Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Love Skärsgard, but not feeling this movie at all. Will try to watch some more of it.




Quirky indie movie. Mostly enjoyed it.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Dark Victory (1939)

As long as it was going to have a stupid title, they may as well have called it Super Dark Times for Teens. Said teens appear normal, yearning for girls and swearing an unnatural amount. Four of them are horsing around and there's a tragic accident. What follows is the predictable stupidity, paranoia, and escalation of events. On the other hand, I read some reviews afterward that offered some logical alternatives on plot points. They gave me something to think about but I have to judge it how I saw it. The movie looks great and the performances are fine, but overall I found it very average. I do favor these types of movies and I appreciate the mayhem that comes at the end.

This is actually the second time I've seen it in the past couple weeks. On the viewing before this one, I actually pulled out my 2001 special edition DVD (the one in the metal case that ran for about $50 way back when) and watched it in Japanese. It was an interesting experience. Certainly the first (and only) time I watched a movie in a language other than my own and wasn't bored to death; still, there's clearly a disconnect watching in a foreign language, because I did almost fall asleep a couple times. While reading the (identical to Funimation's) English subtitles, I actually noticed that there are moments where both English dubs diverge from the Japanese dialogue. In the original Streamline dub, lines like "Tetsuo! Where are you taking him?" (as opposed to "Tetsuo! You can't just take him away like that!"), "That's enough, Tetsuo! Are you trying to kill him?" (as opposed to "You're gonna kill him, Tetsuo. You want that?"), "I had a dream." (as opposed to "It was a dream that I saw."), "Where's that gun?" (as opposed to "Damn it, the gun..."), Kaneda's "Damn it!" after Kiyoko says they're going to use Kei (as opposed to a mere "Ugh!") "Tetsuo!" (as opposed to "Heads up, Tetsuo!"), "Akira." (as opposed to "Akira's here.", which is, admittedly, actually pretty good), "Ah... It's Akira." (as opposed to "Hi. Akira."), and a few others are apparently translated directly from the Japanese dialogue. The Pioneer dub also makes some blatant mistakes in its translation. You probably know that scene where the principal says "Even though you are under 15 years old..." Well, guess what? In Japanese, it's "Even if you are under 15 years old..." Admittedly, when I watched it with the Pioneer dub, not knowing what he originally said, it was amusing in a "This dumbass doesn't know crap, because Kaneda's sixteen" kind of way. Also, There's Kiyoko's line towards the end. In Japanese, it's "But someday we will also be able to." In the Streamline dub, "But someday we will be." In the Pioneer dub, "But someday we ought to be able to." There's a clear difference here: there's a sense of certainty that the Pioneer dub lacks in changing "will be" to "ought to be." The Pioneer dub also has lines like "Kei! Damn it!" (as opposed to "Kei! Oh, hell.") that are merely copied from the original dub, which is unsurprising considering that Kodansha (who also did the subtitles) was involved in both dubs. Hell, "I am Tetsuo," is probably the only line that stays the same in each version. So... both dubs are pretty accurate in their translation with each making some blatant changes. I can also tell you right now that Streamline keeps all of the original Japanese sound effects (the Streamline dub, presented in Dolby TrueHD 2.0, and the original Japanese version, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 are identical aside from dialogue) while Pioneer removes and replaces at least one, most noticeably the sound effect when Yama bangs the pipe against the ground just before using it to cause the Clown to fall off of his bike. Before pulling my DVD (which I'd really only gotten for the Production Report) out, I actually tried to watch it with the "hypersonic" Japanese track, which is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 at the highest sampling rate of 192 kHz on the Blu-ray. I know it received high marks on nearly every DVD and Blu-ray review site but something is clearly wrong with it. Sure, the sound effects are nice and loud, but the Geinoh Yamashirogumi score is a completely different story. As someone who's listened to the soundtrack album many (I won't even bother trying to count) times, it just doesn't sound right. In particular, the chants in Kaneda's Theme, which I've listened to more times than the rest, sound thin, hollow and muffled on the hypersonic track, almost a mere whisper. They sound much fuller and far more audible on the Streamline and Pioneer dubs and on the old DVD's Japanese stereo track. Revisiting it almost two weeks later with the original dub, which is still my personal preference, I actually found from a brief comparison that the music score, notably the drums right before and during the title card, was, to my surprise, loudest on the original dub. Aside from two times which are already noted, I've watched this movie with the original dub. It's been claimed to sound "boxy" and exhibit hiss and "mild distortion." Well, if "boxy" means stable, then yes, I guess the original dub sounds "boxy." I haven't noticed any hiss (unless someone magically managed to think that of the wind effect when Kaneda and Tetsuo are fighting on top of the mountain of garbage) or distortion of any kind, though so my guess is that it's an attempt to try and scare newcomers off of the original dub. I've clearly said too much about this, so here are a few fun facts. Before Akira, Lara Cody and Wendee Lee, who voice Kei in the Streamline and Pioneer dubs respectively, did the English dub of an anime called Dirty Pair together. Cam Clarke and Johnny Yong Bosch, who voice Kaneda, as well as Cody and Lee did the English dub of the famous (though probably not quite as famous as Neon Genesis Evangelion) anime TV series Bleach, though admittedly, Clarke and Cody only did a few episodes and I couldn't tell you offhand which ones since I never watched it. Barbara Goodson, who voices Kaori and Takashi in the original dub, voices Shotaro Kaneda, who Otomo named this film's hero for, in the 1980 version of Tesujin-28. Cody and Goodson did the leads in the Streamline dub (which still isn't available on DVD or Blu-ray) of Castle in the Sky. Melora Harte, who voices Kiyoko in the original dub, and Steve Kramer who voices Roy/Ryu and Miyako (who's always had a male voice actor dating back to the original Japanese version) in the original dub and does additional voices in the new dub, are married. Also, I was rewatching the Star Trek episode Where No Man Has Gone Before a few weeks back and I noticed a parallel I might not have noticed before: the hero's friend turns out to have telekinetic powers after an accident and starts using them to kill people, friends become enemies, and the hero shoots his friend only to find it does no damage. Okay, it's not like the entire movie copies the Star Trek episode, but it's interesting to say the least. Okay, that's enough of that. Later, guys.

Alien

Seen it properly for the first time. Using headphones. At night. In the dark. On my own. In a creepy enough building.

Jesus Christ that was terrifying. I'm annoyed that I didn't watch at it at a much earlier age. So damn good!

Grand Hotel (1932)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The Light Only Shines There (2014)

I thought it would be another romantic comedy and I would be able to watch only laf an hour before my eyes would start bleeding, but it turn out to be decent social drama under the guise.

The Mummy (2017)

This installment of the newly formed "Universal Dark Universe" is not nearly as awful as critics would have you believe. There were varying complaints, from "this is a movie about Tom Cruise, not the mummy," to "this is just an action movie disguised as a mummy movie." Well, for the first complaint, I don't think that's fair. I'm usually fairly well-entertained by Cruise, but I can usually tell when Cruise is trying to make the movie all about himself and I don't feel that's the case here. As for the second gripe, well, yeah, it's a movie full of action and it's supposed to be a horror movie, and I didn't think it was scary at all. But the Brendan Fraser mummy movies were full of action and were pretty well-received. So, I kind of compared this movie to those and found it to be on somewhat even ground with them.

We've got the flashback tale at the first, like most mummy movies, where the person who will become the mummy is revealed. This time it is Ahmanet, a female Egyptian, played by the lovely Sofia Boutella, who is quite effective as the villainess of the title. Even swathed in bandages, she's hot as can be. And whoever choreographed her mummy moves (the non-CGI moves) did a real good job. Cruise is good and a bit of a goofball in this and it works to his advantage, so we take his free-wheeling adventurer at face value. He and Jake Johnson make a great team, using military cover as an excuse to search for valuable treasure hidden in the Iraqi desert. They accidentally uncover the burial place of Ahmanet, pissing off archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), who knows exactly what they've uncovered and has another agenda besides hidden treasure which lies with her employer, Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe), who is less effective than the rest of the cast but seems to be in the film for exposition when the time comes to explain his and Halsey's real purpose.

But the adventure and action is the real draw and on that level it works greatly. It almost never stops and I found it be very enjoyable and effective. It was much more entertaining than I had any reason to hope. I don't know if a sequel is really called for but it's set up if need be. It did so-so business here in the U.S. but raked it in worldwide so that could decide things.

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Blade Runner 2049



I avoided watching this when it came out; honestly I was just a bit nervous about what it would be like. I didn't think Blade Runner needed a sequel. I still don't think it needed a sequel, but having seen it I am satisfied they did a good job and it wasn't just a lazy cash-in. This looks and feels very much like the world of Blade Runner, but it has its own story to follow and its own ideas, even when that story fuses with the story of the characters from the original film. It's beautifully realised and an interesting sci-fi film in its own right. My complaint would be that it's quite slow and quite dour in tone. It's much less a thriller than the original, it lacks tension. It's more monotone. I missed the colours, the music and the excitement and tension of Blade Runner. And I didn't like Jared Leto. I don't know whether it was the character, his performance or a combination of the two. Or the plot hole surrounding his actions and motivations. Plus there were a couple of heavy handed flashbacks I could have done without. Perhaps the film was so long they thought the audience might have forgotten. But nonetheless I felt emotionally connected to the character of K, his hopes and disappointments. That they captured this emotion as well as pondering the sci-fi philosophical questions combined with the visual effects made the film a solid 4 stars for me despite my reservations about some aspects.

Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991) +
Definitely up there with the best surfing crime thrillers imo

2017 Mofo Film Nominations.

Get your lists in people!!!!

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I thought you would watch this!! I have it recorded, hopefully get to it soon.

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

It's definitely very much of it's era, hopefully you enjoy it - I found it quite a pleasant watch (especially Annie Gorassini )

I was planning on watching Blood and Black Lace soon which will be my third Bava. Quite like him so far but i think Fulci is the Italian horror director that has worked most for me.

Vagabond (1985)


Such a deep yet uncompromising film. I don't think I've ever wanted to know more about a character in a film ever!


+

Awesome SL Glad a number of you have been watching it even though no one has liked it as much as me so far. I watched my 8th Varda last night and i've got my 9th and 10th ready to watch. She's easily a top 10 director for me now.

What should I go for next from Varda?