Fist of Doom Jr

From what I've read, Avatar 2 is scheduled for Dec. 2022, with the other 3 to come out two years apart thereafter. Crazy.

BobO'Link

I failed to mention in my comments about A.I. Artificial Intelligence that it's mostly a reworking of Pinocchio and hits all the main beats of the Disney animated film. When it comes right down to it, I feel Spielberg pretty much did to Pinocchio with A.I. Artificial Intelligence what he did to Peter Pan with Hook. And what's up with the repeated name? A.I. is an abbreviation (one might argue for it being an acronym) for Artificial Intelligence - just pick *one* of them!

LJG765

huh. Maybe he will get them made!

Well...the movie is fairly old...maybe they felt people wouldn't know what it stood for? I don't mind the title, tbh.

numbercrunch

I watched Until the End of the World. Wenders almost five hour directors cut. A very self indulgent "Sci Fi Road Movie". Anybody made the investment in time to watch it?

brainee

I watched it back in the 90s on VHS, but remember pretty much nothing. According to Wikipedia, there was a 20 hour cut

Speaking of Wenders, I should rewatch Wings of Desire. That movie I remember well, I own the Blu Ray, but I don't think I've ever watched it.

shadokitty

I woke up in the middle of the night tonight, so turned on tv. I found an episode of Knight Rider on Encore Action. I got to thinking that I remembered reading that Glen Larson based KITTs scanner on the optics of the Cylons.

Regarding how my challenge is going, so far it has been pretty slow with life getting in the way. I am planning to pick up steam in the second half of the month though.

lisadoris

Morning everyone,

I need a ruling. So I was thinking about watching The Lost Boys this weekend and it is listed as horror, teen movie, and comedy. I kinda feel like a movie about vampires should be considered fantasy unless imdb and allmovie know something about the existence of vampires that I don't. What say you all?

BobO'Link

I watched The 5th Wave yesterday. It's the first part of a failed three part "young adult" series. I can see why it failed. Like most of those type stories it's quite cliche' and very predictable. It also felt like part of a mini series as it moved *very* slowly. If the last two parts would have had the same or similar pacing it would have been quite easy to condense it into a single ~2 hour movie. I liked the lead actor, Chloë Grace Moretz, much better in the two Kick-Ass movies as well as the rather lack luster war/horror movie Shadow in the Cloud. Ron Livingston, as her dad, was pretty much wasted in his rather minor role.

coyoteblue

Wildcard. If you were sure enough, you'd just watch it and I don't think anyone would raise an eyebrow, but If you gotta ask, it means using up a wildcard.

LJG765

I find it odd that it isn't considered sci-fi or fantasy too. Having seen it, I would never think twice about someone using it.

That being said, wildcards are available for those films like this. Not 100% sure, but go into with the belief that they should count? Use the wildcard.

Lost Boys, definitely does not need to be wildcarded. I will say that any vampire film with actual vampires (not people pretending like in some Criminal Minds episode) would count for the challenge.

brainee

I was going to agree with coyoteblue that Lost Boys sounds like a good wildcard. People can count what they want ... the challenge is just for fun. But I don't think of most supernatural horror movies (like any movie with a vampire) when I think of the science-fiction and fantasy genres. Some obviously cross over between different genres, but I don't think this is one of them.

shadokitty

Watched Spider-Man 2 when I got up this morning. I always enjoyed the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies. Maybe because they are the first ones I saw. I’ve never seen the Andrew Garfield versions, so can’t comment on them. Never really wanted to see them. And while I’ve never really seen much of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, what I have seen of him, I didn’t particularly care for him. He seemed whiny to me with all of his Mr. Starks.

ororama

It seems that movies with ghosts and witches tend to be classified as fantasy, while movies with vampires, werewolves and most other supernatural beings tend to be classified as horror. The existence of a threat by the supernatural being to the protagonist also tends to result in a horror classification. I first noticed this with respect to Hong Kong movies, where the ghost comedy is an important genre, but it seems to hold true across the board.

LJG765

I made the ruling, anything with "real" vampires counts as fantasy. In a bookstore, vampire books are in the sci-fi/fantasy area.

Movies can have crossover genres but if the vampire is a supernatural one, it counts. Werewolf transforming? Counts. Invisible Man shows up? (Or doesn't as the case may be) counts.

brainee

Well, I guess I'm going back and adding Werewolves Within to my list It's a fun movie ... kind of like a goofier Knives Out (but with a werewolf, of course).

I loved The Mitchells vs The Machines (on Netflix). For me, it had more laugh-out-loud moments than any comedy I remember in years. And it's just packed with little Easter eggs and in-jokes for movie fans.

If anyone is looking for any other new sci-fi on Netflix, I enjoyed Oxygen. Despite having about the smallest of settings possible (the whole thing is one woman trapped in a coffin-sized cryopod), I found it engaging throughout. Not the sort of the thing I'd expect from director Alejandre Aja.

Synchronic was something I watched just before the challenge (it's also on Netflix). It's by the directors of The Endless, Spring, and Resolution (I'm a big fan of those movies). Synchronic is probably their most straight-forward movie, and while having a low-budget vibe has some star power. The idea for the movie is interesting: a new drug has the side-effect of sending its users back in time during their "trip" (with the main characters being paramedics who start noticing people dying in unexplainable ways).

lisadoris

Thanks for the ruling. I always forget about the wildcard option but it’s good to have a definitive rule.

LJG765

Enjoy! I enjoy a good werewolf flick on occasion myself...

You’re welcome! I admit I sometimes forget the wildcard option too.

orlmac

I have had a very good challenge so far. I have watched virtually all of the movies with my wife (except for the animation and 60's and older which she hates). I have watched 51 movies (counting the Falcon and Winter Soldier series as a movie) and have averaged over 2 hours per movie. I had roughly 30 series which I am in the middle of watching so I have a lot of rewatches but I like (most) of the series so I have enjoyed my watches. So far I have more new watches than rewatches so that has kept me interested. The new checklist is working out fine for me which is good because I like to use the checklist to point me in different directions so I try things I wouldn't necessarily watch. I have elected to watch the Howard Lovecraft animated movies and they have given me some interesting watches. I will start watching the Gamera series as I won them in a previous challenge (it may have been the animation challenge) so that will give me a new series to watch. Just a good challenge overall and I thank LJG for the good job that he does!

LJG765

I suspect that is how my challenge is going to go. I have a few days free here until Thursday that I plan on getting some watches in, have a 3 day wedding excursion to go to, then the rest of July is free from big plans. Last year was so quiet, I think everyone is trying to make up for it this year.

Wow, you're getting some good watches in! I still haven't seen Wanda Vision so I do have plans on getting that watched this month and hopefully the Falcon and Winter Soldier series as well. I think fitting in Loki would be a bit ambitious for me this month, though.

Glad to hear you like the updated checklist! I like checklists for that exact reason. I have found several really good movies I never would have watched without trying to complete the checklist.

Don't forget that the last day of the challenge overlaps with animation, so don't watch it all before then!

shadokitty

While I always enjoyed Voltron anyway, there are some episodes that really hit you in the feels. I just finished ‘Pidge’s Home Planet’ , and there was a lot in the episode about Allura being a royal person, and will one day have to marry and leave the Voltron Force. Other parts showed how Coran was willing to hold them under house arrest to keep them from coming to help a planet under attack. Finally, Keith and Allura almost seem to have a telepathic link.

BobO'Link

I'm currently slogging through the Divergent series. I had the DVDs and when Amazon put the complete series on sale on BR I purchased a copy (hey... it was *very* inexpensive and takes up much less shelf space, but really... what was I thinking!?!). I figured today is as good as any to work through them but I may not finish as I did take a break to play a board game with my 10yo granddaughter and watch the first Harry Potter film with her (her choice - but I enjoy it so...). Part of my overall issue with this series is the complete implausibility that people could, and would, be separated into clans based on personality traits being forced to leave everything behind should yours differ from the rest of your family. Throw in the cliched "one person has multiple personality disorder" and becomes the savior of the world due to this "defect" and, well, it just dives off the cliff big time. I keep thinking that eventually there'll be a really good film series based on a "Young Adult" book series - but then those books are typically no great shakes either...

LJG765

Hey, be nice to Young Adult books! While like anything, there are quite a few clunkers out there, there are some really, really good YA books out there. Some recent loves: Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. They are really worth the read. 1/2 fantasy, 1/2 prison break/heist. (I know they have released a show based on the universe, but not necessarily those two books and have not watched it, so no idea if they were good or not.)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Really good book, movie was not great.

I could go on, but I think it's less the book's fault than it is the movie studios who want the next Hunger Games but cheaply and decide that their "tweaks" will make the movie so much better than the book, but in reality, just trash it (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Voyage of the Dawn Treader!)

BobO'Link

Here are a couple of films I've watched that I actually enjoyed...


Arrival (2016) - not to be confused with any films going by "The Arrival" - is a very good "first contact" type movie. They go to great pains to show the difficulty of learning a completely unknown language that's built on complex glyphs or symbols. It still has the trigger happy military to deal with but is otherwise an intelligent SF film somewhat in the vein of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Ready Player One was quite a surprise. After all, it's from Steven Spielberg who I firmly believe doesn't know what makes truly good SF. It's, perhaps, the best movie based on video games I've ever seen. It's clever and mostly engaging in spite of the many logic holes and segments I found quite funny that I'm sure weren't supposed to be funny. I also didn't buy into the world making on display (from which I derived much humor) but it works within the confines of the film. Yes, there are segments that are quite predictable yet they work. I'm not sure what it says about me that I knew the answer to earning the final key (I've done it many times myself playing that game).

coyoteblue

I discovered a fun fact today. The Avengers episode, "Thingumajig", used the creature sound effects from Island of Terror (1966), for the episode's 'creatures'. Also, watched Split Second (1992) for the umpteenth time. Thinking about starting "Seeds of Doom" from classic Doctor Who's 13th season.

LJG765

The novel is pretty good, though I don't think I liked it as much as the movie. It was a case of me seeing the movie first, then reading the book. It has gotten quite a few good reviews and the pop culture references are fun (as long as you know what they're referencing!).

Watched Spaceballs for the first time in a VERY long time. Still funny. I wanted to watch something else, but shorter, so broke into a cheap multi-film pack called "Strange Movies." I watched The Amazing Transparent Man. It's...watchable. This guy breaks out a safe cracker from prison. His pet scientist turns him invisible so that he can steal for him. There's a woman, of course. I'm okay with this being only an hour long and I doubt I'll rewatch it again.