Hamster People Movie Place

Talk about things that are not making games here. But you should also make games!

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The Wobbler
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Hamster People Movie Place

Post by The Wobbler »

I was reading the Book Club thread and thought it was a great thing to have, but I don't read much lately except for children's books to my kid. If you haven't read Frog and Toad though you probably should, at any age.

Anyway I do watch a lot of movies. I've been spending a lot of time on old monster movies and sci-fi lately, many of which are available to watch for free (with commercials) on Tubi. I've been disconnected from the world for the most part so I figured what the heck let's see if the Slime People want to talk about movies. Review, recommend, whatever.

If you use Letterboxd we should connect there too. It's a site for reviewing stuff you've watched and making a To Watch list which is very helpful because they list which streaming service every movie is available on. This is mine - https://boxd.it/RJoJ

And here's a giant starfish movie review.

Warning From Space: The original Japanese version is restored and available on Prime Video, the old English dub version is public domain so you can find that one just about anywhere

I first watched Warning From Space in the early 2000s as part of a public domain sci-fi collection; the picture was a blurry mess, the dub was awful, and the audio was very hard to understand. More than 60 years after its debut, this film finally received a decent release from Arrow Video, featuring an excellent restoration and the first US release of the original Japanese language track. It was like watching a whole new movie!

Coming off of the popularity of the original Godzilla, Warning From Space features alien monsters shaped like starfish, with costumes that I used to think were too corny but now I've come to appreciate. This absolutely isn't a kaiju film, as some of the posters and covers used for previous releases would have you believe. The monsters feel like an afterthought, with the film makers much more interested in telling their own version of The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Like many older sci-fi films, plot is secondary to the message of the film and the characters are fairly thin. There's a message about xenophobia and the fear of nuclear annihilation here, but it doesn't carry the same weight as The Day The Earth Stood Still or Godzilla. This isn't a bad film by any means, and I enjoyed it a lot more this time around, but it doesn't stand up to those contemporary greats.

The real issues here is that the film plays its hand too early. By the halfway point, there's no mystery left, the aliens' motivations are clearly stated and there are no more surprises until almost the very end. The paranoia and fear in the first half is well done, but the film's second half is a let down. There's a lot of good here, but it's muddled by awkward pacing.
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TMC
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

Post by TMC »

Anyway I do watch a lot of movies
It's true.

I hadn't heard of Tubi. Very convenient, although their catalog, although plenty big, seems very much to be B-movies, even the classics. Unlike actual broadcast TV movies.
...oops, I clicked on a documentary and got distracted watching it. Curses. Surprised I still haven't seen a single ad... maybe ad blockers work?
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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GRUDGE MATCH: I'm not a film official or anything. I have a blog, but the only films I cover star Nicolas Cage. But I know good stories and I know good story devices. Two of my favorite devices are Boxing and Gambling. And this is a good boxing movie. I should know, since I probably watched the first Rocky movie about 100 times before I was 10. I know how the stakes are to be set-up, and I know how progress is marked. For some reason, I didn't expect this movie to be so good, but of course the creators knew the formula and knew how to work it. And if you're not on board, you're not going to be immersed. But if you're a fan of boxing movies, this Grudge Match has everything you want. Many of my favorite movies are Bad, but Good. This one is all good so long as you're on board.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

Post by SwordPlay »

Do you guys into Kung Fu flicks? You can watch many of them on youtube now.

Fong Sai Yuk is a bit cheesy (but very competent and fast-moving) melodrama, all wire-fu and such, total emotional rollercoaster and still makes me cry when i watch it. One of my favourite movies ever. It's also completely bananas and hilarious.
The cinematography is amazing.
"Imagination. Life is your creation."
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The Wobbler
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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Boxing good, kung Fu good, wrestling good. A Nicholas Cage blog is heroic.

A whole much of El Santo movies just got added to Tubi for anyone in the mood for a silver-masked luchador solving mysteries and traveling through time and whatnot https://tubitv.com/search/Santo

Santo and the Treasure of Dracula is a good place to start.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

Post by MorpheusKitami »

I like a lot of movies, but right now I'm on a western and noir kick. Best in recent memory was Key Largo, starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall. Its a lot more interesting than a simple film set in a Florida hotel might sound. These gangsters are staying in the hotel because of some business transaction they need to do, and Bogart arrives, not really seeking to be a hero. The gangsters are very unstable, and a hurricane is approaching, and its all a much better film than you'd think at just a glance of its synopsis.

The most recent film I've seen is the City Hunter film starring Jackie Chan. Its a decent film in terms of action, but it feels like a fever dream from start to finish, which really works against it.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

Post by SwordPlay »

"In the Heat of the Night" is a really good thriller/detective set against rising racial tension in the south... a really famous movie, and well deserved reputation, before I forget.
"Imagination. Life is your creation."
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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TERROR BENEATH THE SEA, 1966

A movie torn between two plots: On one side, an absolutely dry, uninteresting navy story about experimental weapons, search parties and chain of command. On the other, a story about a mad scientist who created a formula to turn people into fish monsters to populated his underwater utopia.

The villain here is a campy delight and the fish guy action is a ton of fun. Yeah, they can barely move and can't emote in any way, but they break free from their oppressors and go nuts with harpoon guns in an absolutely wild finale.

I wish that Jenny, the only woman in the film with any speaking lines, was given more to do than scream and faint, but at least we get to see Sonny Chiba punch out a dozen Evil Science Guys and a handful of fish people.

Here's a fight scene:

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Brazil by Terry Gilliam
one of the most depressing, but imaginative movies I've ever viewed, and one of my favourite pieces of film.
Please watch the uncut version, not the American edit :P
The film centres on Sam Lowry, a low-ranking bureaucrat trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil's satire of technocracy, bureaucracy, hyper-surveillance, corporatism and state capitalism is reminiscent of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and has been called Kafkaesque and absurdist.
(wikipedia)
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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Floating Weeds (1959) 8/10
Ozu's film about a wandering actor troupe who return to a small town where the leader had a child out of wedlock. Personal conflict ensues when the leader's current girlfriend finds out about this. Its not that grand of a film, just about a few humans trying to find their way past their petty differences.
Its nice. We get to see a small Japanese town at a time when the Japanese weren't especially proud of them. It feels like a place lost to the march of time. If you didn't hear references to the war, or a few other obviously modern things, you might even assume it takes place long ago.
The camerawork feels very blunt and straightforward. It has an elegant simplicity about it. Whenever two characters are talking to each other we get a shot of them directly looking into the camera as they say something. Feels intimate. The actings very good too, and you can even tell that the in-film actors are supposed to be awful, something that seems like it would be troublesome to get across the language barrier.
I can understand why this has been considered such an essential arthouse film.
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The Wobbler
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That sounds pretty cool! I haven't heard of that one, I'll add it to my list.

War of the Gargantuas, 1966:



Have to respect a movie that features both a giant sea ape and a gentle super sasquatch.

Directed by Ishiro Honda and released seven months after his masterful Godzilla sequel Invasion of Astro Monster, War of the Gargantuas is an uglier, less interesting film, but it's still a fun time.

A young Russ Tamblyn plays Japan's Foremost Frankenstein Expert; in this movie, a Frankenstein is a gorilla man that gets really big. Not quite Godzilla sized, but still big enough to stumble into buildings.

This is a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World; I haven't seen that one yet, but I don't think that matters. What matters is that if a Frankenstein scrapes himself on a rock, his cells can grow into a second, evil Frankenstein that grows up in nature without the gentle guiding hand of good human scientists. There's a barely there thematic exploration of nature vs. nurture but it's weak compared to the better Godzillas of the era.

This is one of those giant monster movies where the military feels a little too efficient, which really weakens the threat of the monsters, but when they start brawling it's a good time. This movie opens with a way better ape vs. octopus fight than Godzilla vs. Kong's, too. Fun monster mayhem and good stupid science, but there are way better Honda films in the genre.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

Post by Bob the Hamster »

The Wobbler wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:04 pm A whole much of El Santo movies just got added to Tubi for anyone in the mood for a silver-masked luchador solving mysteries and traveling through time and whatnot https://tubitv.com/search/Santo

Santo and the Treasure of Dracula is a good place to start.
I don't watch a lot of movies, but I watched Santo and the Treasure of Dracula. It was really good dumb fun.

I loved how serious they were about all the nonsense going on, and how nobody ever even questions the fundamental premise of a gentleman scientist lucha libre wrestler inventing a time machine. There were also a couple of cool creepy moments mixed in with all the sillyness.

The way they shoehorned the wrestling match into the plot made me laugh out loud at the absurdity, but the match was one of the best parts of the movie, so I ain't complaining.

I was only disappointed that Santo never actually wrestled Dracula, but the description of "Santo and the Blue Demon vs Dracula and the Wolfman" promises that they will fight, and it seems to be the same actor playing Dracula, so I guess I'm watching that one next.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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I hadn't seen the sequel yet, so that was my homework for tonight!

Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and The Wolf Man, 1973

Four years after Santo's victory in Santo in the Treasure of Dracula, it's time for a rematch and this time it's a tag team! The legendary Santo teams up with his best friend, Blue Demon, to stop a resurrected Dracula and Rufus Wolf Man from destroying a family they've sworn to protect.

Rufus is way more stylish than the average wolfman. Imagine sleeping in a tomb for 400 years and your golden, silk shirt still looking smooth and perfect. Aldo Monti returns as Count Dracula, but he doesn't get to go as wild as he did in Treasure.

Santo and Demon are great wrestlers but absurdly terrible at their jobs as bodyguards. Every single member of the family they're supposed to be protecting gets kidnapped! This is one of those movies where the heroes just come off as super dumb but incredibly pure hearted and I always enjoy that.

This is a better looking film with stronger action than Treasure, but decidedly less sexy. Still a little sexy, though. One of those sequels that doesn't really make any sense given the events of an earlier film, but that's ok, we get to watch luchadores bodyslam a dozen werewolves.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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Henry V (1944) 8/10
The classic Shakespeare directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. Produced as propaganda during WWII, this version of the play cuts out a lot of the morally ambiguous nature of the figure and lionizes him. Somehow it works despite being attempt to hype up Britain's defense against the Germans with an invasion of France.
Its a very well-made film, making excellent use of Technicolor. All the visual elements are outstanding, creating very lively scenes of medieval throne rooms, battles and castles. It actually starts off depicting what the scene must have been to attend the original play back in 1600, which is practically an attraction in of itself. Then it fades into a proper, film adaptation of the story. The whole film, thanks to a combination of special effects aging and the somewhat degraded quality of the film, has a very dreamlike, storybook atmosphere to it. This is for better or worse, as this doesn't work when the big battle rolls around and it feels like a whole bunch of people are just jumping around.
Despite not knowing any of the cast outside of Olivier, I thought they all did a good job, but none of them really stood out. Overall I think they hit the right amount of boisterous where they feel like they're giving the words the proper weight, but aren't doing it so much it feels over the top. Either way, this film is unlikely to sway someone into liking Shakespeare if they didn't already.
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Re: Hamster People Movie Place

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There's a bunch of Shakespeare movies I really love. Titus is incredible. The Ian McKellen Richard III rules. I haven't seen the Coen Macbeth yet but I need to.

Updated my Movies and Years list through the 60s

You should watch all of these, they're pretty good. A lot of them have dinosaurs.

One Movie Per Year https://boxd.it/hEwhM
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