Moviewatcher122's 2017 Film Diary: April

April 1-2



"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room."
"No. It's awful."

This was a decent film. It had a good script, some decent satire and some strong perfomances from William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter. Wasn't anything exceptionally good, but I did enjoy watching it and I'd probably watch it again though I wouldn't go out of my way to do so either.

April 5



"Number 5 is alive."

I've been wanting to watch this for years and I never gotten around to it. I was holding it off at first because the idea of watching this before E.T. sounded like a crazy idea, but then I just forgot about it. Now that I found it on Netflix I decided to finally give it a watch and it was a pretty charming film. It told a fun story, some decent characters and it did have a good sense of humor. It's not a movie that's aged particularly well and it makes itself obvious that it's from the 80's, but it's a fun movie and because the sequel is on Netflix too, I'll probably check that out sometime too.

April 7



-

"We ain't got no sugar."
"No sugar? Damn. Y'all ain't never got two things that match. Either y'all got Kool-aid, no sugar. Peanut butter, no jelly. Ham, no burger. Daaamn."

I really felt like re-visiting this one lately, so I went as far as to get it on Blu-Ray. Because this was the first movie I watched when I started this whole movie logging thing, it does have some nostalgia value for me and after watching this again, I liked it even more than I did last time. This time around I really appreciate how this movie was made. It wasn't made on a huge budget, the whole film takes place in one day and mostly one location and it only took 20 days to make. It's a very simplistic little movie, but that's what makes it so good. It also has a great amount of realism in the dialogue and story that it doesn't even feel like your watching a movie at times and instead feels like you're just hanging out with these guys. I also really appreciated the humor a lot more this time around. A lot of it relies on dialogue and the characters along with the situations they get themselves into. Plus Ice Cube and Chris Tucker were just hilarious together although Chris Tucker really stole the show at times and delivered some of the most quotable lines ever.

Not sure if I am looking too deep into this or not, but I really believe that this particular film is smarter than your average stoner comedy. It's just a great movie that I'm glad I watched again and I'd do it again for years to come.

April 8



"I'm sorry, I'm trying very hard, but I just don't feel anything."
"We are here as an act of memorial."
"It's just nostalgia! You're a tourist in your own youth. We were young; bad things happened."

Saw this in theatres mainly because nothing else of interest is playing right now and I did love the original Trainspotting. I didn't have the highest expectations going into this because I don't just love the first one, but it's also my favorite movie of 1996 and even a contender for my top 50 all-time favorites. With all of that said, there's no way this sequel was going to live up to the original. It's unlikely that this would've turned out to be like The Godfather Part II or similarly enough the only T2 which is Terminator 2: Judgement Day. (This is why I'm calling it Trainspotting 2.)

So, how is this sequel in its own right? It was decent for sure, but it's far from perfect. It was great to see these characters again for a second time and it was interesting to see what they were up to. The script is well-written and it can be really funny at times. While I do like how it's tonally different from the original, it also feels like the one of the film's weaknesses as times. I hate to compare this to the original, but Trainspotting was a perfectly-paced thrill ride and had a runtime so short that it leaves you wanting more when it's done. Here though, this movie doesn't have anything close to being as crazy as that baby scene from the first one. I get that something like that wouldn't really fit in with what this sequel is going for, but it still left me a little disappointed. Besides that I felt like this movie dragged on at times. Like I said the original had a perfect runtime, while this one is almost half an hour longer than the first one and it does show at times. It did have at least a couple moments of boredom and I'd be lying if I said there were no instances where I felt like I could be watching the original instead. Unfortunately, what this boils down to is that this sequel is that it has to stand in the shadow of the first one.

Still, this is by no means a bad sequel, far from it. It definitely has enough good moments to keep you interested and if I'm going to compare this one to another sequel, I'd say it's like Before Sunset. Just like this one it's nowhere near as good as the original was, but it is still good enough in it's own right. It's definitely worth seeing if you loved the original, but don't go into it with high expectations because that's most likely setting yourself up for disappointment.

April 9



"It's ironic, isn't it? The Old Testament had a wrathful God, but people became uneasy with the concept, needed a best seller, so they came up with a New Testament. Suddenly God was loving and forgiving. I'm old-school, myself. I prefer the Old Testament. I mean you've got to love a God who's not afraid to mete out a little vengeance when the need arises."

I was feeling bored, so I went and visited the deep dark realm known as Straight to DVD. This particular one had an interesting idea, but considering that it's a DTV film starring Val Kilmer, it most likely wasn't going to be good. No surprise here, this movie wasn't good. Minus Val Kilmer who does a passable job as the leading role, no one else in this movie could really act and there weren't any characters for me to care about. The plot was also very predictable and pretty stupid in certain parts. After watching this though all I can say is that it's bad, but I've seen far worse by now. It's not like especially incompetent or anything and it's mostly just dull. It's just something that I watched and will never speak of again.

April 12



This wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be, but I still ended up enjoying it. Going into it I thought it would be a horror movie. It even looks and sounds like a horror movie, but it really isn't. There's nothing really scary about it and it's more of a Mad Max style movie, but me being a huge Mad Max fan, it's a style that I welcome. It pays homage to the series well enough without feeling like a full-on rip-off while also being fun in it's own right. It's an enjoyable movie and it's one of those times where being mislead by a movie didn't bother me.

April 14



"If Reptilicus is hit, you'll never find all the pieces underwater. He'll regenerate, Mark!"

Caught the first episode of this not only because I'm a MST3K fan, but because I was one of the many people that helped fund this revival. This particular episode started off a bit slow with the introduction of the whole thing which could've been cut shorter, but when they got to riffing the movie it turned out to be great. There were so many hilarious lines throughout the whole thing. It still had that classic MST3K riffing feel while also doing a great job at making more modern references, none of which felt forced. The new guy Jonah also did a great job and the skits turned out to be really good after a slow start. The one song in particular is the highlight of these skits.

As for the movie they covered, this is honestly one of the best movies this show has covered from what I've seen. It's still incredibly cheesy filled with bad acting and corny special effects, but it was just too fun for me to hate and this is one of those rare films I can see myself watching without the commentary. I don't know, I guess I just have a weakness for the monster movies they cover.

But yeah, it's great to see this show back and I already want to watch more episodes of it.

MST3K Rating: 9/10

April 19



"Every minute we stay down here, Shredder gets stronger and Mikey gets more annoying!"
"We're training... sort of. As soon as the sun goes down, it's Turtle time!"

I thought this one was a slight improvement over the previous TMNT film. It still suffers from a few of the problems the last one had, but I had a lot more fun with it than I did with the other one. It was nice to finally see Bebop and Rocksteady in a Ninja Turtles movie for once along with Krang. The humor was also better than it was in the last movie with this one having more jokes that worked. But it's still far from perfect. While the design of the turtles has somewhat grown on me, I still am not the biggest fan of it and Megan Fox still can't act. Besides her though I didn't really like this interpretation of Casey Jones either. I found him to actually be pretty annoying. There was also a few moments where I was kind of bored which I think might have to do with the runtime. It is a little overlong with it being almost 2 hours and I think it could've been cut down a little bit. But for the most part I do think this movie did a good job of capturing the more cartoony feel that the franchise overall had which is good as the previous one took itself too seriously from what I can remember. While I'd prefer to revisit the 1990 version over this one, I'm still glad I saw it at least once.

April 21



"Behind these doors is the Holiest of Holies, earthly domain of the gods. A place so ineffably sacred, so powerful, that he who enters... Instant death!"
"Who cleans it?"

Man, did this movie get a lot of hate when it came out. I thought the idea sounded amusing when it came out and Jack Black was enough to have me interested, but after hearing so many bad things about it, I just assumed it wasn't worth watching. But a couple years later I did catch a part of it on TV and thought it looked kind of funny and so I had it on my radar for quite some time.

At the risk of losing the credibility I have... oh wait, who am I kidding? Any tiny bit of credibility I had is probably gone by now, but anyways I didn't think this movie was that bad. I actually thought it was very funny. Is it stupid? Oh, of course it is. The stupid humor is probably what turned off people at the time, but I thought it was stupid enough to the point where it was still funny. I think part of what makes it work for me is Jack Black. I mean, most of the time this guy is really funny and here he delivers some of the best lines in the movie. Michael Cera is also pretty good as his sidekick and delivered some good moments as well. Plus I thought it was a good look at religion. It's not one the funniest or smartest looks at religion like say Life of Brian, but it's good enough. I like how it parodied some of these bible stories and they did it in a fun way.

I'm not claiming this to be on the same level as something like Monty Python or the work of Mel Brooks, but I still think it's an underrated comedy that's nowhere near as bad as people say it is. At the end of the day though, humor is subjective. There could be other people that will sing this movie's praises while others will see it as just a bad movie, but neither of these are wrong as the only thing that really matters is if you found it funny or not.

April 23



"Music's the only thing that makes sense anymore, man. Play it loud enough, it keeps the demons at bay."

I heard about this movie around the same time I became a fan of The Beatles, I was mildly interested at first, but when I heard one of the covers from it on YouTube, my 12 year old Beatles fanboy self was like "Oh my god, they just ruined a great song! I'm never going to see this movie!!!"

Yeah, I was one of those fans back then. Over the years though I put it back on my radar since I decided I was mildly curious about it and since I found it on Netflix I was all like what the hell and chose to watch it. It turned out to be overrated like I suspected, but it wasn't bad like I was dreading it to be either. I mean, there is a whole lot to like about this movie. It's visually amazing from start to finish, some of the covers were actually well done and the acting was mostly solid. However, there were still some problems I had with it. While it is a nice tribute to The Beatles at times, there were also some times where it felt really pandering. Like the majority of the characters being named after Beatles songs and a few fanservice-y moments overall which felt forced and made me groan at times. Like this one in particular.

"Where'd she come from?"
"She came in through the bathroom window."

Ugh... That line was just terrible. It's not clever or funny or anything other than just plain stupid. Besides that there were moments in this movie that felt really forced. Like some of the set-ups for the covers to start felt like that, most notably with Dear Prudence and Revolution and the symbolism it had didn't work as well as it should've. That and I didn't really care for most of the characters. The two leads were fine, but not really characters I deeply cared about and the rest of them I just didn't care about at all. Well, except for JoJo. I thought he was the coolest character out of all and I liked how his character was essentially a homage to Jimi Hendrix.

Like I said, this movie is not without it's merit. There are a few covers that really worked for me like With A Little Help From My Friends, Come Together, Oh Darling and Let It Be. Those moments are what made me really want to like this movie, but I just couldn't. Most of these renditions here are fine, but they weren't amazing or anything and there were times where I wished I was listening to the real songs instead and when something that relies on covers makes you want to listen to the original versions, that's not a good thing. I came close to disliking this movie at first, but at it went on I felt like there was enough to admire for me to give it a pass. For all this movie's weak points, I felt like this was one of those movies I could sort of appreciate without being a fan of it. I can definitely see the appeal it though and I wouldn't oppose to watching it again if someone else wanted to. It just wasn't quite for me despite being a Beatles fan.

April 23-24



"The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room."

Had this on DVD for ages, but never got around to watching it until now and it was great. From the start I was really invested in the story and how it was going to play out. Denzel Washington is fantastic in his respective role and Russell Crowe delivers what is possibly my favorite role from him. I'm normally not the biggest fan of him, but he can deliver a really good performance at times and this is one of them. But like I said, what really had me sucked in was the story and at nearly 3 hours (I watched the Extended Edition.) it never felt overlong. While I wouldn't call it perfect, I still loved every minute of it and it's quite possibly one of my favorite Ridley Scott movies.

April 26



-

"All of you people, blocking the intersection, you're all idiots."
"You're the one that threw the dude's car at her. And what's with the train?"
"Why didn't you just go straight up in the air with the car? You've obviously injured that poor woman."
"She's right. She should sue you."
"Okay. Well, you should sue McDonald's, 'cause they fucked you up."

Decided to revisit this once because I haven't seen this one since it was in theatres and I was in the mood to watch it. Throughout the first half I realized that I forgot how funny this movie was. That part of the movie was a hilarious subversion of the superhero movie genre in general and Will Smith sold the role of Hancock perfectly. What made his character so brilliant is the fact that he's a superhero, but he mostly spends his time getting drunk and is not helpful in the slightest. Just the concept of it all makes me laugh a little just by thinking about it. But the first half did a good job subverting the superhero genre while also managing to make the character sympathetic when the story calls for it. I even was wondering to myself why people didn't like this movie. There's nothing wrong with it at all and...

*second half starts*

Oh, now I get where most of the criticisms are coming from. Yeah, the second half does do a bit of damage to this movie. Well, I wasn't completely turned off by the twist where it turns out that Charlize Theron turns out to be a super hero as well because it was at first a nice silly twist to a very silly movie, but what really killed it was the abundance of backstory they give both of these characters. Then at this point the movie has to get all serious. It can't be a comedic superhero movie anymore, it has to be a cliched superhero movie so it can fit in with the likes of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II and The Dark Knight because that will make people happy and definitely won't alienate anyone who was enjoying that movie from that point. Yeah, I know that the original draft was a lot darker and that the original test screening didn't sit well with audiences, but how is this better? This second half is infamous for being disliked by most people and I just think this movie deserved a better ending instead of what we got.

But despite that, I can't really bring myself to dislike this movie, because I still really liked the first half. There were many moments where I was dying of laughter around that point and really the only thing I really took issue with was the last 15-20 minutes which even then wasn't bad enough for it to completely ruin the movie for me. Also, the post-credits scene made up for that ending. ;)

April 27



"Hey, I like your cardboard armor."
"It's protection from infection."

Now this movie came to my attention when I was at Trainspotting 2 and when there was a 5-10 second preview that played and my dad shut it down and said "Thumbs down on that preview." Which in all fairness did make the movie look bad, but I just don't think a few seconds is a good enough time length to judge a movie on. Then a few minutes later an actual trailer for the movie came on and I was looking at him and he said "OK, this is an improvement."

Unfortunately this movie was only playing here for a week due to it not doing so well at the box office, but luckily I was able to catch the last showing on the last day. After seeing it I can easily say that I was impressed with this one. The 20 minutes were mostly solid, albeit a bit slow, but when this movie gets going it doesn't stop until it ends. It's a very refreshing kind of movie with a balls to the wall concept, a smart script with tons of humorous dialogue and solid performances from everyone in the cast. It's also very unpredictable at times which had me not knowing who was going to live or not. I have seen people comparing it to Reservoir Dogs and some would probably call it a rip-off, but while I do think it does have it's similarities, I still think it does a great job at being it's own thing. Before this, the only other thing I saw from Ben Wheatley was a segment from The ABC's of Death, so I'm counting this as my real introduction to him. Even though I haven't seen anything else by him, if this film is anything to go by, he's going to be a director that's worth following.

It sucks that this didn't do so well in theatres, but at the same time it isn't surprising that people would rather see the new Fast and the Furious movie over this one. (I like the series and all, but even I think they're starting to become over-saturated.) It's not very likely that this is still in theatres by now, but if it's playing somewhere near you then by all means check it out. If not then check it out whenever you can because this movie at the very least deserves a cult status.

April 28



"I'm with B.N.S."
"Yeah, what's B.N.S. stand for? Bitch that Needs some Slapping?"

Mainly saw this on Netflix as a testament to how stupid the new Netflix rating system is. Ever since they got rid of stars, they're now relying on a stupid like/dislike system which isn't helpful for movies that are neither good or bad and besides that the matching system is complete shite. Case in point: This particular movie had a 97% match for me and even before watching it I thought it was ridiculous, but I wanted to give it a chance since the Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson pairing did have potential. After all, if Jackie Chan being paired up with Owen Wilson worked (Well... the first time at least.) then surely it could work here as well.

Nope. This was actually a really boring buddy comedy with not very many laughs. Throughout most of it I was stone-faced and kept asking myself "When does this get funny?" Not only that but this movie manages to make Eddie Murphy annoying! How the hell is that even possible? Even in his worst movies he manages to be likeable, but here he... just wasn't. Owen Wilson was mostly just boring, but not as boring as the action scenes. This wouldn't be much of a problem for an action-comedy if it was actually funny, but it just wasn't. I guess there are a few decent lines every now and then, but that really isn't enough to save this movie. Even though this was a terrible movie, the only reason my rating for it isn't any lower is because I've seen much worse than this.

April 30 - May 1



"We're free to do what we want."
"Darling... other people often do what they don't want to do at all."

Now this was a great movie. It was very groundbreaking for it's time with how it portrayed LGBT characters at the time and it holds up pretty well today. Beyond that I thought it told a great love triangle story that is something I haven't really seen before. It was also really well-acted and I just thought it was a great drama film overall. I can't believe how despite the fact that it was groundbreaking at the time, it's unfairly overlooked nowadays. Definitely give this one a look if you're interested in the history of cinema as this is essential viewing.