Land of Mine - 6.5-7/10

Well made and acted drama set at the end of WWII when young German POWs were used to defuse thousands of land mines in previously occupied Denmark. Admirably economical in its storytelling but overly simplistic in its characterisations, it comes off a bit incomplete on the whole, or at the very least leaves you wanting a more complex examination of the circumstances it depicts. 

Colossal - 7/10

Fairly solid overall although I was kind of ambivalent for most of its runtime until it came together impressively well (thematically, narratively and character arc wise) in its last 15 min. Still felt it was a little too surface level dramatically (despite the committed performances), and it probably didn't have the budget to do too much with its monster movie mashup. 

Caught this just before it goes out of the cinemas here. Glad I did. Cool film, really quite enjoyed it. Gave off good old meets tech meets uncertain morality vibes in a very similar way to Deus Ex despite a different setting. Sure it's not the most rivetting story and it's a bit of style over substance but the style is good and distinctive in parts, the characters are pretty engaging for an action flick, and it unfolds nicely. Also any big fight scene that's won with a deadlift gets my vote.

As for the people complaining about something as petty, as, say, the water fight scene, in the words of my GF (who says it is by far her favourite anime and she's seen it multiple times) "they did some of the iconic scenes really well, it's a good homage to it".

And the people complaining that Scarlett thingymajiggy is mis-cast as an Oriental chick, well, errrr, she's an Oriental chick put into a robot body made by a very clearly global country with high profile caucasian officials who might not want to replicate her original looks, and the film also features leading characters Oriental, American, black, English, robot and also a fucking beagle. Pretty sure beagles aren't Japanese. So fucking bite me. Also Sca-Jo carries it off pretty well I thought, not too cutesy for sure.

In short:

Film: 7.25 / 10
Killes Ranting: 6.75 / 10
Agglomerate differential total rating: 7.75 / 10 

I thought GITS was a very pretty film in a lot of ways but a bit of a hodge-podge story. I also think Johansson was mis-cast. Not because she was white but because I found her acting to be fairly bad (and believe me, I love her to bits). She also walked around with a weird hunched-over gait and it was a bit off-putting.

If I had seen this on it's own I'd probably give it a 7/10. But it's about a 5 compared to the anime. 

New season promises true greatness yet again. I have to say, they've got some really fucking good writers.

I was watching Billions because the first season was decent and I'm interested in Wall Street / high level white collar crime. Although I'm aware that the show is an oversimplified caricature that doesn't even scratch the surface of how fucked up things actually are, it at least gestured toward some relevant issues on a relevant topic, since bankers don't exactly have no effect on the world. I had to give up watching it though as the second season has totally descended into unwitting self-caricature with subplots brought up and forgotten for no reason, main plots being silly romance/"drama" drivel, and a general lack of storyline coherence. It's a perfect illustration of how bad writing can destroy a show with potential.

Still, they didn't jump the shark as badly as Bill Nye. That, I don't even get. 

I have as much interesting in rating it compared to the anime as I have is listening to people rate it compared to the anime, i.e. none.

I'm pretty sure the Major's movement was deliberate.

Hodge podge story, sure, it's an action flick.

Anyway, I liked it 0.25 / 10 more than you ;) 

As I do in uses the previewed function. Derp. You know what I mean.

Out of interest, comparisons aside, does the story in the anime make any more sense, in the way that animes are world-renowned for ? 

GITS - have not dared subject myself to the movie yet, I will surely, but no rush, I'll wait for a decent HD version to grab and watch at home.

------

Recent Movie that I watched recently that left enough of an impression that I remember watching it offhand:

Excision
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1984153/
I enjoyed it, the main character had some fun comebacks and attitude, proper dramatic ending. A fun little movie, some nice sick visuals. 

Three episodes in and I already feel that this may be my favorite season yet. I haven't felt that way about either 1 or 2 by this point then.

But maybe it's because how off season 3 is? It hits similar story beats but I keep getting the feeling we're not told the whole truth at all.

David Thewlis' villain and what he represents (as was hinted in the latest episode) creeps me out in a primal, down to the bone way. 

 

No knowledge of the original. Really enjoyed it though... in particular the effects and the world they've created are really spectacular. Really surpassed expectations. 

"No knowledge of the original."..."Really surpassed expectations."

No shit ? ;) 

a bang average sci-fi film.... maybe worse than that considering there was always a chance the nerd rage had some merit. 

 

Nice cinematography, as always.

2/5 stars 

Oh boy, good but hard to watch. 

I will start with I liked Prometheus (so that you can choose to ignore this post right now if you want).

So I guess I had some expectations. But this is now the worst film I have seen in the last 5 years, taking the mantle from Split. Save one scene, it is utterly dire in pretty much every department. Tonally all over the place at both a macro and micro level, you wonder how no one involved noticed?

I also disagree with killpixel that the cinematography is nice, I thought it was visually as poor as the rest of the film (surprising because that is usually the one thing Ridley Scott is good at).

More dishearteningly, the franchise is now at a place where what they are doing is retrospectively hurting the good films. I mean given what is shown in Covenant, the franchise shouldnt even be called Alien anymore.

3/10

ps: the one good scene comes both too far into the film (with too much drivel before) and too early (with too much drivel to follow). 

wow, damn that's harsh. I saw Aliens vs Predator, maybe in hindsight it HAD to suck, but it didn't have to suck that much. I thought maybe they could save it with Prometheus, but that was just a well-produced waste of talent (killpixel's point exactly), so I won't bother with this. It sucks how they just can't stop beating a dead horse. The first ALIEN was a masterpiece but jesus christ just leave it alone already. Why can't we just have new science fiction films - not endless remakes and reboots and sequels? 

Wait for critic reviews first. 

The first ALIEN was a masterpiece but jesus christ just leave it alone already.

The sequel was pretty good also. One of the best sci-fi thriller/action movies ever, 10/10 in my opinion.

But then came Alien 3 and after that somebody decided it needed to be turned into a "franchise". It was pretty much game over at that point. 

Nothing wrong with Alien 3. Hell, even Alien Resurrection has plenty of decent moments (and I think if they had the predator licence at the time it would have been incredible, instead of the weird hybrid part) 

You're dead to me. 

It's filled with incredible actors! How can anyone hate it? 

Because it's irredeemable shite. 

Good actors, incredible setting, Ripley...
Fincher did well.