56 Movies Like Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) (Page 4)

Staff & contributors

Made to commemorate Toei Studio’s 70th anniversary, The Legend & Butterfly seemed like a good choice for this purpose. As a historical epic about the first Great Unifier of Japan, the film could have enabled the production company to show off their studio’s best in production design, set pieces, costumes, and score, through a familiar story Japanese audiences would care about. And with Nohime having a near blank slate in history, it gives enough creative freedom for the team to craft a heartrending romance. While the design aspects definitely succeeded, the romance did not. On top of this, the film’s focus on the romance takes away time, effort, and emotional resonance from the large-scale spectacular war battles that epics like these are known for.

Genre: Drama, History, Romance

Actor: Ai Mikami, Daisuke Honda, Haruka Ayase, Hideaki Ito, Hio Miyazawa, Hirotaro Honda, Ichikawa Somegorō VIII, Jun Hashimoto, Kinya Kitaoji, Kokoro Morita, Manabu Hamada, Mansaku Ikeuchi, Masato Wada, Miki Nakatani, Shuichiro Masuda, Takuma Otoo, Takumi Saitoh, Takuya Kimura, Toshinori Omi, Tsutomu Takahashi

Director: Keishi Otomo

Eye of the Storm may not directly address COVID-19, but the film clearly draws similarities to the latest pandemic with the 2003 outbreak of the SARS virus. Panic, confusion, and miscommunication over the latest news are shared experiences between the two. These experiences are seen between the interlocking stories of the people quarantined in the hospital, and it’s easy to feel the fear and frustration surrounding them all. The film presents the issues of the overwhelmed healthcare system quite well, but its last moments leave a lot unresolved. While the film figures out the virus’ origin in its universe, the film leaves the healthcare workers’ stories hanging. It understandably reflects the uncertainty present with COVID-19, but it makes the film’s ending feel unsatisfying.

Genre: Drama, Family

Actor: Angel Lee, Chen Chia-kuei, Chia-Kuei Chen, Chloe Xiang, Chun-Chih Huang, Hsieh Ying Shiuan, Jing-Hua Tseng, Lou Yi-an, Simon Hsueh, Tseng Jing-hua, Tzu-Chien Kuo, Wang Bo-chieh, Yung-Cheng Chang

Director: Chun-Yang Lin

Fairly atmospheric, visually creepy, and with a unique premise, A Thousand Days had the potential to be a downright terrifying Indonesian horror film. There’s something here about how rich families are willing to sacrifice impoverished young women in order to save one of their own, especially with the way the Atmojo family hasn’t given the full job details to the three girls in this film. There’s something here as well about how various Indonesian ethnic groups treat each other. However, the way the film arranged its scenes, as well as the film’s casting, fails to match the terror of the original Twitter thread that inspired the film. These choices take away some of the scariness that would have made Sewu Dino totally terrifying.

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Agla Artalidia, Ayez Kassar, Delia Husein, Gisellma Firmansyah, Givina Lukita, Karina Suwandi, Marthino Lio, Maryam Supraba, Mikha Tambayong, Pritt Timothy, Rantya Affandy, Rio Dewanto

Director: Kimo Stamboel

With an urgent subject and plenty of that trademark Netflix polish, Bhakshak is nothing if not watchable and consistently engaging. However, for all of its motivated performances and high production values, there actually doesn't seem to be much that happens in the film by way of investigation or character development. Much of the plot seems to progress solely on inertia, or through conversations that only ever repeat the film's themes. And with every new, intense scene of young girls being threatened or hurt at the hands of abusive men, it becomes harder to understand what these scenes are trying to tell us, especially when they keep the victims as voiceless as they are from the beginning.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Aditya Srivastava, Bhumi Pednekar, Brij Bhushan Shukla, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Durgesh Kumar, Murari Kumar, Pubali Sanyal, Sai Tamhankar, Sanjay Mishra, Satyakam Anand, Surya Sharma, Tanisha Mehta, Umesh Shukla, Vibha Chibber

Director: Pulkit

Rating: R

What Black Ice lacks in comprehensive research about the structures that maintain institutionalized racism inside major hockey leagues, it partly makes up for with one painful testimonial after another. This is a documentary that aims for the personal and the emotional over the intellectual—still an effective strategy as the film makes its point through repetition, to show just how commonplace racism is within hockey culture. And though it begins to feel somewhat plain in its execution (and without as much momentum leading into its concluding statements), Black Ice makes for a fiery, impassioned wake-up call especially to Canada's own seemingly "progressive" racial politics.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Jashvina Shah, P.K. Subban, Sarah Nurse, Willie O'Ree

Director: Hubert Davis

Surrounded has the bones of a revenge-style Western. It turns the table on the white cowboy hero and gives us (on paper, at least) complex leads in Mo and Tommy. Mo is a young Black woman whose experience as a Buffalo Solider lends her not only the skills of an expert gunslinger but also the anger and motivation to push through any obstacle, while Tommy is the enigmatic thief who Mo reluctantly relies on in her quest for freedom. With all this pent-up tension, the film should work, and it does occasionally thanks to Wright and Bell’s deft performances (Bell is especially exceptional), the stunning mountainous terrains, and the worthy attempts at race and class commentary. But for the most part, the film's ambitions fall flat. The monologues are overlong and too evocative of modern speech to be historically believable. The action scenes, while exciting, only sputter here and there and never gain the momentum the film needs to genuinely thrill. And the thin backstories of Mo and Tommy raise more questions than answers. More often than not, Surrounded looks like a couple of good scenes strewn together on a lousy string; the foundations are off but there’s some enjoyment to be found.

Genre: Action, Drama, Western

Actor: Andrew Pagana, Austin Rising, Brandon Root, Brett Gelman, David Manzanares, Dylan Hice, Jamie Bell, Jeffrey Donovan, Keith Jardine, Kevin Wiggins, Letitia Wright, Luce Rains, Lyle Sandoval, Mark Dalton, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nathaniel Augustson, Peter Diseth, Tatanka Means, Tony Sedillo

Director: Anthony Mandler

Rating: R

With inconsistent pacing and a deeply unpleasant protagonist, it’s hard to recommend The Seeding to every viewer. It’s really slow-paced, deeply uncomfortable, and it starts with, of all things, a baby eating a finger. But there’s an interesting style to this arthouse horror, a marriage of desert survival thriller and folk horror that restricts all possible modes of escape through its claustrophobic canyon. As Wyndham gradually discovers a secret community driven back to primitive instincts, director Barnaby Clay inverts the idea of what it means to be one’s fundamental self. Most viewers might not appreciate the story, and the ideas aren’t as cohesive as it could be, but horror fans looking for something new in the genre might find The Seeding fairly interesting.

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Actor: Alex Montaldo, Charlie Avink, Kate Lyn Sheil, Scott Haze, SoKo, Thatcher Jacobs

Director: Barnaby Clay

Rating: R

With its celebration of Thai dances, excellent costumes, and two male theater actor leads, ManSuang seemed like it would be something akin to a Thai Farewell My Concubine, especially as it starts off with what could have been sex scene interrupted by a murder. The addition of the espionage storyline, as well as the dynamics between the Chinese and the mainland Thai, seemed like the film would be subtle social commentary through historical drama. However, the story feels haphazardly assembled, with characters acting contrary to their goals, and sadly, the film doesn’t showcase as much of Thai culture as we would like. Instead, the film spends more time establishing an overly complicated mystery that gets too hard to follow with its multiple plotlines. ManSuang has beautiful set design, costumes, and a handsome cast, but the writing wastes the potential the story had.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Actor: Asavapatr Ponpiboon, Chartchai Ketnust, Chertsak Pratumsrisakhon, Duangjai Hiransri, Gandhi​ Wasuvitchayagit, Nattawin Wattanagitiphat, Nonthakorn Chalermnai, Nutthasid Panyangarm, Ornanong Panyawong, Phakphum Romsaithong, Pongsakorn Ponsantigul, Pradit Prasartthong, Saifah Tanthana, Sornchai Chatwiriyachai, Sumontha Suanpholaat, Teerawat Mulvilai, Thanayut Thakoonauttaya

Director: Bhanbhassa Dhubthien, Chartchai Ketnust, Krisda Witthayakhajorndet

Rating: PG-13

As documentaries go, They Called Him Mostly Harmless is pretty standard, if not forgettable, fare. There isn’t a lot of information regarding the case it focuses on, so it relies heavily on interviews with related persons and “internet sleuths” who have taken it upon themselves to solve the mystery of this hiker’s identity. It moves slowly, bogged even further down by unnecessary backstories that do nothing to get us closer to cracking the case. To be sure, it’s impressive that the missing man in question was able to scrub all evidence of his existence in this digital age, but the documentary fails to build on that intrigue and instead gives us something that sputters till the end.

Genre: Crime, Documentary, Mystery

Director: Patricia E. Gillespie

Amid energetic lights and obnoxious airhorns, Katt Williams makes his way to the stage and quickly greets you with the gospel of crass. His descriptions and premises aren’t anything to write home about as his style is more a boisterous NSFW style that resembles a night of gossip. But for most of this set, you’ll just be thinking about how his performer voice sounds like a cartoon grandma, a southern Spongebob, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage preaching to you all at once. The set had a touchy mental health bit that sucked the life out the room for a moment, but would take an empowering turn in its final third as Williams talks about racism in 2024. It’s a mess, but it finishes strong, at least.

Genre: Comedy, Documentary, TV Movie

Actor: Katt Williams

Director: Troy Miller

Rating: R

Nobody should doubt Tatiana Suarez's place in the world of mixed martial arts, and it goes without saying how inspirational she can be to young girls who feel they don't fit a traditionally feminine mold. But a documentary really should do more than just reiterate facts, farm motivational soundbites, and refuse to ask follow-up questions to the most interesting ideas revealed. By the end of The Unbreakable Tatiana Suarez, it feels as if the film has repeated the same few talking points over and over, which doesn't actually make Suarez herself look better, but makes her look more like a product to be endorsed. Any potential discussion that can be had about the dangerous nature of wrestling and MMA—or on how this kind of controlled, organized violence interacts with real domestic violence experienced by Suarez—is quietly dismissed.

Genre: Documentary

Actor: Tatiana Suarez

Director: Cassius Corrigan

Rating: PG-13