The Beyond - My favorite Lucio Fulci film after Zombi 2, I had a hard time watching the scene where the spiders eat the guys face, even though the spiders are clearly fake - 7/10

Phenomena - Probably the best movie starring Donald Pleasance and Jennifer Connelly where she speaks to insects and a chimpanzee hacks a persons face to bits with a razor blade - 7/10

Aliens - 10/10 - Everyone is already familiar with this movie.

Peter Benchley's Creature - OK guys I literally just found this movie on DVD for $3.

The movie is nearly three hours long when the two parts are edited together, so I admit right away I didn't watch the whole thing.

But I thought it was pretty cool, although the whole appeal of the movie is pretty much down to the Stan Winston designed hybrid shark costume.

You just wouldn't see a practical effect like that in any SyFy original monster movie these days. Final score 7/10.

 

Gladiator 8/10. Still holds up pretty well but the fabricated story seems a bit cheesy.

 

Pokemon the First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back! - 8/10

This movie can win a lot on nostalgia points for me, but like the Transformers movie before it, even if it was designed to sell shit to annoying children, there is no doubt that this movie is about Pokemon.

The two point deduction is for a soundtrack that, beyond a kickass remix of the show's theme, has aged about as well Windows 95 and the dubbing dicking around with an otherwise solid message. To whit, the primary theme running though the (original Japanese) movie is that the circumstances of one's birth matter far less than what they choose to do with life. However the US release, already feeling the pinch of pissed off parents and Pokemon's then phenomenal impact did a "fighting is wrong" Aesop which of course makes no fucking sense since the show is basically gladiatorial combat with super-pets.

That aside, Mewtwo is a badass mother, the animation is nice, Team Rocket are funny and while everyone knew it would never stick, Ash's "death" is still a rather emotionally taut scene with Misty's VA giving a surprisingly distraught but understated reaction.

Overall, there are worse ways to spend your time than watching this, but if you aren't a fan then the movie won't convert you.

I dunno man, that movie's score alone is worth all 8 of those points   And that final, three movement piece when Maximus dies: glorious film making.

 

It's less about 'fighting is wrong' overall and more about 'Mewtwo is forcing them to kill each other'. Nurse Joy herself states that 'Pokémon aren't meant to fight, not like this.', when directed at Pokémon outright mauling each other instead of the restraint they'd normally exercise.

Of course, Trainers will have their Pokémon battle, but you'd never push them to kill each other. When one faints, you withdraw it, heal it, tell it that it did well and you help it get stronger. You look after them, care for them, and the X-and-Y games do this well in the Amie feature where your love and affection for your Pokémon literally enhances their capabilities beyond normal ones.

But what Mewtwo was doing, so intent in proving the superiority of his clones, the rightness of his beliefs, was driving them to fight past the brink of restraint, to hurt each other, to kill each other. This wasn't a Pokémon battle as we'd know it; it was a death-match born out of his desire to prove his opinion the right one.

 

It was also the Dawn of the Planet of the Mewtwos of the whereverthehelltheycamefrom.

 

I watched 2 movies over the weekend with my wife. The Giver and Maleficent.
The Giver I'd probably give a 7 of 10. I enjoyed the theme of the movie, the characters, the acting and the settings. But the ending ruined it for me.

Spoiler

Having a memory barrier was completely illogical and walking through it to fix everything was too much of a magic button solution.

Maleficent I'd give a 6 of 10. This one was ruined for me because if was Sleeping Beauty Bizzaro World version. The good guys were the bad guys and the bad guys were the good guys. I went in expecting depth to Maleficent's character and a backstory as to why she was so evil. Instead, she wasn't really evil at all, she was the hero of the film. That's not what I wanted to see.

 

You mean like some switchykidstwitchyinsuperanimatronicdupersuitsillogical-logic?

yeah, i see where you're coming from.

 

from then until now and i am sure beyond, everytime i see this movie i completely forget that jeff f'n bridges is in the movie! love me some mr bridges! on that note, true grit with jeff bridges- 10/10. a fine fine piece of movie history (and one of those remakes that actually works)

 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - 8/10
Funny as shit, and still my favorite Christmas movie.

 

It's a damn shame that Jeff Bridges has yet to reappear in the MCU.

 

Princess Mononoke 8.5/10

I enjoyed it more on a second viewing

 

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
This was one grim feeling movie and very creepy compared to the regular series. Only problem? They should've kept the Joker out of this movie. Because of him, the Phantasm was in this movie for less than a minute (you complained on Godzilla's lack of screentime? This movie will make you appreciate what little time he had)

7.5/10

 

kinda thought you would.  

it's the graphic nature of it in a Ghibli film that sets it apart. now you make me wanna put the disk in today!  

 

i need to go back and see this one again, i have forgotten alot of it. i did love how they incorporated the phantasm in the jlu epiloge episode with waller talking to terry.

 

Well Stane did die in the first film.

 

Wait he died? Sorry, I haven't seen the film in a LONG time.

 

The Lego Movie - 10/10

It still holds up after the first rewatch. I think Will Ferell's performance as Lord Business is his best performance to date.

 

Seed of Chucky - WTF was that?! 1/10!!!!

 

He fell into the exploding arc reactor.

 

Pretty much, yes.
I try to pretend that it never existed