TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2017

Baseball season is over so prepare for a bunch of kaiju and gory horror movies from me in this thread until April.

My favorite winter birds the juncos have returned to my feeders and since they make a sound that reminds me of King Ghidorah tonight's selection is Ghirdorah The Three-Headed Monsters (and yes that's how it's spelled on the case of the version I have even though the US version spells it "Ghidrah")

"Alien: Covenant" (2017)


In Ridley Scott's latest "Alien" flick, a crew of space colonists land on a seemingly-perfect undiscovered planet ... which naturally turns out to be less than perfect.
The first half of "Covenant" is a bit of a slog, spending way too much time on set up - probably due to its picking up plot threads from Scott's sluggish "Prometheus." When the chest-bursting and xenomorph nastiness finally kicks in during the second half, it's fun to watch but overall I'd rate this installment as a disappointment.

Spider-Man:Homecoming

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2

An excellent Marvel double feature.

Dual Survival

"Stephen King's 'It'" (1990)



Six friends who defeated a child-eating monster when they were kids return to their hometown as adults when the evil resurfaces 30 years later.
This two part mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's monster epic suffers in some areas due to its made-for-TV limitations - boiling an 1100 page horror behemoth down to three and a half hours that would still pass Network Standards & Practices must've been tough! --  but it features great performances all around (especially Tim Curry's bravura turn as the evil clown "Pennywise") and manages to sport some genuinely creepy moments.  Surprisingly enough, this "It" is still holding up pretty well. Looking forward to checking out the new remake sometime soon.

The Deadly Mantis (1957)

Shifting ice caps release a giant praying mantis with a voracious appetite. It slowly makes it's way south, eventually ending up in Manhattan. Typical 50s monster movie fare, entertaining but nothing special.

007 wrote:

The Deadly Mantis (1957)

Shifting ice caps release a giant praying mantis with a voracious appetite. It slowly makes it's way south, eventually ending up in Manhattan. Typical 50s monster movie fare, entertaining but nothing special.

Exactly.  It's OK but pretty typical for the "super-imposed live creature(s) wreaks havoc on humanity" flicks of the 50s.  My favorite film of that ilk is "Tarantula" which is also where I learned the word "acromegaly" which it turns out is what Tux has.

Trick 'R' Treat

American Horror Story : Cult
The Exorcist episode 5

Last night it was my 10 year old son's turn to pick a movie...

"Furious 7" (2015)


Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and the rest of the street racing crew are off on another globe trotting adventure where they're targeted by a British bad guy (Jason Statham) with a personal vendetta against them. As usual, lotsa cars crash, countless bullets fly, a bunch of tough guys beat the crap out of each other, and lotsa stuff blows up.

Sadly, this seventh "Fast & Furious" installment was also the final one for Walker, who died during filming.  

I've only seen one other "F&F" movie besides this (and I'm not even sure which one it was!), but I enjoyed this one anyway... it's big, loud, dumb, destructive fun.

Been binging on anime since I'm a relative newcomer and it's been hella fun. Some of what I've been checking out:

Angel Beats
Trigun (including the Badlands Rumble movie)
Berserk (Golden Age Arc movies)
Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star

"Get Out" (2017)


An African-American man and his white girlfriend head out to the country to spend a weekend at her parents' estate. Though he's already expecting an awkward, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" type scenario, our hero soon learns that there's something even more sinister going on behind the scenes of the ol' homestead... 
This horror/suspense thriller was a massive box office hit earlier this year and I can see why. This one sucks you right in and maintains an unsettling feeling of dread throughout. Good stuff.

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)


James Bond travels from the Riviera to the Swiss Alps, romances a countess and battles Blofeld's plot to commit worldwide germ warfare via a squadron of specially-trained ladies he calls his "Angels of Death."
George Lazenby's first and only spin as the "new" 007 is a mixed bag; the action sequences are great and Diana Rigg is an appropriately foxy Bond girl, but the leading man's near-total lack of acting experience keeps it from making the leap into the top-tier Bond.
If Lazenby had stuck around he might have developed into a decent 007; unfortunately he followed the dubious advice of his manager, who told him the Bond character would be 'passe' in the 1970s so he turned down a multi-picture contract and went straight into the "Where Are They Now" file. Great career move there, George!

Fat Freddy wrote:

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)


James Bond travels from the Riviera to the Swiss Alps, romances a countess and battles Blofeld's plot to commit worldwide germ warfare via a squadron of specially-trained ladies he calls his "Angels of Death."
George Lazenby's first and only spin as the "new" 007 is a mixed bag; the action sequences are great and Diana Rigg is an appropriately foxy Bond girl, but the leading man's near-total lack of acting experience keeps it from making the leap into the top-tier Bond.
If Lazenby had stuck around he might have developed into a decent 007; unfortunately he followed the dubious advice of his manager, who told him the Bond character would be 'passe' in the 1970s so he turned down a multi-picture contract. Great career move there, George.

Yeah that doofus realllly screwed up there. He turned out being just a minor footnote in motion picture history. It's a shame Connery didn't stick around for this one, especially considering it's a major part of the Bond lore.

"The Lego Batman Movie" (2017)


Gotham City's greatest hero gets locked in Arkham Asylum, travels to the Phantom Zone, battles a whole mess o' super villains and monsters, gets a new partner, and learns what it means to be part of a family in this loud, candy-colored, hyperactively-paced animated adventure from the makers of "The Lego Movie." The jokes come at rapid fire speed, the graphics are colorful and wacky, and there are lots of affectionate jabs at the Batman legend. This may be the weirdest Bat-adaptation I've ever seen but it was also a ton of fun!

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

This was one of my favorite kaiju flicks as a kid and it still holds up fairly well almost 50 years later.  Earth has corralled all of it's monsters and confined them to an island where they live together happily until an evil alien race called Kilaaks decides they want Earth for themselves and use the various monsters to threaten the human race.

The best parts of this film are of course the kaiju fights and this one has them all: Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Minilla, Manda, Kumonga, Goreasaurus, Anguirus, Varan (at the very end) and even the Toho version of Baragon. 

Still a fun romp all these years later.

^^^^  Excellent flick !

This is a promo picture that always stuck out to me when I was a kid. I saw this picture before I ever saw the film and it just made me want to see it all the more.

"Diamonds Are Forever" (1971)


After the lukewarm reception to George Lazenby's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," Sean Connery returned to the James Bond role one "last" time. In this installment 007 investigates a diamond-smuggling ring that leads him from Amsterdam to Las Vegas, where Blofeld and SPECTRE are using the gems to create a deadly laser satellite weapon.
I'm sure fans were glad to see Sean back in the tuxedo again at the time, but "Diamonds" is not top drawer Bond by any means - Connery's clearly only in it for the paycheck and the entire production seems campier than usual. This one might have worked better if it had starred Roger Moore.

007 wrote:

^^^^  Excellent flick !

This is a promo picture that always stuck out to me when I was a kid. I saw this picture before I ever saw the film and it just made me want to see it all the more.

I didn't even realize I was missing this one on DVD until I went looking for it after watching "Kong - Skull Island".  I watched it in the original Japanese for the first time because I thought the English dubbers messed up who was attacking Paris when they said "Baragon" but you could see clearly it was Goreasaurus.  Well the Japanese version does the same thing.  Or at least whoever did the subtitles made the same mistake.  I also still can't figure out why Varan isn't even in the entire movie until the last 30 seconds or so.  And even then he does this weird leap like he's going to fly but the camera cuts away; his whole appearance makes zero sense.  Still a fun flick though.

That's a great promo pic for the film BTW.  I'd love to get a poster of that to frame and put in my basement workout room with all my other Kaiju stuff.

From what I read in G-Fan magazine, the producers wanted to include Varan in the picture but the suit was too dilapidated so they just settled on that far away shot of a Varan model and he was indeed leaping to fly. In the original Japanese version of Varan, it could indeed fly. When it was released to the English markets, the flying scenes were considered too unconvincing and were cut from the film.

"Lucy" (2014)


A woman (Scarlett Johansen) accidentally receives an overdose of a dangerous new synthetic drug, which gives her unexpected powers and abilities. Naturally, she uses this advantage to get even with the Asian mobsters who dosed her in the first place.
This weird mix of shoot-em-up action flick and metaphysical sci-fi from Luc "Fifth Element" Besson is not what I was expecting at all, but it turned out to be a cool watch.

Barracuda (The Lucifer Project) (1978)

One of a glut of Jaws rip offs, this one has a bit more to offer, coming across as a mix of when animals attack,eco terror and government conspiracy. I saw this one before and found it entertaining enough. I've seen worse.

"Trainwreck" (2015)

Comedienne Amy Schumer (more or less playing herself) is a drunken, bed hopping magazine reporter who finally lands in a "real" relationship with a nice guy (SNL's Bill Hader), then nearly blows her chance at happiness with her bad habits. Schumer's good for a few laughs, but this is basically an overlong, foul-mouthed Lifetime Movie.

"Green Room" (2016)

A small time punk rock band lands a last minute gig at a sketchy club (run by even sketchier people) in the middle of nowhere...but when they see something that they shouldn't have, they have to fight their way out. A claustrophobic thriller with a great performance by Sir Patrick Stewart (!) as the Big Bad.

I've read good things about Green Room.