Topic: The Movie Thread

@Tasuki: Yeah, I've always wanted to check out one of Kurosawa's films, but the only one Netflix has is Kagemusha, and as it's over 2 & a half hours long, I'm not quite sure where to find the time to watch it, lol.

@RR529: Yeah his movies tend to be on the long side but they are worth it.

Here's a cracking question - what's your favourite Disney film?

I prefer Toy Story 1, Up and Bolt. The older films although ground breaking I just don't enjoy - jungle book, Bambi, snow white etc etc.

@themcnoisy, I assume you just mean their animated features?

I'd have to say The Lion King, Aladdin, and Treasure Planet have to be my favorites from childhood. Also really like Mulan, Hercules, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and there's no nostalgia involved with those, as I didn't watch any of them until sometime last year.

I'm actually not a big fan of the Pixar films, though that's probably because I'm not a big fan of CGI cartoons in general, and prefer anime films much more nowadays than the big name CGI animated films Hollywood is producing these days.

Though I will say that out of all the studios that put out CGI features, Pixar is the best, though I think the core Disney team is starting to find their footing again. Certainly better than anything DreamWorks or Sony Animation have ever produced.

@themcnoisy: Aladdin hands down. I can't even count how many times I have seen that movie. As far as Pixar goes it's hit and miss with them for me.

As it so happens, I had the time last night, so I watched Kagemusha on Netflix, and man that was great.

I think playing Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (and the basic brushing up on Japanese history I did back in high school) really helped, since I knew who all the players were.

Has anyone seen pitch perfect?

@themcnoisy: Yep

@Wesker: Hate to admit it but PP is brilliant!!!!

It's October, so I've decided that I'm going to check out Netflix's selection of Japanese horror films (they only have 3 now, since in a case of terrible timing, just lost the rights to the two Ju-on films at the end of September). Horror isn't my preferred genre (Ghostbusters is about as scary as I'd like to get, lol), but I figured with my interest in Japanese culture, that I could maybe stomach some Japanese ones.

Anyhow, I started last night with Ring of Curse. It's a low budget film about a Japanese high school girl who gets back at her bullies by making them read her own homemade curse (by sneaking it into rough drafts of the school play, emails, ect.). Things get a bit out of hand, however, and it's up to one of her classmates to try & keep the curse from finding it's way to a wider audience.

It's not fantastic by any means, but I thought it was a decent enough watch, especially given the time of year (then again, I know nothing of horror, so what do I know, lol).

@RR529: Aw man, they seriously dropped the rights to the Ju-on movies? I was just planning on making my friends watch them on Hallowe'en, too.

Anybody seen John Wick? It's a really good film, IMO. Well worth a watch for any action fans, and Keanu Reeves is great in it. Drive, too, is pretty excellent, if you're into thrillers. If I had to pick my favourite movie of all time, then I'd say The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. No matter how many times I watch it, I never get bored.

Yeah, they weren't in the Japanese section of the international movies tab (which they were before), nor could I find them by a search, so it looks like they don't have them anymore.

I know they still had them even last month, so this is a terrible time to let the rights expire.

@TheMightyPunram: John Wick was my favorite action movie of 2014. Really loved close quarter gun fight scenes. I hope the sequel has a better story and villain, though.

I watched Quest for Fire (Netflix) earlier tonight. I remembered it being mentioned on an episode of I Love the 80's I saw years ago, so I figured what the heck.

It centers on a group of cavemen who are sent out to find fire after the one their tribe had is extinguished during an attack. Despite there being no intelligible dialog, it's actually pretty easy to follow, as they struggle to survive against the dangers of the world, such as saber toothed cats (how they got those fake teeth on those lions is beyond me), a cannibalistic rival tribe, bears, and more.

It's not bad, but not great either. More of a curiosity than anything else, and it's definitely not for everyone (and definitely not for the kids, what with how regularly they seem to want to... mate, as well as an understandable general lack of clothing. A few bloody scenes as well, though I've seen worse from more modern films).

@EyeDeeNO76: It is indeed illegal as I stated in your first post.

Guys this is not the place to discuss this. Keep to discussing legal movies or I will have to lock this thread, and I don't want to do that.

I watched Gun Woman (Japanese language film) on Netflix earlier tonight.

It's a low budget film set in the western US (there's actually just as much English spoken as there is Japanese), that sees a former prostitute being molded into the perfect assassin, in order to kill the morbidly eccentric son of a Yakuza bigwig.

It's surprisingly not terrible. Now, it's not great by any stretch of the imagination, and it has quite a bit of raw brutality that'll turn a lot of people off (I had to look away more than a couple times), but it somehow managed to hold my attention to the end, so that counts for something.

Earlier I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014 (DVD).

Pretty fun popcorn flick. Just the perfect thing for a Saturday afternoon. As a disclaimer, I'm not someone who grew up with the series, so I have no nostalgic connection to the characters, thus I have no way to judge the film on how accurately it portrayed the world.

I really enjoyed the car chase down the slopes. Very energetic, over the top action scene.

After playing Sleeping Dogs, I felt like a good Triad gangster movie, but being unable to find one, I settled for a Yakuza film in the form of Outrage. Really quite excellent, I think. It certainly wasn't pleasant; tense, angry, and often shockingly violent, it nonetheless told a compelling story despite including barely a single likeable character in the cast.

Anyone else seen a fan of Takeshi Kitano? Or have any further Yakuza film recommendations? It's a world I've always found quite fascinating, in a dark, morbid sort of way.

@Unashamed_116: Dunno if you've seen them or not, but The Raid 1 & 2 are both fantastic action movies. They're set in Indonesia, and revolve around general underground crimey business, so they're both pretty similar to Sleeping Dogs in their tone.

@Unashamed_116, I don't know where you watched Outrage, but Netflix also has it's sequel, Beyond Outrage, and an earlier work of Kitano's called Sonatine which I both really liked. All of them are Yakuza films.

As for other films he's in that aren't Yakuza flicks, they also have Zatoichi: the Blind Swordsman (a samurai flick) & Battle Royale (pretty much Japanese Hunger Games, though more brutal, and it came first). I liked both of these as well.