I Just Watched (Films)

[Animalmother]

The 3D printing sequences are hilarious as the lab techs start to give less of a shit about his wellbeing.

[Raid]

The Super Mario Bros Movie

An extremely competent and authentic adaptation of a videogame franchise to the big screen. I doubt I'd be able to count every little reference it makes to the games, but it includes enemy designs that haven't been seen in decades and specific levels from the 1985 game; I think I spotted something from every single mainline Mario game. They don't go mad referencing the offshoot games; I think Mario Kart is the only one that makes an obvious appearance, and it's a little disappointing there's no Smash Brothers references despite there being an extremely obvious place to put them. It does earn bonus points for the nihilistic Luma, which was certainly a choice, and got my biggest laugh.

It does a much better job than the recent Sonic films did of bringing the feel of the game series to a cinema audience, but then it was always going to being an entirely CG production set in the Mushroom Kingdom that probably cost substantially more to make. It maybe plays things a little too safe, but at least it does manage to escape the tedious bodily function jokes that every kids film seems to mandate. I still don't agree with Chris Pratt being cast as Mario, but he does a perfectly acceptable performance, and the rest of the voice cast is pretty good.

I did want to make specific mention of the music. I'm a big fan of the franchise's soundtracks, and there are *so* many musical nods from the games in this. I'm not actually sure how much totally original music there is (although the composer was Brian Tyler, whose music is pretty well known for blending into the background entirely, so it's possible I just didn't notice it), all of the big action scenes seemed to be scored with one or more recogniseable themes. It's actually a little disappointing every time they trot out one of the extremely safe licensed music choices (Holding Out for a Hero, Thunderstruck, Mr. Blue Sky etc.), because they don't really match the rest of the film and feel a bit out of place. I also don't really get why the "Peaches" original song got so much attention when the film came out - I'd actually held off listening to it (it kept being served up to me by spotify) as I expected it'd be, well, good, but it feels like it's only there because they cast Jack Black.

[Can't think of one]

Better than the 90s classic?

¬_¬

[Raid]

I was disappointed not to have found some reference to the Bob Hoskins / John Leguizamo (two peas in a pod) classic anywhere. There's probably one been snuck in there somewhere by the animators, but I suspect Nintendo would very much like to pretend that the 90s film never happened.

[Animalmother]

Sinners
This is a little bit different. A horror movie set in 1930's Mississipi with blues music and vampires. The first half is a period piece about twin brothers who return to their home town after years working for the Chicago mob and open a black speak easy. The second half is a blood spurting brawl with musical vampires. The music itself is great with an interesting mix of genres. I really enjoyed it but might not be for everyone.

[Sly Boots]

Sounds a little bit like a period From Dusk Til Dawn lol

[Animalmother]

Sounds a little bit like a period From Dusk Til Dawn lol

Pretty much but with

Spoiler

Irish vampires rather than Mexican

BTW this isn't some weird find on Netflix. It only came out last week and has made about 3 or 4 times it's budget.

[Stormbringer]

The Super Mario Bros Movie

I watched this last Sunday with my kids. I think they enjoyed it. There were laugh-out-loud moments all round. I didn't like nihilistic Luma, though. I know it's meant to be "funny" (though I don't think it was), but I think it was an unnecessarily sour note in a kids movie. Otherwise, pretty enjoyable. Wouldn't have watched it without the kids. Wouldn't have enjoyed it without them either. I thought the whole Bowser wanting to marry Peach plot was really daft and shouldn't have been his goal.


I just watched All Quiet on the Western Front.

I've heard some armchair historians are up in arms about inaccuracies (no change there, then), but it was a delightfully brutal and bleak take on the Great War from the German perspective (which is refreshing). Superb acting throughout. I really enjoyed it, and far more than 1917.

[Lenny Solidus]

Werewolves

I'd been hearing a great deal concerning this movie which involved everything from ohhhh it's the new Dog Soldiers (no it isn't - not even close, bud) to do not even attempt to watch this movie - the lens flare ruins the entire viewing experience (is it overused? fuck yes it is, but it's clearly more a design choice due to the minimal budget) so when this recently appeared on sale for £3 I knew I had to snap it up. I am a huge Frank Grillo fan. If only Hollywood would utilise the man more, his Crossbones was great - his exit somewhat pitiful.

I found it quite decent overall and much more in line with Grillo's other Purge works than I had anticipated, I found myself actually caring about the fate of the characters even if they were somewhat two-dimensional. It is purely dumb fun and precisely the kind of movie you want to watch late on a Saturday night that requires nothing more than your attention for 90 minutes while you scoff your face. The actual premise and how it was represented early on I actually really loved, is Werewolves going to win any Oscars? That's a negative, did it entertain me for an evening? Hell yes. It completely tanked at the box office you understand but apparently found an audience on demand so who knows if we will ever see a follow-up, I'd certainly like to. A tighter script a little more action and a lot less lens flare, sure I'd eat up a sequel. Grillo himself has such great rough and ready screen presence always fully commits to any and every role and his one-liners are always amazing, on top the man looks ridiculous for 59. I still strongly believe he could play some form of alternative Wolverine.

Spoiler

Being able to directly discern which Werewolves were the actual set characters you were introduced to pre-turning phase was such a great decision and truly made you get behind the whole I hope that fucker gets it now train of thought. No longer faceless/nameless post turn and seeing Werewolves still wearing biker jackets with piercings still intact etc was just plain cool looking. Some will say it looked dumb/cheesy, but I highly disagree, I'd much rather be able to identify the characters I want dead once they do turn purely for the funsies.

6.5 Wolf Collars out of 10
(Lots of room for improvement but honestly this quite surprised me)

[Rusty]

Werewolves sounds great. Having read the IMDB page (which rips it a new one - no puns intended), i'm even more inclined to give it a go.

[Raid]

I thought the whole Bowser wanting to marry Peach plot was really daft and shouldn't have been his goal.

In fairness to the filmmakers, that was the plot of the most recent (at time of release) main line Mario game, I figure they probably had to stick to that as his motivation even though it didn't make sense there either.

[Alan]

Sinners

Dusk till dawn but it’s about racism. I thought it was good, enjoyable, stylish but I don’t think a lot of it works. The music through the ages scene was cool as hell but just didn’t fit, the supernatural speed and abilities of the outsiders is suddenly gone come the climax, the shootout should have been satisfying but felt more like “racists, lol”. As an example, Stephen King will make you hate an antagonist so that a comeuppance has you going “yaaas!” where here it was just a nonsequitur that felt like nothing. Scene by scene great, I loved the juxtaposition of the awesome blues party with the banjo hoedown, it just doesn’t come together for me.

Cool as hell but left me feeling kind of empty once it was finished. Loved the cameo at the end though!

[Animalmother]

Good assessment of it, very enjoyable but some stuff just didn't work.

Most people in the cinema got up and left once the end credits started and missed the additional 10 minute scene. Was there another bit after that again?

[Alan]

Just the…

Spoiler

Buddy Guy showing up as old Sammy. I’ve not really listened to him in ages but I used to love him in my younger years. Another scene that was cool as hell but just didn’t work. I kind of feel if it was more devil and demons than vamps it might have worked better but I’m no film maker so ahunno. Crossroads meets Demon Knight would be badass!

[Stormbringer]

War of the Rohirrim

I'm not really into anime, but I do like The Lord of the Rings, and I'm willing to tolerate anime if it's an adaptation of something else I like, such as Terminator Zero.

This was very good indeed. It could have been better, I think, but the animation was slick, the visuals beautiful, and even though the music wasn't Howard Shore, the composer imitated Shore's Rohirrim theme throughout, which was very nice, and nostalgic.

The plot feels a little "we've been here before", but that's just the nature of telling an earlier story in the same location, I guess.

My first thoughts, when the film was over, were: "I wish they'd just remake the trilogy in this style, rather than trying to make a new appendix-based film."