Mutafukaz A.K.A. ムタフカズ －MUTAFUKAZ－, Mutafukazu, MFKZ (2017)

A French Japanese animated adventure directed by Shōjirō Nishimi and Guillaume "Run" Renard.
A character with large eyes lives in a city ghetto with his friend whose head is a flaming skull. He finds that there are "tentacle mafia" guys all around and he is involved with them. The daughter of the tentacle mafia leadeer takes a liking to big eyes and some luchador wrestlers help them.
Amazing! There are very few movies which will prevent me from playing guitar while I watch them. This is among that elite group. My friend, Thomas recommended this, so I have to thank him here. Although this is very unique, I would recommend it if you liked Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010), The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009), Bigg Snoop Dogg: Adventures of Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (2008) and The Boondocks (TV series). I rate it best. Watch it!

Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003 - 2017)

American swashbuckling films directed by Gor Verbinsky, Rob Marshall, Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning, starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Kevin McNally.
Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is a pirate who gets involved in many adventures, His trusted first mate is Gibbs, his competitor is Barbossa and they become entangled with a romantic couple of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. There is always some magical item being searched for, disputes over ships and supernatural enemies to contend with.
In typical Disney and Hollywood fashion, the first film was immensely successful. It was followed up with others which became stale and predictable very quickly. The plots were always interesting and Johnny Depp's performances always met my approval. I liked that there were many places, people and special effects. However, the moving set pieces got really old. I'm talking after Jack/Johnny and Will/Orlando first meet, seesaw floors should not have been repeated. It got to the point of Jack/Johnny being in a spinning guillotine. Some CG and compositing is nice, but having main characters based upon it is too much for a live action film (Davy Jones). Like Indiana Jones, I got a little tired of last minute escapes. I hope you like the theme music from the first film because all the others have it as well. If I were to pick a favorite scene, it would bo Jack/Johnny alone on The Pearl in Davy Jones' Locker. Regardless of how predictable and repetitive, folks say that the plots are too convoluted and I have found that watching these at least 2x all the way through makes them clearer. It also makes what was stale the first time even staler. I rate them adequate because they are relatively entertaining, the acting is good and the effects work.

Child's Play Series (1988 - 2017)

American horror films mostly by Don Mancini and David Kirschner, starring Brad Dourif.
A murderer is shot by the cops and uses voodoo to put his soul into the body of a doll. The possessed doll is trying to put his soul into a new human body.
Entertaining is the best description for these. The plots were all along the same lines, but showed a little bit of variety. The first two (1988 & 1990) were my favorites because they were the originals and fit together well with plot, characters and the Andy Barclay actor, Alex Vincent. The other characters came and went, but of them, Jennifer Tilly was most memorable because she was Chucky's bride. The first film was "scariest" because it was more serious and the premise was still fresh. All of the gags, tropes and cliches had not been overused yet. I can still remember the scene when Andy's mother finds that the doll has no batteries in it. As the series went on, humor made more of an impression than horror. Nobody is going to be afraid of the killer doll after the novelty of the gimmick has worn off. Like most horror film villains started in the '80s, Chucky seems immortal. He is repaired, reshaped, repossessed, reincarnated, etc... His motivation is better than Michael Myers of Halloween because he is trying to put his soul in a human body. Unfortunately, like Michael, he just kills anyone anywhere. If you like Nightmare on Elm Street, Critters, Hellraiser, Leprechaun, Puppet Master and Wishmaster, this is another good series to watch. I rate it awesome because although the films declined in quality over time, I still liked the foul-mouthed doll killing people. Watch it.

Guardians A.K.A. Защитники, Zaschitniki, Zashchitniki (2017)

A Russian science fiction action directed by Sarik Andreasyan.
A Mad scientist has made superheroes before the government turned against him. He gives himself super powers and the heroes have to defeat him.
Most folks think this is horrible. They say it has bad CGI, bad acting and a derivative plot. I disagree because I think it is more genuine and less contrived and forced than American superhero films. It seemed like everyone involved in making it knew that it was a cheesy superhero film and decided to just go ahead and make it so. I can't discuss the dialogue very much because I watched it with Russian audio and poorly translated (but on time) English subtitles. Any hokey one-liners must have been lost in translation. I like it for what it over-did well. The bear with a machine gun is the first thing to note (image). The CGI and special effects looked a little "video game"y, but it almost seemed intentional. The plot was a very standard and traditional superheroes vs villain. While not creative, it was simple and stayed out of the way to showcase hyperbolic super powers and crappy CGI better. I'm rating this adequate because I think that American superhero films take themselves too seriously and could learn something from a more "fun" Russian version.

Papillon (1973 vs 2017)

1973:
A French American adventure directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman and Victor Jory.
2017:
A Maltese Maltenegran Serbian American adventure directed by Michael Noer.
a Frenchman is framed for a murder he did not commit and imprisoned in French Guiana. He tries to escape and is caught twice. His punishment is multiple years of solitary confinement. Between these events, he makes friends with another inmate who was forging financial documents in France.
Typical. This went exactly how I thought it would.
The 1973 film was pretty good. The plot and characters held my attention. The story seemed large and long, but I guess 2.5 hours fits lots in 1973. The camera-work was mostly wide shots and multiple people with backgrounds to solidify location. There was some shot variety, with close ups appropriately used. The audio was reasonably good and I could hear what people were saying. The writing made sense and seemed sincere. I would rate this adequate and say it's worth checking out.
The 2017 film was like a child's crayon drawing of a renaissance masterpiece in comparison. I wanted it to be over when it had barely even started. The characters and plot were clearly based on the 1973 film to the point of the Louis Dega character mimicking Dustin Hoffman's voice. Also, Aaron Guzikowski (2017 writer) did not like the writing of Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. (1973 writers) because so much of the plot changed over 44 years. I won't go into specifics, but a major point was the main characters carrying away the body of an executed prisoner instead of capturing a crocodile. The boat, poor village and native village section was all mixed up too. The camera-work was what I expected. New Hollywood's penchant for short edits of close ups was present. There were a few good shots, but not enough to merit identifying them.  As expected as well was the audio. I don't need to describe it anymore at this point. I rate this bad for the reasons listed above.

My Pet Dinosaur (2017)

An Australian science fiction by Matt Drummond.
A boy follows his friends into a forest where a UFO supposedly landed. While there, his other friend picks up a foreign substance and later delivers it to his house with her science kit. The boy's brother spills a drink on the whole deal and a dinosaur emerges. The boy tries to hide it, but a military group steals it from him. With the help of his friends, he must rescue the dinosaur.
The only thing less convincing than the special effects was the writing. The plot was stale and recycled, characters shallow and badly acted. It just sucked. The CG was so clearly fake that I doubt a child would believe it. There was "gunfire" that never showed any bullets, which was the worst. I rate this bad. Do not watch!

John Wick 1 & 2 (2014 & 2017)

American action films directed by Chad Stahelski, starring Keanu Reeves.
A former assassin's wife has died and left him a dog. Attracted by his reputation and wealth, a Russian mobster's son kills the dog and steals the car. The assassin comes out of retirement for revenge. Once he regains his automobile and adopts a new canine companion, an old business partner calls upon him for work in his old trade. The assassin says no and the co-worker burns down his house. Desiring retirement, the assassin agrees to the job and accomplishes it, but people were lying and not everyone knows the whole story, so with a $7 million bounty on him, the assassin is pitted against the entire workforce of his old job.
I know that the plot sounds interesting. It's not a bad movie, but I'm writing about it because of how mediocre and predictable it was. Has modern American action cinema become the decadent and trite type of crap that China produced in the 1980s? It's getting pretty close. 1980s Chinese films had a rich history of martial arts, kung fu and far eastern culture to draw upon. Modern American films have recording and editing technology to draw upon. We've got the same type of revenge plots going on, films are dominated by action sequences and all of them seem to share sets and costumes. Where 1980s China had the ancient sets and costumes, 2010s America has modern and futuristic items. It seems that American heroes now wear black and fight in cities. There is always a car chase and guns are the weapon of choice. Another similarity is audio production. 1980s Chinese films hardly passed a second without "whoosh" or "whack" being heard with clipping audio levels. America has done the same thing with guns. If a character even thinks about a gun, it sounds like there is a busy factory cutting and pressing steel machine parts. I would conclude that 2010s American action films are too similar to 1980s Chinese action films. Go ahead and watch them if you want, but don't expect anything different or interesting. I rate this o.k. and would recommend it to fans of Drunken Shaolin Monk 4, Flying Tiger Fist of Death 6 and Revenge of the Kung Fu Dragon.

Castlevania (animated series) (2017 - 2018)

An American animation directed by Sam Deats, Adam Deats and Spencer Wan.
Dracula is planning to destroy all humans in the world because religious leaders in a village burned his wife as a witch. Trevor Belmont joins up with Alucard and a female magician from a group known as "Speakers" to stop Dracula's plan.
I really liked this and it held my attention all the way through 12 episodes, but it was not flawless. The plot was complex, with different groups of characters having their own agendas and being involved in different events at different locations. It was clearly presented, making the task of following complex alliances and schemes easy. The animation style looked very new, stylized and slightly Japanese. The black outlines on characters and the detailed backgrounds were what stood out to me most. It actually sounded good. The dialogue, music and sound effects were mixed relatively correctly, but with some extra emphasis on sound effects and more low end response than I expected. I really liked the authentic Slogra and Gaibon fight. Now the problems. There was unmotivated swearing. I'm all for a good curse word, but think that there should be a reason for using them. Alucard and Belmont generally don't work together in the games, but they did in this series. There was also the Speaker magician out of nowhere. Storming Dracula's castle happened a little too quickly. I don't think I've ever gotten through Symphony of the Night in under 7 hours or so, but this happened in under 20 minutes. The ending was disappointing, but I won't spoil that because you should watch this. I rate it good and would recommend it for anyone who likes animated series or the Castlevania games.

Beyond Skyline (2017)

An American science fiction directed by Liam O'Donnell, starring Frank Grillo and Bojana Novakovic.
Aliens come to Earth to harvest humans. They bring spaceships and giant robot monsters. A cop's son is turned into an alien and a girl is born infected by alien DNA.
Totally absurd. This seemed like it was written by a middle school student. Again, the actors had a restraining order on microphones and whispered most of the dialogue. The CG was extremely detailed and the giant robot monsters looked cool. There is really nothing else to say about this. I rate it poor and would not recommend watching it.

Alien: Covenant (2017)

A British American science fiction directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Demian Bichir.
A ship of colonists are awakened from hypersleep when their ship is damaged in space. They hear a transmission of someone singing an American pop song and land on the planet to investigate. 2 of the crew members become infected with a substance which causes them to spawn alien-like creatures and one crew member blows up the landing ship while trying to kill one of the creatures. They soon meet a synthetic who has been living on the planet for 10 years.
Not bad, but it should have been much better. The complex plot held my attention, but the characters were all very shallow, except the synthetic from the planet. Although he was the antagonist, he was also the main character, filling a role usually reserved for human protagonists. I've noticed a trend in recent films in which robots are not only treated as people, but sometimes portrayed as being better than people. Just look at Transformers and AXL (which I want to see soon). The robots show emotion and form attachments like humans. Anyway, this film did not have enough aliens for me and the action scenes were a little too short. The CG looked impeccable, of course and it suffered from short shot syndrome (too many quick cuts). What happened to pans and tilts? Nobody does that anymore? I rate this adequate. You might want to check it out.

Loving Vincent (2017)

An Animated mystery directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.
The son of Vincent van Gogh's mailman is trying to find one of the dead artist's family members to deliver a letter to.
A pretty waste. The visuals looked great and the animation was done well and in the artist's style. However, the plot was seriously lacking and the settings seemed extremely derivative. The whole premise of why this was supposed to be good was because it was hand painted in van Gogh's style, but that turned out to be a negative aspect. The filmmakers leaned too heavily this, using it more as a crutch than a starting point. It started with Starry Night, the bedroom and cafe made an appearance and then there were the fields. The actors were rotoscoped and composited from green screen onto painting backgrounds and you can tell by watching it. This process made the renderings too realistic and un-van Gogh. I also thought that the color vs black and white scenes should have been the opposite way around. Wouldn't it make sense to have vibrant colors when the artist was alive and a lack thereof now that he has died? I can only imagine that the filmmakers wanted to portray a difference between past and present, but it didn't make sense to me. This whole deal with the artist's mailman's son delivering a letter seemed forced, contrived and too distant from actual events. He talks to people in town and tries to figure out who knows how Vincent died and who is lying to him. I was really hoping for a film portraying the artist, his work and his eccentricities. I can appreciate how much work went into making this and it did look good, but that is where positive aspects end. Everything else was inadequate. I rate this tolerable. You should probably watch My Love (2006) instead.

Bomb City (2017)

An American crime drama directed by Jameson Brooks, starring Glenn Morshower and Marilyn Manson.
A group of punk rockers in a small town have conflict with the local high school athletes and one night, a young man is killed.
I think that this is an accurate depiction of how things go almost anywhere in America. It's totally wrong, but the punk rockers get abused by everyone, the cops are dicks and the "popular" high school kids are impervious. Marilyn Manson's intro and outro speeches were very appropriate to use in the context of this film. The punks dressed correctly. One of them had a jacket that was like 100% spikes that I really liked. I could prattle on and on about cinematic elements or societal group differences, but to what end? Nobody reads this. I rate this good.

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl A.K.A. Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome (2017)

A Japanese fantasy anime directed by Masaaki Yuasa, starring Kana Hanazawa.
A young woman goes out to some bars, visits an outdoor used book market, participates in an unlicensed school play and visits people who caught a cold.
I was blown away by this. The story and characters would have been a little mundane if presented in traditional animation and stuck in "reality". The animation style is what made this so unique because there were many forms used. It moved from traditional anime to rotoscoping, into simplified minimalism and I think some of the scenes showed Miyazaki levels of detail. It was all very expressive as well. The audience can see the characters' thoughts and emotions. The subtitles are a little bit heavy because the dialogue carries the story and it goes by quickly. I saw this at the theater where it was given only 2 days of showtimes and then found a copy online. I rate this best and would recommend it even for those who don't like animation at all. It's that good. I would not, however, recommend it for those who dislike subtitles.

Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017)

An American documentary directed by Chris Moukarbell, starring Lady Gaga.
Gaga's PR firm made her a promotional documentary.
What a farce! An hour and a half, of course. The "plot" follows Gaga as she finishes an album and gets ready for the super bowl. During this time, she films 2 music videos and goes to the doctor because of physical pain. I cared not for the characters. Gaga is possessed by demons and is paying the price for fame with physical and emotional pain. The bitch hits her record producer's car with her jeep in a parking lot and shows only superficial remorse. They're both rich and can buy new vehicles, so they don't care. The dialogue seemed scripted or stoned. Pick one and you're probably right. Sets looked like rich bitch paradise "Oh, I'll take my bikini top off now for no real reason". Camera-work was atrocious. hand held with vertical format cell phone footage mixed in every once in a while. The only positive aspect was a short shot of some serious female anatomy points. Audio was not bad, except "her" music. As if anyone would believe that she writes songs! It was laughable. She's there in the studio, holding guitars and pretending to play piano. IMDb lists a rating of 7.1/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 74% Tomatometer with 80% Audience Score for an average of 75%. Apparently, people like being lied to. I watched it to the end, but I rate it shit anyway. Oh, poor demon-possessed pop star has to do work. Poor, poor Gaga with her millions of dollars, rich bitch mansion and Mercedes-smashing jeep. Go cry to your personal chiropractor.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

An American science fiction directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Harrison Ford, Robin Wright and Jared Leto.
It is discovered that a replicant (android) has reproduced and the government has their best replicant-killer on the case.
This sucked. It sucked for 2 and a half hours! I didn't care about the plot because it didn't make me care. I even watched it twice because I thought I missed something important. The main characters were far too shallow to care about either. Most of the acting seemed fine, but the woman recruiting for the replicant army really blew it. I was trying to figure out if the government had put her up to asking the main character to join so they could bust him. It seemed like she was reading the script for the first time right then. Sets and costumes were really the only redeeming feature. Stuff looked great. Sure, it was probably mostly CG anyway. I was not impressed by the costumes though. Camera-work looked like a new, mainstream Hollywood film. There were lots of quick cuts and close-ups, without much else. I think there may have been a drone shot or few as well. Special effects looked like any kid with After Effects and enough time could have done them. It was like 90% layering and compositing. I did watch the original before I started this blog and the physical effects with real sets, props and models looked better. The orange filter when the main character meets Harrison ford was really annoying and the exaggerated waves on the wall at government headquarters looked cheesy. Audio actually seemed fine, but I have a compressor on, so it was probably standard of current trends in augmented dynamic volume levels. I'm not counting awards won/nominated because the list is too long. IMDb has an 8.1/10 rating listed and Rotten Tomatoes has 87% Tomatometer with 81% Audience Score for an average of 83%. I do not agree at all. For being a mainstream pile of CG that didn't come close to even trying to make me care about it, I rate this bad. DO NOT WATCH!

OtherLife (2017)

An Australian science fiction directed by Ben C. Lucas.
A woman runs a company that uses drugs and technology to give people memories. She has a brother in a coma and a father who doesn't believe in her work. Her boyfriend dies when he takes the wrong potion and she is sentenced to a year of imprisonment in her own technology.
Unoriginal. The hour and a half duration is pretty standard and it had dynamic pacing that changed with the plot. I thought the plot was inconclusive and that it was unclear to the viewer what was fantasy and reality. The characters were relatively shallow and secondary to the plot. Dialogue all sounded natural and the actors did fine. The laboratory sets looked good, but the fantasy experience sets and locations looked better. I think this was because of more creative camera usage and editing. The special effect of going into an experience was a kaleidoscope made with video from the upcoming shot. There were also some distortions based on variations of the same effect when an experience was glitching. Audio was standard of the time: low dialogue, medium music and loud sound effects. IMDB rates it 6.3/10 and Rotten Tomatoes has 62% audience score for a 62.5% average. I disagree. This was better than Midnight Special for visual effects and plot. I rate this adequate.

Girls Trip (2017)

An American comedy directed by Malcolm D. Lee, starring Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Larenz Tate.
A quartet of women who were friends in college reunite in New Orleans.
Way to perpetuate racist stereotypes! 2 hours was too long to have to watch this. I had to watch the whole thing too because it's for school. Yes, this is part of a college curriculum. The simplistic premise had fickle, little sub-plots to fill time and add fuel to white supremacist fires. There is only 1 word to describe the characters: niggers. I saw them engaging in every negative aspect of African-American activity and culture that could be fit within the film. Same goes for dialogue and acting. The sets were not bad. I liked the zip line over the street most and it was the only joke that I found almost funny. Costumes were stereotypical, but I kind of liked the vests for the main characters. Camera-work and editing were not bad either. There was plenty of shot variety, with some dollying around characters. There were 2 instances of clear special effects. These were the zip line and some creative editing in a club scene. The audio was not to my liking because of musical genre and annoyingly insipid dialogue. This won 6 awards and has 6.3/10 on IMDB, 3/4 stars from Roger Ebert, 71% on Metacritic and 90% tomatometer, 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. 76% average C grade is astronomically high for what I saw. I rate it bad because it was annoying, insipid and racist. Coming from the guy who finds race-based stereotypes funny, it has to be REALLY racist for me to label it as such. This makes Bamboozled (2000) seem unprejudiced by comparison.

Geostorm (2017)

An American disaster science fiction directed by Dean Devlin, starring Gerard Butler, Alexandra Maria Lara, Daniel Wu, Ed Harris and Andy Garcia.
A network of satellites has been set up around the Earth to prevent catastrophic storms. Someone has put a virus into it that causes storms instead of preventing them. The man who was in charge of building the network and his brother work to find the culprit and fix the problem.
Pretty standard and stereotypical. The 209.9 million dollar box office revenue speaks for that. Clocking in at an hour 41, the extremely fast pacing made it seem like less time. The plot was like every other disaster film I have ever seen, just 100% cliche. Characters were pretty much the same. The main character was the "loose cannon" and there were no comedic relief characters. The dialogue seemed like it was copied and pasted from other disaster films, but the acting was convincing. Sets, costumes, locations and special effects looked like 120 million dollars worth of budget to me. The space sets and the storms all looked professional. Camera-work was mostly made up of quick editing cuts. Even conversations between two characters switched back and forth like a tennis match. In audio, I could hear all of the dialogue and the soundtrack included the standard "epic" disaster film music. Other critics give this a failing grade and I agree with them completely. My main disappointment was that there was no CG "Geostorm" in the climax. I rate this bad for being stereotypical, cliche and disappointing. Don't watch it!

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets A.K.A. Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes (2017)

A French science fiction directed by Luc Besson.
A peaceful planet is destroyed by a war in space. A few survivors escape in a ship. An animal that duplicates pearls is taken from a black market crime boss by a government detective. The detective and his girlfriend have to get the animal back to the people from the planet.
I saw this in the theater in 3D (thanks Thomas) and it looked really good. The plot was incredibly complex and if you looked away or missed a line, you're lost. The actors were not chosen very well. They lacked emotion. Deadpan delivery is o.k. in Chinese comedy, but science fiction needs strong feelings. The video was beyond anything I had ever seen before. If you're going to see a movie in 3D, science fiction is a good choice. The aliens all looked really cool and the sets and costumes were very well designed. The special effects must have taken a year to program with a team of specialists sitting in front of computers. The audio was theater quality. I was at the fucking theater itself. Overall, a very well made film with bad actors or acting. I rate it good because I've never seen a movie in 3D before.

Get Out (2017)

An American horror directed by Jordan Peele, starring Bradley Whitford, Stephen Root and Catherine Keener.
A young black man goes with his white girlfriend to visit her family. The family has black slaves who act very strangely. As the main character is discovering the situation, his friend in the city figures it out as well, based upon a picture that was sent.
This was alright. The plot was interesting and held my attention. The main character reminded me of a classmate from school. I think the acting was done pretty well, though. The video was very typical of new films in general and especially of new horror films. The audio was mixed quite well. I could hear all of the dialogue and the music was at correct levels in relation to it. What we have here is a prime example of my adequate rating. It's a fine film and there's nothing wrong with it. There were even some good elements. It just didn't go that extra little bit to make it really good. You might want to check it out.