Christopher Robin:
This is not a kids movie...
Okay, let me rephrase that... what I mean is, this movie is targeted more for the adults rather than kids because the issues presented here are not really kid issues nor are they stuff they would understand. As a working-class adult? I totally understand how it feels like to be an adult and be forced to leave your childhood behind. This movie really painted that feeling so close to the heart I was really feeling like I'm the one pressured to deliver the work because it's something I go through in my real life.
The adults should be watching this before children. I'm just saying.
8.5/10
Wasn't sure if I'd watch it or not, but then I thought I might not get the chance to watch another Predator movie in theaters so, I went ahead.
It was better than what I expected. Some stupidity in it, the jokes can get cringy at best, but I'll be honest and say I had some fun with it. The characters do grow on you and it was nice that they let them live long enough before the eventual massacre.
The plot is kinda stupid, that one dog felt like a very forced joke and a mood killer, some effects were very cheap looking, but the action scenes and Predator fights were cool.
If we're counting Predators and the two AvP movies, I'll put this as my third favorite Predator movie in the franchise.
Upgrade - Jesus, why is it that every cyber punk movie coming out lately has been able to do Ghost in the Shell better than the god damned Ghost in the Shell movie? Clearly it wasn't rocket science! Anyway, this was pretty good although there were a couple of areas I really felt they could have done more with (like when he meets the hacker) and the ending had a nice twist I didn't see coming. An enjoyable film with some good music, so I give it an 8/10.
Nosferatu:
Silent movies are still the hardest for me to get into because the dialogue is minimum and the music for the most part doesn't match the scenes, and without even any sound effects you need to use your full attention with them. I heard there's a version that fixed some of these issues by having more appropriate music and matching sound effects so I might check that one in the future.
Now, I know this is basically Dracula under a different name and a slightly different plot, but oh boy, Count Orlok can give any Dracula the run of their money because he the scariest looking vampire I've seen. Some would say Orlok looks silly and obviously evil, but Max Schreck's performance and the cinematography can make even the silliest looking things scary as hell. A bit of a shame he's not in it that much.
It got its historical value, but I wouldn't put it as a favorite.
6/10
The Lost World (1925):
The grand daddy of dinosaur literature and dinosaur movies. I read the novel, or at least a version of the novel (Ladybird edition) so I was already familiar with the basic plot and characters and I am aware of some differences from the movie: Mainly bringing a Brontosaurus instead of a Pterodactyl to London..
It is dialogue heavy up until the expedition, then it turns to mostly dead air with dinosaurs doing stuff in the background that for the most part don't interact with the humans, and the Brontosaurus rampage is reduced to last five minutes of the movie.
The dinosaur effects by Willis O'Brein aren't as great as what we would see later in King Kong, but everybody needs to start with something. The stopmotion is rougher and the models are simpler than in King King.
6.5/10
Boris Karloff should've been more famous as Imhotep rather than Frankenstein's monster because he was really amazing and chilling in this role.
It is amazing that this was an original story not based on a previous work in literature, and it was really well done. One of the best Horror-Romance movies I've ever seen.
Oh, God, now this is a real schlock of a movie! The dinosaurs (if you could call them that) are laughable. Oh sure, put a paper sheet on an alligator and call it a dinosaur. That'll fool everybody, right?! Except for the mammoths, they looked convincing. The monitors are the laziest because they're just monitor lizards without any makeup or prosthetics. But the absolute worse is the Tyrannosaur because it's just a rubber suit and fights the cave men in the same size. They were so cheap they didn't make it look larger than them.
Laughable effects aside, I thought it's an interesting movie. The cave people are not given any dialogue to say and most of the movie it's just them using body language to convey their emotions.
It's still a laughable schlock. It's riffing magnet, so watch it with friends and go MST3K all over it.
Unknown Island (1948):
Another schlock of a dinosaur movie. It's like a combined ripoff of both The Lost World and King Kong. A reporter wants to take pictures of dinosaurs, gathers a crew to take him to mystery island, and they get attacked by awful special effects and rebellious crew that wants to kill the people who hired them, and the captain wants to bring a living dinosaur to mainland (Spoiler Alert: That was too expensive to do so he couldn't do it).
And this movie did King Kong vs Godzilla before King Kong vs Godzilla... except it was Megatherium vs Ceratosaurs
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951):
Another classic Sci-Fi. You can see the commentary of the Cold War in this with the danger of the strangers and security, but it still works to this day. The acting is great and "John Carpenter" Michael Rennie made a convincing performance of an alien who understands Earth's culture yet still doesn't understand everything about it. The remake should be interesting to watch.
Invaders from Mars (1953):
I expected this to be laughing stock, but this was actually really good.
At first you may think it's a ripoff of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but this actually three years before it. And for an independent movie of that time, I thought it was well written and well acted.
It stars a child, but his acting was great and the combination of whimsical and horror tone makes me mistake it for a Steven Spielberg movie.
The first half was strong, but when they move in to attack the alien it got slow and clunky.
7/10
Them! (1954):
The codifier of many of insect monster movies and the inspiration for other alien films.
For a B-Movie about giant ants, it was decent and still holds up. The ants models are a little bit fake looking, but far better than what you would see in films of the same era.
7/10
Not as interesting as Them!, but the mantis puppet looked good enough. The shot where they use a real mantis to climb the Washington Monument looked awesome.
The movie that was so laughable the director quietly walked out the theater when everybody laughed at the bird. For me it was a snoozefest. Needs a dose of MST3K to catch my attention.
4/10
-------
The Land Unknown:
Another Lost World plot. of people stranded in an island with dinosaurs. The characters are bland and the effects are terrible, except for the plant. I thought it was okay.
The Giant Behemoth (1958):
Let's see... a radiated blob mutated to a giant marine dinosaur that spreads radiation where ever it goes. It's more or less a Beast from 20,000 Fathoms copycat mixed with Godzilla when they tried using the electrical towers as a line of defense, but it doesn't reach that level.
The puppet used for the water scenes was mediocre, but the stop-motion clay model used for the rampage scenes was terrible. You can see the seams all over it from the neck to the shoulders, it breaks the illusion of it being a real creature. It was so awful that most of the shots were extreme closeups to its face and the rest was obscured by darkness.
3/10
The last movie I watched was the Meg and obviously it was awesome!!!!
Christopher Robin: This is not a kids movie... Okay, let me rephrase that... what I mean is, this movie is targeted more for the adults rather than kids because the issues presented here are not really kid issues nor are they stuff they would understand. As a working-class adult? I totally understand how it feels like to be an adult and be forced to leave your childhood behind. This movie really painted that feeling so close to the heart I was really feeling like I'm the one pressured to deliver the work because it's something I go through in my real life. The adults should be watching this before children. I'm just saying. 8.5/10
We watched Molly's Game the other night. It was quite good. 8/10.
BlackkKlansman - Amazing. One of the best movies of the year.
The Predator:
Wasn't sure if I'd watch it or not, but then I thought I might not get the chance to watch another Predator movie in theaters so, I went ahead.
It was better than what I expected. Some stupidity in it, the jokes can get cringy at best, but I'll be honest and say I had some fun with it. The characters do grow on you and it was nice that they let them live long enough before the eventual massacre.
The plot is kinda stupid, that one dog felt like a very forced joke and a mood killer, some effects were very cheap looking, but the action scenes and Predator fights were cool.
If we're counting Predators and the two AvP movies, I'll put this as my third favorite Predator movie in the franchise.
7/10
Upgrade - Jesus, why is it that every cyber punk movie coming out lately has been able to do Ghost in the Shell better than the god damned Ghost in the Shell movie? Clearly it wasn't rocket science! Anyway, this was pretty good although there were a couple of areas I really felt they could have done more with (like when he meets the hacker) and the ending had a nice twist I didn't see coming. An enjoyable film with some good music, so I give it an 8/10.
Nosferatu: Silent movies are still the hardest for me to get into because the dialogue is minimum and the music for the most part doesn't match the scenes, and without even any sound effects you need to use your full attention with them. I heard there's a version that fixed some of these issues by having more appropriate music and matching sound effects so I might check that one in the future. Now, I know this is basically Dracula under a different name and a slightly different plot, but oh boy, Count Orlok can give any Dracula the run of their money because he the scariest looking vampire I've seen. Some would say Orlok looks silly and obviously evil, but Max Schreck's performance and the cinematography can make even the silliest looking things scary as hell. A bit of a shame he's not in it that much. It got its historical value, but I wouldn't put it as a favorite. 6/10
The Lost World (1925): The grand daddy of dinosaur literature and dinosaur movies. I read the novel, or at least a version of the novel (Ladybird edition) so I was already familiar with the basic plot and characters and I am aware of some differences from the movie: Mainly bringing a Brontosaurus instead of a Pterodactyl to London.. It is dialogue heavy up until the expedition, then it turns to mostly dead air with dinosaurs doing stuff in the background that for the most part don't interact with the humans, and the Brontosaurus rampage is reduced to last five minutes of the movie. The dinosaur effects by Willis O'Brein aren't as great as what we would see later in King Kong, but everybody needs to start with something. The stopmotion is rougher and the models are simpler than in King King. 6.5/10
The Mummy (1932):
Boris Karloff should've been more famous as Imhotep rather than Frankenstein's monster because he was really amazing and chilling in this role.
It is amazing that this was an original story not based on a previous work in literature, and it was really well done. One of the best Horror-Romance movies I've ever seen.
9/10
The Mummy is one of my favorites. It's such an underrated film that gets overlooked for the others in the franchise.
One Million BC (1940):
Oh, God, now this is a real schlock of a movie! The dinosaurs (if you could call them that) are laughable. Oh sure, put a paper sheet on an alligator and call it a dinosaur. That'll fool everybody, right?! Except for the mammoths, they looked convincing. The monitors are the laziest because they're just monitor lizards without any makeup or prosthetics. But the absolute worse is the Tyrannosaur because it's just a rubber suit and fights the cave men in the same size. They were so cheap they didn't make it look larger than them.
Laughable effects aside, I thought it's an interesting movie. The cave people are not given any dialogue to say and most of the movie it's just them using body language to convey their emotions.
It's still a laughable schlock. It's riffing magnet, so watch it with friends and go MST3K all over it.
5/10
Unknown Island (1948): Another schlock of a dinosaur movie. It's like a combined ripoff of both The Lost World and King Kong. A reporter wants to take pictures of dinosaurs, gathers a crew to take him to mystery island, and they get attacked by awful special effects and rebellious crew that wants to kill the people who hired them, and the captain wants to bring a living dinosaur to mainland (Spoiler Alert: That was too expensive to do so he couldn't do it). And this movie did King Kong vs Godzilla before King Kong vs Godzilla... except it was Megatherium vs Ceratosaurs
4/10
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): Another classic Sci-Fi. You can see the commentary of the Cold War in this with the danger of the strangers and security, but it still works to this day. The acting is great and "John Carpenter" Michael Rennie made a convincing performance of an alien who understands Earth's culture yet still doesn't understand everything about it. The remake should be interesting to watch.
9/10
Invaders from Mars (1953): I expected this to be laughing stock, but this was actually really good. At first you may think it's a ripoff of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but this actually three years before it. And for an independent movie of that time, I thought it was well written and well acted. It stars a child, but his acting was great and the combination of whimsical and horror tone makes me mistake it for a Steven Spielberg movie. The first half was strong, but when they move in to attack the alien it got slow and clunky. 7/10
Robot Monster:
Ah, yes. The king of B-Movies... it's as stupid and hilarious as they say.
5/10
The War of the Worlds (1953): It was good. The effects still looks great, though there are some dated portions and the ending is a bit confusing. 8/10
Them! (1954): The codifier of many of insect monster movies and the inspiration for other alien films. For a B-Movie about giant ants, it was decent and still holds up. The ants models are a little bit fake looking, but far better than what you would see in films of the same era. 7/10
The Deadly Mantis:
Not as interesting as Them!, but the mantis puppet looked good enough. The shot where they use a real mantis to climb the Washington Monument looked awesome.
6/10
The Giant Claw:
Battleship Count: 11
The movie that was so laughable the director quietly walked out the theater when everybody laughed at the bird. For me it was a snoozefest. Needs a dose of MST3K to catch my attention.
4/10
-------
The Land Unknown:
Another Lost World plot. of people stranded in an island with dinosaurs. The characters are bland and the effects are terrible, except for the plant. I thought it was okay.
4/10
The Giant Behemoth (1958): Let's see... a radiated blob mutated to a giant marine dinosaur that spreads radiation where ever it goes. It's more or less a Beast from 20,000 Fathoms copycat mixed with Godzilla when they tried using the electrical towers as a line of defense, but it doesn't reach that level. The puppet used for the water scenes was mediocre, but the stop-motion clay model used for the rampage scenes was terrible. You can see the seams all over it from the neck to the shoulders, it breaks the illusion of it being a real creature. It was so awful that most of the shots were extreme closeups to its face and the rest was obscured by darkness. 3/10