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

[greg]

Dr. Strangelove. I have never seen this before, and didn't really know waht to expect. All I knew of was the scene with the guy with a cowboy hat riding the H-bomb down onto its target. After a while, it dawned on me that I was watching a comedy. At first I picked up on names like Jack Ripper, but as the movie's tension grew greater, it became apparent that it was a comedy. My favorite scene was when Peter Sellers was trying to call the President to prevent a nuclear war on a pay phone but didn't have proper change, so he ordered a soldier to shoot the vending machine to get the change out of it. The soldier says, "You'll have to answer to the Coca Cola company!" the movie features a very young James Earl Jones.

Going to see Guardians for a 3rd time tomorrow night. Wish I had someone to go with but everyone who wants to see it already has or else can't get to the theatre.

The movie finally comes out this Saturday, so I have until Friday night to buy a discount ticket to see it. I'm looking forward to it! Commercial exposure here in Japan seems to focus on the racoon character, since Japanese are such suckers for cute stuff. (There's a Japanese CG anime called Catshit One that features cute bunny rabbits and other such critters in the Middle East at war with terrorist critters.)

Frozen was a good film but the Hans Christian Anderson tale has been told how many times in the past 100 years? I dunno. I've seen a ton of tapes from nameless studios both live and animated telling and retelling the story. And of course, kids think its new!

I've never known about the story until this movie came out. If there is a book of the original, unmolested Hans Christian Anderson without tacked-on happy endings, I would like to get one to read to my daughter for her bedtime. I should look into that.

[usamimi]

Yesterday I watched "Moon" from 2009: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_%28film%29

It was an interesting movie! I'd heard about it but not really about the plot, which I'm kind of glad about since there's some surprises in it. If you like thriller/drama sorts of things, it's worth watching once, at least.

[greg]

Wow, thanks for the recommendation! That movie looks pretty cool! I won't read the Wiki article too much though, since Wikipedia always spoils the end of movies.

[llj]

I've never known about the story until this movie came out. If there is a book of the original, unmolested Hans Christian Anderson without tacked-on happy endings, I would like to get one to read to my daughter for her bedtime. I should look into that.

Pretty much 99% of the Hans Christian Anderson collections are unmolested. These are classics of fairy tale literature, they aren't going to change stuff around to make it more "marketable". That said, The Snow Queen, which Frozen is based on, had a happy ending in the original fairy tale as well. But the plot in Frozen is quite different from the Snow Queen.

As for all the Snow Queen adaptations, the version that has stuck with me the most is the Russian animated version from the 1950s. It was brought over to the U.S. and dubbed with Sandra Dee voicing the lead heroine. There was also a later 90s dub done with Kirsten Dunst as the heroine instead.

[ParaParaJMo]

Finally saw the 3rd Rurouni Kenshin movie. It is more of a style over substance movie from the second half, but in a way I yes and no don't mind. My biggest issue is how they deal with the rest of the juppongatana. They are like practically non-existant except for Anji and Sojiro. They take out the relationship between Anji and Sano and their fight ends in a ridiculous way. Sano is just mostly used for comic relief. Yahiko and Kaoru are practically useless in the second half.

Hiko Seijuro is used decently in a minimal sense in context to his story from the manga. His costume is done excellently well. The action scenes with him training Kenshin are done awesome.

Overall, the action alone is worth it. But I wish they used the juppongatana. They also don't go over the significance of Sojiro and why he smiles and his relationship with Shishio.

[usamimi]

Wow, thanks for the recommendation! That movie looks pretty cool! I won't read the Wiki article too much though, since Wikipedia always spoils the end of movies.

No prob! Yeah, the less you read about the movie, the better--I went in without knowing ANYTHING about it other than it was supposedly pretty good, and was surprised by a few things. It's not high-budget, but the story is interesting, so I can forgive that.

Overall, the action alone is worth it. But I wish they used the juppongatana. They also don't go over the significance of Sojiro and why he smiles and his relationship with Shishio.

Awww! That's kinda lame. I guess they figure that'll be something only the "hardcore" fans know? :/ Still, why bother putting Sojiro in there if you're not gonna explain his whole deal??

[ParaParaJMo]

Finally got to watch the AVGN movie and I have been a fan of the AVGN since the very beginning. People who are hardcore fans of not just the character, but James Rolfe himself, knows his influences and everything he is passionate about from classic monster films and the like will enjoy this.

I say if you like something along the lines of Wayne's World, I strongly recommend this.

I was born shortly after the 1983 video game crash but I have an older brother and sister who still had their Atari 2600 shortly before we got an NES but I still have fond memories of playing the Atari 2600 in general with my family.

And unfortunately, I had played the old Atari ET game and my family had a copy. Granted the game is bad,but I don't think it is the worst game ever and I liked how the past few years, his requests to review ET was used as the driving plot. And it also addresses the New Mexico desert fiasco as well. My dad's cousin was one of the teens that actually stole cartridges from the burial shortly before it was incased in concrete.

Warshaw, the original game programmer, is also in the movie and he admits the game sucks, but the movie also addresses the story on why the game is so terrible.

I am a retro gamer myself and I always enjoy the videos so I loved the movie.

[_D_]

The Maze Runner was good but now I have to read the rest of the books in the Trilogy...

Might check out The Equalizer on cheap night...

[greg]

Guardians of the Galaxy is AWESOME! I took the train Saturday night to the nearby city to watch it, since there is no movie theater in the city where I live. Once again, it proves that DC cannot even begin to match the creativity that Marvel has been doing for their movies. Dark Knight was the one big DC movie that made it big (I never saw it though). Everything else, like Green Lantern (CG abs) and Superman (apathetic anti-hero who wrecks everything), have been ugly turds. Maybe Watchmen is good, but I haven't seen it.

But Marvel took a little-known title and made something fantastic out of it, and it also ties into the Avengers movies too. I really want to see the movie again, but it will probably have to wait until I get it on video. But everything is going towards bluray now, so I may as well make the switch eventually.

I rented Elysium because I love Syd Mead’s designs so much. The movie certainly feels like District 9: an SF action movie set in a dystopian future that feels extremely unsettling. Both movies are rather provocative, and maybe it will be a long time before I watch either again, but they are interesting experiences. Plus, Jodie Foster was perfect as the secretary of defense, with that phony, plastered, tight-lipped smile that is so typical of politicians.

[usamimi]

I've been in full "It's almost Halloween, lets watch horror movies!" mode lately. Watched "Trick R Treat" and "Grave Encounters" and both were worth a watch--especially "Trick R Treat", that was a fun one. "Grave Encounters" is one of those found footage sorts of movies, BUT it wasn't full of "shaky cam" and it's basically what you wish would happen in one of those "we're gonna spend the night in this creepy place and see if it's haunted" reality shows.