Comedy: Sorry to Bother You
Drama: A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Mid 90's
Winner: A Star is Born
Science Fiction: Bumblebee, Black Panther, Avengers Infinity War, Solo, Wonder Woman
Winner: Black Panther, mention, Avengers Infinity War, Bumblebee
Horror: Overlord, Halloween 4.0
Winner: Overlord
Action: Mission Impossible Fallout, Spider Man Into The Spider Verse, Ant Man and the Wasp
Winner: Spider Man Into the Spider Verse
Animation: Spider Man Into the Spider Verse, Isle of Dogs, Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet
Winner: Isle of Dogs, Spider Man Into the Spider Verse
Video: Batman Ninja
Foreign Film: Enthiran 2.0
Actor: Rami Malik, Bohemian Rhapsody
Actress: Lady Gaga, A Star is Born, Haylee Steinfeld, Bumblebee
Winner: Lady Gaga
In House: Trans Tech Return of the Shadow Children
Best Picture of the Year
A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther, Bumblebee, Overlord, Avengers Infinity War,
Winners: Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born and Black Panther
Well, for originality and hostry, Black Panther
Worst Picture:
Red Sparrow, Death Wish, A Wrinkle in Time
Loser: Red Sparrow
Monday, December 24, 2018
Christmas Eve and Movie Reviews 2018 Additions
"Spider Man Into The Spider Verse" PG
Sony and some other studios, and a little Marvel, teamed up to make an animated comic book come to life in this origin story for Miles Morales, the Puerto Rican Spider Boy, who's uncle turns out to be a villain, and the blocky Kingpin gets to kill one of the Spider Men while opening a machine to suck other people from various dimensions into his, partly to save his family. The 'blurry art' and rfrantic pacing at times can be distracting, but the five versions of Spider People are interesting, and their team up is amazing. You even have Noir Spider Man and Spider Ham the pig, and Spider Gwen, and Penny Parker from the Japanese one. See it in theaters. Own it on bluray. Great film.
"Bumblebee" PG
It took the makers of Transformers 5 tries to get it right. The fans had it right all along. The sixth movie in the franchise of live action films is a spin off taking place in 1987, sort of a reboot, done by a director who knows what he's doing for once. Think ET meets Herbie the Love Bug meets Transformers. The heart of this movie is in the right place, from the stunning opening scene, on Cybertron, to the downed soldier alien who has to pretend to be a beat up VW bug to blend in, and befriends a young woman shy of her turning 18. Charlie is the Carly the show needed 10 years ago. The character needs to be a kind of unsure nerd, but not overly bombastic about it. It works. The Decepticons are two right out of the fan stories, even some of mine, and are edgy in the right places, and have actual gravity, unlike in the Bay versions. Bumblebee actually was a chattery duyde in the G1, but that's forgiven enough. The flick is worth seeing in theaters and owning on bluray.
"Aquaman" PG 13
The DC universe does a retro origin story for Aquaman, one of the most powerful and yet silliest characters in their arsenal, played by a buffed wrestler type dude, seen in the Justice League movie. He is similar to Bane, more so than Aquaman. His story seems a pastiche of The Little Mermaid, complete with redhead sidekick, with ineffective father figure, Thor's Asgard, and Black Panther's Wakanda. Distracting visuals make for enough of an adventure and enough chansing it' not boring, but it can be overlong with the forced chemistry from the leads. And also the ending rips of How to Train your Dragon 2, and Thor 2. Also there are some pacing issues. It's better than their usual fare, one to see in theaters, but it is not as good as Wonder Woman or the Batman movies. The delightful Lovecraftian squid monster was fun. The prissy king wanna be that constantly challenges the lead, and the questionable Black Manta, are noted as being stereotypes. But the story still works.
Sony and some other studios, and a little Marvel, teamed up to make an animated comic book come to life in this origin story for Miles Morales, the Puerto Rican Spider Boy, who's uncle turns out to be a villain, and the blocky Kingpin gets to kill one of the Spider Men while opening a machine to suck other people from various dimensions into his, partly to save his family. The 'blurry art' and rfrantic pacing at times can be distracting, but the five versions of Spider People are interesting, and their team up is amazing. You even have Noir Spider Man and Spider Ham the pig, and Spider Gwen, and Penny Parker from the Japanese one. See it in theaters. Own it on bluray. Great film.
"Bumblebee" PG
It took the makers of Transformers 5 tries to get it right. The fans had it right all along. The sixth movie in the franchise of live action films is a spin off taking place in 1987, sort of a reboot, done by a director who knows what he's doing for once. Think ET meets Herbie the Love Bug meets Transformers. The heart of this movie is in the right place, from the stunning opening scene, on Cybertron, to the downed soldier alien who has to pretend to be a beat up VW bug to blend in, and befriends a young woman shy of her turning 18. Charlie is the Carly the show needed 10 years ago. The character needs to be a kind of unsure nerd, but not overly bombastic about it. It works. The Decepticons are two right out of the fan stories, even some of mine, and are edgy in the right places, and have actual gravity, unlike in the Bay versions. Bumblebee actually was a chattery duyde in the G1, but that's forgiven enough. The flick is worth seeing in theaters and owning on bluray.
"Aquaman" PG 13
The DC universe does a retro origin story for Aquaman, one of the most powerful and yet silliest characters in their arsenal, played by a buffed wrestler type dude, seen in the Justice League movie. He is similar to Bane, more so than Aquaman. His story seems a pastiche of The Little Mermaid, complete with redhead sidekick, with ineffective father figure, Thor's Asgard, and Black Panther's Wakanda. Distracting visuals make for enough of an adventure and enough chansing it' not boring, but it can be overlong with the forced chemistry from the leads. And also the ending rips of How to Train your Dragon 2, and Thor 2. Also there are some pacing issues. It's better than their usual fare, one to see in theaters, but it is not as good as Wonder Woman or the Batman movies. The delightful Lovecraftian squid monster was fun. The prissy king wanna be that constantly challenges the lead, and the questionable Black Manta, are noted as being stereotypes. But the story still works.
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Early Favorites for the Movie Awards Clara Nominees
The Clara Movie Awards, year 28, since 1990.
Ratings based on actual movies seen by Kat or Cards.
Ratings not paid for or endorsing any studio.
Based on their rating from the blog show after seeing the films live.
Comedy
Sorry to Bother You
Cock Blockers
Drama
A Star is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mid 90's
Documentary
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fahrenheit 11/9
Mid 90's
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Annihilation
Black Panther
Avengers Infinity War
Solo a Star Wars story
Horror/Thriller
Halloween 4.0
Overlord
Action
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Animated
Isle of Dogs
Incredibles 2
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Video
Batman Ninja (direct to video)
Foreign Film
Enthiran 2.0
Best film of the year noms:
A Star is Born
Black Panther
Fahrenheit 11/9
Bohemian Rhapsody
Overlord
Avengers: Infinity War
Best Actress, Lady Ga Ga (Star)
Best Actor: Rami Malik (Bohemian)
Worst film of the year noms:
A Wrinkle in Time
Red Sparrow
Death Wish
In House
Trans Tech: Return of the Shadow Children
The Clara Movie Awards (1990-present) are a pop culture review done now for the internet, since 2009, and feature only films that Adam or Jon (Kat and Cards) have seen. Movies they have not seen are not nominated.
This is in no way a scientific poll or a popularity poll, although some movies we pick do go on to win best in categories at Oscar time.
Ratings based on actual movies seen by Kat or Cards.
Ratings not paid for or endorsing any studio.
Based on their rating from the blog show after seeing the films live.
Comedy
Sorry to Bother You
Cock Blockers
Drama
A Star is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mid 90's
Documentary
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fahrenheit 11/9
Mid 90's
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Annihilation
Black Panther
Avengers Infinity War
Solo a Star Wars story
Horror/Thriller
Halloween 4.0
Overlord
Action
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Animated
Isle of Dogs
Incredibles 2
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Video
Batman Ninja (direct to video)
Foreign Film
Enthiran 2.0
Best film of the year noms:
A Star is Born
Black Panther
Fahrenheit 11/9
Bohemian Rhapsody
Overlord
Avengers: Infinity War
Best Actress, Lady Ga Ga (Star)
Best Actor: Rami Malik (Bohemian)
Worst film of the year noms:
A Wrinkle in Time
Red Sparrow
Death Wish
In House
Trans Tech: Return of the Shadow Children
The Clara Movie Awards (1990-present) are a pop culture review done now for the internet, since 2009, and feature only films that Adam or Jon (Kat and Cards) have seen. Movies they have not seen are not nominated.
This is in no way a scientific poll or a popularity poll, although some movies we pick do go on to win best in categories at Oscar time.
Movie Reviews into Mid December 2018
"Ralph Breaks the Internet" PG
Wreck It Ralph and Penelope Schweets return in this send up to all things good about being online. In the sequel, Ralph accidentally causes Penelope's game to break, so they have to go into the internet, somehow defying how that might work, and get a replacement part for it on EBay. They go about this in no way realistically, but it's a cartoon. They also visit GTA5, called here Slaughter Race, and Ralph gets the creepy when he is rejected, and accidentally unleases a cloning virus that makes a billion of him that turns into a monster he has to stop. Not as cute as the first one. The best gag is not even in the movie, but in the end credits. The flick has moments, and is far better than similar paced Imogi Movie. Clingy boy or girlfriends will not be pleased with this film. Ha.
"Enthiran 2.0" Unrated, probably PG 13
Strange and hyper kinetic sequel to Enthiran, a Bollywood space science fiction film that was basically Bicentennial Man meets I Robot, with a little Terminator, comes from across the world in India. The flick was dubbed into English. It is straight up nod to Transformers, Terminator, buddy sitcoms, and action pictures, and heavily influenced by GI Joe and by James Bond and Jackie Chan. The smart witted robot must Chitti must team up with the professor and his literal femme bot Girl Friday type android to stop a mad attack of cellphone 'bird' ghosts who have possessed the city's cell network, and have transformed their lot into a Karma Bird made of millions of brightly lit phones! It's the Dovetastic movie, if he directed it, which he did not. It was someone else. The phone transformer is killing people, so it turns out that this other professor killed himself, and his spirit was brought back via the birds he had buried after they died, and it's time for revenge on the city. The good professor is then captured and possessed, and then Chitti, badly damaged in the attack, is upgraded to 2.0, spouting references of Indian pop culture while fighting off the mecha bots with an arsonal of weapons, and likely scores of innocent bystanders and hostages being decimated. It was truly the most insane foreign film ever. Not for kids, but teenagers will not have trouble with it. It's even hyper enough to keep you watching for the long running time over over 2 hours.
"The Grinch" PG
Illumination retelling of the famous 1960s cartoon short, and the 2000s Jim Carey flick, is somewhere between the two, not as good as the short, and not as horrid and nightmare bad as the other one. It falls somewhere in the middle. The back story is not really necessary, as the Grinch having been an orphan kind of defeats the purpose of the story. Then the Who's are just a little too trusting of the guy who laters steals their stuff, only to return it after being corndered by Cindy Lu playing like she and her friends are like they're from an old Cartoon Network series, Codename Kids Next Door, and can fight crime, and catch Santa, only to discover he's the Grinch actually, stealing their stuff. Grinch then turns good for some reason and returns their stuff.
"The Mortal Engines" PG 13
In a distant future not dissimilar to the 3000s of Battlefield Earth, after a quantum nuclear war, cities are built up on giant tank treads, having maws to eat smaller cities, and roam around quite rapidly eating each other. Rebel red scarf wearing anime rip off girl breaks into the evil London mecha city and tries to meet up with an inventor archeologist there, but instead is kicked off the city with his assistant, a clueless young man, and they both go on an adventure together. Then they meet up with some flying Airbender/Korra/Winds on Hanonomi rip off characters who had a balloon city, and are chased by a mechanical 'Resurrected Man' who wants the girl's soul because she promised it to him. Turns out she was another archeologist's daughter, and has some past with trhe bearded bad guy of the London city. Bearded guy wants to destroy the Eastern Wall, which seems to be in the Apls or something, except the people there are Asians, on the Europe side of the range, not the other side. Eh? One of them earlier explained the continents were all shattered, but still that doesn't explain how that is possible. Well, the cities roam the Earth on treads, so that's already silly, because if they could do that, why couldn't they just rebuild society? Oh, they forgot. Maybe tghat was just an oversight. It's much easier to construct giant monster cities and ravage the wastelands that actually...rebuild everything. Most of the oddities were added for the film, even a silly nod to the Minions as 'American Gods' at one point. Liked the idea of the rebel lady decreeing at one point, 'Oh no, we're not goin to have the sad story talk now!" Ha. Not a bad flick. Fairly interesting. Most of the actors are not too memorable, but it was fun. Similar feel to Jackson's King Kong movie.
Wreck It Ralph and Penelope Schweets return in this send up to all things good about being online. In the sequel, Ralph accidentally causes Penelope's game to break, so they have to go into the internet, somehow defying how that might work, and get a replacement part for it on EBay. They go about this in no way realistically, but it's a cartoon. They also visit GTA5, called here Slaughter Race, and Ralph gets the creepy when he is rejected, and accidentally unleases a cloning virus that makes a billion of him that turns into a monster he has to stop. Not as cute as the first one. The best gag is not even in the movie, but in the end credits. The flick has moments, and is far better than similar paced Imogi Movie. Clingy boy or girlfriends will not be pleased with this film. Ha.
"Enthiran 2.0" Unrated, probably PG 13
Strange and hyper kinetic sequel to Enthiran, a Bollywood space science fiction film that was basically Bicentennial Man meets I Robot, with a little Terminator, comes from across the world in India. The flick was dubbed into English. It is straight up nod to Transformers, Terminator, buddy sitcoms, and action pictures, and heavily influenced by GI Joe and by James Bond and Jackie Chan. The smart witted robot must Chitti must team up with the professor and his literal femme bot Girl Friday type android to stop a mad attack of cellphone 'bird' ghosts who have possessed the city's cell network, and have transformed their lot into a Karma Bird made of millions of brightly lit phones! It's the Dovetastic movie, if he directed it, which he did not. It was someone else. The phone transformer is killing people, so it turns out that this other professor killed himself, and his spirit was brought back via the birds he had buried after they died, and it's time for revenge on the city. The good professor is then captured and possessed, and then Chitti, badly damaged in the attack, is upgraded to 2.0, spouting references of Indian pop culture while fighting off the mecha bots with an arsonal of weapons, and likely scores of innocent bystanders and hostages being decimated. It was truly the most insane foreign film ever. Not for kids, but teenagers will not have trouble with it. It's even hyper enough to keep you watching for the long running time over over 2 hours.
"The Grinch" PG
Illumination retelling of the famous 1960s cartoon short, and the 2000s Jim Carey flick, is somewhere between the two, not as good as the short, and not as horrid and nightmare bad as the other one. It falls somewhere in the middle. The back story is not really necessary, as the Grinch having been an orphan kind of defeats the purpose of the story. Then the Who's are just a little too trusting of the guy who laters steals their stuff, only to return it after being corndered by Cindy Lu playing like she and her friends are like they're from an old Cartoon Network series, Codename Kids Next Door, and can fight crime, and catch Santa, only to discover he's the Grinch actually, stealing their stuff. Grinch then turns good for some reason and returns their stuff.
"The Mortal Engines" PG 13
In a distant future not dissimilar to the 3000s of Battlefield Earth, after a quantum nuclear war, cities are built up on giant tank treads, having maws to eat smaller cities, and roam around quite rapidly eating each other. Rebel red scarf wearing anime rip off girl breaks into the evil London mecha city and tries to meet up with an inventor archeologist there, but instead is kicked off the city with his assistant, a clueless young man, and they both go on an adventure together. Then they meet up with some flying Airbender/Korra/Winds on Hanonomi rip off characters who had a balloon city, and are chased by a mechanical 'Resurrected Man' who wants the girl's soul because she promised it to him. Turns out she was another archeologist's daughter, and has some past with trhe bearded bad guy of the London city. Bearded guy wants to destroy the Eastern Wall, which seems to be in the Apls or something, except the people there are Asians, on the Europe side of the range, not the other side. Eh? One of them earlier explained the continents were all shattered, but still that doesn't explain how that is possible. Well, the cities roam the Earth on treads, so that's already silly, because if they could do that, why couldn't they just rebuild society? Oh, they forgot. Maybe tghat was just an oversight. It's much easier to construct giant monster cities and ravage the wastelands that actually...rebuild everything. Most of the oddities were added for the film, even a silly nod to the Minions as 'American Gods' at one point. Liked the idea of the rebel lady decreeing at one point, 'Oh no, we're not goin to have the sad story talk now!" Ha. Not a bad flick. Fairly interesting. Most of the actors are not too memorable, but it was fun. Similar feel to Jackson's King Kong movie.
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