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Saw Raya and the Last Dragon.
Pretty fun, nice little adventure movie. It does seem like the movie was not originally going to end with all humans coming back(The one warrior guy and the baby looked like they where going to form a family). With the IDea that Dragons where the ones to trust last time so humans cam back and then vice versa, and humanity needing to come together to recover from a tragedy. But IT ended the way
Disney would end their movies.

But IT ended the way Disney would end their movies.

Somewhat. Few too many surviving parents for a 'real' Disney ending.

Saw the new Kong v Godzilla flick.

Big monster battles were cool, nothing truly all that surprising, but an enjoyable bit of time nonetheless

@LordofHats: huh, thanks for the breakdown. I thought they'd messed way more with it. Just a knee-jerk reaction of mine, I suppose. Never heard the English dub, but German dubs of Anime shows usually are pretty annoying too (again, adding weird amounts of cursing. Not a fan of that.). I thought Netflix cut something (because I'd seen them do it on other shows).

@Flinty: They better!


I watched Hudson Hawk again. What an odd film, but I'm glad it exists. Oddities are good.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
It's got nothing to do with films, but I just learned that Netflix changed bits about Evangelion? This upsets me way more than it should probably (because I got it on dvd of course), but everything about Evangelion upsets me way more than it should.

Still - streaming platforms are gak.

It wasn't Netflix exactly, or at least saying they 'changed bits' is kind of missing exactly what happened.

When Netflix redubbed the series for re-release, they actually made a number of lines more faithful to the original Japanese voice work or cleared up some ambiguous lines resulting from poor translation. This included removing nearly all cursing (which was unique to the original English dub), cleaning up a lot lines that were goofy in the original translation, and making Kaworu's flirting with Shinji more intentionally ambiguous (fans say that the redub tried to hide how gay Kaworu was, but the lines in Netflix's dub really are more accurate to the original Japanese). Ironically, all these changes made the Netflix redub more faithful to the original Japanese, but a lot of series' image was its goofy lines and several actually read better in English with cursing than without. Netflix seemed to set out to want to redub the series with more accurate and faithful translations, but fans it turns out don't really care XD Definitely, some of the lines do read better in English in the original translation, even if they are less accurate translations.

Beyond that, the only real issues are that Netflix didn't pay the licensing fees for the series' original ending theme (which a lot of fans really liked I guess) and a few names are inconsistently pronounced.

It's even more complicated than that. The Dub Director of the original Evangelion dub came out recently and said that the new netflix dub uses the same script that Gainax originally provided him back when they were making the original dub, he just apparently had the will to stand up to gainax and say "Hey 'First Children' being used to reference a singular person isn't proper english, we are going to change this stuff to better fit US culture." My guess is that Gainax made using this original script part of the deal for netflix to obtain the rights in the first place.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Wish Dragon (2021, Netflix)

So this movie is basically Aladdin, steeped in Chinese culture (especially the crazy rich Asians vibe). But they completely removed the "I'm using my wishes for LOVE and RICHES" part of Aladdin and made it more of a focus on friendship, family, and enjoying life to it's fullest regardless of station or wealth.

That makes it sound like a pretty basic movie, but I genuinely enjoyed it. The visual comedy is awesome, and the writing is just slick enough to entertain both adults and kids (or least adults that still enjoy kids entertainment like my wife and I).

I started watching Corman's The Raven but I just could not get into it.

I switched over to Karloff's The Mummy instead. It kind of surprised me how much of the Brendan Frasier movie actually stuck with the original story line. There is a Van Helsing-esque character in Dr. Muller, one who basically admits he is no match for the Mummy. How the Mummy ends up coming undone was a bit of a surprise to me.

There is one shot of Karloff's face, where they slowly add light to his eyes that is very powerful. So good they use it three times or so. There is also some fun model work and neat sets. Definitely tries to cash in on the Egyptology craze, about two decades too late! I ma guessing it is based on a book from that era instead.

 Flinty wrote:
Do they still have 165,000,987,56382’!!1!1!!111 versions of Fly Me To the Moon?

Unfortunately no, the Netflix version does not include Fly Me to the Moon. It was a weird choice to redub the show, since many of the original voice actors are still recording lines for the Rebuild of Evangelion movies and when reached for comment they said Netflix never contacted them. Shame really.

If you want the Fly me to the Moon you'll have to rely on the DVDs. GKids recently announced they've gotten the rights to the Bluray & digital release which should be released sometime in 2021.

Voss wrote:

But IT ended the way Disney would end their movies.

Somewhat. Few too many surviving parents for a 'real' Disney ending.

I am trying to think, what disney movies have parents dying at the end? Not many? or at all.
Alot of the classic parents are there at the end or just, not present in the movie.

Aladdin - Orphan
Lion King - Dad dies
Frozen - Parents die
Sword in the stone - orphan
Cinderella - orphan
Up - Wife dies
Jungle Book - Orphan
Bambi - mum dies
Big Hero 6 - I think orphan again
Peter Pan - the Lost Boys are all pretty tragic.
Rogue 1 - Mum dies, then Dad dies

Fair point that many of the orphan types just don't have parents, but there are still quite a few on-screen deaths.

 Flinty wrote:
Big Hero 6 - I think orphan again

Worse than that - Orphan at the start, older brother who was parenting him dies in the movie.

You also forgot:
Sleeping beauty - parents dies while unconscious
Oliver and Company - homeless, presumed orphan
101 Dalmatians - 84 puppies forceably removed from their parents and never reunited

Disney really hates it when a family stays together.

The Heights
Musical film based on... the Musical about... the Washington Heights

Wife loved it. I could not stand it after about 7 minutes.

It struck me that this was the current millennium version of a musical. No rise and fall of pacing to let the audience catch its breath, just GO GO GO. Its effectively a musical with 90% of the singing cut out and strictly just the dance routines, and a little bit of sorta rapping.

 The Red Hobbit wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Do they still have 165,000,987,56382’!!1!1!!111 versions of Fly Me To the Moon?

Unfortunately no, the Netflix version does not include Fly Me to the Moon. It was a weird choice to redub the show, since many of the original voice actors are still recording lines for the Rebuild of Evangelion movies and when reached for comment they said Netflix never contacted them. Shame really.

If you want the Fly me to the Moon you'll have to rely on the DVDs. GKids recently announced they've gotten the rights to the Bluray & digital release which should be released sometime in 2021.

....or you buy the soundtrack cds, like the cool kids do. ;-) Good to hear they're re-releasing the dvds (or whatever).

Netflix are weird and Evangelion is not to be changed.

Fatherhood with Kevin Hart

Was expecting more of a comedy, but it's a really heartwarming movie. Other half was blubbing within 5 mins but we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

 Frazzled wrote:
The Heights
Musical film based on... the Musical about... the Washington Heights

Wife loved it. I could not stand it after about 7 minutes.

It struck me that this was the current millennium version of a musical. No rise and fall of pacing to let the audience catch its breath, just GO GO GO. Its effectively a musical with 90% of the singing cut out and strictly just the dance routines, and a little bit of sorta rapping.

In defense of the musical. They aren't written for film. If you watch the "real" version of the in heights, it's a live performance with breaks between every song so they can swap out scenery/costumes, and a 15-20 minute break in the middle for everyone to get up and pee.

In Search Of Darkness (Parts 1+2)

A feature length documentary, and when I say feature length, we're talking 4 hours per volume plus, so it's not an undertaking for the casual viewer.

But if you're a fan of horror or cinema history, this tour of what many may argue was the golden era of the genre, the 1980s, offers insights from actors, directors, writers, SFX guys and fans to a level that I'd doubt any other era of any other genre has reached.

By necessity it's a shallow dive into a huge pond, but the sheer breadth of titles covered makes it certain that you'll find some additions to your watch list or some unknown nugget of information about a long held favourite.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

Voss wrote:

But IT ended the way Disney would end their movies.

Somewhat. Few too many surviving parents for a 'real' Disney ending.

I am trying to think, what disney movies have parents dying at the end? Not many? or at all.
Alot of the classic parents are there at the end or just, not present in the movie.

I wasn't thinking of dying at the end at all. Just that the classic Disney protagonist is an orphan, or is quickly orphaned, and at best has an aunt/uncle/step-parent. So two main characters with a living parent each is really quite unusual.

I was legitimately surprised today to find that Owl House (season 2) has at least 6 living and (mostly) present parents for its 4 teenage characters.

---
I mean, I get it, its an easy storytelling shortcut where you can bypass steps and just limit a character's important connections to people they meet in a film, but its also lazy trash writing to skip out on writing characters and/or backstory. Especially when you get to the abusive guardians angle (which is also way too common in general, not just Disney).

Well, up to the ~1940s/50s is was way more common for children to lose their parents at an early age, as was the abusive guardian, and most classic stories stem from way before that. So maybe there's that playing into how disney films / fairy tales in general are designed.

Fate Stay/Night Heaven's Feel

Finally got the chance to watch the full movie trilogy. I have to say it's a bit disappointing. Fate is generally good at two things; surprisingly deep and insightful philosophical exposition on human nature, and action scenes. These films really feel like that come up short on both accounts. Until the third movie, each film only has one note worthy action sequence (the first film imo has very lackluster action all around). Much of the exposition on Shirou's idealism (which is the main undercurrent by which these plots work as more than generic anime stuff imo), has been cut so short that a lot of films big moments feel like gibberish.

Of the three divergent plots in the original virtual novel, Heaven's Feel is probably the one least suited to a film adaptation as even a trilogy is too short for all the heavy ground the arc originally covers. The only thing it does really well is establish the relationship between Shirou and Sakura and that part does work (though it has aged extremely poorly in the last 20 years and is very cringey now) but with all the other parts cut short the adaptation is just lackluster.

I feel like this adaptation has the catch-22 problem, where only the original fans will actually pick on everything that's necessary to understand the plot but the films adapt that plot so shallowly that even they won't be satisfied. I think the only part that's really really great is everything with Rider, who only really shines in the Heaven's Fell arc of the original VN, and is one of the best parts of these movies (though I suspect I only get her because I know all the backstory about her and her relationship with Sakura the films never bothered to explain).

Chronicles of Riddick from 2004

Technically the 2nd Riddick film after Pitch Black, there was even a 3rd which doesn't seem to be on any of my streaming services. Mostly OK. Probably the closest to a Chaos Space Marine film we're going to get. Good painting/cooking/lying around film.

Chronicles was so-so. Lots of nice settings and Vin-Diesel does his thing well, but the movie feels less than the sum of it's parts. The third film is more stripped back and is pretty enjoyable for it.

Pitch Black though sits alongside films like Aliens and Event Horizon, on a tier just below Alien and The Thing. It's a classic sci-fi set up of creating interesting characters, put them in a rediculous situation and see what comes out the other side. Love it.

what was the third Riddick film? It is completely escaping me at the moment.

I think it was just called “Riddick”.

Lucifer s5 part the 2nd

By Dad this show needs to die, its gone from spooky proxy Sherlock to insufferable gibberish wink soap opera, really surprised Netflix fronted up the money for yet more of this

American Gods s3

And this one is thankfully dead, it was a bit of a rambly book but adding yet more ramble didnt help

Love, Death & Robots

Bit more hit and miss than season 1 but as a short anthology show was alright with more hits than misses

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Saw Raya and the Last Dragon.
Pretty fun, nice little adventure movie. It does seem like the movie was not originally going to end with all humans coming back(The one warrior guy and the baby looked like they where going to form a family). With the IDea that Dragons where the ones to trust last time so humans cam back and then vice versa, and humanity needing to come together to recover from a tragedy. But IT ended the way
Disney would end their movies.

The constant, CONSTANT teenager talk (or at least what a middle aged screen writer thinks kids today talk like) just ruined it for me. It wasn't funny, it kept knocking me out of the story (seriously, a reference to the 80s martial arts film The Last Dragon?) and instantly dated the film.

Gorgeous visuals, maybe it would be better dubbed into Thai.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
Lucifer s5 part the 2nd

By Dad this show needs to die, its gone from spooky proxy Sherlock to insufferable gibberish wink soap opera, really surprised Netflix fronted up the money for yet more of this

American Gods s3

And this one is thankfully dead, it was a bit of a rambly book but adding yet more ramble didnt help

Love, Death & Robots

Bit more hit and miss than season 1 but as a short anthology show was alright with more hits than misses

Ooh… more love death and robots? I loved the first season. I remember when it dawned on me why the first short seemed so familiar when I realised it was the Peter F Hamilton short story. And the transport aircraft one was just gorgeous.

Someone should option more of Hamilton’s work. The Greg Mandel series could be done quite well I think. Although having said that the reason why I really like his books are the tech descriptions, and a studio would only ruin my headcanon

Luca

It's a Pixar film, less heart than most, but still endearing. It's about two mermaid boys who run away from the ocean and try to earn enough money to buy a Vespa so they can travel the surface world.

A lot of people on the internet are trying to sell it as a gay allegory. I didn't see it, and that is an argument for another place.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I think it was just called “Riddick”.

Yep.

Pitch Black

Chronicles of Riddick (a film far better than it has any right to be)

Riddick

Grave Encounters

int: Film studio pitch meeting.

"We need an idea for a new horror movie, but we don't have much cash."

"How about we rip off Blair Witch Project? That's what, over 10 years old now? Nobody will remember it!"

"I don't know, Blair Witch was pretty famous, I think another found footage horror set in the woods would be too obvious."

"Ok.. how about.. we rip off pretty much every plot beat and visual trick, but set it in an old mental asylum instead? Olde worlde mental health facilities are scarier than the woods anyway."

"What are you waiting for?!! Get out there and hire actors that are reasonable, but not quite good enough to sell being deathly afraid without coming across as whiny, screechy and/or annoying!"

Fade to black.

What is the nature of the “monster” in the asylum? The setting feels more limited in terms of what kinds of terrors you’d be afraid of running across. Part of what made the Blair Witch work for me is just how much it used my imagination against me.

Blades of Glory

Got to admit, as much as I’m yet to not enjoy a Will Ferrell film, I have to watch them sparingly because Hollywood Laziness lead to overexposure.

He’s yet to do something I’d consider a truly solid classic, but he’s always good value for money. Because if you’re going to be in mediocre movies, you might as well go the whole hog. Kinda like Nic Cage.

Only maybe 15 minutes in, and enjoying it perfectly well.