Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[doc photo]

I'd love to see it on the big screen but I haven't been in a theater since last March and don't feel comfortable going now. My wife and I are scheduled for our second dose of the vaccine next week - maybe a trip to the movie theater is possible in a couple of weeks.

The Baron said:

I'm glad it was good.  No idea when I'll get to see it, though.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

GODZILLA VS. KONG: Am I the first on the board to see a new blockbuster? (Usually I'm the last.) This one was pure fantasy... and I mean that in the best way possible. The movie takes one of the oldest 9and most easily disproven) fantasy tropes ever and made me want to believe it. I can wait until someone wants to start a thread to discuss it further; I just don't have it in me.

[Richard Willis]

The latest guidance is we're fully vaccinated two weeks after the last dose.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN: The first movie Tracy chose to watch on our Disney+ subscription was this one she saw once as a kid and barely remembered. 

FAMILY PLOT: Kevin put the idea to watch this one in my head last week, I movie I saw once as a kid and barely remembered. 

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Yes, but at the same time they are still advising against travel or indoor activities with strangers. It's confusing.

Richard Willis said:

The latest guidance is we're fully vaccinated two weeks after the last dose.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Watched 1938's The Test Pilot last night, recorded from TCM. It's a little melodramatic at times, but boy does it work. Clark Gable is Jim, a test pilot, pushing the extremes of the planes he's hired to fly, and Spencer Tracy is Gunner, his best friend and mechanic, fully aware of the risks of the profession. But Gable's sudden marriage to Ann (Myrna Loy; sassy and fun as always), and then the death of a fellow pilot, puts those risks into much higher relief -- stressing the relationships between the three of them. I'd never heard of this movie before it showed up on TCM, and I'm so glad I took the time to watch it. Apparently it was one of Loy's favorites. 

[Richard Willis]

This morning one of the experts (Dr Michael Osterholm*) attempted to clarify this on Meet the Press. Surges (particularly the B-1-1-7 variant) are popping up in Michigan and some other states. He likened being fully vaccinated to buying a fireproof suit that is reliable 90-95% of the time. Don't walk into a fire to test it. 

*Director of Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota

Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod) said:

Yes, but at the same time they are still advising against travel or indoor activities with strangers. It's confusing.

Richard Willis said:

The latest guidance is we're fully vaccinated two weeks after the last dose.

[JohnD]

SPOILER ALERT!

While avoiding my know it all brother in law's latest lecture on everything he knows nothing about, after Easter dinner, I found myself watching Wonder Woman 1984. A disappointing movie, that was, however, a far kinder fate.

The movie opens with a young Dianna in competition on Paradise Island, seemingly to remind us who she is, but more importantly setting up the films ending by providing Dianna with the ultimate means of defeating the cleche'ed 1980's businessman, Maxwell Lord. The sequence is well done; and, I couldn't help but find myself defending young Diana against the outcome of the contest. From there we get another action sequence that introduces the magic mccguffin that grants anyone who wishes upon it thier one true desire. I may have actually groaned out loud at this ridiculously simplistic idea. To make a long story short, this is how Steve Trevor returns. Maxwell Lord gets it, and assumes its power, sets about granting everyone on Earth what they want (Barbara Minerva wants to an "apex preditor" hence the forced, and frankly needless, tranformation into the Cheeta) and ultimately causes his own down fall, with Diana's help, of course.

On the positve side, Gal Godot demonstrates true acting skills, once again, giving me the impression that she can do far more than this role, that she actually defines, can offer her.

In the end, I found this film too long, too sappy, and too simplistic (to point of sillyness). But, it kept me at peace with family by keeping out of the same room as my brother in law; so, that in itself earns it a five star rating in my book.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

THE LIFE OF BRIAN: Inspired by Bob, I watched this for the second time. I didn't see it at all until the early 2Ks, and remembered it primarily as a Christmas movie, but other than the opening scene, it's really more of an Easter movie. It was funnier than i remembered. Priior to seeing it for the first time, I wasn't aware those two songs came from this movie.

[JD DeLuzio]

We just saw Norwegian Wood, the 2010 Japanese movie based on the 1987 novel that takes its title from the 1965 song. We found it moving, though fans of the novel-- it's in the queue to read-- often say it's missing a lot of what makes the book work. I could see where we probably should have known more about some of these characters, but I think the minimalist and visual approach works. 

It would probably help to know more about 1960s Japan as well.

[The Baron]

Interesting, I'd not heard of that.  I've read a number of Murakami's novels, and I agree that many of them might be difficult to interpret on films.

JD DeLuzio said:

We just saw Norwegian Wood, the 2010 Japanese movie based on the 1987 novel that takes its title from the 1965 song. We found it moving, though fans of the novel-- it's in the queue to read-- often say it's missing a lot of what makes the book work. I could see where we probably should have known more about some of these characters, but I think the minimalist and visual approach works. 

It would probably help to know more about 1960s Japan as well.

[JD DeLuzio]

I haven't read Murakami. I'm told this is (in Japan) one of his most popular, but also his least typical, as it's more or less a realistic work.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

NIGHT OF THE IGUANA: A 1964 film directed by John Huston and based on a play by Tennessee Williams. It stars Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon ("Lolita" herself) and, yes, Grayson Hall. It was even better than I remembered it. I don't know why we didn't watch it when Bob was here (oh, yeah... because Tracy hates it), but I'd recommend it to anyone. Except Tracy.