The unknown origin of the space creature would have been an interesting topic for this movie to cover. But by avoiding that topic almost entirely, it does allow for the imagination to take over. This was probably a better choice because this could have turned into another space action flick and that would have been more than likely underwhelming. As it turns out, this was just a drama about a relationship gone bad couched as a space story. Still, the conversations between the creature and cosmonaut were interesting.
Being old enough to recall the aesthetic of this movie helps it to establish the atmosphere needed to appreciate what the filmmakers were attempting to convey. The changing aspect ratios and black and white versus color were a mistake. This should have committed to the found footage format that it claimed at the beginning of the movie. Maybe they figured that modern viewers would become annoyed by a VHS-like presentation. Who knows.
Much of the time, this came off as comedic or maybe it was just so over-the-top that it just seemed like it. The concept of a talk show gone south is appreciated, but this was most certainly not scary. It was entertaining overall.
A wonderful short film with Buster Keaton as wanna-be detective. There are plenty of laughs, with most of them generated by Keaton's shy, sad little character. There are not as many stunts in this as there are in his later films but there are still a few that are jaw-droppingly amazing. His comic timing is impeccable and this story is heartwarmingly cute. It wasn't intentional, but it looks like this film is 100 years old at the time of my viewing.
There's nothing very original about this, but its got some quite likeable characters and some really solid special effects. The explosions and fire of the military's offensive against the giant troll being the most impressive.
This sat in my Watchlist for a long time. It's not been available to stream anywhere. Because I'm a nut for stop-motion effects, dinosaurs, and maybe even for cave women, I coughed up the $20 for the blu-ray and watched it. It's not a good movie. There are lots of barely clothed cave people shouting "AKEETA!!!!!" every other word. It's uncertain what that word actually means because all of the actors apparently just made up a language as they filmed.
Basically, Sanna and Tara form a bond and everyone else chases them around. If caught, they will be killed because Sanna (Victoria Vetri) was supposed to be sacrificed, escaped, and has made the sun angry or some such thing. In the end, there's a happy ending as the moon is formed from the sun (???!!!), and everyone is killed by a massive tidal wave except Sanna and Tara, and a swinging couple that they've befriended.
The stop-motion effects were very well done by Jim Danforth. There were a couple of lesser effects where they glued fins and stuff to a lizard, crocodile, and Komodo dragon, and I'd like to think that Danforth had nothing to do with those misfires. I'm assuming it was done by some other scrub who was forced to do so by cost-cutting executives.
In summary, this was not much of a movie, but it was fun to watch. I liked the effects overall, and was very impressed with Victoria Vetri and Magna Konopka, for reasons that might be obvious, but that's my business.
This felt disjointed and scattershot for most of the film's runtime, but I enjoyed the way the storytelling hopped around. There was something building and embarrassingly, I caught on awfully late. The three main actors were great. Margot Robbie is just beautiful and likeable. Brad Pitt is cool, tough and caring. DiCaprio's portrayal of the fictional Rick Dalton is the MVP, though. He's such a multi-dimensional character and it would be fun to see more of his Dalton's behind-the scenes antics.
The revisionist history tale is fine, but it's always about the dialog with Tarantino. It was fun to just follow these characters around.
Sadly, the John Wick series is played out. After thousands of headshots and face-stabbings, it turns out that a story is needed, too. I'm a Keanu fan, but there's nothing new to see here. It is a good-looking movie, but that alone doesn't make it worth a look.
The animation in this cartoon seems very limited. Maybe this was one of John K.'s excursions into Flash animation. I don't know either way because I enjoy animation but have next to no clue how it's done. There's a lack of smoothness or transitions (I'm doing my best to explain what seemed off about it).
But I really did like the short. George and Elroy are dips, but in a fun way. The two of them decide to skip work and school and have some fun. So... What do they do? Shave. Yep, it makes no sense. But that's what makes it enjoyable (and nuts). When Jane makes an appearance late in the cartoon, her resemblance to the character in the actual Hanna-Barbera Jetson's series is uncanny.
This is a very good parody of Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear show that singles out Ranger Smith as the main character as he experiences both the drudgery and the exhilaration of being a park ranger. Ranger Smith is in a rut, you see, waking up too early and having to eat soggy cereal and curdled milk. But it seems it's all worth it to him, as it allows him to exert authoritarian control over the creatures of the forest.
When Ranger Smith walks behind each tree, his character model changes, which I recall was something Hanna-Barbera did with regularity. Of course, the Ranger's look becomes more and more exaggerated, which was a fun tip-of-the-cap to HB's diligence in trying to improve the character or their disregard for the character. You pick the reason.
As with most Spumco cartoons, there's not much story to be had, but there's lot of wacky poses and facial expressions. The sound effects and music are terrific. This was a hail Mary, I suppose, to recapture the early glory of the Ren and Stimpy show.
I could never do what the creators of this cartoon have the capability to do. Sure, I can draw cartoon characters (sort of), but this is about animation (supposedly).
There are likely many skills that I have that may exceed what John K. and crew did here, like changing light bulbs or scrubbing a toilet. That said, if I ever changed light bulbs or scrubbed a toilet as poorly as John K. performed his animation skills here, I would have been told to never change bulbs or clean toilets again. Maybe that's why this cartoon is as awful as it is.
Maybe John K.'s complete failure here was a take-the-money-and-run scheme (this was an actual Kickstarter that took over 6 years to complete). He may have enough money to never have to animate George Liquor again, and for that, I feel blessed. George Liquor sucks.
The only thing that happens is Boo Boo burps, grunts, and drools. That's it. The reason I even rated it this high is because I've always enjoyed the animation style, music, and sound effects of Spumco cartoons. There's is no story here. I do appreciate the ever-changing character model of Ranger Smith as a nod to Hanna-Barbera's changes to the character over its lifecycle.
This is one of the very best Godzilla movies ever made. There's a really good human story and every moment that Godzilla is on-screen is great. The post-WWII setting absolutely adds to the desperation of the main characters and the dread of having to once again survive an attacking force, this time in the form of a beast that isn't protecting the Earth or any such nonsense. Godzilla is a force of nature (or science) that doesn't care about anything or anyone.
The only drawbacks of this movie are an irritatingly manipulative moment (tugboats) and a couple of unbelievably coincidental reunions.
The voyage of Dracula across the seas to London was a tale that I always wanted to see put to film. Unfortunately, this movie did not put enough of an emphasis on this actually being Dracula. Yes, it was stated in the movie by the characters, and some of the lore was set up at the start, but once they set sail on the Demeter, it turned into another demon-beast just killing victims.
Dracula's monstrous form looked great, there just wasn't enough of the "human" part of him portrayed. The movie looked good and the characters were interesting enough that they were not just monster fodder. Maybe there wasn't enough Dracula-as-a-plague, either. It was constantly stated that he needed to feed, but that's not the same as his bat and rat, disease-carrying, rabid animal characteristics.
Mission Impossible has been out-Bonding James Bond for years now. Tom Cruise continues to churn out movies that bring more fun and escapism than anyone else. He's a strange guy but his run of super-entertaining films over the last couple of decades has been amazing. This time, his character Ethan Hunt battles an all-knowing AI called "The Entity" and frankly, it's kind of a lame villain. The embodiment (sort of) of The Entity is Gabriel, who gives Ethan a baddie that he can punch. It's all rather confusing and convoluted, but the cast of characters and the action sequences are really what makes this latest MI movie a blast. Again.
I was actually looking most forward to seeing Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa. Her character has always brought so much acrobatic grace and fridged detachment to her fighting in scraps with the bad guys. She isn't in this installment much, but when she is, it's impossible to look away. In fact, the ladies of MI:7 are the best thing about it. Grace (Hayley Atwell) is magnetic and provides some real chemistry with Ethan. She was the person to care about the most. She was tough but also just naive enough to want to invest in emotionally. Her final "deal" with Kittridge makes me wonder if they are setting her up as the main character once Cruise leaves the franchise. The characters of Paris and The White Widow owned their screen time, as well. And of course, Luther and Benji are a solid pair, dropping in and out of the movie as needed.
Thinking back on the action, there were so many great sequences. The runaway train was great but the car chase in Rome was one of the best that I can remember seeing in any movie.
As has been stated often by others, this movie is a little long and the fact that it's a "Part One" doesn't help it at all, but the strong cast and balls-to-the-wall action make this another very good entry in the Mission Impossible series.
The first couple of members of the archeological team really go through some painful injuries. The characters do some stupid things (of course) and the creature is kind of neat until you notice how bad the CGI is. Nora and Sunni were fun to look at, but outside of that, there's nothing to see here.
"Haunt" starts out trying to be creepy with shots of haunted house staff members wearing clown masks. It does the usual clown thing, which is to stand there, silent and ominously. Not scary. Then at about the 57-minute mark, the movie goes bonkers with some brutal clawhammer and sledgehammer violence, shotguns, nails through feet...it definitely changes its tone.
The six friends that enter the haunted house do the usual stupid things that are needed to make a slasher film work, but they're not entirely unlikable characters. Harper is the one that the viewer is supposed to empathize with, and for the most part, she's easy to pull for. Her abusive boyfriend exits and later reenters the movie, only to get clobbered by baddies, presumably because the viewer is just supposed to hate him. It just adds another person to the body count.
This was a timely watch because it's Halloween season and this is setup as a Halloween flick. It's not horrible, it's just not scary and is a run-of-the-mill Horror movie.
It's a new kind of home invasion story. And I guess it's a new kind of alien invasion story. About two-thirds of the way through, I finally realized that there had not been one word of dialogue spoken. The fighting between the alien nasties and Brynn was sometimes spooky, often suspenseful, and always entertaining. Brynn's home was the perfect place to stretch out the chases and the games of hide and seek between her and the aliens.
The variety in size of the aliens was a nice touch. They came in three different sizes: dog-sized, human-sized, and kaiju-sized. Their quirky movements and strangely jointed arms and legs, not to mention their odd feet were pretty creative. Their movements were sometimes human and often monkey or even spider-like. The CGI was pretty good, but the aliens looked a bit like plastic too often. To be fair, they were not human, so I guess anything goes.
The final 20 minutes was frustrating because things turned a bit dreamy as opposed to the haunting with all of the menace it delivered for the entire run of the movie up to that point. The final couple of minutes, though, delivered an interesting twist on the actual purpose for the invasion. This is a really fun movie with some scares, some action and some unanswered questions. I'll definitely be looking to buy this on physical media if it's released that way. It's a keeper.
Anthony Starr and Lizzy Caplan as parents are great here. Lizzy Caplan is so enjoyable in the Horror-related roles that she plays. She knocked it out of the park in Castle Rock and she's the best thing about this movie. There's also a few surprises to be had in the last act which kept me on my toes.
There's nothing really scary about this and I thought the last five minutes were very disappointing. Suspending my disbelief that Monster Sarah has super-strength when attacking the invaders yet can't escape a little boy yanking on her hair and a teacher hitting her with a fireplace poker pretty much ruined the movie.
"The Prize Pest" is an uninspired pairing of Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. Porky has next to no personality in this and is generally a dullard, or idiot if you like. Daffy at lease has a little spunk and a mischievous streak in him. The fact that Porky won Daffy as the grand prize in a contest makes zero sense and is a very lame way to pair the two of them up. The only animation that stands out here is when Daffy disguises himself as a sort of "Mr. Hyde".
Has a very brief appearance of what could be a Bugs predecessor right near the beginning. The cartoon is half over before Porky makes his appearance. A cat who is a patient masquerades as a doctor and treats Porky…cruelly. Pretty lame cartoon actually with a meh ending.
Very bland other than Porky and "Borax Korloff" and his big black #13 car.
More of Sylvester and Junior battling the giant mouse/kangaroo, Hippety Hopper. It's not like this series of cartoons has many surprises, but Sylvester getting pummeled never really gets old.
I like when Porky kicks a dinosaur in the knee and it hops around crying. In this one, Porky is hunting for a pelt to make a new suit out of. There are some outdated jokes and it has another dumb ending, but I really like the sounds and dinosaur roars. Porky is pretty cool here.
Porky taking his cat fishing. They run across a flying fish who wont be caught. The fish has a fantastic voice and makes the cartoon. The ending is very dated.
No…not that…not Roll Out The Barrell! I wonder if Freleng lifted this bulldog and used him as Spike in his classic 1952 short "Tree For Two"? This one ranks a little behind it's predecessor, 1950's "It's Hummer Time" to me. The gambling aspect of this short isn't as fun as that cartoon's cat-chases-bird story.
Daffy and Bugs confuse Elmer Fudd with the "Rabbit Season, Duck Season" bit. Pretty funny, especially Daffy's beak getting shot up. Big fan of the huge bullet that gets stuck in Daffy's scalp. The first short in the "Hunting Trilogy" by Chuck Jones.
The last remark, "This time, we didn't forget the gravy", is delivered so expertly that it makes the whole short not only dark but quite creepy. I'll rank it pretty high because the artwork is also great but it's not a very funny cartoon. I guess cartoons don't HAVE to be side-splittingly hilarious but it does knock it down a notch for me.
The Leprechauns are weird and creep me out a bit. There aren't many laughs to be had here. The freaky world and the green shoes mildly torture Porky and that's why this isn't really like Porky's trip to Wackyland way back when because that place was just Clampett-goofy. The Leprechauns are quietly malevolent, me thinks.
Luckily, the clips they used from other cartoons were good ones.
This is a real classic. There's some very funny stuff here, especially the facial expressions of Claude the Cat, and the Bulldog. The timing of the music and sound effects that accompany the perplexed, even desperate looks of the characters are perfect. When the bulldog takes charge and tries to figure out why the mice won't eat cheese and the cat won't eat the mice, he uses an adding machine and finally proclaims "It just don't add up!!!"
