The Last Movie You Saw?

[Redgrave]

 

I saw this came out some time last year and it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be especially since the other animated Mortal Kombat movies were kind of a mixed bag for me but this one was different since it didn't follow the traditional story of the games like the other animated ones did. It starts off in an apocalyptic wasteland and it shows Kabal along with Kira and Kobra from the 3D games attacking a settlement with Shang Tsung speaking on behalf of King Kano, so right off the bat there's already something different about this setting. You also find out that Sub-Zero is a hermit who is trying not to use his ice powers and Kenshi is a hotheaded hero type that sticks up to the Black Dragon.

 

Also in the Black Dragon are the newer characters like Erron Black as well as other goobers from the 3D games such as Jarek, Dairou, and Drahmin. There is also No Face and Tremor who both first showed up in that awful Special Forces game, so there was definitely a lot of love for the series put into this but I was glad to see the 3D characters.

 

Anyway without saying too much it has Kenshi become something of a vigilante/wasteland warrior type and trains under Sub-Zero after losing his eyesight. The dynamic between them was really good and on top of that the animation when Kenshi goes out to fight the Black Dragon was awesome. The ending also has a pretty great fanservice moment where Scorpion shows up and his outfit looks pretty badass.

 

Spoilers for those that might want to see it.

 

Spoiler

If you are familiar with MK11's endings then it should become apparent what is happening especially since Kano alludes to it by saying things like "this time" or "last time". At the end it's revealed that the movie takes place in a timeline where Kano gets Kronika's hourglass and controls history. I think this is a really great way to make Mortal Kombat movies and explore different stories without having to stick strictly to the story of the games since it grants a lot of freedom to do do what you want with the characters.

 

My only issue with the ending is that Scorpion and Sub-Zero wind up destroying the hourglass when I feel like they could have used it to fix everything. I guess the argument to be made is that they considered it too powerful of an object to just use like that and they didn't want to risk abusing it. Still, the ending sequence was really great and I welcome more animated Mortal Kombat movies done like this.

 

 

Now for a complete tonal shift from Mortal Kombat. I remember the first time I saw this as a kid around the time it came out for some reason I got creeped out by the part early on where they do a joke where a painter winds up painting a smile on the sphinx because he got knocked off balance. Since then I only remember seeing it once on TV years later and apart from listening to some of the songs this is the first time I really watched it.

 

As someone who isn't really into musicals I think this is one of the few exceptions especially with how gorgeously animated it is. It came from a time where there were very few movies that could stand up to Disney's standards at the time although I guess to be fair the person who made this did originally work under Disney but they didn't want to make this movie and so he took it to Universal instead. As far as the songs go I still like Playing With the Big Boys and The Plagues because of their presentation and the raw emotion that comes from them, but I think my favorite would be Through Heaven's Eyes because it's a pretty uplifting song.

 

I think regardless of ones beliefs it's still a great watch even for the music and animation alone. Like the parts where Moses talks to God and parts the red sea are just incredible to look at. This and The Iron Giant are fantastic pieces of animation that came out in a time where 2D animation was getting shafted and it's a shame that wound up happening but I'm glad that they were still made.

 

Now that I've said that, I will let you know something that most people don't know. There was in fact a sequel to this however it didn't have near as much budget and could only afford one song. It takes places thousands of years later where an old farmer couple wind up taking Ramses' slab and so his wraith winds up harassing the couple and their dog to return the slab or suffer his curse by playing the one song they could afford along with two other plagues.

[wolvieware]

Watched The Beanie Bubble this week. It was an ok movie on business capitalism. I remember the beanie baby boom and bust in the 90s but I was never a kid that wanted them. My wife loved them back then so that’s why we watched. But it was too generic a plot and movie, although the feminist angle slightly elevated it and was more interesting. I think other business capitalism films have been done better than this, the flamin hot Cheetos movie I’d recommend a lot more than this. 

[ozymandias1994]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie
I'm impressed. Feels like "From gamers to gamers" thing. Many easter eggs, many 2D scenes, and good soundtrack. +1 good screen version of good ol' games.

[Crzy Minus]

[Don_Chipotle]

The Beekeeper (2024 film) - Wikipedia

 

I didnt expect the movie to be this good, its a simple plot, but how the action and how the story goes its a very fun ride, there are many scenes with great battles and action, and the plot around bees is somewhat different, sometimes funny stupid, but totally with 80s action flick vibes, for sure a film to watch with family and friends and eat popcorns and have a great time.

[LastMinuteSavior]

7/10

 

6/10

 

6/10

 

8/10

 

@Crzy Minus

What's up with all the people watching Paris, Texas lately? Is it just because of the director's latest movie or is there something else going on?

[Crzy Minus]

11 hours ago, LastMinuteSavior said:

 

@Crzy Minus

What's up with all the people watching Paris, Texas lately? Is it just because of the director's latest movie or is there something else going on?

 

It didn't even occur to me that the film would become suddenly popular with people as of late, I just felt like watching it for the first time without that in mind aside just getting into Wim Wenders. I do am looking forward to Perfect Days though.

[LastMinuteSavior]

33 minutes ago, Crzy Minus said:

I do am looking forward to Perfect Days though.

 

Me too. Can't wait to find out why everyone is falling in love with this gentleman who cleans toilets for a living.

[Caquis_1]

 

Feels like logging short films in here might be cheating, but oh well, I soemtimes watched them for fun lol. Good movies overall, can't wait to see some of the other which have been winning awards.

[LastMinuteSavior]

7/10

 

9/10

 

8/10

[Redgrave]

 

I figured why not even if I read this wasn't as good as the first one. It loosely follows the story of Silent Hill 3 although it feels kind of like a sort of teen drama at times. Seeing the poster also reminded me about how I would see ads for it when it was coming out and it being 3D was the big gimmick. It also makes sense why for some scenes there would be things going really close to the screen and so I imagine those at least were more effective if you saw it in theaters.

 

This kind of teeters back and forth between being a Silent Hill movie and just being a supernatural horror since there are some moments that feel like they wouldn't really belong in Silent Hill. Particularly the moments where Heather hallucinates the other world and it shows weird things like people grilling human meat on a pan. In fact I think some of the monsters are from the Downcoming games or at least they look like they do. And of course there's Pyramid Head even though that was James' thing but this movie isn't the only one guilty of having Pyramid Head be outside of James's story so it's unfair to single this out. Probably the monster I could say I actually liked was the mannequin monster since I liked the way it moved and the way it was presented was creepy. It unfortunately doesn't show up for very long though.

 

There's not much else to say about it. The girl who played Heather did fine and looked the part pretty well so I will give credit for that. It was also nice seeing Sean Bean as well as them using a couple of the songs from the game. It would have been nice if Douglas' character got to be around longer though since I know in the game he plays a bigger role but he doesn't do very much in the movie until he gets his fangers chopped off and stabbed by a Downcoming monster. Probably the funniest scene though is when Heather is told by her teacher to introduce herself to other students and two girls make fun of her outfit and so she winds up making this speech where the entire class sits there in silence. Whoever wrote this definitely doesn't know how high school kids act. The second Heather would start doing her speech the entire class would have at the very least erupted into this big trash talk session and the teacher would have to yell at everyone to knock it off.

 

 

The best Mortal Kombat character finally gets his own movie. It's basically about how Johnny winds up getting mixed in with Ashura into trying to stop a cult from summoning Shinnok. I don't think it really ties into any of the games story-wise and so it feels like it's own thing but that's alright. It also has Gilbert Gottfried voice a character in what I think was his final role so it's kind of interesting to think that's what it was along with them recording this probably months if not a year before Gottfried died.

 

It's about what you would expect, since it's about Johnny acting like a hotshot and trying to get a good movie deal until he tries to go to his co-stars house to find Ashura fighting Kia over a Macguffin map. The whole movie has this kind of Vice City look so I think it takes place in the late 80's or early 90's. It also seems to go into Johnny's backstory more by going into his childhood and how he learned to fight. He basically is the "jerk with the heart of gold" trope that I like since he makes it a point that he doesn't like bullies even if he's full of himself at times. It made me think of that line in Mortal Kombat 1 where Liu Kang says "He is a hero, though he may not yet know it."

 

I still liked Snow Blind more but it did get some laughs out of me so I think I will put it at least below that and maybe Scorpion's Revenge.

[ShadyWARcotix]

Primal Fear

 

[ObsiEez]

Watched Spenser Confidential last night with a friend on Netflix. Was a surprisingly good movie. Looking forward to the sequel whenever that comes out.

 

[wolvieware]

Watched a couple last week

The Book Club: Next Chapter - Dear God how did this film get made. Not really a film as such as an excuse for elder actresses go on an Italian holiday and you have to grin and bear through the ker-razy antics. Pass.

 

A Haunting in Venice - I’ve enjoyed all the Ken Branagh Poirot movies but because this third one didn’t seem to do well with critics or box office I wasn’t expecting much so was pleasantly surprised. A little injection of horror, but mild, and the usual murder whodunnits made this enjoyable. 

[xEl_Cidx]

 

 

[Dry]

“Come on, Cohaagen. Give these people air!”

 

[Infected Elite]

[RoastedPeanut]

Seeing as I'm being thrown in the deep end at the school I'll be starting at in March, I decided to watch Kindergarten Cop again. Now I need to find my whistle and possibly take one of my dogs to class when I start....get a jump on the kids before they devour me!

[ChilledBrandon]

 

The entire time throughout this film I kept thinking of the Hitman games. This is how I always wished those films had been directed. 

 

This really worked for me, I loved it. Then again, I do tend to enjoy David Fincher's style a lot. Fassbender's subtle but calculated performance was very enjoyable.

 

Not quite to Fight Club or Se7en standard, but not a lot of movies are. Fincher set a massively high bar.

[TheDarkKratos]

Edge of the World (2023).

[sk_lp_him]

Ju-On: The Grudge

The Grudge

The Grudge 2

[CJStrawman]

[ChilledBrandon]

 

Fun movie. Definitely surpassed my expectations. I found the plot to be really interesting, it had some good twists and turns throughout. Great performances.

[Night-Shades13]

Society of Snow

Very good. Probably had the best plane crash scene I saw in a movie. Yeah this is indeed Horror movie to me.

 

Ferrari

Insanely good! Very daunting somehow. The tense on every scenes 🔥

[LastMinuteSavior]

7/10

 

7/10

 

9/10

 

7/10