Last film you saw, vol. 6

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

Fantastic ronin adventure with two classic characters... sort of. Mifune is playing a character that resembles his Yojimbo/Sanjuro character, and the title reference was totally meant to convey that, but it's debatable if he's actually the same character or not. I like to think he is, but I can see the arguments against it.

Great action meets great humor, here. I was surprised by how many laugh out loud moments there were in this, beginning with the titular characters' first encounter, and then sprinkled throughout. The action is pretty minimal save for a spattering of big moments, but such is often the case in chambara cinema, so yeah. When the action does set in it's generally pretty good. It's not Kurosawa good, but it's still better than a lot of other stuff around that time. I probably shouldn't be surprised given the popularity of Zatoichi, though, as this was like his 20th film (and only Yojimbo's 3rd -- debatably), but still.

All in all, it's a worth while film that really doesn't require any familiarity with either character to appreciate and enjoy. Definitely worth watching, especially if you enjoy the genre.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

[Viva Chiba] the Bodyguard

"The path of the righteous man and defender is beset on all sides by the iniquity of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper, and the father of lost children. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious anger, who poison and destroy my brothers; and they shall know that I am Chiba the Bodyguard when I shall lay my vengeance upon them!"

Yep, that's where the Ezekiel misquote actually comes from.

[Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo]
. . . Fantastic ronin adventure with two classic characters... sort of . . .
All in all, it's a worth while film that really doesn't require any familiarity with either character to appreciate and enjoy. Definitely worth watching, especially if you enjoy the genre.

I did not not that existed. Very cool.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

"Nope, not that Venom. Lol"

I swear I've heard of that before. Might have to check it out now.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Captain America II: Death too Soon (1979)

"Under no circumstances is 'Mr. Rogers' to leave that town."

I swear I've heard of that before. Might have to check it out now.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

I swear I've heard of that before. Might have to check it out now.

I was thinking the same thing.

I think the both of you would give this 4 stars. I still can't get over how good it was for a low budget movie.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Sh! The Octopus (1937)

"You know this fella Clancy?
-No but he's Irish ain't he?
Sure.
-About time the police department did something with the Irish.
They should try to do something without the Irish."

1-hour comedy mystery that's pretty much known for one brief scene involving an impressive-for-the-time character transformation that used makeup and lens filters.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Ready Player One (2018)

I didn't think it was possible for one man to tell a story better than Citizen Kane, Zoolander, or Scary Movie 3, but somehow that fucking maniac Steven Spielberg did it (with some assistance from Ernest Kline).

I need time to unpack this.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

The Empty Man (2020)

"So, you doing the whole Neal Cassidy thing?
-I don't know who that is."

Not sure how well I understood this enigmatic movie (based on a Boom comic series I haven't read), but I did like it. I was expecting something like Bye Bye Man or Slender Man, but it was different and more mysterious than that. Follows an ex-cop who volunteers to find a neighbor's missing daughter and stumbles on what appears to be a suicide pact leading to a weird cult trying to summon a dark entity.

Ready Player One (2018)

I didn't think it was possible for one man to tell a story better than Citizen Kane, Zoolander, or Scary Movie 3 . . .

That's quite the mixed company. I keep meaning to see this movie (it's important to kaiju, sci-fi, and horror fans), but my mother has a copy of the book and I keep thinking I should read it first.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

I've got a copy of the book and didn't read it first, so I don't think it really matters because you'll be nerding your brains out.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

[Rifftrax Live:] Night of the Living Dead (1968/2014)

"He's gotta go beat off zombies."

I've got a copy of the book and didn't read it first, so I don't think it really matters because you'll be nerding your brains out.

I've gone back and forth on this. When I want to read the book of a movie coming out that I haven't read yet, I usually hold off and watch the movie first.

I find that I'm more often disappointed if I'm invested in the book and then see the movie. If I can see the movie first and enjoy it and follow up with the book, it doesn't really spoil the movie for me because I already had a positive association.

The flip side of that is that it will (unless they're wildly different) spoil the ending of the book. In this case, I've already heard about the ending.

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

Transformers: The Movie (1986)


"Yes friends, act now, destroy Unicron. Kill the Grand Poobah. Eliminate even the toughest stain."


Truth be told, I have no special love for Wreck-gar or the Junkions, but I did just get SS86 Slag and Wreck-gar yesterday, so what better way to celebrate than watching the movie while opening the packages?


I think this is the 4th or 5th time in the last 30 days I've watched this movie, not like I haven't seen it a zillion other times. What I find sad is that the kids who were coming of age during the Bayformer disasters will only subscribe to those movies; they have no interest in seeing the roots or feeling the magic of what was done years before the flicks they consider "gold". And that truly is their loss. They don't want to bother, either, in expanding their minds and learning the original lore that everything after it was based on.



Maybe I'm just built differently, but when I take interest in something I inhale it for what it's worth. The Universal Monsters are a good example. Most of the actors had passed away by the time I was born, yet when I learned of concepts like vampires, wolfmen, mummies, and other assorted ghouls, I went straight to the roots (even further back in some cases with written literature) to consume as much information as possible on these incredible entities that held my imagination.


I feel bad for the Bay kids since they will never know the first glimpses of a little planet beyond our own called Cybertron.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Monster A Go-Go (1965)

"We have a radioactive something or other, 7 feet tall, 400 pounds."

Don't recommend even though it just under 70 minutes. It was footage abandoned by one regional filmmaker (Bill Rebane) before he hit his prime and pieced together by another exploitation filmmaker (Herschel Gordon Lewis) before he hit his.

The Transformers: The Movie (1986) . . .

Corrected the title for you. I joke because I've heard fans on multiple points point out that the movie officially has two awkward definite articles.

. . . Truth be told, I have no special love for Wreck-gar or the Junkions, but I did just get SS86 Slag and Wreck-gar yesterday, so what better way to celebrate than watching the movie while opening the packages?. . .

Aww, but Wreck-gar is voiced by Monty Python great Eric Idle.

. . . What I find sad is that the kids who were coming of age during the Bayformer disasters will only subscribe to those movies; they have no interest in seeing the roots or feeling the magic of what was done years before the flicks they consider "gold". . .

Agreed, but I do occasionally come across millennials and younger fans of IPs who get involved enough to go back. Can't particularly recall a case with TF, but at least Netflix has some animation and there are toys on the shelves so hopefully kids have a general idea of it being bigger than the live-action stuff.

You have to admit this movie wouldn't be super accessible for someone completely new to the brand. They throw a lot at you just in the opening.

My mother still tells the story of taking me to thing movie, seeing it start and the next thing she remembered was me waking her up and saying "it's over, we can go home now."

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Aww, but Wreck-gar is voiced by Mont Python great Eric Idle.

And the Junkions rock out to Weird Al's Dare to be Stupid.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

"I know you'll think I'm crazy, but in a half-an-hour the moon will rise and I'll turn into a wolf.
-You and 20 million other guys!"

. . . but I did just get SS86 Slag and Wreck-gar yesterday, so what better way to celebrate than watching the movie while opening the packages? . . .

New toys? You should be posting those in Post a Pic of the last thing you purchased Vol. 2

And the Junkions rock out to Weird Al's Dare to be Stupid.

I really need to get that soundtrack one of these days. But yeah, how fun to have Weird Al as your theme song.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

What I find sad is that the kids who were coming of age during the Bayformer disasters will only subscribe to those movies; they have no interest in seeing the roots or feeling the magic of what was done years before the flicks they consider "gold".

Not necessarily. It might be their gateway drug per se, but it won't automatically be their final choice. My exposure to horror films was Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but because of how heavily saturated horror culture is by stuff from the 1930s, '40s, and even the '50s I ended up frequently seeing and eventually seeking out the classics (it helped that The Monster Squad was a favorite of mine).

Adventure films? Indiana Jones and The Goonies, but I still want to watch the stuff before that because goddamn is some of it entertaining (and I'm a little bit of a romantic when it comes to the formula those films follow, some of it is just comforting to watch). Also, Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.

Sci-fi? Star Wars and Star Trek, but I have a soft spot for those absurd upright rockets of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi.

Cartoons? I had a VHS of the old Max Fleischer run of Superman, and it was fun as hell to watch. Also used to catch Popeye episodes sometimes.

Yes, seeing Bayformers will be their strongest memory of the franchise, at least initially. Beyond that it's a bit of a guess as to whether or not they'll really get into the other iterations but it's pretty difficult to believe they won't be exposed to it enough to develop at least a passing interest; the franchise is just too steeped in its past to not gain new fans of the old content.