The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Non-anime/manga-related TV, movies, books, and comics, especially but not limited to pre-2000 titles
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greg
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by greg »

I guess Fury Road is finally available for rent here in Japan, so maybe I'll rent it tonight for the 3-day weekend. I will drive up to the in-laws' place in Nagano Prefecture, so I'm looking forward to the cold air biting me once I exit the car when we arrive.

As for Boyhood... I don't want to let RedLetterMedia always give me a bias and make me hate movies before I see them. Although sometimes I disagree with them, most of their criticisms are spot-on. There really does not seem to be any quality of Boyhood that makes me want to watch it. Sure, it's ambitious because it took 10 years to make (whatever), but that doesn't automatically make it a good movie. I don't mind rambling independent movies, but I'd still expect something to happen. It's like Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray: I kinda got into it, but in the end, nothing ever happens. Boring!

I'll likely give Boyhood a pass. Richard Linklater made A Scanner Darkly, and I really like that film. I'd like to see his earlier rotoscoped movies, but they are hard to find here.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by DKop »

There's a Family Video in town where my university is at, so I plan on picking up Chronenburg movies like Videodrome and Scanners this weekend to watch. I might bring them over to my friends house tonight to watch, even though it was supposed to be anime night with Ninja Scroll, Dominion Tank Police and Fist of the North Star. Well see how that goes... because we usually do these things with booze.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by llj »

greg wrote:
As for Boyhood... I don't want to let RedLetterMedia always give me a bias and make me hate movies before I see them. Although sometimes I disagree with them, most of their criticisms are spot-on. There really does not seem to be any quality of Boyhood that makes me want to watch it. Sure, it's ambitious because it took 10 years to make (whatever), but that doesn't automatically make it a good movie. I don't mind rambling independent movies, but I'd still expect something to happen. It's like Broken Flowers, starring Bill Murray: I kinda got into it, but in the end, nothing ever happens. Boring!
Well, the kid grows up. So something does happen, technically. :lol:

It's not much different from your typical "slice of life" anime. It's a typical coming of age story. I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it but if you happen upon it, it's worth a try. I will say the 3 hours went by quite quickly, so there's that in regards to pacing.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by greg »

I spent the 3-day holiday weekend at the in-laws' place in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, and I really didn't go anywhere at all. I didn't do much except watch movies and catch up on e-mail. Here's what I watched.

X-Men: First Class. I recently bought the US BluRay, but unlike Days of Future Past, this one did not come with Japanese subtitles. My J-Mom hadn't seen the movie yet, so I took a trip to Tsutaya a for a 100 yen rental. I hadn't seen this movie since I first saw it in the movie theater. I remember it being good and expecting it to suck. This time, I noticed that Bryan Singer co-wrote the script.

The Forbidden Planet. I'd bought the BR because it was so cheap off Amazon. I've only seen parts of it before. I don't yet have a BR player of my own, so I can only watch my BRs on my in-laws' TV that has a built-in BR player. This really was a groundbreaking movie. In the '50s, most sci fi movies were B-grade, low-budget drivel. But this movie had a high budget production quality to it, making use of double exposure on top of miniature sets to give a feeling of enormity of the alien city. From what I read, this was the first SF film to be set entirely on an alien planet. In this story, humans have achieved hyperspace travel. (is this the earliest movie to use the term "hyperspace," I wonder?) An exploration team is sent out to rescue a scientist who has been marooned on an alien planet for 19 years, and they discover something amazing there. The only thing that does this film a disservice is that the exploration vessel is a typical flying saucer instead of something a bit more imaginative.

The Dam Busters. Here's yet another WWII movie that has been credited as being an inspiration to the first Star Wars movie. Based on actual events, an experimental bounce bomb is developed, and a bomber squadron is formed to destroy three dams to flood out several metal factories in a valley in Germany. I first learned about the bounce bomb from the docu-comedy-drama 24 Hour Party People, about the rise and fall of Factory Records in Manchester, England. (A must-see for Joy Division/New Order/Happy Mondays fans.) It would generally take a 10 ton bomb to destroy a dam, but the British inventor managed to accomplish it by building a much smaller bomb that acts like skipping a stone across water. It's a big ball that when dropped at a height of 50 feet, it will skip across the water, hit the wall of the dam, and then submerge to a certain depth at which it is set to explode. Dropped too quickly and the water would act to absorb the shock of the blast. Dropped too late and the bomb would bounce over the wall of the dam.

Some of the dialogue in the Star Wars trench run scene is nearly lifted verbatim from this movie. "About how many guns do you count?" "About 20 guns. Some in the field, some in the towers." "Get set up for your attack run. I'll cut across their axis to try and draw their fire." Etc. They used rotoscope animation to add the AA gun tracer rounds onto the film. While it looks cartoony to our modern eyes, they managed to do a very great job at it, and they used models and miniatures instead of boring stock footage.

I had brought some anime to watch too, but I didn't get around to watching any of it.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by davemerrill »

Peter Jackson was supposed to remake Dambusters but he went and made Hobbit movies instead. I want my Dambusters, dammit!

I once got to see Forbidden Planet on the grass in Boston Common with a big crowd of friends. Really a fantastic looking movie, very painterly.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by greg »

That's right! I remember hearing about that Peter Jackson remake of The Dam Busters. The thing is, there was supposed to be three dam targets. They could only bomb two, and only the first dam had AA cannons protecting it. I'm sure that this is closer to history, but if a remake were to be made, I am sure that this would be the final target to try to boost up the tension. Plus, they have to take into account all the normaltards out there who would rather get excited than to see something historically accurate.

Yeah, Forbidden Planet really blew me away when I first saw parts of it on cable TV a few years back. When I first saw the scene filmed from a top-down angle with the people walking along a catwalk and you can see the cavernous pit full of moving elevators, I thought to myself, "This movie is pretty amazing for a '60s film!" Then when I saw that it was made in the '50s, I was even more impressed.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by DKop »

I rented Videodrome last night from Amazon Video and thought it was pretty good. I kinda keep thinking if Videodrome got remade in today's times it seems that it would reflect the generation of cell phone users on phone apps, or taking place on a live streaming application that gets people sucked into it. It's a pretty cool concept when you think about it. For a horror film, it falls in that genre of horror that isn't about cheap thrills to scare the audience, but really on a psychological level of not being in control of yourself through the use of a media that we've been using since the 1950's. This has me interested in Scanners as the next Chronenburg film to check out.

Speaking of "horror," i'm caught up on Walking Dead on Netflix. Season 5 was really "The Walking Dead: Domestic Violence."
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

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Originally written by greg on 2015/10/18, 22:45:01 PDT :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Oh wow, Scanners! I've been wanting to see that movie. I only know about the telekinesis aspect of the movie, and the famous scene with that one guy's head exploding like a watermelon.




Originally written by usamimi on 2015/10/20, 08:02:02 PDT :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote greg Oh wow, Scanners! I've been wanting to see that movie. I only know about the telekinesis aspect of the movie, and the famous scene with that one guy's head exploding like a watermelon. quote

Ah, Scanners is great! I keep meaning to pick up the Criterion version I only have it on VHS, lol . If you have a Hulu Plus account, it's in the Criterion section to watch.




Originally written by llj on 2015/10/24, 16:13:50 PDT :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

I finally watched Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, one of the possibly greatest and controversially ugliest films of his ouvre. I won't spend my time talking too much describing the film, but it actually, for some reason, made me think of Wings of Honneamise. I recall one of the Gainax staff saying that Shiro's design was based on Treat Williams, who has a supporting role in Once Upon a Time.... And I wondered if this was the film that Gainax was watching when they decided to use him as the model for Shiro's likeness.

Even though there is almost NOTHING about the plots of Once Upon a Time... and Wings that are similar at all, the spiritual arcs of the main characters in both films follow a very similar path. Although Shiro ends up in a higher place in history than Noodles the ostensible protagonist of Once Upon a Time does, they are essentially films about losers who achieve--if not redemption or forgiveness--a sort of spiritual peace or acceptance of their own sins by the end of the films. Much like Shiro, Noodles' own story arc pivots on a nasty rape scene--and Once Upon a Time's is MUCH more shattering and brutal than the one in Wings. Like Wings, it's usually THE scene that all anyone ever seems to talk about when they discuss the film, and rarely in positive terms. They are ugly scenes that nonetheless pay a pivotal role in the character arcs of their lead characters, and they are scenes that essentially doom their lead characters' lifelong romantic prospects for the rest of the films' running times, if not implicitly the rest of their lives.

Perhaps it's just coincidence. But out of the hundreds and hundreds of movies I've seen, these are really the only two films where the character arcs of the main characters pivot on the protagonists shattering their relationships and future with the only prominent female characters in their lives in one very violent and ugly fashion.

It's a fascinating cinematic device to turn protagonists you think you initially like into people who are repellant to audiences as a catalyst for everything that happens afterwards.




Originally written by usamimi on 2015/10/24, 21:38:26 PDT :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Last weekend, Nitro I went and saw Crimson Peak. I enjoyed it, but probably because I knew from reading things del Toro had written warning people beforehand that it was NOT a horror movie, but a romance with ghosts in it. A few people in the theater with us complained loudly at the end that it wasn't very scary, so I don't think they realized it wasn't really supposed to be. I don't really blame them, given how the ad campaign seems to want you to think that's the case... If you're into really gothic stuff with a creepy twist, though, you might like it.




Originally written by greg on 2015/11/03, 18:57:16 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Yesterday was Culture Day in Japan, so it was a day off. I watched Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln. I didn't know much of the movie beforehand, and the opening scene made me think that it may have been a somewhat action-oriented movie. It focuses on the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and freeing the slaves. The movie is said to be 90 accurate and it focuses on the political maneuvering that Republicans had to do to sway enough Democrats to vote for the amendment. It also showed the different factions within the Republican party at the time. They agreed on ending slavery, but there were the radical abolitionists and there were the conservative ones who believed in emancipation, but were not entirely sure about granting equal rights. Daniel Day-Lewis's portrayal of Lincoln is unforgettable, and Tommy Lee Jones's role of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens was particularly moving. Of course, having John Williams score the film certainly helped boost the emotional impact. I also liked that the movie focused on the reaction to Lincoln's assassination and not directly depicting it. Very highly recommended.




Originally written by Akage on 2015/11/09, 09:50:40 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Saw the new James Bond movie, Spectre . Compared to Skyfall , it was a rather 'meh' film. Sam Smith's Writing's on the Wall theme song tried too hard to be like Adele's Skyfall and came up short. The main villain felt really weak, especially considering who he was in relation to the story line. The main Bond girl did not impress me. I read an article where they made such a big deal about how she stood on her own and didn't need James to save her..and yet she really did.

New M, Moneypenny and Q were perhaps the saving graces of the film. Loved when James called her up late at night and after hearing some male mumbling in the background, wanted to know who was in her room. Moneypenny gave 0 Fs about his attitude, telling him it was Life and that he should try it once in a while.




Originally written by DKop on 2015/11/11, 07:36:39 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

I agree that Spectre wasn't as good as Skyfall, but it still wasn't a bad film. It seems that they might take the Bond films to remaking them from the old films, seeing how they brought back the villian in this one. If anything this felt kind of like a Roger Moore Bond film because of the comedic tone to it, but its not on a dumb goofy level like the Guy Hamilton Bond films, but those are their own thing entirely.

I still think it ranks over Quantom of Solace, but that might be the general consensus there.




Originally written by llj on 2015/11/11, 09:20:31 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

I can't remember the last time a Bond movie had a good opening song. It seemed like somewhere around the Brosnan era the songs stopped being catchy or memorable. Now the standard for a good Bond song is one that's least annoying.

I agree that it doesn't get any worse than Quantum of Solace though. Might be the worst Bond movie ever. Certainly the worst-edited Bond for sure, though. I hate the way the action scenes are cut to ribbons and how the talking scenes are edited so that you get to see every single angle of a person's head in the span of 20 seconds. I actually think there are more than 500 cuts in the first 20 minutes alone, which is just insane. During one stretch I counted nearly 100 cuts in a single minute. It was so distracting that I had to stop watching several times before I eventually made it through the film.

quote Akage The main Bond girl did not impress me. I read an article where they made such a big deal about how she stood on her own and didn't need James to save her..and yet she really did.
quote

One of the essential problems with the Bond franchise becoming so mainstream is that it was originally created to be essentially pulp fiction for men in the 60s. So all the elements that don't play in the mainstream today--the sexism, the nihilism, the general un-P.C. nature of Bond--are actually elements that are at the core of the Bond franchise formula. As such, they try to straddle both worlds with mixed results.

While I really liked Skyfall, I've noticed that the Craig Bonds actually give the Bond Girls less and less screen time with each successive movie. Eva Green was a great character in Casino Royale and Eva Green herself is great but it's been progressively downhill from there. Skyfall didn't even really have an actual Bond Girl.




Originally written by DKop on 2015/11/11, 10:42:56 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote llj

I agree that it doesn't get any worse than Quantum of Solace though. Might be the worst Bond movie ever. Certainly the worst-edited Bond for sure, though. I hate the way the action scenes are cut to ribbons and how the talking scenes are edited so that you get to see every single angle of a person's head in the span of 20 seconds. I actually think there are more than 500 cuts in the first 20 minutes alone, which is just insane. During one stretch I counted nearly 100 cuts in a single minute. It was so distracting that I had to stop watching several times before I eventually made it through the film. quote

Did you ever see On Her Majesty's Secret Service? That movie has atrochous editing and cuts all over the place. My thing with Quantam is the fact that its a long stretch where nothing really happens in the film. That and I have to really think on what happens in that movie, which to me my rule of thumb is if I can't remember about 40 to 50 percent of a movie, it must have been pretty bad.



quote

While I really liked Skyfall, I've noticed that the Craig Bonds actually give the Bond Girls less and less screen time with each successive movie. Eva Green was a great character in Casino Royale and Eva Green herself is great but it's been progressively downhill from there. Skyfall didn't even really have an actual Bond Girl. quote

I thought Judi Dench was the Bond girl of Skyfall? I mean, most Bond girls die, and she did, so there you go.




Originally written by llj on 2015/11/11, 12:05:59 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote DKop

Did you ever see On Her Majesty's Secret Service? That movie has atrochous editing and cuts all over the place. My thing with Quantam is the fact that its a long stretch where nothing really happens in the film. That and I have to really think on what happens in that movie, which to me my rule of thumb is if I can't remember about 40 to 50 percent of a movie, it must have been pretty bad.
quote

OHMSS --that is the one where Bond marries Emma Peel, right?

I saw it only a few years ago and while it's not the best edited movie by 60s standards, it doesn't suffer from the Greengrass-Bourne movies influence that Quantum of Solace does. Bear in mind I absolutely loathe the shaky cam, fast cutting style of a lot of modern action movies. Visual coherency is paramount for me in an action film.




Originally written by Akage on 2015/11/11, 16:06:14 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote llj I can't remember the last time a Bond movie had a good opening song. It seemed like somewhere around the Brosnan era the songs stopped being catchy or memorable. Now the standard for a good Bond song is one that's least annoying. quote

Really? Adele's Skyfall opening ranks as one of my Top 5 Bond opening songs, perhaps just short of topping Paul McCartney's opening. It just has that classic Bond feel to it. Most of the Brosnan songs never registered for me, with Sheryl Crow's opening being by far the worse IMO. Garbage's The World is Not Enough also ranks in my Top 5.

Honestly, I'm getting tired of all these more male centered properties trying to appeal to women by throwing an independent, strong female character into properties that either never had them like The Hobbit or don't need one. I'm not going to see a Bond film because I need a young female role model. I'm going to see the movie because, on the whole, they're usually well done productions and I've been a life long fan of the franchise.




Originally written by DKop on 2015/11/13, 09:46:40 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote Akage

Really? Adele's Skyfall opening ranks as one of my Top 5 Bond opening songs, perhaps just short of topping Paul McCartney's opening. It just has that classic Bond feel to it. Most of the Brosnan songs never registered for me, with Sheryl Crow's opening being by far the worse IMO. Garbage's The World is Not Enough also ranks in my Top 5.

Honestly, I'm getting tired of all these more male centered properties trying to appeal to women by throwing an independent, strong female character into properties that either never had them like The Hobbit or don't need one. I'm not going to see a Bond film because I need a young female role model. I'm going to see the movie because, on the whole, they're usually well done productions and I've been a life long fan of the franchise. quote

I dunno, I thought The World is Not Enough opening was kinda.... Garbage Couldn't...help...it...

So wait, if your against independent, strong female characters, that means you wont see any of the Avengers movies right? Because let me tell you, that Black Widow is all about being independent, strong and female, and must also care change The Hulk because hes a misunderstood badboy with a heart of gold.

In terms of Bond songs, I favor The Man with the Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only, Never Say Never Again bad movie, but a catchy Never, Never say Never female lyric repeat ,A View to A Kill, both Dalton films intros, and the Goldeneye song. You know my Name by Chris Cornell is actually pretty good too.




Originally written by llj on 2015/11/13, 17:26:03 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote DKop

So wait, if your against independent, strong female characters, that means you wont see any of the Avengers movies right? Because let me tell you, that Black Widow is all about being independent, strong and female, and must also care change The Hulk because hes a misunderstood badboy with a heart of gold.
. quote

I don't think Akage meant that he was against strong independent female characters, I think the implication was that he was against the idea of forcing them into a movie even when it's not necessary to the strength of the plot. The core story of the Hobbit, for instance, doesn't really suffer from not having a strong female character in the book, because it's generally a story about a halfling dude's fantasy adventures. Hell, the original didn't have ANY female character that I can recall. But they were obviously put into the movies more for marketing purposes rather than to strengthen the story. Audiences want to see a balanced gender demographic on screen they don't want to see a sausage fest. That may be crudely put, but I honestly that was the main reason.

Now the Black Widow is an Avenger already in the original source material or rather she sometimes is , so it's not like she was created out of thin air to fulfill a certain demographic. Now, do I think that the studios are thankful that the Black Widow exists to logically fit into the cinematic Avengers? Certainly, of course it helps to have a character with a built in demographic, which is why the Avengers is good source material in general to adapt to a mainstream movie.




Originally written by greg on 2015/11/15, 17:46:05 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

quote llj I don't think Akage meant that he was against strong independent female characters, I think the implication was that he was against the idea of forcing them into a movie even when it's not necessary to the strength of the plot. quote
FWIW, Akage is a she, not a he.

I'm okay with the addition of a strong woman into The Hobbit. She wasn't there for TA, so that's good. She was a device used to try to make some of the Dwarves more interesting. Because let's face it the Dwarves in the book were known as just having names and not much only. Bomber was the fat one. Thorin was the leader. And then there was, uh, well, hmm... Peter Jackson did a far better job at making the Dwarves more memorable and interesting than Tolkien did. It works for a book, but for cinema, a literal adaptation is often not the best.




Originally written by greg on 2015/11/24, 21:54:28 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Exodus Gods and Kings I rented this last weekend and I've just about had it with Ridley Scott. I loved Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, but apparently since then he's been crapping out turds one after another. Prometheus, Robin Hood... I've lost faith in him. He took a classic story like Robin Hood and wizzed it down his pant leg. He could've done something fantastic with Prometheus and I was so hyped over that, until I found out what a turd it was.

So there was a movie about Noah's Ark that made Noah out to be crazy or something, from what I understand. This Exodus movie is more of the same. Moses encounters a burning bush, but there's some dumb kid next to it and apparently that's supposed to be God. No talk of remove your sandals, for the ground you stand upon is sacred. No, he is buried in mud with some punk kid talking to him. So Moses goes back to Egypt and begins a guerrilla war against the Pharaoh funny, I don't remember that in the story . The rest of the time, Moses is seen talking to his imaginary 8-year-old friend and comes across as neurotic. There's no I will be with you I will lead you. No, instead, Moses in this movie is stuck dealing with a dickhead kid. There's no classic discourse between him and the Pharaoh. No let my people go or the staff turning into a snake. The plagues were made to seem like a series of bizarre coincidences, as if it was some sort of colossal Rube Goldberg device. So it played up way too much drama when there needn't be any, and ignored the true drama where it ought to have been. I was about ready to give up on the movie, but I stuck it out, waiting for the big, climactic parting of the Red Sea. That, too, was a disappointment. Apparently the Red Sea has a low tide and can be traversed, and then the pull of the moon somehow causes a huge tidal wave that came crashing down on the Egyptian chariots.

Essentially, anyone who'd be interested in watching a movie about a Bible story won't like it. The only people who would like this movie is... well, I have no idea. The animated Prince of Egypt movie is way better. In that movie, you really care for Moses, feel closer to Myriam and Aaron, and can really, truly feel the loss of brotherhood between Moses and Ramses. Ridley Scott is beaten by a 17 year old cartoon, because the characters are just flat. The only good thing about this Exodus movie was the acting. Oh, and the woman who played Moses's sexy wife.

Please, Ridley Scott. Stay away from Blade Runner, ! I can't believe how far you've fallen. You were so great.




Originally written by usamimi on 2015/11/29, 07:55:10 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Yeah, I stayed far far away from Exodus because it just looked TERRIBLE. I dunno what happened to Ridley Scott, either, but he hasn't made anything good in some time, which is sad. The only good thing about Prometheus was some of the production art design. Other than that? long fart noise p




Originally written by greg on 2015/11/29, 16:24:44 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

I had no idea about the movie before I rented it. I just wanted to give Ridley Scott the benefit of the doubt. The Prince of Egypt was so dramatic and emotional that it moved me to tears. I remember hearing about how the original concept for the Robin Hood movie was to have it shown through the viewpoint of the Sheriff of Nottingham. That sounded intriguing. If they were bent on turning the Exodus story into something unique, they could have made the movie through the eyes of Ramses. As with the animated movie, this movie also shows some drama of him trying to live up to his father Seti's expectations. Each of the plagues were a direct insult to the Egyptian pantheon and what was held most sacred and worshipped. The life-giving Nile, a symbol of Hapi and Osiris, was turned to blood. The frogs that were revered for their high-fertility and symbolized Heqet overtook the land. The Egyptian gods would not receive sacrifices of animals infested with lice, so that plague was a direct insult. Utachit was the god of flies. Egyptians worshipped gods of bulls and cows, and their livestock were stricken dead. Serapia was the god that was thought to protect Egypt from locusts, but the plague of locusts challenged that belief. The darkness was a direct nullification of the sun god, Ra. If they had wanted to, they could have focused on how everything Ramses had come to believe as true collapses and the foundation of his rule and his ability to control the slaves dissolved. That would have made for a far more compelling story than this movie, I think.

I'd also rented a rented a far better movie that I finally watched on Saturday.

The Grand Budapest Hotel. I don't think Wes Anderson can make a movie that I won't enjoy. I love the dry, bizarre comedy Jeff Goldblum's character Did he just throw my cat out the window? the fantastic visuals and lush color, and the compelling story. I loved how the movie started out so serious, with the author speaking directly to the camera about the life of being a writer, and suddenly his little boy runs into the room and starts shooting him with a toy gun and he shouts at his son to leave. I love how these movies always catch me off guard like that. Like with the fate of Willem DeFoe's character, all of these scenes have me reaching for the remote to rewind and rewatch.

As with any other Wes Anderson movie, it will be even funnier the second time around. I owe it to myself to just buy this movie on DVD. Even my daughter started watching parts of the movie with me. Stay and watch the credits. There's a little, animated Russian soldier who starts dancing in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. My girl got a kick out of that!




Originally written by usamimi on 2015/11/29, 19:48:43 PST :

Re: The Latest Movies Non-Anime You Are Watching Right Now :

Oh, I've been wanting to see that one! I love Anderson's movies, too. Moonrise Kingdom was so great, I feel like lately he's just getting better and better.
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by usamimi »

Yesterday I saw The Witch (or The VVitch, as posters say). It was a very well shot, slow burn type of horror movie, so if you prefer your horror with lotsa jump scares & action, might not be the movie for you. I enjoyed it a lot, though: tense, filled with dread & confusion, shot very well with great acting from some very talented young actors.
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yusaku
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Re: The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

Post by yusaku »

I got some time on my hands. I am approaching a payday and I got some free time. I like horror movies without a lot of jump scares. I really liked "THe Others" and "Sixth Sense". VVitch may be a good movie for me.
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