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Rodney Barnes (472 KP) rated Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) in Movies
Apr 5, 2021
Godzilla Done Right
Contains spoilers, click to show
The latest installment of the monster verse was done very well. Like I have said before, I am a big Godzilla fan. I own every movie. Let me begin by telling the people the whine and complain about the human storyline to just shut up!! If you have watched any Godzilla movie, useless human storyline is a part of every Godzilla. But anyway, this movie is great. They make Kong a character you can identify with. You actually want Kong to win the big battle when it goes down. The organization Apex wants Kong to find the Hollow Earth so they can use the energy there for their own diabolical purposes. At the same time, Kong is actually going to his ancestral home. Meanwhile Godzilla is on a rampage because he senses Ghidorah in the form of a Mechanized Godzilla Apex has built. The two Titans have battle with Godzilla eventually winning the clash. Apex loses control of Mecha Godzilla because Ghidorah has taken over. Godzilla is almost beaten until Kong arrives. The two team up and take Mecha Godzilla down. A very well done movie. This is how a Godzilla movie is supposed to be done. I recommend giving this latest installment a watch
Lee (2222 KP) rated I Kill Giants (2017) in Movies
Oct 28, 2018
I KILL GIANTS is a movie I'd never heard of before until I stumbled across it on Netflix. Based on a graphic novel, I Kill Giants tells the story of Barbara, a young teen who lives with her older sister and brother. Barbara doesn't really have any friends, is bullied at school, is thought of as weird by everyone and is currently seeing the school psychologist (when she can be bothered). She also sets traps and bait in order to catch and kill giants, researching the different types of giants and preparing herself for when the time comes that she must protect the town from a really big one. If you've seen A MONSTER CALLS then this movie treads very similar ground to that and is also similar in style. I wasn't quite as emotional at the end of this movie as I was at the end of that one, but I did find it just as enjoyable
Awix (3310 KP) rated Elves (1989) in Movies
Dec 24, 2020
Bargain-basement everything-but-the-kitchen-sink horror movie. Three young women accidentally summon up a homicidal elf as part of a conspiracy to take over the world. Features a lengthy scene in which a department-store Santa (Dan Haggerty) engages in a gun battle with neo-Nazi agents, while the young female leads are stalked by a knife-wielding glove puppet. (The film is not nearly as good as it sounds.)
Sort of a slasher movie, sort of a monster movie, but definitely tasteless and tacky schlock by any reasonable metric. It seems to be trying to play the knowingly-ironic card at a few points, but it's simply not accomplished enough to pull that off: it looks cheap, sounds cheap, has long stretches where not much happens, and there's the obligatory badly-edited and confusing climax. Would be virtually unwatchable if not for an heroic performance by Dan Haggerty, who for some reason is taking this fiasco seriously. Nasty, brutish, but not nearly short enough.
Sort of a slasher movie, sort of a monster movie, but definitely tasteless and tacky schlock by any reasonable metric. It seems to be trying to play the knowingly-ironic card at a few points, but it's simply not accomplished enough to pull that off: it looks cheap, sounds cheap, has long stretches where not much happens, and there's the obligatory badly-edited and confusing climax. Would be virtually unwatchable if not for an heroic performance by Dan Haggerty, who for some reason is taking this fiasco seriously. Nasty, brutish, but not nearly short enough.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Predator (1987) in Movies
Feb 13, 2018
Testosterone-drizzled SF action movie. Elite team of mercenaries - 'veer wescuers, not assahseens!' declares Arnie at one point - are dropped into Latin American jungle on shady political mission, proceed to kill everyone in sight (maybe they need to reconsider how they think of themselves), discover formidable alien big game hunter has plans to turn them all into trophies.
The cast is charismatic, the action is exceedingly well-staged, and there's a very good monster (Jean Claude van Damme was originally supposed to play the Pred but was sacked for complaining about the suit and not being beefy enough). There's also a surprisingly understated subtext about the Vietnam War, for which fighting an invisible monster in the jungle is a not-unreasonable metaphor. Not far off the quality of the other big-name 80s SF movies; inability to produce an equally memorable follow-up suggests the Predator is a one-trick pony, however.
The cast is charismatic, the action is exceedingly well-staged, and there's a very good monster (Jean Claude van Damme was originally supposed to play the Pred but was sacked for complaining about the suit and not being beefy enough). There's also a surprisingly understated subtext about the Vietnam War, for which fighting an invisible monster in the jungle is a not-unreasonable metaphor. Not far off the quality of the other big-name 80s SF movies; inability to produce an equally memorable follow-up suggests the Predator is a one-trick pony, however.
Awix (3310 KP) rated It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) in Movies
May 11, 2020
Stop-motion monster movie with Ray Harryhausen's special effects. Odd goings-on in the Pacific lead the authorities to suspect a giant radioactive octopus is on the loose. Sure enough the beast is soon dry-humping the Golden Gate Bridge and menacing downtown San Francisco (at least, those parts within tentacle-reach of the seafront).
The bits with the octopus attacking the city are put together with Harryhausen's usual verve and skill, but - as ever - they are mostly confined to the end of the film; the rest of it is rather like a stolid Navy training film entitled 'How to Deal with Giant Octopi': functional but uninspired, and (apart from a sluggish romantic subplot) almost entirely procedural. Hits all the beats of the atomic sea monster subgenre, but doesn't have the sense of fantasy or fun that the best known films of this kind have. Some good stuff but threatens to drag even at less than 80 minutes in length.
The bits with the octopus attacking the city are put together with Harryhausen's usual verve and skill, but - as ever - they are mostly confined to the end of the film; the rest of it is rather like a stolid Navy training film entitled 'How to Deal with Giant Octopi': functional but uninspired, and (apart from a sluggish romantic subplot) almost entirely procedural. Hits all the beats of the atomic sea monster subgenre, but doesn't have the sense of fantasy or fun that the best known films of this kind have. Some good stuff but threatens to drag even at less than 80 minutes in length.
Phillip McSween (751 KP) rated Dark Star (1974) in Movies
Jan 7, 2021
What Resolution?
Satirical movie revolving around bumbling astronauts on a mission to destroy rogue planets.
Acting: 8
Beginning: 0
Characters: 3
I honestly couldn’t tell you one redeeming thing about these characters. About the only redeeming quality was the weird ball monster that appears throughout Dark Star. Seriously, none of these characters sparked the slightest bit of interest for me.
Cinematography/Visuals: 8
I will say not bad for 1974, a year before the release of Star Wars. You get a legit space feel with this crew and I enjoyed the setpieces on-ship. The ball monster (again with this guy) was a bit offputting, but not a terrible job otherwise.
Conflict: 6
Entertainment Value: 4
Memorability: 8
Pace: 10
Sure it’s a kooky movie and you never truly understand what’s going on, but at least it’s a quick eighty-three minutes. Moves pretty quickly by the time it’s all said and done.
Plot: 3
Even after doing a quick Wiki search, I was still lost of what was going on. Just a bunch of weirdo shit happening that is random and not enjoyable. I’ve seen weird but this takes the cake.
Resolution: 0
Overall: 50
Say what you want about my scoring system, this movie got a zero in two categories and still managed to walk away with a 50. It starts off terribly and doesn’t get much better after that. Do yourself a favor and steer clear.
Acting: 8
Beginning: 0
Characters: 3
I honestly couldn’t tell you one redeeming thing about these characters. About the only redeeming quality was the weird ball monster that appears throughout Dark Star. Seriously, none of these characters sparked the slightest bit of interest for me.
Cinematography/Visuals: 8
I will say not bad for 1974, a year before the release of Star Wars. You get a legit space feel with this crew and I enjoyed the setpieces on-ship. The ball monster (again with this guy) was a bit offputting, but not a terrible job otherwise.
Conflict: 6
Entertainment Value: 4
Memorability: 8
Pace: 10
Sure it’s a kooky movie and you never truly understand what’s going on, but at least it’s a quick eighty-three minutes. Moves pretty quickly by the time it’s all said and done.
Plot: 3
Even after doing a quick Wiki search, I was still lost of what was going on. Just a bunch of weirdo shit happening that is random and not enjoyable. I’ve seen weird but this takes the cake.
Resolution: 0
Overall: 50
Say what you want about my scoring system, this movie got a zero in two categories and still managed to walk away with a 50. It starts off terribly and doesn’t get much better after that. Do yourself a favor and steer clear.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) in Movies
Apr 1, 2021
The fight is awesome (2 more)
Jia, the little deaf girl was perhaps the best human character in the movie
The visual effects and CGI are superb
The human storyline or B-plot (1 more)
A few things that didn't make sense plot wise and some major/minor plot holes
A Battle of Titans, God Versus King, Who Will Win?
I thought this movie was really good and it was a lot of fun. They fight more than once in the movie and there is a clear winner. I'm definitely glad I went to go check it out in theaters and get that authentic "full movie theater experience" and enjoy it the way that a movie with giant monsters should be seen. The movie started off really interesting right away with us seeing Kong in his natural environment on Skull Island, almost like time stood still for him since we last saw him in Kong: Skull Island. Though he did look older in appearance. Right away you realize things are very different as we see that Kong is being monitored by hidden surveillance cameras in the forest and he seems to have found himself a little friend in the young deaf girl who greets him. That's when we're thrown for a twist as Kong throws a tree that he ripped out of the ground at the sky and it shatters. We discover that Kong is inside a giant dome on Skull Island meant to hide him from Godzilla. We're then shown a montage of different graphics such as news articles and secret Monarch files of information on both Godzilla and Kong. It shows us that Godzilla and Kong have both defeated multiple Titans and are seemingly destined to fight each other as seen in the ancient cave paintings in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I feel like this movie definitely had it's good parts and bad parts and while it was a ton of fun it also had quite a few flaws. I really liked the action sequences and monster fight scenes. The monsters seemed to move a lot better than in some of the other movies, especially Godzilla when compared to the first Godzilla (2014) movie. The parts where they fought were some of the best parts of the film. I feel like the human part of the movie wasn't so much glossed over but didn't really have anything that was very impactful. Nothing like the death of Ford's mother or Father in Godzilla (2014) or the soldiers in Kong: Skull Island or even scientist Ishiro Serizawa in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In fact I feel that Millie Bobby Brown's character Madison Russell and her father, Dr. Mark Russell and the whole B-plot fell kind of flat or felt kind of unnecessary to the movie. There were also some major plot holes and things that didn't make sense to me that really brought the score down from it being a great movie but I'll go over that in the spoiler section. For me this movie was still really enjoyable and worth watching in theaters. It really delivered in what you wanted for a giant monster movie so if you're thinking about getting it on HBOMax, I got to say I give this movie my "must see seal of approval" and I give it a 7/10.
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Spoiler Section Review was too long to post here so it can be found on my website or check out the review on YouTube.
https://cobracharliecr.wixsite.com/charliecobrareviews/post/godzilla-vs-kong-movie-review-7-10
https://youtu.be/3E3b1e8OqU4
-------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler Section Review was too long to post here so it can be found on my website or check out the review on YouTube.
https://cobracharliecr.wixsite.com/charliecobrareviews/post/godzilla-vs-kong-movie-review-7-10
https://youtu.be/3E3b1e8OqU4
Awix (3310 KP) rated Prehistoric Women (1967) in Movies
Feb 12, 2018
The Land That The Budget Forgot
Pretty much a one-man show for Hammer supremo Michael Carreras, who writes, directs, and produces, and in the process demonstrates why he should really have stuck to producing. Then again, the whole movie was intended as a cash-saving measure so there's a limit to how much you can complain about the slapdash plotting, absurdly cheap 'monster', or painful non-acting from most of the cast.
Martine Beswick does her best to rise above it all, but this is even less entertaining than it probably sounds; it's not even that interesting as an exploitation movie. Noted actor, director and playwright Steven Berkoff can be spotted hanging around in the background hoping not to be seen and planning on calling his agent.
Martine Beswick does her best to rise above it all, but this is even less entertaining than it probably sounds; it's not even that interesting as an exploitation movie. Noted actor, director and playwright Steven Berkoff can be spotted hanging around in the background hoping not to be seen and planning on calling his agent.
David McK (3238 KP) rated Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) in Movies
Jun 16, 2019 (Updated Apr 24, 2023)
OK, I'll admit it: I have a soft spot for the 1998 Matthew Broderick version.
This has nothing to do with it, but is (rather) a continuation of 2014's Godzilla movie that 'kicked off' what I'm going to call the Monster-verse, which now consists of 3 movies: 2014s "Godzilla", 2017s actually-quite-enjoyable "Kong: Skull Island", and now this.
The connecting tissue? The organisation known as Monarch, which has secretly being studying the Titans (as they are called here) ever since the events of that movie (set during the Vietnam War, remember). Kong is mentioned a few times, and appears on a TV screen in the background, but is not a character in this film.
What anybody really wants out of a movie like this, of course, is to see the monsters fighting each other whole destroying all around, and - in that respect, at least, this movie does not disappoint. It's just a pity that the human element doesn't really connect, with some clumsy eco-message exposition, although it does have some nice-looking vignettes when viewed in isolation (King Ghidorah on top of a mountain, with a cross in the foreground, for example).
This has nothing to do with it, but is (rather) a continuation of 2014's Godzilla movie that 'kicked off' what I'm going to call the Monster-verse, which now consists of 3 movies: 2014s "Godzilla", 2017s actually-quite-enjoyable "Kong: Skull Island", and now this.
The connecting tissue? The organisation known as Monarch, which has secretly being studying the Titans (as they are called here) ever since the events of that movie (set during the Vietnam War, remember). Kong is mentioned a few times, and appears on a TV screen in the background, but is not a character in this film.
What anybody really wants out of a movie like this, of course, is to see the monsters fighting each other whole destroying all around, and - in that respect, at least, this movie does not disappoint. It's just a pity that the human element doesn't really connect, with some clumsy eco-message exposition, although it does have some nice-looking vignettes when viewed in isolation (King Ghidorah on top of a mountain, with a cross in the foreground, for example).
Shin Godzilla (2016)
8.2
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The Japanese government struggles to maintain order when a giant mutating creature begins to wreak...
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