Last movie you watched & your rating

[SkyPikachu]

Your Name/Kimi no na wa/君の名は

One of the best movies I've ever seen beautiful scenery, beautiful music, beautiful story. Seriously just go see it (the subbed version).

15 out of 10

Ps: Even my mum liked it who isn't into anime.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Your Name/Kimi no na wa/君の名は

One of the best movies I've ever seen beautiful scenery, beautiful music, beautiful story. Seriously just go see it (the subbed version).

15 out of 10

Ps: Even my mum liked it who isn't into anime.

Oh.. thats the new one by Makoto Shinkai.
His previous movies and shorts (5 Centimeters per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Garden of Words) are gorgeous.

[Kreegs]

Last night my wife and I went to see Arrival.

AMAZING. Amy Adams is spectacular, and the plot is so thought provoking. The main message is so strong, especially in the wake of recent events. I would HIGHLY recommend seeing this film. Simply only of the best I have seen in a very long time.

[The Shoemaker]

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I went into this movie with no expectations, and I walked away rather impressed. They managed to create a movie that feels like it fits nicely into the Harry Potter universe while still feeling like its own thing. I was a little worried about the character work in the beginning, but they got me by the end. A good cast of fun endearing characters. I've heard critiques that the movie suffers from telling two mostly separate stories at once, but I felt it worked. I appreciated the different perspective, and I think its value will shine more in later movies due to spoilers.


Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith

And so, after a year, I've finally seen all mainline Star Wars movies. ROS was not bad. The ending sequences were well done just like all Star Wars movies. But the other 75% of the movie was a bit of a drag. The main thing the prequels suffer from I think is too much talking with not enough character work and poor acting direction. I have similar complaints about the prequels as I do about Episode IV, interestingly all the ones George Lucas took care of. Overall, the prequel movies weren't bad, nice to see how things tie in with the series. I do wonder if by episode IX we'll be seeing Jedi's doing crazy flip jump moves again.

[Kreegs]

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I went into this movie with no expectations, and I walked away rather impressed. They managed to create a movie that feels like it fits nicely into the Harry Potter universe while still feeling like its own thing. I was a little worried about the character work in the beginning, but they got me by the end. A good cast of fun endearing characters. I've heard critiques that the movie suffers from telling two mostly separate stories at once, but I felt it worked. I appreciated the different perspective, and I think its value will shine more in later movies due to spoilers.

I also saw this. I really enjoyed it. Maybe it was because there were no kid actors in it.

[Kong Wen]

Kong's 2016 in movies

This is just a little summary of my movie-watching in 2016. I'm not going to do a write-up on each one, since there are more than a handful.

Download/Blu-Ray

The Hateful Eight - Tarantino Western
Creed - Rocky sequel
The Revenant - Leo in the snow
Rocky - comparative viewing after Creed
Orphan - actual good horror movie with Mrs. K
Spotlight - great movie, deserved its Oscar
Black Mass - Depp mobster
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - re-watch at home with Mrs. K
Primer - low-fi time travel
Phoenix - German-language film about a concentration camp survivor presumed dead
The Terminator - Mrs. K had never seen it
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - because you have to watch this together with the first one
The Witch - another actual good horror movie with Mrs. K
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Ultimate Edition - not as bad as the anti-hype led me to believe, maybe because the Ultimate Edition made it watchable
The Benefactor - bad Richard Gere movie

Cinema

Deadpool x 2
10 Cloverfield Lane
Captain America: Civil War x 2
X-Men: Apocalypse - I watched this a second time (without sound) on the flight home from Europe
The Secret Life of Pets
Doctor Strange
Arrival x 2 - great movie
David Brent: Life on the Road - doesn't measure up to The Office or Extras
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - yep, in cinema
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story x 2

Netflix

Last Knights - weird setting Clive Owen revenge film
Jesus Camp - frightening documentary about Christian child abuse
Ip Man x 2 - great martial arts movie
Unbreakable - confused Bruce Willis
Inside Out - not as mind-blowing as I thought, based on all the hype I heard
Terminator Genisys - not very good
Jodorowsky's Dune
Conan the Barbarian - my first time seeing it, totally weird plot structure, but in keeping with the "adventure epics" of that time
Special Correspondents - mediocre Gervais made-for-Netflix film
Only Lovers Left Alive - I didn't know anything about this movie going in, so it surprised me with how good it was
The Beach - Leo and Swinton in a lightly dystopic escapist paradise?
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - fun with Tom
Bridge of Spies x 2 - the second time I watched this was with Mrs. K after we drove across the actual bridge of spies
The Awakening - intriguing horror movie with Mrs. K, but not my cup of tea
The Big Short - realistic horror movie
Deadpool (3rd time) - caught this yet again at a friend's house when it came out on Netflix

[The Shoemaker]

I did go to see Rogue One all the way back in 2016.

It was a good movie, I enjoyed the ride. It has some plot and character issues, but overall I was captured in the theme of hope.

I'd say I enjoyed it more than the three prequel movies. Hard to say where it ranks with the rest of the movies as it has been a while since I've seen them, but I feel confident saying I liked it better than A New Hope, and just below Jedi, with Empire and Force Awakens coming out on top.

[Kong Wen]

Tonight I watched Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Lo & Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. It was kind of whimsical, but ultimately unsatisfying. I also noticed that Carnegie Mellon was overrepresented... not sure if that was just because of Herzog's scope, or because most of the research he wanted to talk about was happening there.

Posted some thoughts in the chat shortly after watching:

Hard to really characterize what I felt was wrong with it. Almost like it was a weird middle-ground between shallow pop history and deep philosophical speculation, and he should have just committed to one or the other. The fact that many of his interviews were with technical/science/nerd types didn’t help, because they had a hard time trying to speak plainly about their topics. The result was just kind of boring summary.

He interviews two kids who were in an internet addiction rehab facility, but the most we got out of that section of the film was a quote from one kid about "as soon as you start thinking about the game instead of your real friends, there’s a problem." Not much more meat than that. To be fair, Herzog's main interest in these kinds of projects is usually the personal experiences of the odd ducks, so I can see why he may not have wanted to go into the psychological/sociological depths of analysis and research, but each chapter really felt like a disconnected snippet.

[The Shoemaker]

Did some real good Marvel catch up in the last week

Thor: The Dark World
Not bad, I may have preferred the first Thor, hard to say. Either way, neither of the movies are the top dogs in the Marvel universe, but I do enjoy the characters and the movies are still enjoyable.

Iron Man 3
Better than Thor I'd say, the movie actually felt more like an action comedy than it did a superhero flick, which was cool. I really liked how they explored Tony's trauma following the events of the Avengers, a good touch for the character.

Captain America: The Winter Solider
This movie really impressed me. The story went in a direction I wasn't expecting at all. The first Captain America was not bad, I liked his character a bit more in Avengers, but this movie really solidified the character for me.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Just like the last few Marvell movies, I really appreciated the character work in this one. James Spader as Ultron was fantastic, and The Vision was something I wasn't expecting at all, and was really awesome.

Ant-Man
This one I put more on the Thor/Iron Man 3 level. A nice fun movie. I think the sequel will be really cool.

Captain America Civil War
Marvel is really on a roll with the Avenger and Captain America movies. I really liked the real world politics the movie brought in, and dealing with the ramifications of all the previous movies. It was even a bit of a cliff hanger ending for a lot of these characters, since we're getting a Spider man and Thor movie this year, I'm guessing we won't hear much of these characters until Ant-Man 2.

In terms of big movies, I think I only need to catch up on Dr. Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy now. I'll probably wait for Dr. Strange to hit Netflix, and I'll get to Guardians eventually. Not sure how far I'll go into Marvel TV shows. I'm interested in watching Agents of Shield almost entirely to see what happens after the results of Winter Solider, and I hear Jessica Jones is pretty good. We'll see.

There's two more planned Avengers movies coming up, does anyone else get the feeling that this Marvel universe story is coming to an end? At least for Captain America and Iron Man anyways. But the time the forth Avengers hits these movies will have been going for more than a decade, and it certainly feels like they are building up to a conclusion.

[Kong Wen]

Ant-Man
This one I put more on the Thor/Iron Man 3 level. A nice fun movie. I think the sequel will be really cool.

It's along the lines of the first Thor. Thor was a fish-out-of-water comedy, and Ant-Man is a caper comedy. They're playing on genres quite nicely with these side-series entries.

In terms of big movies, I think I only need to catch up on Dr. Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy now. I'll probably wait for Dr. Strange to hit Netflix, and I'll get to Guardians eventually.

Doctor Strange is on par with the first Iron Man film—a good solid character-based movie that sets the stage for something. You really should prioritize Guardians of the Galaxy, not only because it's among the very best of the Marvel movies (on par with the Avengers and Captain America-tier ones you like), but also because there are plot elements that pave the way for things that are coming in the Avengers series. When Guardians first came out, it was thought of as tangential, because there aren't really any character cross-overs, but as time as gone on since its release, it's becoming more central.

Not sure how far I'll go into Marvel TV shows. I'm interested in watching Agents of Shield almost entirely to see what happens after the results of Winter Solider, and I hear Jessica Jones is pretty good. We'll see.

Jessica Jones is good, but also the hardest to watch. I'd say Daredevil's second season is the best thing Marvel has on TV, but you have to watch the first season first. It's also good, but it suffers a bit from "origin-storyitis" as we have to watch a foundational Marvel hero come into his own over 10 episodes. Even though there aren't any character cross-overs from the MCU, they still mention a lot of little references that you'll pick out. I'd say they're worth watching when you get a chance!