This Old Neon Forum

Last night I watched Jason Bourne, which was just fine. It had the feeling of the originals, which is good, although ironically there seemed to be less Bourne in this one. He was more like a machine that progressed through the story than an actual character,

After that, I watched Porco Rosso, which is now (at least for now) my favourite Ghibli film (only because I didn't like Princess Mononoke and I haven't seen any others). It was good, but somewhat sadder than I expected. It had a nostalgia for a very specific time and place, not just in the ending, but throughout. Porco knows that his world has already changed. Some great animation, too, especially for its time.

Kong Wen wrote:Last night I watched Jason Bourne, which was just fine. It had the feeling of the originals, which is good, although ironically there seemed to be less Bourne in this one. He was more like a machine that progressed through the story than an actual character,

After that, I watched Porco Rosso, which is now (at least for now) my favourite Ghibli film (only because I didn't like Princess Mononoke and I haven't seen any others). It was good, but somewhat sadder than I expected. It had a nostalgia for a very specific time and place, not just in the ending, but throughout. Porco knows that his world has already changed. Some great animation, too, especially for its time.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the Bourne movie, I actually remember falling asleep in theaters watching it

I saw Beauty and the Beast last night at the theater.

I love the animated version, and it might be in my top 10 movies of all time. If you are fan of that version, you will also enjoy this one. The story goes a little deeper than the animated version, but follows the same basic plot with all your favorite songs and a few additional ones. I pretty much sobbed through the last 1/3 of the film.

Regarding the gay character controversy: SO MUCH GAY SEX IN THIS FILM! Kidding. It is so subtle. I can't believe people could be offended by this in a movie where a girl falls in love with a giant animal beast.

Go see this movie. It is entertaining and will make you feel good. It will not win best picture, but it will entertain you.

Damn, I've watched a few since I updated this thread.

Last night we watched The Nice Guys, Shane Black's latest acclaimed hit. I knew I was going to like it, because, Black, Gosling, Crowe, '70s LA. It was better than I thought it would be. It did a great job of melding the comedic moments (Gosling has chops) and the action set-pieces. Plus there's something about the over-the-topness of 1977 and the over-the-topness of LA. I give it a '77/100.

Guardians of the Galaxy

This was a fun one, I originally planned to play Zelda while I watched but I actually had to put it down to pay better attention! I'll likely see the sequel pretty soon.

Picking up from where I left off long ago:

Doctor Strange - I had already seen this, but I re-watched it with Mrs. Kong (her first time). I didn't enjoy it as much as I did when I saw it in cinema, perhaps because of the primacy of the special effects, but it's still a serviceable and notably compact film. Not much wasted time, nice quick narrative progression from act to act.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky - Another Studio Ghibli classic. It reminded me a lot of Ni no Kuni, which I guess is understandable. Mark Hamill was of course instantly recognizable in the dub. I think I prefer Porco because of the strange historical situatedness and the Mediterranean summer charm.

Fences - An excellent performance by Denzel, which I later learned is probably because he's played the damn role multiple times on Broadway! Something about the film, either the blocking or the performances, makes it very obvious that it's based on a play. I actually though Denzel's character was a little much, and I'm glad he didn't win the best actor Oscar for it, but the actor who played his brother did a marvelous job. Overall a very good, but quite heavy film.

Moonlight - Best Picture winner, and well-deserved. This was an excellent slow-burn, with great, subtle, nuanced, and patient performances from all the main actors. I also liked how the movie was structured. Highly recommended for anyone who's interested in a relatively sparse drama that's not necessarily dialogue-driven.

Logan - I'm surprised we didn't talk about this one. Did we talk about this one? I liked it. Stephen Merchant was good. It felt kind of relentless. The kid who played the main character gave an excellent performance.

To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar - This is an old classic. I hadn't seen it before, so I was actually surprised by a couple of things. One was that it was actually quite socially aware for the time (the movie is about Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo as drag queens) and treated its subject matter with some sophistication without beating the audience over the head with it. Two was that the antagonist wasn't just played as a bumbling buffoon/bumpkin, but was actually deeply hateful and quite threatening. It has definitely aged, but it's pretty fun.

La La Land - Best Picture runner-up. It was actually OK, but it definitely didn't deserve to win the Oscar, so kudos. Some of the music got rather repetitive as the film went on. The story actually started treading dangerously close to navel-gazing cliche before it finally switched gears in the third act.

Get Out - Fucking great movie. I managed to avoid all hype and spoilers for this one and caught it in cinema and was suitably impressed. It's a very strange variety of existential horror sprinkled with some well-executed comedic moments. Good performances all-around, too. I don't really want to spoil anything, so I'm not going to talk about how the plot unfolds, but it does so in a very satisfying way.

Kubo and the Two Strings - Excellent movie. I haven't seen Zootopia yet, but it must be pretty good to have beaten this one for best animated picture. I really like how it frames the "hero's journey" narrative format. The animation is, of course, crazy. It's often hard to tell you're watching stop-motion. Not surprising, given the kind of tech this studio has been working with for so long.

Trumbo - A nice historical drama about Evil America. Cranston is good in it, but I suspect that not a lot of people are familiar with the real Trumbo's mannerisms (I sure wasn't), so his performance might go kind of underrated. John Goodman makes a small but typically excellent appearance as well. And Louis CK! And Alan Tudyk! Crazy cast. Bittersweet. It made me want to get an old typewriter, but I remember actually using on and how frustrating it could sometimes be...

Hell or High Water - Jeff Bridges playing a gravel-mouthed western-type guy. I didn't like the ending. I also didn't like one of the main characters. He's not supposed to be sympathetic, but it did make it hard for me to get into their journey. And there were a couple times where the film tries to show the "other side" of the character that I didn't necessarily buy into. The whole film was smothered in a really stifling way by the relentless ravages of capitalism. That's pretty much the point of the movie, so fair play, but at times it started to feel heavy-handed. That's probably the director's influence, though. Overall, it was very tightly-written, and well-acted. I can respect what it did, but I didn't particularly like it.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - This was another re-watch with Mrs. Kong. I enjoyed it again.

I also watched Dr. Strange within the last month or so. Solid movie overall, with characters and a universe I can care about. I imagine it would be much more impressive on the big screen

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World - Never seen this one before, watched it on a whim as I was cooking up some supper. Awesome movie. Great cinematography, the movie builds up a momentum that sticks with it through the whole film.

Moana - Also a very solid movie. I can tell the animators had a lot of fun with this one, lots of varied art styles mixed in throughout the movie.

Picking up from where I left off:

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 was excellent. I don't think it was as good as the first one. The stakes didn't seem as real. They were high, but I didn't feel as threatened. That's OK. Good action, good soundtrack, good pacing. I did like that the way they chose to divide the focus on the various Guardians makes it clear that Rocket is the real leader of the team.

Wonder Woman was excellent. Gal Gadot knocked it out of the park in the lead role. Wonder Woman is a much better straight-laced, innocent, plainly heroic character than e.g. Captain America, and Gadot captures that perfectly. It still had an odd tone, like it wasn't as smoothly formulaic as the MCU films are, and the secondary characters didn't seem as tightly interwoven into the plot, but overall it was enjoyable.

Baby Driver was excellent. The soundtrack, editing, and direction were great. I remain impressed that Wright somehow managed to get a Tyrannosaurus Rex song on a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack. Every actor did a great job, especially Foxx and Hamm. It's pretty light, all things considered, but the joy of this film is all in the execution.

I'm planning to see Spider-Man and Planet of the Apes next. They're both previewing well.

Spider-Man Homecoming

Very good movie. I was a little unsure in the first 15 minutes or so, but it definitely won me over by the end. Without spoilers, I loved the tone of the movie, one of the funniest MCU movies yet. I also really liked the setting, how everything was small time and felt very real. But also showing Peter as a vulnerable teenager who doesn't know everything yet. The movie also continue with what I liked from Civil War - showing how this superhero universe affects the little people.

I also saw Spider-Man Homecoming last night, and I thought it was great. Not quite up to the level of polish and pacing as some of the better MCU films, but it definitely has its place within that group. Michael Keaton was probably the best thing about the film. He put in an excellent performance. I also liked how it portrays Spider-Man as a newbie hero. Tony tells him he's not ready to be an Avenger, and you're thinking "yeah yeah yeah, you're just saying that because you're old, I'll show you!" right alongside Peter Parker. But then the film gradually shows you that he's not ready to be an Avenger. Lots of little things, like bad decision-making, lack of training, not being used to his powers, etc. all show how much room Spidey has left for growth.

Another related strength is how tied-in this movie is to the rest of the MCU. I knew, going in, that it was officially a Disney/MCU film, but I didn't realize just how much of the background and foreground setting would be explicitly nailed to the Avengers. It's definitely more constant than I was expecting, but it works in a big way. It gives the MCU a sense of continuity. There are these big, famous, established heroes, and then there's a new crop of younger heroes (and newer villains) constantly coming into their own.

The final scene to break into the credits was great, so I won't spoil that. The final post-credits sequence was also amazing, and well worth waiting for.