OK, so the plan for the first movie night is Dr. Strangelove on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 10 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. PDT. Hopefully we can get a decent number of people! Dr. Strangelove's a great movie, after all.
Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009): Pretty good. I think I would buy this if it were licensed in the States. (I think it actually is licensed for release for any readers in the UK.) The puzzles aren't amazing, or anything, but the way they're integrated into the story is kind of cool. And a bit of a warning: There are characters in the movie who are apparently first introduced in the fourth Professor Layton game (who knows when we'll get that), so if you don't want the movie to be the first time you see them, then don't watch, I guess. Didn't seem as if there was any spoiler-type stuff for that game, though ... just some inside joke stuff that went over my head.
Also, the Scotland Yard officer is awesome.
Memories (1995): A trio of short movies produced by Katsuhiro Otomo (who wrote and directed Akira); I watched this because the first segment, "Magnetic Rose", was written by Satoshi Kon. Even if I didn't know that, however, it would be pretty easy to tell, since it bears many of his trademarks! It's a really interesting story of a crew of space junkers (think Planetes) who come across a long abandoned space station once owned by an opera diva ... and, of course, fantasy and reality intertwine. A lot of people compare this segment to an episode of Cowboy Bebop, which seems appropriate to me. Next segment, "Stink Bomb", in which a lab tech ingests a pill that turns him into a walking weapon of mass destruction, is hilarious. Wasn't really feeling the final segment, "Cannon Fodder", about a day in the life of a Soviet Union-styled totalitarian society caught up in perpetual war.
The Gold Rush (1925): It's Charlie Chaplin, so you know it brings the goods. And as is Chaplin's style, he gets away with a hell of a lot in this movie, especially considering it's 1925. At one point a starving prospector imagines The Tramp is a giant chicken and tries to shoot and eat him. Yay, cannibalism! This movie also has the famous sequence where The Tramp does a little dance with forks and bread. Awesome. There's also tons of brilliant physical comedy in this, particularly involving a very windy area of the Alaskan wilderness.
Paprika (2006): Decided to watch this again to see if my opinion of the movie would improve (initially loved it for the visuals, not as much for the story) ... and I did actually like the story more this time around. Maybe it's just because it's my second time seeing it, or maybe I'm just a smarter movie watcher now, but the story seems much more straightforward than I remember before. If you pay attention, it's not really confusing at all. The only thing I still don't like is the "Dr. Chiba was repressing her romantic feelings toward Dr. Tokita!" because it seems too easy to me. Ah well. And the visuals are of course as outstanding as ever.
Also, if you have the DVD, definitely check out the making of feature. Some nice peeks into the creative process, and there's a hilarious bit where Satoshi Kon and the author of the original Paprika novel record their voices for the movie (they play the dreamland bartenders).
On the queue for this week: Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness (1998), An Education (2009)
Total Movies: 114 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination, Silent Movie, The African Queen, Departures, Moon, Bound, Solaris, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rifftrax), Wristcutters: A Love Story, In the Loop, Public Enemies, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Rifftrax), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-Hen, District 9, The Magnificent Seven, Night Moves, My Name is Bruce, Big Fan, Almost Famous, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Drag Me to Hell, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Kara no Kyoukai 1-7, 9, Zombieland, Ninja Scroll, Primer, Re-Animator, Summer Wars, The Changeling, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ponyo, Eden of the East: The King of Eden, Porco Rosso, Something Something Something Dark Side, Castle in the Sky, Robot Carnival, Halloweentown, Whisper of the Heart, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Fiddler on the Roof, Kiki's Delivery Service, Genius Party, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, The Sky Crawlers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, My Neighbors the Yamadas, THX 1138, The Stepfather, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, Tremors, Horror of Dracula, The Brood, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, Rabid, Inglourious Basterds, Them!, The Yakuza, Alphaville, Ghost in the Shell, Priceless, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, Whip It, A Boy and His Dog, Fletch, The Blind Side, Speed, June 17, 1994, Nobel Son, Invictus, Toy Story 3, The Two Escobars, Soylent Green, Up in the Air, Tyson, This Is Spinal Tap, The Proposition, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Informant!, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Coco Before Chanel, The Vanishing, Inception, Mind Game, Pale Rider, The Hurt Locker, Roujin Z, Broken Blade, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Christmas, Crazy Heart, The Man with Two Brains, Ninja Assassin, Panic Room, Mobile Suit Gundam I-III, Casablanca, Stray Dog, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, Memories, The Gold Rush, Paprika)
