Ask Lemmy

Crystal Skull

Tank Girl, it got shit reviews when it came out, but has grown a cult following since then, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tank_girl

I am also partial to Dude Where’s My Car

I love The Polar Express.

The most widely hated thing about it is the mocap. Not much to say here, I'm just straight-up not bothered by it. I think it looks fine. It's not incredibly expressive like a stylized animated film could be, but it doesn't look actively bad to me in any way.

The way the titular express inexplicably gains and loses rolling stock scene by scene and behaves in absurd ways like bending around the mountain are a common punchline. "BuT iT's A mAgIc TrAiN!!!" doesn't really solve it for me either. But on a casual viewing it's mostly inoffensive. A silly curiosity.

Some say the plot of the film spends too much time aimlessly noodling around and throwing in needless filler scenes. Meh. If you ask me that's where all the meat of the film is. The actual plot of the film has nothing interesting to say. "Kid doesn't believe in Santa. Magic Christmas hijinks ensue. Kid believes in Santa now. The end." Riveting. Nah, the so-called "filler" is absolutely the meal here.

The fact that the film literally has five named characters, and the main character isn't one of them is hilarious. To even get to that number you have to count both the Scrooge puppet and the kid who the elves were monitoring in a single scene as characters, and after that, one of the remaining three is Santa Claus. Just more weight to my point that the story doesn't matter, lmao.

Say what you will about the animation, but the cinematography is incredible. So many dynamic long-track camera shots from interesting angles. Especially whenever the steam locomotive is on screen. God, steam locomotives are so fucking cool. I don't even care that it's full of inaccuracies if you actually look up close. They put a lot of effort into it and that effort shows. It's quite the treat.

The set design of the North Pole is fantastic. It's admittedly kinda fucked that it's modeled after a real world Pullman company town, but I guess it's appropriate as a joke about the whole Santa's workshop thing while also incorporating a neat little nod to real life railroad lore. Beyond that, it's blindingly radiant of all that Victorian-era charm that most of the modern secular Christmas tradition is born from. The serene night snow amidst the rustic red brickwork illuminated by glowing amber gaslamps... augh, it's so aggressively cozy!

All the pneumatic and other steampunk-adjacent elf tech is a treat as well. The film is certainly no slouch in breathing its own unique spin of whimsy into Santa's toy factory. It's not the most whimsical out there, but it's definitely putting in work.

Alan Silvestri's score is phenomenal. It's all delightfully extra. Every single song in the film that's an original composition is a banger and every song that isn't an original composition for the film is part of that time-tested canon of hits from the 50s and 60s. I think a lot of people are fed up sick of the latter but, I dunno, I grew up listening to them on my Now That's What I Call Christmas CD, and to me their sound is synonymous with that warm, nostalgic holiday cheer I get from the season. Even if I don't get around to actually watching the movie, you know damn well I'm putting The Polar Express's soundtrack in my December shuffle.

Genuine S tier Christmas film. Well worth every single fault.

SOLO - I know everyone hated on this film, but we get a space western mixed with a heist movie. Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover are icing on the cake. Plus we get a robot uprising. 5 bags of popcorn and throw in a couple of those Darth Vader cups.

I'm taking a big risk after experiencing your last post, but... I actually really loved Prometheus. Alien is in my top 5 movies list, but I still enjoyed it.

So many movies but let's go with: Ghostbusters 2016. I had an absolute blast watching it and Chris played one of the best himbos of all time

Freddie Got Fingered was completely panned when it came out, but I absolutely loved it! It was so ahead of its time, Tim and Eric-style comedy.

Caddo Lake

I really like Wild Wild West, I didn't watch it for forever because of how hated it is/was but thought it was actually funny and enjoyed the mix of steampunk and goofyness. Kevin Kline is always great.

I also like Jingle All the Way and watch it every few years, it's perfectly watchable until the very end when it collapses under a terrible CGI spectacle that just doesn't work

Trap - Absolutely ridiculous movie with an insane plot. Basically a promo for the director's daughter to launch a pop star career IRL. It should be distasteful, and it is, however it was such dumb fun I'm ignoring all of those bad points.

Alien Covenant.

People talk about the characters being unrealistic, I think they're just different to movie characters and normal humans.

I really enjoyed the film.

If you ignore the leads Valerian was an incredible set.