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

[llj]

I'm no expert in Japanese culture, but I have seen a few Japanese movies which I perceive to be more "deadpan"in humor--but they are invariably independent, cult, or "arthouse" films. Takashi Miike's humor for instance seems to run on the more subtle blacker side, sometimes, and Hirokazu Kore-eda seems to mine a lot of his humour from Ozu, who was more low-key in his approach (though not above using the occasional fart joke). I imagine that Japanese TV comedy is more aimed at the mainstream demographic--basically, the Japanese version of the Adam Sandler crowd.

Deadpan or low key humour doesn't always play well to western audiences too, I find. The most successful TV comedies tend to be the more "obvious" kind. The Big Bang Theory is probably the highest rated sitcom in the U.S., and nobody would ever mistake it for being "subtle".

All that said, I wouldn't say I laugh A LOT when watching Wes Anderson, but I find the way he constructs his worlds and the deliberate artificiality of his films fascinating to watch when I'm not laughing at the jokes. His attention to detail is obsessive and that makes his movies all the more interesting. I think Anderson right now is at the peak of his career--he's always been good, but the last few films it seems like he's in total control of what he's doing.

[_D_]

XMen: Days of Future Past was excellent..

[llj]

Cranked up some movie watching recently. Yes, life has been a bit slow for me lately.

Enough Said--This vehicle for the late James Gandolfini and the still-hip Julia Louis Dreyfus tries very hard to tell us that this isn't just a lost episode involving Elaine Benes from Seinfeld...but it still totally feels like a lost Seinfeld episode. This is not to denigrate JLD's range, which she does have, but she has a number of comedic tricks she falls back on that is so patently HERS that you can't help but think of past and present JLD performances while watching this. That said, what she does, she does very well. Some people may call it "mugging" but then again you could say the same thing about Lucille Ball. Still, I think JLD is one of the very best comic TV performers around, and many female comics today probably owe her royalties for how much they steal from her. Gandolfini is in lovable lug mode here.

Vanishing Point--Weird and existential car "chase" movie from the 1970s I'd heard about for years, but never actually seen or researched. Guy tries to drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in under 24 hours. That's the plot. It's pretty deliberately paced and the story is hastily sketched together at best, but it ain't about the story here. It's all about the naked chick on the motorcycle! That, and the Charlotte Rampling scene that was cut out of the U.S. release, but included on the UK version. Why they cut out such a crucial scene to the movie, I don't know. But American studios have never been known for their sense of sense, no matter what the era. Beautiful cinematography, almost feels Malickian in its visual beauty and meditative nature. I'll probably seek out Two Lane Blacktop to compare soon.

Watership Down--Can you believe I'd never seen this before now? I'd heard about it for years and about how "traumatizing" it was for kids, so it was a little disappointing to discover that you really only see about 1 death onscreen (although dozens of others are implied offscreen). It's quite violent, too. A good amount of blood and guts. That said, it's still a tremendously entertain reworking of the Moses bible story. And that General Woundwort...man, what a piece of work that rabbit is.

The Painting--This semi-recent french animated movie is both inspiring and slightly disappointing on a visual level. I'm not quite sure the decision to use CGI as a clumsy underskeleton for the characters was a wise choice, considering how much the film extols the virtues of raw 2D imagery and the relative unimportance of having visual depth in making a painting great. That said, I like its sincerity and its philosophical explorations of what makes an artist's "soul" visible in his or her paintings. And there are still some impressive visual tricks to be seen here despite some wonky CG.

Romance on the High Seas--I've been thinking about Doris Day again quite a bit recently. I like quite a few of her movies--they're like the equivalent of classic movie cotton candy, both visually and storywise. She just recently celebrated her 90th birthday (though she may actually either be younger or older by a year--love those old unconfirmed birth records) and I've always been fascinated about how her real life seems to have been the exact opposite of the breezy lightweight "happy" movies she tended to star in. This was her first starring role and when people say you either have "it" or you don't, this movie has to be a prime example of that. Day may not have been the greatest actress or the sexiest one or even the prettiest one in her era, but she had "it". Presence, aura, whatever you want to call it, she had "it". I quite like her in some of these earlier vehicles--she became much more bland and buttoned down and worse, was dubbed "American's Oldest Virgin" later in her career, but early on she had the right mix of non-threateningness and sex appeal that reminds you how she got your attention in the first place.

[greg]

XMen: Days of Future Past was excellent..

I watched this last night. This story is one of the most popular and best thought out story from the comics and has been retold before. It's a bit like X-Men meets Quantum Leap. Now if only we can send somebody back to warn Bryan Singer to not bother making the stupid Superman Returns because it was a boring movie for a boring character. This way, we could prevent Brett Ratner from making X-Men 3.

[_D_]

How To Train Your Dragon 2 was excellent. Also checked out the season finale of Game of Thrones last night at the local movie theatre. Was a crazy experience but if they do this again next year, it should be in UHD/4K to avoid the artifacting and compression problems that were in the signal. Overall, though the episode was 4 stars out of 5...

[greg]

Wait... why would they show a TV show at a movie theater? I don't get it.

[Animusubi]

Finally saw Robocop. Charmless. I love the original, so this version was just a popcorn flick, if that.

Went to the local drive-in and saw Transformers: Age of Extinction and Edge of Tomorrow. I am not fond of the Transformers movies, but I did like Mark Wahlberg as the replacement to Shia Lebouf. The main female is always annoying though, because she can't act and she's just useless. His actions scenes are awesome, but other than that, it was a movie. Not really memorable. (god...TMNT...NOOOO)

Edge of Tomorrow was awesome, I loved it! I've never read the novel or manga though, so I didn't go into it expecting anything.

[greg]

Check out the Honest Trailers's Transformers trailers. They're pretty funny, and touch on how indistinguishable the robots are from each other, especially when they're fighting. If at least they would make the robots resemble their Marvel Comics/cartoon/toy counterparts, it wouldn't be so bad. Optimus Prime is the only halfway recognizable character. Yes, I know they couldn't make Sideswipe a Lambourghini due to licensing issues, but at least make him a RED sports car! He's not even red! They're all either gray or silver. My mom (R.I.P.) bought me the first Transformers movie years ago, and I've held onto it just for Rifftrax purposes.

I just looked up Edge of Tomorrow because I figured it was that Tom Cruise movie, wondering why I haven't heard of it here in Japan. Slap on the head! AAAAAAAAAAAH, Okay. It's called "All You Need Is Kill" here. With a grammatically incorrect movie title like that, I figured this was just some Japanese movie. I am actually interested in seeing this movie. I'd forgotten that it is based on a manga. Tom Cruise is also supposed to do a Yukikaze movie, too.

[danth]

It's called "All You Need Is Kill" here.

Ha! I like that. It could be grammatically correct if "kill" has somehow become a noun, kind of like "full of win."

[Heero]

It's called "All You Need Is Kill" here.

Ha! I like that. It could be grammatically correct if "kill" has somehow become a noun, kind of like "full of win."

I have not seen it yet, but have a vague idea of the plot, and if you know the plot the title makes sense, even if it isn't entirely correct English.