Movie Discussion

[Guest]

This is a general thread for any movies that don't warrant an independent thread (I.E new films, major releases, etc.). Post what you've been watching, give some general thoughts, and let's converse about our (I hope) love of film.

Below is the picks for Anime-Planet's Best of Movies threads. Every two weeks I'll post a separate thread to discuss the genre and allow people to make choices, then we'll vote on our favorites. Below are the categories and as the threads are wrapped up, I'll populate the categories with the winners:

Anime Planet's Favorite Action Hero: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Spoiler: Anime Planet's Best of Movies

BEST MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE
BEST ACTION MOVIE
BEST SCI-FI MOVIE
BEST FANTASY MOVIE
BEST CULT FILM
BEST WAR MOVIE
BEST MOVIE PRE-1950's
BEST MUSICAL FILM

I'll start with Shaolin Soccer (2001). I've seen it probably twenty times in my life and I never get tired of it. The underdog sports team premise combined with the ridiculous wire-work/CG martial arts of the early 2000's makes for a hilarious piece of film. It's by Stephen Chow, who is more well-known for Kung Fu Hustle. It's strange that many friends of mine who have seen Kung Fu Hustle had no idea about Shaolin Soccer. I love both...but for nostalgiac purposes I prefer SS. Definitely worth a watch for martial arts fans.

 

[Gens]

I think this thread is going to be shut-down to be honest. I mean, we did have a general movie discussion thread before, but that was locked away, so I'm really not sure anymore, what's okay, or not.

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

I think this thread is going to be shut-down to be honest. I mean, we did have a general movie discussion thread before, but that was locked away, so I'm really not sure anymore, what's okay, or not.

@ratchet573 and I had a conversation about creating this thread. I'm going to leave it open with the understanding that this is like the retro video game thread and is for discussing older, less popular movies that aren't going to generate much discussion with their own threads. However, this only works if users are willing to post actual threads for new movies or super popular older series that still have a large following.

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

I'll start with Shaolin Soccer (2001). I've seen it probably twenty times in my life and I never get tired of it. The underdog sports team premise combined with the ridiculous wire-work/CG martial arts of the early 2000's makes for a hilarious piece of film. It's by Stephen Chow, who is more well-known for Kung Fu Hustle. It's strange that many friends of mine who have seen Kung Fu Hustle had no idea about Shaolin Soccer. I love both...but for nostalgiac purposes I prefer SS. Definitely worth a watch for martial arts fans.

I enjoyed both films, but I give the edge to Kung Fu Hustle, because it's basically a Loony Toons cartoon brought to life. There's lots of great references and quirky bits of humor in there. Shaolin Soccer has its quirky bits, but it's a bit more straight forward as a sports movie and for me a little less interesting.

Love the Loony Toons physics in this scene.

 

[NeovilusAlpheim]

I enjoyed both films, but I give the edge to Kung Fu Hustle, because it's basically a Loony Toons cartoon brought to life. There's lots of great references and quirky bits of humor in there. Shaolin Soccer has its quirky bits, but it's a bit more straight forward as a sports movie and for me a little less interesting.

Love the Loony Toons physics in this scene.

Stephen Chow's one of the legends when it comes to hilarious and creative jokes like this XD
Man that scene never gets old! And I love how badass this scene was...

Btw anyone watched his "Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons" yet? If you haven't, you should check it out.

 

[Guest]

I watched Journey to the West but I remember nothing about it. I'm guessing it wasn't real great if I can't even tell you a single thing about it. I have The Mermaid sitting on my desk right now, I'll probably watch that in the next couple of days.

 

[NeovilusAlpheim]

@ratchet573 Well I gotta admit, Journey to the west wasn't as funny as Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer, but it was still enjoyable.

@Arkthur Ahh yes, the classic animated DC movies. Then I'm guessing you watched Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox too? Cuz I like that one better for some reasons.

Spoiler

Especially the part where Barry had his leg pierced through or the part where Batman's Dad shot Eobard Thawne right on the head in an angle where the audience could see his brain or something.

Speaking of animation... Is it weird that I find WALL-E as one of the best and most romantic movie Disney had ever made?

 

[Guest]

Last night's film was La La Land, a film I assumed would be a happy go lucky Hollywood circle jerk about two individuals falling in love and making it big in the city. Turned out to be a well-directed, beautifully composed, and rather sad story. It drug out a bit in the middle but for the most part, I was completely engaged. The show tune-y stuff was pretty par for the course but the jazz music was outstanding. I can see why La La Land won best picture for two minutes, it is one of the best technical movies I've seen in a long time.

 

[NeovilusAlpheim]

Oh really? Haven't watched La La Land yet... welp, another movie to add to my movies-to-download list!

 

[randomredneck]

Yes, La La Land. AKA, White Man Saves Jazz.

 

[WolfAngelus]

I wanted to do this + retro tv shows.

After watching some newer stuff, the conclusion is that older movies were better.
Went back and watched all Fast & furious movies.
The next adventure was all 4 Shrek movies. I wish they would have done more with Shrek.
Next up on the retro revisiting list is going to be movies like Spy Kids, Shark Boy Lava Girl, Rush Hour (all), Beverly Hills Ninja (or anything with Farley), Live Action Scooby movies, Don't mess with the Zohan (one of my fav movies). Then some lesser known stuff like Bridge to Terrabithia and whatever other cloned movies I have in my box.

I know there are tons more that I don't recall right this minute. Thinking about going as far back as Disney movies too. I will have more to comment later.

 

[NeovilusAlpheim]

Yes, La La Land. AKA, White Man Saves Jazz.

Now I really wanna watch this XD

Speaking of Jazz, it reminds me of one of the older stop-motion animation musical movie called The Nightmare Before Christmas. Never really liked musical movies, but I was surprised that a movie this old could make me appreciate and wanna try more musical movies.
The other newer animated musical movies I watched too were Song of the Sea and many more.

@WolfAngelus Bridge to Terabithia was fun to watch and also gotta love Jackie Chan movies like Rush Hour

 

[Schizm]

For me the return of a thread like this is more than welcome since I love to talk about a shit ton of older movies and don't necessarily keep up with most new ones anymore (a shame really, I blame it on the 2000s). Still think the 80s were an amazing time for movies, especially for the action and horror genre. Watched Escape from New York again and it just gets better every single time you see it. Truly one of Carpenter's best and Snake is just as important to me as as an 80s action badass as a John McClane or Dutch Schaefer is.

 

[Guest]

@randomredneck White man didn't save nothing in that movie.

Yesterday night my buddy gave up on watching The Big Boss starring Bruce Lee. He was under the impression it'd be hard hitting but didn't realize early martial arts movies just don't have the style or punch that Jackie Chan brought to the table or especially the more modern stuff. I've never been a huge Bruce Lee fan. I respect the hell out of the guy, but his films have never wowed me.

So instead we watched Crank 2. The Crank movies are great cult films if you're looking for the fastest ninety minutes of your life. Shot in a bizarre MTV style where the camera never stops doing things and with all kinds of random asides and quirky choices...it's hard to describe Crank. They're definitely not for everyone either. Lloyd Kaufman played an extra in Crank 2 and I guess that will tell you what demographic of people Crank is made for.

 

[ZetsubouKaiji]

So instead we watched Crank 2. The Crank movies are great cult films if you're looking for the fastest ninety minutes of your life. Shot in a bizarre MTV style where the camera never stops doing things and with all kinds of random asides and quirky choices...it's hard to describe Crank. They're definitely not for everyone either. Lloyd Kaufman played an extra in Crank 2 and I guess that will tell you what demographic of people Crank is made for.

I'm pretty sure someone was on crank when they made those movies. The thing I enjoy about them is their so unabashedly weird and revel in their excesses. Shit like this was completely random and hilarious:

Most of all they're movies that don't give a shit what anyone thinks about them, which is nice sometimes. It let's them be as crude and offensive as they want to be, but it doesn't come across as mean or misanthropic. They're just movies about a bunch of bad people doing horrible, but entertaining shit to each other.

Jason Statham's filmography is pretty dubious, but the Crank movies are some of his best work.

 

[Guest]

@ZetsubouKaiji I watched the first one yesterday just because I was in the mood and thinking back on the Lloyd Kaufman cameo I realized that Crank is kind of like a Troma movie but not as offensive or really trying to be as gross as possible. Crank is full of really wacky scenes and characters but I never felt they were going too far. One of my favorite jokes in the first is when Statham throws a middle eastern cab driver into an open-air restaurant and starts yelling "AL-QUEDA". Old ladies start beating the crap out of him while he yells that he loves Bush. In a Troma movie, this would have ended with the guy turning into a giant falafel or actually having a bomb vest...and it would have ended with some sort of grotesque gore. Crank may be too much for some people but given where its influences lay, they did a good job of knowing where a joke should start and end and how far to take a joke or a scene. Toxic Avenger 4 is my go-to for pointing out why Troma movies are so disorienting and jarring compared to Crank or some other wacky movies like Crank. TA4 starts with a classroom full of mentally disabled "children" being taken hostage by a bunch of grown men in diapers with machine guns. And the scene goes on for twenty minutes. Part of me laughs because it's so ridiculous and I can't believe someone actually put this on film. Another part of me questions why the hell I'm laughing at something that is obviously so morally depraved. By the end of that movie, I'm so numb to the grossness and racism and everything. Troma movies tend to fail for me because they numb me to horrible things in the first ten or twenty minutes where the shock factor is gone and you see Troma as what it is: Lloyd Kaufman being a messed up man-child with enough money to produce movies that are nothing more than shocking to be shocking.

Crank didn't numb me. It never went too far and it paced itself. And on top of that, like with the Al-Queda joke, it cuts before it goes too far and the fast paced MTV style means they can't linger too much on one thing anyway. Crank is the kind of great low-budget over-the-top hard-R movie I wish I could find more of.

It's sad Statham isn't too reliable. His work in Fast and Furious is great, the first two Transporters were fun, but nobody seems to really utilize his talents. He keeps getting cast in lame, unmemorable action films. He's got all the right ingredients to be a fantastic action star but hardly anyone makes pure action movies anymore. I'm guessing he'll wind up in a Tooth Fairy sequel at some point. It's kind of like The Rock. These guys are operating in a time without Cannon Films to really let them shine as pure action heroes.

 

[randomredneck]

I tell you what, The Nice Guys is a damn good movie. I never heard much about it back when it came out, bar a couple commercials. And it apparently didn't wow at the box office. Then I watched it today, and spent a good chunk laughing my ass off. Never thought Ryan Gosling could play such a hilarious, useless schmuck. And Russel Crowe playing a violent wacko...well, I'm guessing that came easy for him. Good stuff. Really regret not seeing it sooner.

 

[Guest]

^^ I enjoyed it quite a bit as well. Watched it on HBO one night when there was nothing else on and I agree. It was pretty hilarious and a darn good time.

Yesterday night I had no luck with any movies. The Witches was boring and dull. Rio was totally not for me. Game of Death cemented that Bruce Lee movies suck, to me at least. Universal Soldier was garbage. Hara-Kiri was boring. And Lock Down was boring. So I quit six movies in one night. Hopefully tonight I can sit down and actually enjoy a film.

 

[Guest]

Tonight I attempted Azumi, a samurai movie with some of the lamest sword fighting I've ever seen. Nothing more exciting than watching a woman flail a katana around a crowd while they scream and play dead. Pretty embarrassing.

So I finally, after seven movies, have sat through an entire film. Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It's a slow-burn psychological thriller about a man who discovers his doppelganger and meets up with him. There is all kinds of symbolism and metaphors and I was thoroughly confused to the end. After reading a few explanations of it, I kind of want to watch it again just to connect the dots for myself. Definitely worth a watch if you're into well made low-budget films. It's Denis Villeneuve, who I think is the greatest director working today. He's consistently produced fantastic films for the past five or six years and the fact he's in charge of the new Blade Runner makes me hopeful for it. He also wants to tackle Dune which is exciting.

 

[NeovilusAlpheim]

Well made low-budget film? The only 'well made low-budget film's I've watched were The Raid and The Raid 2. I thought it was normal to spend tens/hundreds of millions to make movies... :| at least until I watched those two.

Hmm... another movie for my movies-to-watch list!