What Movie Are You Watching?

After my weekly 2 hours of work on Saturdays, my wife and I had an early lunch, then she took off for her hair appointment, down in Maple (where we both grew up, which is about 45 minutes south). Thus, I FINALLY had some downtime to watch Saving Ryan's Privates.

Saving Private Ryan (1998):

An elderly man walks down a pathway, with his family in tow. He comes to the Normandy Memorial/Cemetery and he falls to a knee, stricken with grief. He then reminisces... (even though he wasn't present for the first hour 45 of the film lol).

Omaha Beach on D-Day, dozens of boats (LCIs; "Landing Craft Infantry)" head to the beach , with the anti-tank/ship obstacles scattered throughout. As the first boat lowers its ramp so that the soldiers can make their way onto the beach, they are immediately bombarded by artillery fire and all are killed dead. The same happens to a further two boats, when Tom Hanks' character yells for his battalion to jump over the sides, to avoid the fire. As more and more boats come into the picture, more and more men are gunned down, until eventually, enough break through to get to the seawall. From there, they (Hanks' battalion) are able to pick off a few artillery men and make their way up to the battery, where they snuff out Germans and torch the battery. Eventually, after heavy, HEAVY casualties, the Americans break through and secure the beach (I'm leaving out a ton of details, which aren't really spoilers, but they add to the intricacies and nuances of the wonderfully-shot, but brutal sequence).

Like many who saw this film on their first viewing, I needed to take a few minutes to myself, as I began to tear up at the scene that just transpired; it didn't happen as soon as the scene ended, but the subsequent scene in the military offices, where people typed the telegrams sent to the families of dead soldiers, is what did me in, as it sunk in just how terrible and sad the whole war was and how so many people were mindlessly-killed, like in the previous scene.

Anyways, one woman (presumingly, a, "supervisor," of sorts) sees one letter and immediately stop to go and collect two more; the letters are all for the same mother, who has lost 3 of her 4 sons. She brings them to the officer in charge (played by an armless Bryan Cranston), who in turn goes to a top General, to inform him of the plight of the family. The General then creates a special mission, tasked to Hanks and a group hand-picked by himself (all but one are members of his battalion), to go and extract the 4th son (Private James Ryan) and send him immediately home.

I'm not going to spoil anymore, as I firmly believe that this is required viewing for every person on this planet; I have never lived during wartime, my grandfather, who died before I was born, was an ambulance driver in WWII and few stories (aside from the, "cardboard boots," one), have ever been told to me, thus I truly do not know the ultimate significance and experiences of WWII... but if this film is even a small glimpse, Jesus Christ, I do not EVER want to be involved in something like this. I have never cried as hard as I did for any film, the way I did towards the end of this film and all throughout the credits; not because of the images and scenes that were depicted on-screen (though they absolutely were harrowing), but because, like above, it sunk in just how lucky and privileged so many of us are, to not have gone through the atrocities of war... I am so grateful for anyone that fights for their country, with pride, courage and love, but I am 100x as grateful now, after watching this film. There's a reason why so many soldiers with PTSD, had it come back in waves or get magnified, after a viewing.

Aside from the message, however, this is an absolutely phenomenal film, definitely one of the 5 best films I have ever seen. There's a reason why Spielberg is put on such a massive pedestal and it is so-deserved. I think WWII brings out the best in his filmmaking, as Schindler's List is also on a level that this film reaches (I watched in Grade 10, far away from the screen with my poorish eyesight and while I remember the film well, I need to watch it again as an adult, as the magnitude of the images on-screen will 100% have a different meaning now, than they did half my life ago) and I'm glad he was recognized for his efforts, with that film and this one. Only 1 other film IMO, displays the brutality and bleakness of war that SPR does and that's Bullet in the Head, by John Woo (I wrote about it in the earlier pages of this thread).

The acting is incredible, from Barry Pepper, to Giovanni Ribisi, Edward Burns, Adam Goldberg and Vin Diesel, the crew of guys come off with fantastic chemistry and Burns' fate at the end was perfect; I was really happy for the character. But Sizemore and Hanks in the two main roles (I say, "main," in that they are the two in-command of the group), just as incredible, Hanks especially; I'm always captivated by his characters, but he took it to another level in this film: they all did. I'm in-concert with many, who feel that Diesel should've gotten more screentime, but I'm glad that this catapulted him to bigger things for himself (F&F, namely), but the rest of the cast has a perfect amount of screentime, IMO.

Probably the greatest element that stood out to me however, was the cinematography; I can say without hyperbole, that this is the best-shot film I have ever seen: angles, lighting, filters, shades, techniques used, I was in awe at just how beautiful the film looked. The famous 10-20 second shot of the group walking over a flat field at night, with explosions in the background is sheer beauty and wonder.

I can't believe how much this film moved me; as with every film, despite the hype, I went into this without any expectations... and I was blown away, in every sense of the expression. Again, if you haven't seen this film yet in your life, do it. You may not like the brutality of it, you may not agree with the motivations of the characters or of the war itself, you may not appreciate the fantastic dialogue in inappropriate times or situations, but I hope if you do see it, you come out with a sense of understanding and acknowledgement, that there is a shit-ton of evil in the world... but there is even more good, even if the good has to dance with the devil to get its desired-result, there is even more than a shit-ton of good in the world. And we should feel lucky, lucky that the majority of us don't have to experience what the world did at that time, lucky that we have an opportunity to do good for the world and others and lucky for all of the good times with family, friends and other things that make us happy... because we could live in a world where everyday is depicted like in the film.

10/10, no rounding. One of the greatest pieces of cinema, ever.
 

Audition -- An Absolute Masterpiece of Modern Horror Cinema. It pulls you in with an unassuming story of a middle aged widower looking for a new wife. And then it just gut punches you as it drags into a seedy lurid underbelly of mistrust, pain, paranoia and fear of the unknown. It's still a tough film to this day and still one of Takashi Miike's best.


Yakuza Law -- An anthology film depicting three different stories of organized crime around Japan. I'm am no prude to gore -- I actually quite like a good gore fest when done right -- but I don't know. This one just seemed a little too willing to shock for shock sake and got in the way of telling three potentially interesting stories. 6 out of 10, maybe. Didn't hate it but thought it could have been better than it was.


Lady Snowblood -- A classic revenge film and one that inspired Tarantino's Kill Bill -- obviously, he lifted music straight from it.
 
GODZILLA VS. KONG

Iā€™m a bigger Godzilla fan than almost anything else, including Shenmue. Godzilla (2014) is one of my favorite films of all time, and I had such high hopes for the franchise. Then the franchise continued.

The films have gotten worse and worse. After Kong: Skull Island I had to adjust my expectations. After Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I threw my expectations out the fucking window. After Godzilla Vs. Kong, Iā€™ve pretty much given up hope on getting legitimately good films with these characters.

Basically, this is the epitome of dumb entertainment. A turn-your-brain-off film. The studio seems to have given up on trying to create a good script or good characters all together by this point, and have kept the human characters to a bare minimum. Godzilla (2014), or any Godzilla film for that matter, never had any really good human element to them. But with Godzilla (2014), while bland, the human characters werenā€™t aggravating, Marvel-wannabe, wise-cracking pieces of shit that exist in every modern blockbuster film nowadays. That changed in Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It really, really sucks to see a franchise start beautifully, with a unique vision and interpretation of a character like Godzilla, then totally sell-out to the general audience, the lowest common denominator, and basically become the MCUā€™s little monster brother.

The special effects and the monster battles are fucking AMAZING though, which is why I love this film. But yeah, fuck this movie.
 
I watched Godzilla vs Kong about 2 hours ago
and i have to say (and i'm not joking or anything) this movie has one of the dumbest storylines
i have ever seen in a big cinema movie. Like i'm pretty sure even stuff like Saw part 8
or Friday the 13th part 7 or whatever make more sense.
Everything the human characters do is so random and simply stupid.
The movie tries to explain the actions of the monsters with these human story parts in between
but they are so bad that it would probably work better if the movie wouldnt explain anything at all.

You know i get it, its a movie about big monsters, its not supposed to be deep or anything
and thats fine. The action is cool, the effects are great, the destruction is breathtaking.
BUT these parts are only like 30 minutes of a 2 hour movie.
Everything else in the remaining 90 minutes is about human characters in super clumsy written storypaths,
they feel so forced that it hurts
and they are so 'deep' that you could fit the explanation of these scenes as text on one tissue.

Godzilla vs Kong ! ... no, actually its 'lets follow some human characters doing random things
that work or dont work for whatever reason (theres no logic)
and then here and there, you can see a bit of Godzilla and Kong.'
Sometimes i wasnt even sure if i was still watching the same movie or if i accidentally jumped into something else.
The only decent little part there, was the connection between the little girl and Kong. That worked pretty good.
Everything else was just '???'.

I dont know, ... it was fine this one time to see the monster scenes but thats it.
I will never buy this movie on disc or whatever because there is nothing i want to see more than once.
 
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I guess Iā€™ll never understand this ā€œbrainless entertainmentā€, ā€œbig dumb funā€ thing when it comes to movies. Itā€™s like audiences donā€™t even have any fucking standards anymore. Two giant monsters fighting is no more of a silly concept than a man dressed as a bat fighting a man dressed as a clown, yet the Dark Knight trilogy happened. Logan happened. The new Planet of the Apes trilogy happened. Ridiculous concepts donā€™t need to be grim, dark, gritty, or serious to be successful. But the filmmaking needs to be serious. All this self-awareness bullshit and irony is killing modern day blockbuster cinema.
 
Iā€™m a bigger Godzilla fan than almost anything else, including Shenmue. Godzilla (2014) is one of my favorite films of all time, and I had such high hopes for the franchise. Then the franchise continued.

Just out of curiosity; I am 100% NOT a fan of Godzilla (not due to dislike or anything; I just am not a fan of Kaiju), but I'm curious as to what you thought about Godzilla (1998), with Jean Reno and Matthew Broderick?

Is it as bad as everyone says it is and do you like the look of Zilla that they went with?

I've never seen the film, but as a Non-Godzilla fan, I REALLY like the look of the monster in that film. I know it's very dinosaur-y, but he looked just so menacing and huge!
 
Just out of curiosity; I am 100% NOT a fan of Godzilla (not due to dislike or anything; I just am not a fan of Kaiju), but I'm curious as to what you thought about Godzilla (1998), with Jean Reno and Matthew Broderick?

Is it as bad as everyone says it is and do you like the look of Zilla that they went with?

I've never seen the film, but as a Non-Godzilla fan, I REALLY like the look of the monster in that film. I know it's very dinosaur-y, but he looked just so menacing and huge!
You know, I think Iā€™ve only ever seen G98 once, and that was way back when it first came out. The worst part about it is Godzillaā€™s design though, both physically and its characterization. I think as an overall movie, itā€™s not bad. Very of-its-era (which ironically, I appreciate more than this current era of blockbuster cinema). Itā€™s a decent stand alone monster movie, but not so much a Godzilla movie. I donā€™t think itā€™s as bad as reviews made it out to be, but the Godzilla fandom has legitimate reason to shun the film.
 
enemy mine (1985).

sci-fi movie about a human and alien ( who are at war) crash landing on a planet and becoming friends etc. hasn't aged very well but interesting film which has been ripped off by star-trek several times. some of the special effects are interesting.

i would give it 6.5/10
 

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So I saw Godzilla vs Kong as well and I thought it was pretty awesome. Of course the human story leaves a lot to be desired. I've read reviews that said the Kong humans were good but frankly I only found them marginally better than Team Godzilla. However, wow did they ever deliver on the kaiju action.

Given the general reception so far and the impressive box office take within the pandemic, I'm hoping this continues the Monsterverse so we can get more Kaiju films like Mothra or something.

The special effects and the monster battles are fucking AMAZING though, which is why I love this film. But yeah, fuck this movie.

Lol great comment. I'm a big Godzilla fan myself but I fall on the opposite end of expectations from you. I'm not one of those fans who would ever say "it's a kaiju film, who cares about plot or humans" but I also have really tempered expectations when it comes to the property. The films that I ended up loving have such wild degrees of quality from movie to movie. It's fair to want to see a truly well executed Kaiju film, especially considering that the Monsterverse started with G2014. I love what Gareth tried to do, and I often wonder what his Godzilla 2 would've looked like given that he was the one who announced he was going to bring in Mothra, Ghidorah and Rodan.

That said, I think being huge Godzilla fans also sets us up to get things like KOTM and GvK, because guys like Wingard and Dougherty loved the lesser quality Godzilla films too, and objectively speaking there's a whole lot more of those movies than the quality of '54 and say, Shin Godzilla. I'm not saying Dougherty and Wingard are actively trying to make a dumb movie, but they're essentially trying to adapt source material that already is heavily flawed on fundamental levels. Well maybe Wingard is fine with a dumb movie because it felt like he cut out a lot from the human element. GvK is well paced, but it also feels like there was more lore and world building taking place than what made the final cut.

However I do concede that it's surprising to me that its hard for both Hollywood and Japan to make a complete Kaiju film like the Heisei Gamera trilogy.
 
GvK has given me a whole new appreciation for KOTM in that the human element in GvK makes the human element in KOTM look like The Godfather. It was honestly shocking at how little attention was paid to the non-monster parts. Now, Iā€™m not saying that Iā€™d want every film in this new version of the franchise to be slow-paced like G14, and itā€™s not even like the drama in that was all that great either. I just donā€™t understand why itā€™s so damn hard to find a balance. Oscar-caliber performances arenā€™t needed, nor is any profound message about the human condition or anything like that. But itā€™s like, with budget these studio films have, they totally forget the basics of crafting a decent script, characters, and performances.

I say Wingard (or the studio) seems to have been more willing to make a dumb movie than Dougherty was this time around, given how GvK turned out and what a majority of the critical and general response has been (things like, ā€œthe movie knows what it isā€ or ā€œthe movie doesnā€™t try to be anything moreā€). People criticized KOTM for taking itself too seriously, which I found shocking because I didnā€™t think it took itself serious enough. I think for me, itā€™s not so much treating the property seriously, but treating it with care in all aspects. If comic book movies can do it, I donā€™t understand why monster movies canā€™t.

Iā€™m a fan of the Showa Era films too, but more so from a nostalgia standpoint, and nostalgia is a damn powerful thing. I grew up with old Kung Fu and Hong Kong action films too, but I also know that I wouldnā€™t watch any new films from the genre if they were made the same way they were back in day. Those films, like old-school Godzilla films, are mostly ā€œfast forward-to-the-good-partsā€ type films. Hell, I was watching Sammo Hungā€™s Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, an action-comedy from the 80ā€™s, for the very first time today, and I hated it. Fight scenes were great, but everything else was straight non-sense, like a lot of the non-action stuff from movies of this genre and era were. I can appreciate things for what they are, especially older genre films like this and Godzilla stuff. But for me, thatā€™s that nostalgia talking. For a modern Godzilla film, I just donā€™t see any reason why decent storytelling needs to be sacrificed in order be entertaining. If anything, it should be a hell of a lot easier considering the old films have come and gone. Special effects have come a long way since that era, but it seems basic storytelling has gotten a hell of a lot worse, and a hell of a lot less charming.
 
Well said. I don't disagree with any of that. And it's a fair ask. Speaking of the Hollywood Kaiju films, they're willing to spend to update the special effects from men in suits to awesome cgi mo-cap, why can't we also get a story worthy of a respectable blockbuster that is faithful to the property they're adapting.

I think ultimately, the industry is not there yet to pay enough respect to kaiju films by giving anything more than great cgi action setpieces. The studios are misinterpreting that the audience only wants their monster films awesome and dumb, and as happy as I am that GvK is thus far a box office/critical success, I fear the takeaway is that story doesn't matter all that much for this type of film.

Look at comicbook films. Taking away the first Reeve Superman film, it took Hollywood a hell of a long time to realize the audience can accept the "silly" costumes and stories until Marvel truly got the balance right. Before that, stories had to be really grounded, be incredibly campy or provide meta-commentary on why they don't wear spandex because Hollywood assumed the audience wouldn't accept anything else.

But yeah hopefully if these monster films continue and are equally as successful then maybe we finally get a truly great flick. With the wealth of Godzilla material and human characters out there, the opportunity is there to make a special story with engaging humans.

Speaking of which, I just realized, is the Toho license with WB/Legendary for Godzilla up now?
 
I think overall getting the license doesnt seem like a big problem.
The responsible people at Warner / Legendary said that Godzilla vs Kong was the final target of this Monsterverse for now
but if there is a demand for more, they could do it. Even when Godzilla vs Kong wasnt even a thing yet,
they already had ideas that would go further beyond Godzilla vs Kong.
So this all reads like yes they only had the license until GvK
but if this makes money they can simply contact Toho again and it will be fine.
Also as far as i know Toho is not working on a Shin Godzilla sequel because they are doing their own
Japan Monsterverse. So it shouldnt be a problem at all to get the license again
if GvK is a huge success in terms of money and the overall reaction is positive.
 
I actually enjoyed GvK more than Godzilla 2014, as a film. The dialogues in GvK no matter how bad you think of them are actually fast paced, to the point and don't actually linger too much on unnecessary drama like other monster movies. They are just there to give context to the plot and what the two monsters are doing at any given time without overstaying its welcome, and it works. To my surprise the director this time around really focused on the monsters almost the entire movie, giving them personalities and enough screen time for them to have emotions. It was specially exhilarating watching Kong a path of self-discovery in a grand fantasy sci-fi adventure setting or the suprisingly joy seeing Godzilla sort of laughing at his nemesis when Zilla was winning the battle. In short the movie is very visual pleasant to watch, while the action and performance capture by the monsters are top-notch.
 
Well said. I don't disagree with any of that. And it's a fair ask. Speaking of the Hollywood Kaiju films, they're willing to spend to update the special effects from men in suits to awesome cgi mo-cap, why can't we also get a story worthy of a respectable blockbuster that is faithful to the property they're adapting.

I think ultimately, the industry is not there yet to pay enough respect to kaiju films by giving anything more than great cgi action setpieces. The studios are misinterpreting that the audience only wants their monster films awesome and dumb, and as happy as I am that GvK is thus far a box office/critical success, I fear the takeaway is that story doesn't matter all that much for this type of film.

Look at comicbook films. Taking away the first Reeve Superman film, it took Hollywood a hell of a long time to realize the audience can accept the "silly" costumes and stories until Marvel truly got the balance right. Before that, stories had to be really grounded, be incredibly campy or provide meta-commentary on why they don't wear spandex because Hollywood assumed the audience wouldn't accept anything else.

But yeah hopefully if these monster films continue and are equally as successful then maybe we finally get a truly great flick. With the wealth of Godzilla material and human characters out there, the opportunity is there to make a special story with engaging humans.

Speaking of which, I just realized, is the Toho license with WB/Legendary for Godzilla up now?
This is exactly my fear, one that Iā€™ve had realized since Kong: Skull Island. Itā€™s just been a bitter, bitter pill Iā€™ve had to swallow since then, no matter how hard Iā€™ve tried to adjust my expectations.

I am really happy that I can vent my thoughts about this here though. On the Godzilla forums that Iā€™m part of, itā€™s nothing but absolute praise for this film. Iā€™d be shunned as a troll in an instant.
 
I am really feeling my age since I haven't watched this since I was twelve. Good old nostalgia when anime was a niche underground commodity.

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