Movies you've been watching...

[Xaios]

Nausicaa and especially Princess Mononoke are far more mature and darker than any you’ve watched, I’d try those before writing them off. Preferably without the awful English dubs.

For the record, it's the general tone isn't something I had any issue with. My Neighbor Totoro was arguably one of the ones I enjoyed more, despite the meandering plot. It felt like a warm hug in movie form.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Nausicaa and especially Princess Mononoke are far more mature and darker than any you’ve watched, I’d try those before writing them off. Preferably without the awful English dubs.

Will agree with this, but not with the comment about the English dubs. I am always an advocate for watching movies/shows in the original language, but I will watch Studio Ghibli stuff dubbed because they go out of their way to find very talented actors to do the voices. I thought the dubbed voice acting in Princess Mononoke was totally fine, the one performance that stood out and seemed a bit off was ironically from Billy Bob Thornton.

 

[wankerness]

I watch the English versions of most of them but draw the line at Mononoke - Thornton is SO bad and really just destroys all sections of the movie he’s in. I really do t like Gillian Anderson there, either. I guess I appreciate what they were going for vs the Japanese voice but I think she sounds bored.

Nausicaa I think is probably fine in English, I don’t remember.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Howl's english dub is the only one I like personally. All the others are way better in Japanese

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Me and my sister are having weekly watch parties where we're working through Studio Ghibli movies, of which she is intimately familiar with each, whereas I've never watched them. It's fair to say I never gave anime a chance when I was younger as my sister was obsessed with it, so I naturally avoided it like the plague, even after knowing that there was more to it than what she was into at the time (mostly magical girl anime). So, I'm finally giving it a fair shake.

So far we've watched Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and, just last night, Howl's Moving Castle. My feelings on them are... complicated. Like, they're absolutely gorgeous, at times quite funny and very charming in their own right, and have beautiful scores, but something about them just isn't clicking for me. None of the ones I've seen so far has struck me as this transcendent experience that so many people have told me to expect. All the parts are there it seems, but none of them seem to be a whole that's greater than the sum of their parts. The closest thing I can really compare them to is golden age Pixar movies, but the Pixar films really seem to stand better on their own, as they feel significantly more cohesive, although I'll warrant that it could just come down to a difference between cultural styles of storytelling.

I'm wondering if, at this point, I'm just too old to gel with them. Thoughts?

Hayao Miyazaki would probably agree with you.

The guy does have a complicated relationship with his own works. Most of his movies are moments of what he was in that point in time, sometimes deeply personal, but he will most likely deny it. He doesn't like the idea of any of his fans watching his movies more than once (if not yearly, ever), but also extremely workaholic and has spent a lot of time labouring over even smallest of details.

He does love his boobs though.

I'd also recommend Grave Of The Fireflies. While not Miyazaki's it's still Studio Ghibli.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I really do t like Gillian Anderson there, either

How dare you

 

[wankerness]

How dare you

I’ve rewatched the first 9 seasons of the x files at least four times, I’m a huge Gillian Anderson fan, but I just don’t like her there compared to the Japanese version!

 

[ArtDecade]

I’ve rewatched the first 9 seasons of the x files at least four times

Please donate your brain to medical research after you pass on.

 

[nightsprinter]

I'm not gonna front. I watch the X Files every single monday-thursday night when there isn't a sports game on that I'm interested in. Comet channel plays them over and over and it's the perfect background stimuli for paying half-attention. It's one of those shows along with Quantum Leap (the OG) that if it's on, I'll have it rolling.

Just last night I enjoyed the legless Indian man on a cart episode for the thousandth time.

 

[Xaios]

I watch the English versions of most of them but draw the line at Mononoke - Thornton is SO bad and really just destroys all sections of the movie he’s in. I really do t like Gillian Anderson there, either. I guess I appreciate what they were going for vs the Japanese voice but I think she sounds bored.

Nausicaa I think is probably fine in English, I don’t remember.

I did find Christian Bale's performance in Howl's Moving Castle to be pretty odd and low-key. Honestly, I actually thought it was Keanu Reeves at first before I looked it up on IMDB.

 

[wankerness]

I'm not gonna front. I watch the X Files every single monday-thursday night when there isn't a sports game on that I'm interested in. Comet channel plays them over and over and it's the perfect background stimuli for paying half-attention. It's one of those shows along with Quantum Leap (the OG) that if it's on, I'll have it rolling.

Just last night I enjoyed the legless Indian man on a cart episode for the thousandth time.

It’s a great show, I think. I haven’t watched it in years (probably at least 15, definitely not since season 10 happened).
so maybe it doesn’t hold up, and certainly it was a show where at least 1/4 of the episodes weren’t good, and frequently the “mythology” episodes were the worst part, but when it hit, boy was it good. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Bad Blood, some of the arc episodes like with Duane Barry, the aforementioned indian guy on a cart (Deep Roy!), etcetcetc.

 

[manu80]

Man from uncla was great yeah
Went for deadpool /wolverine. A bit divided on this one…ful but not that great
I think people are happy to see jackman in the wolverine suit ( for real) this time but do some cameos, f bombs and punchlines make a good movie ? I don’t know. It’s fun but reynolds pushes too far on silly jokes and meta stuff
Still , jackman has killed the role for very long
And well, just seeing a black half vampire at the end was cool.

 

[StevenC]

For the record, it's the general tone isn't something I had any issue with. My Neighbor Totoro was arguably one of the ones I enjoyed more, despite the meandering plot. It felt like a warm hug in movie form.

Try Porco Rosso. It's the best one.

 

[Rubbishplayer]

I've been watching the reruns of the original Mission:Impossible series.

While Cruise has undeniably created the biggest new "secret agent" franchise since James Bond, it has been at the expense of what made the OG series so fascinating. Missing in Cruise's franchise are:

1. The quiet professionalism of the original team. No matter what curve balls were thrown, they'd remain ice-cool.
2. Unimpeachability. The team were never "disavowed", as their dedication (and the righteousness of their missions) were never in question.
3. Inventiveness. Whereas Cruise goes for the outrageous stunt, the OG series preffered ingenuity and illusion, something only briefly referenced by Cruise in his use of the masks. A great example being stealing gold from an impregnable strong room by melting it out.

The only movies that come close today are the "Now You See Me" movies and - dare I say it - Soderbergh's "Oceans" franchise.