Lizuka Watches Things: #8 - Groundhog Day

[Deleted]

This is a project I've been wanting to do for quite awhile now, and really it's kind of a poor time to go ahead with it given I'm about to have multiple days spent on the road driving to and from Orlando where I probably won't be able to watch anything, but long and short of it, there are an absolute ton of movies I haven't seen that are kind of held up as, "Everyone's seen those, they're classics!" sort of films, and also random things that don't have quite that reputation but do have a fan following and I have some kind of passing interest in. Plus I enjoyed writing my thoughts and random riffs out over the course of watching random PPVs on the Network when it first launched but got burned out on watching that much wrestling and it frequently being three or four hour shows, so this'll be easier (plus I can attest that when I watched Robocop and Caligula as part of that I had a lot of fun).

To that end, I've assembled a list of 50 movies I have not seen (and really it's just scratching the surface), covering a wide range of genres and time periods, with the intention of just watching them as I make the time for them - probably something bordering on daily but it'll really depend - and just kind of logging my thoughts as I go with each of them. Here is the list -

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}12 Years a Slave
Back to the Future
Big Fish
The Big Lebowski
Blazing Saddles
Brokeback Mountain
Casablanca
Chinatown
Clueless
Cover Girl
Die Hard
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters (2016)
The Godfather
Goodfellas
Grave of the Fireflies
Groundhog Day
Halloween
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Heathers
The Iron Giant
The Last Unicorn
The Little Mermaid
Mary Poppins
Mean Girls
National Lampoon's Animal House
The Pink Panther
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Prestige
Princess Mononoke
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Rear Window
Rocky
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Saturday Night Fever
Saving Private Ryan
The Secret of NIMH
The Shawshank Redemption
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Taxi Driver
This is Spinal Tap
Tombstone
The Usual Suspects
When Harry Met Sally
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Xanadu

I don't have any order in mind except a couple of notes, I want people to just kind pick them out for me for some interactivity - maybe just by way of weighing comments made on the subject and then deciding for myself, I dunno, or just a do them in the order someone mentions them thing. The only rules I have in place for myself on the order with this are I'm probably going to want comedies after 12 Years a Slave and Grave of the Fireflies, I'm doing the Ghostbusters remake before the original, and I'm doing Cover Girl before Xanadu. Other than that it's fair game.

Bares noting there are all kinds of classic movies I haven't seen that aren't on that list, but I didn't want to double down on too many series or on one given worker too much and, for instance, I'm more interested in Rear Window than Psycho so it's the one on the list. So I might revisit the list down the line and add on stuff like the other Back to the Future and Godfather movies, or some of the other tons of Disney movies I haven't seen, or Silence of the Lambs or whatever.

So yeah, please kindly post picking out shit for me to watch! Ideally would like to start tonight, probably be up all night anyway.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Out of the films on the list I've actually seen, I would definitely recommend:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}12 Years a Slave
Back to the Future
Big Fish
The Big Lebowski
Blazing Saddles
Brokeback Mountain
Casablanca
Chinatown
Clueless
Die Hard
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters (2016)
The Godfather
Goodfellas
Grave of the Fireflies
Groundhog Day
Halloween
The Iron Giant
The Last Unicorn
The Little Mermaid
Mary Poppins
Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Princess Mononoke
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Rocky
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Saturday Night Fever
Saving Private Ryan
The Secret of NIMH
The Shawshank Redemption
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Taxi Driver
This is Spinal Tap
The Usual Suspects
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Xanadu

That's right, I still need to get to Tombstone.

Rocky, NIMH, Big Lebowski, Roger Rabbit, Little Mermaid, Black Pearl, Ghostbusters 84, Back To The Future, Iron Giant, Godfather, Brokeback Mountain and Die Hard are probably my favorites from that list.

12 Years A Slave is a great work of art, but it's a hard watch.

[Deleted]

It turns out I screwed up and accidentally put 51 movies on the list. Whatever, not cutting one, doing 51 of these I guess. I used a randomizer to settle on a first movie and it's probably what I'll also do for the second. Up first...

Halloween

- First suspicion I at first accidentally turned on the wrong version - it being two hours long. Immediate confirmation I got the wrong one - it playing God of Thunder at the start.

- This is probably going to be marred quite a bit probably by having seen the Cinema Snob review of this movie, gotta say. Like right off the bat noticing the weird cutting with the pumpkin's mouth.

- I do really love how minimalist this opening is, though. Really builds up dread of something happening just through the music and seeing nothing but the slow zoom-in.

- Okay, the first person stuff is mostly done very well and builds a good tone, but the shot reaching for the mask is really sloppy and looks very fake.

- Also opening kill sister's acting is... not really the best.

- Hey, hey! You promised us Halloween, not the day BEFORE Halloween!

- Why you gotta sedate him before the judge? The Mark of Thorn makes him kill on Halloween, not before it.

- The driving scene is very good. Really like how the music doesn't kick in until they actually reach the place and you have nothing but the conversation and the storm, it really makes it feel stripped down and personal, and helps the music kicking in feel really horrifying.

- How on earth did Michael learn how to drive?

- How are they only now selling the Myers' place anyway? He didn't kill his parents or anything, even if they skipped town out of grief you'd figure they would have at least been able to get the thing sold instead of just abadoning it.

- Okay, that's a really well done jump scare at the door, if only because it's very brief and minimalist.

- Oh, cool, they actually do bring up the question of how he knows how to drive.

- This is like the most scattershot classroom ever. The desks kind of feel like they like half have an order but not really.

- Why's that one kid carrying streamers?

- There's a joke about the wrestler somewhere in the Boogeyman thing.

- This is something you never see with horror movies really but I like that running into Michael out and about in this isn't an automatic death sentence.

- Michael has incredible hearing to be able to pick that up through a moving car that far away.

- A modern movie Annie would've been pulled away to her death as soon as she teased Laurie over it being all clear.

- Really Laurie probably should be calling the cops right about now.

- A modern movie probably also would've had that first call actually have been Michael instead of immediately confirming it wasn't.

- Loomis chooses like the worst possible time to interrupt that story.

- Don't Fear the Reaper is an awesome song, that's all.

- The sheriff looks just enough like Dean Ambrose to be distracting.

- If Loomis has been in town all day it's a little weird that it took him this long to get around to checking out the Myers house.

- Michaels broke into that store, was just pickpocketing a cake or something out? Had to jump to eating a dog?

- And then they'll drive into Ben Tramer who's just dressed as him and blow his ass up.

- Does whatever a tarantula can?

- RKO outta nowhere!

- I should've thought to put The Thing on the list.

- Myers standing outside during the phone conversation is pretty damn creepy, but I think it'd work better if it weren't drawn attention to with the stinger and it was something you could potentially overlook.

- I dunno, you sure you want to watch TV with Ant-Man?

- I love that incorporating a complaint about the lack of keys into the song bit. That's such a human little thing you don't really see in movies much.

- I'm kind of torn on the first real kill of the evening being drawn out like that. It is a lot more realistic, but it kind of feels like it takes some of the horror out of it with how long it goes on for just in that one position, especially given the strangling isn't even what kills her.

- Loomis didn't let him go, he escaped. And wasn't even there when he escaped unless you count Michael grabbing the car while he wasn't looking.

- Okay, Myers watching them have sex is creepy, but they have to be extremely unobservant to not notice that.

- The, "Yeah," bit is pretty funny.

- It's set up, but the tombstone thing is pretty damn goofy.

- Hey, he's clearly still breathing, you should really go ahead and drive that knife into him a few dozen times.

- You know, Laurie, you probably would've stood a better shot being ready to strike in the corner of the closet than sitting down and trying to hide. Just left yourself vulnerable doing that.

- Stop throwing away the knife!

- I like that no big deal is really made of seeing Michael's face. It's just kind of a quick it's there then it's not thing never really drawn attention to or made a big thing of.

- It actually works pretty well for this movie that it just kind of stops rather than having a real ending. It helps put over the horror of the situation and just how unexplained within this one Myers is.


Conclusions: There's plenty you can make fun of or question about the movie, but on the whole, it's still pretty damn good with some really effective tension throughout. Quite enjoyed it and I could certainly see myself watching it again sometime.

Using the randomizer again for this one I guess, next one I watch - which might be later in the morning for all I know, don't want to go through these too fast but sort of in the mood and don't know how long I'm going to be up - will be... Halloween 3. Funny, that.

[Mozenrath]

The whole "why does Michael know how to drive?" plothole is usually explained as him having observed people while being transported, and that partially explains it, but doesn't really explain it that much considering I can't imagine he's been moved around all that often. He also could have maybe read it, except I always got the impression he barely did much while at the hospital, I don't think he would have been reading a bunch of books without that being noticed or commented on by Sam Loomis or anyone else.

I do like that in this movie, Michael's actually not really a particularly big dude. That only happens later in the main series, though Rob Zombie's had Tyler Mane in the role for both films, I think, and always hulking.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Halloween is really mediocre to me. Not really bad, I wasn't annoyed with it or anything, but I just wasn't entertained either. Loomis is great and Michael is a pretty good villain and I especially like what a great job they did of making him act like an animal acting on instinct, not understanding what he's doing or why, but driven by an impulse to do it. His "wall pin" kill is especially reminiscent of a cat that doesn't understand why the bird it killed has stopped moving.

But everything else is really dull. The main issue I have with it is that it starts off very strong with the POV opening and Loomis realizing that Michael has escaped and what it means... and after the first third of the movie, nothing really happens for like 45 minutes, until the ending suddenly goes crazy and everybody starts dying, with nothing really connecting the two. It doesn't feel like a slow burn where the down time is used for character development and to build tension, it feels like the movie just kind of forgets it's a horror story, and then suddenly it goes "oh shit! I was supposed to kill most of this cast, wasn't I?".

There are also some really silly moments that ruin the minimalistic and realistic feel it's going for, like Michael dressing in a sheet, with goddamn glasses on, or him somehow knowing how to drive. I would have really loved to see a driving instructor giving Michael lessons. "Now now, mister Myers, if you continue, I'm gonna have to deduct points for stabbing me again. Also, you forgot to adjust your rear-view mirror before going".

But the worst of these moments has got to be Michael taking the tombstone into the bed and propping up with the corpse. Not only does that look goofy as f*** to begin with but you've got to imagine him driving all the way to the cemetery, procuring a shovel somewhere, digging up the stone, putting it in the truck and taking it all the way to the Myers house, all that in broad daylight, without ever getting noticed by anybody. Look, I don't care that it's Halloween and weird costumes and props are everywhere, someone is going to notice the giant freak digging up a tombstone.

And on top of that, for someone who supposedly has no emotion and is acting on instinct, that is a surprising amount of forward thinking and planning, not to mention psychological taunting once it's all setup.

Mar 17, 2017 4:41:50 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

The whole "why does Michael know how to drive?" plothole is usually explained as him having observed people while being transported, and that partially explains it, but doesn't really explain it that much considering I can't imagine he's been moved around all that often. He also could have maybe read it, except I always got the impression he barely did much while at the hospital, I don't think he would have been reading a bunch of books without that being noticed or commented on by Sam Loomis or anyone else.

That's really a case where the explanation only makes it worse. Anyone who's learned how to drive can attest that it's very complicated and most certainly not something you can learn from observation, otherwise children could probably do it as long as they can reach the pedals. And it requires a lot of focus and mental effort, two things Michaels Myers doesn't have (well, maybe focus, but the reflection, not so much).

And yeah, you can't learn that from reading either, it's very much something you need to practice. Plus that opens the next can of worms which is Michael knowing how to read. Admittedly, the kid version of him looks like he's probably enough to have learned to read, but he'd probably still not be very comfortable with it and certainly not able to understand the complex words and concepts presented in a driver's handbook. Also, Michael really doesn't seem like he'd be able to understand abstract concepts or at least relate them to physical actions so even if he read it, he probably wouldn't retain anything from it.

[Mozenrath]

Yeah, I know that isn't how driving works, but if you wanted to make some kind of savant case, that's about as close to an explanation as they could have managed. They probably should have had him just stow away somewhere.

I like Halloween a lot, more than the first Nightmare on Elm Street by a little bit, and about tied with the first Friday the 14th, maybe, but I can kind of get why someone might not, particularly since so much of it, like those other two, would see countless copycats.

[Deleted]

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

- I like the video distortion opening. It's definitely different but it's eye-catching and it fits with how this one's more schlocky.

- Kind of weird the credits only have Cochran's last name.

- Does kind of go on a little long, though.

- That's kind of vague. There's a lot of Northern California.

- I'm... not really convinced that would do that much damage. That car would probably move faster being pushed than it was doing there.

- Something I've always liked about the Silver Shamrock song is it walks this really tricky line between charming and goofy and actually feeling kind of actually creepy. Which even works in-universe.

- Okay, that jump scare scene / vague warning was pretty hokey and not really in a good way.

- Catchy song and all but it's weird that the kids are that hung up on this commercial.

- Just how much air time is Cochran paying for with this commercial? Is there a TV in this movie it's not playing on?

- Early on kind of wondering if this movie might've been received better on release if at least in terms of tone and presentation it felt like the others, because it really doesn't.

- That method of assassination is pretty weird.

- That's a pretty hardcore absurd way to kill yourself.

- So why can't he just say, "There was a murder," instead of the roundabout, "Two men died tonight"?

- I really have no idea what my feeling on this movie's pacing is? Feels like the opening takes too slow, but then I checked the time and I'm twenty minutes in when I was thinking it was more around ten.

- Working in an ad for the first movie is a neat little way to get in a nod.

- I really like this random guy in the town. He's kind of so ridiculously genuine as to be absurdly phony.

- Okay, even with the marriage lie that is ridiculously abrupt.

- I kind of love how ridiculously absurd that beheading was. They pretty much did that inabout the corniest way possible.

- So... Why did the robot set itself on fire under those circumstances anyway? This kind of seems less like covering your trail and more like specifically asking for people to discover at least the robot part of the scheme.

- Kind of late in to ask if she's legal, dude.

- So had no one ever plled one of those giant, totally loose pin things off the mask before?

- Ha, that death is the perfect mix of absurdly stupid and completely horrifying.

- Bares noting if you count the robot and don't count the dogs, this movie's already had as many deaths under halfway through than in the whole of the original.

- Maaaaybe don't discuss the details of your accident brutal murder right in front of someone who's clearly suspicious of you.

- Really? Ya sure you don't want to leave yet? Because everything about this feels like you're about halfway in the grave already.

- She immediately know how to spell that?

- Movie's kind of overdoing it on the camera shots of someone's back as they ominously watch something in the distance.

- For being the biggest mask production company in the world their obvious looks super cheap. I've seen nicer high school classrooms.

- I pretty much immediately really enjoy Cochran. Just a giant ham.

- How stupid is Ellie?

- I was going to say something about how stupid the running to the bathroom thing was but hey, it actually worked.

- The head rip trick is a lot harder to do on main characters I guess.

- Either that's really cheap metal or Challis has super strength.

- Uh, excuse me, it's DOCTOR Challis.

- Oh, good, he corrected himself.

- "Just another form of mask masking." I love how that simultaneously explains everything and nothing.

- Similarly I enjoy the total non-answer on Stonehenge.

- This plan is awfully dependent upon the kids all opting to watch this giveaway and all opting to do so with their masks on and with their parents in the room. Is a well done, creepy scene though, and I really like the music growing more and more frantic as it goes.

- Are time zones running backwards now? How's it darker in Washington than in Baton Rouge?

- Uh, yeah, if you didn't want the loose end at the hospital, maaaybe don't have your guy fry himself in its parking lot?

- Dude, why wait to kill her until after she'd called someone? That just leaves another loose end.

- I really wish Cochran got more screentime than he does. So far I like the movie but it does move rather slow and feels kind of aimless, and he just totally kicks it into gear any time he says or does anything.

- That was an incredible throw. Even with my arms free I probably couldn't land that that perfectly.

- Michael Myers POV bit is pretty neat.

- The logic of that being enough to stop them seems... incredibly questionable.

- I like that one guy selling the death by having his eyes wide open and grinning. Looks a lot more robotic than everyone else just looking like dead people.

- Cochran is seriously awesome.

- On one hand that's something he should've seen coming with how absurdly easy rescuing her was, but on the other, prooobably could've chosen an earlier time to attack him before he wrecked Cochran's shit as much as he did.

- To be fair probably not ALL the kids immediately changed the channel, twice, to try and find the commrcial again. Still probably a f***ton of people died but probably not all of them.

- This is some ridiculously chessy end credits music, it's great.


Conclusions: There's a lot I enjoyed about the movie and on the whole I'd say I liked it, but it can drag a fair bit in the middle and a lot of it feels kind of directionless. I kind of get the sense it'd probably be more fun if I weren't watching it alone, since there's a ton you can snark about or have fun with and it's pretty firmly the kind of popcorn flick that's best fun with a bunch of friends with you watching it.


Next up is going to be, let's see here... Pirates of the Carribean. I guess after a slasher movie and a ridiculous transformation horror thing I might as well go zombies. Ish.

[Deleted]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

- Funny, Netflix doesn't even list the full title when you're playing it. Just lists it as Pirates of the Caribbean: Black Pearl.

- Only actual exposure to the series is having seen Dead Man's Chest and played Kingdom Hearts 2, though kind of feel like I know everything I'm in for going in.

- So. . . Nobody saw the fire until that point? Does this ship just not have a navigator?

- Noooo, he has some piratey-looking jewelry. Immediately jumping to, "He's a pirate!" is pretty damn premature.

- Her skin's a lot darker as an adult. Probably wouldn't even notice if the eye transition didn't make it blatantly obvious.

- That's a pretty modern-looking bedroom.

- The women in London line got a smirk out of me.

- Really? Just going to freely let through the most piratey-looking individual who ever lived?

- So evil that hell itself spat him out, but face turns in the next movie and is pretty much just kind of an antihero from there on out.

- This plan was really dependent on these guys being idiots.

- His purpose in Port Royal is to beat up the Grim Reaper and seal the keyhole.

- I'm really glad they brought up that rocks thing because that was my immediate thought.

- It instantly going to cloudly looking on the border of a thunderstorm soon as she falls in the water is pretty tacky.

- Singapore line was pretty amusing.

- That was a cool escape but it was pretty dependent on none of them thinking to shoot while he was on his way up.

- You know, with how it takes like half an hour before Will actually does anything, kind of seeing why he's not the part people remmeber.

- Hey, Legolas, while he's accusing you of being a eunuch, kick him in the knee while he's not paying attention.

- The Looney Tunes catapult physics are pretty out of place here.

- Even if that's a really well trained or even deaf dog that is about the dumbest possible place to put the keys.

- I feel like probably shouldn't have had two lengthy action beats in a row back-to-back like this? They're at least very different kinds but it's still awkward.

- Really, that light tap on the head knocked him out cold?

- This is why someone really should have taken it the second they caught her.

- I'm guessing they had to cut away from that because there wasn't really any rational reason those two should've been able to take over the ship.

- Looks just like him? Eh, no, I'm not seeing the resemblance between Legolas and Dr. Selvig, sorry.

- Cortez's curse isn't that hard to beat, dude only has 60 HP.

- The skeleton zombie thing animation is kind of too janky. They move really unnaturally, sort of takes you out of it.

- I knew the exchange already but Barbosa's reveal speech is still very well done.

- That's some serious underselling for that deep a gash, even with feeling relieved it's not worse.

- You know, slapping her with the coin in your hand was pretty damn stupid to do.

- It's kind of hard not to notice with this plot that the only thing actually making the villains villains is that they chose about the most evil possible way to get what they want. That's kind of the only actual conflict in the movie.

- How'd they figure out the medallion was at Port Royal anyway?

- Feel like I should go ahead and note that yeah, movie's kind of just giving me nothing to talk about. In the middle of the ship combat scene and and yeah, just kind of going long breaks in between having actually any real thoughts on the movie or anything to say about it.

- If nothing else one thing I will say is I didn't know the monkey was actually kind of plot relevant and given stuff to do, and kind of a threat on a level, I was kind of under the impression it was nothing but comic relief.

- Nooot really, restored, Barbosa, you got the gold but you haven't actually gotten the blood yet.

- Heh, eunuch callback is kind of funny.

- A lot of this movie seems to just be Barbossa benefitting from people not considering the possibility he's underhanded.

- Those are a lot of identical-looking fish.

- I do like the way the movie kind of keeps shifting its focus and bringing different combinations of the leads into focus. Kind of helps their characterizations to see it dipping in and out of showing them in different groupings.

- The pirates continue to look really awkward in motion.

- Shouldn't the guys fingers have been flesh since they were inside the boat?

- How's the arm seem to be aware of its surroundings?

- To be fair the guy basically sacrificed a ship of people doing their job to save his own ass, I wouldn't want to save him either.

- I can't help but notice the level of damage the pirates can shrug off varies wildly depending on the needs of the plot. It's pretty distracting.

- I feel like kind of a dick that most of what I'm jotting down is nitpicks and criticisms because I actually think the movie's mostly pretty good, just kind of not a lot to say about it.

- Nah, he did waste it, dude was resurrected from that.

- Dude, you've got an arm in your drawer still.

- This is a little jarring in that the main characters don't actually know that this is over. As far as they know there's a pissed off formerly-zombified crew with two boats out there ready to kill them all.

- It wraps up some of the lingering plot hooks granted but the ending of this feels pretty belabored.

- It's kind of occuring to me I remember almost nothing about why the plot in Dead Man's Chest was even happening or what Will and Elizabeth had to do with it.

Conclusions: Movie is kind of too long for how little plot it actually has for me to particularly want to see it again, but I did enjoy it and definitely liked it a lot more than I did the second one. I mostly got what I was expecting out of it, just kind of a fun popcorn movie that's good to kill two hours of time with.


Up next is going to be, let's see here... This is Spinal Tap. This'll be interesting.

[Deleted]

This Is Spinal Tap

- Since I didn't do one yesterday might do this and the next one back-to-back depending on what it is since this one's short anyway.

- Wow, movie doesn't take its time about getting right to it.

- First real laugh goes to vomit part.

- I'm pretty impressed by just how incredible some of these ass rhymes are and how it just keeps getting more and more absurd.

- Part of me wants to actually see this cover, part of me prefers it being left to the imagination.

- The constant up and down audio changes with no warning are making this a real pain to watch super early in the morning, keep constantly having to adjust the volume.

- The guy at the hotel also got a good laugh out of me.

- I'll be honest, movie's kind of giving me nothing to talk about. I'm like halfway through it and this is all I've said so far.

- I like the little touch that none of them have a glove on in that stand.

- Xanadu Star Theater. Be funny if Cover Girl or it comes up next.

- Ha, you should see the shit this movie watching experiment has done so far involving children and Stonehenge.

- The dancing around the tiny Stonehenge thing is kind of dumb comedy but I got a good laugh out of it.

- He's got two hands? So he's got a fighting chance?

- I kind of love how these songs just keep getting progressively more insane and offputting. Just kind of keep finding a step up.


Conclusions: Like I said, yeah, had pretty much nothing to say about a lot of that one. It was pretty decent with some good laughs along the way but don't really know that I'd want to see it again.


Up next is Casablanca, might try and get to it this evening. Was going to go ahead and do it back to back with Spinal Tap but not really feeling like it right now.

[Deleted]

These go to 11.

[theironyuppie]

Mar 21, 2017 9:02:38 GMT -5 @therealoblivion said:

These go to 11.

I find D minor to be the saddest of all keys.

[msc]

I like how

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler} Patrick Macnee shows up in it in a cameo and some folk still think its an actual documentary.

[Deleted]

Casablanca

- This is probably going to be absurdly jarring going from Spinal Tap to this, gotta say.

- I really wish opening credits like these were in more modern movies. Do a lot to set a tone.

- It's kind of interesting how the movie simultaneously takes no time at all getting into the action of things and yet takes a fair bit to get to what's commonly most associated with the movie.

- I'm kind of having trouble finding things to talk about again but I am liking it.

- Movie has a lot of good random banter. Lot of conversation that's simultaneously entertaining in its own right and fleshing out the cast and situation, not really feeling much like exposition.

- There's a Fox and the Hound joke in there somewhere.

- The, "Kind of man I'd be in love with," line sounds a lot gayer than it was probably intended to.

- That's the most awkward-looking guitar-playing ever.

- If nothing else I'm kind of enjoying seeing just how many little things I've seen referenced in tons of other movies and shows in context.

- It's always kind of funny when black and white movies make a reference to the color of something.

- Always a good sign when I don't realize just how far into the movie I am. I tend to check the time on stuff a lot but for this one just had to pause it a minute and see I'm already like 40 minutes in.

- Could you technically argue this movie's a musical? There's a ton of singing in it.

- Rick's drunk voice kind of sounds more like he bit his tongue.

- Knowing the trouble behind the scenes on this movie makes it kind of weird to watch on a strictly meta level, since pretty much everything is done well and has a lot of detail put into it. Kind of weird it'd all come together this way seemingly completely by accident.

- I think the issue I'm having talking about this one is there isn't much to riff on so I don't really have anything to say in these short little quips.

- I've gotta say I always love the style of acting from this sort of era. Stuff like this and even as late as the Twilight Zone just have this theatrical quality about them that you don't really see anymore.

- Something else I really like about the movie, the bar seems like a genuinely awesome place to hang out.

- Man, the dueling singing is just a fantastic scene.

- Wow, that was a really good excuse for being come up with that fast.

- That's some real horror movie staging of them going back to their place.

- The "poor salesmanship" line was pretty amusing. Really in general there are a lot of random little lines, especially from Rick, that just make me smirk in this one.

- Wow, Rick has balls of steel.

- I've kind of kept meaning to bring it up but, "Here's lookin' at you, kid," is said a lot more times in this movie than I was expecting. I was figuring like twice.

- This is the most understanding man in the world about infidelity.

- Sam's getting kind of ripped off.

- Despite how widely parodied, shown out of context, quoted, and all that the ending is, it's still very effective in context.

Conclusions: It's Casablanca, of course it's great. Don't know how often I'd want to watch it but definitely open to seeing it again at some point, there's a lot to love about the movie and it really does kind of run the full gambit of emotions along the way.


I'm diving straight into the next one, which is The Last Unicorn.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

I HIGHLY recommend re-watching Casablanca with Roger Ebert's commentary track. It is his favorite movie. It is mine too. I bought collectible Casablanca plates off of E-Bay, like some kind of old lady.

The Les Marsailles scene is easily one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. Oh man, the emotion comes through that screen. So many of the actors and extras actually had fled Europe, and a lot of that was not just acting. Here's a nice little write up about it. It ties EVERYTHING together so efficiently.

seveninchesofyourtime.com/cinemas-greatest-scene-casablanca-and-la-marseillaise/

Michael Curtiz also directed The Adventures of Robin Hood and White Christmas, among many others. His name really ought to come up more often when talking about great directors. I think it might be because he doesn't have a real signature style. Here's a little essay on Curtiz. filmschoolrejects.com/maybe-not-today-the-underrated-michael-curtiz-2ef4caa9a1fa#.hac69yn0q

Fun fact: He also was a reckless asshole responsible for many of the safety regulations that exist today for films

During the filming of Noah's Ark... - "During the filming of the climactic flood scene, the great volume of water used was so overwhelming (600,000 gallons) that three extras drowned, one was so badly injured that his leg needed to be amputated, and a number suffered broken limbs and other serious injuries, which led to implementation of stunt safety regulations the following year. Dolores Costello caught a severe case of pneumonia. Thirty-five ambulances attended the wounded."

[Deleted]

Mar 24, 2017 9:03:59 GMT -5 YAKMAN is ICHIBAN said:

I HIGHLY recommend re-watching Casablanca with Roger Ebert's commentary track. It is his favorite movie. It is mine too. I bought collectible Casablanca plates off of E-Bay, like some kind of old lady.

The Les Marsailles scene is easily one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever. Oh man, the emotion comes through that screen. So many of the actors and extras actually had fled Europe, and a lot of that was not just acting. Here's a nice little write up about it. It ties EVERYTHING together so efficiently.

seveninchesofyourtime.com/cinemas-greatest-scene-casablanca-and-la-marseillaise/

Michael Curtiz also directed The Adventures of Robin Hood and White Christmas, among many others. His name really ought to come up more often when talking about great directors. I think it might be because he doesn't have a real signature style. Here's a little essay on Curtiz. filmschoolrejects.com/maybe-not-today-the-underrated-michael-curtiz-2ef4caa9a1fa#.hac69yn0q

Fun fact: He also was a reckless asshole responsible for many of the safety regulations that exist today for films

During the filming of Noah's Ark... - "During the filming of the climactic flood scene, the great volume of water used was so overwhelming (600,000 gallons) that three extras drowned, one was so badly injured that his leg needed to be amputated, and a number suffered broken limbs and other serious injuries, which led to implementation of stunt safety regulations the following year. Dolores Costello caught a severe case of pneumonia. Thirty-five ambulances attended the wounded."

All interesting and yeah, definitely will have to give that commentary a look some time, has me curious.

And yeah, that's seriously an awesome scene. Just so much emotion there.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

My favorite factoid about Casablanca is supposedly the cast were convinced the movie was going to be terrible.

[Deleted]

The Last Unicorn

- This one's probably my most alien of these movies so far. I've seen Nash's review of it before, but it's been forever and I don't really recall too much offhand.

- I kind of can't make up my mind about the environments in this movie early on. They're somewhere between looking really good and looking like one of those old Dr. Seuss adaptations depending on the shot.

- The human animation though definitely looks awkward.

- I think I'm coming down on the side of liking the environments. Seeing more of it it looks like a very storybook kind of style.

- The opening theme is simultaneously corny as hell and actually pretty emotion-stirring. And very catchy.

- Oh, the music's by America. That completely explains it. So. . . The horse with no name is a unicorn?

- Okay, this butterfly part's weird.

- Rumpelstiltskin joke made me snicker, though on the whole mostly just finding the butterfly kind of annoying.

- How long is this butterfly going to keep dragging this conversation out? We've established he doesn't know her.

- Finally.

- This movie kind of makes it pretty evident it's adapted from a book. Some pretty rapid pacing going on with how quick it's moving from one point to another, which makes you wonder all the more why the butterfly scene went on as long as it did.

- So horse joke I made earlier was NOT cool, okay.

- It's kind of weird how fifteen minutes in the movie has had a lot of random comedy so far yet a lot of it still feels really gloomy and hopeless.

- I know it's not him but the hunchback sounds distractingly like Mako.

- "Speaks seventeen languages badly!" There's something I love about that line.

- All the humans in this movie look really creepy.

- Those are some disturbingly detailed breasts.

- The movie's pacing really is pretty weird so far. A lot of stuff is really quickly gisted over but then you've got the butterfly scene and Schmendrick - and yes I had to look up the spelling on that - taking forever to get her out of the cage.

- Does the punch really hurt that much more being hit with those keys?

- That's a really masculine voice for a character that's supposed to be female.

- Woman really freely offered herself up for a super gory death there. Good thing they didn't show it because that seems like it would have been messy.

- Wow, mentioning tacos is ridiculously out of place.

- Did... Did none of these people notice Robin Hood and co. walking through solid objects?

- Sexual harassment tree is also really out of place.

- That's a pretty cheap way to do a lightning effect.

- Then whiplash from that straight to Molly breakdown. Which is damn good, really hearbtreaking.

- Diminished slightly by the drastic drop in animation quality for a second right afterward.

- This movie seriously has an awesome soundtrack.

- The Red Bull looks about two steps away from being a version of Ganon.

- It's cool, he just wants to give her wings.

- Molly's reactions are kind of being let down by subpar voice flaps.

- The post-transformation exchange is really damn good.

- Nice to meet Christopher Lee and his son Extra From Venture Bros.

- It really is jarring just how cheap a lot of the movie's special effects are.

- "For once you are right?" ... Is he? "It doesn't matter who she is, she's here!" doesn't really make sense.

- That's a really muddy-looking sea.

- And now there's a dragon. That seems really weird to throw in a battle with in the middle of a music number.

- What part of the dragon is that?

- I've just gotta say I really like Molly, she's awesome. Though really to be fair she's not the only one, Amalthea and Schmendrick are pretty great too.

- Pirate cat's weird for multiple reasons.

- Um, pretty awkward to jump from her trying to get an answer from the cat to already knowing the answer in the next scene.

- Extreme close-up on the harpy's nipples because we didn't see enough of that earlier I guess.

- Why's the wall have a dude's face in it?

- The prince is pretty dull truthfully. His design isn't helping, the others kind of have their charm but he just looks dopey.

- For being called The Last Unicorn that's the first unicorn sighting in quite awhile.

- Man, unicorns make Ansem the Wise act like a dick.

- Uh, dude, maybe should go ahead and kill her after you just gave her your big dramatic villain speech? Or at least, like, imprisoner her, or do anything but just walk away?

- The skeleton seriously needs an intervention. Quite the alcoholic.

- How does a skeleton blush?

- You know, king, you could probably really easily kill him if you'd stop swinging for a homerun.

- Movie's getting really pixelly again.

- I love that Amalthea tripping and yelling about her ankle immediately makes me think of the Angry Beavers Halloween episode.

- Gotta say the movie's limited animation really hurts the dramatic death scene.

- Holy shit, how many unicorns did this guy capture? That looks like hundreds of the things.

- I'm. . . not sure I caught why that's causing his castle to fall apart.

- Books and rabbits, I should've thought to put Watership Down on the list.

- And going out on that theme song, good stuff.

Conclusions: It's pretty easy to tell the book's better and it made me want to read it - it's cheap on Kindle so might pick it up sometime - but I still very much enjoyed the movie and would be on board with watching it again some time. It's a fun time killer while still having a lot of heart to it and a mostly pretty great cast plus an awesome soundtrack, though the pacing can be wonky and I feel like the animation lets it down a little too often.

Next up is going to be... Back to the Future. This should be interesting if only because it's another one of those where I kind of feel like I know the entire movie going into it.

[Mozenrath]

Sometimes people make fun of the "Now that I'm a Woman" song, but I like that she sounds like she's genuinely very upset.

[Deleted]

Mar 24, 2017 20:44:20 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Sometimes people make fun of the "Now that I'm a Woman" song, but I like that she sounds like she's genuinely very upset.

Yeah, it sounds pretty genuinely torn up and distraught.

[Deleted]

Got in a Blu-ray I ordered awhile back and it kind of ties into Back to the Future as it is also about time travel, so even though it's not on the list I decided to do a double header on this one. And so...

Steins;Gate: The Movie - Load Region of Deja Vu

- Given they most heavily market actiony stuff it's weird to me how bouncy the Funimation logo is.

- Hey, we've got previews! Might as well do those.

- The hell happened with the art on this Ghost in the Shell sequel? The faces look really weirdly heavily detailed, it's strange. Really Uncanny Valley with it.

- It's bad when just from the trailer I can tell this movie's mixing 2D and 3D animation very poorly.

- Kind of digging the soundtrack though.

- And that was the only trailer. Lame, I wanted to nitpick some trailers! Let me see if there are more on the options.

- There are, let's do this.

- Girl Who Leapt Through Time? That's... A weirdly old movie to include. I guess appropriate to the subject matter of this movie though.

- I should rewatch that movie sometime, been quite awhile and a lot of it's a blur for me.

- The hell? A trailer for Steins;Gate itself? Who's watching this movie without watching it?

- Honestly it's not really even a very good trailer. Got this heavy techno beat to it and kind of gives little impression what it's actually about.

- I don't even know what this one is but it's from the director of Escaflowne. Something?

- Available for the first time! . . . On Blu-ray . . . in North America. Kind of overly narrow there, guys.

- Noein to Your Other Self. I have no idea what that is and trailer doesn't give much indication.

- Hey, turns out I can identify Code Geass on sight without any sign of Pizza Hut or not knowing how to play chess. I didn't figure I could.

- Yeah, trailer does nothing to make me want to actually watch that show.

- Something about a beloved 20 year old series and dragons, no idea what this is.

- Oh, so that's what Escaflowne is. Kind of weird to advertise it after namedropping it.

- So is one coming for Disappearance of Haruhi or not? Know its re-release is coming soon and I've heard a lot of people saying this movie's just kind of a ripoff of it so it seems appropriate.

- Chaos;Head. I should've seen that coming. Curious how they'll sell this thing given what a completely bipolar show it is.

- Going full in on the gore for a trailer, gotta say.

- Okay, yeah, they're selling this as the dark and creepy first half instead of the insane magical girl thing it turns into.

- And that's the end of the trailers. What, no Robotics;Notes? Why not?

- This Blu-ray menu has really obnoxiously loud sound effects for moving between options, gotta say.

- If the only thing you've got in the Setup menu is an audio option why not just call it Audio?

- Whatever, starting the movie now.

- Ha, you think memory's a prison now just wait for 0.

- Plane shot's getting kind of awkwardly prolonged.

- Wonder how they're going to go about the Ruka / Luka's name issue in this.

- Heh, pretty fun callback to the start of the series itself.

- If nothing else I am really, really enjoying just getting some time of Hououin Kyouma after not being in very much of 0.

- See, it's Nae. Really should've put in a Robotics;Notes trailer. Nae's a major character in that!

- I'm. . . Really confused by these back and forth random street shots.

- Growly-voiced sunglasses Kurisu, that's new.

- Heh, dude callback.

- I'm really curious how the 0 anime is going to address the fact they bring up Yuki in both this and the OVA and neither one remotely lines up with how 0 uses her. Or even has the same design as it.

- Kurisu's actually being kind of a bitch in this.

- How long after the show / game is this? Because the original's set in 2010 and I'm pretty sure a One Direction namedrop is an anachronism. Either way a One Direction namedrop is super freaking distracting. Dub of the show has a lot of obviously inserted references thing going on too, just usually it feels a bit more organic.

- Pausing to check on that, the band did exist in 2010, but they were on the X-Factor at the time so. . . The reference does kind of work if you assume this is a year but it's a stretch.

- Mayuri knowing what 'bear' means is pretty funny.

- Sticking with calling him Ruka. Good call, might as well keep the dubs consistent.

- I'm not sure at what point Faris turned into one of my favorite characters but it's gradually happened with this series.

- Okay, drunk Kurisu rant is going well, but, "Liable to feel disoriented," was a goofy way to put that.

- Kurisu really can't handle her alcohol.

- The OVA kind of already did this whole, "Kurisu having doubts about the world line thing and angrily working through them," plot. Making it sort of redundant, particularly given this brings the OVA's events up.

- Haha, called back to the spoon and fork.

- I know Japan doesn't have the best record with mental help, but Mr. Braun should probably be more concerned than pissed about that.

- Huh, the time lept Nae ending from the game comes up. Given the show cut that but this also acknowledges the OVA which isn't compatible with the games that. . . Raises questions.

- This is kind of giving Moeka way more dialogue than she'd usually get. Little weird.

- I kind of appreciate them not bothering to build a mystery with it and just going, "Screw it, show you it's Suzuha."

- You. . . Should know exactly what that means. Did Okabe explain the world line business while explaining nothing about the process of it?

- Underwear joke is kind of easy but is pretty damn funny so fair game.

- Wow, nowhere near as far into this movie as I thought I was. Was feeling like it should be like halfway through but only half an hour in. Not dragging, just making it feel like a lot's going on. Might be in part since there's already visible character growth from how the movie started, kind of heightens the sense of progression.

- Took way too long in this to get a, "Tutturu!" Kind of awkward to have it immediately follow a dramatic moment.

- I dunno, the actual plot's just starting but it isn't really seeming that Disappearance of Haruhi-ish. Somewhat similar premise on paper but the execution's pretty different. Although the big focus on internal monologue is probably a big part of the comparison.

- Wait, Okabe got retconned out of existence but the monogrammed fork stayed? That's kind of weird.

- Kurisu's jacket actually has the belt things on the arms even when she's not wearing it? That raises even more questions about the bizarre way she wears that thing.

- This movie needs more Dk Pepper.

- Stray observation but it's always been kind of weird to me how often shots of Kurisu make her look like she doesn't have a nose.

- Okay, it's supposed to be a disappearance full of random obvious holes in it, okay then.

- On one hand I like the change of pace making Kurisu the main character but on another it's seeming like a serious mistake to leave Okabe out of a presumably large chunk of the story. He's a really great lead.

- Um, Suzuha, nobody knows who you are. There was no point in disguising yourself for two seconds for the dramatic reveal. Even for the viewers, we already saw you.

- Oh, good, Okabe's still going to be fairly involved after all it seems.

- What are the odds I'm going to have nowhere near as much to say about Back to the Future?

- 0 anime is going to feel kind of redundant because this is starting to hit on some really similar character points. Though I guess be different in that this is focused on Kurisu and she's barely in that.

- If anything this is less rehashing Disappearance of Haruhi and more just kind of redoing the core story arc of the main series but with Kurisu instead of Okabe. Helps a lot it's acknowledging the redundancy and rolling with it in terms of Okabe's characterization, though.

- It is a year later, alrighty.

- On a level I feel like they're kind of making Okabe too much of a wise mentor sort in this, but I can understand it.

- That's the most tragic thing to happen immediately after the words, "I'm sorry, I love you," not to involve a superkick.

- Mayuri's stuff is also kind of drifting into the same sort of stuff that 0 did with her.

- That's not really being a hypocrite, just kind of annoying.

- So did Suzuha come back of her own accord solely due to getting tired of Kurisu's flip-flopping? That seems to be the implication here.

- Would've been pretty funny if instead of 2005 looking basically the same it looked like the 80s or something.

- This movie has a really awkward habit of cutting directly from dramatic scenes to Mayuri doing her catchphrase.

- Why is Daru wearing a suit to play games in the lab?

- Did Moeka's actress only agree to return if she got a lot more dialogue or something? Don't think she's done the texting thing once while she's been talking in most of her scenes.

- Kurisa!Hououin Kyouma is funny, but think preferred the smaller scale version of it in the show where she just does the poses.

- Oh, hey, Daru gets to join in on recalling stuff from other timelines this time.

- "Granted he's a strong cup of coffee." That's a weird line to include in the middle of a lamenting rant.

- Admittedly a lot of this movie's more downbeat scenes do have a Disappearance of Haruhi kind of tone to them.

- Okay, her kissing kid!Okabe was kind of weird.

- Well, no, he didn't really do anything with Moeka on every timeline, but I get your point.

- Ending's really abrupt. Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised, between this, the original ending, 0, and the OVA the series has four endings and the original one is the only one that really has any follow through and really naturally climaxes instead of just kind of stopping eventually. All still satisfying in their own right though.

- Opening and ending themes are both good but I really wish they'd worked in Hacking to the Gate somewhere. Just an awesome theme. That or Sky-Clad Observer given was the theme for the game and the anime also used it in awesome way.

- Wonder what it is with Ashly Burch opting not to use her name with this series. Kind of figured that'd change with the movie but nope.

- I need to watch the commentary later, the couple on the show are really good so curious to see this one.

Conclusions: This one's weird to judge, in that I enjoyed it quite a bit and it is pretty worth seeing just to see more of these characters, but I can also recognize it's pretty wholly unnecessary. Figured it would be really since the OVA was, though both are still fun with this being good as a more serious bit of follow-up after the OVA was more comedic than the show had largely been at the end. Think it's kind of marred also from me having played 0, which to be fair came out after the movie did but hits on a lot of the same emotional points and general ideas while doing them in largely better ways. Either way though, it's a fun movie, albeit a pretty rushed one, and I'd probably be inclined to include it in the rotation next time I rewatch the series.

Back to the Future

- Starting out on a bunch of clocks. Wonder if the movie has something to do with time.

- "A leading terrorist group." Not going to tell you which, just a leading one.

- I didn't figure they already knew each other from the word go, alright then.

- The lying on the floor angle kind of makes Marty look like Pat Benatar.

- Um, okay. Very random place for The Power of Love. Good song and all, just other than it being listed in the opening credits nothing set it up at all.

- I'm really curious what the hell Smegma means.

- Looking it up it makes even less sense that someone painted it there than it would if it were gibberish.

- This is the most needlessly aggressive scolding for being slightly late for school ever.

- Oh, they used Power of Love when they did entirely so they could do that reprise.

- I kind of enjoy just how much of a total dick Biff is.

- Now I want cake.

- Feel like they're going too far in playing up the whole, "Ha, the family's geeky!" thing. Especially knowing where it's going, can already kind of see why people take issue that aspect of the plot. Make it a lot more palatable if the family were neglectful or something.

- Also, feels like Marty's kind of an idiot for what's coming later having heard that story of how his parents met.

- If it were a modern movie they'd probably zoom in on that JCPenney logo or have a fight inside the store or something.

- It doesn't really surprise me that Doc's general demeanor isn't really anything like all the impressions and parodies of him.

- I like that being the logic behind using a Delorean.

- Yeah, that whispered, "Jesus," is a pretty appropriate reaction to learning the dude robbed some terrorists.

- As is that, "Holy shit!"

- Um, why not just get in the car and go forward a day or something?

- Little weird to bring the whole family along for investigating a mysterious crash in the night.

- It seems pretty late in the cycle of insane shit to only know start saying it's a dream.

- Mr. Sandman always just makes me think of that one Golden Girls episode.

- See, this is now an acceptable time to think dream.

- Seems kind of overly on the nose to have this be basically the same conversation as earlier.

- "Another one of these damn kids jumped in front of my car!" How. . . How often do people try to use you to commit suicide?

- This movie's surprisingly heavy on pratfalls.

- I've kind of gone a weirdly long time with nothing to say despite having a lot to say earlier. Liking it though, at about the halfway mark.

- Be funny if Star Wars or Star Trek came up next. Particularly Star Trek since that'd be three movies in a row with time travel.

- The two on the passenger side should probably be dead.

- To be fair, what did you think was going to happen? You're lucky it was a fire and not an outright explosion.

- It's actually pretty funny to me just how swearing heavy this movie is. If they ever remake it you know they'd probably cut out most of it.

- Even by 1950s standards that seems like it would've been more than $300 worth of damage.

- Oh, right. I'm betting a remake would cut the racism and attempted rape too.

- Attempted rape is one thing but a light shove is what really gets the rage going.

- Biff has kind of a glass jaw for such a big guy.

- It's really convenient that time travel works really slow when it's convenient and really fast when you need to know how something turned out.

- Also, it's really kind of a weird structural choice to have what's been the main plot for a lot of the movie be resolved with half an hour to go in it.

- So then the New Age Retro Hippie shows up, right?

- It's a point I've seen made before but still, why would you hire the guy who tried to rape your wife?

- I love that there's a credit for DeLorean Time Travel Consultant.

Conclusions: Movie was more or less what I expected, though were of course things along the way I didn't quite know about. Movie's fun and I could see watching it again sometime, though do think it kind of is dragged out a bit too much. It's a little exhausting how about a quarter of the movie is just a series of climaxes, though all individually done well.


Coming up next is going to be... Groundhog Day. I guess it's kinda-sorta keeping up the time travel theme.