movie reviewz

Pokémon the Movie - The Power of One [2000]

This one's plot was all over the place! I still had a really good time, though. Lawrence the 3rd was very fun for a villian; he doesn't learn a damn thing, and he looks damn good while doing it. The birds being able to be understood by meowth is always fun; that guy should get a job as a pokémon interpreter. Lugia having such a deep and soothing voice was... why did they make it sound like that. The song has restored my strength. Delia asking Ash to save the world a little closer to home next time got me crying a little. It feels like something a kid would watch over and over while they have the flu or need something to watch as they go to bed- I wouldn't call it a feverdream of a movie but it's definetly very fast and loose with it's plot. Really fun!

Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back [1998]

This movie is as much of a banger as everyone says. Mewtwo is SO fucking cool guys, he's set up to be this totally untouchable powerhouse betrayed by his own creators who saw him as nothing but a tool... Mewtwo recreating his conditions out of the trauma and cruelty his human creators put him under was truly poignant to me. The music and the backgrounds and color palettes are beautiful, and a lot of the little jokes fit so well! Literally such a legendary experience that I imagine was a lot of people's childhoods. The team rocket side B plot shenanigans were a great breather and a delight! The cheesy song playing with all the pokemon fighting eachother was peak, and the quotes by meowth and mewtwo went so hard. Made me cry 3 times, and the 10 minute short "Birth of Mew" made me cry a 4th time. 10/10

Motherless Brooklyn [2019]

Watched this masterpiece with friends! A dectective noir movie about the racism and gentrification and message combating these ideas taking place in the 1950's. Lots of outdated language, but fitting of the time; very white saviory at times, too. The main detective of many names with tourrettes was delightful, and I keep rooting for him to dig deeper and uncover the whole truth in one piece! A high stakes ride that keeps winding up further and further, and the music fit the feelings so well for each scene. The whole thing was so well choreographed and the camera work and effects were top notch. I should watch others' favorite movies more often, so I can see the awesome beauty in them like they do. Check the content warnings on this one, though; lots of blood, slurs, and mentions of sexual violence.

Red Shoes and The Seven Dwarves [2019]

Very questionable movie. It kind of sucked for me but it wasn't... compleeeeetely terrible? The first half seemed to really make you feel like the movie was being fatphobic on purpose, though. It only ACTUALLY gets to the message they tried to tell nearing the end of the movie- it takes them a REALLY long time to get to what feels like the point of the message here. It personally felt like the writers were playing hot potato with what they wanted to do with everyone; very misguided. Like, they had the seven dwarves, but three of them are basically one guy whose whole gimmick is building things... The only thing that kept me from dropping it instantly is that the art direction and animation were pretty solid! The villian characters were pretty funny, and got more reactions out of me than the protags, tbh. The music was, again, questionable. Like, why make it? A very "what the hell was that? experience.

Kung Fu Panda 4 [2024]

It was afraid of itself and its potential, so much so, that it kept making jokes to its own expense. It felt I was being rushed along through important story beats that we should have spent more time on- meanwhile these same beats were being interupted with continuous jokes that kept taking me from the film. Pointless bits were dragged out further than necessary. Maybe it would have been better if the fox had been sneaking out of the palace, and gotten in the way of the "finger-chooses the dragon warrior" shtick, as Po had done in the first movie. He would not like having to train the thief, only to realize her value and her growth- to better capitalize on that whole peach pit metaphor that fell flat in how they exceuted it. UNESSECARY installment in the franchise.

Lupin the Third: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy [1974]

This movie is only an hour and twenty minutes; it felt like four days. The pacing is so wild- they fit several jokes into 30 seconds, it feels like several short stories compiled into a movie sometimes! The live action actors do a wonderful job at capturing the personalities and movement of their fictional counterparts, and Lupin himself dresses so in a wonderful flamboyant way. The editing adds to the charm of the blink and you'll miss it style they were going for, here. I did find it disappointing that they made Zenigata hatless- he's so naked without it. Some scenes felt like you could slap Scooby-Doo chase music right over it, and it wouldn't be out of place. This is the first movie adaptation ever of Lupin, and it doesn't disappoint as much as it's psychokinetic strategy makes my head hurt a little.

Die Hard [1988]

This movie had a surprisingly accurate dipiction of how cops handle their jobs; poorly and taking far too much credit. Titular protagonist John isn't exempt from this, obviously. I feel like I saw too much of one man's feet- there's Chekov's gun, and Chekov's wrist-watch, but I don't need to see Chekov's feet. I can understand why the general public likes this movie, but for an action movie, it felt a lot more like a comedy- with John only surviving the situations he gets into out of sheer luck and loony-toons-esque solutions. He tied himself to a fire-hose and nearly got dragged off of it when it was sliding off the building. His solution for getting out of situations is to put himself in objectively worse situations. Very harrowing to watch at times, especially in the scenes with high drops.

Lyle, Lyle, Croccodile [2022]

I watched this movie on a whim with my friends, because it looked like it would be another terrible live-action CGI adaptation of a children's media; I was wrong! I was surprised about how much this musical comedy got to me, and actually made me crack up several times. The CGI was actually very well done, for the most part on Lyle, and the other CGI animals! The story was a bit silly, but I liked it for what it was. I think what made me laugh the most was when Lyle had his big cathartic moment of him getting over his stage fright and the conflict resolving then and there- to suddenly jumping to a scene of them in court fighting for Lyle's rights to live in an apartment building because he is an exotic animal. It literally felt like something out of Ace Attorney; I do not have a screen-capture of such a recent movie, but I have drawn what it felt like. It made me howl with laughter.

How To Train Your Dragon [2010]

This is a film that can be so impactful for how a child develops and sees the world after they view it; I know because I am those childs! With a phenomenal and jaw-dropping score from John Powell, you can feel what it means to exist in the same world as a dragon. The scenery and animation is beautiful, and you just wish you were right there with the characters. Now, the characters themselves can be a bit rough around the edges, annoying, aggrovating, and do stupid things for no reason. Of course, these things apply to everybody, and the vikings of Berk might argue that these are good things. The dragons are just as unique, with our main dragon Toothless sometimes being more like a large kitty cat than a dragon, but that just adds to the charm. It's an amazing film that made little toddler kopawz cry, because he couldn't have a dragon in real life.

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