Movies You’ve Only Just Watched

Off-Topic
#794

Kung Fu Panda

Saw it on a whim last night since my sister had seen a video essay on it and wanted to re-watch it.
It’s been a looooong time since I’ve seen the film. It still holds up really well.

  • Got some great physical comedy if that’s your thing, the fight scenes and the training montage in the middle of the film have awesome choreography!
  • Part of me is very confused as to why they canonically refer to the world as “China” (or Animal China at least), since the choice of voice-actors just feels weird and wrong, in some ways. Ya got Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman as the trainer, 3/5 of the Furious Five aren’t Chinese (David Cross as Crane, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Seth Rogen as Mantis and yes he does the laugh!!)
    Jackie Chan also barely gets any lines in this other than some grunts too, which dissapointed my sister and I.
  • I thought the opening and events went much too quickly, intent more on pushing the story and characters forward to new events rather than world-building than I’d have liked.

What surprised me in the credits was Jennifer Yuh Nelson directed the opening dream sequence and the Furious Five bonus short. I know her name as the Supervising Animation Director on Love Death + Robots S2 and 3. What’s even cooler is she managed to go from this movie, to straight up direct Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, so good for you Jennifer!

Makes me want to watch KFP2 and 3 sometime in the future too. Never seen them before and I’ve heard they were really good follow-ups.
(Actually, that’s a lie. I did watch KFP2 at a Summer Camp long, long ago. However, I don’t remember anything from it and my experience was terrible. The Summer Camp somehow got ahold of a terrible, off-the-street camcorder version, so when we watched it mid-day with a projector, the colours were all too bright, it was blurry, and sound quality was terrible.)

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#795

I saw Prey. It… wasn’t that good. Very little restraint. Dumb looking mask.The kill at the end was silly. I thought it was really well shot and the first quarter or so was really atmospheric, was enjoying it until the predator makes contact with Naru’s tribe. It became kind of loud and boring and didn’t really stop.

I would have preferred a quieter movie more focused on, you know, hunting, instead of the action-heavy brawl sequences that comprised most of it. I thought it could have been interesting if the brother turned up skinned after he killed the lion, and the discovery of the predator was played out slower like in the first film.

Was looking forward to it, wanted to like it, but didn’t really. I’ll keep watching these movies until I die, but they just keep disappointing me.

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#796

Like so many other users in this very thread, I have also watched Prey. For what it is, I would call it great. It’s the best film in the series since the original. It’s not high cinema and it would not be fair to judge it by those standards. It’s an interesting premise to set the film in the early 1700 century with a lot of social commentary that reflects our world today. The plot was simple and it worked well for the film, It was more interesting the the majority of the modern blockbusters like 90% of what the MCU spits out and it’s a shame that it didn’t see a cinema release.

I loved the more ritualistic look of the predator, being a bit more low-if and not as technological advanced as it’s modern counter part. I would be interested in seeing more films that take place in the past, like the Viking Age, Old Greece / Sparta or feudal japan. One thing is for sure The Predator from 2018 is horrible, the monster shouldn’t being doing slapstick comedy. Here I’m referring to the scene where it massacres a team of SWAT in the back of a van and when the driver says “is everything alright back there?” It uses a body limb to make a thumbs up. It was at that point I knew the movie was beyond salvaging.

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I also finished the Netflix Resident Evil tv series. I can’t say I outright hate it. The films I always had a soft spot for. They managed to create something worse then the worst film in that franchise and that doesn’t really say much.

The series follows to timelines and in both Jade Wesker is the main character. It centers around her relationship to her twin sister and her father Albert Wesker. They recently moved to New Raccon city in South Africa which is a closed off company town own and operated by Umbrealla corp.

The otter time line we follow a grownup Jade in a post apocalyptic world on a hunt for a cure towards the zombie plague. All in all it’s extremely boring setting, the majority of the films and many other zombie shows take place in a similar world.

It’s a shame that the series ends up being a teen drama, I had higher expectations for this adaption. Especially with the overall reception that fans had to the film series. We deserve something more then a teen drama.

The thing the series does best is allude to the past events, like the Racon city incident, William Birkin and the Arklay Mountains. The overall best part of the show is Lance Reddick as Albert Wesker. Recasting Wesker as a black man seems to lose some of the social commentary from the games. Him basically being a Nazi’s wet dream, it loses this parallel to the our reality and the monstrosity of the Nazi ideal. Also seeing a flashback to the past, he looks more like a 90s Blade with a high top and minus the sword. Long black leather trench coat and black leather outfit.

I’m unsure if they are trying to allude to this Wesker and his origin to mirror our history with slaves. If that’s the goal, its an interesting premise that basically isn’t explored or might not even exist. Since at the end of the day it’s all relatively low effort. It’s clear that the series has also received it’s share of hate for being “woke”. That is far from why this show doesn’t work, but many will use this as a excuse to hate on it.

Yet for some reason, I kinda enjoyed it and would probably watch season two. If that ever gets made.

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#797

“Woke” is just lazy shorthand for “anything culturally and socially that I don’t like”.

To me, it felt like a fan fiction that couldn’t quite figure out what it wanted to achieve but the author was clearly a fan and very well versed in the lore. I’m definitely with you in watching more (assuming Netflix can resist the urge to be garbage for a few minutes)

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#798

I’m very much aware of this and is why I used quotation mark. And it is indeed a term that have been thrown around regarding the show.

I doubt that it will receive a follow up show, still it’s actually significantly better than the recent animated show published by Netflix.

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#799

Upon closer inspection, I see your quotations. :sweat_smile: I’ve lost what respect I had for IMDb in that regard; it’s all just “reviewers” insulting each other and taking it out on shows and movies. It’s atmospheres like that that make one feel like one isn’t allowed to enjoy anything anymore… :man_shrugging:

Netflix is an enigma that even Netflix doesn’t understand so who knows? One can dream.

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#800

Rewatched Prey, it’s not that bad. Still a bit too action-heavy imo but it’s a fun time, does a lot of things right. If this movie gets enough buzz and we wind up getting more historical Predator movies in the future on the level of this one, I’d be more than okay with that. The movie also has me replaying Concrete Jungle and AVP Extinction lol

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#801

Still haven’t seen Prey yet, and am hesitant to do so. I can buy the idea of a young woman Comanche being the one to tackle the Predator, it’s not outside the realm of possibility considering how they’ve been beaten before. Everything I’ve read indicates they avoid the cliche “girl power” stuff that you’d think they’d go for and instead make it a more realistic struggle, and I hope that’s true. However, I’m wary from the description of the Predator’s “first hunt on Earth,” which I hope is just asking about this particular specimen, because it’s been well established that Predators have been hunting humans for thousands of years. Also, like the Terminator and Alien franchises, Predator has had problems with sequels, being unable to recapture the magic more than once and getting harder and harder to please people with every entry… and frankly I think that’s Bill Paxton’s fault, he’s been in each of these damn franchises.

#802

Is it? I don’t recall anything like that.

Oh. Alien vs. Predator? We don’t speak about that.

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#803

Yes, we do. Plus, the various legends of the demon who makes trophies of man.

#804

It’s an action masterpiece. I would say it is a must watch. Has some of the best Schwarzeneggar one liners.

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#805

As someone who has very little memory of predator I can say this.

Stick Around.

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#806

Well, I got bad news for you. Based on Prey I don’t think they’re considered canon anymore. I mean, it’s not explicitly stated, but it can be inferred.

Also “the demon who makes trophies of man” is a line from the original Predator which contains no reference at all to “thousands of years”, but only to the old women of the village knowing about it, so luckily that can still me canon. :slight_smile:

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#807

Add that to the pistol from Predator 2.

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#808

Dude. I don’t think pistols existed thousands of years ago.

From Predator 2:

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you should probably see the movie btw

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#809

The point is, whether thousands (yeah, AvP) or just hundreds, I highly doubt this is the first time the Predators have hunted on Earth. Perhaps that clan, but I highly doubt the species. And yes, I know about the pistol.

For now, I can’t watch the movie unless it’s released on something other than Hulu. My subscription was cancelled months ago, and my wife currently dislikes them, so may not have it for a while.

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#810

Seconded. It’s a classic and a fantastic movie. And once you do watch it, you can check out the HISHE video.

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#811

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is an adorable, moving, heartbreaking film that has big heart on a small scale.

The film is based on a very old series of short films (also called Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) made by Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate, from about 11 years ago, that became a huge viral hit.
(Maybe not viral enough, I hadn’t heard of it until I’d heard of the movie this year.)

It’s a documentary-style film about a 1-inch tall shell called Marcel that has one massive eyeball and two shoes on his feet, how he manages to live in this massive world of a house he inhabits along with his nana, Connie. But after finding out about the [even more] massive, massive world outside, Marcel tries to use Dean’s documentarian skills to spread the word and find his extended family who disappeared many years ago.

The film has so much heart and imagination to it, in how Marcel finds ways to have fun and explore the massive house (I love his hamster-ball-like Tennis Ball “rover”) and the film uses some great stop-motion animation and tilt-shift cinematography to film tiny areas of the house.

There’s a wonderful culmination of events in the film when Marcel’s story gets broadcast on 60 Minutes, and he gets to meet Leslie Stahl, his idol.
This is also followed by an equally memorable moment and most tragic part of the film, his nana’s death. Her character was handled in such a way that it hit really too close to home for my family. The grandmother had memory issues, then after one random fall everything kept getting worse, until it reached its end… God, it’s so heartbreaking, but such a beautifully melancholic moment I did not expect to see in such a cute film tonight :smiling_face_with_tear:

It’s really nice. 10/10 from me. There’s nothing I didn’t enjoy from this film.

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#812

The characters in the films were likeable. Alice, Rain, whoever the Israeli guy from Duece Biggalow Male Gigalo played… The little girl, the Redfields, and the guy played by Mike Epps, One, Jill and Kmart… were all easy to like. Even the first version of Issiacs is likeable sorta- and just when too many have gone away they bring them all back in the one with the clones. Terrible movies but I love them too :joy:

Thanks for warning my off about the show though. I was hoping it would be worth it but if it’s half as bad as you say it is then I’ll skip it.

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#813

I saw Prey yesterday, was an alright movie. I doubt it will ever be a cult classic like the first Predator but imo its the best since Predator 2.

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