So what are you watching?

Fast and the Furious movies are fun action movies. Too many critics and Hollywood types think ever movie needs deep themes and that unless the blue wall means that the main character is dealing with trauma, being gay, racism that the movie is a flop.

But sometimes a popcorn movie is all you want. While there is a place for movies like Full Metal Jacket which shows the dehumanizing effect of war or even ones like Jurassic Park about man playing God there is also a place for just pure fun escapism.


Personally it is one of the reasons I have been watching more anime lately. To many new shows all just trying yo be Oscar/Emmny bait. Right now I am watching Laid Back Camp.

The animation while not the highest quality like an anime from Studio Bones but it also is towards the top end. It doesn't use bad cgi and stock footage use is towards the low end. The voice acting in the dubs is decent. It also has three seasons and a movie so you have decent amount of content.

It is a slice of life anime about high school girls camping around Japan. No big drama or fan service. It does fall into cute girls doing cute things anime genres. Most epsoides fall the same pattern of them heading out to a weekend camp ground and cooking food. What I like personally is that they also work as light camping PSAs. They cover gear needed and types of gear.

They also have recipes for the food and talk about local food and tourist spots.

It is also fun to watch from an American camper. I grew up camping and still go ever other month inculding some winter camping. The difference between heading to the north woods or the rockies. It really highlights how crowded Japan and the you can't be 100 miles from civilization. But I have come to enjoy that type of camping as I get older and week long backpacking trips get harder.

Overall it is a fun show for any outdoor enthusiast that just wants to relax and check out for a bit.
 
Argent said:
Fast and the Furious movies are fun action movies. Too many critics and Hollywood types think ever movie needs deep themes and that unless the blue wall means that the main character is dealing with trauma, being gay, racism that the movie is a flop.

But sometimes a popcorn movie is all you want. While there is a place for movies like Full Metal Jacket which shows the dehumanizing effect of war or even ones like Jurassic Park about man playing God there is also a place for just pure fun escapism.
Click to expand...

Yeah so... I just saw Fast Nine... Fast and Furious Nine? F9? F9: The Fast Saga?

The Ninth movie.

It actually... wasn't nearly as good. When it comes to story and characters and whatnot... it's probably the same level of quality but F9 was just more stale, dry and boring. I was wondering if it was just because I had gotten done watching Fate of the Furious so I didn't post about it until a couple days after the fact but honestly, I think it was just a much more poor film then most films in this franchise.

John Cena was portraying Dominic Torretto's wayward brother and there was this plot with a whole new MacGuffin which I honestly, forgot what it's purpose was and even its name even though its been less then forty eight hours since I saw the film. It's just... the action scenes, they tried too hard in making them better then the previous films and it just... didn't work out. They loaded a lot of CGi into it and it was fairly obvious. There was a scene where they had a car fly across a canyon and use a harpoon gun to swing around a cliff face and land on the other side and that scene was pretty ridiculous... but it didn't look too bad. But you could tell it was CGI flying through the air. Then later on there were other aerial stunts with airborne crashes and vehicles flying through the air and CGI forms flying through the air doing equally impractical things and it just looked more fake then usual.

You want the over the top action where the CGI blends into and exaggerates things, but you don't want to watch a CGI cartoon. Furthermore, the film was boring. There were less action scenes here and a lot of them were boring gunplay or guns shooting at cars. Or just people getting shot. Even some of the fight choreography which is usually pretty good, seemed pretty meh here. I think the most memorable fight in this film was Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster's characters along with some Asian girl kicking the ass of a hit squad and using lots of improvised weapons and stuff to overcome the Men with their superior strength and the like. A lot of the other fight scenes were pretty blah. And again... it was boring... there weren't as many action scenes either, but lots of talking and exposition and whatnot.

There was a neat car chase scene involving the use of super magnets which was fun and had some nice mechanics but then there was this showdown with a drone firing missiles at the hero cars and compared to the last action finale where you had an ice lake with military MRAPs and a submarine... the drone firing missiles and whatnot just wasn't as cool and also resolved in silly CGI fashion. I feel like I've seen previous Fast and Furious films where they engage in improbable nonsense like pulling a massive bank vault through Rio in Fast Five, or fighting off a tank or the thirty mile runway cargo plane chase scene etc etc. Those were all equally ridiculous, but it wasn't CGI porn and it was still rooted in some sort of reality.

Look at Letty fly through the air and land on a car hood. Look at the car that drives itself to a stop. Look at the car that drives over a rickety footbridge and somehow... does? Or that whole cliff bridge cable swing thing... c'mon...



And this was just the first action set piece. The film got more pretentious later on.

In this film... some of the gang went to space. Which I was on board with but... it wasn't a good scene.

What I did like... however was that there were a lot of flashback scenes to like thirty years prior, which talks about Dominic Torretto's origin, how John Cena's character Jakob was his younger brother and how their Father was lost. It was actually kind of neat seeing those flashback scenes and I actually really liked seeing the original "Fast and Furious" gang from the 2001 but as like... teenagers from over a decade before that. It makes you realize they've been making these films for twenty years now and there's a lot of lore built up in this setting which is kind of neat and actually gave me a bit of a heartwarming nostalgia boost because every so often, your reminded of how this whole franchise rose up from a fairly decent but fairly humble action racing movie about a close knit gang that was like family that robbed semi trucks of cargo in between illegal street races. The film still had those "street vibes" of the original film which was gradually lost as the franchise moved on.

And you see the characters now and while the themes of family and whatnot are meme'd heavily on the internet, it's still very heartwarming to see that theme really being reinforced in every film. It's a positive message and while this franchises emotional moments are often pretty cringe or narm, I do like the idea of a party that is a close knit family. If Fast and Furious was like a Saints Row/GTA style saga, it'd be awesome having companions like these as your family.

Still very average film. Entertaining... it was to the point of being watchable. Even enjoyable in parts. I still think the characters are fun. So yeah... you can make good blockbuster popcorn films but you can also make bad ones. And this was more towards the low quality side though you could still enjoy popcorn to it.

Also John Cena is good in some films. His acting seemed pretty balls here.

Fast X is next!
 
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Husky_Khan said:
Yeah so... I just saw Fast Nine... Fast and Furious Nine? F9? F9: The Fast Saga?

The Ninth movie.

It actually... wasn't nearly as good. When it comes to story and characters and whatnot... it's probably the same level of quality but F9 was just more stale, dry and boring. I was wondering if it was just because I had gotten done watching Fate of the Furious so I didn't post about it until a couple days after the fact but honestly, I think it was just a much more poor film then most films in this franchise.

John Cena was portraying Dominic Torretto's wayward brother and there was this plot with a whole new MacGuffin which I honestly, forgot what it's purpose was and even its name even though its been less then forty eight hours since I saw the film. It's just... the action scenes, they tried too hard in making them better then the previous films and it just... didn't work out. They loaded a lot of CGi into it and it was fairly obvious. There was a scene where they had a car fly across a canyon and use a harpoon gun to swing around a cliff face and land on the other side and that scene was pretty ridiculous... but it didn't look too bad. But you could tell it was CGI flying through the air. Then later on there were other aerial stunts with airborne crashes and vehicles flying through the air and CGI forms flying through the air doing equally impractical things and it just looked more fake then usual.

You want the over the top action where the CGI blends into and exaggerates things, but you don't want to watch a CGI cartoon. Furthermore, the film was boring. There were less action scenes here and a lot of them were boring gunplay or guns shooting at cars. Or just people getting shot. Even some of the fight choreography which is usually pretty good, seemed pretty meh here. I think the most memorable fight in this film was Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster's characters along with some Asian girl kicking the ass of a hit squad and using lots of improvised weapons and stuff to overcome the Men with their superior strength and the like. A lot of the other fight scenes were pretty blah. And again... it was boring... there weren't as many action scenes either, but lots of talking and exposition and whatnot.

There was a neat car chase scene involving the use of super magnets which was fun and had some nice mechanics but then there was this showdown with a drone firing missiles at the hero cars and compared to the last action finale where you had an ice lake with military MRAPs and a submarine... the drone firing missiles and whatnot just wasn't as cool and also resolved in silly CGI fashion. I feel like I've seen previous Fast and Furious films where they engage in improbable nonsense like pulling a massive bank vault through Rio in Fast Five, or fighting off a tank or the thirty mile runway cargo plane chase scene etc etc. Those were all equally ridiculous, but it wasn't CGI porn and it was still rooted in some sort of reality.

Look at Letty fly through the air and land on a car hood. Look at the car that drives itself to a stop. Look at the car that drives over a rickety footbridge and somehow... does? Or that whole cliff bridge cable swing thing... c'mon...



And this was just the first action set piece. The film got more pretentious later on.

In this film... some of the gang went to space. Which I was on board with but... it wasn't a good scene.

What I did like... however was that there were a lot of flashback scenes to like thirty years prior, which talks about Dominic Torretto's origin, how John Cena's character Jakob was his younger brother and how their Father was lost. It was actually kind of neat seeing those flashback scenes and I actually really liked seeing the original "Fast and Furious" gang from the 2001 but as like... teenagers from over a decade before that. It makes you realize they've been making these films for twenty years now and there's a lot of lore built up in this setting which is kind of neat and actually gave me a bit of a heartwarming nostalgia boost because every so often, your reminded of how this whole franchise rose up from a fairly decent but fairly humble action racing movie about a close knit gang that was like family that robbed semi trucks of cargo in between illegal street races. The film still had those "street vibes" of the original film which was gradually lost as the franchise moved on.

And you see the characters now and while the themes of family and whatnot are meme'd heavily on the internet, it's still very heartwarming to see that theme really being reinforced in every film. It's a positive message and while this franchises emotional moments are often pretty cringe or narm, I do like the idea of a party that is a close knit family. If Fast and Furious was like a Saints Row/GTA style saga, it'd be awesome having companions like these as your family.

Still very average film. Entertaining... it was to the point of being watchable. Even enjoyable in parts. I still think the characters are fun. So yeah... you can make good blockbuster popcorn films but you can also make bad ones. And this was more towards the low quality side though you could still enjoy popcorn to it.

Also John Cena is good in some films. His acting seemed pretty balls here.

Fast X is next!
Click to expand...

Fast X is definitely better then nine in my book, not great but better then 9
 
Further to my last notice, I finally got round to watching Once Upon a Time in the West. A very long western with very little dialogue and it did keep you guessing. Its pretty obvious there's no traditional heroes in this, just that Henry Fondas character is even more of a bastard than most. Harmonica played by Charles Bronson is obviously a very broken person and his vengeance, I don't think is going to cure that, just give him a small bit of closure.

I did like that in the end it wasn't really a traditional 'love story' ending where Claudia Cardinales Jill seemed to attach to both Harmonica and Cheyenne, yet both men are not really someone she should get too involved with.
 
Just saw Horizon An American Saga: Chapter One.



And... I really liked it.

For those that don't know, the Horizon film series is something produced and directed by actor Kevin Costner with all of his Yellowstone cash I guess. It's a project he's wanted to do for years and years apparently and he's finally been able to make it happen. It's basically going to be a Western Epic centered on the attempt to establish a settlement in the San Pedro Valley in the American Southwest. But it's following about a half dozen different storylines at the moment, including one involving the indigenous Apaches, another involving settlers at the site of the settlement, another involving a wagon train, and another involving some crime family and the storylines stretch from Mexico to Montana Territory so its pretty broad at the moment.

I loved watching it. It's definitely distinct from most new Westerns which have been overly inspired by films by Sergio Leone (the Spaeghetti Westerns) and remaking them or otherwise making more revisionist style films or something more gritty and violent in the Sam Peckinpah style. But Costner's film, it's more like the Westerns predating those of Sergio Leone. A John Ford type of Western. Proper epic scale with compelling characters in grounded storylines and all of that. And it doesn't pull punches, earning that R rating right from the beginning.

And it was a very detailed and well paced look into the films depiction of life in the Old West. I loved all of the cast and wasn't ever really confused about what was going onscreen despite the multiple storylines and despite the ensemble cast. They were all well cast and the film itself was very well paced. I was worried that a three hour Western by Kevin Costner would've been slow or boring, but it kept me interested throughout. It felt long, but it was an entertaining and engrossing long. It was so good that when Part One ended, I was kinda wishing I could dive right into Part Two... and Three and Four (which are being planned to shoot already).

The film apparently isn't doing very well in theaters unfortunately but I think this is Kevin Costner's passion project. In a month, on August 16th, Part Two will be released. And Part Three already started production last May. So hopefully in spite of the lukewarm reception in theaters, it'll release all four parts. This is like the Lord of the Rings equivalent of an Old West Saga, no cap! :p

 
Some of it may be general knowledge. I Heard about the flim but did not even know it was out yet.

Also snice the pandemic and even before media has trained people to not head to the theaters. It used to be a theater run then 6 months later rental and to buy a physical copy, then followed by 6ish months for it to hit an HBO like channel then maybe 2 years after a flim hit theaters for it to appear on basic cable.

Now you can see a movie while it's still in theaters or waiting only a couple of months for it to hit Netflix.

So unless it's a huge movie or a large preexisting fanbase most movies are struggling. Add in a small advertising budget and westerns being a smaller audience it does not surpise me that it's not a hit.


That's said I will likley check it out especially snice Kevin Costner is responsible for some of the best Western movies in the last 30 years.
 
Zachowon said:
Fast X is definitely better then nine in my book, not great but better then 9
Click to expand...

Fast X was actually significantly better than F9. The films weren't as good as the earlier ones I feel but they cut down on a lot of the egregious CGI a fair bit that really plagued the F9 film. Some of the things I liked was the emphasis on the whole family dynamic still and John Cena's Brother character was more more interesting and even "Little B" wasn't annoying as Dom's son. I also really enjoyed the fight scene between Charlize Theron's Cipher and Michelle Rodriguez' Letty character in the prison facility. Overall the scenes in Rome were pretty neat IMHO. London was kinda... random. Like one scene was completely pointless I feel. Rio was kinda neat and it was fun seeing Dom commanding all of that respect in the wake of confronting the Son of the Druglord.

What didn't work for me was the villain. Jason Momoa does a lot of naturally comedic rules but I feel in this one he was just terrible in this film. He was overacting, over eccentric and trying to portray someone who is both insane, eccentric to the point of being flamboyant and yet somehow also intimidating and hypercompetent but I could never take his version of the Joker that seriously and really thought he fell flat as a villain despite his best efforts.

Also I was kind of surprised that the actor portraying Ames, the leader of 'The Agency' was Alan Ritchson. Based on his poor acting performance (IMHO) I thought it was some pro wrestler I didn't recognize. Also the villain twist was pretty lackluster as well. I don't know if I saw it coming but... it landed pretty flat for me. The whole last act in Portugal actually was rather disappointing to me.

Somehow this film, it's action scenes didn't match up with what I've seen in earlier Fast and Furious films IMHO, including Fast Five which this film heavily referenced. It's kind of unfortunate but, it's probably good the franchise is tapering off. I don't think there's any creative juice left in the tank.
 
Saw Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on HBO Max.

It was alright.

It was like a lot of the recent superhero movies where it's just a bunch of CGI noise going on and also I didn't like the world building in this film as much as I did the first Aquaman film, where I kind of thought it was neat. Here it seemed kind of stale. Also I didn't really care about the entire plot in general and villain(s). Like Black Manta is cool and all but here, he was still kinda cool but still didn't really care about him, and I didn't care about the stupid Black Trident he got, and the ancient big bad that was the ancient big bad in this film that required another whole new flashback narration for why he's so evil and dangerous. Also didn't really care about the plot of using the Atlantean Magic Fuel to enact climate change and melt the polar ice caps. Don't get me wrong, this movie wasn't really big on ideology and any political or environmental message in the film didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the film, it was just the implementation and overall presentation of the films nemesis and crisis that didn't work for me.

None of the fight or action scenes really interested me either. Nothing stood out. Just entertainment. Also having just seen Fast X a week or so earlier which also had Jason Momoa, I was kinda cringing at the humor and worse, when Momoa was doing his "anger" scenes. It just didn't sell for me.

With that said, I actually did enjoy the chemistry between all of characters. It was nice seeing Aquaman and his wayward brother Orn/Ocean Master/Patrick Wilson hanging out and there were some sweet moments there. And while the humor often didn't land, it was endearing. It's unfortunate the first joke that landed was like halfway into the film and involved Aquaman convincing his brother that Cockroaches were the Shrimp of land. The little things of Ocean Master/Orn being unfamiliar with surface culture and that sort of banter with his brother was fun. Amber Heard/Mera and Dolph Lundgren's King Nereus character had more screentime too and were pretty neat. Standout character was probably Dr. Shin, who was portrayed by Randall Park and like the brains behind Black Manta's adventures. His character was almost a caricature but, he managed to stand out.

There were some terrible scenes as well though. Like Martin Short voiced this fish version of Jabba the Hutt that was also a crimelord. There were a lot of random bits of this film just ripped from other films and given a maritime makeover. It took me out of the film. Inspiration is one thing, but a direct port... please no.

Overall it's unfortunate the film had all of these interesting characters and a neat world building and this is what the final product was. Fast and Furious Underwater or something.
 
Recently watched Violent Night and Nobody.

Violent Night was really fun conceptually, a bloody mess. David Harbour was fun, lots of fucked up dad energy.

Nobody was good, but I agree with people that side the bus scene is the best part of the movie and everything is downhill from there - and the ending does just jump the shark.

Also watched Sisu a few weeks back. That was a really fun movie.
 
I saw the horror film Talk to Me a couple of days ago streaming on something.

It was a solid horror film. I feel like it's part of a nice revival of the horror genre that we've seen with films like It Follows and some of those other A24 style horror films which I honestly haven't bothered watching. :p This one was more interesting to me since it took place amongst young adults in a relatable setting, even though it took place in Australia. It helped take a fairly common horror trope of teens or whatever using a seance or ritual to contact the dead and letting a plot unfold from there.

The characters were well written and interesting, the setup was great and despite being first time directors, the guys who did the RackaRacka Youtube channel seemed to do a really good job shooting their first film. Along with the interesting story and characters and everything that helped me as the viewer actually care enough to see how the story unfolded, the actual horror scenes were pretty tension filled. And while I shouldn't of been surprised (I had seen their work on YouTube before) I was still surprised and even winced a fair bit at not just the gore, but also some of the other... grosteque things going on. It never got too squicky for me however, so I wouldn't say anyone should be warded off by that. It's a very well balanced horror film. Would recommend for horror fans.

Probably going to see Longlegs with some friends in theater today now that we have some free time (due to us sucking at team sports).
 
I saw Longlegs. I didn't realize Nicolas Cage was starring in it. The main motivation for me actually watching this film was watching maybe the first few minutes of a RedLetterMedia video reviewing the film and in the introductory minutes, they said it was good so that was enough to get me sold on it (I was paying such close attention that upon rewatching the same review video, I forgot they mentioned Nicolas Cage starring in it). I had heard other stuff through osmosis about how it was vaguely good to watch, but I wasn't really paying attention. However seeing that it did have really good reviews and audience reception, and seeing the cast of Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe etc, I really just wanted to hit the theaters to see a good horror movie and this was an opportunity.

And I liked it a lot. It's interesting. It was a very well done film. Nicolas Cage was absolutely great but so was the rest of the cast, including Maika Monroe as Lee Harker, the FBI Agent who was the lead investigator into this cold case. In short, the film is about Agent Harker investigating a cold case involving a mysterious serial killer who targets families. Early on, it establishes Lee Harker as a pretty intuitive but also pretty awkward and quirky type of individual which is a trope for the genre, but she did a great job portraying it.

The investigation scenes themselves were great, and really spooky and tension filled which made for a great atmosphere. Another thing I liked about the film was that the film basically revealed who the killer was early on, but there was so much mystery to fill in the gaps between the crime scenes and how it all connected to the serial killer himself. And the mystery was very well set up, with foreshadowing and good crafting and all of that without cheating the audience.

One problem with mystery/thrillers is whether the payoff is worth it. I was surprised, when it was all done and explained, how it played out, not due to any particular plot twists, but because the payoff was pretty simple, even... derivative, but I wasn't disappointed with it, because the film itself was really well done, tense, spooky and everything. Just watching the film was payoff enough and the ending, as it was, was still a solid conclusion.

The film also had some nice visuals, with the flashbacks taking place in a different, more square aspect ratio and filmmaking style and there was a lot of nostalgia, both from the sixties and seventies, but also in the nineties when the film was set to take place. Overall it was good stuff. Would recommend.



There is one caveat... I feel like this is also one of those kind of horror films that you'd really enjoy... or just find boring. I was never bored with it but I could totally see 'some people' finding it boring for whatever unfathomable reason.
 
Planning on seeing Deadpool & Wolverine soon so checking out some films I haven't seen in a while related to it.

Saw Logan the other night, and I don't think I've seen it since it came out in theaters when it made me cry like a bitch at the end. So saw it again, and it filled me with more dread because I knew what was going to happen and in many cases, while it's a wonderful, emotional film. Probably one of the most if not the emotionally impactful and resonant mainstream superhero films out there, it also reminded me of how dark and depressing the film was in many respects. Not just the setting and context of loss, but just the themes of growing old as well.

Tonight I'm watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Not quite as high quality a film as Logan but I'm pleased with it. Definitely more of a popcorn movie then Logan is but with all of the stuff it crams into the film, including ancilliary and excessive cameos and easter eggs along with a centuries worth of backstory, it's a pretty decent film. Definitely above average and impressed with how they crammed so much into it without the film being a complete mess like many blockbusters are nowadays. This film is only slightly messy.
 
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