What Did You Watch Today?

[Benjamin]

You take that back. The Ultimate Disaster Movie is the best.

[Benji]

Oh I liked the first, but the comedy is better in Holiday, and Willem DaFoe as an obnoxious movie director plus Emma de Caunes looking beautiful tips it over. I do prefer the actual story of the first movie though.

[Monkey D. Lars]

The Oklahoma Kid (1939), was fun and didn't expect it to be that dark, Cagney vs. Bogart is ratings, but they didn't have to put the western sauce over this one, should've just kept it in the street of NY.

[Benji]

The Guilt Trip suprised me by how much I enjoyed it. I think it helps that the relationship between the two leads throughout is similar to me and my own mum.

[Monkey D. Lars]

The Vampire Lovers, hammer film galore! Also! Peter Cushing and LESBIAN VAMPIRES!

[Skummy]

Birdman.

I will be very, very surprised if I end up seeing a better film this year. Absolute masterpiece. Gorgeously directed, and not a bad performance amongst the cast. Michael Keaton is extraordinary, of course, but the supporting cast are all just as good.

[stokeriño]

Big Hero 6 is pretty fun, pretty cool. I wasn't knocked out or anything, but I'd happily see it again.

The plot could perhaps be a little less obvious. Anyone familiar with...

The Scooby Doo principle of binary misdirection, "You've been introduced to two adults, one of whom seemed kindly and the other you were told was shifty and up to no good. GUESS WHICH ONE ISN'T THE BAD GUY"

...will not be surprised by the villain's identity.

[King Ellis]

365 rundown #something

Rookie of the Year (1993)

Between this and Lethal Weapon, it's weird to see Gary Busey relatively normal. He has tremendously horrible looking moustache here too. I liked this one, even if Daniel Stern's character is massively annoying and looks like a hamster with how much he dips. Gotta love the way the step father freaks out at the end when the kids mother rumbles him trying to sell him to the Yankees (though I don't get how that's suddenly dropped even though contracts were signed), "HE'S MY CLIENT!". I didn't know John Candy was in it till it started, now it just looks like I'm watching a bunch of his movies, especially since my next one was...

Spaceballs (1987)

Though I don't know this saintly impression of him that I've built up in my head shines through in Barf, I suppose it's hard to get behind someone with a name like that, though his ears perking up from time to time and his tail with a mind of it's own is cute. As opposed to Pizza the Hut, good lord that thing is disturbing, bubbiling, oozing, parts of it falling off..eww. For whatever reason, I think I enjoyed this more the second time around than when I originally saw it.

Clue (1985)

I'd think a lot less of this movie if it weren't for the wonderful as ever Tim Curry. It's sort of interesting at first up until the suspected blackmailer gets bumped off, then it kinda gets a little too crazy. I suppose it's kind of fun to see all these people running all over the house going to ever increasing lengths to cover things up but I don't see how you're ever meant to follow this as an actual mystery when they keep introducing new characters all the time with links to existing ones you never find out about until it starts going over it's various possible endings.

Fright Night (1985)

Either after watching the remake of this or Princess Bride, I ended up on the wiki page for this and was reading about the supposed gay subtext between Jerry Dandridge and his roommate which I didn't really remember, I mean it only makes sense that a vampire would have someone around to watch over them during the day, but then you get moments like Jerry tenderly resting on Billy's shoulders...you can see why someone might come to that conclusion. I'm still not entirely sure what Billy is since he survives being shot in the head but can freely walk in the daylight so he's not a vampire. Also, in looking up this gay thing, I just found out that the guy who played Evil Ed would later go on to appear in several gay pornos. Huh.

Cool World (1993)

It's like a more dark and twisted Roger Rabbit without any of the famous characters. Looks really nice, minus the interaction of live action and animation looking off, but the whole thing is just weird and not really very well explained. The 'rules' of this alternate animated world are never really defined and they're still being introduced right up until the last moment. Jumps all over the place too, like it looks as though he goes straight from appearing in this world to being settled in as a cop there but then you find out that some fifty years have passed that I had no idea about.

The Secret of Nimh (1982)

Not sure on this one, like Cool World it looks nice with it's environments and creepy characters. The glowing eyes of the owl and rat certainly belie the helpful characters they turn out the be but there's no disguising the cat. That thing is pretty scary and seems big enough to give a few dogs a run for their money. I think the problem I have with it is that it seems a lot more fantastical than it actually is, like it has all these magical elements but is still rooted in a traditional world in it's setting and the reason behind these rats becoming hyper intelligent. Just seems weird.

The Wolverine (2013)

Last of the X-Men films that I hadn't seen, not really too fussed on rewatching the 'First Class' movies right now. Wolverine really gets around, huh? I mean, what with all the wars we see him in during Origins and he's there when the bombs drop in Japan here. Never realised he had such a thing for the Asian ladies too. Watchable but not as interesting as Origins.

[Ant]

I think Barf is supposed to be horrid and disturbing in its own right.

Spaceballs is fucking awesome though.

[Benjamin]

Seventh Son is undeniably the worst movie of 2014.

[Benji]

Hocus Pocus is delightful.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Exodus: Gods and Kings was really cool. I've always liked Egyptian Mythology growing up. The part about the plagues felt a little rushed to me though. Christian Bale was great as Moses, but I thought Joel Edgerton wobbled between fantastic and terrible between some scenes.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Robert Downey Jr. is just fucking lovely in Chaplin (1992).

[Nick Adams]

Finally got around to watching Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (I had a personal debate over whether I valued my Tom Clancy fandom more than my man-crush on Christopher Pine, and the latter won out.). It's well-done for what it is, and it at least kept elements of the original (Jack joined the Marines in the middle of his doctorate, broke his back in a helicopter crash, and met Cathy during rehab). Worth the watch if you're a Clancy fan, although I do wish that they had brought in Admiral Greer instead of just having Jack's handler be there. Also, the lack of John Clark was a little depressing.

[Benji]

Full Metal Jacket was great. I swear I knew about 50% of the script from pop culture references to it.

[stokeriño]

The first half >>>>> the second half though, right?

[Benji]

Oh yeah, no doubt.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Seventh Son is undeniably the worst movie of 2014.

I saw a poster for this earlier, and my first impression was that someone took a goth version of Game of Thrones and put Jeff Bridges in it as a wizard. How close am I?

Just watched Dumb and Dumber To. Good for a few laughs, but my god is it stupid. I can see why Jim Carrey usually says no to sequels.

[Jimmy]

It's actually based off a series of books which I loved when I was younger, sucks the film doesn't sound like much.

Just watched She Done Him Wrong, a Mae West picture from 1933. It was made just before The Production Code came in, as they've just about snuck in as much innuendo as possible for the early 30's. It's not much in terms of plot, but it's pretty entertaining, even if it is a little self-indulgent on West's part. Kind of cool to see such a strong female character in the early 30's, though.

[Benjamin]

I loved the books too, and with Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore in it, I figured it might be passable or at least slightly entertaining. It wasn't. It's also nothing like Game of Thrones, more like a worse Sorcerer's Apprentice mixed with that horrible Hansel and Gretel movie.

On a slightly related note, holy shit, how many movies was Julianne Moore in last year?! I've seen Hunger Games, Non-Stop, Seventh Son, and there's still Maps to the Stars and Still Alice. 5 movies in one year is crazy.