What was the last movie you've seen?

[catnip]

Looks like a fun movie, catnip. I'll have to check it out!

Let me know if you do! It's a basic buddy cop movie, but I'll be damned if it doesn't nail the formula.

[Raging Justice]

So I'm getting back into enjoying some martial arts movies again, maybe seeing Donnie Yen kick ass in John Wick 4 has something to do with that

Speaking of him, I watched:

Dragon Tiger Gate

after seeing it pop up in a youtube video about underappreciated martial arts movies. I gotta say, it DESERVES to be underappreciated. There's a fantastic fight scene in a restaurant early in the movie that had me pumped for what was to come. Sadly, it's all downhill after that.

The movie's pacing is rushed, perhaps because it is based on a Chinese comic book and they are trying to cram all that into like a two hour movie. Big moments happen and have little effect on you because they come too quickly. Deaths that should have an emotional punch just don't.

Also, the movie has three protagonists or I guess if you want to get fancy a protagonist, a deuteragonist, and a tritagonist. Unfortunately, the movie establishes early on that Donnie Yen's character is seriously OP and that never changes, making the other two characters seem kind of pointless (a shame given that they are quite likable and charismatic). There's never any doubt that Donnie is the only one who will be able to defeat the main villain.

Lastly, the movie descends into over the top, CGI, video game nonsense near the end. You have characters gaining new fighting abilities after cheesy montages, rather than the story doing the work of making those abilities seem earned through training and character development. It's like, "Oh, it's time to fight the final boss so we need to instantly level you guys up now....CUE CHEESY MONTAGE WITH LOTS OF SPECIAL EFFECTS". Then the final battle comes and these guys are doing silly looking video game moves with tons of CGI...which is ultimately all pointless anyway cause the villain isn't gonna lose until Donnie Yen's character shows up. Oddly enough, I found Donnie Yen, as talented as he is, as the most boring character in the movie. I was way more into the other two heroes. Donnie's character is just this brooding, bore throughout the whole movie while the other two heroes are fun and likable. There's an interesting romance for Donnie's character, but the movie doesn't have time to really flesh it out.

Also, I forgot to mention that Donnie and one of the other heroes are brothers. Early on it feels like the movie is going to eventually give us a nice Double Dragon style, Jimmy vs Billy, epic, brother versus brother fight...and...it just...doesn't.

This is the best part of the whole movie right here in this youtube link, and I kind of wished the movie focused more on the dude doing most of the fighting here, you'll also see near the end of the clip how they tease the epic, brother vs brother, fight that the movie never delivers on. :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhTwrp ... dyGiovanny

I also watched:

Plan B: Scheiß auf Plan A

A German martial arts movie. That's interesting. There's good and bad in this movie. It has a lot of well shot and choreographed fight scenes. However, the movie tries to be an action comedy. Some of the comedy works, but some of it falls flat.

Also, the movie is kind of unfocused and all over the place. One minute you're watching a big cheesy, action set piece that feels like something out of The Expendables or an old 80s action flick, only to later discover that the entire scene never actually happened, the next moment you're seeing a foot chase turn into a fight when the guys getting chased suddenly remember that they can actually fight, then you have a weird dance sequence with a guy imitating Michael Jackson, then you have a fight in a bar that ends...when our heroes just run away from their opponent...oooookay.....the next moment you're seeing a fight in some crypt under a cemetery involving some weird cult and a guy who can apparently teleport despite the movie never establishing beforehand that there were any supernatural elements in it (or featuring any supernatural elements after this). This scene ends on a weird joke involving politics. I just found myself scratching my head at how odd the movie was at times.

There's also these really pointless, comic book style, words that pop up onscreen throughout the movie for sound effects or to punctuate something a character says. It's just...stupid, and adds nothing to the movie. It's like they wanted the movie to have a comic book style visual appeal, but they don't do anything else to accomplish that. Movies like 300, Sin City, and Scott Pilgrim fully commit to this idea and go all the way with it.

The movie has four heroes. They are kind of all over the place in terms of how likable they are. They each have cool moments, but other times they get bad dialog or lame comedic moments that fall flat. The movie also doesn't really have a strong villain which is an anchor that any good action movie needs. Whose the bad motherfucker that they have to fight and take down in the end....well, there really isn't one. They just fight random people throughout the movie and then have to deal with two villains with guns in the end, with help from a cop.

Just a weird mess of a movie. There's good action though, and some of the humor works, but overall a rather underwhelming experience. If you can enjoy a movie ONLY for the fight scenes, you might enjoy it. It has little else of value.

These two movies taught me that you can't always trust youtubers recommending "underappreciated" movies, though oddly enough there were some other movies it recommended that I have seen before that actually ARE good. I guess everything is subjective.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Has anyone else seen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse? We saw it in a theater, and it was stunning. Perhaps the most gorgeous animated film of all time.

[Raging Justice]

Has anyone else seen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse? We saw it in a theater, and it was stunning. Perhaps the most gorgeous animated film of all time.

I wasn't that interested in it, but it is getting a lot of good buzz. Right now Spider-Man seems like the most reliable IP from Marvel other than Guardians of the Galaxy, as far as movies go, video games too in fact.

[Raging Justice]

The Batman



This was much better than I expected. I had doubts about some of the casting choices, but Jeffrey Wright completely nails Jim Gordon. Robert Patterson, who I never thought looked the part of Batman, actually embodies a sort of younger, early in his career, sort of Batman really well. Andy Serkis makes for a decent Alfred, though I don't think this is the best live action version of the character. He's good enough. Zoë Kravitz is the best Catwoman in live action we've had and that's coming from someone who really liked Pfeiffer's take on the character, but a lot of that is due to how well written Catwoman is in this movie as well. Colin Farrell gives us an excellent, grounded, and realistic take on Penguin (compared to the freakish, Tim Burton version), and our main villain is also an excellent live action take on the character and the best one we've had so far, though that's not saying much.

The movie tells a pretty good story that went in some directions that surprised me a bit as a long time Batman fan. It's very much a Batman detective story, more so than the other movies I think. I think it also focuses a bit more on who Batman really is than previous live action movies did. The movie has more of a, personal feel to it, a Batman movie that really is about Batman whereas some of the others felt like they were more about the villain or more about Gotham or more about what a sort of mythic figure Batman is. It sounds weird to say, but this feels like a more intimate Batman story than the Nolan and Burton stuff. It's about Batman the human being, his past, his relationships, his world view, what drives him, how he views law enforcement (and how they view him), and what he believes he represents to the people of Gotham City.

I also like how there are moments in this movie where we see a Batman who fucks up (rather hilariously in one scene), unlike the usual perfect and infallible Batman we typically get in media. He's still learning in this movie and sometimes that perfect at everything facade we so often see with Batman gets dropped. That said though he's still portrayed as a guy who 9 times out of 10 is more skilled, talented, and intelligent than everyone else in the room.



We got an odd looking version of the Batmobile (in that it kind of just looks like a regular car), but the scene featuring it is pretty great and I like it better than the Bat tank we've had before. In fact, after playing Arkham Knight I never want to see anything involving the Batmobile and tanks ever again.

I sort of like how the no killing thing with Batman is handled in this movie. It feels less like a preachy, moral imperative and more like it's just not worth the cost of how it will change you sort of thing. It also becomes sort of a statement on what Batman ultimately believes his role in Gotham to be. In other words, and I'll spoiler text this since I'm maybe giving too much away

He's not like Frank Castle, out there to enact revenge on the criminal elements of Gotham

Minor gripes:

I'm a bit over "Batman voice". I like how Kevin Conroy was able to sound like a normal human being even when speaking as Batman. I think even Keaton pulled this off well if I remember. Patterson and Bale both have this thing of trying really hard to sound serious, broody, and scary. It's how everybody does the character now, including fan made stuff on youtube. I think it would be interesting if someone did a Batman movie where he simply uses tech to distort his voice so he can just speak normally even when in costume instead of having to try so hard to sound like "THE BATMAN". I think we are reaching a time where so many super hero movies have been released in Hollywood that certain tropes are starting to feel a bit tired, and I think having a weird voice when in costume is one of them.

The fight scenes are fine, but never on the level of something like a John Wick movie. I feel like none of the Batman movies have really delivered in a major way when it comes to fight scenes. They usually feel good enough, but not stellar. I think I'd like to see a really seasoned action movie director do a Batman movie with balls to the wall fights involving some of the most dangerous martial artists in the DC universe like Lady Shiva, Deathstroke, etc. with action on par with some of the best Hong Kong/Asian action movies. I've yet to see a live action movie capture just how much of a true, badass, martial artist Batman is in comic books/animation and how ridiculously skilled the few people in the DC universe who can actually beat him have to be as fighters.

I'm not gonna say where this ranks alongside the other live action movies, but it's better than Dark Knight Rises. And while Batfleck grew on me in the Snyder cut of Justice League, his take on the character isn't up there with Bale and Keaton, I think Patterson's is though. I don't know how well this movie was received, specially considering it came out at a time when people weren't super impressed by most of the live action DC stuff, and were maybe even starting to experience super hero movie fatigue. I think this movie would have blown people's minds if it came out at around the same time Batman Begins did.

[marurun]

I had no interest in this Batman movie, but your review kind of makes me want to re-evaluate that stance. I really like the details you highlight.

I do want to say, however, that even though the comics and moves gush over how much fight training Batman has had, I still can’t imagine him as a polished martial artist. I don’t know if it’s Frank Miller or all the past Batman movies but all I can see in Batman is a drag-out brawler. I don’t think those molded rubber outfits help much in that regard. Maybe if I saw a recreation of those Daredevil fight scenes with Batman instead of Daredevil I’d change my mind. Can’t help but wonder if some of this Batman was a kind-of response to Daredevil.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I agree with @Raging Justice. The Batman is a solid movie. I hope we get at least one more from that team.

[PretentiousHipster]

Yea it was quite fun. I felt like the Nolan films failed to be a noir (at least Batman Begins had that aesthetic) whereas this film was successful in getting that noir vibe.

[REPO Man]

Watched The Super Mario Bros Movie last night. I thought it was funny and charming.

[Raging Justice]

Watched Sha Po Lang 2 A Time for Consequences



So Sha Po Lang, known internationally as Killzone, is something of a classic in martial arts cinema. I never really saw the sequels and at one time didn't even know they existed. So out of curiosity, I checked out this one. It's a very solid movie with great action and a pretty good story that got me emotionally invested in the outcome. What's interesting about this one is that we got Tony Jaa as the noteworthy star cast in this one versus Donnie Yen in the first one. You also got two other great stars here in Zhang Jin (who I've seen in Ip Man 3 and the Ip Man spinoff Master Z) and Wu Jing. They're all bad asses in this movie

I should note that the movie's story doesn't connect in any way to the first film, so it's technically not a real sequel. However, there's various call backs and musical cues from the first film, but anyone can come into this one with no knowledge of the first film. I'd recommend seeing the first one first if you can though.

As I said, the movie has great action. There is a scene involving a prison riot in this movie that has to be seen to be believed. It's so awesome. I love prison riots in action movies and video games (there's a fun one in the Gotham Knights game from last year). The sense of chaos you get in prison riots is a lot of fun and that comes across in the prison scene in this movie.

About the only gripes I have are that some moves they do in this movie look pretty unrealistic and there's a weird looking CGI wolf in one scene. Those things pulled me out of the movie a bit. I like for a movie like this to stay grounded in reality. You can do crazier stuff in like a wuxia film cause it's expected for those movies to have anime style action, but in a movie like this the fights are the best when the moves aren't too over the top. Fortunately, that is the case most of the time in this movie. I don't really get the CGI wolf though. Weird. The scene where it's prominently featured didn't make much sense to me.