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Gamera The Brave

2006 reboot/sequel in the long running Kaiju series.

Very kid friendly. Distinct shades of Gremlins. Version on Prime is subtitled, but….the dialogue is pretty light.

Whilst still part way through? If you’ve got smols of your own? This seems a solid My First Kaiju movie to introduce them to the genre. It’s wholesome. It’s interesting. It’s funny in the right way. And because the dialogue is quite light, even the subtitles are accessible to younger folk, and it’s always clear which character is talking.

Definitely give it a watch.

Everybody loves The Last Unicorn! It's great. It'll stick with you. It's beautiful, cheesy, silly, scary, heroic, unconventional, sad, funny, impressive and it's got a kick-ass soundtrack.


@MDG: I'm not that huge on monster films (tried to get into it proper, not quite convinced), but wasn't Gamera generally more geared towards kids? Or did he just get big (no pun intended) during the time Toho(?) generally made their monster films much more with the young'uns in mind?

Gamers is certainly “friend to the children”

Ernest Scared Stupid

Still the best kid-friendly Halloween movie. Eat it, Hocus Pocus.

The climax may ruin Revenge of the Sith and Everything Everywhere All At Once for you. And inspire a fascination with obscure Bulgarian cuisine.

Hopefully next week we’ll get to see how Spaced Invaders hold up.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:


Still the best kid-friendly Halloween movie. Eat it, Hocus Pocus.
...

I'm quite partial to Monster House in that regard.

I will have to check that one out.

Continuing my TNG/DS9 Trek binge, I've reached the first of the movies...
Star Trek: Generations

This really is an odd fish of a film. The lighting is all over the place, the plot is not to feature length standard and while it was clearly designed that all the separate elements would converge to tell a story of "generations" it doesn't succeed. The story is simply too weak.

But in spite of this it does have its merits. We've seen Picard cry in the series and it's always a highlight. Once more, Stewart doesn't let us down. The battle scene with the Klingon sisters is both satisfying as a fan and a truly great "Trek" action sequence. And Brent Spinner is having a blast overacting the stuffing out of his role and getting away with it. Data's light heartedness is needed as much of the film is both dour and dull.

After we're reintroduced to Shatner (who is commendably good, to the detriment of Stewart) the last third of the film is a thoroughly uninteresting less-than-mediocre set piece that goes on for far too long.

Not the worst Trek by a long shot, but hardly worthy of recommendation.

Generations is the Trek movie I watch and he least. It is one of the bad ones, but it isn’t an ambitious failure like TMP, nor a complete trainwreck like Final Frontier. It doesn’t have the shark-jump of Nemesis nor the making-the-audience-angry energy of Insurrection. It might be the least bad of the bad ones, but it’s also the least interesting.

Hellraiser- the new one.

The good- New Pinhead does a great job being calm, detached and thoroughly menacing. The Cenobite dispassion is fantastic. The Cenobite designs are also outstanding, very well executed.

The bad- The humans are terminally dumb. Like Prometheus levels of actively trying to die.



It's Hellraiser, but pretty much Syfy movie level Hellraiser.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

This was a fun, weird movie. We almost stopped early on because it took a while to get going, but then we were really enjoying it. There were a few laugh out loud moments, but mostly it was just a fun time rather than a hilarious comedy.

Uncharted

Heavy on the special effects and action, globe travelling treasure hunt.

While it isn't a bad film, it also isn't a good one. There's nothing that stands out as particularly memorable or significant. I reached the end of the film and found myself asking what was the point of the whole thing?

Other than being this generation's Tomb Raider or National Treasure (and rather amazingly not being as engaging as either), this is almost the definition of the movie you put on in the background while you do something more interesting.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

This was a fun, weird movie. We almost stopped early on because it took a while to get going, but then we were really enjoying it. There were a few laugh out loud moments, but mostly it was just a fun time rather than a hilarious comedy.

I'm terribly cautious about any comedies starring Nicholas Cage these days. They all seem to rely heavily on the pretty nonsensical "internet lols" connected to his name. Maybe I'll give this one a go at some point though.


@Henry: I forgot that film existed if I hadn't seen some commercial for some streaming provider earlier today. Only thing I remember about any review about this is how it's utterly forgettable.

Wait, didn't "this generation" get at least one Tomb Raider film just a little while ago? Oh well. Maybe not a single film leaves an impact these days unless it's connected to some "controversy" or some franchise some boring people can worked up about.

Halloween Ends

Or does it?

Well, for Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode, I think it's fair to say, without spoilers, that her arc is done for the franchise. Is the franchise itself over? I'd say yes, for at least 3 years.

The more high minded themes of the Halloween films, such as they are, have always been around the nature of evil, the nature vs nurture debate with an added suggestion of the possibility of a malevolent outside force pulling the strings.

Ends does at least try something new with this idea, and while I'll always look to praise any attempts to introduce a dash of originality into these sorts of by the numbers franchise freight trains, sadly it comes up short.

There's two things that torpedo this movie, the first and most grievous wound is the relationship that Stride's granddaughter Allyson embarks on with new character Corey is structural to the success of the plot, and it just flat fails to be in the least bit plausible. This lack of credibility then has a domino effect on that characters' actions making the whole thread, which is a substantial part of the plot as a whole, complete nonsense.

The second issue is the film seems to be posing some questions which may or may not allow the franchise to go off in a new direction in the future. While I would be fine with leaving any or all of those questions unanswered for future installments to address, it isn't actually clear what those questions are. Things that are suggested in one scene are contradicted in others, leaving the viewer, or this viewer at least, confused as to their significance and wondering if something was missed, either in the watching or, not entirely impossibly, the edit.

The final kitchen knife to the chest is that it's not all that scary. There's little tension, and while one or two jump scares find their mark, it feels insufficient.

For all that, I found the story engaging enough to stick with, and the final act is satisfying, if not particularly surprising.

If this is to be the final Halloween movie of this generation at least, it's a shame that it seems to have rather wobbled to its conclusion. It's not good, but it does feel like there's elements that have been left out (it's almost 2h which is getting up there for a horror) and it might yet be redeemed in the future if a director's cut can better establish the relationships between key characters and provide a little more clarity on what it's trying to say about the mythos.

Grimcutty

The epitome of a film that doesn't know what audience it's trying to reach and kind of embodies the meme "hello there fellow kids." This movie would have made more sense from the perspective of parents instead of teenagers, but even then its scares would have been pure cringe rather than scary.

This isn't a movie about Internet or cyber-culture or even parenting gone horribly wrong so much as it is a movie about people who don't get the internet thinking they can scare people with it by not understanding it.

It's like a movie made from a creepypasta by someone who has no idea what a creepypasta is. This movie is bad. Watch Unfriended, The Host, or Channel Zero if you want to see actual Internet inspired horror. Or even X, which is set in the 80s but still manages to tell a chilling story that's a lot more relevant to an online world than this crappy movie.

A quick recap on Sonic the Hedgehog - I found the first movie a bit kitsch. The delivery was awkward, everything was a little substandard and Carrey was regrettable.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Entering this film with more than a smidgen of cynicism I finished it with a wide smile on my face. Let's not get carried away, it isn't a master piece, but it is a successful kids film that's better than the first.

The jokes still aren't clever enough to play with the best but at least Carrey isn't a mistake this time. There are a number of quite memorable moments, it bounces along at a great pace and the writers show that they have enough intelligence to do that thing which is so rare to find in movies these days - a touch of creative set-up for later payoff.

This one is worth watching.

Just got to watch Terrifier 2 .

Art the clown is at it again. The movie picks up weirdly where it left off with art coming back from the dead in the morgue. (Or I think more likely it was a flashback to set the scene for things to come.)

Honestly this movie is a little too long and has just a little too much going on. There is the gore factor as well. It seemed like they went all out just to impress upon the audience that it was in fact a gory film. The characters aren't bad over all. Was it worth the wait? yes.
Was it everything I had hoped for? I still don't know.

Big take away remains the same. Art the clown isn't anyone to fool around with. ever. full stop. I will say I think Art was better in the first film but I think that has more to do with not really knowing what to expect from him. He relies on body language, facial expressions and of course copious amounts of ultra-violence.

I dig it. it's good to have a strong competitor to our long time favorites like Freddy, Jason and Michael. And like those before him I can see at least one more film for Art.

If you are sensitive to gore and over the top murders in film. You might skip this one.

Tremors 5, alias Tremors Bloodlines, alias Tremors Jamie Kennedy, alias Tremors Immunity Has Just Been Revoked


The one in South Africa.

It was a decent entry. My least favorite Tremors movie so far, but still a fun watch despite Jamie Kennedy’s best efforts. The effects are mostly good with a few really bad shots. Michael Gross is great. A few weeks ago there was a thread about movies not having sweaty, dirty, horny characters any more. Tremors 5 has plenty, and they’re ugly to boot. And they’re about 30% Jamie Kennedy.

Only for the true fans of the series.





Ernest Goes to Jail

This living cartoon character still makes me laugh. This is worth watching for the absolutely bonkers climax. Heck, this is worth watching for the song played over the end credits. (Seriously, where the heck did that come from?)

not gonna lie, i spent each of the jamie kennedy tremors movies hoping he would get eaten

There’s more than one Jamie Kennedy Tremors?

Oof

yep
tremors 5? kennedy fails to get eaten in africa
tremors 6? kennedy fails to get eaten while its snowy

He always fails.

at least in the last movie he was mysteriously missing because of reasons (i think in movie it was prison somewhere exotic or something)

I also would have accepted rehab.

Catherine known as Birdy

An Amazon original. Starring a bunch of folk from Game of Thrones.

Essentially a coming of age story of a wilful Lincolnshire Princess.

It’s funny, it’s poignant. It’s pretty well put together.

My sister cancelled her Amazon Prime membership, so on the last night we all sat down and decided to watch ...something. And whenever you do that you end up watchin Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, hosted by Jonathan Frakes.

So we watched two episodes; the first one I remembered in its entirety, the second one I don't think I'd ever seen and The Horn had me laughing like I hadn't laughed in years. It was embarassing how I couldn't stop laughing about that moment when the flowery mortician sees that huge thing his antiquarian pal got, we get a cut and the next thing we see is the mortician blowing into this HUGE thing and it goes TOOOOOOOOOT. I expected this thing to be anything (despite the fact I'd just read the title being The Horn) or do anything but going TOOOT. It really had me in stitches. Anyway, the story itself is ...okay, but the actors were funny. I actually enjoyed the story about the ladyfriends walking up and down a pier, then the one lady sees that musical clock / Glockenspiel, but it's broken and so on. Most of you probably watched the episode a thousand times. At least in Germany/Austria/Switzerland Beyond Belief has been running forever in syndication (it's called X-Factor here for some reason, which to this day leads to hilarious confusion when UK and DACH people talk about their respective X Factors).

Anyway. What a fun show to watch with friends and family. If you're not sure what to watch, give two or three episodes a go. It's a very funny show and I love with how they mostly work with limited budgets and actors.

My wife has watched every Christmas movie on Netflix, but it has been decreed that it is Christmas movie season again, and she has access to new streaming venues now, so here....we....go.

Ghosts of Christmas Past
A software developer tries to build a seasonal app. During an office holiday party, a fortune teller advisors her that she needs to make amends to all the men she has ghosted. This leads to romance and Komedy when a co-worker decides to help out.

Not very Christmas related, just the set design and season but this premise could be any time of year.

4 out of 10 reindeer?

Secretly Santa
Two rival Apps are purchased by a big company, and the rival developers are forced to work together in order to improve the results of the gift-recommendation apps before the Holidays.

I could have sworn the leading lady (Alicia Josipovic?) was Morgana from the TV series Merlin, but I guess she was from a Degrassi reboot? Who knew. Edit: The actress I was thinking of was Katie McGrath.....

This one was much more Christmas themed, but was a pretty standard Lifetime Rom-Com. Not the worst Christmas themed Rom-Com I have seen, but not the greatest either.

Blitzen (6 or 7?) out of 10 reindeer?

Is app designer the new wedding planner? It looks like it.

Also: how many of these films starred Dean Cain? Bunch of months ago I had a look at christmas films on Netflix, and many of them starred the same lady (whom I don't know) and Dean Cain.

None of them!

Holiday Fix-up
Instead of App Devs, this one is about a TV Interior Designer who goes back home to help re-model the local Inn and reconnects with her old boyfriend from before she left town. Interior Designers are also very popular for Christmas movies!

The first few minutes are kind of funny as her producer rips her away from the home owners of the homes she remodels before she can even see their reactions. Of course, she is also competing with an up and coming rival interior designer who has better social media followers, and her producer wants her to amp up her presence on Social Media.

From there is is all pretty formulaic for this type of Rom-Com Christmas movie. Nothing terrible and competently done, but you have seen this movie literally hundreds of times, and that is what makes it comforting like a warm blanket during a gentle snowfall on Christmas Eve Eve by the fireplace.... or so I am led to believe.


Comet out of a Reindeer team! (Maybe 5 of 10?)

 Easy E wrote:
None of them!

Holiday Fix-up
Instead of App Devs, this one is about a TV Interior Designer who goes back home to help re-model the local Inn and reconnects with her old boyfriend from before she left town. ....

That already sounds so wholesome it makes my blood bubble. Reminds me a little bit of that film in which Holly Hunter meets up with her family for thanksgiving. Robert Downey Jr. is her brother and has gread 90s hair and all.

Oh well, I'm still stuck on watching spooky stuff for as long as I can until christmas comes around. That and a film called Deathsport from 1978 which came suggested to me.

I’m just stuck watching spooky stuff.

Entirely by choice.