grillmasterj

I got interested in this anime based on an animated action sequence gif I had seen posted on twitter. It looked well-animated so I decided to check it out.

While I loved how the anime was able to capture the feel of life in a small Japanese coastal town, let's get one thing straight: I struggled to stay invested and interested in the series. I'd get so bored and fidgety that I'd start surfing twitter or play a video game instead of staying focused on the anime at hand. To me, that's a bad sign that the anime is bad or at least isn't my thing. It happens...

The problem for me is that the rules of how things work in the universe of this anime get a bit...overdone. Intermittently, there's little bits of exposition devoted to how these mechanics work and this requires focus at times to understand (certainly I kind of lacked the discipline), and so things will happen where I'm like "wait, what...?!" and we're talking fiddly details like character copying guns but then hiding them etc etc The big picture of the anime is (mostly) easy to understand but how things transpire exactly can sometimes get lost bc you weren't following along on earlier episodes. What the anime needed was a pause menu where you could look up a faq on the different rules vs backtracking the anime episodes to figure it out.

The characters themselves get lost in all of this bs (they try to reason it out in a very exposition-heavy, Japanese way much like the first Judgement video game), and to me, this can give the series a plodding pace.

Anyhow, I can't really give this a strong recommendation when there is more enjoyable things to watch.

The film's premise seems like it would be funny, albeit not original, but unfortunately, all the funny bits are for the most part in the trailer(s). Instead of being a boisterous sex comedy, it ends up being a quiet and rather dour, serious film about a few too many things. It starts off as being a comedy, then touches upon themes about the real-life affordable homes crisis plaguing the United States as well as class warfare (there's a moment where a very mean thing is said but then the film just moves on without a further thought about it).

It's not certainly that much fun to watch. It's too bad really because I'd love to see Jennifer Lawrence revitalize her career after a long absence, and this is not vehicle that's going to help her achieve that goal.

This's a weird/creepy horror film with some small bits of humor thrown into the mix. It's more creepy than anything.

Having neglected to watch this for oh, 30+ years, I'd forgotten some of the stranger things that somebody had mentioned happened in this film. I'm not going to say anything other than that's the awesomely creepy stuff that may surprise you if you sit down to watch the film.

It may be a bit predictable by these times, but it's still a fun midnight movie. There's a slight lull in pacing towards the end of the film, but it finishes up strong .

I love that it's able to be a horror film without being excessively gory, especially given how over the top this could get in a more modern remake.

Rory Calhoun steals this film. Nina Axelrod is distractingly hot (I mean she does a good job in her role as well but damn, she is really beautiful here)

I finally caved in to see the film, and I was...sad and a bit disappointed, but that disappointment can't be helped. There's no time left to fix this arc.

I absolutely loved this newest incarnation of Bond for the first 3 films of Daniel Craig's run, but Spectre ended up being a mess (upon re-watch, it's probably the worst of the 5, for me at least), and No Time to Die ends up trying to close the narrative arc more properly.

It does, but the film is unable to capture the magic of the first 3 films (or tbh, just that of Casino Royale). The burden's just too heavy to bear to try and redeem the entirety of Spectre.

Rami Malek's character is very much a throwaway villain, he seems to only exist as a plot device. Madeline Swann's "deadly" secret is a bit of a of a misnomer. It's important, but it feels contrived.

There's an inescapable air of finality to it that pervades the second half of the film. I guess I wasn't ready for that.

Goodbye Daniel Craig. It was a good run.

To me, this's the weakest b/c the special effects weren't that scary. It has the atmosphere of a good horror film (John Houseman's opening is just about perfect), but I found myself getting fidgety and bored and taking well over the running time to complete the film. I get the vague sensation that I've actually seen it before and that it's not my first time, but I must've been so tired the first time that I had no memory of it.

I have to agree with another reviewer here...it's probably the least Marvel of all the Marvel movies. Had it been edited to a certain effect, one would not be able to discern it as a Marvel film.

It's a background story of Shang-Chi obviously, but in a way, I felt like Tony Leung stole a bit of the show. It's his anguish that drives the film, as without it, there wouldn't be a conflict between him and Shang. Seeing Tony onscreen after so many years makes me want to go on a Tony Leung marathon, or at least watch Hard-Boiled again. He's always been so good at conveying emotion without words.

Michelle Yeoh has small part in the film, but as always, she kicks ass and more or less plays the same exact role she played in the recent Gunpowder Milkshake as the older, wise Auntie.

Simu Liu and Awkwafina have good chemistry in the film, but I actually felt like their characters otherwise were a little bit flat, as there was not much time spent on character development. Or at least in the character of Shang, alot of time devoted to flashbacks but little time spent with Simu in the present day, fleshing out his character. They seem like they would be fun people to hang out with? Awkwafina is vital to a plot moment, but otherwise, she has little presence other than a few small comedic moments but maybe that is enough.

Morris is cute. I need to find that stuffed animal...

The special effects are fun to watch and colorful.

The plot is a bit simplistic, as it usually is with Marvel films. It's serviceable enough, but the film starts to fall apart during last 1/3-1/4 of the film when the fantastical elements show up and certain things happen that don't quite make any sense (or at least I haven't worked out why they should make sense). The fantasy elements don't quite work as well as just watching all the fight choreography from the earlier parts of the film, it's just not as interesting to me personally.

All in all, a good time and a great prelude to a Labor Day weekend!

After watching this, I'm wondering if the people who created the Fallout game series took some inspiration from this film. There's the old west, robots, guns, the desert, explosions, eccentric characters, the 50's, all wrapped in a 1 hr 40 minute wild ride.

The film itself is...a bit rough on the edges and there are gaps in logic (a whole scene with the mustang and crossing the water doesn't entirely make sense), and there's also large chunks of backstory missing as to why the world is in the state that it is in for this film, but from a big picture standpoint, it works ok just as long as one does not get fixated on the details. Melanie Griffith's acting in this film is a bit flat, but David Andrews (as her opposite lead) picks up the slack.

This is definitely one of the better films that I stayed up late to watch that leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling. It's just fun.

I enjoyed this series, as someone who grew up watching the original 1983 series. It's a very quick watch at only 5 episodes, it's more like a long film. Ignore the 5.0 rating as of July 23, 2023...

It's nice to see some old faces and some that I don't even remember, and it takes the old series and twists some things around. It's really not that SJW to be honest, so I don't know what the fandom is complaining about. I would know. I don't like the fact that there seems to be too much swing towards SJW-ism in video games, but I digress. Is there a little bit of it? Sure. But not enough to be too annoying/heavy-handed. It's just a fun adventure of 1980's-inspired nostalgia. Grab some snacks and a drink and enjoy!

Some friends and I threw this on during the evening of July 4th instead of heading out to watch fireworks.

At a runtime of 2h23m, it's a bit too long and feels like it rambles towards the end.

I got the general feeling that the film was losing this audience b/c the dance numbers (esp the last 30 minutes we're they are having a celebration in the barrio) started throwing out a number of untranslated Spanish terms that nobody understood. This in addition to having too many character loops in the movie. There's NIna and her bf and her father, there doesn't seem to be a ton of conflict there and that side of the movie seems underdeveloped and almost feels like it could've been dropped. Perhaps this was done better in the theatrical broadway production?

The heart lies with Usnavi and the main character and narrator, and I really liked Anthony Ramos' performance.

Anyhow, it's worth catching for the sights and sounds. Lots of energy. Just could've used a little more editing perhaps.

I've been waiting to see this film since last year...unfortunately covid-19 swept the country and the restrictions came down just right before release.

Anyhow, fast-forward to today. I caved in to go see this b/c there were a handful of good reviews and like I said, I've been frothing at the mouth to see where this would go given that I absolutely loved the first one.

I'll just cut to the chase: it goes by quickly without much happening (at least it feels that way), it's almost a rehash of the first film and feels like mainly an intermediate setup for a 3rd film. A Quiet Place would've been better as a one-and-done film outside of A Quiet Place 2's opening sequence, which is agreeably wonderful (though very similar to The Last of Us' opening cinematic).

There is at least one dumb plot contrivance towards the end of the film that helps to bring it down a little bit.

Anyhow...I'm glad I supported this film, but was disappointed that it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

The film is more of a drama/slice of life mixed in with some black comedy. It's a strange mish-mash of different things and the tone doesn't match the bombastic disco song "dance" with which the film opens. I'm glad I finally had a chance to watch it (it was a film advertised during a youtube clip of old kbhk channel footage). Anyhow...worth a watch. I would try to avoid reading the primary review (well-written as it is) up top as it kind of summarizes all the main character plot beats and would make it less interesting to see.

I put off watching this film for awhile, and admittedly it's b/c I thought it might boring (b/c of the whole jazz aspect; nothing against jazz btw. I like it but I am not super-passionate about it like other people). It's not at all. Jazz music simply serves as a light framework for the story. I don't want to give anything away...just watch it, especially if you're feeling sad and directionless right now. It might help. It made me tear up a couple of times.

I jumped straight into this on a friday evening when I probably should've gone to bed. So, I will share here some rambling thoughts. My overall rating is based upon how I am feeling coming out of the film. Honesty, it was very depressing, and this is som ething you don't want to watch if you're already feeling sad. I'm not sure why films like this keep getting made, if just to intentionally allow in misery. The film is based upon a book apparently, but i'm not sure it's a story that needed to be translated to film. There's the romance of youth, then a fatal decision that drives the rest of the film down a road of drugs and self-destruction. Can the ending be considered redemptive at all? I'm not so sure. If the film says anything, it is that war is hell.

It's weird and random. About a 6/10. I felt somewhat unsatisfied at the end, hence the 6.

I feel like I shouldn't really say anything too specific otherwise it will spoil the film (definitely don't watch any trailers for this film). I will say this though: while I like a lot of the messaging in this film and how Christmas looks inside of it, it's a bit weird in that it's almost like a film specifically built around the musical works of George Michael instead of being a film that features the works of George Michael.



Also (***spoilers***) it's predictably sad and the film is very much not the rom-com that it is advertised as being (*** end spoilers***)



The emotional payoff wasn't quite there for me but if you if you like George Michael and have some free time, this is definitely worth a watch.

There are some good performances but overall this film is a waste of time and misuses the 1978 original film nostalgia. It looks very polished but all flash, no substance. Your time is better spent watching better films or otherwise doing something else for fun.

I've been wanting to see this film for awhile, but given that it's free on netflix, I should've expected less I suppose. This film doesn't really live up to the release day 8 out 10 reviews. It's basically somewhat of a boisterous version of Heat but less compelling. For instance, everybody's unlikeable. There are some poor attempts at character development that lead nowhere. We never really get to learn about the main bad guy Merriman's motivations (played by Pablo Schreiber) outside of implied survival. The gunfights are fun to watch. So outside of watching the gunfights and also watching guys with too many tattoos swaggering around acting tough, there's not a whole lot other than that. But, on the upside, it's another film I can scratch off the eternal backlog.

I've seen a number of positive reviews for this film over the years, but I never got around to watching it until tonight, wanting to something off of my eternal film backlog.

Cinematically the movie looks great and the setup is good, and there are excellent performances here, but very early on the whole plot kind of goes out the window. Predictably, almost everybody dies, and the people who do survive do so bc the bad guys permitted them an illogical opportunity to do so. I'm left here on a saturday evening wanting 90 minutes or so of my life back. If there's any redeeming quality, it's that I had a chance to see Anton Yelchin in another acting role...someone gone way too early. Rip.

This was really terrible. The music is awful. The only redeeming quality was the eye candy, most notably Kimberly McArthur and Ms. Cummins. The lead character is actually the actress from the old tv comedy series, Wings. Anyhow, bad bad bad. Do not watch unless you seriously have nothing better to do with your time. Complete trash.

I'll have to go back and see if the original version of this film is better.

I jumped in to see this b/c I wanted to make use of my broken Moviepass before it expires in December. I went in blind outside of knowing that this was some sort of prison escape movie. I did not know that this is a remake of a 1973 and also based upon a true story.

Both Rami Malek and Charlie Hunnam act well, and everything looks good, but...the film feels dreary and depressing (ironically, the film is supposed to be about hope).

Anyhow, this was probably the wrong film choice for the evening. It's hard for me to watch films where the subject matter can be heavy (e.g. Schindler's List). It's like you're going in there with the intent of intentionally becoming sad. If you're already sad, why does one do that to themselves?

Just to be blunt, if you're going to watch Devilman: Crybaby, do NOT read any background info, especially the wikipedia entry for the devilman (1972 original series).

Crybaby is a retelling of the original, but brought up to modern standards including cellphones and social media references. So, it's good to avoid the wiki entry in this case.

However, reading the wiki entry still doesn't explain the plot twist that occurs somewhere around episode 5-6. It gets fully explained on the very last episode, but it still doesn't make any sense. Come to think of it, there's a few other things that don't make any sense, but I'll have to follow up on those loose ends.

The art style is simplistic but beautiful (to me; your mileage may vary). It's full of over the top gore and some fan service. There is some light humor despite all the darkness. The character development and story are a bit shaky, especially for the side characters. The story's a bit meh, and seems a bit nonsensical in light of the aforementioned plot twist and some other random stuff that happens.

All in all though, it was entertaining. 6.5-7.

I somehow remembered that there was a Valerian anime series based loosely on the comics the other week. After watching the pilot earlier this week, I wondered if the critics were judging the Luc Besson film adaptation too harshly, and committed myself to checking it out before it leaves the theater (this looks to be the last weekend in my local area, for the most part).

Anyhow...I'm regretting the loss of about $13.50.

The anime series (at least in just the first 3 episodes) manages to capture quickly the dynamic between Valerian and Laureline. There's definitely chemistry between the two in the 2D take on the comics, and they're both charismatic characters (a sign of good voice acting in this British dub).

The film? None of that is present. Both of the leads are terribly miscast. They both seem bored. The audience isn't really given any reason why the two should have any attraction to each other, and even if they did provide that backstory in the film, it wouldn't be credible with the sort of acting that Develigne and De Haan provide. B/c they weren't invested in the film as actors, I found myself getting bored and fidgety and even fighting to stay awake in the last 45 minutes of the film.

The story isn't terrible, it's OK and is supposed to serve as a vehicle for the interactions between Valerian and Laureline.

Special effects are a treat for the eyes.

Overall...it's a 5-6. I wish'd I just gone home and continued watching the animated series.

The cinematography and use of color in this film looks gorgeous. I enjoyed this much more than either of the John Wick films. The music is good, but it's so constant, that it almost feels like the film's an excuse for a 80's modern rock nostalgia showcase instead of being an actual film.

The story driving the movie's a bit thin, and the characters themselves seem rather trite. It's hard to find anybody notable or even likable since they're all generic and there's not much time devoted to character development. I don't want to say much about it, as it'd give away what little plot is present.

There's non-stop action scenes, which is good, but it all gets tiring after about 2 hrs.

Anyhow, it's worth seeing just as an action movie, but don't expect too much from the writing or story.

I don't usually write reviews, but I feel like I need to say something about this film, even if the majority of reviews will be overwhelmingly positive. And I'm pretty terrible with these things b/c I don't have a photographic memory.

Anyhow, it's a story of boy and girl switching bodies after a cosmic event involving a comet that's never really explained. This happens a few times each week, much to the chagrin of each of our main characters and amusing fun for the supporting cast. I don't want to say much else beyond that without giving away plot details. Needless to say, they start to fall in love with each other as they're living each other's lives.

It's a beautiful film. There's one particular sequence in the middle that I absolutely loved visually.

The movie started to fall apart towards the last 30-45 minutes once it rushes to resolve a problem introduced in the latter half of the film. It feels like the film needed a bit more running time to avoid this. There's also a bunch of suspension of disbelief required...I mean I guess this is to be expected, but for me, a films starts to lose me once there's too much serendipity involved to resolve everything.

Also, I think the film would've gotten better mileage if it had gone down the bittersweet route when rushing to its end.

I left the theater liking the film, but it's not like it's the most amazing film I've ever seen (even if it broke the box office record in Japan), nor did it really leave me with tingly happy feelings like after watching some Studio Ghibli films.

If you're a fan of the original Starblazers, you owe it to yourself to watch this series in its subtitled glory. It may not entirely have the same voice-acting nostalgia you grew up with, but characters you know and love are still there.

The character designs are not exactly the same either, but it borrows aspects of the original art style so that the characters are recognizable. Everything looks and feels fresh, crisp, and new. But the beauty of this re-make is they've kept all the things that make Starblazers/Space Battle Cruiser Yamato the same...the sound effects from the original series are still intact, as well as re-recorded versions of the classic music. C.G. is added to good effect for the actual ship, without sticking out like a sore thumb (*cough*evangelion*cough*).

I just started watching and I'm instantly hooked. ^_^ Anyhow, this review, work in progress, since I just started watching. And I have to get to sleep soon. So, to be continued...