Ah, Species. You should have been made in the ‘70’s. Can you imagine the trailer? I can.
CUE GRINDHOUSE MUSIC over SEXY STRIPPERS.
RASPY-VOICED ANNOUNCER
Meet SIL.She’s HOT.She’s FUNKY.She’s READY TO GET IT ON.She’s an extra-terrestrial vixen who’s on Earth for ONLY ONE REASON: to propagate her SPECIES.
Or something like that.Species tries really hard not to be the shlocky, gynophobic exploitation movie that it is at its core.It wants to be a smart and classy sci-fi thriller that makes some ironic commentary about singles life in the 1990’s.It even has a monster designed by H. R. Giger who designed Ridley Scott’s Alien.It has a cast of fine and distinguished actors like Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Forrest Whittaker and Michael Madsen.But, sadly, a bad script and poor direction doom it to mediocrity.It’s not a terrible movie (that would be Species 2, which is deliciously, mind-bogglingly bad) but not exactly a good movie either.
Ah, the proud MGM logo. And some space titties.
The idea behind Species is that an extra-terrestrial entity sends us instructions via SETI on how to make an alien/human hybrid (For Some Reason), apparently they were too busy to invade in person and want us to do all the shlep work.Okay.So we create this creature but then change our mind and decide to gas this little alien/girl (a young Michelle Williams) to death because she has some “rapid eye movement.”Only she escapes and grows up quickly and decides she wants to mate with various douchebags that she meets in LA.
So the government puts together a crack team to track her down and destroy her.There’s Fitch, the scientist who helped create her.Okay, he should go but he has a lot of explaining to do.There’s Press Lennox (on loan from the Institute of Fake Names,) an assassin for various shady government agencies.Good.He’ll come in handy.There’s Laura, a molecular biologist.She’ll be good because she can do all the CSI-type stuff.There’s Arden, a Cross Cultural Anthropologist.Um, I guess he can come.He can help with the driving.And then there’s Dan, an empath.Dan “feels things.”Dan walks into a murder scene where Sil has killed someone and says stuff like “She wasn’t happy.” Dan makes Diana Troi seem useful. Poor Forrest Whittaker.A note to all screenwriters: if you get to the point in your script where you need to include an empath just stop right there.
The cast of Species, watching Species 2.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
In her alien form, Sil looks like a perfect cross between Giger’s Alien and a tranny prostitute.
"Heeeaaayyy! You in the space shuttle! You wanna have some fun?"
In fact, Sil looks so much like an Alien that one could say that Species is a de facto Alienprequel.She’s certainly a better Alien/human hybrid than that silly looking monster at the end of Alien Resurrection.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Sil and her baby.As well as an alien tentacle blob.
DVD AVAILABILITY:
Widely available either individually or in a three pack with its sequels.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
There are some nicely shot dream sequences in which Sil mates with another of her species.These scenes are weird and erotic but strange because the actual mechanics are not clear.
Hey wonderful peoples. As we get closer to the fall season and Academy Award talk slowly starts to make itself heard in film conversations had by ourselves and those smarter than I, it's time to bring back the series where I choose a movie or performance that I believe should have rightfully won the Academy Award(s) yet walked away empty handed on that special Oscar evening. After years of standing on the red carpet sideline I've taken matters into my own hands and I’ve given them my own award. The Academy Awhaaaaaat!? Award. I have just been handled the envelope and after opening it I'm happy to say that the Academy Awhaaaaaat!? Award is being given to Denzel Washington for Malcolm X in the Spike Lee joint Malcolm X.
Now I know Denzel has an Academy Award already. Two of them actually. One for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Trip in Glory and one for Best Lead Actor for his role as Alonzo Harris in Training Day. I believe his award for Glory is well deserved but you could just as easily give an Academy Awhaaaaat!? award to Danny Aiello for his role as Sal in Do The Right Thing a film that received the very first Academy Awhaaaat?! award.
The Training Day award is the one that bothers me. Denzel’s best performance as a lead actor was in Training Day? Really? Alonzo Harris? That's your boy? Okay. Well allow me to retort. The Academy Awards are notorious for giving make up awards. Example, Al Pacino was nominated for Best Actor for his roles in Godfather Part II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and .....And Justice For All. What did he win the Oscar for? Scent Of A Woman. Academy could you explain yourself please? I'd respect you more if you gave it to him for Cruising (I will put this clip in anytime I can):
Training Day is an overrated movie. Overrated. I'm not down playing Denzel's role in it. Denzel doesn't give a bad performance. He's very good in it. You can tell he's really enjoying playing the over the top bad guy. It’s exciting to see him playing such a bad ass because up to that point in his career we hadn’t seen him play a villian quite like Alonzo Harris. But is there anything really memorable from the movie? Years from now when we look back at Denzel's career will Training Day be the movie that we all point to as the definitive Denzel Washington performance? Other than Denzel's intro to Ethan Hawke at breakfast and his final scene where he lets us know how he feels about King Kong, is there a scene in the movie that can stand above any other performance he has given? I don't think so.
That's part of the problem with Training Day, it's staying power or lack thereof. It's not a film that I revisit on DVD (I can't afford a Blu-ray player yet) or am willing to devote an afternoon to it if I catch it on TV. It definately doesn't have any performances that I feel the need to see again and again. It’s a movie that I look back on and think that’s when Denzel ate up all the scenery he could chew and it was fun to watch him do it. Once.
Malcolm X is another story. It's a powerful performance that's going to go down as one of the greatest ever captured on film. I would argue that Denzel's voice is more powerful during the opening credits of Malcolm X than a majority of his screen time in Training Day and it only takes off from there.
Over the course of almost 3 hours we see Malcolm Little become Detroit Red who in turn becomes Malcolm X who travels and returns from Mecca transformed yet again as a new man who was willing to accept that not all of his decisions in the past may have been in the best interest of what he believed. Denzel shows each of those periods in Malcolm's life and the transition from one to the next is always that feels natural and believable.
It's not a biopic highlights reel (like this article) but there are some iconic moments that really stand out. The above mentioned pilgramage to Mecca is one of the best. Spike Lee discusses on the bonus materials of the dvd how the studio originally suggested that they should have a New York coastline or maybe a west coast desert to fill in as Mecca. You know, for budgetary reasons. Unbelievable.
Malcolm's first meeting with The Honorable Elijah Mohammed is also a great moment that deserves to be mentioned. Malcolm is finally introduced to the leader who has helped him put his past life behind but will eventually betray him. The way Denzel enters the room slightly cowering, unable to speak, and fighting back tears is amazing.
All of which brings you to the last act of the film, the death of Malcolm X. This is quite possibly the best part of the film, absolutely Denzel's strongest in the film, and the hardest to watch because of the tragedy that happens. Kudo's to Spike Lee's use of "A Change Is Gonna Come" here. Spike Lee and Martin Scorcese are the kings of music put to film and this choice by Spike is no exception.
On a side note, I was in love with the promotion for Malcolm X. Viral marketing is becoming so common now that I almost miss the days of simple straight forward movie advertising. I loved the posters in movie theaters that simply showed the X. I put that right up there with the poster for Tim Burton's Batman where all they showed you to promote the movie was the Bat symbol. Look at that poster. That is classy and nerdy at the same time.
I can't say enough about Denzel in Malcolm X. In the future when they open the books and point to Denzel Washington this is the role they need to mention. This is the one that proves he's one of our greatest actors (I forgive you for Virtuosity Denzel). If you haven't seen it yet, this is the next Denzel Washington movie you need to see. Denzel Washington in Malcolm X.
Now, I like a good sausage fest as much as anyone but let's face it, the Masters of the Universe Classics line has pretty much exclusively featured hot man-on-man action up until this point. With the possible exception of He-Ro, my MOTUC figures have been desperately seeking female companionship so I am happy to announce the arrival of Teela, the "Warrior Goddess," adopted daughter to Man-At-Arms and Captain of the Royal Guard. And winner of the "Best Gams on Eternia" contest three years in a row.
In addition to her very fetching sculpt, Teela comes complete with her cobra armor, her falcon/mom, a 200x inspired sword, a shield, a cool cobra staff and an alternate head. Apparently, having lots of accessories runs in the family.
Freaky-deakies need love too.
You'll be able to get your sweaty nerd hands on her starting October 15th at mattycollector.com. Being that she's the very first female character and due to her having been the object of much pre-pubescent boy lust, Teela is very likely to sell out quickly so be ready at 12PM Eastern Time.
Now, I know you are all anxious to take Teela home. But I should warn you, like many hot girls, she has issues. First, rumor has it that she has problems turning her waist, which will limit some of the disgusting poses you will no doubt try to put her in. Second, she's got some serious emotional baggage. See the video below:
If you think you can deal with all of that drama, she will be available on the 15th.
THE FLY (1986) Director: David Cronenberg Genre: Body horror/love story
Two things have always bothered me about the “Beauty and the Beast” story:
1) Usually the Beast is redeemed at the end and turns into some sort of handsome prince as though to reward Beauty for being able to love a monster. You can almost imagine Beauty wiping her brow at the end and thinking to herself “Whew! That was close!”
I always thought that the Beast should remain a beast otherwise the whole theme of the story is compromised.
2) As monsters go, the Beast is not usually that terrible to look at. Usually, he is depicted as some sort of leonine or ursine creature. He a beast, yes, but at least he’s a mammal, right? I think most people could fall in love with a sentient mammalian creature under the right circumstances. I always wanted to see a “Beauty and the Beast” story in which the Beast was some sort of horrible disgusting creature. Then Beauty’s love for the beast would mean something.
THE MOVIE:
This brings me to David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, which is not only the ultimate work in the Body Horror subgenre but the most fully realized version of the “Beauty and the Beast” story ever put to film. The movie is famous for its extensive and Oscar-winning make-up, its gore, its good performances, and its overall quality given the subject matter. The Fly is one of the rare genre movies that is so good that it would win a flood of awards if not for the fact that it was a genre movie. If Jeff Goldblum hadn’t been covered in rubber and slime throughout most of the movie, he probably would have won an Academy Award for Best Actor.
This is gross and disturbing and he hasn't even gone through yet.
The Fly is the story of Seth Brundle, a scientist who has invented a set of pods that disintegrate matter, send it through space and restore it to its original form. He meets and falls in love with a journalist named Veronica (Geena Davis) and offers her the opportunity to cover the development of his teleportation pods. While the pods are able to send inanimate objects through space with no problem any living material sent through is horribly scrambled, as in the case of a baboon that is sent through with horrific results. Brundle makes a breakthrough and decides to try the pods out on himself, but unknown to him a fly enters the pod with him and his teleportation device becomes a gene splicer combining his DNA with that of a housefly and for the remainder of the film Brundle goes through a painful and disgusting transformation with his humanity literally sloughing off.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
Brundle goes through about four or five different stages in this movie, all but the last two are accomplished through prosthetic make-up. His transformation is slow and painful and many have speculated that this movie is a metaphor for the effects of AIDS and other degenerative diseases on the human body. Cronenberg has denied this and has stated that the film is a metaphor for the degeneration of aging, which I find hard to believe. The movie is clearly about disease and if you think about when the movie was made, how can it not be a metaphor for AIDS?
Brundle’s ultimate forms are realized through animatronics and are true fly/human hybrids. Having seen some of the concept art on the DVD I actually wish they had gone with some of the more fantastic designs they had available, but part of the movie’s impact is from its adherence to emotional and visual realism.
This scene put me off donuts for a while.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
The Fly features Brundlefly, a pissed off inside-out baboon and Monkey-Cat in the deleted scenes on the anniversary DVD.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
The heartbreaking end of the movie...and Brundlefly demonstrating how a fly eats donuts. I'm not going to forget that any time soon.
DVD AVAILABILITY:
An anniversary edition of this movie was released on DVD in 2006 which features extensive extras including a full-length documentary and deleted scenes, such as the infamous Monkey-Cat scene, which is disturbing in theory but kind of silly to watch. But in any case, it is a very good DVD set.
The movie has also been made available on Blu-Ray, but I don't know exactly what's on it and somehow, I don't know if I really want that extra layer of picture quality in this particular case. The movie is hard enough to watch as it is.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where the District 9 auditions are?"
So there was one sequel and now there is talk of a remake. But here is the twist: rumor has it that the remake will be directed by...David Cronenberg. Can we all have a collective "Whaaaaaaa?"
It takes a set of Kong-sized nuts to bill your remake as "the most exciting original motion picture event of all time!"
King Kong (1976)
Director:John Guillermin
Genre: Monster on the loose
THE MOVIE
Blockbuster fever struck American movie goers in the mid seventies.After the runaway success of Steven Spielberg’sJawsin the summer of 1975, movie studios began clamoring for the next big event movie.What better event movie than a remake of a story that is synonymous with the word “big?”
The 1976 remake of King Kong is interesting to watch if only to see how it is different and similar from the other two major versions of the story.The ’76 Kong differs greatly from both the ’33 and ’05 movies.This version of the story is the least spectacular and the most sexually charged.This is also the least regarded of the Kong movies and is often thought of as a turkey or a bomb although it was actually a big hit upon its release but not in the ballpark of Jaws which is certainly what it was hyped for.
The movie follows the basic storyline of the original, although in this version the film crew is replaced by an oil expedition (remember this was during the first Energy Crisis) headed by a Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin,) a Nixonian paranoiac who has staked his reputation on finding oil beneath SkullIsland.Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) stows away on the boat.In this version, he is a primatologist who has heard stories of giant apes on SkullIsland.
Once at sea, the crew finds Dwan (Jessica Lange) floating in a lifeboat.Dwan switched the middle two letters of her name so that it would be more memorable.Dwan is an actress who was aboard a luxury liner that exploded For Some Reason. Dwan is, as a friend of mine once succinctly put, "Actress-Crazy." This is very special combination of insecure, flightly, neurotic, self-absorbed and plain ole' nuts that only a working actress can really pull off (for a great example of Actress-Crazy see Terry Garr in Tootsie). Jessica Lange plays Dwan like she’s constantly horny or high (sometimes she combines them to mix it up.)Sometime between this movie andher appearance in (yes) Tootsie she became a very good actress but her performance in King Kong is total camp.
The other main departure from the classic story is that that this SkullIsland is not inhabited by all of the dinosaurs and strange creatures that we have come to expect.It is inhabited by Kong and a large rubber snake and a bunch of Africans (despite the fact that it is in the South Pacific).So, some of the fun of the original and Peter Jackson version are lost here.
When they get to New York the story pretty much matches the other versions, only here Kong climbs the then newly-constructed WorldTradeCenterTowers instead of the EmpireStateBuilding, as he does in the other versions.I always find WorldTradeCenter scenes a little distracting in movies filmed before 9/11.Unfortunately, most movies filmed in New York from the 70’s through the 90’s feature the buildings prominently.King Kong features some gratuitous WTC action.
THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
This Kong is not realized with stop motion as the original was but with a mix of suitmation and animatronics and the final result looks strangely Fonzie-esque.While the animatronic masks are capable of a large range of movement and expression, the effect is usually just creepy, especially when Kong leers at Jessica Lange’s character constantly.Or the scene where he blows repeated on a wet Dwan, which is just wrong.Wrong and disturbing.
This has to be the perviest Kong yet.The sexual subtext of the original is here brought closer to the fore (“He tried to rape you!” says Charles Grodin’s character) and it loans the movie a lurid and unpleasant quality.The Peter Jackson version is smart enough to diffuse the sexual aspect all together and build a genuine connection between Anne and Kong.This one is not.
Squish.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
This is the only version of the story to depict Kong’s actual trip to New York.I've always wondered what that trip must have been like. I like the scenes where he is locked up in the bowels of an oil tanker pounding the hell out of it.
SEQUELS
King Kong Lives 1986
DVD AVAILABILITY
Widely available in a bare-bones DVD.
SEE ALSO
King Kong 1933 King Kong Escapes 1967 King Kong 2005
TRIVIA
This movie represents a slightly larger version of Kong than is usually depicted in the American movies.Here, he is described as being about 50 feet tall whereas normally he is about 25-30 feet tall.
The Japanese Kong is on a much larger scale allowing him to tangle with the likes of Godzilla.
It was 1983. My downstairs neighbor had an Atari 2600 and I experienced my first Star Wars console video game: The Empire Strikes Back, which was based solely on The Battle of Hoth sequence from the movie of the same name. You got to control a little five pixel Snowspeeder in which you had to shoot a small flashing spot on the back of an ATAT until (47 shots later) it exploded. And then you got to do that again until you got bored. Hey, it was better than that E.T. game.
How we rolled in the '80's.
The video game market crashed shortly after that. And Star Wars didn't make another home video game appearance until the Nintendo Entertainment System. I missed it on the NES but in the early '90's, I got into Super Star Wars and it's sequels on the Super Nintendo. These games were a much more fully realized Star Wars experience. Like many SNES games, the Super Star Wars games had incredible stereo sound. Who can forget the first time hearing the opening Star Wars theme blaring out at your from a frakkin' video game.
The games were fun, although fiendishly difficult. And being video games, they stray from the plots of the movies to make them more action-packed. Who knew a giant lava monster lived inside the Jawa Sandcrawler?
From Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
In the mid 1990's Star Wars was gearing up for a major comeback with the re-release of the movies and the eventual start of the new trilogy. All of that began, however, with a major multimedia project called Shadows of the Empire, an interquel that took place between Empire and Return of the Jedi. While there was no Shadows of the Empire movie, there were action figures, a sound track, comics, a novel and a video game on Nintendo's snazzy new console, the Nintendo 64. Shadows promised the most immersive Star Wars video game experience to date, and it was the full reason I bought a Nintendo 64 console. And it was the first 3D video game that did not make me want to puke.
First Level of Shadow of the Empire.
Shadows of the Empire was primarily a 3rd person shooter that allowed you to run around and play in several famous Star Wars environments, such as Hoth's Echo Base. Dash Rendar? Is that your boy? No? Okay
You even had run ins with several infamous characters such as Boba Fett and IG-88, as well as Luke, Leia and Lando. The game also ,featured aerial and space battles that paved the way for games like the Rogue Squadron series and ultimately, the Battlefront games. In the late 90's and 2000's, Star Wars video games diversified into every imaginable genre: first-person shooters, role playing games, racing games, real time strategy games. There was even this thing:
But one thing was sorely missing: Jedi.
As much fun as it was to shoot Stormtroopers and fly around in ships and endlessly replay the Battle of Hoth in different games, the Holy Grail of the Star Wars gaming is to play as a Jedi. With the release of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace and its emphasis on the Jedi characters, more and more games tried to serve up an authentic Jedi experience. But most of these weren't very good. Jedi Power Battles for the Playstationwas a fun adaptation of The Phantom Manace but it was very much a throwback to the side scrolling arcade-style games of the '80's.
Jedi Power Battles. Fun two-person co-op.
Star Wars: Obi Wan for the Xboxwas a noble effort and let you swing your lightsaber around and use some force powers but ultimately was not a very good game. The really goofy Ewan MacGregor impression did not help either. See video below.
The Dark Forces I and Jedi Knight games evolved from the PC and made their way toe the Xbox and Nintendo Gamecube in 2001 in the form of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, arguably one of the greatest Star Wars games ever released. It has a great story, and gameplay that lets you use a whole suite of force powers as well as your trusty lightsaber. There is very little in this world that is more fun than force-pushing Stormtroopers off a ledge. It was followed by Jedi Academy which had a less satisfying single player game but robust multiplayer that allowed customization and play on Xbox Live.
Kyle Katarn in Jedi Outcast. I was happy to be able to play a character named Kyle in a game.
The ultimate Star Wars video game experience was released last year in the form of The Force Unleashed, which featured an amazing original Star Wars story set between the trilogies, fantastic graphics and fun gameplay. The protagonist, Starkiller, uses wildly over-the-top force powers in secret service to his master, Darth Vader.
The game is set to be rereleased on November 3rd, with bonus content such as a few continuity defying missions set in a Vader-less Star Wars and Empire timeframe.
Starkiller, fryin some suckas up in The Force Unleashed.
Director: Steven Spielberg Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure/Survival
THE MOVIE:
Where would monster movies be without Jurassic Park? Although, not strictly speaking, a “monster movie” (Spielberg was very conscious of making his dinosaurs animals and not movie monsters,) Jurassic Park helped usher in a new era of creature features and for the first time applied CGI to the task of creating photorealistic creatures. Over the next few years when this technology became cheaper and easier to use it helped usher in a whole wave of CGI-aided monster movies such as Anaconda(1997), The Relic(1997), Mimic(1997), Deep Rising (1998), Deep Blue Sea (1999,) Eight-Legged Freaks (2002) and a whole slew of others. Jurassic Park took a B-movie premise and gave it a respectful presentation, with an A-List director.
Jurassic Park is a distilled version of the late Michael Crichton’s blockbuster novel (and one of my favorite books) about an island theme park featuring dinosaurs cloned from amber-preserved DNA. This clever premise skirts actual science just enough to be plausible. With the unprecedented realism of its visual effects, Jurassic Park has the feel of credible speculative fiction. Although, how cool would it have been if Spielberg had chosen to realize it as a faux documentary? If this movie ever gets remade (and there is good reason to do it) this is the route that they should go. It also launched Crichton-mania in the mid to late 1990's with (among others) adaptions of Congo, Sphere, and Disclosure rushing into production in Jurassic Park's wake as well as the Crichton-developed TV series E.R..
The movie removes some of the Crichton’s interesting subplots (such as the dinosaurs escaping the island,) features less dinos and waters down the novel’s commentary about science and responsibility but the main story is essentially the same. A small group of scientists are recruited to evaluate the island prior to its public unveiling when a combination of a tropical storm and industrial espionage take out the park’s security systems causing the dinosaurs to escape their enclosures and overrun the island. The heroes must then do everything they can to escape the island.
Jurassic Park was a pop cultural phenomenon when it was released. It was a movie whose sheer size and visuals had to been seen (not to mention heard) in a theater to be done justice. Even people who don’t normally go in for big summer special effects movies wanted to get a glimpse of Spielberg’s dinosaurs. One could actually make the ironic argument that the CGI technology used to bring the dinosaurs to life for the movie was a bit like Hammond’s technology to bring his dinosaurs to life in the story. It was a bit of a circus atmosphere: pay your $6 at the door and get a glimpse of the most realistic dinosaurs you’ll ever see. I vividly remember going to see it with a couple of high school buddies. June 11, 1993. Regardless, until Titanic was released, Jurassic Park enjoyed a four-year reign as the all-time box office champ.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
The effects have held up nicely over the last sixteen years and feature a seamless blend between CGI, animatronics, and even some suitmation. At some points (such as the raptor kitchen chase) the three techniques are so deftly blended together that it is next to impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.
The filmmakers were pushing technology to its limits when they made this movie so some of the more demanding sequences from the book were probably cut from the movie (such as the T-rex river chase) for technical and financial reasons and scenes like the annoying car-in-the-tree sequence were probably added as “filler.” Of course, they more than made up for this in the two sequels which featured an orgy of dinosaurs.
The sound design must also be given credit. As amazing as the visual effects were, the sound effects and vocalizations created for the dinosaurs are equally impressive. Who can ever forget the earsplitting roar of the T-Rex? The same is true for the more avian and unnerving raptor calls and screeches. Not to mention the distinctive Dilophosaur hiss. I don’t think hissing has ever been done better. Not even by my cat.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Tyrannosaurus Rex Dilophosaurus Brachiosaurus Tricerotops (lying down only) Velociraptors – Introduced the word velociraptor into common speech. Parasaur Gallimimus
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
There are many amazing sequences in this movie but my personal favorite is a quick shot right after Grant and all land on the island. After you see the first Brachiosaurs there is a beautiful long shot of a herd of dinosaurs bathing in the lake in the golden sunlight. They should make a poster of this:
DVD AVAILABILITY:
Widely available on DVD, either on its own or in a reasonably priced three-pack with its sequels. Back in the waning days of the VCR, Jurassic Park was the movie with which you showed off your home theater system. The most recent trilogy boxed set, the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack, does not include all of the extras of the previous set.
Sadly, no Blu-Ray as of yet.
SEQUELS: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), and a third sequel is currently in development hell.
MINORITY REPORT: First casualty: A Costa Rican worker (probably played by a Mexican) gets munched on by a caged raptor.
The only black character of consequence is a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson, who makes a novice minority-character-in-a-horror-movie mistake: He leaves the group to turn the lights on. No! If you are black and in a monster movie, you never leave a group of white people!
Minority Survival Threshold: 26%
Annoying-Ass Kid Survival Threshold: 100% SEE ALSO:
King Kong (2005) READ ALSO:
Check out The Science of Jurassic Park by Rob Desalle and David Lindley. And also Crichton's novel.
Not that I condone reading.
THE TRAILER:
TRIVIA:
Actual velociraptors were only the size of a turkey. They would still mess you up.
Interestingly, around the time of the movie's release a related species was discovered that closely resembled the velociraptors in the movie.
Believe it or not, the kids were actually much more annoying in the book.
Warning: Staring at Japanese movie posters for extended periods may induce a seizure.
MOTHRA (1961)
Director: Ichiro Honda
Genre: Daikaiju eiga
THE MOVIE
Mothra ushered in a short-lived Golden Age of 1960’s kaiju filmmaking in which the norm became high production values and colorful visuals before the genre sank into camp and kiddie nonsense .Mothra is the best of the three non-Godzilla kaiju movies produced by Toho in the wake of Godzilla Raids Again and also introduced us to one of Toho’s most iconic and popular monsters.Mothra has been featured in more Toho movies than any other monster save the big guy himself and is even popular enough to have starred in her own trilogy of kids films in the 1990’s.Her popularity (particularly with the ladies) has caused her to be plugged into numerous Godzilla movies in which she was not originally slated to appear.She’s one of the few female Japanese giant monsters and one of the only ones that is consistently benevolent and she’s the only kaiju with a catchy theme song sung by a pair of mini-twins.
Mothra's storyborrows heavily from King Kong and deals with a joint expedition between Japan and a fictitious country (that strongly resembles the U.S.) to the mysterious InfantIsland that is home to a tribe of natives and also the site of atomic testing.Once on the island, one of the Japanese expedition members is saved by a pair of tiny singing twins.The twins are stolen from the island by an unscrupulous member of the foreign party and put in a musical revue a la Kong's Broadway show.My question is: how the hell are you supposed to see them from the audience?I don’t think a stage show is quite the right venue for six inch singing twins.And how did they get them to rehearse elaborate musical numbers?
Anyhoo, the twins launch into their chart-topper “Mo-su-ra” and a giant silkworm hatches from a pastel colored egg and swims towards Tokyo, impervious to all weapons.The larva climbs up TokyoTower and breaks it in half before spinning a silken cocoon.What hatches is perhaps the most improbable of a giant monster designs: a big pretty butterfly.Perhaps the Japanese Defense Force would have fared better against her if they had built a giant net.So, Mo-su-ra follows the twins to NewKirkCity (NKC!) and eventually reclaims her twins (does she swallow them?I’m not clear on where they “boarded”) after blowing stuff around with her wings.
Why even have a Tokyo Tower?
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
It takes a real man to be a Mothra fan.Her femininity, her colorful appearance, her harmonizing sidekicks all elicit a derisive reaction from kaiju mandom.I mean, a guy can get away with wearing a Godzilla t-shirt, no problem but if you walk around with a Mothra shirt you better watch your back.If you are not entirely comfortable with your masculinity, the idea of a giant ass-kicking psychedelic butterfly nature goddess may be somewhat disturbing for you.Although the somewhat fecal appearance of the larva will be good for a chuckle from the guys.
The effects in Mothra are surprisingly good for the time and are certainly better than any of Toho’s prior kaiju movies.I am very surprised and happy to say that there is very little Rodanitis present in the flying sequences.Mothra’s wings move in a very realistic and even elegant way.The wirework and other mechanisms are for the most part well-concealed.I can only speculate that more of the budget was devoted to the flying sequences since there were only two creatures to design for this one.
MONSTERS PRESENT
Mothra in both her larval and adult form.
DVD AVAILABILITY
This one’s a little hard to get.I managed to buy a copy of the Japanese version from ultramanstuff.com.There’s not much else on the disc and the video is not excellent but at least it’s the Japanese version.As with the other disc I bought from them it took a long time and a couple of check up emails before I got my disc but I got it.I don’t know what changes or cuts were made to the American version.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
The larva’s attack on TokyoTower.
SEQUELS
Some say the world will end in fire others...by giant stuffed animals.
Mothra is featured in quite a few of the Godzilla movies but as far as I know the only true sequel is Godzilla X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) which directly refers to the original Mothra movie and even features one of the actors reprising his Mothra role some forty years later, which is kind of cool.
SEE ALSO
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964) Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) Rebirth of Mothra I-III (1996) Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
Ah, the proud MGM logo. And some space titties.
The cast of Species, watching Species 2.
"Heeeaaayyy! You in the space shuttle! You wanna have some fun?"
