It's Critter Time!

Lolo De Puzlo wrote: Thu Aug 07, 2025 6:40 pm I watched A Minecraft Movie. It was a Movie of All Time. Also not very good.

Did you at least watch the previs version with gambling ads inserted into it? Funniest version of the movie, imo.


I recently watched Boogieman(2005) and,

despite everyone else seeming to hate it i REALLY liked it. It has a real style and it sticking both its lead and its main locations as being vaguely stuck in time to signify trauma they've never healed from is real good. The climax kinda squanders it, though.

Went to finally see Bad Guys 2 today (and in a way I'm kind of shocked there isn't a separate topic for it in such a fur-oriented space). I love the first film as a film first and foremost: it is such a fantastically designed and executed joyride from start to finish that I can't remember when the last time was that I came out of the cinema feeling such giddiness, and that excitement hasn't vanished at all with any of the rewatches. The sequel doesn't lose anything that made the first film so great and it is basically a repeat of its triumphs: the art and visual design is still incredible, the cast is impossibly charming, the dialogue is excellent, the comedy frequently genuinely funny both in the big obvious punchline moments and the subtler background details, and the action scenes are a real feast of adrenaline and fun that only animation can bring to life and which you don't want to end. But it's all new dialogue, jokes, action set pieces, more great casting choices and expanding on the ones that got a little left out of the limelight in the first one... and that basically makes it an entirely different experience of its own instead of just a repeat. The visual side has only gotten better and especially the expressions on the characters are utterly marvellous. Loved it. Want to see it again. Ordered the art book.

And of course Mr Wolf is still the most goddamn handsome bastard that's graced the cinema screens since ol' Robin Hood himself and yes, swooning over him for basically the entire film is part of the fun of it all.

Watched Cinema Paradiso which is described as "one of the best films of all time" about a boy befriending a projectionist in a small Sicilian town's movie theater. It was pretty good, I loved the ending. The version I watched was a Spanish dub with English subtitles so it was kinda weird but whatever.

Watchef Top Secret last night and what a fantastic piece of film. No one quite does comedy like ZAZ does.

I watched Sinners last weekend. I'd say it's worth the hype it got. A slow burn. It really feels like the people involved knew they wouldn't get that kind of shot again, and made the most of it.

Rewatched Total Recall (the original) with my partner since she's never seen it. I think it's definitely in my Top 3 Arnold movies.

I ended up watching FIXED, aka that new Genndy Tartakovsky horny dog cartoon film that's been in the works for a few years. I've been eagerly looking forward to it, though not as much since it got relegated to Netflix rather than the theatrical release that I believe was planned at some point. Seeing a film like this, an adult animated comedy about a horny dog trying to have one last night of freedom before he gets neutered and therefore absolutely full of cartoon genitals amongst other things, in a public venue would've been an experience. But even so, the film's out and I ended up seeing it with a friend who streamed it the evening of its release.

Kinda doing a copy-paste of my Letterboxd review here, but damn I wish I liked it more. It's fine enough. The animation's really good, especially on the dialogue and faces; I was impressed at how many specific expressions the animators created that actually kinda said something about these dogs and where their head's at in the moment. Having such distinct designs for all the dogs deffo helped with that, never feeling template-y. It's just as well, because I found the cinematography really dull throughout. Medium shots where the dogs are either side on or in 3/4, and often never changing for extended periods of time. The early parts of the film are the worst for this, and while I get they're setting things up, it felt like such a slog.

That sluggish pacing nips at the movie's heels quite a lot tbh. There's a lot of throwaway extended dialogues that didn't add much (I genuinely never picked up on the main character Bull being noticeably more talkative than everyone else, they all blather on), shots lasting a second or two too long, and a general flabbiness that always bugged me. I feel like there's an edit where you could snip out ten minutes worth of dead air or "SAY WHAT??" bits without losing anything.

Weird thing to say, but I honestly wish the film was filthier or more transgressive. I imagine that being able to do as much as they did, considering it's a professionally produced film by a mainstream movie studio, is a hell of an achievement. But in spite of the bits, blood and brief moments of actual onscreen sex, the way the plot goes feels mostly tame to me. Apart from one moment near the end, this could've been the kind of "i should learn to appreciate how i'm different" plot you'd see plenty other places with only a few tweaked details.

All that bawdy stuff feels like it's there for shock value mainly, and that's got its own appeal (though that appeal I find is muted when you're not experiencing it with a load of other people in a public place or a stream), but it's no Fritz the Cat y'know? That film IS transgressive in a way it couldn't be without its filth, and it even has the nerve to show dicks. (Genuinely odd to me that in a film proudly showcasing every other kind of genital, that the main two stars - so to speak - were verboten. Again, I get that these kinds of films have limits and it's nuts that Fixed gets away with as much as it does, but it's conspicuous.)

Glad it exists, especially considering that it lingered in a pretty ambiguous state of existence for a while there, but I'm not into it.

I watched the new Naked Gun last night and I'm overall happy with it. It's very rapid-fire humor and I think almost all of the jokes land, though many of them land just funny and not laugh-out-loud funny. That said, casting Liam Neeson completely nailed the role and while not a replacement for Leslie Nielsen, he was definitely a good successor.

Watched Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo last night with a group of people who had only seen Castle of Cagliostro and Lupin III: The First.

Don't get me wrong, Castle of Cagliostro is a magnificently animated film and a pretty good story. However, it's edges are exceptionally filed off and it doesn't quite feel Lupin-y enough as someone who got their start watching Part II and reading the manga.

Mystery of Mamo is a much rougher film being basically a bigger budget episode of Part II. However, it's much more closer to the tone of a more expanded Part II albeit a bit more skeezy. It's such a wild ride that I feel that it's a good counterpart to those earlier movies. Could go without all the flashing though.