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

I figured you would like that a lot, Michael. I did, too, but had a very hard time with how that first monster incarnation or two looked. Not with the style of it, which was a cool way to go with showing his evolution. But just how fake it looked (and the filming and effects of the rest of the movie are excellent, so that stood out). Weird was fine and interesting, but fake bugged me. (I wonder if it might seem better on a smaller screen.) But yeah, I love the way the story highlights the bureaucracy, and parallels the recent tsunami incidents, and there is some good humor and insight in a lot of that. And there are some amazing kick ass moments Godzilla has, especially that one big one from the final incarnation shortly after it arrives, which was just awesome.

I went to see Dunkirk last night. I liked it quite a bit, but I don't think it was a great movie. I'm no historian, so any inaccuracies would make no impression on me.

The movie does an amazing job of keeping a constant level of tension for nearly its complete runtime. I think only the last 5-10 minutes provide any relief, and even that is dominated by the resolution of the pilot's story. I loved the concept and execution of the three separate "time zones." So, as an experiment in filmmaking, chronology, and emotional duress, I think it's brilliant. But as an enjoyable movie with a story, it fell a little flat. Too much tension becomes wearying, making it (for me) harder to identify with the characters. I just wanted to be done with it all. Which I acknowledge was probably the intent, so again I give it credit as an experience.

Atomic Blonde is awesome. Cool setting (1989 East Germany), great cast (James McAvoy, John Goodman, Toby Jones), excellent action, and Charlize Theron kicking ass all over. Story is typical, trying to recover a stolen list of spies, but the writing and dialogue is good, and there are some twists and turns. Same director as John Wick, and I liked this just a little better than that. This also uses music in some ways that complement the action, so a double feature of this and Baby Driver would be very fun.

I did, too, but had a very hard time with how that first monster incarnation or two looked. Not with the style of it, which was a cool way to go with showing his evolution. But just how fake it looked (and the filming and effects of the rest of the movie are excellent, so that stood out). Weird was fine and interesting, but fake bugged me

Oh, I think that was TOTALLY a conscious decision on the director's part to make the initial stages look REALLY goofy. Think about it. It really sends up the notion of embodying national tragedy in a silly, giant monster portrayed by a man in a rubber suit. The big ol' googly eyes on something that is causing massive chaos, destruction, and death. As G evolves, he turns into something more obviously malignant - and realistic. It made sense to me that the first couple of stages looked completely preposterous, and given the film's themes about Japanese national identity, coping with disaster, and Godzilla as an icon of the Japanese culture it actually had a specific resonance that couldn't be anything other than 100% intentional. No filmmaker, working with the kind of budget and resources that this movie had, would look at that first form and think "yeah, let's do that" and not have a purpose for it looking so ridiculous.

Michael Barnes wrote: I did, too, but had a very hard time with how that first monster incarnation or two looked. Not with the style of it, which was a cool way to go with showing his evolution. But just how fake it looked (and the filming and effects of the rest of the movie are excellent, so that stood out). Weird was fine and interesting, but fake bugged me

Oh, I think that was TOTALLY a conscious decision on the director's part to make the initial stages look REALLY goofy. Think about it. It really sends up the notion of embodying national tragedy in a silly, giant monster portrayed by a man in a rubber suit. The big ol' googly eyes on something that is causing massive chaos, destruction, and death. As G evolves, he turns into something more obviously malignant - and realistic. It made sense to me that the first couple of stages looked completely preposterous, and given the film's themes about Japanese national identity, coping with disaster, and Godzilla as an icon of the Japanese culture it actually had a specific resonance that couldn't be anything other than 100% intentional. No filmmaker, working with the kind of budget and resources that this movie had, would look at that first form and think "yeah, let's do that" and not have a purpose for it looking so ridiculous.

You're probably right, and that's an interesting take, regardless. But there's a point when doing something that will look preposterous and goofy, even as a symbolic representation, still looks preposterous and goofy. I think the same essential thing could have been represented by having it look unformed and maybe hideously weird, without it also looking like a fake googly-eyed goofball. Really pulled me out of the immersion at that point. Got back into it and really liked it, overall, but I still felt like that hurt it a bit.

And that is totally legit- I've seen numerous comments that it is too goofy and that seems to indicate that the effect isn't quite successful. The first form is REALLY doofy looking, I laughed. But it also made me think about Godzilla started out as a fairly serious horror/disaster film but...then you get to Godzilla vs. Gigan or Terror of Mechagodzilla. Or Final Wars. So in a sense, I think part of what Anno and his co-director were trying to do was to reclaim Godzilla from the more silly, campy tone. And they do that in how he evolves. So it starts out totally, purposefully laughable.

In terms of it taking you out of the film...the thing is, if you were watching Final Wars or Destroy All Monsters, you wouldn't feel that. But because this movie is a SERIOUS (?) Godzilla film, it's very egregious.

I went bananas and picked up pretty much all of the Heisei and Millennium G films. I watched the '92 Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah first, I have very fond memories of discovering that at Dragon Con around 1992, watching a fansub in the video room. I had not, at that point, seen Biollante so the last Godzilla I had seen was 1985. I couldn't believe there was a NEW Godzilla movie and it was awesome.

Maaaaaaan. That film has not aged well. It IS 25 years old (OMG), which means watching it now, it as old as Godzilla '54 was when I first saw it when I was 4 or 5 years old. The storyline and the plot are pretty decent and King Ghidorah is freaking great (Mecha King Ghidorah is even more awesome), but man, the effects and production design are HORRIBLE. The biggest problem is that it has this virtually style-less direction...and far too much meandering dialogue. It's easy to forget that most Godzilla movies are saddled with a bunch of human nonsense to fill out the running time. The hairstyles and wardrobe in it are just horrendous. I'm watching it and thinking about other 1992 films...and it seems like this movie is much older. It's almost Doctor Who bad in terms of effects quality.

It's regarded one of the best Godzilla films, but I don't know. I still liked it, but I was really surprised at how badly it's aged. It does not help that Shin Godzilla was so amazing.

Will probably hit Destoroyah next- I recall really liking that one. Looking forward to seeing the post-2000 films- Final Wars is the only one I've seen. It sucks that Biollante isn't in print (the ONLY one), I really liked that one too. I seem to remember it was more serious and biological than the others.

Watched Spider-Man: Homecoming last weekend.

Didn't care for it at all. The first 3/4s of the movie he's basically Iron Man jr. Tons of gadgets popping out of the suit for any given situation, the view from Parker's mask was similar to what IM sees with all the HUDs and what not.

This was far removed from any thought I had of Spider-man as a character. I guess this is how the modern Spider-man is in the comics? I dunno.

I'm also not sure which origin story this kid had. The Raimi films or the Amazing or someother? Aunt May was hot...wot?!

Michael Keaton did a good job though and I felt the movie only got good near the end with the reveal...made the tale personal which is what Peter Parker's stories seemed to originally be.

Hard to believe the Avengers move their stuff across country without a single bit of security though. No rent-a-cops, Stark AI bots, or anything. Bizarre.

Anyway, besides the cheap pop of including Blitzkrieg Bop in the soundtrack this movie is a -1. Re-watch the Raimi films...still the best Marvel flicks.

Had the misfortune to watch Kong Skull Island, one of the most retarded movies I've seen in quite a while. Everyone involved in it should be banned from making movies ever again. Everyone in it should be ashamed for their awful performances. Everyone contributing to if getting 6.8 and not 0.79 on imdb is a fucking imbecile . Avoid this turd

Funny, I also just saw this yesterday and found it to be the most endearing movie in quite a while. Maybe that thing about it never pretending to be something it isn't that was mentioned upthread. Sure, Reilly carried it all the way, but then what he did would have carried anything.

Bojack is Mikey. He hates everything. Probably likes Life cereal, though.

Bojack wrote: Had the misfortune to watch Kong Skull Island, one of the most retarded movies I've seen in quite a while. Everyone involved in it should be banned from making movies ever again. Everyone in it should be ashamed for their awful performances. Everyone contributing to if getting 6.8 and not 0.79 on imdb is a fucking imbecile . Avoid this turd

Kong Skull Island is probably my favourite film of 2017. Yes, I like it more than Logan and Get Out.

Blasphemy! I do hear it's an excellent popcorn flick tho

Life cereal is the nuts with brown sugar and whole milk

I watched Trolls with the kids just to wash the taste of the utter retardedness of Kong out of my mouth.

Hey, Trolls isn't terrible. Anna Kendrick is always worth it, and the music's not bad.

She's worth it if you can see her.

Grud, can you or someone here see Detroit and let me know how it is? It's like 2.5 hours and I love the director but I don't know how rough it's going to be...

Saw Baby Driver last night. Insanely fun. Review coming later. You guys probably talked me into seeing Apes tonight too