What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Goyokin, a 1969 Japanese film about a Samurai who leaves his clan after they murder an entire village to cover up a crime. He goes on a journey to return 3 years later to stop them from doing it again.

This was very good, although it starts off feeling disjointed a bit. He crosses paths with a ronin who has unknown motivations, a villager who survived the first attack and had her future ruined. Like many of the best samurai films, this is about challenging the status quo, developing relationships, and doing what is right.

Watched Will & Harper, which if you don't know is a movie about two friends on the road in rural North America.
I can't say I'm a fan of Will Ferrell or that I seek his films out. I don't even think he's that funny but I always was convinced he'd be fun to hang out with because he seems so normal, just a dude who's not at all intimidated to go where it hurts and make a total ass of himself.
That said the movie is very good. Truly heartwarming, funny and sad and real in just the right amounts.

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) offers a simple premise: a violent mash-up of Japanese yakuza drama and spaghetti western. With the exception of a cameo by Quentin Tarantino, the entire cast is Japanese, though everybody is speaking English. Directed by the notorious Takashi Miike, the film features lots of action, searing visuals both terrible and beautiful, and buckets of blood. The violence is occasionally cartoonish, in a style that reminded me of Kung Fu Hustle. The story is loose and messy, and the emotional beats don't always land right. Still, Sukiyaki Western Django is something different and interesting in an era of sequels, prequels, remakes, and adaptations. I detested Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer, but I liked his 13 Assassins, and this movie was nearly as good as 13 Assassins.

Predator: Killer of Killers is... solid. I appreciate the animation style and the general concept of "Predator in 9th-ccentury Scandinavia" and "Predator at the beginning of the shogunate", but the whole so-called plot is really just an excuse of a framework for cool fights. There's not really much of a story here. It kinda lost me in the third segment, especially, where the Predator isn't even engaged in personal combat but is, instead, flying a ship to hunt down its prey, which seems to violate the whole "warrior creed" aspect to the franchise. It's worth the hour-and-a-half if you're looking for something to watch (annoyingly, even on Disney, it has commercials) but it's nothing earth-shattering.

I have a less favorable view of Predator: Killer of Killers. I found it pointless and mostly uninteresting, with the exception of the excellent Japan segment.

The concept seems to be "let's show some predator stuff but we don't have a story, I don't know, figure it out."

I do appreciate that the various Predator vehicles have shown their own tech advancing as ours does. These predators can't do some of the things that the Predator can do in the first film, because they don't have the tech yet. That said, they sure figured out thermal vision very early on.

Coherence (2013), on Amazon Prime. This film that starts out like a millennial version of The Big Chill, with 8 friends getting together for a dinner party. The cast is all white and approximately in their 30s. The only actor that I recognized was Nicholas Brendon, who essentially played himself: an actor who is primarily known for one tv series and has a drinking problem. The actual star is Emily Foxler (now Baldoni), a nice-looking Swedish actor with some decent acting ability, but she doesn't really stand out in the crowd until near the end. The dialogue is unusually realistic, with people often talking over each other and interrupting each other. The conversations also seemed so natural and credible that I wondered at times if these actors might be improvising their lines. The science-fiction aspect takes a while to manifest, but is deployed to create great suspense and uncertainty. The final plot twists land like a hammer, without exposition.

Watched Upgrade (2018) last night. I remember seeing shorts on Youtube with scenes from this so I was interested. The first half reminded me of Venom, without the symbiote. Then, it got dark... real fast. Overall, I thought it was an excellent movie on an extremely low budget.

hotseatgames wrote: I have a less favorable view of Predator: Killer of Killers. I found it pointless and mostly uninteresting, with the exception of the excellent Japan segment.

The concept seems to be "let's show some predator stuff but we don't have a story, I don't know, figure it out."

I do appreciate that the various Predator vehicles have shown their own tech advancing as ours does. These predators can't do some of the things that the Predator can do in the first film, because they don't have the tech yet. That said, they sure figured out thermal vision very early on.

I find it a bit silly that Predators are advancing weapon discovery apace with earth tech advancement, but they somehow still have FTL. I think they just equip stuff that is "just" a little bit better than their prey. So in the Prey film and this one, the predator eshews the plasma cannon because there is nothing comparable, but by Predator the humans have automatic weapons, so the plasma cannon is "allowed".

I thought Killer of Killers was great in the Japan section, creative with the planes (and Michael Biehn gets his "killed by predator, alien, and terminator" award) but really lame with the vikings. Throwing around razor sharp shields like a bizarre cross of Oddjob and Captain America was......a choice. The finale was really over the top. Personally, the less I know about the Predators directly the better. I'd rather see the little snippets of their culture like presenting Harrigan with the flintlock (it was funny that plane guy gets a 'tribal weapon' 200 years out of date) or the brand in the lady from AvP.

The Gorge - Two professional snipers are guarding either side of a spooky gorge, when romance strikes and they bond over their impressive kill shots. The gorge mystery itself was actually better than I expected it to be. But I had low expectations. I give it a 7 of 10.

Drive in retro nights this week were Blues Brothers and Twister. Best In Show was last night at IU Cinema. Tonight is Bloodspawn at the Buskirk Chumley. Then back to IU Cinema Saturday for Fargo.

Saw the new Mission Impossible in a completely empty theater and had a minor popcorn fight with my daughter.

Was super underwhelming. Poorly devised in some ways, super super contrived. Some cool ideas but mostly it was way too cheery and sappy/nostalgic and not dark like the first installment of the Reckoning dyad.

Meh.

Yojimbo was free on HBO Max, but I have been sick for a couple of weeks and just couldn't get into the amoral protagonist and irritating, petty townsfolk. I guess I have to tear up my indie film pass now.

SuperflyPete wrote: Saw the new Mission Impossible in a completely empty theater and had a minor popcorn fight with my daughter.

Was super underwhelming. Poorly devised in some ways, super super contrived. Some cool ideas but mostly it was way too cheery and sappy/nostalgic and not dark like the first installment of the Reckoning dyad.

Meh.

I didn't find it too cheery other than the ending - even the first part ( DEAD RECKONING ) had a few humorous bits but this finale movie took itself WAY too seriously. I only laughed once ( "I only kill people" ) . The action sequences were far too focused on Cruise and lacked the dynamic ones we've seen in the past, like the car chase in the last movie . They also lasted way too long - I'd rather see more numerous, shorter action set pieces.

They also shoehorned in too many spot appearances like Hannah Waddingham at the expense of the core cast IMO. Although I thought bringing back the William Donloe character was well done.

Cranberries wrote: I torrented this,

That is not cool. If you want to do crimes, keep them to yourself.