tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50208970258148564402024-03-18T07:54:23.546-04:00toast and kent sometimes disagree(about movies and other stuff)KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.comBlogger1984125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-30039798196300567762024-03-13T07:43:00.005-04:002024-03-13T07:43:39.652-04:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Le règne animal<p>2023, Thomas Cailley (<i>Les combattants</i>) -- download</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPPODzwOvK1wN2flgORPEzqD1QonsJyBzoI7gb69xOf_aGMAfRx3Fm5UKMm0zUVZtT7E_tbfl1Kjz0qVsEhRJkhVNRSPnQOiCM-MMN-JDKUvku_D8q5oQO3qBavMszTX07QriVgtjfbNHMMnBJYUA7RZcsLmtJBWjTuKP2vG5mXnV1qZS7DhcvfBHwuxx/s755/le_regne_animal_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPPODzwOvK1wN2flgORPEzqD1QonsJyBzoI7gb69xOf_aGMAfRx3Fm5UKMm0zUVZtT7E_tbfl1Kjz0qVsEhRJkhVNRSPnQOiCM-MMN-JDKUvku_D8q5oQO3qBavMszTX07QriVgtjfbNHMMnBJYUA7RZcsLmtJBWjTuKP2vG5mXnV1qZS7DhcvfBHwuxx/w270-h400/le_regne_animal_ver3.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>Or <i>The Animal Kingdom</i>.<p></p><p>Small genre flicks are probably one of my schticks. I enjoy seeing what a movie can do when it is freed from the need to be a Hollywood production. Don't get me wrong; many small production genre movies want nothing more than to be recognized and swept into the big glitzy world of the purple suits, but the ones I more enjoy are about their creator's vision, intent and focus. Now, while the French movie industry is of an entire different tone than America's (and Canada's) Hollywood, its nice that this movie was allowed to breathe.</p><p>For an unknown reason, this world is having an evolution -- no not, a revolution -- people are mutating into animals. It is not concerned with the why's or how's, just that it is happening. François (Romain Duris, <i>En attendant Bojangles</i>) and Émile (Paul Kircher, <i>Le lycéen</i>) are moving from the city to a more rural area near a facility built to house the mutating. François's wife, Émile's mother, is in the later stages, and the two of them are held by loyalty and fear, as Émile still bears the scars from an attack while she was changing. Émile settles into a new school while François, a chef by trade, takes a catch-all job at a small resto. He is not afraid to humble himself to keep his family close. Unfortunately, the transport bringing many of the mutants to the newish facility crashes and many escape into the nearby forest. François becomes obsessed with finding his wife amidst the woods.</p><p>Meanwhile Émile begins to show signs, signs which he hides, hides from his father, and hides from the townsfolk & classmates who are clearly xenophobic to these strange creatures upsetting their lives. And strange they are. They take on all animal life forms: wolf, bear, insect, octopus, bird, etc. They are not turning like lycanthropes, but becoming more a merging of the animal form, humanoid but with distinct features, whether practical or not. The woods now teem with ... new & different life, but they are all in hiding, as locals and the called-in army try to deal with them -- often violently. Émile, while dealing with his own shame & fear, meets and befriends Fix, an escapee becoming a bird(man). François is just desperately trying to retain his family, even when it becomes fruitless.</p><p>There are few broad strokes in this movie. It doesn't try to be grand in what it is saying, it doesn't feel a need to be much more than a story of a father & son dealing with an incredible difficult situation. But as a genre movie, it loves its creatures -- they are lovingly, and oft horrifyingly depicted. Again, there are no explanations, and a part of my genre fiction fan brain wants <i>some</i> idea of the world building, the why's, but instead, we just have a tale of emotional impacts to a very not normal situation.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-18956553583645237082024-03-11T14:53:00.005-04:002024-03-11T14:53:54.020-04:00KWIF: Madame Web (+4)<p> <i>KWIF = </i>Kent's Week (or two) In Film<i>. It would probably be easier on me if I just did as Toasty does and write-up each film as an individual post, but I seem to prefer just sitting down for three (or four or more) hours and plugging away at writing about movies when I'm awake way too early. We're encroaching on 2000 published posts here at T&K Sometimes Disagree, and had I separated each movie or TV show into their own entry we'd probably be closer to 2500. Whatevs. Still it's quite a milestone.</i></p><p><u>This Week</u>: <br /><i>Madame Web </i>(2024, d. S.J. Clarkson - In Theatre)<br /><i>All Of Us Strangers </i>(2023, d. Andrew Haigh - Disney+)<br /><i>Joy Ride </i>(2023, d. Adele Lim - Crave)<br /><i>No Hard Feelings </i>(2023, d. Gene Stupnitsky - Crave)<br /><i>Akilla's Escape </i>(2020, d. Charles Officer - Crave)</p><p>---</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCcr3E2tNTGqB0c4pLUTbwolvoCAiTLj8h6ZqgSHtzgL64jvnxrTS2yjKiUlsGe6ECF8ChamCplpqDT_CE_9zgaemeXs19uCnHS7TtU9HX4mmKyJ4HKZWLJLH9SRTwWOJ45oanOYWNHybKW0nJ1aJHhqQUdh2Rd4w1vJV8Inj2ncaIR5r2xbIk8HSxCdFk/s755/madame_web_ver14.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCcr3E2tNTGqB0c4pLUTbwolvoCAiTLj8h6ZqgSHtzgL64jvnxrTS2yjKiUlsGe6ECF8ChamCplpqDT_CE_9zgaemeXs19uCnHS7TtU9HX4mmKyJ4HKZWLJLH9SRTwWOJ45oanOYWNHybKW0nJ1aJHhqQUdh2Rd4w1vJV8Inj2ncaIR5r2xbIk8HSxCdFk/s320/madame_web_ver14.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><p>Of all the films I have to write about this week, <i>Madame Web</i> is certainly the least of them. It only gets the KWIF headline spotlight because it's the first 2024 film I've seen this year. I'm still catching up on 2023.</p><p>We all knew, from the first trailer, that <i>Madame Web</i> was going to be trash. The trailer hid nothing, and the complete disinterest of the cast was evident in a 2 minute montage. </p><p>Some of us even knew back when Sony announced they were producing a <i>Madame Web</i> movie that it was going to be trash. There's never even been a <i>Madame Web</i> solo comic book, how are you going to make a whole movie around that character? Especially when, in the comics, she's a blind, chair-bound eeeellllderly woman. As an actress Dakota Johnson is not a lot of things, and those are three of them.</p><p>The most interesting thing about <i>Madame Web</i> is all metatext, the stuff that happened around it. If the reports are true, it started out as a 90's-set prequel to the Andrew Garfield-led <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i> franchise. Then, apparently, producers got cold feet and wanted to push it up a decade and make it a prequel to the Tom Holland-led <i>Spider-Man: Home* </i>franchise. Then they got complete frostbite, lost their toes, and decided to make it its own thing.</p><p>It's certainly it's own thing.</p><p>We all knew it was going to be a bad movie. Upon its release critics were savage, comic book movie fans even more so, but even still, when I suggested Toasty and I spend an entire Saturday watching at least 4 screenings of <i>Madame Web</i>, I was only half joking.</p><p>Why?</p><p>Because <i>Madame Web</i> is truly a film that should not logically exist. There's no audience asking for it, there's no fanbase for the character, and there's no "world building" impetus for it. It was a studio-mandated dumpster fire the purple suits hoped would turn into a barbecue. And that's intriguing to me. </p><p>It's not like <i>Morbius</i> -- which I skipped and had zero interest in seeing until it cropped up on Netflix this week and now it's on the "wee hours of the morning, maybe" pile -- who is a character and concept, much like <i>Blade</i> which has the potential to be its own thing. He has had his own comic book series at least. But <i>Morbius</i> seemed too self-serious, as any Jared Leto-led project does. <i>Madame Web</i> looked like there was potential for a good time.</p><p>And you know what...?</p><p>I had a good time.</p><p>It is a terrible movie, just bloody ridiculous. A ludicrous farce of a superhero origin story that never fails to boggle the mind with inept story transitions and character choices and expository dialogue. But in that, it felt kind of light, breezy, mindless. It's sort of like getting that glaucoma test at the optometrist, where you sit there in dreaded anticipation of that puff of wind going in your eye, and then it happens and you can't help but be surprised and react and laugh, and then, really forget all about it seconds after its over. This is just a puff of wind in the eyes.</p><p>I don't have a lot of experience with Johnson's prior roles, and what I have seen has not left me clamouring for more. Her performance, if you can call it that, reeks of embarrassment. You can totally tell she doesn't really want to be in this movie. I have seen Adam Scott -- who plays (Uncle) Ben Parker here -- in plenty of things, dramatic and comedic, and I have never seen him not even phone in the performance, he's still dialing the numbers here. The whole cast is lifeless and drained of any energy. It probably speaks to all the many reshoots done, but it's a listless product, save for one aspect that actually does work: women talking.</p><p>The life of this film is when all the female characters are on screen together. There's a support there that seems to elevate the dodgiest script, and a true sense of bonding between the performers seemed to have happened... like soldiers in a regimen at war, experiencing the same traumas brings you close.</p><p>That good time I had watching this, though, I think it's a one shot deal. I can't imagine rewatching it and getting the same sense of enjoyment. It's a real dog of a Spider-person movie.</p><p>With a re-edit and more reshoots, I could see a much better, completely Marvel-free horror movie made out of this, of a woman whose precognitive powers isolate her from society and the three girls she must save from a slasher who is killing orphans or something. </p><p>Will <i>Madame Web</i> become a cult film, though? I could see people coming to screenings, holding pepsi cans and fake spiders in jars and doing fake chest compressions (the cure for everything) in the aisles.</p><p>---</p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQ0VSppQRc5_Bct6gSSxKwdvu5gRi0GfjKsz_VbJ5afUypcC1Bt7JJO9KoDW2m_EvGINCXY0jIRnsfxUg7X8Btot7OaOSqeuJvtNc6V1-oI7-LUhMCoQvoIaMLNM9NTpD6svuqme-keVLRfQ2v0yM-ALLZysTIFTnq3rvTyiThrjV7A2vm7Ylpzdt2XPj/s755/all_of_us_strangers.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQ0VSppQRc5_Bct6gSSxKwdvu5gRi0GfjKsz_VbJ5afUypcC1Bt7JJO9KoDW2m_EvGINCXY0jIRnsfxUg7X8Btot7OaOSqeuJvtNc6V1-oI7-LUhMCoQvoIaMLNM9NTpD6svuqme-keVLRfQ2v0yM-ALLZysTIFTnq3rvTyiThrjV7A2vm7Ylpzdt2XPj/s320/all_of_us_strangers.jpg" width="214" /></a></i></div><i>All Of Us Strangers</i> was a critical top-ten favourite of 2023 but missed out on the Oscars likely because Searchlight Pictures was putting its money behind nominations for <i>Poor Things</i> instead. It's loosely adapted from Taichi Yamada's novel <i>Strangers </i>into a definite tone poem (and not a <a href="https://youtu.be/ZStkUxC4iL4?si=RIjL_QRTBZ0iVkWC" target="_blank"><i>vibes</i> movie</a>).<p></p><p>Andrew Scott plays Adam (no, he's not playing Adam Scott of <i>Madame Web</i>...we've moved on...) is a screenwriter in London. He lives in a new condo tower that is largely vacant. He seems lonely and a little depressed. He encounters a drunk Harry (Paul Mescal, completely endearing), who seems very much in the same state, but rebuffs Harry's offer for company to retreat into solitude. </p><p>Adam is trying to write about his parents, who died in a car crash when he was 12, but can't find the words, so he returns to his childhood home, where he encounters their ghosts. They catch up on their son's life. Adam is elated. He runs into Harry again and the two connect, first as two lonely and sad people, but then as two gay men whose lives just need more love and affection in them.</p><p>Adam and Harry become a fast couple, a very sweet, tender, romantic, caring couple, and together they venture out of their solitude and into the world. Adam, meanwhile, returns to his ghost parents on multiple occasions, some encounters not faring as well as others (like when he outs himself to his mother), but finding closure along the way.</p><p>Tone poems (like vibes movies) can be a challenge. I found myself a little bored during the first act, but when Adam and Harry finally connect, and get intimate, it's quite passionate. The second act, as Adam and Harry become more emotionally involved the colour palette gets really warm, and the bare skin of the men is just radiant. It reminds me just a touch of <i>In the Mood for Love. </i>The second act really endears you to these men and their gentle, supportive relationship. The <strike>vibes</strike>tones leave no room for drama, there's not going to be any wild swings...except Adam's return visits to his parents' ghosts. </p><p>At times, I had to ask myself, is this a romance or a horror? A drama or a ghost story? The answer is "yes", and it's hard to reconcile at times. The third act is a tearjerker and, I'm sure for many (like Lady Kent), a head scratcher. At one point I was telling myself "if the movie goes there, I'm going to be so very mad at it." The movie went there. I wasn't mad, because it found itself, seconds later, right back in the <strike>vibes</strike>tones, and it kept <strike>vibing</strike>toning, and I kept <strike>vibing</strike>toning with it.</p><p>It won't be for everyone, as vibe movies are pretty much exclusive to those who hit the same wavelength. I can see this emotionally connecting very hard with people who lost their parents young, or who have had strained relationships with them because of their gender or sexuality (or both) but, even if you can't personally relate, it offers a space on the couch, a little hit of something, and a set of headphones to feel the groove...if you accept it.</p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3tZURnBH8Al3ablPjdR_ERxQOFeADOtBsEPO0fr8Q1Os6ZCp9PbD0UtG4IBBpt1-EjJrs2_d0-7TXYRpsM_nYPf4bel94rjyayS_dRmykGtZ0ISX0X_xfReSGN3VDtlav4hk3lXoe3A1vvGNpkqKmUpclAQWlYTotjLSYDcGVOlu484pvS-T6k7kKS6G/s755/joy_ride.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3tZURnBH8Al3ablPjdR_ERxQOFeADOtBsEPO0fr8Q1Os6ZCp9PbD0UtG4IBBpt1-EjJrs2_d0-7TXYRpsM_nYPf4bel94rjyayS_dRmykGtZ0ISX0X_xfReSGN3VDtlav4hk3lXoe3A1vvGNpkqKmUpclAQWlYTotjLSYDcGVOlu484pvS-T6k7kKS6G/s320/joy_ride.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>I had planned to catch up on a bunch of 2023 comedies this week but only managed two, which is fine. More than any other genre, comedies are the ones I approach with the most trepidation. What the proverbial Purple Suits think the masses think is funny and what I think is funny tend to be two radically different things.<p></p><p><i>Joy Ride</i> is like half a Purple Suits-derived movie, and half spitting directly in their faces. The road-trip-gone-wild (RTGW) subgenre of comedy is such a Purple Suits formulae at this point that it's an instant eye-roll generator for me. The RTGW in recent years, though, has been co-opted from the Purple Suits by the FUBU crowd and we're seeing culturally-specific RTGW movies hitting the screens and turning tidy profits. </p><p>In this case, it finds two lifelong best friends, both Asian-American, but borne of different circumstances. Audrey was adopted from China as a baby to white parents, while Lolo was raised by her immigrant parents, and they met as children in the very white,<i> </i>Dave Matthews Band-soaked community of White Hills. Now adults, Audrey is the consummate overachiever, handling microagressions from her ignorant-not-intolerant white lawyer colleagues as she climbs to the top, while Lolo is a sex-positive artist with little income living in Audrey's basement. Audrey is set to take a trip to Shanghai to close a business deal and is taking Lolo with her as translator, since Audrey never really learned to speak Mandarin. In China they're to meet up with Audrey's college roommate, Kat, who has become a famous soap opera actress about to make the leap into major feature films. Lolo's awkward cousin, Deadeye, tags along as she's supposed to meet up with some online friends from a K-Pop superfan forum. </p><p>Audrey's experience in China at first is a mixed bag. Being surrounded by people who look like her lends her a quiet comfort that she never knew, but then finds that the language barrier, and the cultural barrier dampen that comfort. Lolo wants her to look up her birthmother while they are there, but Audrey seems to have no interest, until the business deal goes sour and proving her Chinese bona-fides to the Chinese investor involves recruiting her birth mom into action or losing everything she's worked for.</p><p>Of course nothing turns out right and the four women find themselves on a road trip gone very wrong that involves heavy amounts of drugs, aggressively sexy times with a basketball team, some distant relative connections, a breakdown in the friendships and an unexpected turn in Audrey's priorities.</p><p>I find the RTGW genre a fairly tired one, particularly the requisite "we're so high on drugs" scene and/or the absurd sex-stuff scene(s), because they're so often just relying upon the conceit for the laugh and not really working hard to elevate the jokes. The drug stuff here is so much the former, but the sex scenes with the basketball team leads to a pretty good group of gags, even if it's cartoonishly out of hand.</p><p>Our leads -- Ashley Park (<i>Emily In Paris</i>) as Audrey, Sherry Cola (<i>Shortcomings</i>) as Lolo<i>, </i>Stephanie Hsu (<i>Everything Everywhere All At Once</i>) as Kat and Sabrina Wu in a very breakout performance as Deadeye -- are all terrific, the chemistry is great, and they're all nimble comedic performers. Park nails the third-act drama so well, she had me tearing up along with her. </p><p>There is a place for comedy-for-the-masses, but to me, the best comedy gets deeply specific. What will always take a general 3-star RTGW story up a level is cultural specificity, it's the jokes that are generated from the culture by the culture to appeal to the culture. I'm not sure the jokes here are <i>deeply</i> specific, but they are definitely specific, and, even though it's not a comedy playing to me directly as an audience, it's still a rowdy fun time overall.</p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBgHutTDWacJZiGmWtDz3ft3jCjoMYwErFWdAmh2zTg7m0ESAMBZFi0jzu7abpjap6K1UBZn95MKrj2NKHgAnQYzEpfYom7CQeYgwDNTgYV9PhJocDfuebuSUC2sUJRyUKHwyhQIDbECQOvvxRoRZmvdftbnj31R3jjk3Z5Y7GqzfiRs0H9zQ3CPb6gJN/s755/no_hard_feelings_ver2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="604" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBgHutTDWacJZiGmWtDz3ft3jCjoMYwErFWdAmh2zTg7m0ESAMBZFi0jzu7abpjap6K1UBZn95MKrj2NKHgAnQYzEpfYom7CQeYgwDNTgYV9PhJocDfuebuSUC2sUJRyUKHwyhQIDbECQOvvxRoRZmvdftbnj31R3jjk3Z5Y7GqzfiRs0H9zQ3CPb6gJN/s320/no_hard_feelings_ver2.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>I think film trailers are the number one reason why people don't go see comedies in the theatres anymore. It's hard enough to get a comedy that swerves around the Purple Suits' expectations for what's funny, but then you got the Purple Suits' editors distilling a film down to two minutes and their particular sensibilites.<p></p><p>Thus <i>No Hard Feelings</i> trailer premiered to a swath of reactionary, unfounded "film about grooming" allegations that I'm not sure it ever properly shook. From my perspective it looked like a stupid "raunchy comedy" that certainly couldn't have anything interesting to say about an older woman trying to bring a teenager out of his shell for a new car.</p><p>The teenager in question is 19-year-old Percy who is about to head out to Princeton in the fall, but never leaves his room and worries his parents with his isolationism. As a parent of modern teens, I can relate. But these rich second-home-having New York elite types are also aggressive helicopter parents and they aim to do something about it. They solicit an ad for a college-aged woman to date their son in exchange for a new car.</p><p>Answering the ad is Maddie, a 32-year-old Montauk lifer is struggling to keep her house. Her car has been repossessed, which means she can't supplement her low-wage bartending job with Uber driving for the summer when all the rich idiots descend upon town. It's these idiots, buying up and redeveloping all the real estate, that is driving her taxes up to unaffordable levels. She needs the car to drive the idiots to save her house, and she's willing to date a 19 year old to do it.</p><p>What results initially is highly awkward, very uncomfortable scenes of Maddie trying to get Percy's attention, trying to proposition him, trying to get him interested in having sex with her. Her plan is to get in and get out because time is money and time is a-wasting. But Percy is a thoughtful, sensitive and caring kid. He finds Maddie attractive but he wants to get to know her before he does anything with her.</p><p>What happens, naturally, is Maddie develops feelings. Percy's not like the quick meaningless lays she's left around town, she has a genuine interest in Percy's development as a person, seeing a reflection of her own life lost by the promise of this fledgling adult. Of course, her feelings are not romantic, like Percy's start to become towards her, and there's not really any easy way out of this, especially if he were to find out about the deal.</p><p>Jennifer Lawrence is a fearless performer. She doesn't carry with her any sense of ego or identity in her performance. It's only the first few minutes of the movie where I was thinking "yeah sure, world-famous movie star Jennifer Lawrence is pretending to be a victim of the housing crisis and class inequality" to "Maddie really needs that car, and while her tactics are riotously wrong-headed, she's not wrong for going for it". The brassiness that Lawrence shows as Maddie is a very well constructed veil that is evident from the beginning, hiding someone underneath who is sort of lost and afraid, and has been for a long time. (There's pretty much a direct parallel between Maddie and Adam from <i>All Of Us Strangers</i>, both who lost their parents young, and both who have severe difficulty opening up to others with knotted up hearts).</p><p>Matching her scene-for-scene is Andrew Barth Feldman<i>,</i> a newcomer to the screen but played the lead in <i>Dear Evan Hanson </i>on Broadway. The kid's got chops. The film is set in this age of financial disparity, and offers no resolution to it, save for the poor to take advantage of the inane ways the rich wish to be served. But it's also about the generation gap, between the time Percy's parents remember (eg. the John Hughes years) and the way kids engage with the world today, and also in the way Maddie views the world compared to Percy. It's not directly saying a lot about these things, but they're being put boldly up on the screen to examine and compare.</p><p>It's a far more thoughtful film than I had given it credit for, and it doesn't go for easy gags. Even it's most infamous (already) scene finds Lawrence engaging in fighting a trio of teenagers fully naked at night on the beach, at one point even suplexing a kid. In a comedy 20 years ago it would have been cheap titillation but, it's definitely not that. There's no leering. It's an action sequence. It's a brilliantly funny moment as she stomps out of the ocean in the background towards the teens like a Terminator fresh from the future, absolutely determined to destroy. And it's not funny just because she's naked, but because she's so unphased by her state when fighting with such wild gusto. It speaks to her as a character for sure, especially the conversation with Percy that immediately follows. </p><p>There's so much to enjoy here (see also Percy's stunning cover of "Maneater" or the "abduction" scene). This isn't a throwaway comedy. It's also not a laugh riot that demands immediate rewatch, but any other time in the past 50 years it would have been an instant cable TV classic. I don't know where it fares from here, but its charms are sure to prevail. </p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJKuVZNkhZdQeKes57CfeNpcSy3qYXWRFf6yn0tugryM9RVU7oe5BNghWJ8_TGCQQkkieeyPjYw0eFj7sSk7w3Slgdg1QjRGJk26beYZUgIqM_LQi5Q-BXW9WYrwBX-uT_wOxbCwRjfG3ZEktKPIDiOu1TLHc_CprHDYYyzXfObZE3Z2jPgeSQxFkWJ6ZX/s755/akillas_escape.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJKuVZNkhZdQeKes57CfeNpcSy3qYXWRFf6yn0tugryM9RVU7oe5BNghWJ8_TGCQQkkieeyPjYw0eFj7sSk7w3Slgdg1QjRGJk26beYZUgIqM_LQi5Q-BXW9WYrwBX-uT_wOxbCwRjfG3ZEktKPIDiOu1TLHc_CprHDYYyzXfObZE3Z2jPgeSQxFkWJ6ZX/s320/akillas_escape.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>How I came to the indie-Canadian urban drama of <i>Akilla's Escape</i> is an odd one. I was randomly searching movies on the various platforms I have accounts with. One connection led to another, six degrees of Kevin Bacon-style, and I came across Saul Williams. I know Williams primarily from a few tracks of his from the early aughts. He blends spoken word with hip-hop with activism in a very powerful manner such that the few tracks of his I've heard have really stuck with me over the years.<p></p><p>Williams is a multi-multi-hyphenate. He does a bit of everything writing, poetry, music, directing, and yes, acting. It was his profile on my Rogers cable box that brought me to <i>Akilla's Escape. </i>I watch the trailer, it looked interesting enough, but the list of people associated with the production included Robert Del Naja, aka 3D of the band Massive Attack as part of the soundtrack. Williams was the lead, and also the composer, with 3D assisting.</p><p>The next day I listened to the soundtrack to <i>Akilla's Escape</i> a half dozen times, which led to a strong desire to watch the production. This is not unusual, as it happened a fair number of times back in the 90's when I'd gorge on a soundtrack long before I'd watched the film.</p><p>The story of <i>Akilla's Escape</i> is fairly simple, but the simplicity betrays its depth. Akilla is operating a grow-op in Toronto, where weed has become legal and is controlled by the province. The profits are still there, but competition has gone legit and he wants out. In the process of making his pitch to the criminals he's tangentially beholden to, a robbery goes down. One of the three thieves is captured, and he's just a boy, a mute kid in over his head. Akilla takes responsibility for the boy and gets him safely home to his aunt. But the danger isn't over. Akilla's associates want their goods returned and some intimidation for good measure, and the gang the boy was running with figure him for a snitch that needs to be silenced.</p><p>Flashbacks tell us about Akilla's life with his abusive father, drummed out of Jamaica after the political civil war ended and his enforcer status with the losing side marked him a wanted man. He took his family to New York where he started the Garrison Army, a particularly vicious gang, and when Akilla was old enough, brought him into the the fold. But Akilla had to run to Canada after retaliating against his father after repeatedly abusing his mother. It's been nearly 30 years.</p><p>But this boy he's saved, he was running with the Garrison, and that makes it personal for Akilla. And when the boy is abducted, Akilla will make sure he's returned safely to his aunty.</p><p>Overall this is a well crafted, tightly structured, and contemplative entry in the street gang subgenre. It's well coiled around a remarkably introspective performance by Williams who doesn't come off as an action hero badass, but instead a man capable of doing whatever it is needing done. He wears the weariness of Akilla well. He's tired of the life he's leading. Rather than thinking about something more, it's almost like he wants something less. An escape, you might say.</p><p>The film has a great trick in its sleeve, which is casting Thamela Mpumlwana as both the boy Akilla saves and as young Akilla in the flashbacks. Styled completely different, and yet, the resonance of Akilla seeing himself is absolutely the point. </p><p>At times this film bears the scars of its Canadian production budget. With better cameras, lenses, lighting and time, it would look a lot better than it does. It looks fine, but you can tell the late director Officer wanted it to look amazing. This should look like a Michael Mann picture, but it can only reach.</p><p>It's very much straddles the line between vibes movie and tone poem, owing a great debt to its soundtrack which weaves in and out of genres from reggae, dub, electronica, ambiant, industrial, gospel, hip-hop and even Spanish guitar. It is a great listen, both in context and out of.</p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-14565531994917122082024-03-10T13:22:00.006-04:002024-03-10T13:22:41.898-04:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Freelance<p>2023, Pierre Morel (<i>Banlieue 13</i>) - Netflix</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6U9oQHtxQJSkDx457EZYkxZvomBwGv7HZzGEFHWIOyoz-LoZQoZXq0PH3KLSKHYZn7EnoKb0Ny2ZUV3VRyGyQD2V86NU3tiNiX2vkr-y8j-dJoxNaEyBTmCI231rrxCKj5zZz1xCjeo0zskvYZbt0WGTX6Tzdcg21cFggq-f3t2q8MFNAVfA0xdpT3We4/s755/freelance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6U9oQHtxQJSkDx457EZYkxZvomBwGv7HZzGEFHWIOyoz-LoZQoZXq0PH3KLSKHYZn7EnoKb0Ny2ZUV3VRyGyQD2V86NU3tiNiX2vkr-y8j-dJoxNaEyBTmCI231rrxCKj5zZz1xCjeo0zskvYZbt0WGTX6Tzdcg21cFggq-f3t2q8MFNAVfA0xdpT3We4/w270-h400/freelance.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>"I am in the mood for something dumb," I said as she queries why I have clicked on this. I have said this enough that it could probably become a tag. But as the credits opened, I saw Morel's name and I also thought, "Wait, don't we <i>like</i> Morel?" We do. I have written about <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2016/03/sick-n-binging-guys-shooting-people.html">a number</a> of his <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2012/06/3-short-paragraphs-from-paris-with-love.html">movies</a> <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2019/06/3-short-paragraphs-peppermint.html">here</a>, but strangely enough, no post for <i>Taken</i>, not even a rewatch.<p></p><p><i>Another tag thought occurred the other day, wherein I rewatch all the movies I have previously commented on or questioned, "Why don't I have a post for _______." But at the same time I am saying, "Why look for an excuse to rewatch when you have hundreds on your to-be-watched list?"</i></p><p><i>Also, "clicked" ? Is there a better term for what you do when you press a button on a remote control that activates an icon on a smart TV ? Essentially the remote is the mouse for the TV...</i></p><p>I am not entirely favourable in my write-ups of Morel but I guess they are the dumb movies I am looking for at the moment. BUT there were shades of a decent movie in here, but were over-shadowed by the pablum-ization required to make this a mid-range hit in America? Hit is stretching it, but if Uwe Boll made a career out of making movies purely for the in-flight movie market, then making movies purely for the "short theatre run + streaming" is a business model... I guess?</p><p>Mason Pettits (John Cena, <i>Peacemaker</i>; [<i>also, #IYKYK</i>]) was a lawyer who hated being a lawyer so quit to become an Army Special Forces soldier. Weird pivot but if you look like John Cena, sure why not. He finds purpose, finds happiness (happy killing people, sure why not) until a failed mission kills a bunch of his squad mates and fucks up his back. So, back to the lawyer career, family, house in the suburbs; unhappiness.</p><p>Until his old Army commander Sebastian Earle (Christian Slater, <i>Mr. Robot</i>) calls him. Just seeing Slater on the screen, in this role, I predicted, "This is the man who will betray him." Earle offers him an easy protection job -- escorting discredited reporter Claire Wellington who is seeking career resurrection through an interview with south-of-America dictator, Juan Venegas. Based on depicted maps, I still couldn't tell if the fictional country was in South America or Central America, but it was your classic pseudo-Latin, semi-tropical country run by a foppish, brash, charismatic dictator. And Venegas just happened to be subject of Pettits failed mission.</p><p><i>Duh duh duh duhhhhh....</i></p><p>Of course, ten minutes after arriving in the country, they are ambushed by rebels during a coup / assassination attempt and Pettits has to defend the man he hates, technically protecting Claire, killing all the Bad Guys. Good Guys? If this is an Evil Dictator, wouldn't his enemies be the Good Guys? And that's the crux of the movie. As Pettits tries to lead Claire to a safer place, with the dictator tagging along, we learn he isn't such a bad guy. I guess, at first, he was happy that foreign interference could prop up his government, giving him full control, while exploiting all the country's resources, but eventually he realized he did want to protect "his people" and started manipulating the situation. He knew that if he betrayed his exploiters directly, he would just be replaced by another puppet leader, so instead he stuck around to build a charade, doing their bidding but also helping the "rebels" and helping his people as much as he could. The interview was supposed to be the point where he would reveal that to the world, and begin turning things around, while the eyes of the world protected him from further interference.</p><p>That was the shade of the decent movie -- a decent, fun plot. Alas, it was mired in a boring, run-of-the-mill chase & shoot-em-up. And so many dumb scenes. Dumb dumb dumb. At points I wondered whether I was watching a video game adaptation, tossing me back into memories of Uwe Boll. One weird quirk, which almost derailed my brain, my sense of confidence in reading movies such as this, was that Earle <i>didn't</i> betray him, but even the depicted plot wanted to make you think he did. It was a prime thread to the story that probably got lost in edits and re-writes, a send-up of our expectations. Maybe Purple Suit interference?</p><p>But I guess I got what I wanted?</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-63163268989729458882024-03-08T22:30:00.001-05:002024-03-08T22:30:00.270-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Code 8: Pt II<p>2024, Jeff Chan (<i>Code 8</i>) -- Netflix</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlj0TF_qonwiYtJPZyPttT4_lX01TDHNsEJn9NiDmtOdfTQwnYUgvEaHr1fKpHTR_oK-LIymXZn1RyM3zTmj4EPC1Z6F6GVX2hBTbXzZmZiaFluFX8mBdcfOKk6wlp38ieN6NMOGjTu7rtZhKfD6JotCzHmxYSNzCgDQn3Y0YEfcas69REtGy7vc_NCGjf/s755/code_eight_part_ii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="509" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlj0TF_qonwiYtJPZyPttT4_lX01TDHNsEJn9NiDmtOdfTQwnYUgvEaHr1fKpHTR_oK-LIymXZn1RyM3zTmj4EPC1Z6F6GVX2hBTbXzZmZiaFluFX8mBdcfOKk6wlp38ieN6NMOGjTu7rtZhKfD6JotCzHmxYSNzCgDQn3Y0YEfcas69REtGy7vc_NCGjf/w270-h400/code_eight_part_ii.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>This is an unexpected sequel to <i><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2019/12/3-short-paragraphs-code-8.html">Code 8</a></i>.<p></p><p>I kind of do think we are in the post-superhero phase. Oh, we will continue to have them come out over the next ten years or more, but as long as Marvel churns them out, and DC continues to reboot its cinematic universe to bank on something we have likely gotten bored with, then there will be superhero movies. But the days of a studio / board room full of purple suits asks, "We need a superhero movie in this year's roster; what do we have available?" are done. </p><p><i>I don't really really know how the movie industry works after years of peripherally watching it get made, but I have ideas, mostly built from fiction. Also, I think the current era, if we have one right now, is movies adapted from stage plays / broadway shows that were adapted from movies.</i></p><p>Five years after the events of the last movie, which I didn't even really cover in my previous write-up (<i>Connor the poverty-stuck electric needs money to help his dying mom, who has a tumor that causes her cold powers to go wild, joins in with Garrett, a low-level telekinetic thug who works for a higher-level thug who exploits powered people for crime. It doesn't go well; Connor's mom still dies and he ends up in jail</i>) Connor (Robbie Amell, <i>Upload</i>) is getting out of jail. Still stuck in poverty, and now an ex-con, he does janitor work at a dying rec centre.</p><p>Meanwhile Garrett (Stephen Amell, <i>Calamity Jane</i>) has found a new game, working with a corrupt police officer to safely corner an illicit drug trade, one made from the spinal fluid of powered people. The police officer has set himself up as the "friend to the community" Good Guy because he has added a robot K9 to the mostly feared robot police-support force. The dogs have a "if you raise your hands, they stand down" protocol that... well, it works as well as we knew it would. At the direction of a human operator, one such K9 kills a powered kid who tries to rip off Garrett / the cops. The killing is witnessed by his little sister. And soon after, Connor gets dragged into it. Because, of course he does.</p><p>If the first movie was an exploration of a seedy, powered world with lots of allegories for immigrants & other disenfranchised people, mixed up with robot police men, then this movie just wants to tell a story in that world. I was mid-level OK with the first movie, somewhat disappointed it didn't do more with the world, then I am more disappointed with this one. No exploration of the world is really required, so it just needs a thin story to provide a framework for the special effects people of Toronto and Vancouver. Oh, I know I am being facetious and dismissive, as it is (again) a decently done, mid-level flick for the genre and the Amell brothers are always fun to visit with, and I know I will probably end up rewatching at some point (<i>thusly, it fills a need</i>) but I guess I want them to be ... smaller, tighter, more evocative?</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-81420389479459592022024-03-08T07:52:00.003-05:002024-03-08T12:14:37.452-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Shin Godzilla<p>2016, Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi -- download</p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwIFuVZk995Tr5QAhlh4F77laM9lNlZSw6zzr7uPoQfaM1-2HnomwozBv1GHCcewXeFokXuFN47K0nIJ_86u1wibc21SeYyTGl3_Lik65uZsHlUCNLTNffUvRfN6uTUKf5_KB9XjFDPfaCw0w3bzEVD3VVFCXnXBwEdMqPeUUSZ5TseQd0T5nWOukLktyO/s755/shin_gojira.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="532" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwIFuVZk995Tr5QAhlh4F77laM9lNlZSw6zzr7uPoQfaM1-2HnomwozBv1GHCcewXeFokXuFN47K0nIJ_86u1wibc21SeYyTGl3_Lik65uZsHlUCNLTNffUvRfN6uTUKf5_KB9XjFDPfaCw0w3bzEVD3VVFCXnXBwEdMqPeUUSZ5TseQd0T5nWOukLktyO/w281-h400/shin_gojira.jpg" width="281" /></a></i></div><i>Of note, I will park this write-up until Kent reaches this stage of <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2023/11/go-go-godzilla-1-gojira.html">his Godzilla Mega Watch</a>.</i><p></p><p><strike>It's getting close. Kent will soon publish a post about this era of Godzilla.</strike> TBH I had not realized there had been so many eras of Gojira, assuming it had pretty much died out in the 80s and this movie was an attempt to resurrect it, in wake of <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2014/06/godzilla_28.html">the American movie</a>.</p><p>Kent's posts have been fascinating, but pretty much turned out how I expected (<i>but not sure I wanted that confirmation</i>) in that they are generally Not Very Good. Godzilla's continued existence is a product of genre obsession by its fans and the Japanese people. I have probably never watched a single one (<i>there is a remote chance I saw one or two on the late night Bangor. Maine "classic movie" spotlight back in the 80s, but I don't recall; it does seem likely</i>) in its entirety before this one. I have seen plenty on Saturday afternoons as they played on genre or rerun channels, but always in passing. I was always curious. Are they all as bad as the glimpses I got? </p><p>Kent affirms they pretty much are.</p><p>But this one, this one was a reboot of a different sort, chasing not the continue legacy but seeking something new. It is part of a tokusatsu style of film making, where they harken back to practical effects. By now CGI, and decent presentations of such, are ubiquitous. So, I assume this was supposed to be a new Godzilla movie with a guy in a suit. Alas...</p><p><i>Kent's <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2024/03/go-go-godzilla-31-shin-godzilla.html">is posted</a> ! Yeah, We Agree.</i></p><p>So, Japan, Tokyo. There is no history of Godzilla, this is all new, and no pop culture aspect of Godzilla either. Something happens in an under-bay tunnel, and steam is pouring forth from. What is going on? The news is postulating, the local government is slow to respond, and in typical Japanese (based on my moderate exposure to anime, manga, TV and movies) fashion, any response is mired in protocol, documentation and a desire to save face. That response, or lack thereof, is the entire focus of the movie, a bigger monster than the goo-ey thing that wreaks havoc on the city.</p><p>The plot is pretty direct: monster comes ashore, the government is pretty much suffering analysis paralysis, makes a few missteps so a minor adjunct steps up (but still on the sidelines) with a plan devised by outliers & fringe scientists. He is more concerned with the people of Tokyo & Japan, while other government officials seem more concerned with how they are perceived, and how they will end up. Its very stereotypical satirical commentary on inept governing, further complicated by Japanese culture. Meanwhile, Godzilla, a massive, blobby, red and spiky creature is rampaging for unknown reasons, with unknown goals. The JDF, or Japanese Defense Force has to respond, but in reality, has never responded to anything in force before -- a standing army curtailed by the world & history (i.e. the US). Eventually the outliers prevail and the monster is stopped.</p><p>Godzilla itself. It starts as this horrible looking, floppy, bulging-eyed fish-lizard that crawls and pushes is immense bulk through the city. It spews forth red goo from its gills which starts taking on a life of its own. Beyond the destruction, it is also emitting radiation. Eventually it evolves, and pushes itself upright, becoming the more familiar creature of movies past. After dozens of renditions of Godzilla, reimagined and traditional, I could see they were going for something that was properly horrifying while still being familiar.</p><p>The response. Ineptitude personified. And then the world, represented by America, sticks its nose in with the threat of nuclear retaliation. One does not need to read between any lines, as the movie plays it out clearly. And the American representative, her clownish American posturing (like literally, the way she stood) -- The Peanut Gallery points out, that in Korea and Japan, they often have entirely fluent English-speakers a slightly more garbled (to anglo ears) version of English which the native speakers can absorb more quickly, so it ends up being a mix of communication and effect. It makes me wonder what all the other languages spoken on American TV & movies sounds like to <i>their</i> native speakers. In the end, the Japanese outliers enact their plan before the yanks can nuke Japan again, leaving Godzilla "frozen" from the inside out, stopping his "final-form" before it can happen. While a sequel never happened, we are left with some chilling final images of Godzilla's tail splitting open, revealing strange humanoid creatures, somewhat <i>Alien</i> in appearance.</p><p>I rather liked this movie. The depiction of government response actually mirrored what I recall from all the bits & bobs I have seen of the original, classic Godzilla movies -- men gather around tables looking scared, yelling at each other feverishly. But here we see it even more comical, as <i>some</i> members of government sit around a conference table, while others sit nearby, on sofas, looking intense and nervous, everyone either sitting quiet & uncomfortable while others jockey to be heard. Dudes, and dudette, there is a fucking monster coming out of the bay !! Stop fucking about !! The monster creeped me out, as was intended. Ew, ick. What I do wish we had seen more of, maybe via a secondary character or two, was on the ground responses. Alas, that was left to crowds of poorly directed extras reacting to... well, either nothing or maybe sometimes a green-screen. </p><p>Now I wonder, should I see the other <i>Shin</i> movies to see their tonal differences? Like Godzilla, I have not seen much of their sources either, so its not like it would be a compare, but it would still be interesting.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-23110977052453611382024-03-06T16:05:00.003-05:002024-03-06T16:05:56.891-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #31: Shin Godzilla<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjynr_Cq9x49vIABzCA7PRviozGWYJTuT7JlQhoHUc8R_rEkZmCq8sDKPDqSLtAioijPzLe51gAQP9E0_p6zy4fifz7yGX75X-UBpe1I9KN6uXavuaM-ENzte977ldQY2U6mQKYARqpFEyMvZBGwAum_Ypcw_1_K11tYG5axwm74pqC-nFzOP4xQ8FEK8fx/s755/shin_gojira%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="532" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjynr_Cq9x49vIABzCA7PRviozGWYJTuT7JlQhoHUc8R_rEkZmCq8sDKPDqSLtAioijPzLe51gAQP9E0_p6zy4fifz7yGX75X-UBpe1I9KN6uXavuaM-ENzte977ldQY2U6mQKYARqpFEyMvZBGwAum_Ypcw_1_K11tYG5axwm74pqC-nFzOP4xQ8FEK8fx/s320/shin_gojira%20(1).jpg" width="225" /></a></b></div><b>Director</b>: Hideaki Anno,Shinji Higuchi<br /><b>Year</b>: 2016<br /><b>Length</b>: 120 minutes<p></p><p><br /><b>The Gist</b>:<br />Something's happening in Tokyo Bay. The AquaLine Tunnel has been breached and is flooding. A not insignificant disaster is in progress. But nobody in power seems to understand the root cause, and thus are helpless to respond. Is it a natural occurrence? Is it a terrorist attack? Something else?</p><p>A horrifying amphibious creature emerges in the bay. Officials have no concept of what they are seeing. Reactions around the country are swift, with weight given to both the biologist contingent that are direly curious about the beast, and with the more conservative component who are mainly concerned with the rising amount of property damage the creature is causing. They can't hide this from the public, but there's no need to panic. This thing can't possibly come ashore.</p><p>Until it comes ashore, wreaking havoc in its path, leaving a wake of destruction behind it. Until it stops and goes dormant. What to do? Before any official response can be mounted, the creature evolves before the very eyes of anyone observing. New extremities help it manoeuvre better on land, causing even more destruction before it retreats back into the bay. The path of destruction is abominable, as is the remnant trail of radiation.</p><p>The government is under fire for their lack of response, their incorrect information and their overall ineptitude. There was only one voice -- Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi, a voice that is supposed to keep silent -- that spoke out during the incursion and seemed to offer the most reasonable, thoughtful, socially-conscious options. So he's assigned to head up a research and resolution task force on the creature, now dubbed Gojira.</p><p>The task force digs up intelligence on the creature, including how to track it, with speculation on how to contain or destroy it. They know when the creature is about to return, but even then they're not prepared for its next phase of evolution. As the much larger, far more upright creature barrels through the city, the Japan Self-Defence Force's response is utterly ineffective. The US military wants to have their own say in the handling of the creature and the government agrees. In the process of the attack, Gojira displays the ability to emit powerful beams of radiation expelled from its mouth and or spines. The government is decimated by this latest attack until the creature seemingly runs out of juice and once again, just stops cold in the middle of the city. </p><p>With the whole country being shaken to its foundation, US and, independently, the UN are making their own declarations about what should be done, which of course involve nukes. Rando's team is the only hope of an alternative to Japan being on the receiving end of these obscene WMDs for a third time.</p><p>Rando and his team orchestrate an impressively effective campaign against the creature that's more about strategy than brute force. Wear the creature down, burn it out, force it to go dormant again, trigger another mutation phase, give the people enough time to inject it with a coagulant that will turn its blood to stone. It's a successful gambit and Rando has succeeded where other politicians have failed, in making decisions in the best interests of the people, not in the best interests of his political career.</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:<br /></b>Ooh, definite bad, bad thing.<br /><br /><b>The Samesies:<br /></b>This is a wildly deviant Godzilla movie, taking great pains to not be like any G-film before. That said, it does have a few things it carries over, such as notes and themes from Akira Ifukube's score, the anti-nuke messaging, and the ineffectiveness of the military against the creature (it, of course, has a montage of the JSDF assembling to take on the creature).<br /><br /><b>The Differences</b>:<br />While Rando Yaguchi is probably our lead character, this is a cast of hundreds. As a non-native speaker it was difficult to keep up with the subtitles, as they were obviously translating the rapid-fire dialogue on the bottom of the screen but also putting captions identifying the name and role of the person talking at the top of the screen. At a certain point I pretty much gave up on reading those title/role captions.</p><p>It's a sprawling political satire that critiques government's ineffectiveness in a time of crisis. It's been noted that this film is a direct response to -- and criticism of -- the government's failures during the earthquake-turned-tsunami of March 2011, and the resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster. Much like many of the best G-films, it has something to say.</p><p>While I can't speak to direct influences, there's certainly a <i>West Wing</i> and <i>Contageon</i> style feel to this, stories where there are so many behind the scenes political players as they try to figure out what is happening and how to solve for it, and sometimes the fear and lack of bravery of the people in charge to make decisions in those moments for fear of their political careers. It tackles topics from many angles, not just the creature itself, ala <i>Godzilla 2014, </i>but also the economic fall out, the historical parallels, the political posturing internally as well as on a global scale, with a direct critique at still feeling somewhat beholden or deferential to US interests.</p><p>Godzilla here is wildly different than ever before, having at least four different stages of evolution, from the bulging-eyed waddling amphibious creature to a very raw, exposed-nerve look of its final Godzilla form. It's the most deeply unpleasant Godzilla to look at (and we had Zilla in <i>Final Wars </i>to contend with). </p><p>This is the first time we've had an evolving Godzilla. I got the sense that it was kind of like the Superman villain Doomsday in that it evolves as a response to the hostility of its environment in pretty rapid order. Which is sharp juxtaposition to how slowly humans evolve to the threats presented to them. Not sure if that observation was intentional part of the commentary, but it's pretty sharp if so. </p><p><b>Anyone worth caring about?</b><br />Even as we're basically jumping from person-to-person-to-person, talking head to talking head, there are standout characters among them, some who die, some who live, and the relationships they have and forge with each other, all handled in a verite style, are pretty great, especially compared to Toho's G-films of past.</p><p>Of course Rando is out main guy and Hiroki Hasegawa has a great face for reaction shots. He has a pal within the government (I'm forgetting at the moment the character's name) but they had a wonderful dynamic any time they had the opportunity to be in the same room.</p><p>The two Prime Ministers of the film are incredible, and you do have to feel for them in the decision making process that they must go through. The amount of information they have to digest in such a swift amount of time in making a decision is overwhelming and they both play it very differently and very well. It does emphasize how much having trustworthy advisors is important to a leadership role, but it's made more difficult when maybe they have their own biases or agendas.</p><p>The weakest link of the film is the American side, represented primarily by Kayoko Anne Patterson (played by Satomi Ishihara). Kayoko is the POTUS' Special Envoy in these proceedings, and she's presented as an American-born daughter of a Japanese mother and American father. She's supposed to have all this American swagger and bravado, but it seemed more "on the page" than "on the screen". As well, Ishihara's English-accent was really poor for an American. I'm sure in films where native English speaking actors have to work in a different language that native speakers probably cringe or laugh at their accent as well, so it's a result of casting for your region, not for anyone else. But at least in the western release they could have maybe dubbed her performance?</p><p><b>The Message</b>:<br />Politicians should govern for the people, not for the continued right to govern.<br /><br /><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: ZZZZ<br />I loved the first act of this film. It's an enthralling political procedural with disaster spectacle backing it up. The second at sort of lulls a bit as it has to deal with the fallout of the creature's initial rampage. While the logical thought would be to focus more intensely on the research into the creature, the storytellers here remain committed to the holistic approach. When the creature re-emerges, it's natural that we'd see the spectacle of the military response, but as I've watched dozens of these tanks-n-planes futilely attacking Godzilla in the past couple months, this didn't thrill me and it felt overlong. But the next phase of planning a specific tactical approach to dealing with the creature, understanding that there would be losses in the process, returns the film to its earlier gripping status.</p><p>The creature effects are middling. Sometimes quite good, but more often than not passable at best. There's not a lot of the creature in the film, and seriously Godzilla is not what the film is about so I could let go of the choppiness to the cgi. </p><p><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>:<br />I did nod off just little tidbit in the middle when Rando's group was having one of their extensive theory sessions of the creature origins. Less to do with the content than my lack-of-sleep condition. I thought I was going to nod off during the military assembles scene but there was enough cross-cutting and jumping to different players, and having a whole different perspective on the deployment of the soliders that it kept my interest.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-89025252294540354672024-03-06T07:23:00.010-05:002024-03-06T07:29:46.217-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Oppenheimer<p>2023, Christopher Nolan (<i>Tenet</i>) -- Amazon</p><p>From <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2020/12/n-short-paragraphs-tenet.html">my opening paragraph for <i>Tenet</i></a>:</p><p></p><blockquote>"...for the arrogance and self-importance just drips from the movie... But I must say, but for some small details in the chaotic mess that is travelling both forwards and backwards in time, this one was pretty straight forward...."</blockquote><p></p><p><i>Dude, you are quoting YOURSELF ?</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdGAv1GpAaX9K7ZnY1slcamh2l3GE7oC8T6pLGRaJoUmXZG5Bh0JeuvqslfSTq8P9vf0TQaRx5WVKsnxNP8sIreBqJGeKQYYZA5KCdiSuD9W1PvLjAd4Ay4e7KgjLmMSQkLZe8bkfcbfitR0-xUbCCavajzQi5FoJOalvUq-QYDWHhqIQzbfmJjQQUxFRj/s755/oppenheimer_ver3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="477" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdGAv1GpAaX9K7ZnY1slcamh2l3GE7oC8T6pLGRaJoUmXZG5Bh0JeuvqslfSTq8P9vf0TQaRx5WVKsnxNP8sIreBqJGeKQYYZA5KCdiSuD9W1PvLjAd4Ay4e7KgjLmMSQkLZe8bkfcbfitR0-xUbCCavajzQi5FoJOalvUq-QYDWHhqIQzbfmJjQQUxFRj/w253-h400/oppenheimer_ver3.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>Two salient points. Nolan still thinks he is smarter than anyone sitting in the theatre, and here we have a movie about a man who was probably smarter than anyone in a room with him, debatedly even Alfred Einstein; or at least he thought he was. And, chaotic messes are Nolan's bread & butter. This movie is as much about Nolan himself, and his opinion of himself, as it is about Oppie.<p></p><p><i>We (Kent and I [a less irascible version of "Withnail & I"]) just re-watched "Tenet" last night (as of the timing of the writing of this paragraph) and I retract my statement about "chaotic messes" -- that movie was, in fact, quite linear in its timeline, as we humans currently view time. The chaos comes when we think about what is going on outside of Protagonist's viewpoint.</i></p><p>Side-stepping the structure of the movie, the jumping around in timelines, a more palatable version of the technique which acts more like flash-backs & flash-forwards than as a disconnected from linear depiction, much of this movie was about exactly how smart Oppenheimer, and his peers, was/were. There are brief attempts to bring us into understanding, but most of it is just hand-waved away assuming we the viewer will just let smart people say smart things without needing to fully understand it fully. In this instance, the <u>intelligence</u> present positively drips from all the characters.</p><p>And part of this movie is saying that smart people have the right to decide moral quandaries for us lesser evolved folk. Unless they themselves are overwhelmed by emotions and personal motives. Oppie has to make hard choices, knowing fully what he could be releasing, that a post-A-bomb era is a new world. But he also acknowledges that an end to war is required and hopes this will be the inspiration/forceful-hand. Finally, the movie does not shy away from his desire, his need, to see his ideas come to fruition. Ego. Fame.</p><p>Performances. This movie is so full of incredible performances, it almost makes the head ache more than the science talk does. There are just soooo many incredible people in this movie. First up, Cillian Murphy himself. All I knew of him before just fell away as he embodied this man. He is not running from zombies, nor fighting as a Peaky Blinder; his character in <i>Dunkirk</i> is likely what brought him here. Opposite him was a supporting cast of dozens: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Alden Ehrenreich, Kenneth Branagh, David Krumholz, David Dastmalchian, and so many others. And Robert Downey Junior, who is finally able to take off the Tony-role.</p><p>At its heart, it is of course a story about how he is compelled to create an atomic bomb, for the US, to fight the Nazis. But it is also a story of the times, before, during and after WWII. Politics, racial politics, egos, communism, sex and loyalties. Its incredible that he was able to create such a cohesive story considering the technique. Its all so chopped up, depicted in small chunks, jumping from thought to thought, scene to scene. Oh we know that movies are <u style="font-style: italic;">made</u> this way, each scene shot in isolation from the next, but I loved how masterfully it was all brought together. And once America has the bomb, everything seems to just ... come apart.</p><p><i>One of the theories the fear is that once the atomic explosion begins, it will just continue, atom after atom igniting, the next one after the next one, until our entire atmosphere burns off. "Close to zero", and yet that is not zero. And yet they proceeded. In today's postulation of multiverses, what if </i><i style="text-decoration-line: underline;">ours</i> <i>was the one universe where that didn't happen?</i></p><p>Kent's <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2023/08/kwif-oppenheimer-mi-dr-pt-1.html">universe</a>.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-82315422767537655302024-03-02T13:26:00.004-05:002024-03-02T13:26:29.875-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): After Yang<p>2021, Kogonada (<i>Columbus</i>) -- download</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX72iylbm4FW3woUv2LXjOwlpfmwX40ZsYTpJyLf9eHQTiI11O10oEvPpsuwaMnPFBVsCOpN7n0GlbANjcs4nrbesXo3bFgGA2eaXPyvz2Sj6x28F8shG08dYEdu7lx3IMHhZhpAoiaGUF-HWcczrJgQMRNdvV6AdJlbF_ffrM-k3QRLpMfGKHhLsCNn0C/s755/after_yang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX72iylbm4FW3woUv2LXjOwlpfmwX40ZsYTpJyLf9eHQTiI11O10oEvPpsuwaMnPFBVsCOpN7n0GlbANjcs4nrbesXo3bFgGA2eaXPyvz2Sj6x28F8shG08dYEdu7lx3IMHhZhpAoiaGUF-HWcczrJgQMRNdvV6AdJlbF_ffrM-k3QRLpMfGKHhLsCNn0C/w270-h400/after_yang.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>I have never heard of Kogonada (or more accurately, <b>:: kogonada</b>) but he is an American-Korean filmmaker who says he doesn't identify with his "American name". He is a creator of video essays (i.e. short documentary style studies on a topic) commenting on film & TV making. He is acclaimed enough to be asked to do videos for the Criterion Collections. <p></p><p>The movie is about a family in The Future, a future where there are self-driving cars, clones, video glasses and ubiquitous domestic androids call Techno-Sapiens. Yang "belongs" to Jake and Kyra, having been purchased by them to help take care of their adopted Chinese daughter Mika. Yang displays as Chinese and came with lots of cultural knowledge within, acting as a big brother and constant companion to little Mika, providing a stream of interesting Chinese factoids. But then Yang breaks down, and while friends and neighbours are just suggesting he be turned in for a newer model, Jake knows how much Mika relies on Yang. He is, after all, a member of their family. His search for a way to repair Yang uncovers a deeper history to his "second-hand robot" and how much the techno's are capable of.</p><p>This is such a beautiful movie, one of those where you can see how every scene, every mood, every colour and sound and actor is entirely intentional. Kent has always commented that intention is a standard aspect of film-making, that <i>everything</i> is done intentionally, but I don't necessarily agree. I see so many movies just add in filler, whether as just structural connectors, or from purple suit pressure, but I see them as less intention and more just a by-product of the <i>business</i> of film making. Here, <u>everything</u> is a part of the creator's vision. The future is optimistic, but still human. Technology has advanced incredibly, but still tainted by human prejudices and assumptions. People are capable of so much, have so much privilege, but often don't see how much they are missing what is right in front of them. Sometimes the greatest beauty is just being present, just taking the time to actually <i>see</i> how light plays on the wall, and just savour, and be grateful.</p><p>Kent's <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2023/01/kwif-after-yang-4.html">post</a>.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-40256595937573995882024-02-29T10:08:00.005-05:002024-02-29T10:10:20.902-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #30: Godzilla (2014)<p><b>Director</b>: Gareth Edwards<br /><b>Year</b>: 2014<br /><b>Length</b>: 123 Minutes<br /><b>Studio: </b>Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie96kXO3zKK9PLVDrHr79K-dNgf7TlrfixGpEHyrI95nDsRdhp27MFIu_-A9aAivMaHjjvcDoUEQJk6akhXei0MGf_OmEYCG4Y8EM3F1cXgtk9qoXrzNyt-4IUMpYN23ldlBS_NSVrCLxtiG2JYNfC-PvOKucvkrtyoOYgSqcJetq7_xz4GUiw9mZRdsxe/s535/godzilla_ver19.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="535" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie96kXO3zKK9PLVDrHr79K-dNgf7TlrfixGpEHyrI95nDsRdhp27MFIu_-A9aAivMaHjjvcDoUEQJk6akhXei0MGf_OmEYCG4Y8EM3F1cXgtk9qoXrzNyt-4IUMpYN23ldlBS_NSVrCLxtiG2JYNfC-PvOKucvkrtyoOYgSqcJetq7_xz4GUiw9mZRdsxe/w640-h284/godzilla_ver19.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /><b>The Gist</b>:<br />The US(?) military(?) organization Monarch investigates monsters of unknown terrestrial origins, or MUTOs (not to be confused with MOTUs, which are He-Man figures). In 1999, near the Philippians they investigate discovery of the bones of the largest MOTU. But that's not all, two massive sacks dangle from the ceiling, one of them already ruptured, leaving a trail to the ocean. Later, in Japan, nuclear power plant supervisor Joe Brody is very concerned by seismic readings he's been tracking and is advising for a full plant shut down. He thinks he has time. His wife Sandra takes a team to check the core infrastructure for stability, but it's too late. Everything shakes, the core ruptures and to save everyone, it must be sealed Joe loses Sandra and so much more. The factory melts down, an explosion rocks the city, a whole section of Tokyo is rendered uninhabitable. 15 years pass and Joe still wants to know why.</p><p>His son, Lieutenant Ford Brody, and explosives expert, has literally just returned home to San Francisco following a tour of duty when he's called to Tokyo to bail his father out of prison, again, for breaching the quarantine zone. Joe points out that the seismic readings leading the the nuclear meltdown are occurring again, he just needs to get into the quarantine to get his data discs to prove to people the correlation. Joe agrees to help him get inside. They discover no radiation in the zone. Joe is baffled. They find what they're looking for but are also found by Monarch security and taken to the power plant where an cocoon, seemingly dormant, is starting to wake up. A creature from the Philippeans came to Tokyo, absorbed the nuclear facility's radiation, and has been gestating for 15 years, and hatches. In the creature's escape, Joe is fatally wounded and Ford is exposed to a world he never knew existed. </p><p>Monarch drops Ford off in Hawaii, but it's the path of the awakened MUTO. The scientists determine that the MUTO awakened as a response to another MUTO that awakened in the Nevada desert, where the other egg from the Philippians was taken (stored in a nuclear waste disposal area). Not only that but a third MUTO, Godzilla (who was thought destroyed in the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb "test"), has emerged, the scientist guesses, as nature's counterbalance. </p><p>Godzilla and the MUTO from Japan clash in Hawaii. The damage is catastrophic, but the MUTO escapes. Predictions are that the two MUTOs, a male and a female, are slated to meet in San Francisco, with Godzilla tracking them. Ford hitches a ride with the team from the local military and learns they plan to detonate a nuke off the coast of SanFran to try and draw the monsters away from the city, but all efforts to move nuclear ordinance only result in the creatures attacking and stealing the radiation. In the end, all they can really do is let them fight.</p><p>San Francisco is the battleground. Godzilla against the two MUTOs who only want to be together and have a gazillion little parasitic MUTO babies (<i>MUTO Babies, they make their dreams come true. MUTO Babies, they'll do the same for you-ooh</i>). But, the nuke that was intended to be exploded off the coast and stolen by the female MUTO, has a timed detonator. Ford, being his specialty, is part of the task force sent into the kaiju battlefield to disarm the warhead before it destroys San Fran entirely. </p><p>He finds the casing damaged and disarming it is impossible. All he can do is take it to a boat and send it off the shore. Godzilla is triumphant in his battle but falls, close to death. The bomb explodes. Ford, is reunited with his family. Some time later, all the radiation from the explosion off the coast has dissipated, absorbed by Godzilla, and the creature awakens and heads off into the sea.</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:<br /></b>Friend.<br /><br /><b>The Samesies:</b><br />There are various organizations that come and go throughout the different eras in Godzilla history, that could be compared to Monarch. The main difference being those Godzilla tracking agencies don't tend to be consistent from film-to-film, or are just a subset of the JSDF, instead of their own entity.</p><p>Radiation is the kaiju's food. What I wonder is how they sense the radiation of a nuclear bomb before it goes off.</p><p>I can't remember if in past Godzilla films how they explain why Godzilla comes to fight other creatures, but it is always implied as instinctual, which holds true here. </p><p>Godzilla's atomic breath is in the film, but used very sparingly here. I think he gets three shots off late in the film. But that final use, where Godzilla pries a MUTO's mouth open an unleashes down the creature's throat is among the best-ever Godzilla moments for me.</p><p><b>The Differences</b>:<br />The Toho films don't have opening credits, so this is the first Godzilla film (except maybe 1998) with opening credits. And it's magnificent. Basically a series of Monarch redacted documents that track their history of researching MUTOs. It's such an intense information dump, accompanied by a building, pulsating, anxiety-inducing low-horn and strings composition from Alexandre Desplat that may not be as earwormy as Akira Ifukube's original Godzilla theme, but... pretty damn good.<br /><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBQJjqnG1iI?si=NRlVrRGCNOMrmwau" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /></p><p>The origins of Godzilla, and any other MUTO, are ascribed to the earliest eras of the Earth, where there was more intense radiation, and as the Earth aged, the radiation dissipated, the MUTO's went deep into the Earth, closer to the core where the radiation is stronger. Man's use of atomic and nuclear weaponry has drawn them to the surface once more. (Of course, Toasty pointed out to me that we learn in <i>Monarch:Legacy of Monsters</i> that they come from another dimension, where the radiation clearly isn't that strong as humans are able to survive their atmosphere). Godzilla emerged after the WWII bombings of Japan, and the Bikini Atoll "test" was an attempt to kill the creature (this is in opposition to the Toho origins in which these incidents are what creates Godzilla...it's a bit of American absolution involved here, instead of explicit criticism)</p><p>This is the largest ever Godzilla who typically fluctuated between 55 and 80 meters This one comes in an 108 meters (or 355 feet). It's almost too big, I think, but certainly imposing.</p><p>Kaiju only appear in America twice (I think) in the Toho films, and almost all take place in Japan, so for the two big battles to be in Hawaii and California is a pretty drastic shift. But it's just setting, and it certainly doesn't diminish the impact of the fights. </p><p><b>Anyone worth caring about?</b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWbWQRIRU4BBzANhSOERDt3ULsVYSjzIbg4ptPTCZYmPGCZgfrDLwD-IaJVatkoevb0eguukwYhNVHi13_fWvoqe7u3Wlq15pVjflMw7-ynnep_F5lwvqt3r85hYJfuYnqQdvzDOTBkZfQH4gtVnVNr1xD72Pv92Pxe2eZi5n1LCusGKx656LtIplop3G/s755/godzilla_ver3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWbWQRIRU4BBzANhSOERDt3ULsVYSjzIbg4ptPTCZYmPGCZgfrDLwD-IaJVatkoevb0eguukwYhNVHi13_fWvoqe7u3Wlq15pVjflMw7-ynnep_F5lwvqt3r85hYJfuYnqQdvzDOTBkZfQH4gtVnVNr1xD72Pv92Pxe2eZi5n1LCusGKx656LtIplop3G/s320/godzilla_ver3.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br />Ford, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, is our lead character, and also our POV character. He takes us through the different environments like post-meltdown Janjira, the Monarch facility, military transports, the Hawaii encounter, and most importantly the San Fran battle. I'm sure many gripe about turning away from the kaiju battle to see what the humans are doing, and I get that complaint, but this film, both in general and through Ford, you get a sense of the human toll as a result of the kaiju. <p></p><p>Now, the opening of the film introduces us to Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham as played by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins, respectively, and they are two actors I like a lot, but they're not given much to do beyond exposition. That said, Watanabe does add some real weight to his moment with the admiral after deciding to detonate a nuke off the shore of San Fran. It doesn't change his mind, but it definitely gives him pause.</p><p>The first tragedy of the film is in the second prologue where we lose Juliette Binoche. Her very brief time with Bryan Cranston really sells them as a warm, loving, devoted couple, and we get why he's so gutted by her loss. And then to lose Cranston by the end of the first act is another devastating blow. I feel like there's a mildly better version of this story where Joe survives and he's our POV character in discovering Monarch. But we don't really learn much more about Monarch until the next Godzilla film. </p><p>It's still weird that Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen play a married couple in this film and brother and sister in the MCU less than a year later. Olsen's part is probably the most extraneous, being Ford's motivating factor for getting home, but at the same time, she provides a civilian (as opposed to military) ground level perspective which isn't nothing. </p><p><b>The Message</b>:<br /> "Let them fight". In other words, get out of nature's way. It has its own way of restoring balance.</p><p><br /><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: ZZZZ<br />If you're tracking the rankings, yes, that does make it my highest ranked Godzilla film so far. And yes, I like this film better than every Toho Godzilla film I've seen. I mean, I do like many of the suitmation Godzilla films, and find them very entertaining, but this is just a next-level blockbuster for me. The film teases and teases and teases that the monsters are coming in a very engaging and engrossing way. It delivers an emotional impact that has you invested in the characters while anticipating the arrival of the monsters, and when they do emerge, it's glorious.</p><p>Director Edwards is a master of scale, and when you're talking 50 to 100 meter (plus)-sized creatures, you really want to feel that sense of scale. Too often with the Toho films, scale was only felt in perspective of a man in a suit as compared to the toys and models that surrounded them, with a poorly lit painted backdrop of a blue sky. Edwards, at every turn, makes you feel the imposition these creatures have on the world we're used to living in. A 350-foot beast emerging rapidly from the ocean creates a tsunami, and it's an incredible sequence even before the creature surfaces. Its a movie full of "wow"starting with the skeletal remains found in the prologue.</p><p>I hadn't watched the film in quite some time, but I think it's geniuinely a favourite movie of mine. G-fan snobs might turn their nose up at it for its lack of practical suits and models, and taking it out of its Japanese setting, and diminishing its messaging, to which I say, fair enough, if that's your thing. But this is much more my thing. I think the <i>only</i> Toho film that measures up to this (and exceeds it) is <i><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/search?q=minus+one#:~:text=KWIF%3A%20Godzilla%20Minus%20One%20(%2B3)" target="_blank">Godzilla Minus One</a></i>.</p><p><br /><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>:<br />None at all. Even in the "military assembling on the bridge" sequence, which is the equivalent of the "tanks on the move" montage in the Showa era, I was still so very engaged.</p><p>---</p><p><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2014/06/godzilla.html" target="_blank">My original review</a></p><p><i>Shin Godzilla</i> is next (and I know Toasty has been holding off his review until I got to this point).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-885804186569345002024-02-29T07:32:00.005-05:002024-02-29T07:43:30.993-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Madame Web(b)<p>2024, SJ Clarkson (<i>Doctors</i>) -- cinema</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtubfweLin1kBNBz1WHEZRYNPR9wTvnUZtzGtms3rf-wmmo0p9S9Zrxk0DaxSdU7g05u8ryoRNwGrQPf2iqXe_YJcMj-iHazcudPx2pBl-KrNtDE0T_1yuJeXt69ZQcMytfTCGW-bePdIHtX0bQ1S4TqixVyifE6QIodsjoRRwZ3eiCX2552onKmFduX4/s755/madame_web_ver14.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="604" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtubfweLin1kBNBz1WHEZRYNPR9wTvnUZtzGtms3rf-wmmo0p9S9Zrxk0DaxSdU7g05u8ryoRNwGrQPf2iqXe_YJcMj-iHazcudPx2pBl-KrNtDE0T_1yuJeXt69ZQcMytfTCGW-bePdIHtX0bQ1S4TqixVyifE6QIodsjoRRwZ3eiCX2552onKmFduX4/w320-h400/madame_web_ver14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Dakata Johnson, in a recent interview with Seth Meyers, "it's actually not the Spider-Man universe."<p></p><p>Celeste O'Connor, in a promo shown right before the movie, "...takes place in the Spider-Verse."</p><p>It just didn't bode well.</p><p>What metaphor should we go for at this moment? Dumpster Fire? Train Wreck? Shit-Show? Just a browse of the Top Critics in Rotten Tomatoes will give you a bucket full of pithy takedowns. But mine is rather mundane -- bored. Boring. Literally nodded off for a few seconds during the Chest Compressions Game scene. Came to, seeing them do odd things to pillows. Not sure why. Still not sure why.</p><p><i>Not THAT pervs; they're highschool kids !!</i></p><p>So, yeah, we went and saw it. Why? My excuse is two-fold. To see if it could truly be bad as I expected. And, because... actually no, just that reason enough. Kinda sort ironically but really... it cannot be that bad, can it? </p><p>Yep. It can.</p><p><i>Of note, I Googled the movie a bit and they may actually bank on the desire to hate-watch it, or people going to see it hoping it will be the next </i>Showgirls<i> for them.</i></p><p>OK, on with the "plot".</p><p>Morbius went to Costa Rica to find bats that could cure what ails him. Mama Webb went to The Amazon to find spiders that could cure <spoiler> what was ailing her unborn child <end_spoiler>. She finds said spider, as well as a tribe of Amazonian spider-people who, since it was the 1970s definitely could (by the rules of a multi-verse) actually have seen a Spider-Man comic from <i>our</i> universe, which could explain their outfits. But Mama Webb is betrayed & shot, and only via spider-bite is her unborn baby saved from certain death. And the spider-people ship her back to the US to become an orphan in The System.</p><p>Years later, Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson, <i>50 Shades of Grey</i>) is an EMT who loooooooves chest compressions (I mean, looooove) and is an asshole. She's mean to coworkers, mean to patients, barely tolerates her bus-mate Ben Parker (yes, <i>that</i> Ben Parker; Adam Scott, <i>Severance</i>) but she loves chest compressions. After a near death experience where she is saved by ... c'mon guess... you can do it... GUESS ! Yes... chest compressions !! So yeah, after this near-death experience, wherein she touched "the web" (of fate), she awakens with the power of limited clairvoyance. Like in all origin stories, she doesn't quite understand her emerging powers and screws up, letting someone die.</p><p><i>So, that was her boss, the guy who sucks at making hamburgers, but why was he driving away? In the scene just before he was yelling at firefighters to be let back into the burning building so they could save people. They say no, so he just hops in an ambulance (that was probably still required on scene) and drives away. And gets smooshed. Why?</i></p><p><i>"Why" is the theme of this movie writeup...</i></p><p>Anywayz, Cassie the Asshat is at home sulking when Ben asks here to go to the funeral, knowing that she is just the kind of asshat to skip out on her friend & boss's funeral. She relents and while on the train she starts having her limited clairvoyant visions. She sees people get on the train, make comments, disappear, get on again, and then sees Evil Spider Guy. And he's after The Girls. The Girls? The above mentioned highschoolers, three young ladies that Cassie has bumped into prior, as they are all tied together in some web (of fate).</p><p><i>So, yeah, Evil Spider Guy is the man who betrayed Cassie's mom, killed her, and took her spider. Why? Who knows; we saw he took some spy pics of it but.... Some 30 years later he has spider-powers and ... well, other than that, we don't know <u>anything</u>. He's rich? He has his own limited clairvoyant visions but always focused on seeing three Spider-Girls killing him. But who is he? Why is he? What does he do with his spider-powers beside have bad dreams and kill people with touch poison? And why did they ADR the fuck out of the poor guy?!?! And finally, why and HOW is he wearing a Spider-Man outfit 20 years before there was a Spider-Man?</i></p><p>Cassie rescues the kids and hides them... in the woods; pulls off the side of a road and tells them to "sit here, don't go anywhere, don't do anything, I have stuff to do..." The kids don't listen. And unfortunately the fastest ever newspaper print run has happened and by early that afternoon, everyone knows who she is, and what she did. Well, she didn't actually do it, but... everyone thinks she did? </p><p><i>Is Evil Spider-Guy also the inventor of the fastest printing press ever? Is it ... perhaps, the Daily Bugle? Does he have a misinformation team? Did he seed descension in a younger J Jonah Jameson before Spider-Man was even born?</i></p><p>Oh, the girls/kids/highschoolers: Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney, <i>Euphoria</i>), the demure, nervous girl, Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor, <i>Ghostbusters: Afterlife</i>), the skate-boarding curmudgeon who loves Britney Spears, and Anya Corazon (Isabel Merced, <i>Let It Snow</i>), the science girl.</p><p>Evil Spider-Guy has also hired a "person in the chair" (Ned's role in the <u>real</u> Spider-Man movies) who is doing stuff with NSA tech and CCT and facial recognition. I guess the writers saw <i>Person of Interest</i> ? Anywayz, the kids are located at a roadside diner dancing on table tops cuz girlz just wanna have fun. Nobody in the diner yells at these stupid kids to get their dirty boots down off the table. Cassie rams a taxi cab thru the wall just as Evil Spider-Guy shows up. Remember, Cassie's an asshat who doesn't care that she stole someone's taxi, doesn't care about collateral damage, she just knows that she has to save these kids.</p><p>Oh, and she also knows now that its all related to her mom and Evil Spider-Guy and spider-people in Peru. So, she (again) dumps the kids, this time with Ben, and flies off to Peru. Older, wiser, spider-people-guy who helped deliver her is waiting. And provides all the exposition to ... well, not really explain anything other than the web (of fate). She could have asked for so much, but whatever... BACK THE GOOD OLD US of A.</p><p><i>What? Why? So many why's ! I get that there is a trope of flying somewhere distant to "get answers" but how does she conceive she can fly to Peru and just walk into The Amazon based on some small map that looks like a table mat from an Amazonian Adventure themed restaurant, and actually FIND something. I mean, if it wasn't for Older Wiser Spider-People-Guy, she wouldn't have received any exposition drop and immersed herself in the Pool of Visions. </i></p><p>Anywayz. I think, by now, she has determined the Evil Spider-Guy will find her and the kids no matter where they go so she sets a trap. They could have done some clever metaphor having her drawn him into <i>her</i> web, but that need to involve cleverness. Instead, she just draws him towards a fireworks warehouse which she will blow up, with him inside, because she doesn't care about other people's property, or collateral damage.</p><p>Oh, and Ben Parker's sister is having a baby whose name we are not allowed to hear said out loud. Oh, and Ben has a new girlfriend, whose name we are not allowed to hear said out loud, but she is probably The One.</p><p>Cassie does blow up aforementioned warehouse, has to accept the responsibility of the kids, and thus gets power (dumb-ass play on the catch phrase) and uses her magical web (of fate) powers to defeat Evil Spider-Guy, but not before some NYPD helicopter guys are killed. Oh, and and Cassie falls into water and is injured again. I think I nodded off again, mid-action scene. Not sure how she was injured.</p><p>Ages later she has a fancy ass wheelchair and TERRIBLE looking glasses and she and the kids are now all friends. No plot cleanup, no explanations, no nuttin. Given this is an origin story for .... something, are we seriously supposed to expect more movies? And given the divergence from any general audience expectations with the (totally not) Spider-Verse (these are NOT three spider-ladies from other dimensions, they are all just three young ladies who eventually get different powers and eventually don spider-related costumes) what was the purpose of this movie?</p><p>Just a terribly boring, confusing, astoundingly badly acted movie that might have been at least palatable three versions ago before the Purple Suits constantly meddled with it. And yet, somehow, its out there, on the Big Screen, while other properties have been shelved. And there is not any likelihood of there being a sequel. Is there?</p><p><i>ASTOUNDINGLY badly acted. I mean, I have seen many of these actors in other roles and they were at least passable actors, but here, all the dialogue is barely above z-grade. How many script changes, and re-shoots does it take for an actor to just stop giving a shit? Someone should have noticed this was happening, no? Its like when you watch a TikTok and you ask yourself, "Can someone be this stupid?" and you know the answer is, "No, they are just rage-baiting you..." Were some Purple Suits just rage-baiting the MCU fans?</i></p><p>So many questions. But generally, why did I see this movie?</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-89664060091064310062024-02-28T07:35:00.000-05:002024-02-29T10:10:54.191-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla: Millennium Era in review<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzU_NOBNsO79abk_PEA8rnxNiqsL3JGAGErgHgyTn5iVgzrvkkErmIxT2TpbYEmalsmhO1Gtu7cIJ_prBxS9p_-oZbWkcD1-OklQz9a1LWq-M6xTRM3b06jOy03dJi49p9RWR-WVwt2dOXg_SkyuB6Gau-oHF80ygqmHkqJ1hutB8_KFtRf7QjazerKn1/s4000/20240219_210123.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2252" data-original-width="4000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzU_NOBNsO79abk_PEA8rnxNiqsL3JGAGErgHgyTn5iVgzrvkkErmIxT2TpbYEmalsmhO1Gtu7cIJ_prBxS9p_-oZbWkcD1-OklQz9a1LWq-M6xTRM3b06jOy03dJi49p9RWR-WVwt2dOXg_SkyuB6Gau-oHF80ygqmHkqJ1hutB8_KFtRf7QjazerKn1/s320/20240219_210123.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I've written thousands of words about and around Godzilla and, frankly, I'm exhausted. <p></p><p>I mentioned previously that throughout the Showa and Heisei eras of Godzilla I would routinely fall asleep whilst watching those films. The pleasant surprise of the Millennium era was how engaged I was throughout each and every one of those movies, well, except <i>GMK </i>(<i>Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidora: Giant Monsters All-out Attack</i>). There I was close to unconsciousness a number of times, but, I never fully fell asleep. (Edit: I did nod off while writing this though). </p><p>The Millennium era hits a point where digital effects have a bigger and bigger impact on the films, and being lower budget films in the early 2000s, you can guess how bad the digital effects can get. And yet, kind of how we accept silly, loose-fitting rubber suits, miniatures-that-are-clearly-miniatures, and camera-tricks- which-aren't-fooling-anyone from previous eras, many of the digital effects have a quaintness to them that don't rub abrasively. Instead, in many instances, they have their own charm. Credit to the Toho team at the time that they conservatively used digital effects much of the time to enhance scenes or sequences, rather than overreach...although surely overreaches did happen, and...moof.</p><p>I struggle to say that any of the Millennium Era films were great, and I would have a hard time recommending any of them to anyone who wasn't already interested in watching Godzilla films. My favourite of the era (and there will be a full ranking update at the bottom of this) is a sequel film within the Era and probably not the easiest film to enter into coldly. </p><p>Once again I find myself at odds with the G-fan concensus. <i>GMK</i>, touted as one of the highest watermarks of Godzilla films, is my second least favourite of the era. Just as I didn't take to <i>Godzilla vs. Biollante</i> as G-Fans had in the Heisei era...I get what they're reacting to in those films, they just don't work for me. Once again, my appreciation lies in the storytelling, which is still pretty shaky throughout the Millennium era, but there is a palpable evolution, and seemingly a larger desire to invest in characters than in the previous era. As well the ambitiousness of the suits, the effect, the miniatures from film-to-film also intrigue me. But I would rather have a better composed shot, a more artistically lit scene, a more thoughtfully edited Godzilla fight sequence than the bog standard side-scrolling wide shot or that 3/4 tilt from on high which is so pervasive. </p><p>There also seemed to be more effort to put the human characters into the midst of the fight (especially with Mechagodzilla in the fray). Having the humans be active and meaningful participants makes the third-act brawl much more engaging. This also includes a lot more scenes of human characters navigating the mid- of post-fight wreckage, which I loved every time.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FJM67xEaZb89Cii0EMxClyfCEp3jsrOK2__qTPI3LV2yx4fmflJqUHjpLTnah4z_Xg4Zux7MfzpzJ2ibioF9_sdtOnyuYPO05LpcMg_Y3M35m6eQO9JFqP_KAcbBvkNGYKjtBYhcYevP3ASR3D4WfldDTF9eyi3U6KIS5DrF9z3rYz04aJAeeoZ8fCyV/s3620/20240218_104951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1551" data-original-width="3620" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FJM67xEaZb89Cii0EMxClyfCEp3jsrOK2__qTPI3LV2yx4fmflJqUHjpLTnah4z_Xg4Zux7MfzpzJ2ibioF9_sdtOnyuYPO05LpcMg_Y3M35m6eQO9JFqP_KAcbBvkNGYKjtBYhcYevP3ASR3D4WfldDTF9eyi3U6KIS5DrF9z3rYz04aJAeeoZ8fCyV/s320/20240218_104951.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />My favourite aspect of Godzilla is using sense of scale, getting that human POV of these titanic monsters, and we get a tremendous amount of those in the Millennium Era compared to the previous Eras, which had limited ability to truly blend live action and real locations with miniatures and suitmation.<p></p><p>I'm now heading into the final stretch with the three Warner Bros. Monsterverse films (leading into the fourth coming out at the end of March), and the two Reiwa Era live action films. Almost all of these I've seen already (save for <i>Shin Godzilla</i>), but I'm excited to watch them because I know what I'm in for. </p><p>While I've been doing this series, I've watched the Monsterverse-related TV show (<i>Monarch: Legacy of Monsters</i>) and I've seen <i>Godzilla Minus One </i>as well, and also watched the first episode of the seemingly charming Netflix anime series <i>Godzilla Singular Point</i> which I think I'll get back to. I'm still skipping the '98 <i>Godzilla</i> as well as the three Netflix anime movies, but never say never. I'm also flirting with doing a <i>Gamera</i> series of recaps, kind of the official competition to the Godzilla juggernaut in the Kaiju field. I'm also thinking about the four Mothra solo films, since I clearly reacted well to that creature in this series. We shall see.</p><p>---</p><p><b>RANKINGS</b></p><p><u>Millennium Era</u>:<br /></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S</li><li>Godzilla 2000: Millennium</li><li>Godzilla vs Megaguiras</li><li>Godzilla: Final Wars</li><li>Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack</li><li>Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla</li></ol><div><u>All of the films (so far)</u></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Return of Godzilla</li><li>Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.</li><li>Godzilla vs Mothra (1964)</li><li>Gojira</li><li>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974)</li><li>Ebirah, Horror of the Deep</li><li>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II</li><li>Terror of Mechagodzilla</li><li>Godzilla 2000: Millennium</li><li>Godzilla vs Megaguiras</li><li>Godzilla vs Destroyah</li><li>Godzilla vs Mothra (1992)</li><li>Godzilla vs. Hedorah</li><li>Godzilla vs Gigan</li><li>Godzilla vs Megalon</li><li>Godzilla: Final Wars</li><li>Destroy All Monsters</li><li>Godzilla vs Biollante</li><li>Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-out Attack</li><li>Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla</li><li>Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla</li><li>All Monsters Attack</li><li>Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster</li><li>Godzilla vs King Ghidorah</li><li>Invasion of the Astro Monster</li><li>Godzilla Raids Again</li><li>Godzilla 1985</li><li>Son of Godzilla</li><li>Godzilla King of the Monsters (1956)</li><li>King Kong vs Godzilla (US version 1962)</li></ol></div><p></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-62213879078036546132024-02-24T12:33:00.001-05:002024-02-24T12:33:19.415-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #29: Godzilla:Final Wars<p><b>Director</b>: Ryuhei Kitamura<br /><b>Year</b>: 2004<br /><b>Length</b>: 125 minutes</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-PFbvgB72rAfATVF69YbvlD0HkKKuTyUMOQ_YfBMeaStMCN4s8ry11nfT4s5Jz7UDD5YnWJUIBtNnRXUF-OCJBn9joeP8vb-u6fa00p1Pe8yD-jdg5bw35M7mIEV3VVtXMQNjwHhvMJiHHLkpml5WhX-kponMUnB-_Uc__pbzfZEomwECtHbwtW8XbPj/s755/gojira_fainaru_uozu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="520" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-PFbvgB72rAfATVF69YbvlD0HkKKuTyUMOQ_YfBMeaStMCN4s8ry11nfT4s5Jz7UDD5YnWJUIBtNnRXUF-OCJBn9joeP8vb-u6fa00p1Pe8yD-jdg5bw35M7mIEV3VVtXMQNjwHhvMJiHHLkpml5WhX-kponMUnB-_Uc__pbzfZEomwECtHbwtW8XbPj/s320/gojira_fainaru_uozu.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>This is the only Godzilla film, save for the original <i>Gojira</i> and <i>King Kong vs Godzilla</i> that I can say for certain that I have seen before. I watched this on video on demand in 2005 as my sister's place while looking after her dog. I recall thinking it was pretty not great back then.<p></p><p><b>The Gist</b>: </p><p>In the pre-credits, we're give a voice over with a pile of exposition about what's happened to the world. Long story short, the kaiju have awaken and the world has united and formed the Earth Defence Force. There are also Mutant humans with special abilities. They have been collected into an elite fighting team called M Organization. (Morgan I Zation?)</p><p>In the cold open, a sub full of multinationals managed to trap Godzilla in the ice of Antarctica. </p><p>After the credits, a very different submarine, years later, let by MMA superstar and non-actor Don Frye (as the spectacularly mustachioed "Captain Gordon") is in battle with the dragon Manda. The serpentine creature is killed with a "maser blast" but it seem more of an absolute zero blast that freezes it instantly. Captain Gordon is dressed down for recklessly putting his crew in danger and costly damage to his ship. He's imprisoned for striking his superior.</p><p>Meanwhile, two M Organization cadets practice fight each other, and I assume it's a shitty <i>Matrix</i> riff, but it also looks like it inspired the <i>Crank </i>movies<i>.</i> One of these fighters is Ozaki who will be the lead character of the film, the other is his in-organization nemesis who calls him weak for having compassion, but he will gain the respect of later, as is tradition.</p><p>The EDF have discovered a 12000-year-old Cyborg Monster from outer space that they discover has the genetic "m-base" that all the mutants have, meaning the mutants are a product of - or evolution as a result of - this kaiju. The monster, they are informed by the Shobijin in a telepathic vision, is classic Godzilla villain Gigan. It was defeated by Mothra way back when, but Mothra that he's an omen of ill tidings, and then informs Ozaki that he has evil in his blood but he has a choice as to how he behaves, and then depending on how he acts it will determine if Monthra helps humanity or not. Mothra's always delivering ultimatums.</p><p>Rodan attacks "New York". It's CGI designed which finally gives Rodan some real speed, but it's a sloppy hybrid of suits, miniatures, digital and practical. It doesn't really work. Even less the horrendous CGI animated 'Zilla monster (basically a low-budget approximation of 1998's Godzilla) attacks Sydney. All the major and minor Toho kaiju attack major centres all over the earth all at once. The brief moments we spend in these other locations are cartoonishly vignettes. The husky kid in Vancouver bashing his Godzilla toys together while watching footage of the monster on TV has chocolate smeared all over his face.</p><p>Just as quickly as the monsters appear, they disappear, teleported away by a UFO that then appears above the EDF headquarters in Japan. These tekno emo alien, the Xilians, unconvincingly tell that the humans of Earth that they are friends, warning that Gorath is hurtling towards Earth to cause the end of everything. Earth needs to fire all their weaponry at it in order to survive, according to the Xilians. But there's something off with them, something odd about them appearing just as the EDF discovered Gigan. And it appears they've been replacing world leaders with carbon copies that don't blink. </p><p>EDF scientists secretly discover that Gorath is a hologram, and expose the Xilians on a television talk show, where the handsome, stylish, maniacal "X" kills the Xilians leader and takes over. X seems to have telepathic powers, and he mind controls all the mutants except Ozaki. X also sends all the Kaiju under his control back to the major cities to resume the destruction. After a motorcycle chase that plays on <i>Mission Impossible II</i>'s motorocycle gun fight, only next level and terrible-looking, Ozaki frees Captain Gordon. They hatch a plan to plow through the Xilians defences to Antarctica where they will free Godzilla who will take on all the kaiju and, hopefully, they can trick into destroying the Xilians mothership. X awakens Gigan, but proves no match for the king of monsters.</p><p>Godzilla works his way up the Eastern Pacific, destroying every kaiju in his wake. Except X dispatches Monster X who can monster fight like no monster before. Mothra enters the fray but has to face off against a super-ultra Gigan. Ultimately when Godzilla seemingly defeats Monster X, it transforms...into King Ghidorah!</p><p> Ozaki meanwhile faces off against X as the mothership burns around them, learning that the Mutants are basically genetically the same as Xilians but that both X and Ozaki are a one-in-a-million Mutants with cosmic-level powers. It's more <i>Matrix</i> fight riffs as well as Ozaki's Neo-esque, you-are-The-One awakening.</p><p>Godzilla is close to defeat from Ghidorah, who is draining him of all his energy, but Ozaki uses his newfound powers to supercharge Godzilla who tears Ghidorah's heads off.</p><p>With all the kaiju and Xilians defeated the remaining main cast of humans (Ozaki, Gordon, a couple of ladies, some political figures, etc) face Godzilla eye to eye, but Minilla (yes, Baby Godzilla's in this film, looking very retro) and his child friend both get in the way of the fight, indicating that it's time for the humans and Godzilla to stop fighting. An unlikely truce, but a truce nonetheless. </p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:<br /></b>Frenemy<br /><br /><b>The Samesies:</b><br />We've had plenty of aliens come to Earth preaching peace only to be deceiving the humans and needing Godzilla's help to destroy them in the Showa Era. This is another one. </p><p><br /><b>The Differences</b>:<br />This film is saturated in blue, which film language teaches us is the colour of a technologically advanced but dystopian future. It's the first time I can recall a Godzilla film having colour coding like this (it's mainly used as a mask for the bad CGI, but it's also a choice, I guess), and while not Godzilla's first future-set feature (that'd be <i>Destroy All Monsters</i>), it's the first to really step beyond present day. </p><p>There is so much non-stop action -- abnormal for a Godzilla film -- that it's really too much for any of it to be done well on a Godzilla movie's budget. It's fairly Power Rangers-y, in that it looks like a made-for-tv effects. </p><p>It has a corny soundtrack that isn't an orchestral score. Instead it's a tekno-metal shredding guitars soundtrack by Keith Emerson, Nobuhiko Morino and Daisuke Yano). It feels like 2004 by way of 1997. It's probably the most wildly different score since Masaru Sato's surf-inspired soundtract to <i>Ebirah</i> in 1966.</p><p>At over 2 hours, it's easily the longest of all the Toho Godzilla movies to this point.</p><p><b>Anyone worth caring about?</b><br />Oh god no. This is an entirely spectacle-driven movie. While Ozaki is the main character and, I guess, has a journey, there are no pains made to invest the audience in him at all. The fact that his "chosen one" arc basically doesn't come into play until the third act and is all laid out for him by the villain highlights it.</p><p>Wait... I care about X. He was just trying to set up earth as a farm and humanity as cattle. He's got an entrepreneur's spirit with a rancher's heart. I found Kenji Kohashi's performance charming and delightful.<br /><br /><b>The Message</b>:<br />How can we defend people without a heart? It's just a line in the movie, not really a mission statement.<br /><br /><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: ZZz<br />Bonkers, in good and bad ways.<br /><br /><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>:<br />There is entirely too much going on to find it boring. I mean, I rolled my eyes a lot, but I was never bored.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-46908484519903572042024-02-24T12:32:00.003-05:002024-02-24T12:32:44.744-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #28: Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.<p><b>Director</b>: Masaaki Tezuka <br /><b>Year</b>: 2003<br /><b>Length</b>: 91 minutes</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZr2k-XSe70val93D1_QcSfev_Z9OTioAz1B2QjGXbwQK784KiQo4wyW_gR0b0DDmfCihHgI-GvvtjLivc5XHZMVcpLGQf1ITfhHIZJr6KnemmecO1BpSF5WwyFNKrRkV9rT8uD9f47WSwx20HAXKEv776jHV9O71rmbTpdZmfl7_e7VMTOdqdrecn-CnI/s1440/tkyosos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZr2k-XSe70val93D1_QcSfev_Z9OTioAz1B2QjGXbwQK784KiQo4wyW_gR0b0DDmfCihHgI-GvvtjLivc5XHZMVcpLGQf1ITfhHIZJr6KnemmecO1BpSF5WwyFNKrRkV9rT8uD9f47WSwx20HAXKEv776jHV9O71rmbTpdZmfl7_e7VMTOdqdrecn-CnI/s320/tkyosos.jpg" width="213" /></a></b></div><b>The Gist</b>: <br />Two years following the events of <i>Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla</i>, there's been no sign of the wounded king of monsters, and Mecha G has been out of commission, with repairs proving difficult. The absolute zero freeze gun cannot be replaced without a very expensive massive diamond.<p></p><p>Meanwhile, Mothra is spied in the skies off the shores of Japan. She hasn't been seen since she attacked and destroyed Tokyo in the 60's. Dr. Shinichi Chujo (from the original <i>Mothra</i>) is paid a visit from the faerie of Infant Island, Mothra's heralds, the Shobijin. They warn that humans have once again disrupted the souls of the dead, by taking Godzilla's bones from their resting place and turning them into Mecha G. They say the bones must be returned to the sea, at which point Mothra will defend humanity from Godzilla...but if they don't Mothra will declare war on humanity. Harsh, bug, harsh.</p><p>Dr. Chujo's son, Yoshito, has been a technician working on Mecha G for over 4 years. He has a connection to it he doesn't really understand, but the last thing he wants is to lose his labour of love, and for his whole organization to be shut down. So when his dad, armed with his Mothra history and knowledge, tries to raise a stink and have the Mecha G project shut down, Yoshito doesn't back him up. As such, Dr. Chujo tells Yoshito how things play out rests on his shoulders.</p><p>Godzilla re-emerges, taking down a US nuclear sub. It comes towards land, apparently sensing Mecha G's reemergence. Yoshito's nephew, with Dr. Chujo's help, summons Mothra who battles Godzilla and loses. Mecha G, armed with the ultra-maser, is sent out to help Mothra in battle. Mothra is gravely wounded, but in her anguish her eggs hatch and twin larvae come to join the melee. She ultimately sacrifices herself to protect them, but it's really Mecha G's battle to lose.</p><p>The fight is fraught, with many reversals. Eventually Mecha G is knocked out of commission and Yoshito, with the help of the Shobijin, races to it to get it back up an running again. He gets trapped inside the beast as it puts its enemy on his heels. One jarring blow knocks Yoshito unconscious, and when he comes to, the beast has taken control of Mecha G once more...but Yoshito gets a vision of all this original Godzilla's been through and he warns his people away. Mecha G will take care of things, with the larvae cocooning a wounded Godzilla, and Mecha G carries himself and Godzilla to the bottom of a trench 4000+ feet deep.</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:</b><br />Neo-Godzilla: enemy. Original Godzilla, in the guise of Mecha G: friend</p><p><b>The Samesies:</b><br />The Showa era ran with a loose continuity. The Heisei era ran with a much tighter continuity. The Millennium Era is basically a series of sequels to <i>Gojira</i>, except this one, which is a sequel to it's immediate predecessor. As well, it's a sequel to the original <i>Mothra</i> and ties in other hints at other non-Godzilla-based Toho kaiju films. It's sort of the best of each Era before it.</p><p>The Mothra mythology that was used in previous appearances holds pretty fast here. Mothra is a protector of Earth but will not tolerate man's transgressions against it. But it takes a lot to get Mothra into action. The Shobijin are one of my favourite aspects of the Mothra mythos and one of my favourite parts of all Toho kaiju-verse. Always happy to see them, even though their actual impact on plot is usually pretty thin. I like the reworking of the Mothra chant here. There's really no new beats here with regards to Mothra, and yet that familiarity also means a likeable, dependable consistency. They're not fucking around with the moth lady here.</p><p><b>The Differences</b>:<br />Compared to last film it's all little differences that make this far superior and far more entertaining, especially in the fight sequences. They look incredible and the effects, pyrotechnics and suit/puppetry movements are all on point. </p><p>Flying adversaries usually make for terrible fights with Godzilla, and there's not a lot here to counter that argument. But the team nails down Mothra's wing flap, they do not overuse CGI to move her around (not like Kiryu last film), and unlike the Heisei era Mothra, her legs move. In fact, during the fight, Godzilla bites off one of her legs. One of the many great little moments of this film is Mothra's sacrifice, flapping in front of Godzilla's atomic breath to save her larvae, setting on fire (looking kind of phoenix-like) then exploding. Incredible. </p><p>Mecha G's fighting in <i>Tokyo S.O.S. </i>is so much better than in the previous entry. There CGI was used to move Kiryu (and sometimes Godzilla) in a fashion as to make it appear that they can manoeuvre quickly. It's a shitty effect almost entirely missing here. The production team here took great pains to better show how Mecha G fights, using his various thrusters and boosters to help move him faster on the battlefield. I really really liked one moment where a side thruster fired to push Mecha G aside to dodge Godzilla's atomic attack. Likewise, there was a lot of little technical details to show just how everything worked on Mecha G, little moments that breathe a sort of life or reality into the metal beast.</p><p>The human story here is also so much better than in the last film. Yoshito, the Prime Minister, some of the other characters, all have the same doubts, both about proceeding with the Mechagodzilla project and ignoring the Shobijin's warnings, and with actually protecting their country with the only weapon they know has proven effective. It's a seemingly damned if you do/damned if you don't situation that doesn't rest comfortably for anyone on screen. It's pretty compelling.</p><p>The film also catches us up on where things are at since last film, in terms of the damage done and we have a scene or two with Akane and the crew from the last movie who are all off to America to receive some elite combat training. It's too bad that Akane isn't a focal character this film, but even two years later she's still glowering, and I don't think I could handle another 90 minutes of that sourpuss.</p><p><b>Anyone worth caring about?<br /></b>Yes, Yoshito, his father, his nephew...they're all at different levels of importance to the overall story, but they are given a pretty solid family bond and they are all given moments to show how much they care about each other. Even the prime minister, who is so often such an expository character to show what the government's doing in any movie, here is given a very specific crisis of confidence in his decision making (I mean, he had a similar one last film, but there was no focus there, but here it's given weight in the framing and score). Yoshito, much like Akane in the prior film, has a rival on the team that they butt heads with but need to overcome their differences on the battlefield, and, of course, a love interest (though Mecha G is Yoshito's first love that he needs to learn to let go of). I really liked it, and it gave us someone to follow around during the battle, someone that can actually have an impact on the events.<br /><br /><b>The Message</b>:<br />Let the dead rest.<br />Learn from your mistakes of the past, and do everything you can not to repeat them.</p><p><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: <br />ZZZz<br />I would rank this higher, but because it sort of needs to be tied to the inferior <i>...Against Mechagodzilla</i>, it knocks it down a half notch. I enjoyed it immensely. It's one of the best looking Godzilla films to this point plus I have a soft spot for Mothra, and they do well by her here.</p><p><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>: <br />I was pretty fully into it throughout. This is paced very well, and the final 40 minutes is all-action and it's pretty incredible how it both escalates in intensity and emotion. </p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-22804923252171574222024-02-24T12:32:00.001-05:002024-02-24T12:32:06.164-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #27: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla<p><b>Director</b>: Masaaki Tezuka<br /><b>Year</b>: 2002<br /><b>Length</b>: 90 minutes</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqO4dmDX8yLOLxkceNTtJAO6FtP5lOdIbSGE9bkX3yD09U7qEbC_i2XCmTMqUtBbWv32MbM93f8vKcUa-6sxg-Mr8tifdekJ9rFOAo7ETao4AavyPp36tB_y5fdM4lr8xyDVhyw27jTkEYN9UuDs9rmhUmqvpNH5oVGSCb0CkXCUyp6_fBJ5_4BZe7G5Yq/s1071/godzillaxmechagodzilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="758" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqO4dmDX8yLOLxkceNTtJAO6FtP5lOdIbSGE9bkX3yD09U7qEbC_i2XCmTMqUtBbWv32MbM93f8vKcUa-6sxg-Mr8tifdekJ9rFOAo7ETao4AavyPp36tB_y5fdM4lr8xyDVhyw27jTkEYN9UuDs9rmhUmqvpNH5oVGSCb0CkXCUyp6_fBJ5_4BZe7G5Yq/s320/godzillaxmechagodzilla.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><p><b>The Gist</b>:<br />It's 1999 all over again, Godzilla is attacking Japan for the first time in 45 years. Lieutenant Akane Yashiro is an elite pilot of a maser-cannon. But when the military response is utterly ineffective, the only sane thing to do is retreat. In attempting to turn the maser-tank around, Akane accidentally knocks her comrades' jeep over the cliff side where it is crushed under Godzilla's heel. Akane is spiritually crushed, and accepts a demotion.</p><p>Meanwhile bio-robotics expert Tokumitsu Yuhara is recruited by the military for a special project, along with the nation's biggest brains... to create the ultimate anti-Godzilla weapon...out of the skeleton of the original Godzilla! Tokumitsu agrees to sign onto the project when his daughter, Sara is allowed to live on base with him.</p><p>Akane is recruited to be part of the Mechagodzilla (code name: Kiryu) piloting force, and she trains her ass off, while facing discrimination and harassment from the brother of a soldier she inadvertently knocked off the side of a cliff.</p><p>Just when the project is ready to revealed to the world, along with it's ultimate anti-Godzilla-weapon, a sub-zero chest ray, Godzilla attacks. Kiryu is sent out into the field for its first test run, and not only does it go badly, but less than two minutes into the fight, Godzilla roars at the metal beast, and it unlocks something in its regenerated DNA. The reconstituted "original" Godzilla inside the metal suit takes control and goes on a rampage. The Kiryu team is helpless to stop it, instead just having to wait for it to exhaust its power supply. Godzilla just walks away. It's pretty hilarious.</p><p>Tokumitsu hits on Akane a bunch, but Akane instead bonds with Sara over their dead moms. It's very Hallmark.</p><p>Kiryu is repaired, it's operating system upgraded to resist any sort of sentient takeover, and just in time for a rematch when Godzilla returns (the speculation is that Godzilla's actually coming ashore because Kiryu is built out of reconstituted Godzilla DNA). Kiryu is built to fly, which, as we know with Godzilla movies, means it looks awful when it does, and it manages to knock Godzilla around quite a bit. It even manages to fire off the absolute zero freeze ray gun but it misses, and the attempt drains Kiryu's energy. After Anane gets inside the metal beast, and the team taps the entire Tokyo power grid, Akane pilots Kiryo to fly it and Godzilla out to sea where she blasts him point blank with the absolute zero gun.</p><p>Both creature and mech survive, heavily, heavily damaged. Akane watches on as Godzilla retreats into the ocean. It's a draw.</p><p>In a post credit scene, Akane agrees to go out for a meal with Tokumitsu.</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:<br /></b>He's a baddie, although, it seems his impetus for wrecking Japan is largely as a result of Japan building a mech out of dead Godzilla bones.<br /><br /><b>The Samesies:</b><br />Much of <i>...Against Mechagodzilla</i> feels borrowed. It feels very samey.</p><p>The set-up of this feels largely regurgitated from <i>Godzilla vs Megaguirus. </i>A female military personnel feels guilty over the death of colleagues and seeks to redeem herself by killing Godzilla. The soldier having no time for love also carries over.</p><p>Like all of the Millennium Era Godzillas so far, <i>...Against Mechagodzilla</i> acts as a sequel to the original <i>Gojira</i>, where they haven't seen a Godzilla since 1954. Only in this they acknowledge that other monsters, such as Mothra and Gaira (the green giant Frankenstein from <i>War of the Gargantuas</i>), have attacked in the intervening years. The ending of the original <i>Gojira</i> is modified as well for their purposes here. Where the oxygen destroyer completely obliterated every trace of the original Godzilla, here it is said it only stripped its bones clean, leaving the skeleton behind.</p><p>Michiru Oshima returns to score her second Godzilla feature (after ...<i>vs Megaguirus</i>) and brings back her thumping Godzilla theme. She hits the rest of the film with a heavy orchestral score that kind of bleeds into one bombastic sound instead of distinct compositions. It stands out at first but ultimately just becomes texture.</p><p>Mechagodzilla doesn't look dramatically different than his Showa and Reiwa Era counterparts despite modified weapon bits, and its hangar bay feels very <i>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II.</i></p><p>Once again Toho decided that they needed to aim for younger audiences, that Godzilla was getting too scary, so the horror or gory elements are quite toned down compared to prior Millennium era entries, to its detriment. In the final battle, Godzilla has his chest blown wide open, but we barely even notice it. Plus the injection of Sara into the film is clearly kid-pandering but ultimately yields little in terms of rewards. She's mostly just there.</p><p><b>The Differences</b>:<br />What I enjoyed a lot early in the film is how it strove for a more ground-level-eye-view of the monsters more often than not, up until it has Godzilla and Kiryu face off. Unfortunately each time that happens we get a very level side view and occasional overhead views, and it all feels like fairly bog standard Godzilla fighting, only with more CGI accompaniment to move the creatures faster or into the air. It really doesn't look great at all. The idea of presenting the scale of Godzilla is something the Millennium Era films have improved greatly upon, but the directors seem to revert to standard filming techniques for fight sequences in most cases.</p><p><b>Anyone worth caring about?</b></p><p>I've been nagging and nagging on and on about how these films seem so utterly resistant to telling a story about human characters with Godzilla attacks or monster battles as the backdrop. Well, finally we get one that is so fully about Akane's redemption arc and feeling worthy of Tokumitsu and Sara's affections that I should finally be happy right? </p><p>Alas, no. It's such an utterly cliched story as to be pretty direly boring. It doesn't find any new beats and is often very confused about the beats it's trying to hit, particularly when it comes to her relationship with Sara. There's a very awkward scene where Akane is trying to tell Sara she will need to let go of her mother's death at some point, when Sara hits her back with her own bit of advice that rocks Akane to her core. But it's not really clear to me what was said that was so affecting.</p><p>That the post credits scene is just about Akane accepting a date from Tokumitsu is an incredible miscalculation of the use of a post-credit's scene. It does show a fully repaired Kiryu though.</p><p><b>The Message</b>:<br />All life is precious. That's the message director Tezuka wants out of all his films. But despite a character (Sara) preaching it, and crying over it, the film itself doesn't fully respect this idea. At one point Sara notes how Godzilla and Kiryu are the same species and should be friends, not enemies, and tries to get the team to understand the Kiryu is a living being, but all of that concept goes out the window once rubber suits need to bash into one another trying to kill each other, and having the audience root for it to happen.</p><p>That it comes to a draw seems to be the satisfactory outcome for all.<br /><br /><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: ZZ<br />I really wanted to like this one. It does so much that seems to be what I've been asking after, and yet it all feels muted, hollow and unexciting. The best moment was the awakening of Godzilla inside the Kiryu armor, a real highlight moment in all of Godzilla film, actually. But where prior Mechagodzilla films had a definite "fun" element to them, this one doesn't seem to know how to have fun. And when it does goofy things with CGI, the fact that it's not otherwise a "fun" movie just makes goofy CGI things feel out-of-place amidst the film's tepid melodrama.</p><p><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>:<br />I only almost nodded off once, as usual it was during a "Godzilla fights tanks and planes" battle. Boy have those ever gotten so tiresome after 27 movies. That there is a character story to focus on make it a more watchable film, just not a very good one.</p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-79432979917884701092024-02-23T07:53:00.002-05:002024-02-26T07:20:59.321-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): The Abyss<p>2023, Richard Holm (<i>Johan Falk</i> film series) -- Netflix</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSnouFXroZWTN3mFTySiFbtHI0DgGPQT8lDPbbmgpm7Zt9egassZECsAUc1Xo4EI_YRuJ4BjRvFGeBciwHYI15zFxUziGh5EO17j9bgSQssJfDWiyS67UIs6EK1LVnnAiIgP4lByE-_UNt3BiEfWRV67TzRBgf-FF432v0mgsimUY_FLbCFcKGbaZGDrma/s2834/abyss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2834" data-original-width="1984" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSnouFXroZWTN3mFTySiFbtHI0DgGPQT8lDPbbmgpm7Zt9egassZECsAUc1Xo4EI_YRuJ4BjRvFGeBciwHYI15zFxUziGh5EO17j9bgSQssJfDWiyS67UIs6EK1LVnnAiIgP4lByE-_UNt3BiEfWRV67TzRBgf-FF432v0mgsimUY_FLbCFcKGbaZGDrma/w280-h400/abyss.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>Not, not <i>that</i> movie.<p></p><p>In the last ten years, but for a few exceptions, I seem to be getting my Diaster Flick fix from the colder countries of Europe. There was <i><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2021/06/3-short-paragraphs-tunnel-tunnelen.html">The Tunnel</a></i> from Norway, <i><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2017/02/two-booms-wave-deepwater-horizon.html">The Wave</a></i> also from Norway, and not sure why I didn't write about <i>The Quake</i> (<i>dude, 2018 explains it</i>), which was a sequel to the former. I haven't seen <i>The Burning Sea</i> yet. Oh, I could watch the multitude of z-graders from Asylum and its like, but ... no. And that brings us to Sweden's entry into the genre, <i>The Abyss.</i></p><p><i>Its not really a whole lot, is it? I mean, five in ten years does not a trend make. But its enough to <u>seem</u> like a thing.</i></p><p>Like all good disaster movies, it begins with a family amidst their own disaster. Frigga Vibenius (Tuva Novotny, <i>Annihilation</i>) is the safety coordinator for a mine site in north Sweden. Her husband, Tage (Peter Franzén, <i>Vikings</i>) is head of mine operations. They are separated and "new guy" Dabir (Kardo Razazzi, <i>Peacemaker</i> [not that one]) unexpectedly showing up in town doesn't help. Their daughter Mika (Felicia Truedsson, <i>Young Royals</i>) has her own drama with her girlfriend, and their son is staying out all night partying and playing FPS games.</p><p>Then the ground beneath Kiruna starts shaking, cracks opening up all over. Its well known that the mine has undercut the ground beneath the town (IRL as well as the movie; Kiruna is a real mining town with a very real problem) but what they didn't know was that there was also a massive fault line, and the mine has broken into it -- an immense release of pressure is imminent.</p><p>Boom. A giant sinkhole opens up in the downtown before Frigga can alert the townsfolk. TBH, this is small scale disaster. Its not like all of northern Sweden is swallowed up, just a few city blocks. But the tragedy is more personal, and no less tragic for it. Frigga and Tage are just trying to save their kids, and as many others as possible. There are losses.</p><p>Like small horror movies, small disaster movies give us real people going through a situation. The event is external to them, and anticipated (by us), so these movies have to allow us to spend some time with the characters before the external event happens. Its a different factor from the larger scale ones, usually American, where the true star of the movie is the event itself; the people are cardboard cutouts used as props to focus the event upon.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-20836451915369897572024-02-21T08:11:00.000-05:002024-02-21T08:11:00.141-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #26: Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-out Attack<p><b>Director</b>: Shusuke Kaneko<br /><b>Year</b>: 2001<br /><b>Length</b>: 105 minutes</p><p><br /><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDSYPlmbxRvODRLSj9ki-bNBh8QL5FWrx1-AHpIyyCqpMcizfYA4q7CA08U30OdDiMEXTIqOavfHZNRe4OfwOOhkKOPqHoTNoq9kXBaIt5qWX7seSwU7kEb1LeKj2UnFb3F0QAYIlpIMTBFYrZGb9Vqa0FDOGV03ZbW93Jn33STKLI8aaA-QhXmf49mts/s1129/gvkaoma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="829" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfDSYPlmbxRvODRLSj9ki-bNBh8QL5FWrx1-AHpIyyCqpMcizfYA4q7CA08U30OdDiMEXTIqOavfHZNRe4OfwOOhkKOPqHoTNoq9kXBaIt5qWX7seSwU7kEb1LeKj2UnFb3F0QAYIlpIMTBFYrZGb9Vqa0FDOGV03ZbW93Jn33STKLI8aaA-QhXmf49mts/s320/gvkaoma.jpg" width="235" /></a></b></div><b>The Gist</b>:<br />An American nuclear submarine has gone missing in Pacific waters. The Japan Security Defence Force is assisting in the scouting only to find that the sub has been torn apart, and in the area they spy movement of something very, very large. It could only be...Godzilla.<p></p><p>After a series of random events (a low-budget movie shoot, a group of drunken teens trying to drown a dog, a man attempting suicide in the woods) disrupts some protective stone idols, the Guardian Monsters awaken: Baragon, Mothra and Ghidorah. They are on the hunt for Godzilla, and will protect the world from his wrath.</p><p>Except, when last Godzilla faced the Guardian Monsters, he was but a simple kaiju himself, not emboldened with the souls of the people Japan killed in the Pacific war, and the additional power and strength that comes with it. Baragon (a second-stringer kaiju, thus not featured in the title) is no match for him solo. Even Mothra and Ghidora tag-teaming cannot defeat him. With all the Gurardian Monsters having sacrificed themselves in the effort, it's up to one man in a submersible carrying a specialized burrowing torpedo to get inside Godzilla and shoot his way out.</p><p>The resulting effect opens a gaping wound in Godzilla's neck so when he goes to use his atomic breath, it instead fires out the side of his neck, and ultimately he explodes. The day is saved...except, unbeknownst to the JSDF, the heart survives, and continues to beat.</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:</b><br />Oh, decided enemy. He's a brutal, aggressive violent prick of a kaiju.</p><p><b>The Samesies:<br /></b>As seems to be the trend of the Millennium Era Godzilla films, it dispenses with all Godzilla history except for those of <i>Gojira</i>.</p><p>The JSDF have been organized for 50 years to protect against Godzilla, but have not had a single encounter with him in that time. They have no experience, and do not know how deadly he can be. So, as was so common in the Heisei era, they mount attacks with tanks and planes that have no effect on the beast.</p><p>Mothra and Ghidora as flying creatures, once again look ... not great when they take to the air. Mothra gets a boost from a CGI model that looks pretty decent flying (in the dark), but the big puppet still cannot move its legs and the wing flapping is moderately effective. Ghidorah's flying is clunky and awkward, both in the suit and in CGI.</p><p>The Millennium Era has been experimenting a lot with underwater sequences and they vary in quality here. The earliest sequences in the film are the best, the rest are mostly OK, with a few clunky CGI swimming Godzilla sequences.<br /><br /><b>The Differences:</b><br />There's a real viciousness to Godzilla in this film, as if he's very spiteful of humans. Director Kaneko seems to delight in both the direct and collateral damage that the creatures cause, and he takes pains to show it. It's almost comedic at times, like the scene where a frightened girl with a broken leg in a hospital sees Godzilla through the window heading right for her, only for the creature to pass by and she breathes a sigh of relief. Then Godzilla's tail swings and demolishes the building (we've seen this gag once before, and it remains a good one, but I believe it was with a bad guy character before, not a wounded by stander).</p><p>Godzilla (and the Guardian Monsters) origins are changed dramatically here from a science-derived background (nuclear radiation) to a fantastical one (they are composed of souls?). It's not the first time that Godzilla films have delved into fantasy, and when the kaiju are killed in this one they explode into stardust, kind of like Biollante did at the end of her film. So there's precedent. I don't care for this type of b.s. though. When Mothra is destroyed and her stardust is absorbed by Ghidora who then sprouts wings. There's precedent for this as well, as recent as <i>Godzilla vs Destroyah,</i>where one kaiju can give another its energy so they can continue the fight. In this case, it doesn't really help Ghidorah ultimate. There is a whole mythos about the Guardian Monsters that is talked about by the human characters but not at enough length or with enough connection to the characters to give us much sense of its importance or develop strong world building out of it. </p><p>They've really changed Godzilla's physicality here. He's much slimmer on his upper torso and more reptilian. He doesn't look like he's made of stone like the Godzilla of the previous two films. His hips are really, really wide, and so he moves with a very broad strut that looks like a baby walking with a heavy, saggy diaper. I'm not a fan of the look.</p><p>They've flipped Ghidorah and Godzilla's roles, with Ghidorah now a good guy for the first time, and Godzilla the ultimate evil. If the Millennium Era is proving anything, it's that they want Godzilla to be the ultimate threat.</p><p>This is a rare instance where the humans figure out early that some of the kaiju are there to help them, so they don't bother attacking Baragon, Mothra or Ghidorah.</p><p><b>Anyone Worth Caring About?</b><br />Sigh. The film spends a whole bunch of time with Yuri Tachibana, who starts off as an actress in the no-budget scifi movies but then starts pushing the low-end TV studio into letting her be a field reporter on Godzilla even though they don't do news. It's really stupid. Why not just make her a reporter?</p><p>Her father is an Admiral and while Yuri is digging into all the Guardian Monster mythos, he's getting all the real world intel on what's happening everywhere. You would think the two would wind up collaborating, which they do for a hot second, but then that's kind of it.</p><p>They're a loving father-daughter duo who spend almost no time together in the film, and there's no dramatic tension between them for them to resolve so there is literally no human journey here. Nobody learns a lesson, nobody conquers over any internal adversity, everything is solely related to the external threat, for which, until the final 10 minutes, they have absolutely no impact over. The human angle is almost completely pointless here, as it seems the director was really, intently focussed on the kaiju fights, which are good, but not *that* good.</p><p><b>The Message</b>:<br />The sins of our past will come back to haunt us.<br /><br /><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: <br />ZZz - this was a film of diminishing returns for me. I had high hopes given what <i>G2K </i>and ...<i>vs Megaguirus</i> led the Millennium Era in with, but yet another continuity reset and a dramatic (shocking) redesign of the creature suit very quickly made it a challenge. Cluing in that the investigation into the Guardian Monsters wasn't really going anywhere except to provide exposition as to why they are in the film just made the human side of the film so tedious.</p><p>The monster fights are lively, and yet, do not seem as creative as the improvements the prior Millennium Era films<i> </i>would imply they should be. I blame flying monsters, the bane of the entire Godzilla series.</p><p>I didn't really care for the creature designs here. They seemed to be retro Showa-era homages, and if they wanted us to take this film as semi-seriously as I think they intended, they would have shaken things up. Baragon in particular has been, and remains, one of the doofiest looking kaiju in the series.</p><p>I had seen this high up, or topping many G-fan's lists, and, as with previous favourites like <i>Godzilla vs Biollante</i>, I really didn't connect with it. It wasn't very fun.<br /><br /><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>:<br />Because the human story was so inconsequential and there was lots of military shenanigans, there were many times my eyelids started to droop. I did a rough time check each time I found myself nodding off.<br />30 minute mark.<br />45 minute mark.<br />106 minute mark.<br />Plus the score introduces a new theme to the Godzilla series in the opening credits, a pretty dang solid one by composer Kow Otani, but then he proceeds to use it liberally throughout the film, leading to a bit of a numbing effect.</p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-5141835645889415932024-02-21T07:37:00.005-05:002024-02-21T07:38:30.924-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): American Fiction<p>2023, Cord Jefferson (feature debut) -- download</p><p><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2024/01/kwif-aquaman-and-lost-kingdom-2.html"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepIUYkuJlpQmr4wBfaPIhRwVvr5prmSlT0EAa9mOomg6vc-NVmEoCujRGlI729bTZqGcj-WI0r8ehBuNCBMWCxtBD5gn5zeUTL9qkPw74GgRxP_FRUe18rpuXGV372hB0GEiUnfIySomYVud3MM7slvCxmV0nzXutkugkmamyaw3KgcMEhSBTPrT-Rdq8/s755/american_fiction_ver2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepIUYkuJlpQmr4wBfaPIhRwVvr5prmSlT0EAa9mOomg6vc-NVmEoCujRGlI729bTZqGcj-WI0r8ehBuNCBMWCxtBD5gn5zeUTL9qkPw74GgRxP_FRUe18rpuXGV372hB0GEiUnfIySomYVud3MM7slvCxmV0nzXutkugkmamyaw3KgcMEhSBTPrT-Rdq8/w270-h400/american_fiction_ver2.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>Kent's post. Timing is weird.<p></p><p><i>Was weird. I started the post soon after Kent posted his... post. But that got swallowed, as it is wont to do, by time.</i></p><p>"The Black Experience".</p><p>Even to write this makes me cringe internally. How can I even offer a thought on the subject, let alone discuss it an context? As a guy who is prone to saying The Absolute Wrong Thing (which gets replayed in my head for the rest of my life) but who always strives to Be Better, I try to be forthright about my place in all these things, but I am self-aware enough that no matter what I say, it can be misconstrued. But I will continue to try and say it.</p><p><i>What the fuck are you even talking about?</i></p><p>I am basically trying to say, I want to <u>not</u> come off as the (white) student in the movie's opening sequence, who feels she has to define the (black) teacher's outrage for him. She is not comfortable with the N word being written on a white board. He says it is the context in which the word is used that matters and does not diminish the vitriol in his opinion of her reaction. It gets him suspended. And that suspension gives him no choice but to spend time with family in Boston.</p><p>I always like a comedy where people laugh at the funny things they say. Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross, [<i>really? she's HER daughter?</i>], <i>Black-ish</i>) picks up her brother Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison (Jeffrey Wright, <i>Westworld</i>) after his empty-seated seminar. She picks on him for not being around much, not keeping in touch, for basically being a stand-offish prick. They laugh at his expense. Its funny. But there is love in the teasing. Then, at lunch, she dies of a heart attack.</p><p>Fuck. </p><p>Not only does the movie begin with a death, but it also brings to light how prevalent their mother's dementia is. Fuck. Their mother will need "taking care of" and that costs money, and its money Monk is not making, as his books are not selling, because they are intellectual novels by a stand-offish prick. BUT <i>We's Lives in Da Ghetto</i>, by an author he met at the seminar, is making tons of critical acclaim <u>and</u> money, much to Monk's chagrin. He doesn't believe black authors should have to pander to white people just to make money. Not every black American comes from a ghetto nor lives the "gangsta" life. Buuuut money is money.</p><p>So, in a drunken haze, he writes <i>My Pafology</i> under a pseudonym. As a joke, he has his agent submit it. White Publisher loves it. And thus the premise of the movie gets under way. It makes him the money he needs, and more. But in a lot of ways, as all good movies should, it is not really the premise that carries the rest of the movie. It wins hearts with the family drama, that while extremely heavy (grief on many levels), it is carries the plot along lightly, and not without small moments of joy. </p><p><i>I am always so terrible at saying what I think was Good about a truly Good Movie.</i></p><p>There were two things that stood out for me. That I saw much of myself in Monk, his distance from his family, even if I don't come with the intellectual excuse. I just know well what it is like to be an irascible aging man with identity issues. But also the setting. To drive home the point, this is not a "typical black family", as they are very much Upper Middle Class, with a massive, lovely, family home AND a (not just summer) home on the beach. And a live-in nanny/house keeper who likely helped raise the kids and has lived much of her life in that home. It plays its part, when compared to the fiction that Monk has to create, which had to come from his knowledge of pop-culture depictions, for there is no way he knows this life, but from peripheral exposure. Of course, that charade has to come back to haunt him, and the movie's "LP scratch" moment really felt like the only way to end it all.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-72711306371945697132024-02-20T17:54:00.001-05:002024-02-20T17:54:28.248-05:00KsMIRT: ice and fire<p> <i>K'sMIRT is </i>Kent's Month in Reviewing Television<i>, where each month(ish) I step through the TV series I completed watching each month in the 1 Great-1 Good-1 Bad format. Behold, finished in February.</i></p><p><u>This month</u>:<br />True Detective season 4 - HBO/Max 6 episodes<br />Mr. & Mrs. Smith season 1 - Amazon Prime 10 episodes</p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7S8k_Lsn_1nazJdaJEGhQNzn9B9fyjUVIRiWKQaQk6d5ck4qUReeQSoPzV63PL-sV4AVe2dZ_gDXOpIwmIv-0G-JbIiis7IUf5f0f1Qln0KjkZMopnFxYfpGroo7e-dEkNhU-uj-DetFw4EpkB9TRCedQTrz9VeMcUgsV0zk_TFzZ6XRCY3TFfg-iqND5/s1170/trudectsees4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1170" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7S8k_Lsn_1nazJdaJEGhQNzn9B9fyjUVIRiWKQaQk6d5ck4qUReeQSoPzV63PL-sV4AVe2dZ_gDXOpIwmIv-0G-JbIiis7IUf5f0f1Qln0KjkZMopnFxYfpGroo7e-dEkNhU-uj-DetFw4EpkB9TRCedQTrz9VeMcUgsV0zk_TFzZ6XRCY3TFfg-iqND5/s320/trudectsees4.png" width="320" /></a></div>I had watched Season 1 of <i>True Detective </i>way back in 2014, but I honestly cannot tell you what I thought of it. The reason I write this blog is to record my thoughts on some of the pop culture I consume because otherwise those thoughts will be lost to the ether. My little peanut brain can only hold so much information... like a peanut-sized amount. I treat this blog like Guy Peirce's skin in <i>Memento</i>. If it's not tattooed here, I'm not really going to remember it.<p></p><p>What I know is I didn't watch Season 2, nor Season 3. I don't know if that reflected as much on a dislike of Season 1 or if it was just the critical drubbing Season 2 received prior or early in its release was enough to put me off the subsequent seasons. </p><p>What I recall of season 1 is thinking Alexandra Daddario was far too young to be having sex with Woody Harrelson, and also something about Lovecraft's King in Yellow being mixed up in all of it. Again, I don't know if those little impressions were good or bad. Show creator Nic Pizzolatto did not become "a name to look out for", one way or the other.</p><p>But this new season of <i>True Detective</i>, subtitled <i>Night Country, </i>starring Jodie Foster and MMA fighter Kali Reis, hooked me from the first commercial. First, it's set in the depths of winter in the far north (Alaska), and desolate, wintery settings are my favourite. Second, it's set in the 30 days of night scenario, where, because of the location on the Earth's axis, there's no sunlight for a month every year. It's a conceit that hasn't been used nearly enough (the opposite setting, of days of no darkness has been used I think more often). Third, well, it's not Pizzolatto in charge, so, maybe the critical disappointment from Season 2 that probably tainted the reception of Season 3 would be scrubbed clean. And fourth, I mean, Jodie Foster, incapable of delivering a bad performance.</p><p>Issa Lopez acts as showrunner, writer (or co-writer) and director on every episode of the season and that creative consistency is everything. This is rock-solid storytelling from start to finish, with everything, and I mean everything, feeling entirely consistent and unified for the whole run. While six episodes, it really does feel like it could be a 5-hour movie because of the visual uniformity. There's also no downtime, no filler, no stalling for time.</p><p>The first episode wastes no time in introducing its more metaphysical elements, and it definitely isn't being cagey or shy about it. But it's also very sharp in how it incorporates into the story. The setting is a Native American community that has expanded because of mining operations, but the mine's environmental impact on the town has been having increasingly severe repercussions. The ancestral community and the new community clash over protests around the mine. With a large indigenous cast of characters, it would have been easy enough to lean into just Native spirituality, but it's clear that there's more going on beyond that, and the bleed between them makes it hard to distinguish, intentionally.</p><p> It's a murder mystery, it's a horror story, it's a political statement, it's a police procedural, and, by nature of a largely female cast and writing crew, it's a complex feminist story as well. </p><p>The story starts with a singular mystery, the disappearance of all members of a remote research station, only to be found naked, frozen together in the ice, looking like a mutated mass of flesh. But as Foster's Chief Danvers investigates this crew, it dredges up a cold case from years earlier that wound up severing her partnership with Reis' Navarro, who moved on becoming a State Trooper. </p><p>The reunion of Danvers and Navarro is enough of a story on its own, but this True Detective tale encompasses the whole town, and there is a pretty broad cast of characters that we meet, and have some role to play in everything involved. It feels like we've met half the town by the time the series is finished, and we certainly have a clear idea of the politics at play, and the conflicts that persist. </p><p>We get deep into Danvers and Navarro's family life, as well as Danvers' new protege, Officer Pete Prior (a breakout performance from Finn Bennett), whose dad (John Hawkes) was originally slated to be Chief before Danvers was assigned, and the contention is palpable.</p><p><i>Night Country </i>is an incredibly deep and thoughtful series, presenting hard edged, flawed characters with a richness that allows you to dislike them, but understand them, and root for them to not just figure out what's going down, but also figure out their own lives as well.</p><p>This was an incredible series from start to finish, and watching week to week was somehow both frustrating and satisfying. Each episode is so densely structured that they're filling on their own, but that still doesn't stop them from just seeming like a course of the overall meal.</p><p>The finale could have went many different directions. It had the potential to go full blown action or horror spectacular, but it instead goes the detective route without forgetting that the metaphysical still is woven completely throughout the story. It does wind up being satisfying in its resolution without demystifying its paranormal aspect. </p><p>I may not remember Season 1, but this one will stick with me for a long time. Foster does not disappoint in the slightest, playing an exceptionally traumatized character (and hurt people hurt people) while Reis is just an incredible presence who should be allowed to do whatever she wants after this. An immediate favourite performer. I'm very likely buying this one on Blu-ray, because it's worth revisiting.</p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3ab4In5rL-pAv-ojqaergCm6TXtU8aSEtCR5p7Brujehwprjzpeywb_lqXezG8m7xfS9a6uS7elobFsVBk_L_wuIDoIXaiS9A_6cnALa5FttCZogxqHxACXxtgX7ZBUd5ZDTNJoFW8O-paGeodWlfED6iBh6T5t43zMD3h8_zzMnoSceTtFUG9cTk07x/s299/mrmrssmiff.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="299" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3ab4In5rL-pAv-ojqaergCm6TXtU8aSEtCR5p7Brujehwprjzpeywb_lqXezG8m7xfS9a6uS7elobFsVBk_L_wuIDoIXaiS9A_6cnALa5FttCZogxqHxACXxtgX7ZBUd5ZDTNJoFW8O-paGeodWlfED6iBh6T5t43zMD3h8_zzMnoSceTtFUG9cTk07x/s1600/mrmrssmiff.jpeg" width="299" /></a></div>Speaking of not remembering things... the 2005 Doug Liman-directed, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-starring film <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith </i>holds absolutely no space in my brain. I recall seeing it in theatre when it came out, but I've never revisited it. What I recall is the conceit of the film, two mercenaries, married to each other, are advised they need to kill one another. Watching a film where Brad Pitt physically fights his wife has not aged well as a concept. <p></p><p>There was a <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i> Hitchcock film in the 1940's but that was a screwball comedy about a warring couple. Then there was a short-lived <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i> action/espionage series in the 90's starring Scott Bakula and Maria Bello that finds two special agents having to pretend they're married and do missions. </p><p>Strangely, this latest <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith, </i>created and developed by Donald Glover with Francesca Sloane, is deemed to be based off the 2005 film, which gave no credit to the 90's series, even though there's direct parallels there.</p><p>This series seemed to come out of nowhere. It's a problem with<i> </i>AmazonPrime where they seemed to have put all their promotional money into a failed <i>Lord of the Rings</i> series and nothing else in the year since. I never seem to know when anything is debuting or returning to Prime. It was actually a TV reviewer I follow that tipped me off to <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i>'s premiere two days before it dropped.</p><p>I'm always up for more Glover. The love for the <i>Community </i>cast runs fairly deep. But Glover's<i> Atlanta</i> was one of the most creative and experimental series in the past decade that fanned that flame of fandom. <i>Mr. and Mrs. Smith</i> doesn't take a lot of creative risks certainly not as many as <i>Atlanta</i>, but enough to feel elevated from, say, a network action-oriented series.</p><p>Glover is the known quantity, the draw, but his co-star, Maya Erskine, is the kaboom, the mind-blowing explosive stick of dynamite that makes the show feel revelatory. It is a two-hander of a series, where both performers receive top billing, but it does feel like Erskine's show. She seems to be doing the heavier lifting acting and character-wise.</p><p>Jane and John Smith are each, independently recruited to a non-descript organization to run high-risk operations. They are selected and partnered and given their new identities as well as a gorgeously renovated brownstone in New York that seems well outside almost everyone's affordability rating. They are given their missions by an unknown contact they call "HiHi". The first mission is a literal cake walk, but not what it seems and gives them a sense of what they're in for, as well as the tidbit of 3 fails remaining.</p><p>Across 10 episodes, the Smiths actually develop feelings for each other, and a genuine partnership is formed, but the missions start exposing their weaknesses as a couple and threaten to tear them apart in the end. Ultimately, if you're aware of the "source" film, they're going to start trying to kill one another, but when it happens it's still pretty shocking, because they do such a good job of wanting these crazy assassins to work it out.</p><p>I loved this show. It's full of wonderful action, comedy, romance and intrigue bits, plus it sets up the stakes from the get-go that play out delightfully. Glover leans into his charm, wearing it as a mask with just cracks of vulnerability beneath. He's playing at being a cool agent, but once we really come to realize what a mamma's boy John is, it really spells out his personality. Erskine is, as noted, an explosive performer... she sells everything she needs to sell, including her diagnosed psychopathy, yet it's the way she plays her detached coldness that makes Jane so completely likeable. We're going to be flooded with Erskine as a result of this.</p><p>There's some wonderful guest stars in this, including Parker Posey, John Turturro, Michaela Coel, Sarah Paulson, and more, but my favourite was Ron Perlman who is the Smith's escort mission in Italy. As they're young in their "marriage" the conversation of kids comes up, and, hilariously, Perlman basically acts like a toddler throughout the episode, testing both of their parenting mettle. It's a freaking delight, and Perlman kills the assignment without being too cartoony about it.</p><p>It's a great looking show, handing the romance and the action with equal style and verve. The globetrotting aspect must have made it an expensive shoot, but all the different locations are shot beautifully. Each episode has a mini-movie feel, but they also all chain with each other so that consuming them is all too easy.<br /></p><p>The first season leaves a second season teased up and a full possibility. Hell, we still know absolutely nothing about the organization they work for by the end of the final episode. With Amazon dropping the whole season in one shot, it just means the wait for another season is going to feel that much longer. Lady Kent and I wanted more immediately upon completion.</p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-65107692364608147582024-02-19T18:30:00.000-05:002024-02-20T17:55:44.136-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #25: Godzilla vs Megaguirus<p><b>Director</b>: Masaaki Tezuka<br /><b>Year</b>: 2000<br /><b>Length</b>: 105 minutes</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhX1PvnhYnbcUTLmSTEdhhwUAgdULNL-IMZKOY0xnBeRxu40-j99o49TPaxsKdl3N9_UM32zxC2xBc2PlwPRUC61VBGT7MGBS7VQ8MXvcAr5kUbjP4njr94CasHoPtAG-3zw_iR7StPg9ShLSFSKfLmDl_tXtg83zOpMQ_WLJuzf0FL-oHPsyg47tlTNf/s705/GodzillaVsMegaguirus_B2_ArtworkStyle_Japan_NoriyoshiOhrai-1-500x705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhX1PvnhYnbcUTLmSTEdhhwUAgdULNL-IMZKOY0xnBeRxu40-j99o49TPaxsKdl3N9_UM32zxC2xBc2PlwPRUC61VBGT7MGBS7VQ8MXvcAr5kUbjP4njr94CasHoPtAG-3zw_iR7StPg9ShLSFSKfLmDl_tXtg83zOpMQ_WLJuzf0FL-oHPsyg47tlTNf/s320/GodzillaVsMegaguirus_B2_ArtworkStyle_Japan_NoriyoshiOhrai-1-500x705.jpg" width="227" /></a></b></div><b><br />The Gist</b>:<br />The G-Graspers division of the Japan Self-Defence Force (or whatever acronymic organization is now in charge of defending the country in this film) plans on using a plasma energy device to develop a miniature black hole - fired from a satellite in space, the Dimension Tide - to swallow Godzilla and end his threat forever. There's no way this can go wrong, ridght? <p></p><p>Oops, after testing they've left a tear in the spacetime continuum. A creature has come through, left an egg behind, then disappeared back into the tear. A young boy finds the shining silver egg and hides it away. His family moves to Tokyo where the egg has cracked open in the move. He disposes of the egg down a sewer and that's that. All good, right? Nothing to worry about.</p><p>Oops. The egg enters mitosis and starts rapidly growing. Soon there's a giant bug creature on the loose feeding on unsuspecting humans in surprisingly grizzly scenes, changing after each feeding. It's not long before it attracts the attention of Godzilla, and their (off-screen) conflict attracts the attention of the G-Graspers who take off <i>Thunderbirds/Gatchaman</i>-style in the advanced fighter jet Griffon. They're too late to witness the battle, but they find a bug carcass and manage to plant a tracker on Godzilla</p><p>Turns out, there's not just one bug, but a whole swarm of them, and their's rapid underwater growth in the city's water tables is causing extensive flooding resulting in an evacuation of parts of Tokyo. The swarm of thousands of Meganulas fly to Godzilla and start attacking, sensing Godzilla is an energy source. Godzilla heats up his own body before blasting as many of them out of the sky as possible but, before he can finish them off, the Dimension Tide is fired and Godzilla is zapped into a black hole... and that's that. Movie done.</p><p>But no! Godzilla saw it coming and buried himself in the dirt and survives. Big G stares down the Griffon team, as if to say "nice try assholes".</p><p>The Meganulas swarm flees back to Tokyo, where a mege-mega egg lay in wait. The Meganulas feed the egg the energy they received from Godzilla and die, but a new titan is born, the Megaguirus, like the queen of the Meganulas, sort of like a killer bees species...territorial and aggressive. </p><p>Godzilla and Megaguirus fight while the G-Graspers try to tee them both up to get blasted by the Dimension Tide. Unfortunately Megaguirus' high frequency attacks disrupt both the sattelite and the Griffon and the humans are out of the fight. </p><p>But when it's revealed that there's actually a Plasma energy prototype being developed in Tokyo it makes sense why Godzilla was coming back again. And so, with systems rebooted, the humans take one last stab at firing the Dimension Tide. All seems successful, but weeks later, a seismic reading leaves the possibility that Godzilla somehow escaped his fate....</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:<br /></b>I mean, the humans of the film are <i>only</i> about getting rid of him...but he's the one that needs to take care of this human-generated Megaguirus problem. So...yes.</p><p><b>Anyone Worth Caring About?</b><br />I get fooled every time. The opening sequence focuses on female ranger Kiriko Tsujimori, who loses her leader when he saves her from falling debris from a Godzilla-ravaged building. She's later the leader of the G-Graspers...<br />She recruits miniaturist and microwave expert Hajime to help with their project, and he's pretty sweet on her from the get-go. But she's so Godzilla-foused, she just rolls her eyes at his flirtations. She's got a pretty steely determination. She also gets to punch a greedy bureaucrat in the face so that's fun. And in the end, with Hajime the guy in the chair, and Kiriko flying the Griffon, they fulfill her objective of ending the threat of Godzilla, and they continue flirting.<br />I like them both.</p><p><b>The Samesies:<br /></b>Oh, the Megaguirus is a flying kaiju. Great. Because Toho's had such a great track record with flying kaiju.<br />This one at least gets flapping wings and GCI effects to help dramatize the effect of its power, but it still looks pretty bad (and boy are the strings ever so obvious). Like every flying Kaiju it creates sonic booms when it flies that destroy things in its wake, it can create massive wind gusts when it flaps its wings.</p><p>Evacuations and mass panic sequence (but with a bit of comedy) as Godzilla heads for Tokyo. Reuse of the original Godzilla theme as he emerges into the bay.</p><p>It's been established numerous times over in the Godzilla films that big G will go wherever the opposing threat is, but here the G-Graspers don't seem to understand why he's heading for Tokyo. They don't even consider that it's to face off against Megaguirus.</p><p><br /><b>The Differences:<br /></b>This film starts as a pseudo-sequel to the original, except with a new alt history where Japan has banned all use of nuclear energy, relocated it center to Osaka, and is entirely focused on developing clean energy. They develop Plasma energy in 1996, but even that is enough of a draw to attract the creature, so that has to be ceased. There is a montage of scenes recreated from the original<i> Gojira</i> with this current Godzilla, in black and white even, with a voice over (the first in Godzilla films).</p><p>The opening battle against an rampaging Godzilla is handled by foot soldiers with bazookas, which was pretty exciting (there's something about seeing people against Godzilla rather than the usual 5 minute montage of tanks assembling and firing... hey, both bazookas and tanks are equally in effective, but at least we get some human reaction out of this one). Some of the miniature work in these scenes is really clunky, and unintentionally funny.</p><p>While we've had the three different Super X model hover tanks of the Heisei era, and the astro-soldiers of <i>Destroy All Monsters</i> and <i>Invasion of the Astro-Monster</i> in the Showa era, but this one really goes for the kitted-out anime-style action hero force with the G-Graspers.</p><p>I can't believe this is the first time we've ever seen anyone climb onto Godzilla. I doubly can't believe he would even notice, but he does. Sensitive creature.</p><p>We've only gotten a few underwater scenes before in Godzilla, but there's some submersible images - some CGI, some miniatures, some practical - that mostly pretty fun.</p><p>In <i>Godzilla 2000</i>, like in many of these films there's often a character who is all about killing Godzilla, and then there's the counterpoint (typically lead) character who is about studying and protecting Godzilla. In this case our lead character, Major Kiriko Tsujimori is the one hell-bent on Godzilla's destruction, even at one point authorizing use of the black hole gun before it is ready or they know what the side effects will be. Dangerous.</p><p>It's got a big, sweeping, pounding, somewhat 90's superhero/action film-inspired score from Michiru Oshimawhich I really, really liked.</p><p>It also has a post-credits scene (another first for a Godzilla), where the little boy from earlier is at school when it seems Godzilla emerges again.<br /><br /><b>The Message</b>:<br />When you're afraid of something, you don't run. It's a stand-out line Kiriko says her mentor taught her, but you know...it's never really applied to the story at all.</p><p><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: ZZZ<br />There's a good progression throughout all of this. Everything sort of tracks and moves from A-to-B-to-C-to-D. There's no wild swings or randomness.</p><p>I enjoyed a lot of this, but it's unfortunate how really bad CGI (which almost all of the Meganulas scenes are terrible late-90's era quality CGI effects) can put a damper on it. The fight between Godzilla and Megaguirus is very dynamic, the most dynamic Godzilla fight yet. However, it's often framed poorly and its CGI fails to benefit it, so it's far from perfect. But it's still pretty entertaining. I hear there some incredible Millennium Era films still to come so I really, really look forward to those based on this.</p><p><b>Sleepytime Factor</b>:<br />Surprisingly, no sleepiness. I was really entertained by this one.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-75450386395549963212024-02-19T15:30:00.001-05:002024-02-19T15:32:54.288-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #24: Godzilla 2000: Millennium [American Dub]<p><b>Director</b>: Takao Okawara<br /><b>Year</b>: 1999<br /><b>Length</b>: 99 minutes (the American version is 8 minutes shorter than the original)</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVlMWtyO0-FQYn7ogsskPdBDhyphenhypheneWpO9woJYbJ1hnL3_5kT7SEiLvagD7nroCQDA5MnjWMjG_r79A652cBhoklunZTO0IQZtoblxK1EqPUYNIKcybhkcAyAIRBgUib74Hq0H8bjiyh-uzfh4dn6T9dfdHv0wER2IVbM8EHsyRobW3Io_iJclGxCaqzBHwRv/s755/godzilla_two_thousand.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVlMWtyO0-FQYn7ogsskPdBDhyphenhypheneWpO9woJYbJ1hnL3_5kT7SEiLvagD7nroCQDA5MnjWMjG_r79A652cBhoklunZTO0IQZtoblxK1EqPUYNIKcybhkcAyAIRBgUib74Hq0H8bjiyh-uzfh4dn6T9dfdHv0wER2IVbM8EHsyRobW3Io_iJclGxCaqzBHwRv/s320/godzilla_two_thousand.jpg" width="216" /></a></b></div><b>The Gist</b>:<br />Yuji is the founder of the Godzilla Protection Network. They track, follow and study Godzilla to try and find peaceful ways of existing with the creature, as well as learn from it. Yuji's smarmy tween daughter Io works with him, and they've lately be joined by reporter Yuki looking to get a big Godzilla story and pictures.<br />Yuji used to work closely with Shiro, but when Shiro decided to work for the Crisis Control Intelligence (CCI), an organization hell-bent on destroying Godzilla, the their friendship fractured.<p></p><p>But a recent discovery of a strange meteorite at the bottom of the ocean unveil the threat of an alien spaceship, one that hacks the entire pre-Millennium internet and steals every bit of data, threatening to destroy all technologically stored information like the Y2K bug manifest into something corporeal. </p><p>In reality, Yuji and Shiro, reunited, discover that the alien is interested in Godzilla's regenerative ability called Regenerator G-1 (in the American dub, in the original Japanese it's called Organizer G-1). CCI director Katagiri, who wants Godzilla dead more than anything, also wants to blow up the alien spaceship, and his failed attempt summons Godzilla to Shinjuku district of Tokyo, where the King of Monsters battles with the ufo, only for the UFO to manage to scan Godzilla, discover Regenerator G-1 and morph into a gigantic hulking beast called Orga. The two tussle, and Orga regenerates and mutates at a rapid rate, and at one point tries to swallow Godzilla whole!</p><p>Godzilla gets the best of the beast, and in the end comes eye-to-eye with Katagiri. The man and beast stare each other down, Godzilla seemingly knows this man has been trying to kill him over and over. The beast tears the building out from under Katagiri, and the man disappears into the collapsing structure. </p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:</b><br />Well, the Alien threat is actually the bigger menace, as they both want to use the Regnerator G-1 DNA to themselves adapt and become Godzilla sized beast and rule the planet as well as terraform it to be more habitable to its native species.</p><p><b>The Samesies</b>:<br />I thought for sure this time we were going to get a real human story out of this. There was such focus put on Yuji, Io, and Yuki at the beginning that I thought a makeshift family comedy/romance was going to happen. And then Yuji runs into Katagiri and there's history there, a palpable animosity. But the reunion of Yuji and Shiro was delightful... all amounting to nothing. As typical for a Godzilla film, it drops the human characters almost completely in the final act. This just had the unusual perk of having good character set up before then.</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7KeJrABNu85t7WQQsWu632fXIJCy79X4BZqsV_uH1w7VSk7mU9UfjVHX1T0gQETgZzLDX0U-oR9aUZqM9AubHJE-pJxW2S1Qlu1F4oeK9DybKj5v53KNxSr8jooaQh9sX2kL_6Pb6Q4rpR8v2trxBjZ06mehXjciCVNH0bfaAWXWGuCc_LQxcqcGxYBW/s3816/20240218_105052.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1636" data-original-width="3816" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7KeJrABNu85t7WQQsWu632fXIJCy79X4BZqsV_uH1w7VSk7mU9UfjVHX1T0gQETgZzLDX0U-oR9aUZqM9AubHJE-pJxW2S1Qlu1F4oeK9DybKj5v53KNxSr8jooaQh9sX2kL_6Pb6Q4rpR8v2trxBjZ06mehXjciCVNH0bfaAWXWGuCc_LQxcqcGxYBW/w400-h171/20240218_105052.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />The Differences:</b><br />Godzilla's been reduced in size again, like the size of a 12 story building. So the larger skyscrapers tower over him. He's been redesigned with a lot more jagged edges, bigger spine fins, and a more angular, fanged mouth. His spines have a purple-pink tinge which I liked, which makes me think this is a bit of what the very pink-tinged Godzilla in the new <i>Kong x Godzilla</i> film is pulling from.<p></p><p>This is the first film to employ extensive CGI. Most of it is noticeable but most of it is used in a practical way to enhance live effects or the suit. Using the CG allowed for some really ambitious composite shots where there was activity in both the fore and background (and sometimes in the middle ground). There's three really egregious CGI scenes. The early scene in which the windshield explodes is utterly terrible looking (wondering if this was intended for a 3-D effect), a very brief scene of Godzilla swimming underwater, and the first transformation scene of the UFO into Orga. I was surprised, though, that I wasn't offended or put off by most of the CGI...the attempts to do something new with it in that early time of the technology with a much lower budget than American blockbusters feels kind of quaint instead.</p><p>Godzilla, in previous films, when he finished putting whatever invading threat down, would retreat into the sea. Here, when Godzilla finishes off Orga, and then takes Katagiri off the board, proceeds to just absolutely torch Shinjuku. Just fires his breath, moves in a circular pattern, as if just saying "fuck you, humans". </p><p><b>Anyone Worth Caring About?</b>:<br />No, they really whiffed with Yuji and Yuko's romance. They didn't invest in any of the relationships, really, and also didn't really involve the characters in the third act at all.<br /><br /><b>The Message</b>:<br />It's about Y2K panic. And ripping off <i>Independence Day.</i><br /><br /><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: <br />ZZZ </p><p><b>Sleepytime Factor:<br /></b>I was surprisingly into it. I only *almost* nodded off during the sequence where the CCI is attempting to stop Godzilla's rampage with their new missiles, but given that the army was *finally* having <i>some</i> effect on the big beast, I managed to stay awake.<br />I did almost fall asleep writing this recap though.</p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-90986440935749845922024-02-18T23:00:00.001-05:002024-02-18T23:00:00.132-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla: Heisei Era in review<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTPAL7xInsokCJm4Q2_WdsGJyQ2rn_ucInqWfztrQhoIP2PBsVN38kK1SocB9ybOaxqtzzvaubqFuq5KzEyn3AaMj_WBj6sT1gOZgEOkfDdo6sj-xrMUYZtVjLsD1cB0V9H7lurpjl-KS6gJ04DSCwsmtFpztbcBIyf-iylswueyPiJ-555EgZUHn-1sl/s2884/20240126_165705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1674" data-original-width="2884" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTPAL7xInsokCJm4Q2_WdsGJyQ2rn_ucInqWfztrQhoIP2PBsVN38kK1SocB9ybOaxqtzzvaubqFuq5KzEyn3AaMj_WBj6sT1gOZgEOkfDdo6sj-xrMUYZtVjLsD1cB0V9H7lurpjl-KS6gJ04DSCwsmtFpztbcBIyf-iylswueyPiJ-555EgZUHn-1sl/s320/20240126_165705.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I come out of the Heisei Era of Godzilla (1984 - 1995) wondering if I even like Godzilla at all anymore. I mean, I must otherwise I wouldn't be putting in this kind of time and energy into watching every damn last one of them. But I'm trying to remember if there's a single Godzilla film that I didn't fall asleep to while watching, at least since maybe the first two from the Showa era, and I can't think of one. If I need to go to naptown, it looks like Godzilla is the guy to take me there.<p></p><p>The Heisei spans 7 films over an 11 year period, as opposed to the Showa era which spanned 15 films over a 21 year period. All things told, both eras were dispensing films at almost the same rate. Toho, once they get the machine up and running, can seemingly just crank these things out. The last 5 films of the Heisei era all came out in a 5 year span (the last 12 Showa era films came out in a 13 year span). But that kind of speed does show in the quality of storytelling.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIp9DmGrI2f4LCiA3SPEkumULhxfJ9joe4KPRKfVn7mTn0kXfQPnDWdTMoBvRjleAfbRN_Zed1YxXpju-_4Z518ZSOX1owVoFTOrhxNaAhe_Ngh5NGfTh_FUYlOzBVe3xXP1VTmZUJsoDpHn1rFkCSs1etp-ZK91ewSjWh_NNzGddPyWwgp7zWywkkk-_f/s2129/Screenshot_20240218_080748_Chrome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2129" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIp9DmGrI2f4LCiA3SPEkumULhxfJ9joe4KPRKfVn7mTn0kXfQPnDWdTMoBvRjleAfbRN_Zed1YxXpju-_4Z518ZSOX1owVoFTOrhxNaAhe_Ngh5NGfTh_FUYlOzBVe3xXP1VTmZUJsoDpHn1rFkCSs1etp-ZK91ewSjWh_NNzGddPyWwgp7zWywkkk-_f/s320/Screenshot_20240218_080748_Chrome.jpg" width="162" /></a></div>The first four of the Heisei era films are not readily available to stream, rent or buy. I saw a copy of <i>Godzilla vs Biollante</i> on Blu-Ray at a video store a few weeks ago, and it was selling for over $200. I wound up finding free streams in Japanese with subtitles on the <a href="https://archive.org/" target="_blank">Internet Archive</a>. The video quality was ok, but the sound quality was terrible...all I can say is it's good that there was subtitles. I did wind up acquiring the latter three Heisei films on DVD, since distribution rights were acquired by TriStar in America. <i>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla</i> came in a sealed 7-movie set with all the Millennium Era Godzilla films (so I'm set for the next phase) while <i>Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla</i> and <i>Godzilla vs Destroyah</i> came on a single, double sided disk which I found at a used store. These three were all dubbed, which is not my preference at all. I did watch most of <i>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla</i> with the Internet Archive subtitled version on my phone just to compare the dub vs the sub, and they weren't exact, but they weren't too egregiously different either, not like the heavily edited American versions of the Showa Era G-films.<p></p><p>After I watch a Godzilla film -- or rather, after I start watching a Godzilla film, fall asleep through half of it, get confused and frustrated by the ending, then re-watch another day, and do my silly and wholly unnecessary play-by-play write-up -- I hop over to youtube and watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/BigActionBill" target="_blank">Big Action Bill</a>'s amazing "history of" videos which go deep into the pre-production background, details on the suits used for the production, info on the director and performers and writers and music...just really well researched and essential compendiums for pop culture tourists like myself who are only going to spend a limited amount of time and investment in a property before they move onto something else.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjktX6ficoBNMLt_u6twlm9Fk_KYafJmEC1g1_rYBNkKoZKQAejcbUH2-n4D43ARlPaRijRU8GpGP-lAOm8N72wT5VbI1fug7nFi1SKhS1iw3k3L8LGW6EiqoUrZPw88_7KDUk41THsx6qbSyN7GUu6FcsM9Ewp8f5v1VncjqwHvFUFOUe5zKqx8evzS0vb/s1890/Screenshot_20240218_080953_YouTube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1890" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjktX6ficoBNMLt_u6twlm9Fk_KYafJmEC1g1_rYBNkKoZKQAejcbUH2-n4D43ARlPaRijRU8GpGP-lAOm8N72wT5VbI1fug7nFi1SKhS1iw3k3L8LGW6EiqoUrZPw88_7KDUk41THsx6qbSyN7GUu6FcsM9Ewp8f5v1VncjqwHvFUFOUe5zKqx8evzS0vb/s320/Screenshot_20240218_080953_YouTube.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>Through Big Action Bill's videos, it sort of confirms the chaotic nature of these films behind the scenes. Scripts seem pretty rushed in coming together, often just cobbled from the dregs of past disposed-of story ideas and monster concepts. Where a lot of time and energy are put into building miniature cities and the suits, the actual filming of these movies seems very much a "get the shot, move on" concept. <p></p><p>There's a marked improvement in both miniature construction and suit construction in 9 years between Terror of <i>Mechagodzilla</i> and<i> The Return of Godzilla</i>, but the production values seem comparable between the two eras. Depending on the director , you might get some absolutely gorgeous shots, with impeccable lighting that really trick the eye in a delightful way, or you might just get puppets on strings swirling around on what's clearly a badly lit set, and sometimes both even within the same film... there's no consistency.</p><p>After 22 films, they still haven't figured out how to do a flying creature well. Whether it's men in big rubber suits hoisted in the air by cables, or static mini-puppets bashing into each other, they all look unconvincingly awful. Every time they introduce a new monster with wings I have to groan, because the monster fights with flying creatures are the absolute worst. </p><p>Big Action Bill also pointed out that in Japanese cinema it's common for extraneous or tertiary characters to pop in to deliver exposition or do an action beat or take up space that one of the main characters would otherwise take in a North American film. Most Godzilla films in both the Showa and Heisei era sink because there are too many characters, and the "main" characters of the film are really non-entities with no development to speak of. That Toho recycles their actors from film to film in different roles only confuses things even more. I found myself asking myself "Are we supposed to know that guy?" </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLbonrXgS3gjJHU2uC7g3wZCeFsWOnaVjlKlAeTluIf1cr_tPSKZ5y8rt8jdKcY2V_yguBTwmV7x_n3CIu_lcb-03__rAYJHNo37HAqTsKrV-_7N9EDng2bWHWnlHifcBpIctm3wsWFreV06FjWWP5krfQz4CibuKBfCaIG0kUmzTqqUw5sW20dIK8-sp/s4000/20240129_185417.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2252" data-original-width="4000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLbonrXgS3gjJHU2uC7g3wZCeFsWOnaVjlKlAeTluIf1cr_tPSKZ5y8rt8jdKcY2V_yguBTwmV7x_n3CIu_lcb-03__rAYJHNo37HAqTsKrV-_7N9EDng2bWHWnlHifcBpIctm3wsWFreV06FjWWP5krfQz4CibuKBfCaIG0kUmzTqqUw5sW20dIK8-sp/s320/20240129_185417.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The Heisei era had a few recurring characters, including government and military personnel, who, if they had a name, I never really cottoned to it, because they are so minor and inconsequential despite being in (nearly?) every movie. Then there was Miki the Psychic Girl who appears in 6 of the 7 films, but has no distinct character arc and no defining personality to speak of. She's a consistent presence but has so very little to do. She's supposed to have this strong connection with Godzilla, but it amounts to almost nothing but an exposition dump every time.<p></p><p>The first two Heisei films, <i>The Return of Godzilla</i> and <i>Godzilla vs Biollante</i>, felt ...elevated somewhat from their Showa Era predecessors, but following that it felt like the Heisei era was really reverting back to Showa-era goofiness to varying effect. <i>Godzilla vs Destroyah</i> does effectively return a bit of actual horror and tension with Godzilla's impending meltdown set to destroy the world, but really inept scripting and storytelling rob the film of much of its dramatic and emotional impact.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcqNJ0Zg-wR6LYVQ_p_2wMCM0m1ja-z8NcrsjLgymbp7BVZeEGYr5AYElu3wSn38TgroCaT6mzht5R6VsbciCSgHV99JrYvWslx1W2c-8_Unnv6Trvi6q6hGiMX9EB6d2Jbtq76AzdknmDYHRaMT0KsZ_3-9TRox1S44nJSIXdENQs60Wkzl2-RayrYyqw/s3435/20240129_184309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1870" data-original-width="3435" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcqNJ0Zg-wR6LYVQ_p_2wMCM0m1ja-z8NcrsjLgymbp7BVZeEGYr5AYElu3wSn38TgroCaT6mzht5R6VsbciCSgHV99JrYvWslx1W2c-8_Unnv6Trvi6q6hGiMX9EB6d2Jbtq76AzdknmDYHRaMT0KsZ_3-9TRox1S44nJSIXdENQs60Wkzl2-RayrYyqw/s320/20240129_184309.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I went into the Heisei era really excited, hoping to see better stories, better characters, tighter continuity, and, well, I got one of those three, the one that matters least. I come out of the Heisei era feeling pretty drained on the property, and let down overall. Many fans, I've been hearing, consider the Heisei era to be be the best of big G, which has me even more worried as I head into the Millennium era. <p></p><p>One big change needs to happen in this process of watching all the Godzillas is a further adaptation of the template I'm using to recap them... especially the "recapping" part. It started with the <i>Double Oh</i> series for James Bond and then was almost a necessity with our <i>A Toast to HallmarKent</i> series, but recapping a movie beat by beat, or even in broad strokes, has become one of my least favourite things, primarily because Godzilla films are so anti-structure and, frankly, poorly written, event-focused stories. So recapping all the sort of stream-of-consciousness flow to these movies is kind of maddening, because they don't make much sense and trying to capture every absurd swerve is a fools errand. I'm that fool, but I can no longer be. Heck, maybe we'll find the Millennium era finally finds some narrative drive to their movies....</p><p>At least I know, post-Millennium, getting into the Monsterverse and Reiwa era, that there's some actual great stuff happening there to look forward to. </p><p>---</p><p><b><u>Rankings</u></b>:</p><p><u>Heisei Era</u></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Return of Godzilla</li><li>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II</li><li>Godzilla vs Destroyah</li><li>Godzilla vs Mothra</li><li>Godzilla vs Biollante</li><li>Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla</li><li>Godzilla vs King Ghidorah</li><li>Godzilla 1985</li></ol><div><u>All the films (so far)</u>:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Return of Godzilla</li><li>Godzilla vs Mothra (1964)</li><li>Gojira</li><li>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974)</li><li>Ebirah, Horror of the Deep</li><li>Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II</li><li>Terror of Mechagodzilla</li><li>Godzilla vs Destroyah</li><li>Godzilla vs Mothra (1992)</li><li>Godzilla vs. Hedorah</li><li>Godzilla vs Gigan</li><li>Godzilla vs Megalon</li><li>Destroy All Monsters</li><li>Godzilla vs Biollante</li><li>Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla</li><li>All Monsters Attack</li><li>Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster</li><li>Godzilla vs King Ghidorah</li><li>Invasion of the Astro Monster</li><li>Godzilla Raids Again</li><li>Godzilla 1985</li><li>Son of Godzilla</li><li>Godzilla King of the Monsters (1956)</li><li>King Kong vs Godzilla (US version 1962)</li></ol></div><div><br /></div><p></p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-85416528324079910402024-02-18T08:03:00.004-05:002024-02-18T08:03:50.659-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): The Beekeeper<p>2024, David Ayer (<i>Suicide Squad</i>) -- download </p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeJw4Dj4alFL2OW42k0U_5gj-MP7_lhx45w68NDzBxt_VOL-354zwswh2cpYFzvA4sE7mQUbUe5t1uDoAY-7UyRspiupPdO0z1S305sFdn4Z5pPNa3iR2RldCAXA3VcUe51mWSalv-8kqzyY9SoaNEXfdI2sA8aa-Hi0a8qqmzfgzBH8VmsYaZOdalMn9_/s755/beekeeper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeJw4Dj4alFL2OW42k0U_5gj-MP7_lhx45w68NDzBxt_VOL-354zwswh2cpYFzvA4sE7mQUbUe5t1uDoAY-7UyRspiupPdO0z1S305sFdn4Z5pPNa3iR2RldCAXA3VcUe51mWSalv-8kqzyY9SoaNEXfdI2sA8aa-Hi0a8qqmzfgzBH8VmsYaZOdalMn9_/w270-h400/beekeeper.jpg" width="270" /></a></i></div><i>The Bee Keeper and the Brick Layer walk into a bar....</i><p></p><p>This one, typical of the kind of movie I rush to download now, that That Guy of my youth would have sneered at. Despite my comments prior, I did not waste my youth <i>only</i> watching terrible movies. To have found the quality actioner among the dross was a challenge, endlessly reading reviews and the backs of VHS boxes. But as I got older, I tempered, reduced my desire to be challenged <i>all the time</i>. Sometimes, and more often than not now, I just want familiarity, a digestible plot, the same brain chemistry release I get when I play FPS video games. Oh, I want some semblance of capability, as if all I wanted was the concept, there are endless number of Z-grades on Amazon and Tubi. </p><p><i>Yes, I know I have said that umpteen times but I still catch myself wondering why Toasty Now actually looks forward to movies that Toast Then (aka That Guy) would have sneered at.</i></p><p>David Ayer doesn't have a great track record in my world (<i>actually no, scratch that dude. other than Suicide Squad, you rather like his work</i>), but TBH I didn't even know he did the movie till I clicked Start. What I knew going in was that this was seminal Jason Statham, who is still in his prime Action Hero role for at least a decade, before he gets relegated to my other favourite (one of) genre of Aging Shooter. Here, he is a retired.... agent... of an organization called The Beekeepers, Ayer's version of Vaughn's "The Kingsmen", except there only seems to be one Beekeeper at any one time, a legendarily capable soldier for America, who stands aside from the politics and the laws to always set things right.</p><p><i>Statham is the same age as me, i.e. we are both turning 57 this year. On one hand, he is very very VERY much in better shape for a guy our age, than I am. On the other hand, he or his purple suit, were very concerned about his "greying" as he has the most obviously dyed beard. People have asked me if I have ever thought about dying my facial hair as my head-hair is still mostly sans grey, but after seeing how blatant his was, and he doesn't even have any head-hair, I am secure being (more) salt & pepper.</i></p><p>Adam Clay (Statham, <i>Parker</i>) is quiet in his retirement as he... well, keeps bees. That is, until Evil Scammers scam the Old Lady (Phylicia Rashad, <i>The Cosby Show</i>) he rents bee space from, stealing from her not only her own money, but the money from the charity she runs. In response, he uses his old Bee Keeper contacts to blow the Evil Scammer callcentre up, which strangely enough, is not in a foreign country, but in midwest US of A, and looks like the set of a 90s hacker movie, replete with tacky clothing and annoying personalities, all the while spitting out an endless litany of bee knowledge. Meanwhile the Old Lady's daughter (Emmy Raver-Lampman, <i>The Umbrella Academy</i>), a member of law enforecement who happens to have been trying to take down these Evil Scammers, follows Clay from blowed-up-place to blowed-up-place. MEANWHILE, the Top Evil Scammer (Josh Hutcherson, <i>The Hunger Games</i>) happens to be a pampered rich boy who uses his pampered rich mom's contacts (Jeremy Irons, <i>Dungeons & Dragons [not that one]</i>) to find out who is blowing up his call centres, leading to a John Wick "oh" moment, when they discover Clay was a Bee Keeper.</p><p>For the most part, the movie is an unremarkable, familiar action movie, paced as well as expected, with a slight twist that is more of an eye roll. It introduces an an interesting John Wick-ian organization, but never really does anything with it. So.... pretty much as I expected / sought out?</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-81692106445733526112024-02-18T07:30:00.001-05:002024-02-18T07:30:00.131-05:00Go-Go-Godzilla #23: Godzilla vs Destroyah<p><b>Director</b>: Takao Okawara<br /><b>Year</b>: 1995<br /><b>Distributor: </b>TriStar, Toho Pictures<br /><b>Length</b>: 100 minutes</p><p><br /><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUpfIUj81vK-0QwemTRc6ZPBZuDb8Cbk5XELfk_bCm2MnkZKjfdFVFm98wa-U1gq42ArC26GitIiLJIYHEna-wbJ7nCQR2Ux7JvZlP49gIHWphi_2uFbjkZaa09g-TeHCjKiVWGnTKw350DkXuiwuzenuPnwfMjqDihl4G1sjX7TtTzhUWM7fNE2-GzV0F/s1000/gzlavsdstryh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="663" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUpfIUj81vK-0QwemTRc6ZPBZuDb8Cbk5XELfk_bCm2MnkZKjfdFVFm98wa-U1gq42ArC26GitIiLJIYHEna-wbJ7nCQR2Ux7JvZlP49gIHWphi_2uFbjkZaa09g-TeHCjKiVWGnTKw350DkXuiwuzenuPnwfMjqDihl4G1sjX7TtTzhUWM7fNE2-GzV0F/s320/gzlavsdstryh.jpg" width="212" /></a></b></div><b><br />The Creature's' Story</b>:<br />Like best rappers, Godzilla spit hot fire now.<br />Oh wait, Godzilla am glowing all red, boiling water around Godzilla. This not good.<br />Wha' happened? <p></p><p>Godzilla am dead. :(</p><p><b>The Human Story</b>:<br />Birth Island (Godzilla's home) is gone! Destroyed! <br />Godzilla emerges all fucked up, burning bright red, and possibly having an atomic meltdown.<br />Dr Yamani's (from the original <i>Gojira</i>) grandson, Ken, did his college thesis on Godzilla which G-Force is treating as a possible answer to Godzilla's situation. When he meets Miki, the psychic girl, she worries that Baby G didn't survive the destruction of Birth Island. Ken also theorizes that Godzilla's full meltdown will superheat the earth's atmosphere and then explode the oxygen destroying everything. Intense! <br />Godzilla, he is adamant, must be destroyed!</p><p>It's taken 40 years but someone's finally invented "tiny atoms" and made "microoxygen" which hearkens back to the "oxygen destroyer" of the original Godzilla film, possibly the most dangerous weapon man's ever created. If they have no other option, then the Japan Security Defence Force has no other choice but to attempt to recreate Dr. Serizawa's original weapon. Serizawa's widow implores Ken not to build the weapon Serizawa gave his life to ensure it would never exist again.</p><p>In the meantime they try a new weapon that will flash freeze anything. They target Godzilla using the new Super X Mark III flying tank to try the weapon out, with only limited succes.</p><p>Meanwhile A microorganism from the precambrian era that eats oxygen was discovered in a soil sample and has already mutated and gotten loose.The microorganism grows into many microorganism and then continue to combine and grow, attacking everything in their path until ultimately it turns into a singular form dubbed "Destroyah". They are effectively the Oxygen Destroyer of the original <i>Gojira</i> come to life. Eventually, it's determined that Destroyah, as devastating a creature as it may be, may be their only hope in saving the earth from Godzilla's meltdown.</p><p>In order to get the two creatures together, the JSDF needs to lure Godzilla into Destroyah's path as it rampages through Japan. In order to do so, Miki finds Baby Godzilla is still alive and is convinced to lure it to Destroyah's path, where the mini-titan valiantly but hopelessly confronts Destroyah, and is injured to the brink of death. </p><p>As hoped, Baby G's peril brings Papa G a-comin' and the two remaining titans tussle. Even with Oxygen Destroying powers, Godzilla reaches a new level of fierceness in his mid-meldown state and obliterates the other creature. But Godzilla transfers some of his atomic essence to save Baby G, and when he goes full meltdown Baby G absorbs all the ensuing radiation and he grows to full-Godzilla size as a result. <br /></p><p>Godzilla is dead. Long live Godzilla!</p><p><b>Godzilla, Friend or Foe:</b><br />Involuntary foe.</p><p><b>The Sounds</b>:<br />Akira Ifukube delivers a new score and new themes but also spins the usual Godzilla themes on their head. It's a fitting sendoff and his liveliest Godzilla score since the 70's, but still not as fresh as his 60's work which refused to rehash earlier sounds.<br /><br /><b>The Message</b>:<br />Past sins will always come back to haunt you. Back in <i>Gojira</i>, the Oxygen Destroyer was deemed far too dangerous a weapon for man to have in their hands, so its creator destroyed every record and himself in the process to ensure the weapon could never be recreated. But what he couldn't see, just like Oppenheimer, is the monster that would result. Whether it's lingering radiation poisoning or even bigger bombs, man, even in the face of the direst warnings cannot help but push itself towards its own extinction in the name of curiosity.</p><p><b>Rating (out of 5 Zs)</b>: ZZZ<br />While it's still not a very cohesive story, and it meanders quite a bit, the looming threat of a world-ending meltdown from Godzilla is a very intense idea. The threat of Godzilla bashing buildings, knocking over bridges, and stepping on tanks, is nothing compared to the visualization of Godzilla fully imploding, with the resulting disaster setting fire to the very atmosphere of the earth. It's like Terminator 2: Judgement Day times 11. (And that's not the only pop culture nod, here as the director pays tribute to Aliens and Jurassic Park among other big even films from the past decade).</p><p>For some reason, a second Psychic Girl is introduced into the film, a Japanese ex-pat now from America. It just means some of Miki the Psychic Girl's thunder is stolen by this other woman. But where they could be combative, they wind up becoming easy allies and they help each other out. Miki does get some good scenes being emotional about Godzilla and Baby Godzilla, but I can't help but feel her 6-movie run missed a great opportunity for her to have an actual connection with these creatures as an audience surrogate, not just existing for an expository purpose.</p><p>The film uses new techniques in composite editing of the suitmation and live city scenes. It's not flawless, but it's delightful to look at. As well, the final battle sequence is filmed on the biggest miniatures stage yet, and it an utterly impressive cityscape terrain for them to do battle on. </p><p>I don't love any of Destroyah's looks, exactly, in any of its forms (it's mid-size scale kind of look like the Brood from X-Men) and its final form gets wings, which, means it flies. As we've seen in almost every film where a creature flies in Godzilla, it looks terrible. I'm not sure why they keep going back to that well. </p><p>Godzilla's meltdown effect, though, is incredible. The body suit glows, and there's smoke or steam coming off of him and when he walks in the water it's bubbling around him. It really reinforces that something is incredibly wrong with that thing.<br /><br />It's a decent finale, and really treats Godzilla with a reverence that I'm not sure any film has captured in this way. </p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-69540883231435012722024-02-17T17:02:00.001-05:002024-02-17T17:02:56.881-05:00KWIF: Past Lives (+2)<p> <i>KWIF=Kent's Week in Film</i></p><p><u>This week</u>:<br />Past Lives (2023, d. Celine Song - AmazonPrime)<br />Nimona (2023, d. Troy Quane, Nick Bruno - Netflix)<br />Plus One (2019, d. Andrew Rhymer, Jeff Chan - Netflix) </p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypcsI4nJnRsJ1YjgajrpltaswXDtcWtzxOCKfY1QdleYh4-naKy8u8DLfq0pJe6N2sCNNRNknbH42Tq9In378BtZSEq5E65x_KwOAr3XTlwCQfcjalfTD-iDBi4wBTOHl01TI90vOHhkKO3435rxE7ZVTk51cXtrEoth_BKtbUGBhcNFPvJxbZsmUNVDC/s755/past_lives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypcsI4nJnRsJ1YjgajrpltaswXDtcWtzxOCKfY1QdleYh4-naKy8u8DLfq0pJe6N2sCNNRNknbH42Tq9In378BtZSEq5E65x_KwOAr3XTlwCQfcjalfTD-iDBi4wBTOHl01TI90vOHhkKO3435rxE7ZVTk51cXtrEoth_BKtbUGBhcNFPvJxbZsmUNVDC/s320/past_lives.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>Between watching films like <i>Anatomy of a Fall </i>and <i>Maestro</i>, the new <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith </i>series on AmazonPrime, and hearing the neighbours yelling at each other through the walls nearly every day, for, oh, the past four years, I feel like I've gotten more than my fill of intense, unhappy relationships. It's bad for the mindset to have too much of that in one's life, even peripherally.<p></p><p>Celine Song's <i>Past Lives</i> is kind of a bittersweet tonic to such sequences of relationship animosity. It's an ode to individualism as well as to love. It's an incredibly mature, thoughtful look at relationships and shows people who are capable of self-awareness and managing their emotions.</p><p>Na Young and Hae Sung grew up together in Seoul. By the time they were twelve they were intensely competitive with one another in school, but also incredibly attached. Just as they're starting to explore feelings for each other, Na Young is ripped away as her family emigrates to Canada. No word of a lie, but their last moment with each other is one of the most beautifully composed visual metaphors in cinema, thanks to a perfectly scouted location.</p><p>Twelve years later, Na Young, now Nora (Greta Lee), is an aspiring playwright, while Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) has wrapped up mandatory military service and looks to the next phase of his life. But he's not forgotten a piece of his past, and he reaches out through a series of connections on Facebook to find Nora, who, curious herself, reaches out in return. Their connection is as immediate as if they had never left it, only the attraction is much more adult and the emotions much more understood. Alas, a half a world away, and half a day's difference makes a relationship hard to sustain... and what's more, Nora is finding it distracting from her goals, from what she wants to achieve. With no hope of Hae Sung coming to New York and no time for her to make a trip to Soeul, she presses "pause" on whatever is happening between them. And they both go about their lives. </p><p>I think one of the more difficult things in film and television storytelling is making video calling interesting to watch, but Song here really gets so much out of how her actors behave towards the camera (and just off camera). There's so much to be said about what we see on the screen within a screen, but then there's what we see in the scene that the characters don't see of each other...physicality, gestures... and then there's the missed connections, which, somehow, are just heartbreaking.</p><p>Another 12 years pass. Nora is married to another writer, Arthur (John Magaro), and they have, what I think can be said is a very practical partnership. When Hae Sung, recently reconnecting with Nora, comes to New York to visit, there is clearly a rekindling happening between them, a palpable attraction that hasn't gone away in the 24 years since they were last able to touch each other. What results is a <i>Before Sunrise</i>-esque level of engagement, talking candidly about what life has been like, and what life could have been like in different circumstances. Arthur is not ignorant of the connection they share, he's not oblivious to the cliches of storytelling where he's the odd-man-out, but at the same time, there's a reality that all three players are fully aware up. No one is upending their lives just for some idea of "love".</p><p>The way the characters engage with each other, with openness and honesty that is both given and received, is absolutely refreshing. There's no real drama in <i>Past Lives, </i>there's no romantic cliches of "true love conquers all", there's just a heavy concrete slab of reality at the foundation of this movie, and in Nora's character. She is a realist, and despite whatever emotions come with Hae Sung, she has so many more emotions tied elsewhere that would be uprooted to be with him.</p><p>Despite the almost wet blanket scenario and absence of high drama, it's a very romantic movie. It is a movie about love, and it's never a bad time to be in the presence of love.</p><p>But it's also a movie about what it means to feel complete, and love is only a piece of it. Why do people cheat on their partners or leave their family behind to run off with a new fling? It's often got nothing to do with the other person and everything to do with themselves...they're chasing external happiness. </p><p>Hae Sung, for his part, can't let go of Nora because he's not found happiness with himself. He's still chasing a feeling he felt long ago in someone else, rather than trying to find that feeling inside. </p><p>--This is the last film of the Best Picture Oscar Nominees that I had yet to see, and this is the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, I've seen all Nominees prior to the ceremony. <a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2024/02/kwif-maydecember-4.html" target="_blank">Last week</a> I ranked the nominees in my preferential order (not who I think will win, just my preference), and I think <i>Past Lives </i>would fall into that middle pack with <i>The Holdovers, Oppenheimer, and</i> <i>American Fiction, </i>where any of these four films could swap places in the 3-6 slot. But I still like <i>Anatomy of a Fall</i> and <i>Poor Things</i> well above them all.--</p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvjjDvlRjgaAwgS3bDm_Hb9NiCPB_0tzMwoZPfCsCfs700KPS63qhMiddmAKJ12dMTGRor_3FhWZWlN5MH3PnJgvrqCjm-dXeDFmE2rk5eH8XoBwCzTfpPPy52EEcrTFL7AsJUEiH94Wz1ugcjafeaGjxxvY_Xc2eotaSRotW1laA-cjIOIi3kNqp4vrd/s755/nimona_ver2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvjjDvlRjgaAwgS3bDm_Hb9NiCPB_0tzMwoZPfCsCfs700KPS63qhMiddmAKJ12dMTGRor_3FhWZWlN5MH3PnJgvrqCjm-dXeDFmE2rk5eH8XoBwCzTfpPPy52EEcrTFL7AsJUEiH94Wz1ugcjafeaGjxxvY_Xc2eotaSRotW1laA-cjIOIi3kNqp4vrd/s320/nimona_ver2.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>I like the idea of the Annupurna/Netflix feature <i>Nimona</i>, based on the graphic novel series by ND Stevenson, much more that I think I enjoyed <i>Nimona.</i><p></p><p>The film starts with a bit of an overcomplicated history lesson voiceover describing how the mystical land and society was built around protecting itself from monster then jumps a thousand years in the future to find a techno-medi-evil terrain where a young street kid was taken in by the queen to be educated as part of the land's fabled knighthood, a position usually reserved for the elite families of the city. </p><p>Ballister Boldheart is about to be knighted, bucking tradition, but during the ceremony he is framed for murdering the queen and goes on the run. He is found by Nimona, an energetic changeling who looks only for companionship from a fellow outcast. The pair have to battle both class structures and intolerance to uncover the truth of the Queen's death, as well as, perhaps, change some minds about changelings being the monsters this society has been so afraid of for generations.</p><p>Without really any fanfare, <i>Nimona</i> is a young adult fantasy-adventure that features queer characters as its leads. Ballister was in a romantic relationship with Ambrosius Goldenloin, the champion knight, until Ambrosius cut his arm off when he thought Ballister murdered the Queen. Nimona is trans-coded, and while the character is pronouned "she" throughout, Nimona kind of bucks the idea of even being gendered, or classified as any sort of form. </p><p>I love that aspect of the film, that it so effortlessly includes these characters without ever awkwardly making a point about it, but at the same time, it's the entire subtext of the movie if you're looking for it. Unfortunately the setting of the film did absolutely nothing for me. The societal structure, the visual design, the meta-cross of fantasy and techno-future...I just didn't find it appealing. </p><p>But the final act turned into a real emotional rollercoaster and really got me in the gut and got the tears flowing. The climax raises the stakes to a very surprising and intense level, and its resolution is a thing of absolute beauty. I may not have been enthralled by the first two acts leading up to it, but it pays off really nicely. Riz Ahmed as Ballister and Chloe Grace Moretz both deliver really great voice performances as well. It's not a better film than <i>Across the Spider-Verse </i>in this year's Best Animate Picture Oscar race, not <i>The Boy and the Heron</i>, but it shouldn't be dismissed as so many Netflix originals often do.</p><p><i><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/2023/09/3-short-paragraphs-or-not-nimona.html" target="_blank">Toasty's take...we agree.</a></i></p><p>---</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTY4hVqC7J0m8oFRHXzwdZmJzER6XGYd533yoWXeJ9-DbXbG2JC0pc0vCpkYtiM3k9Key2wrAPTWtCG8akxlFmQirlSp0VCuRmvO3LMfPVUMbGhXL-uS2cC5Y82c1I8fIz2x3GWDN7ZIrTQ-0RHrODsQofCWxrpA7Yfv4wmodwmmKMhzmnnDz61Jk4EXD/s755/plus_one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTY4hVqC7J0m8oFRHXzwdZmJzER6XGYd533yoWXeJ9-DbXbG2JC0pc0vCpkYtiM3k9Key2wrAPTWtCG8akxlFmQirlSp0VCuRmvO3LMfPVUMbGhXL-uS2cC5Y82c1I8fIz2x3GWDN7ZIrTQ-0RHrODsQofCWxrpA7Yfv4wmodwmmKMhzmnnDz61Jk4EXD/s320/plus_one.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>After finishing the aforementioned <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i> series starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, this indie romcom starring Erskin and <i>The Boys</i> Jack Quaid popped up prominently on Netflix. I had never heard of the movie, so, as I do, I promptly took a gander at Letterboxd to see how the cinemaphiles had rated it, and they liked it, singling out Erskine as the film's key draw.<p></p><p>I had seen Erskine around over the years, including the recent <i>Obi-Wan Kenobi</i> series, but she wasn't that prominently featured (I haven't yet watched her comedy series <i>Pen15</i>). So <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i> is my first big exposure, and wow...what an impact. I'll get to that review later this coming week. But with the Letterboxd recommendation of more wonderful Erskine business, <i>Plus One</i> became a must-watch.</p><p>Erskine plays Alice, who gets into an arrangement with her buddy, Ben (Quaid) to be each other's dates to the many weddings each has to attend that summer. They're just friends to start, she even acts as his wingman for a time, and there's not an ounce of romantic chemistry between them at first, but the friend chemistry is wholly palpable. But you can't spend that amount of time with one another in fancy dress, loaded with alcohol, surrounding by sweeping sentiments of love, and not, perhaps, get swept up in it.</p><p>But how do they know it's real? I came to the movie for Erskine, but Quaid is a very likeable presence and the ostensible lead of the film (it really does focus more on Ben's life and POV than Alice's). Where Alice has recently gone through a break-up at the start of the film, Ben seems kind of terminally alone. He's the last of his friends who is single by the time the summer wedding season gets into full swing, and when he looks at his twice-divorced father (Ed Begley Jr.) who just proposed to a woman half his age, Ben thinks he understands why. So when he gets together with Alice, and, more surprisingly Alice is all-in on the relationship, it's Ben who starts to get shaken by what they have.</p><p>In a way, <i>Plus One</i> follows a pretty similar formula to beloved Kent household favourite <i><a href="https://wedisagree.blogspot.com/search?q=holidate#:~:text=T%26K%27s%20X%2DMas%20Advent%20Calendar%3A%20Day%203%20%2D%20Holidate" target="_blank">Holidate</a>, </i> so there was something comfortable about the structure, though the timeframe of the relationship is sort of compressed over a few summer months as opposed to a whole year. Still, changing venues, different people surrounding the characters, and the device of leading each wedding "chapter" off with the best man or bridesmaid speech (and highlighting all the different tropes of said speeches) was terrific. </p><p>Erskine is the standout here. She's a bundle of aggressive energy, with a sincerity and vulnerability that temper the aggressiveness into charming. As she'd proven in <i>Mr. & Mrs. Smith</i>, she's a versatile and gifted actress, comedic or otherwise, and I expect we'll be seeing an increasing amount of her over the next couple of year. Quaid has more of his mom Meg Ryan's charm than his dad's sort of smarm, which makes him kind of perfect for a romcom lead. He's not the stereotype of the romcom lead, but he is a guy you definitely root for to get his shit together. It's charming.</p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5020897025814856440.post-29998362105592267582024-02-13T07:05:00.007-05:002024-02-13T07:05:35.867-05:003 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Paradise<p>2023, Boris Kunz (<i>Drei Stunden</i>) -- Netflix</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2oMplzlSdsJcULIbeEXuVBL1BSqjPm2wByLCc1-BnrvRyH5UdnSOEk_Bm7A8lp8drhD4JEzU4mHp7o327jhRDNgFH52hKpzUZ9ctns6cUtxrEWgkRyQdMF9DbVJRW0BEpXC4vBXwv3KOxo6YDjgRkUGy_EqSYgkvQDzt6njnqsBKj-50b7fcwJJ1XZxqW/s755/paradise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2oMplzlSdsJcULIbeEXuVBL1BSqjPm2wByLCc1-BnrvRyH5UdnSOEk_Bm7A8lp8drhD4JEzU4mHp7o327jhRDNgFH52hKpzUZ9ctns6cUtxrEWgkRyQdMF9DbVJRW0BEpXC4vBXwv3KOxo6YDjgRkUGy_EqSYgkvQDzt6njnqsBKj-50b7fcwJJ1XZxqW/w270-h400/paradise.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>Youth is wasted on the young. In my personal experience, as in <u>me</u>, that is entirely true. I wasted my youth in vast swathes. TBH I still am wasting my life. And I am past the point of return value. But whatever. But what if you could <i>regain</i> that youth? As in physically be younger, but with all the wisdom (???) of your current age. Like all good scifi cautionary tales, this youth only comes at the cost... of another's youth. Tit for tat. You get younger, they get older.<p></p><p>The world of <i>Paradise</i> is of the twenty minutes into the future ilk, where the rich are richer and reap all the benefits. There are unexplained massive refugee camps everywhere all over Europe, much of eastern Europe left the union and lives in squalor. But for a small exchange, like 10, 20... 40 years of your life, a company called AEON will give you a life (what's remaining of it) of leisure and wealth. And your years are given to someone who can afford it. Oh they say it is meant to benefit the scientists and artists and the people who are making the world better, but we all know better. </p><p>Max (Kostja Ullman, <i>The Reckoning</i>) is Top Seller at AEON, a man who coerces teenage refugees out of decades, a man about to be rewarded, able to upgrade his apartment, start a family. But then their apartment burns down, and he finds out his young wife Elena (Marlene Tanczik, <i>Never Look Away</i>) has used her years as collateral. Debt enforcement is immediate -- 40 years. Max is desperate to get his wife's, their, life back, even if she doesn't want it. And when he finds out the founder of AEON was directly involved in his apartment fire and his wife's debt, he has to ask himself who is worth more.</p><p>The movie could have continued to explore the moral complications, but instead it decided to devolve into an actioner, putting Max and Elena between the forces of AEON and Adam, the terrorist group that wants to end this technology forever and kills anyone who benefits from it. Oh, it tries to weave in some difficult choices but those get lost in the gunfire. In the end, nobody wins but AEON the corporation, which is a lazy way to end most dystopian fiction, assuming Nothing Ever Changes and nobody wins. Except the rich.</p>Toastyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13695947452863502901noreply@blogger.com0