At first I had zero interest in any of the Guitar Hero games. They reminded me uncomfortably of that Dave Chappelle sketch that showed the effects of guitar music on white people. But then I learned to embrace my inner suburban white boy and actually got into them. The influence of these games is undeniable and there is no doubt that they have been a significant boost to the flagging recording industry as well as repopularizing the genres of classic rock, hard rock and heavy metal.
I picked up Guitar Hero III, which was the first really blockbuster game of the genre. It turns out the people who produced Guitar Heroes I & II split off before part three and formed their own company, Harmonix, which went on to release the competing Rock Band game which came out shortly after. The confusion began which was compounded by the interchangeable guitars.
Rock Band took the basic gameplay of Guitar Hero and expanded it to include vocals, drums and bass. Game over, right? Not so fast Hudson, when Guitar Hero IV came out it included the full band set up, as well as the ability to customize your own tracks. Rock Band 2 then came out, and didn't offer too much new but it did let you import almost all of your Rick Band 1 tracks as well as an impressive library of downloadable songs. You could literally have hundreds of songs to choose from.
Then things got more complicated. It seemed there was a new Guitar Hero game every few months, most focusing on bands of middling importance like Aerosmith, Metallica, and Van Halen (WTF!). That's on top of the trio of hand held Guitar Hero games from the Nintendo DS, which are guaranteed to give you carpal tunnel syndrome.
The Rock Band series has taken the slow and steady approach, perhaps realizing that the music game craze could easily become a fad in a market that Activision is over saturating with their Guitar Hero games. They have recently released their third entry to the series: Beatles Rock Band, which is a stylish and lovingly produced game that focuses solely on the Fab Four. If you are going to make a game devoted to one band, then you can't go wrong basing it on what is arguably the greatest rock/pop band in history. The Beatles are easily worth ten Aerosmiths, Metallicas, Van Halens, Oasises, and whoever else they are thinking about making a game around.
Very well done, Harmonix! Of course, having said that they have a game coming out called Lego Rock Band. Meh.
Well, now I have seen everything.
.
And that's not to ignore the recent release of Activision's DJ Hero, which takes the music game into a whole new direction and explores a totally different genre of music than the guitar rock that these games have been focusing on.
Here's what I'd like to see in the inevitable slew of music games that are on their way out:
*Someone needs to make a game based on The Rolling Stones. I will buy it. And love it.
*Lets open this up to more genres: How bout an R&B track pack, or Latin Rock? I am willing to smoke lots of cigarettes and get kicked in the throat to sound like Alejandro Sanz.
*Artists, you need to stop being uptight about these games. They allow a whole new generation of people to get into your music. I'm looking at you Prince, U2 and Led Zepplin.
Almost immediately after the original Gojira, Toho studios prepped a sequel which is known here as Godzilla Raids Again, in which Godzilla tangled with his first monster opponent, Anguirus.The movie was not particularly well received and the King of the Monsters was given his first of many retirements, during which Toho developed a stable of other giant monsters such as Rodan, Mothra and Varan who starred in their own movies.
That's messed up. You just don't do that.
Meanwhile, in the US, King Kong special effects director Willis O’Brien was shopping around ideas for new Kong movie and caught the interest of Toho Studios, who opted to produce the film and bring Godzilla out of retirement to battle Kong in a kind of “event” movie. You'll notice that despite the fact that this is a Japanese movie, Godzilla gets second billing to Kong which is both a testament to the popularity of King Kong in Japan at the time and to the fact that Godzilla had been out of the limelight for a while with only one successful film to his name, eight years earlier. This was definitely a comeback for Godzilla.
Toho gives this movie the same kind of lush and colorful production that distinguished Mothra the year before and it continues a winning streak that would continue with the Toho's next kaiju movie, Godzilla vs. Mothra. It also marks the first time either Kong or Godzilla appeared in a color movie.To date, King Kong Vs. Godzilla remains the most popular of all of Godzilla’s movies at the Japanese box office and without its success there would likely been no ‘60’s and ‘70’s Showa Godzilla series.It also introduced a lighter tone to the series that would come to dominate the Godzilla movies of that era.
As with the original Gojira, this movie was heavily re-edited for American audiences, although not as audaciously as in the original.The American cut of the movie inserts a lot of hilariously-expositional UN newscasters who are following the “situation” via a large wire-suspended satellite that resembles a roulette wheel (are these the same miracle wires that they use to suspend Kong from the balloons later in the movie?)
Godzilla challenges King Kong to take back what he had said about his mama.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
Godzilla gets a make-over in what is one of the best suits of the early movies and one that seems an ancestor to the later Godzilla 2000 suit.The ’62 suit looks evil and reptilian (at least from the side.)Kong, however, is very different from his appearance in his original movie in which he was realized as a stop motion puppet.Here, he’s a guy in a bad gorilla suit.The face is inexpressive, except in certain shots when a crappy hand puppet is used.
Most of the effects are pretty primitive and there is plenty of really terrible blue screening.There are some really good shots of a giant octopus that had me wracking my brain thinking “That looks so real.How did they do that?”Being the CGI whore that I am, it didn’t occur to me that they simply filmed an octopus on a miniature set, which questions all of my assumptions about octopus biology.
His lunch money stolen, Kong goes into a wild rage.
Honestly, I find many of the Showa Godzilla films a little tough to sit through what with the primitive special effects, the annoyingly light tone, and plots that are ridiculous even for movies about giant monsters.King Kong vs. Godzilla isn’t as annoying as say, Godzilla vs. Megalon (1972) but it’s not as cheesily entertaining either.But King Kong vs. Godzilla is remarkable for its historic importance and cross-cultural impact.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Godzilla
King Kong
Giant Octopus
DVD AVAILABILITY:
The American version is available in a bare-bones DVD.The Japanese version can be ordered in a region free DVD.
Don't call it a comeback.
SEQUELS:
Godzilla continued in:Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1964) Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster (1964) Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965) and many others.
King Kong had one more Toho film:
King Kong Escapes (1967)
TRAILER
SEE ALSO:
Alien Vs. Predator (2004) Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1964)
TRIVIA:
In order to have Kong and Godzilla fight, Toho had to inflate King Kong’s size dramatically.Originally King Kong was between twenty and thirty feet tall whereas Godzilla is normally depicted anywhere between 150 and 300 feet tall.
If you're looking for a really scary movie to see you might want to wait until next weekend instead of this Halloween weekend because that's when "Collapse" is being released. Here's the trailer for it and on first impressions alone this trailer's going to stick with you after you watch it. You really think you're being prepared to watch a movie about a serial killer or some grim police investigaton but instead Collapse is a documentary about the current financial crisis as predicted and explained in the film by Michael Ruppert. The documentary is directed by Chris Smith who directed another great documentary "American Movie". Talk to that if you haven't seen it yet. Go ahead and watch the trailer to one of the most stylized documentaries that I shall soon see. "Collapse" opens in theaters on November 6th, 2009.
JAWS (1975) Director: Steven Spielberg Genre: Nautical Horror
THE MOVIE
While there were hit movies in the 70’s such as The Exorcist and The Godfather, 1975’s Jaws was a phenomenon unto itself and-for better or worse-helped to create the summer blockbuster mentality that rules Hollywood. However, unlike many of today’s blockbusters, which are produced via corporate committee and probably some sort of Hollywood supercomputer that calculates which star will appeal to what demographic to put in which vehicle that remakes or relaunches which franchise resulting in X amount of dollars at opening and X percent of drop off on the second weekend and X number of DVD units sold, Jaws comes from a relatively unsophisticated time in terms of movie marketing. Certainly, it was an adaptation of a best selling novel and there were certain expectations of it in terms of box office performance, but you don’t get the idea that was conceived from the ground up as an exercise in making revenue. The movie retains some of the characteristic 1970’s auteurism, and is heavy on character and suspense and light on special effects and frenetic editing. Compared to today’s popcorn movies, it is very slow moving and offers a typically cynical post-Watergate commentary on government and authority, although in this case said government is extremely local.
Jaws tells the story of a small Mid-Atlantic beach community plagued by a Great White shark and the town’s new police chief’s attempts to protect the people from the ocean predator. The problem is compounded by the fact that the town is economically dependent on the beaches and the powers that be are trying their best to downplay and deny the shark’s existence. Ultimately Sheriff Brody teams up with a grizzled fisherman and a young marine biologist to track down and kill the shark. There are lots of good and quirky performances such as Roy Scheider as an a hydrophobic New York cop who moved his family to a small island community to “make a difference.” Robert Shaw steals many scenes as Quinn, a veteran of the infamous U.S.S. Indianapolis, which sank in shark infested waters during the Second World War.
A very young Richard Dreyfuss plays Matt Hooper, a wealthy shark expert who uses a lot of (at the time) high tech equipment. The last quarter of the movie is the three of these characters at sea attempting to track and kill the shark. There is a lot of tension built into the story between Quinn and Hooper, with Quinn relying on almost 19th Century technology and Hooper representing a newer, 20th Century way of exploring the sea.
If the movie were made today, it would be George Clooney, Keanu Reeves and Ryan Reynolds.
Jaws also launched the career of a young Steven Spielberg who had prior to this movie only made Sugarland Express and the TV movie Duel about a motorist plagued by a monstrous semi truck on an abandoned stretch of highway which actually shares some thematic similarity with Jaws. After Jaws, Spielberg went on to such classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. He has gone on to win an Academy Award for his work on Schindler’s List and is one of America’s most respected motion picture directors as well as one of the most popular.
On a personal note, although Jaws was released a few months prior to my birth, it was a movie that I grew up with thanks to being part of the first home video generation. As odd as it may seem, there was time not too long ago when there were no DVDs or even video cassettes and if you wanted to see a movie you had to either go see it in the theater or catch it on a TV broadcast. In the early 1980’s this all changed drastically with the affordability of VCRs and the ability to rent movies or tape them off TV or later premium cable channels (until the mid 1990’s it was still prohibitively expensive for most people to buy a video of a movie as most “official” videos of movies cost anywhere from $75-$125 a pop. They eventually started releasing selected hit movies on VHS at an affordable price and when DVD became the standard now all movies are released at an “ownable” price point). Jaws was a movie that was on heavy rotation in my household when I was growing up and consequently I pretty much know it by heart (along with Rocky, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, and The Godfather) so it was weird and bittersweet for me to pop in a DVD of this movie and watch it after not having seen it for fifteen years or so.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
Another hallmark of when this movie was made and another reason that it earns my respek is that the monster is basically a realistically proportioned shark. It is estimated by one of the characters to be about 25 feet long, which is large but not impossible. If they were to make this movie today, the shark would be at least 100 feet long and probably some kind of mutant. As a matter of fact, there has been a movie in development hell since the 1990’s by the name of Meg based on a novel-or rather a screenplay disguised as a novel-that would be a de facto Jaws update. Meg features a giant prehistoric shark that literally eats a tyrannosaur in one bite in the novel’s prologue. This gives you a pretty good idea what a contemporary Jaws would be: lots of showy effects and a creature bigger and more spectacular than anything we’ve seen before: The American Godzilla syndrome in full force.
Who are you calling a son of a bitch?
Spielberg’s movie on the other hand barely shows you the shark until the end but it’s presence is felt through out the whole movie, whether it is seen or not. I won’t pretend this is due solely to artistic reasons or an attempt to be Hitchcockian. After all, Steven Spielberg has given us plenty of visual excess in his long career. Anyone who knows anything about this troubled production knows that the animatronic shark didn’t work half the time and the filmmakers had to work and edit around it. Spielberg repeatedly refers to it in the DVD extras as “The Great White Turd.” But the movie is better and more suspenseful for it.
DVD AVAILABILITY
Widely available as a 2 disc 25th anniversary edition originally released in 2000.
Sadly, not yet on Blu-Ray.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
It’s funny. What I remember most about the movie are the little mundane details that have absolutely nothing to do with the shark. Spielberg’s early movies have this great ability to capture detail of life in the 70’s and 80’s, especially regarding child life. I love the little scene in this movie where Brody and his younger son are mimicking one another’s faces. It is a short little scene with no dialogue but it is so evocative of a small boy’s world. Spielberg was a master of capturing these kinds of little moments and details.
I also love Roy Scheider getting slapped by the woman in the veil.
And the girl who yells, "Sh-shark!"
Also, this movie features one of my favorite clichés in which the Hero Studies a Well Illustrated Book about the monster he will later face.
SEQUELS
There are three sequels to Jaws each one more improbable and of worse quality than the last one. Although, Jaws 2 was pretty good.
And so begins one of the greatest love funk R&B songs ever, "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers. Every once in a while I will ask this question,"Hey is Bill Withers still alive?" and the answer I get always seems to be the same, "You know what? I don't know." Well here's the trailer to "Still Bill" which not only shows that Bill Withers is still alive but also looks to explain as to why he is no longer in the spotlight that I and I'm sure many others agree he deserves to be in. Beginning in the '70's through the mid '80's Bill Withers was at the top of his game and then like Keyser Soze, poof! He was gone. I knew of Bill Withers because of the classics "Lean On Me", "Just The Two Of Us", and "Ain't No Sunshine" but the true turning point for me was when I saw the GAP Khaki Soul commercial featuring the Withers cut "Lovely Day". My reaction? Screw the khakis, where do I get that song! Bill Withers baby, Bill Withers. Keep digging in the Bill Withers collection and you are going to find some other great cuts. "When I'm Kissing My Love", "Grandma's Hands", "Who Is He (And What Is He To You?", and the list goes on and on. And if you haven't heard the album Bill Withers: Live At Carnegie Hall do yourself and favor and talk to that. There's an 8 minute version of "Use Me" that makes you wish you was getting used. Mmmmm! I'm really intrigued by this trailer. It looks like it really shows a man who is satisfied with what he's done in the past and the conflict is now whether he can find it within himself to do it again in the future. That kind of thought process I believe really adds to the mystique of Bill Withers. Even for all of the success that has been mentioned about him he's always been on the outside circle of what is considered R&B and from his own words in this trailer he seems okay with that. I look forward to hearing what else Bill Withers and others have to say about him. Unfortunately "Still Bill" doesn't have a theatrical release date listed but you can check out the movie's website to find or set up a screening near you.
By the time we get to Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, set ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, the political crisis started in the previous film has now become a full-fledged secession movement known as the Confederation of Independent Systems. Thousands of planetary systems are leaving the Republic under the leadership of an ex-Jedi Master known as Count Dooku, secretly a Sith Apprentice working with Darth Siddous/Palpatine.
The movement is supported by a conglomeration of corporate entities with names like The Banking Clan, The Techno Union, and the Commerce Guild as well as the Trade Federation from Episode I. These groups have all been chafing under the taxation and regulation of the Republic, under the leadership of Chancellor Palpatine, who is deftly using all the powers at his disposal to arrange things in a way the leads to a giant war. It may at first seem that The Phantom Menace has little to do with the other two movies in the trilogy as it takes place so far before them but the political climate in the previous movie sets the stage for the breakout of the Clone Wars in Attack of the Clones.
They are defending freedom! Or attacking it! Either way, support them!
The Jedi, having grudgingly accepted the return of the Sith toward the end of the last movie, are no closer to identifying the Sith Lord hiding right under their noses. The fact that the CIS is lead by an ex-Jedi is no doubt a great embarrassment to them, although at the beginning of the movie they (again) wrongly believe that Dooku is just a "political idealist." The de facto rulers of the Jedi Council, Yoda and Mace Windu, later on discuss that the presence of the Sith is diminishing their collective powers and that they must keep this from the Senate. Here we see the Jedi defensive and their secretive and autocratic streak is revealed.
Ethically ambiguous, we are.
The Jedi never state what powers are being diminished and it seems curious as the movie is filled with Jedi doing amazing things. The power that Windu refers to I believe is the power of foresight or precognition. This is Siddious's greatest ability, the power to see enough into the future to see what needs to be done at a given time to reach the desired goals. It's a power that the Jedi perhaps never get the hang of. "Always in motion the future is," Yoda years later would complain to Luke Skywalker whereas the Emperor Palaptine of the same era seems supremely confident of his abilities to see the future ("I have foreseen it!")
An assassination attempt on now-Senator Amadala of Naboo brings her once again face to face with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his restless apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. There is an immediate attraction between Skywalker and Amadala, despite the fact that these sort of romantic entanglements are against the "Jedi Code." Kenobi warns him against trusting her, as she is "a politician." And he astutely observes that Chancellor Palpatine is good at manipulating the Senate. It seems everyone is cynical about politics in a galaxy far, far away.
Skywalker is ordered by the Chancellor to protect Amadala as she flees to her own planet despite the fact that she is dead set on voting against the upcoming "Military Creation Act" that would give the Republic a standing army. Anakin and Amadala spend a lot of time exploring their feelings for one another on Naboo. The two discuss politics and romance and Anakin voices his disgust with the corruption of the Senate and describes a dictatorship as the ideal form of government. A dictatorship run by "someone wise." This is one of the best and most illuminating exchanges in the whole movie, unfortunately buried in one of the worst scenes in all six movies.
This scene reveals Anakin's fatal character flaw: He is unable to deal with subtleties and fine distinctions. People have said that based on his portrayal and the way that the character is written that he is stupid but what if that is his tragic flaw? What if he is supremely powerful and good but unfortunately just not that bright? Personally, I think that is a really interesting (and realistic) combination of traits. How often to you really see a stupid hero? Villains are frequently presented as stupid but almost never heroes and he certainly does a lot of stupid things in the following movie.
She's with stupid.
His intentions are good. After what has already been established of politics in the Star Wars galaxy, he is absolutely right to be upset with the Senate but if he could, he would force his idea of the "right" thing upon everyone. How much of this is his own arrogance and how much has been fostered by the Jedi Order? Despite the fact that they are sworn to protect the government, they don't seem to have much respect for it (perhaps rightly so). In the next film we see them all but ready to take over when they have decided they've had enough of Palpatine. After Episode III, and the famous "Only Sith deal in absolutes!" line people began comparing Anakin to George W. Bush but I think the comparison starts here. Attack of the Clones is, remember, the first post 911 Star Wars movie.
Ah, remember those days?
Obi-Wan, meanwhile, has traced the Senator's attacker to the planet Kamino (Camino=Path, in Spanish) where he discovers a secret army of clones grown for the Republic on the orders of a deceased Jedi Master. Interestingly, Obi-Wan (nor any of the other Jedi) does not seem bothered by the idea of genetically altered human beings mass produced in a factory to fight in a war. I would think this would be against the Jedi Code but apparently it is not. The Jedi are very particular about the moral battles in which they engage. Mysteriously, the clones are all grown from DNA of Amadala's attacker, the bounty hunter, Jango Fett.
And nobody has a problem with this?
Following a force-vision of his mother in danger, Anakin and Amadala return to Tatooine, Anakin's home world. When he finally locates his mother, she has been captured and tortured by a native group on the planet. In his rage, Anakin slaughters the entire tribe and takes his first real step toward the Dark Side. He vows never to lose anyone like that again and his obsession with protecting those he loves will take him the rest of the way to the dark side.
"Around the survivors, a perimeter form must you," Yoda, giving concise military instructions.
Obi-Wan has followed Jango Fett to the Planet Geonosis (Based on the Biblical Genesis?) where an army of robots is being manufactured and a meeting between Count Dooku and the backing organizations of the CIS is taking place. In a telling line cut from the final movie, Dooku promises the organizations "unrestricted capitalism," continuing the theme from Episode I of the evil using the greedy to their own ends. So if the CIS represents "unrestricted capitalism" then does that mean the Republic represents regulated socialism? While transmitting his findings to the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan is captured. Anakin, Amadala, the Jedi, and their new army of clones all converge upon the planet and do battle with CIS and their droid army. Thus begins the Clone Wars.
One of the great things about the prequels is that the concept of the "good guys" and the "bad guys" is very nebulous. There are only a couple of characters that we can support as "heroes" without reservations (Obi-Wan and Padme never let us down). Although the Jedi as a whole are superficially presented as heroic characters, they are deeply flawed. As viewers, we are meant to sympathize with the Republic and not the Confederation but the Republic is controlled by the most evil character in the movies. What about the clones? Should we support these troops even though they so closely resemble the evil Stormtroopers of the Original Trilogy?
This ambiguity even applies to the movie's title, arguably the worst of all six movies. To attack usually has a negative connotation, yet it seems the only thing attacked by the clones in this movie are the "evil" Separatists, who in some ways seem analogous to the heroic Rebels in the classic movies. Are we supposed to suddenly jump to the CIS point-of-view to appreciate that title? In the larger and more metaphoric sense, what the clones are attacking is the peaceful Republic that had existed up until this point. What they represent is an attack on ideals.
Does anyone know of a good Queensryche song to play over this scene?
By the end of the movie Anakin and Amadala are married in secret. Siddious has succeeded in dividing Anakin from the rest of the Jedi as Anakin now has something to lose which can be manipulated to control him, which makes one wonder if the kidnapping of his motheer was somehow engineered to happen. We also see a meeting between Dooku and Siddious that formalized their association. The Clone Wars will now be an enormous chess match between the two that will allow Siddious to assume more executive powers and also thin the ranks of the Jedi who will now be Generals in the war until his end game is ready to be played.
The 2001 French movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf is a genre bending mix of period intrigue, martial arts and horror. It is actually based on a real-life historical cryptid, The Beast of Gevaudan which supposedly terrorized the French countryside in the 18th Century. In the movie, a pair of investigators are sent from Paris. One is a famous naturalist, the other is an American Indian. Inexplicably, both know all kinds of martial arts.
There are lots of twists along the way and the monster is fairly secondary to the overall story which involves a religious cult. Despite its title and very familiar set up, this is not the werewolf movie which you might be expecting. Brotherhood of the Wolf is very good at turning genre conventions on their heads and taking sharp turns every time you think you have it pegged down. The monster and its nature are much more bizarre than you would think. If you are the kind of viewer who needs to have your movies all figured out while you are watching them or, if you like your genres neat and self-contained, this may bother you.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
The Beast is a unique and interesting movie monster and his true nature keeps you guessing throughout the movie. It is strongly suggested that he is a lion that was brought back from Africa and trained by the film's villain to terrorize the countryside and empower the church which is suffering from waning influence in this Age of Enlightenment. The Beast is outfitted with a kind of armored suit that seems to be permanently attached to its body. His claws and teeth have been augmented with blades and the creature is barely recognizable for what it actually is.
The Beast is a great monster because he is also very tragic. He was animal that was taken out of his environment and warped by human cruelty and bound to a painful armor. Like many great monsters from literature and film it is ultimately a pathetic creature that lives a tortured existence. In a genuinely sad moment, he is shown a small measure of kindness before he is put down.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
Mark Dacascos' Indian forest ninja rampage.
HOME VIDEO:
Several versions on DVD. Avoid the Director's Cut, the movie is already a bit too long as it is and the DC doesn't warrant the extra length.
Not yet on BluRay.
SEE ALSO:
There is really nothing else like this moviebut you can try Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999) which has a similar set up and and is set in a similar time period.
Keeping in line with the October scary trailers, here's the trailer to the scariest, most unbelievable f@ckin' movie you'll see all year, "The Tooth Fairy". Dwayne (Still The Rock) Johnson stars as the Tooth Fairy, a winged freakish monster who terrorizes the homes of parents to exact, or extract his revenge in a bloody rage by ripping childrens teeth out of their mouth with his bare claws. Ashley Judd plays the heroic angst ridden mother who trys to save her child from the fairy who isn't feeling so sprite anymore. Stephen Merchant co-stars as the British guy. Okay. That's not what this movie is about BUT wouldn't you want to watch that instead! And seriously, what is Stephen Merchant doing in this movie?
If you have been following Kanye "I Love Fish Sticks" West's very turbulent public love affair with himself, you know that the last couple of months have been rough. I mean, it takes a lot for a polite man like President Obama to call someone a "jackass."
Now, in case you needed more proof that Kanye needs help, there is the new music video/short film, We Were Once a Fairy Tale, directed by Spike Jones in which Kanye goes out of his way to portray himself a buffoon and a loser. I don't know if this is some sort of public self-flagellation or what, and I really hate to say it, but Kanye is actually a pretty good actor. I mean, he is obviously committing his ass off in this movie.
This seems like a descendant of the Music-Video-as-Therapy genre, of which another collosal-yet-fragile ego, Axl Rose was the undisputed master. Do you remember those surreal and impenetrable Guns N' Roses videos from the '90's starting with "Don't Cry" in which Axl powerballaded his problems away?
HELLBOY (2004) Director: Guillermo Del Toro Genre: Superhero/Occult/Detective
THE MOVIE:
Guillermo Del Toro is the superb Mexican director who gave us such great genre movies as Mimic (1996) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006.) He has an all encompassing interest in monsters and brings them to the screen with great love and care. Hellboy is probably one of his most personal movies, as the central story deals with a monster’s struggle with his nature and the path that he has chosen versus that for which he was created. The movie is based on characters from the comic of the same name which was created by Mike Mignola, who worked closely with Del Torro on the movie.
The main character is Hellboy, a demon summoned as an infant to earth by Rasputin and Nazi occultists at the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Nazis he was taken in and raised by a kindly occultist, Dr. Bruttenholm who works for the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, which was founded by FDR (who apparently never passed up a chance to start a government program). The Bureau is a sort of paranormal detective service which eventually includes Abe Sapien, an intellectually-gifted psychic fishman (voiced by the wonderful David Hyde Pierce) and the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman.
It's time to call Super Nanny.
Hellboy serves as the strongarm of the group, a gruff blue collar action hero with some very adolescent vulnerabilities. The group is a family unit with Dr. Bruttenholm acting as the wise patriarch.
Hellboy deals centers around the newest addition to this group, the fresh faced agent Myers, at a time when Rasputin returns with a few of his preternatural Nazi cohorts, including the clockwork cyborg, Kronen. He also utilizes the Sammael, monstrous demon hounds that reproduce twice for everyone that is killed. Rasputin wishes to reopen an extra dimensional portal to unleash a giant Lovecraftian tentacle monster on earth and to reclaim Hellboy for his original purpose, to serve as the herald of the End of Days.
"...and that's for Alien vs. Predator 2!" "That wasn't me! I swear!"
While I am a big fan of the movie, it perhaps suffers for having too many incredulous plot lines for one movie. You have a demon struggling with his nature, a Federal Bureau of Paranormal research, Rasputin, occultist Nazi remnants (one of whom is a machine the other doesn’t age), a pychic fishman, a pyrokinetic struggling with her powers, a machine that summons extra dimensional tentacle monsters. On top of all that, a love triangle and interdepartmental infighting.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
Never having read the comics I was immediately interested in seeing this movie upon seeing the trailer because of the very imaginative creature design. Hellboy is chock full of good creature work. There’s Hellboy himself, who is superbly played by Ron Perlman under extensive makeup. If you’ve never seen Hellboy, know that he is big, red, has sawed off horns, a tail, and a large stone hand.
Abe Sapien is an aquatic being of a very extra-terrestrial appearance, with large dark almond shaped eyes and mottled blue skin. He is performed by Doug Jones on set and voiced by David Hyde Pierce.
Kronen is perhaps the film’s most visually interesting and badass character. He is a human being from the time of the Nazis who surgically enhanced himself with mechanical parts. Interestingly, his mechanics are low-tech and consist largely of gears and clockwork. He wears a couple of different masks that resemble gas masks. He is one of the most dangerous characters in the film and wields knives and swords fatally.
Bad...ass.
The Sammael engage in some very cool hand-to-claw scenes with Hellboy. They rather look like the bastard children of Aliens and Predators, and therefore a bit like the Predalien from AVP:R. They are basically quadrupedal with skeletal faces, long weapon-like tongues and tentacle manes around their heads. They seem to have the ability to infinitely contort their bodies.
The effects are by and large very good, although there is some annoyingly bad wirework. There are far too many scenes of people being “blown back” or “thrown” into walls and other objects where they are clearly being pulled by some sort of waist harness.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
All of the above, as well as a giant tentacle monster.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
This movie really has a ton of them but I love Hellboy’s subway fight with Sammael.
SEQUELS:
I was rather meh about the sequel Hellboy 2: The Golden Army which was released summer of 2008. Guillermo del Toro is going to be busy herding Hobbits for the next couple of years so it may be a while before we see another Hellboy, if at all.
DVD AVAILABILITY
Available in a single disc or special edition two disc set on DVD and also on BluRay.
SEE ALSO:
What else is there like Hellboy?
Try the animated follow ups:
Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron
Get a handle on some of Del Toro’s other movies:
Mimic deals with insect monsters in the New York subways.
Cronos (1993) one of Del Toro’s Spanish-language movies also features Ron Perlman and a clockwork scarab that turns people into vampires.
Pan’s Labyrinth another Spanish language movie set in Spain during the Civil War and features a young girl who follows a sprightly insect into a magical world almost as monstrous at the real one.
We're big Ghostbusters fans here at Is That Your Boy and 2009 has been a great year for fans of this classic movie. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the original movie, we got a new Blu-Ray, a new game featuring voice work from the original cast, serious news of a third movie in development and a not one but two series of action figures from Mattel.
Please tell me that is not a pee tube.
The 6" line debuted with Egon this summer but there is also an incredible 12" series that commenced earlier this week with the new Ray Stantz figure now available at mattycollector.com. Dr. Stantz supports a newly-created 12" super-articulated action figure body, which sports extra chest and shoulder articulation not normally seen on figures in this scale.
While the head sculpt is just okay, where this figure really shines is in the hyper-detailed clothing and accessories. I mean, look at that damn proton pack! It even lights up! He also comes with his goggles, a walkie-talkie, and an opening ghost trap. The only thing not included is a glow-in-the-dark Barbie so that he can get his supernatural blowie.
That kind of looks better than the ones they used in the movies.
He's on sale now at mattycollector.com for $60 plus shipping, which is not unreasonable considering other figures of this scale go from $80-$100. And, no, he's not a god.
The horror movie is a tricky thing to pin down. Some movies try to scare you and make you jump. Others try to gross you out. Others try to unsettle you. Most commonly today, horror movies try to shock you with violence or gore, desperately trying to elicit a reaction in the desensitized brains of 18-25 year old men.
Deadgirl does all of the above and actually manages to genuinely horrify. The set up seems to fit nicely within this decade's "torture porn" genre of horror movies when two disassociated high school slackers cut class and go exploring an abandoned mental hospital, cigarettes and beer in hand. They make it deep within the structure when they find a secret room in which an immaculately preserved female corpse is strapped to a table. Only she is not quite dead. Nor is she alive, either. One of the two decide to put her to "use" and what follows is a disturbing take on the teenage male mind and sexuality.
Like any great work of horror, Deadgirl is a deeply offensive and troubling movie that takes us on a trip through the shadowy corridors of the mind. It is dark and unpleasant, but ultimately rewarding for the honest insights that it offers. It differs from your Saws and your Hostels in that the horror does not solely come from gore and violence but from the main characters and how the horror upon which they stumble actually affects the course of their lives and its about the choices that they make and how it reveals the horror within them. Deadgirl, despite the fact that it is basically a zombie movie, is much more reality-based than your average horror movie. It has a strong indie-movie portait-of-middle-America feel that supports the horror elements very nicely.
Deadgirl is a movie that came in way under the radar ( it just got its own Wikipedia page entry within the last week) but that should not stop you from checking it out. Deadgirl does the work of the horror film admirably: it pulls the darkest parts of human nature from our unconscious kicking, and screaming into the light where we can see them and maybe really consider them. It has recently been released on DVD and is currently streaming on Netflix for your viewing pleasure. If you can stand the dark places that this movie takes you, it be a very rewarding experience.
Note: This profile is based on the English dubbed version of the movie which may have been re-edited for American audiences, although not to the degree of some of Toho’s other movies.
THE MOVIE
After the disappointing Godzilla Raids Again, Toho Studios had retired the giant lizard in favor of exploring some new kaiju.The first of these moives was Rodan from 1956 which is the story of a pair of giant irradiated Pteranosaurs that attack Japan.Rodan has the distinction of being the first kaiju movie ever to be filmed in color as well as introducing us to one of the most popular monsters in Toho’s pantheon.Rodan would later be incorporated into the Godzilla series and go on to costar in numerous Godzilla movies over the years.
What? It's perfectly normal for a pterodactyl to walk upright like this.
As one of the earlier Japanese giant monster movies Rodan also has a tone that is still somewhat grim and horrific and an ending that is downbeat to say the least.It begins oddly for a movie about aerial monsters with some miners in rural Japan who discover the mutilated bodies of some of their compatriots.They soon discover that these deaths are due to the presence of some large and irradiated prehistoric insects called Meganulons.These insects are apparently the food source for a pair of Pteradactyls dubbed Rodans.The Rodans are large and powerful and capable of producing hurricane force winds by flapping their wings.In order to save Japan and the world from the pair, lest they reproduce, the scientists come up with a plan to lure them into a volcano where they perish rather gruesomely.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
I have a soft spot for flying kaiju.When they are done well it is really cool.Unfortunately it took Toho a really long time to get this effect right.
I’m talking 2003.
Rodan is the very first stab at making this work and the results are very crude.Usually Rodan is seen gliding through the air on visible wires.When he flaps his wings he never does it enough to believably keep himself airborne (an affliction I have dubbed Rodanitis which has stricken Mothra, King Ghidorah and the Gaos birds among others). When he stands, he does so in a very manlike way.In Rodan, you can see the limits of suitmation for realizing certain kinds of creatures.
"I will drag my wings all over this damn city if I have to!"
Rodan is one of the nobler kaiju.While not benign by any means, from his original appearance and from the later Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II, one gets the sense that Rodan has a sense of family.Here, the two creatures die together tragically.In the later movie Rodan adopts Baby Godzilla and sacrifices his life to protect him.Perhaps this is why he has remained so popular despite not being featured in many movies in the last thirty years or so.
MONSTERS FEATURED
A pair of Rodans as well as some man-sized insects called Meganulons.
DVD AVAILABILITY
The English dubbed “Rodan” is available in a five pack with some Showa Godzilla movies.The Japanese version is available as an import.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
The ending of the movie is surprisingly tragic and effective.
SEQUELS
While this was Rodan’s only solo film he was a popular character in the Showa series and appeared inGhidorah, the Three Headed Monster (1965), Invasion of the Astro Monster (1966), and Destroy All Monsters(1968.)Rodan was also featured in the 1993 movie Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla II as well as in 2004’s Godzilla Final Wars in which he is realized with a mix of suitmation and CGI.His attack on New York is amazingly cool and probably his shining moment to date.
Rodan has also been prominently featured in numerous Godzilla video games, most recently in the fighting game, Godzilla Unleashed for the Nintendo Wii.
THE TRAILER
SEE ALSO:
Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla II (1993), Godzilla Final Wars (2004)
TRIVIA:
This is the only movie to feature multiple Rodans.In all of his other movies there are only one which has become known simply as Rodan.
The Meganulons make an appearance in 2001’s Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, as the basis for the Megaguirus monster.
