust law and a world that moved too fast. Not much like the character he played in White Heat. Great actor. The bad guy is Humphrey Bogart, for once. Felt long, but I was entertained, wouldn't have cut any of it.

July 2023:

John Carpenter's 1984 movie Starman, with a young Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen.

A flaw in how this story of friendly alien visitors is told over and over again (Here it is in the form of a love story.) is that it supposes the US government is stupid enough to bring harm to the member of a species thousands of years more advanced than our own. I am cynical about the government, but no. It doesn't take a genius to know how quickly that could lead to our own destruction.

Cheesy, dull in parts and should be better, but I still I haven't watched a John Carpenter movie that I haven't liked in some way.

Watched Starman again, already. Liked it more this time, or the same but was more forgiving. Entertaining. I wonder if this inspired Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the terminator in T2. Rewatch reminded me that I can rewatch movies pretty soon and have a good time. I just don't. Too many movies to watch.

Reason I watched it again so early was because of the Columbia 4K Volume 4. Theme with this boxset was love.

His Girl Friday - Second time, feels like a 3/5 but if I'm fair 3.5

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - First time, generous 3.5/5

Sleepless in Seattle - First time 3/5

Punch-Drunk Love - Second time 4/5

Starman

Yeah, Punch-Drunk Love was the standout. Paul Thomas Anderson gave Adam Sandler his best movie (probably. Like I'm gonna watch them all). It's magic, including images and sound.

I remember Kramer vs. Kramer being pretty good, but can't watch it until Sony sends a replacement disc. Wouldn't rip. Had to play the movie in the background to find when the freezes are so that I could tell customer service. That's three boxsets in a row with discs that wouldn't rip or fully play: Columbia Vol. 2, Vol. 3 (and the replacement boxset had a messed up disc as well) and Sony Pictures Classics. I actually for the first time made a recording of my unboxing to make a point about the crappy quality control in the only Mexican plants that are left for North America, but couldn't do anything with it because the discs reflected my half-naked body. Never get messed up discs when I import European ones or the two times I imported Hong Kong/China.

Anyway, when I opened the cases, three of the discs were not in their hubs, had come out and were moving around on the road. I think it's because of the useless 1080p Blu-rays they still include with the UHDs. They amplify the vibrations on the road.

Download most of my movies now, only bought this set because I already have the first three and don't want the limited series to lose value should I ever decide to sell it.

The optimist in me wants to believe that the old 24-bit tracks were boosted, but the realist is sure that they are now 16-bit because the Atmos tracks take priority.

Set also has the Starman TV show. Supposedly terrible.

Loading Video... Loading Video... Loading Video...Great movies, all three. Director Michael Haneke being the common denominator. Cache was a belated re-watch. He has a talented way of causing unease in the viewer. One almost feels as if one should maybe look away from the darkness and uncertainty of humanity being portrayed on screen. One maybe feels as if opening a dreadful gift, perhaps the blue box from Mulholland Drive (dir. David Lynch).

A drama about an elderly woman passing away. A couple of surprises, but mostly a somber film of the bitter sweet kind.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

"The advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, frustrated with the low ratings of their sponsored TV program, seeks a more sensationalist approach. He orders his staff to Faro Island to capture King Kong for exploitation. As Godzilla re-emerges, a media frenzy generates with Pacific looking to capitalize off of the ultimate battle."

Thought it was rather a piece of shit, more boring because the character element was reduced. Somewhat amusing watching all the little models, but the filmmakers were lazy with the amount of things they did as (bad) miniatures.

I guess I was supposed to watch the English version, since this was probably made more for the international market with its inclusion of King Kong. Or I'm totally wrong. But the Japanese version I watched had burnt subtitles and many shots in the first half hour that were taken from video tapes, with no original elements. Mid-scene, it would go from 35 mm to video tape, vise versa. I just don't watch live action dubs, don't find them funny. When I archived the Showa-Era series, I removed all the English dubs.

The first Godzilla movie in widescreen, color and 4-track stereo. Every time he screamed, my right surround (SSCS5) crackled. After the high cost of shipping it to Sony's authorized repair center two years ago. I've been noticing it for a long while, but this was the worst. Replacing the pair with refurbished Klipsch R-41M. For the front I have the Q Acoustics 3050 (towers) and SVS SB-1000. Those Klipsch are probably way worse, but you don't need much for surrounds.

The last words were something like, "We can learn from them about adapting to other environments." Yeah, sure, the movie had a lesson... *rolls eyes*

Godzilla x King Kong The New Empire

I liked how the movie focused on the fights between Godzilla, Kong and the other Kajiu monsters. Humans took a backseat to the monsters which is what the previous movie should have been. Certain scenes felt like Planets of the Apes when Kong explores Hollow Earth.

8/10

Tristana (1970)

Man, this was good. Must watch again. Up there with my Bunel favorites. That's saying much, since he's got a great many good films. Bunel is one of my favorite directors, if not the favorite of mine.

Dredd. 9/10. almost masterpiece of movie.

karl urban never took out helmet and still killed it as Dredd.

Napoleon. Not one of Ridley Scott's better movies. The cast did a good job but it was basically just a movie about the messed up relationship between Napoleon and Josephine. Don't watch it expecting to see a historical epic.

Touchez Pas Au Grisbi or Don't Touch the Loot Grisbi is a 1954 French Crime Drama starring the famous Jean Gabin. Gabin plays an aging criminal who has just made his last big heist. But soon everything he's carefully built for retirement starts to fall apart. At the end of the film, all he has left is a dame on his shoulder. Good film.

Godzilla x Kong. The New Empire 6/10