I've been a fan of knights, swords and steel, armor and wizards since I was a young kid and have just never grown out of it. A coworker I had at one of my past jobs actually recommended this movie to me (unsurprisingly, I find out about many movies from before I was born in this manner), being a man of similar interests (I bought a physical Excalibur off of him to give it a good home), and so I took it upon myself to get it. I've always felt it was a rather long movie (a tad over 2 hours) and in turn it's taken me a long time to get through all of it, but I figured with the Battle of the Nations starting up today, what better time to watch something associated with armor and Arthurian legend? Can this rendition of a well known tale be named king, or is it just a sword stuck in a stone?
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Arach·no·pho·bia: the pathological fear or loathing of spiders. Some people would have you believe that it's a fear without basis - and maybe they are right. I mean, it's not every single spider in existence that can cause death or even harm to a human, so the fear of a little tiny creature that springs on you from nowhere and builds nests to trap it's victims and suck them dry is totally irrational, right? If you haven't figured it out, I'm a tad bit arachnophobic - but I've been working at changing that slowly over the years through sheer willpower. Most people have an awesome story about why they have a fear of spiders, and yet mine is both weak and highly entertaining: I was taken to see this movie when I had no business in theaters. In that sense, it demonstrates the power of movies and the lasting ways they can affect us, and in turn I can't think of any other movie that would make more sense to do for my one hundredth review. Stick around and see if this movie is a web of lies, or if it puts the fear or spiders into you.
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The Thing, again! Surprisingly, although you would assume it from the name being the same as Carpenter's earlier version, this one is actually a prequel instead of a remake! Now we get to experience what happened to all those Norwegians at the hand of our creepy extraterrestrial friend. Granted, I'm gonna spin this a bit - we are gonna start this thing off with an approach where it's all it's own movie (as though you haven't seen the other Thing), and then get into how it ties into it afterwards. So what'll it be? The perfect copy, or just a cheap imitation.
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I'm a fan of Kurt Russell movies, and I'm relatively sure that part of the reason is because I enjoy him as an actor. Bigger then that, I believe a lot of the movies he's in are just highly entertaining in some way or another for me more so than just him being in it. The Thing is one of those films that's in my general go-to films for when I'm bored and inevitably comes up at least once a year. Obviously, I like it - but will it click for you? Will it have you looking at the people around you in a new light, or will it be a gooey dead mess?
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Celebrating 50 years of Godzilla, and also marking the last made (until 2014's Godzilla hit theaters) Godzilla film, Final Wars finally pops up. Although unrelated to the previous reviewed Heisei era flicks, it certainly honors some of the earlier traditions of the big G - such as monster a monster battles. With access to higher levels of technology and equipment, can the entire movie be elevated for one epic final battle - or are we destined to suffer another stinker about a giant iguana?
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And it comes to this, the final part of the Heisei era of Godzilla. The promise of monster-a-monster battle, and something different about Godzilla draw us in to what we already expect to enjoy (being fans of our giant radioactive dinosaur friend). The defining film that takes it all the way back to the original Gojira, and wraps up the exodus of our monster king's story. Can the plot and characters bring this movie to the top, or will it be a complete meltdown from which we may never recover?
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Inevitably, the scale of these movies tries to one up itself. Sure, you get the little things - soundtrack changes, upgraded visuals, the normal stuff - but eventually a movie feels as though it consciously decided "Hey, you know what? We need this bigger and better." A lot of times, this can be a bad thing for the movie, but sometimes it's not so. Can a showdown between the king of monsters and a space version of himself prove to be out of this world, or is it a small speck in the skies?
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It strikes me as strange to be honest that this movie came after Godzilla vs Mothra. I guess it works, as one can assume that some time would have passed while Japan messed around with robotic parts from Ghidorah to make it - which is a turn over the "robot parts built on top of a Godzilla skeleton" that graces one of the other Mechagodzilla flicks, but considering how tied it is to that it seems as though it would have come first. Well, regardless of when the movie was delivered, can the movie prove to be massive scale metal, or does it prove to be nothing but a toy?
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Goodness, it took me long enough to get to this one didn't it? You see, the biggest issue is I wanted to take the time to re-read the book, as there are some pretty substantial differences between it and this movie - but of course I'll get to that later. For now, the world's most beautiful part-man returns with another job to kill another vampire. This time, things aren't quite as they may seem, and D isn't the only hunter on the case! Can this addition to the video collection bring it's fangs to bear, or is it just a stake to the heart?
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Yeah, the name can get long and confusing. In the IMDB link later on, you'll find its Godzilla vs Mosura - as apparently this is one of the few movies that IMDB doesn't have a proper english-version name for. That aside, this movie decides to step it up a notch with three monsters for the price of one, all while playing along with similar aspects as the others. Can these little bugs cause the movie to bloom into a beautiful butterfly, or is it nothing more than a worm in a fancy suit?
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The interesting thing one notices as time goes on is that each of these Godzilla movies seems to have a unique spin to the human side of things. In last weeks GvsB, there was a very espionage / secret agents feel to what was going on. This week things are a bit different, but the glue that holds these films together is undoubtable Godzilla himself - no matter what happens, at some point the threat of Godzilla rises to the forefront. As an added bonus, this is the first of the Godzilla flicks to really go into the history of Godzilla, outside of just "nuclear lizard."
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Now we start getting into the parts of Godzilla that we all tend to love the most - the monster on monster action! The 1989 entry marks the first step of the Heisei series that involves Godzilla not being the only giant monster to stop around the block - although by far it's certainly not the first ever 'zilla flick to feature multiple monsters (just in this arc). Can the king of monsters hold his ground against the new threat? Will the movie harbor any improvements over Godzilla '85? Did I manage to get the non-Americanized version? Either you are gonna love this like a giant rose, or want nothing more than to burn it with your fiery breath.
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30 years later, the great lizard king returns in the "first" movie of the second Godzilla story arc - called the "Heisei Series." In modern times, we would probably call this a reboot - although its actually more of rebooting a sequel to start again as opposed to erasing the original and starting from scratch. Now, the reason I wanted to do this specific arc or story is because it seems to deal more with how/what Godzilla is, which seems like it very well might tie into the newer one a bit more solidly than some of the others do. Of course, the real question then becomes is it a good thing that it might be getting it's influence from here?
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The one that started it all, the very king of monsters himself: Godzilla (or as he was known before we Americans starting changing things - Gojira). At the time of writing this, we are about a month and a half away before the US Box office tries to recover from the horrendous attempt at making a Godzilla movie (it was actually worse than the classic guys-in-suits movies that came before it) with it's brand new Godzilla movie, I've decided that we need to span the timelines and get a feel for our nuclear lizard king. You'd be surprised to know it, but there are people out there who have never heard of Godzilla! Well, fear not denizens of Earth! I'll be your tour guide on this journey, and I won't let the giant creature eat you (unless you really deserve it).
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British accents and humor are a great thing. Sure, not everyone will appreciate it as much as others, but then again I don't find myself gravitating towards everyone else's sense of humor all the time. Quite the cast - at least two of which who's names I recognize - delivering their skills and all manner of shenanigans to follow. Will your sides wish for death as a release from the pain laughter has granted them, or is it more of a funeral parlor waiting for it's next victim?
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I don't normally review movies that are fresh in the theaters, because I find it a less than optimal experience as far as the movie goes. Don't misunderstand, it's great to sit in a theater with the awesome surround sound and big old screen with a bunch of friends, but it becomes hard to concentrate on the movie itself at times when there's a bunch of people screaming over what they thought was scary or hollering over something they thought was great. Let's not forget those pesky kids who always manage to talk through forty percent of the movie roll... Forget that though, I saw this one and figured It'd make a nice change of pace for me to tell you if this guy rose to the top or feel with brave Leonidas and his 300.
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I'm not a huge Pink Floyd fan. Yeah, I've heard some of their tunes and enjoyed them, but it's never called out to me as my particular band amongst the ocean of music to try and catch. Knowing this, I guess you figured I watched this one more by recommendation then absolute desire - I wanted to watch a rock opera of sorts, and a pal goes "try this one." Can Floyd mesmerize the audience, or is this movie just another brick in the wall?
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Ever decide that operas were too old and lame? Maybe they weren't violent enough for you, or sexy enough to satiate what you would call your style? Well, let me introduce in this corner, weighing in at an hour thirty eight minutes, The Genetic Opera. Can this intriguing tale be found to be in your genetic predisposition of enjoyment, or will you be seeking out someone to repossess the time you spent watching it?
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From the title alone, we can assume it's going to be two guys with guns versus the world. Action, action, action! For best results, go in expecting an action flick and you should be content. Normally, I'd be more than happy to come up with a witty title-based remark that leaves you hanging, but with a title like 2 Guns, the best I can come up with is something like like "is it shooting blanks, or is fully loaded for an assault on your favorites list." Sorry.
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A Metallica movie? Experience like never before? Action, craziness, and metal? How could this possibly go wrong? Could it go wrong? I tell you what, if you read on I'll tell you just what I thought about this thing and what you can expect. Listen well, and it might even help your enjoyment of it, or don't listen at all because the choice is yours. Does Metallica pull through the Never, or should they really have just stayed there?
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