Topic: The Movie Thread

Well it's been a long time coming but I've finally watched the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy of Star Wars. Never been a huge fan of this franchise if I'm being honest. I watched episode 4 and 5 back in 2019 but didn't find the movies to be rather appealing to me. I ended up watching half of episode 6 and then stopped because they just weren't doing anything for me. I mean they were good but not in a way that made me want to watch more.

Then I got a month of Disney+ and started watching The Mandalorian, which is so much better than the movies. The story is more interesting and the fact that the show is more modern makes it more enjoyable than the decades old movies.

Then I finally finished watching the show and decided to watch the movies. Finished watching the second half of episode 6 and it was good! Started up the prequel trilogy next and episode 1 was seriously a drag. It's directed more to the hardcore fans since there wasn't much action in it. Episode 2 was better though and episode 3 was amazing, definitely my favourite movie so far! It definitely helped that I had played Jedi Fallen Order before watching since some of the events in that game enhanced my experience of episode 3.

So yeah, I definitely think that playing Jedi Fallen Order and watching The Mandalorian helped me like Star Wars more enough for me to watch the movies. Still, I didn't like the movies as much as the TV show, although I'm very much looking forward to watching the sequel trilogy now and I hope they are even better than the other two trilogies.

I'm glad that I've at least watched these classic movies now!

Finished watching episode 7, 8 and 9 now of Star Wars and these were all great movies, especially the last one! I wouldn't say that I prefer them to the previous movies, but I think they almost reached the greatness of the other two trilogies. Can't imagine though where this series will go from here on out. At this point, this saga is pretty much done and the sequel trilogy honestly felt like a copy and paste of the original trilogy in terms of structure. Now that we've experienced it twice, I hope that the next trilogy will have a different type of structure.

@LtSarge sorry but you're probably going to be getting flak for this lol. Any praise fir the new movies is usually offensive to some. The last 3 have really split the fan base and some take it personally as people nowadays do. Personally the original trilogy was my favorite. The prequels were super kiddy with too much CGI and unnecessarily long. The latest trilogy felt like it was just a redo of the original movies plot like you pointed out and at the end they seemed to just to run out of ideas and overdid the good factor to make it cheesey. Not to mention the random acts of LGBT inclusion for a few seconds to say they were woke. I'm glad you enjoyed them, I'm not sure if I'll ever rewatch them again, maybe once the kids are older? I hope they just go off and do something new for future movies, they have soo much lore out there with all the books. I personally enjoyed the Bounty Hunter Wars book and would love a movie based around that, but we might be getting some of that in the Book of Boba Fett series next year.

@Krzzystuff Well my perspective is based on having watched all the movies for the first time recently and not growing up with any of them. I didn't even enjoy watching the first couple of movies in the original trilogy at first because I thought they were so childish due to how everyone wore suits instead of being CGI (and the suits looked terrible), not to mention how the fights felt awkward and not as cool as in the later movies. But having watched the sequel trilogy now, I've come to appreciate the original trilogy more because it had more unique and memorable characters. For example, Ben Solo doesn't come anywhere close to being as iconic as Darth Vader. Same thing with Finn and Han Solo, and Rey and Luke. Like those characters are legends and while I did like Ben Solo the most from the sequel trilogy, he just didn't feel as intimidating as Vader, probably due to his inner conflict. But overall the movies were still phenomenal and at least consistently good compared to e.g. the prequel trilogy. Episode 1 was absolutely awful! "Star Wars"? More like "Star Politics and constantly talking without any action except at the ending", lol. But episode 2 and 3 were both great! The scene in episode 2 where you see so many Jedis fighting all at once was so cool and I wish we could see more of that in future movies. For example, if they decide to reboot the series, I would love to see a new timeline where Jedis and Siths are on equal ground, instead of one side being more powerful than the other like in all the trilogies. That would make for some really awesome battles, as well as the potential for more interesting characters.

But yeah overall I like the Star Wars series but I vastly prefer the video games and TV shows over the movies since those are the media I prefer in general. I loved Jedi Fallen Order and The Mandalorian, so I would definitely want to experience more of those titles now that I'm caught up with all the events from the movies.

@LtSarge ahh that puts it into perspective. Thanks for the reply. If you're into reading i highly recommend the Bounty Hunter Wars as well as just about any book outside the main movies as there's a lot of lore there. Im loving Fallen Order, just finished my second planet and i really liked the campaign in Battlefront II as well.

@Krzzystuff Might have to check that one out, thanks for the recommendation! Yeah, Jedi Fallen Order is an incredible game just in general and it would be even better if you're a Star Wars fan. I kinda wish that I could play it for the first time now after having watched the movies, but alas. Hopefully they'll make a sequel to it! I've also heard good things about the campaign in Battlefront II so I might give it a go at some point. However, if I were to play any Star Wars games now it would probably the The Force Unleashed on 360 or Knights of the Old Republic on the original Xbox. Apparently KotR is regarded as the best Star Wars game ever and it's made by BioWare, which I absolutely adore. So I'll probably play it as my next Star Wars game now that I've watched all the movies. Although a remake is rumoured to be coming out, so maybe I'll just wait for that one. We'll just have to see!

@LtSarge never played force unleashed. Might have to give it a go, is it on EA Play?

@Krzzystuff Nah this was way before EA's deal with Disney so they didn't make this game. It's on BC on Xbox One so you could get it whenever it's on sale.

@LtSarge thanks. Back to movies have you watched the 5th element? I've watched that like 50 times when i was younger. One of my favorite movies.

Yesterday I got the movie Street Trash which came by UPS.

Never heard of the movie back then but i heard about the movie just last year or so.

Heard the movie is pretty wild and bizarrre

Movies I've seen recently.

BlacKKKlansman (FX) - A film set in the 70's about a pair of Black & Jewish police officers who infiltrate the klan, in an effort to uncover whether or not they're simply hateful, or actually dangerous. It was a really good watch, though the actor who played David Duke (the klan's president at the time) was Eric from that 70's Show, & I just saw him as Eric pretending to be really racist for some reason, lol. Being a more recent Spike Lee production, it also drew some parallels to "Trumpism", with Duke leading an "America First" chant (not sure if that specific phrase is something they used), and later transitioned from a Cross burning to footage of the 2017 Charlottesville riot & Trump's response to there being "fine people on both sides", as to point to the movement "changing guises" rather than going away.

Ghostbusters 2 (Blu-Ray) - I intended to watch this around Halloween, but just never got around to it at the time (made time for the first though, of course). It's never too late for a bit of ghost busting fun though, so I watched it more recently. Yeah, it's not as good as the first, but it's still a pretty fun time. I actually got a kick out of some of the deleted scenes, such as the one where Rick Moranis' character tries out the ghost busting gear by trying to hunt down Slimer in their office.

One Night in Miami (Amazon Prime Video) - Film covering the night Cassius Clay took on the name Mohammed Ali, with Ali/Clay, Malcom X, Jim Brown, & Sam Cooke spending the night in a motel room discussing & debating the issues affecting Black Americans at the time. Really interesting watch.

Otaku no Video (Retro Crush) - Anime film (really, two OVA's bundled together as one) that's kinda a parody of Japanese Otaku culture of the time. It follows a young sociable university student who reconnects with an old friend from high school who drags him into the world of Otaku, and after being immersed in the culture & "rejected from society", decides to transform the world into an "Otaku paradise". The narrative is regularly interrupted with mock documentary style live action segments, with interviews with "real world" Otaku, covering various aspects of the culture (themes usually tied to events happening in the story proper) & their integration into wider society. It was a pretty fun watch, with lots of blatant references to series such as Macross, Lupin the 3rd, Gundam, Urusei Yatsura, & more. An aspect of the culture regularly touched upon that doesn't seem to be a big part of anime/Otaku culture these days is a fixation on realism (the characters would fawn over how the designs of the fighters in Macross are inspired by real world military designs & advancements of the time, such as them featuring Liquid Crystal Displays, "Which is What NASA is currently using!", as well as the realism displayed in special effects & weapon models), which I thought was interesting (simply because when I was young, it was the more serious, real world connections of a lot of anime which drew me to the medium over traditional cartoons, and that doesn't seem to be a big appeal for the fandom/medium anymore).

Space Adventure Cobra (Amazon Prime Video) - 90's sci-fi anime flick, that I think is an adaptation of an even older manga (based on the art style I had assumed it was from the 80's). It follows a legendary space pirate known as Cobra, who gets involved with a female bounty hunter who is at odds with the galaxy's biggest crime syndicate. It's pretty decent. Not that I have much experience with it, but it comes across as a more graphic take on something like Buck Rodgers.

A Time Slip of 10,000 Years: Prime Rose (Retro Crush)

Early 80's science fantasy anime flick. Starting out either in "modern day" or the near future (It's not made really clear) a space station known as "Death Mask" (with an appearance to match) breaks apart and it's debris wipe both a Japanese city & Dallas, Texas off the face of the Earth. It's quickly descerned that the two cities were actually transported 10,000 years into the future, and time agent Gai (who's superior officer is totally Spock from Star Trek, for some reason) is tasked with investigating the incident.

I thought it was a pretty interesting curio from a bygone era of anime. Interestingly it makes a pretty drastic change in focus after Gai arrives in the future, as he winds up involved in a war between ancient Roman/Egyptian styled civilizations and it essentially drops him as the lead in favor of Emiya (a local girl destined for greatness, it pretty much becomes a standard fantasy story, though it eventually ties things back around to the original narrative).

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Typical PG-13 language.

Violence (Average) - there is some blood, but it's not gory. Again I'd say it's probably PG-13 levels.

Sex/Nudity (High) - There's one pretty lengthy gratuitous bathing scene involving Emiya. Otherwise she takes on a warrior persona with dominatrix styled skimpy armor. I found out after the fact that the film was produced by Osamu Tezuka's studio (the guy behind Astro Boy), and that this film is in oddity in his lineup because of the fanservice, which apparently isn't something usually present in his works.

Ninja Scroll (Hulu).

Anime action film from the 90's set around the Edo era, that follows a wandering warrior known as Jubei who gets caught in a shadow conflict between the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate & the remnants of the Toyotomi clan, which is employing the aid of the nation's most powerful Ninja in order to take control.

It's a beautifully animated film, with a lot of stunning action sequences that'll please any fan of Samurai or Ninja film, and I enjoyed the sort of supernatural elements they added (they kind of reminded me of the kind of supernatural/inhuman abilities of the bosses in MGS3. One even controlled a swarm of bees). It is an exceptionally explicit film though, which is sure to turn some off. The exceedingly gory combat & general nudity is one thing, but it actually involves the female lead in not one but two on screen depictions of outright rape. Intentionally unsettling as it may be, there's no doubt it's inclusion is surprising.

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Surprisingly given the rest of the film's content, I didn't notice anything here to write home about. The only thing here that could be described as PG-13.

Violence (Extreme) - Rape notwithstanding, it also includes much gore as characters are stabbed & ripped asunder any number of ways, including a scene in which a villain drinks blood out of a freshly severed limb.

Sex/Nudity (Extreme) - At this point I think this goes without saying.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Hulu)

The live action big screen debut of one of gaming's biggest mascots. This was pretty cute to be honest. I found the "alien" thing a bit weird at first, but in the end it's a lot better than the "escaped to our world from the game/cartoon" setup that these types of things tend to have. Provided a few decent chuckles, some fun action scenes (kinda reminded me of the Flash tv show, but with a larger budget), and all the little nods to the franchise's history (like one of the crossed out worlds on Sonic's list was represented by a Sega Saturn logo). I'll definitely watch the sequel when it releases, and hope it lives long enough for them to run it into the ground with a live action Shadow, lol.

Content Guide:

Language (Mild) - There's like one or maybe two minor cuss words during the entire film, both during the climax I believe.

Violence (Mild) - There's some slapstick violence (I liked the bar brawl scene) & destruction of robots.

Sex/Nudity (None) - Unless you count a cartoon anthropomorphic blue hedgehog running around in nothing but a pair of shoes... which I don't, but you do you.

@RR529 we watched Sonic on Amazon a month or two ago and it was surprisingly good. We're all looking forward to the next one, waiting for the end of the credits Marvel style was worth it.

Lupin the 3rd: Legend of the Gold of Babylon (Retro Crush)

Early 80's anime film in the iconic Lupin III franchise. When Lupin & the gang get wind of the legendary gold of Babylon (a mythical treasure of the Biblical age that God himself supposedly sought), they're off on a globe trotting adventure from New York, Paris, to Iraq to locate it. Complicating the matter however is the fact they have to compete with the Marciano Mafia family for the prize, with series regular Fujiko Mine playing both sides for her own gain, and the interference of Inspector Zenigata in his never ending quest to catch our lovable thief (this time with the aid of a bevvy of beauty pageant policewomen for the ride!).

This movie was a heck of a lot of fun. I can't be sure, but due to the era & theming it seems like they were influenced by the popularity of Indiana Jones (they even went out of their way to showcase that the Nazi's had previously sought the mysterious treasure), and I thought it blended nicely with the typical Lupin shenanigans. I remember liking one of the older Lupin TV anime back in the day back on Adult Swim, and while one of the newer interpretations I've seen never really grabbed me, this was an absolute delight. I also thought it was amusing that it was clearly from an era of anime less concerned with copyright, as there were blatant Sony, Coca-Cola, & even Star Wars logos visible during the New York portion.

One point of contention for today's viewers will definitely be the outdated stereotypical depiction of Black people. I don't think it's intentionally meant in a negative way, as they likely would have just been influenced by how Black people were depicted in older American animation without a proper understanding of the stereotypes (and it's not quite Mr. Popo from DBZ levels of bad), but it's very apparent in the early parts of the film (an early scene involves a lengthy motorcycle chase on top of a giant animatronic head of a stereotypically depicted African American).

Content Guide:

Language (Mild) - I was surprised at how little swearing there was in this. Maybe one or two mentions.

Violence (Mild) - There's a ton of gunplay, but it's a bloodless experience from my experience. It's really slapstick in it's depiction, with a lot of scenes involving people being blown up but only having torn clothes and covered in soot to show for it. Two people do die of poisoning, though.

Sex/Nudity (Average) - There's one scene involving a "goddess" that's clearly wearing a sheer top. Otherwise you have a "blink & you'll miss it" bit of nudity on behalf of "Fujiko", and an occasional bit of light fan service involving Fujiko or the Beauty Pageant cops.

@Krzzystuff, yeah, I enjoyed Sonic more than I thought I would, and need to see if they have Detective Pikachu, as I've heard that one's decent as well.

Cool World (Amazon Prime Video)

It's 1945 and Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) has just come home from the war. Taking his mother out for a drive on his brand new motorcycle, things take a turn for the worse when a drunk driver causes them to crash, killing his mother. When the police try to tend to Harris himself he vanishes, transported to the "Cool World" (the universe where cartoons reside) by the invention of a Cool World scientist. Fast forward to modern day (the 90's) we meet up with Jack Deebs, a man in prison for killing his wife's lover (this is only touched upon once, apparently deemed unimportant) who has made a name for himself by creating a series of comic books based on Cool World (he has been transported there in his sleep for years for some unknown reason, though it's inferred that it's not all that uncommon for humans to temporarily visit in this manner), thinking it's just something he's dreamed up. During his trips he's regularly seduced by the sultry Holli Would, a "Doodle" (the film's term for cartoon characters) who believes that by copulating with a human (referred to as Noids in Cool World) that she can become real & escape into reality. Unfortunately for her, sex between Doodles & Noids is the only taboo within Cool World, and Frank Harris (who hasn't aged, I guess because it's not his universe?) is now a cop within Cool World who makes sure that taboo is never broken. Of course, we wouldn't have a movie if things always went according to plan...

If that sounds like a totally bat**** premise, it's because it is, and this is a totally bat**** movie. Apparently intended to be a graphic, R rated take on films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the original script called for a horror premise wherein Jack & Holli conceived a homicidal half real, half toon offspring that would attempt to murder it's parents, but the studio stepped in as they wanted it to reach a wider audience & get some of that Roger Rabbit money, so the threat was toned down to a more generic "world's colliding" apocalypse, and they simply cut out the worst parts of what's clearly an R rated world so it could squeeze by with a PG-13 rating (the cartoon world itself is absolutely nightmarish in appearance, and I'll even say aesthetically quite impressive, and full of off kilter toons that are consistently as naughty as they're allowed to be within the rating & so zany it's quite often a sensory overload, and although there's no nudity, Holli is depicted as an absolute slut that tries to get into the pants of every man that comes her way & regularly dry humps the environment). It's certainly not a good film, but was definitely interesting to experience at least once. Even in it's final toned down form this isn't a film I'd ever suggest to watch with kids.

Content Guide:

Language (High) - PG-13, but definitely pushes it at parts.

Violence (Average) - It may have a twisted & nightmarish appearance, but at the end of the day cartoons really can't get hurt, no matter how bad they're being. A few humans die, but it's not a gory or even particularly bloody.

Sex/Nudity (High) - There's no outright nudity, but I've already explained Holli's consistently shameless persona, and there's tons of other innuendo as well.

Apparently Avatar has retaken the highest grossing theatrical release from Avengers: Endgame after China re-released it in theaters.

It was $7 Million behind Endgame, but it's currently made $33 Million since the re-release.

A couple movies I watched over the last weekend.

Street Fighter II: the Animated Movie (Amazon Prime Video) - Anime adaptation of the popular game. The villainous M. Bison's "Shadaloo" terrorist organization has been kidnapping talented "street fighters" and brainwashing them into terrorist super soldiers. After discovering Ryu's hidden potential it's a race between Shadaloo & Interpol/the US military (represented by Chun-Li & Guile) to find the wandering warrior first.

It may lack an award winning narrative, but I think it succeeds in the areas that matter here. The animation holds up remarkably well, with great detail paid to the fighters' physiques & iconic special attacks. Most (if not all) of the playable fighters of the era make an appearance here and are involved in at least one tussle, so if you're a fan of the franchise I really can't think of anything to dislike here. There's a scene involving Vega stalking Chun-Li in her apartment that's grippingly tense, and the fight that follows is perhaps the most memorable in the film.

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Typical PG-13 fare.

Violence (High) - It's not super gory or anything, but it's a movie with a lot of detail dedicated to people punching each other in the face, which makes it's bloody moments hit hard.

Nudity/Sex (Average) - There's one gratuitous shower scene featuring Chun-Li which shows off her "B" buttons (bad pun?), but otherwise nothing to note, other than a bizarre scene where Bison is torturing a nude Ken for some reason (though there's no detail down south).

Kentucky Fried Movie (Amazon Prime Video) - Film made up of various parody skits that lampoon various aspects of 70's pop culture & society (as that's when it was made).

It's obviously a bit aged in spots, but there were still a few skits that illicited a chuckle or two. There was at least one I actively didn't care for, and I thought the middle one dragged on a bit (it was a parody of Bruce Lee films with a few Bond nods as well, and it took up maybe half the run time), but overall an interesting curiosity as long as you know what you're getting into (funnily enough there's a 50's courtroom skit that features Tony Dow & Jerry Mathers in character as Wally & Beaver from Leave it to Beaver in the crowd).

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - PG-13 type stuff.

Violence (Mild) - More of a crass comedy, I'm not sure if I recall much blood at all. Some clearly fake scratches in the martial arts skit is probably the worst of it.

Nudity/Sex (Extreme) - It's a crass 70's comedy, with one of the skits specifically making fun of the adult film industry of the era, so it's full of boobs.

Movies I watched last weekend.

the Lady & the Tramp 2019 (Disney+) - Another live action Disney remake, this time a doggy love story that follows Lady, the pampered pet of an upper crust early 20th century couple, as she meets up and gets romanced by Tramp, a street wise stray with a distrust of humans.

It was cute, but otherwise nothing else much to say about it.

Content Guide:

Language (None)

Violence (None)

Nudity/Sex (None)

the Black Cauldron (Disney+) - A mid 80's effort from the house of mouse, it's a traditional fantasy yarn in which the young farmhand Taran dreams of heroic adventure. Be careful what you wish for however, as he finds himself guardian of an oracle pig named Hen Wen, and when the villainous Horned King seeks out the oinker in order to locate the wearabouts of the titular Black Cauldron (housing the soul of an evil king, it can be used to summon an army of the undead), Taran finds himself thrust into the adventure he's always wanted.

I've heard that this was much darker than most other Disney fare, and that rings true. The Horned King has a genuinely frightening design, and an absolute ton of effort went into making his castle absolutely hauntingly nightmarish, with some fantastic special effects on display. Unfortunately that's all the film really has going for it, with a plot & cast that's generic to a fault (I didn't even take to the comic relief sidekick creature thing), it took me a whole day after the fact to even remember the main kid's name.

Content Guide:

Language (None)

Violence (Mild) - Just some bloodless cartoon fantasy swordplay.

Nudity/Sex (None)