Monster Movie of the Week: Alien Resurrection (1997)

ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997)

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Genre: Action/Survival Horror/Body Horror

Country: USA

NOTES

1992’s Alien 3 is unloved here in the US but it was well appreciated and financially successful overseas and kindled talk of a fourth Alien movie. However, as many of you know, the ending of Alien 3 was, shall we say, final. It was designed as a way to close out the trilogy and to conclude the Ripley story arc in a dramatic and cathartic way. So what is a studio to do? Since your protagonist is dead, will you venture out and take the series in a new direction with brand new characters? Or will you find some cheap half-assed way to bring a dead character back?

Alien Resurrection features a clone of Ellen Ripley. And as cop-outs go, it is not quite, “It was all a dream” but it is still fairly lame. And I can’t help but feeling that it is a major diss to Alien 3, a movie that is badly flawed but has a lot more integrity than its successor. I think that the decision to do a retread movie and bring Ripley back as opposed to developing new characters and scenarios is one of the reasons that the series fizzled out and was ultimately replaced with the AVP movies and the upcoming prequel/spin-off/nothing-to-do-with-the-Alien-franchise Ridley Scott movie, Prometheus.

"Where's your precious Beetlejuice now?"

THE MOVIE

All of that being said, Alien Resurrection is not a terrible movie. In an attempt to keep the series fresh and in keeping with the franchises history of being a showcase for talented directors, the producers brought in French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, famous for his surrealist movies such as a City of Lost Children and Delicatessen. French directors were very hot back in the 1990’s with the films of Jeunet, Christopher Gans and Luc Besson finding audiences here in the states. Besson’s movies The Professional and The Fifth Element gave fresh Euro spins to well-worn American genres. No doubt the producers of the last Alien film were hoping for Jeunet to give the film a similar feel and he gives Resurrection a Gallic style and quirkiness that sometimes works but often doesn’t. Jeunet’s direction also frequently butts heads with the film’s other major raison d’etre: to recapture the ass-kicking action feel of James Cameron’s Aliens.

Alien Resurrection picks up 200 years after Alien 3 (so, The Future + 200 years) in which military scientists on a remote space station use blood samples from Ellen Ripley to clone her and the alien queen she was carrying at the end of the last movie. Um, okay. That’s same shaky science but okay. It turns out that there is some DNA crossover and this new Ripley has some alien characteristics and vice versa. The film also tries way too hard to make the Ripley clone into a badass: she fights, she shoots hoops, she says “fuck” a lot. This is one of the movies inept attempts to pander to what the producers think is the type of fan that really liked Aliens.

Alien Resurrection is rated R for frequent caressing.

Meanwhile the scientists have arranged to purchase abducted human beings in hypersleep from a group of smugglers that include a mysterious young woman named Call. This macabre storyline is the best part of the movie and makes for some cool imagery and recalls the many great Dark Horse Aliens comics of the time. The idea of these twisted scientists smuggling comatose human beings to breed aliens is dark and cool and it makes you wonder what Joss Whedon’s original Ripley-free script was like.

The smugglers dock with the station and encounter Ripley. Call sneaks into Ripley’s cell and tries to kill her revealing that she has come to prevent the aliens from being bred but is too late. Ultimately the aliens escape and Ripley must lead the dwindling group of military survivors and smugglers off the station. She is kidnapped by the Aliens and taken back to their nest (after apparently making out with one of them!?) where we learn that something is very wrong with these Aliens (this dysfunctional nest and the “mad scientist” type character seems to be a reference to the wonderful “Aliens: Labyrinth” comic). Ripley’s human DNA has infected the hive and the Queen lays prone and gives birth to a live Hybrid creature. After some additional caressing (what is up with the French?) the Ripley clone attempts to escape the doomed ship.

Sad Skeletor.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

This movie features the usual suspects. The alien drone is slightly redesigned (nothing revolutionary) in light of its newfound ability to swim. Again the color scheme is browner and more roach-like than the first two movies. The Queen is featured…well only her head actually. Unfortunately we don’t get any good Queen action in this movie and she gets bitch slapped to death, which is sad.

The “star” creature is the Hybrid, which leaves a lot to be desired, with its pasty skin, sad eyes, potbelly and nasal nub. I’ve heard rumors that the creature was originally designed with a penis (or vagina or some combination thereof) that was digitally removed in post-production. Call me a perv, but I want to see this.

The effects in this movie are somewhat marred by some shoddy CGI, which is too bad because this marks the first use of digital effects on these creatures. Unfortunately the aliens end up looking like Playstation characters in these scenes. This is especially sad because of the high special effects bar raised by the previous movies in the series.

C'est tres francais.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The Ripley clone discovers the meaning of the number “8” tattooed on her arm when she stumbles across the horrific previous seven attempts to clone her. That’s good body horror right there!

SEQUELS

Sadly, no. Although the story is continued in some comic books from Dark Horse. This movie marks the chronological end of the Alien series, although it does continue in the form of the AVP prequels and whatever Prometheus turns out to be (seriously, what is the deal with that movie?).

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On its own or in the mammoth Alien Legacy DVD set. Or in the even more mammoth AVP set. The extras are nothing great and the extended version adds very little to the movie.

The movie was unceremoniously kicked out of the series for the “Alien Trilogy” DVD set that you can find around. What a burn. I guess that means that Alien 3 has been officially replaced as the redheaded stepchild of the series.

On Bluray, it is found in the wonderful Alien Anthology set, which, like the Legacy DVD set, features a slightly longer cut of the movie.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...where no one can hear you scream.

MINORITY REPORT

A Latino almost survives the movie. Almost. Although the weird handicapped guy does survive.

TRIVIA

Believe it or not, Alien Resurrection is the most commercially successful of series in terms of global box office.

TRAILER





Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)

Director: John Landis

Genre: Werewolf

Country: USA/UK

THE MOVIE

Anyone who follows movies knows that studios periodically jump on certain genres or storylines which often result in two similar but competing projects released around the same time. We had Armageddon and then we had Deep Impact. We had Rob Roy and then we had Braveheart. We had Priscilla Queen of the Desert and then we had To Wong Fu. Well in 1981 we had The Howling and then we had An American Werewolf in London both released within a few weeks of each other. Either one by itself would have been a revolutionary entry into the werewolf movie genre. Both were directed by young and talented horror directors and both employed make-up gurus to handle the effects. Werewolf was worked on by SFX legend Rob Baker,

An American Werewolf in London is also distinguished from its competitor by its droll British infused sense of humor and its Hammer-esque ambiance. It also gives us a unique lupine werewolf as opposed to the simian designs of past movies or even the men-with-wolf-heads as popularized by The Howling. Landis’ movie also features some very disturbing and surreal dream sequences (such as one in which Nazi wolf ghouls attack attack the protagonist’s Jewish suburban family.)

Plotwise, AAWIL is pretty typical werewolf stuff. The film even rather sneakily references the old Wolfman movie with Lon Chaney Jr. A pair of young Americans are backpacking in rural England and make it to a mysterious village on the moors where the people in the local pub (which features a large pentagram on the wall) seem to be hiding something. The boys are attacked by an animal, one is killed (but returns in some black-humored visions later in the movie) and one survives and is taken to London for care where he hits it off with his nurse. As we all know, once you survive a werewolf attack you become one yourself.

THE MONSTER EFFECTS

Like The Howling, this movie aims to push the envelope as far as visual effects in a werewolf movie goes. It also tries to limit the number of cutaways during the transformation sequence and much is done via animatronics and practical make-up to create the films almost tortuous transformation sequence. One has to admire the great artistry and ingenuity that went in to creating a sequence like this when now all we would need to do would be to create it in a computer.

The other notable SFX or design aspect of the movie is in the final representation of the creature itself, of which you get some good looks in the latter part of the movie. AAWIL gives us a werewolf that actually looks something like a wolf (well honestly it’s a little stocky for a wolf. I think it looks more like a wolverine.) This is harkens back to pre –Cinema ideas of what a werewolf should look like. After all, the whole idea of the European werewolf was that a man would turn into an actual wolf, not some creature that looks like a hybrid of the two, as is more common in the movies.

FAVORITE SEQUENCE

The best shot in the movie is actually the very first one in which we see the creature. The werewolf is chasing a man through a subway station in the London Underground and up until this point we have only really seen cheap werewolf POV shots so we might be assuming this is one of those movies that doesn’t give you a real look at the monster. Anyway, this man has been chased through the station and stumbles upon an escalator. He falls dropping all of his things and is being carried up. Once he is at the top we get a near POV shot of his position. It is a long shot from the top of the escalator. It has a very objective feel almost like a security camera. The shot goes for a bit and then the monster simply steps into the frame. It’s fast but a great shot and very creepy.

SEQUELS

And unrelated sequel called An American Werewolf in Paris.

DVD AVAILABILITY

Widely available.

SEE ALSO

The Howling

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Son of Kong (1933)

SON OF KONG (1933)
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack
Genre: Jungle Adventure

THE MOVIE

The original King Kong is such a well-known classic that it is often surprising to people to learn that it actually had a sequel which was released later the same year. Son of Kong is nowhere near as good of a movie as its predecessor but it is an interesting artifact from a movie industry that was relatively unsophisticated when it came to marketing and building "franchises" based on popular movies. There is something almost tentative about Son of Kong, as it really is an early attempt at a sequel. It is almost as thought the filmmakers weren't sure how or if they should even be doing a follow up to the massive hit that was Kong.

In the aftermath of Kong's New York rampage, promoter Carl Denham is rightly blamed for the destruction and is being sued by numerous parties for bringing Kong to the city. Denham takes off on a business venture with Captain Englehorn. Ultimately these two returning characters hook up with a couple of new characters (including a female stowaway) and end up chasing treasure on Skull Island, the creature infested "Lost World" where they first encountered King Kong. It turns out there is another giant gorilla on the island, this time a juvenile albino and the titular Son of Kong.

After many close calls and the discovery of the lost treasure of Skull Island, our heroes escape with the help of Kong as the island collapses on itself during a violent earthquake. The son of Kong dies heroically while saving Carl Denham, in a bitterly ironic ending. Although, Kong movies are not known for their happy resolutions.

The movie is an interesting time capsule, with its references to "the war" and its pre-Cold War references to socialism. Halfway through the movie, the crew of The Venture stages a kind of worker's revolt and not only toss out their captain but his usurper as well, having decided that they were done with captains. We never find out what happens to this floating banana republic.

Carl Denham is an interesting protagonist for a movie. How much you are able to tolerate him is directly related to how much you buy into the mythology of America, which values recklessly ambitious capitalists. Back in the day, audiences might have been able to overlook the man's character flaws, but in 2011, he is a weird choice for a heroic protagonist. Before the movie even starts, he has captured and exploited a rare animal which broke loose and killed dozens of people and caused an incredible amount of property damage. At the start of this movie, he skips town to flee all of the lawsuits that he has been served with and goes seeking treasure. Finally, he causes the death of yet another giant gorilla. I mean, if anyone is the villain in this story it is Denham.


THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Little Kong is only about half the size of his dad and has white fur to distinguish him from his pop. He is also presented in a much more "comical" way than King Kong in a cloying son of Godzilla sort of way, since Son of Kong is on the whole a less serious movie than its predecessor. Little Kong is tasked with a lot of awkward physical comedy. This is especially discordant considering his fate at the end of the movie.


Despite his dorky moments, Little Kong does get into a couple of good fights with both a cave bear and some kind of quadrupedal carnivorous dinosaur. The stop motion animation is still handled by the great Willis O'Brien and is top notch. Both of these fights are well choreographed.


MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The end of the film is actually quite moving but, again, it is jarring due to the tone of much of the rest of the movie. All in all, Son of Kong doesn't really come together like it should.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available on DVD.

TRAILER


Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: GIANT EFFING ROBOT EDITION: Transformers (2007)

TRANSFORMERS (2007)

Director: Michael Bay

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

THE MOVIE

The next best thing to giant monster movies is giant robot movies. Especially when the giant robots can physically change themselves into various vehicles and hardware. Michael Bay’s Transformers, of course, is based on the 1980’s line of robot toys and it’s accompanying cartoons and comics in which two factions of giant alien robots land on earth and assume alternate shapes based on common earth forms to hide themselves hence the tagline “Robots in disguise.”

In this reimagining of the original Generation 1 story, the Decepticon faction is already on earth as the movie begins and searching for information regarding their missing leader Megatron, who apparently disappeared here in search of the Allspark, a cube that grants sentient life to machines. The heroic Autobots attempt to head them off. The Autobot Bumblebee assumes the form of an old Camaro and arranges to be sold to young Sam Witwicky, who is unknowingly in possession of an item that will locate the Allspark (and trying to sell it on eBay.) Bumblebee befriends Sam and introduces him to the other Autobots before both are captured by agents from a mysterious government agency called Sector Seven which is in charge of monitoring Transformer activity on earth and are actually holding both the Allspark and Megatron’s frozen body in a secure location. Meanwhile the other Decepticons learn the location and both they and the Autobots converge there for a final battle.

Why does a robot need to have teeth?

As someone who knew and loved the original Transformers cartoon as a child I have to say I was very nervous about this movie. The robot designs I had seen were decidedly different from the simple cartoon designs and liberties are taken with some of the characters and there are many omissions of classic characters (like Soundwave) in favor of original or redesigned secondary characters. That being said, having seen the movie, I am very satisfied with the result. Michael Bay’s Transformers is a kinetic action packed reimagining of the “Transformers” I know and love.

Steven Spielberg produced this movie and his influence can be felt in the touching relationship between Sam and Bumblebee, which has shades of E.T. Sam himself is actually fun to watch and is one of the most realistic depictions of a teenager I have seen on screen (he would make a perfect Peter Parker/Spiderman.) Optimus Prime (Voiced by Peter Cullen who provided his voice in the G1 cartoon) and the other Autobots are beautifully brought to life and their transformations are very cool to watch often complete with the trademark sound effect you may remember from the cartoons. And, of course, the movie is filled with balls-against-the-wall action like a James Cameron Terminator movie on steroids.

MONSTERS/EFFECTS:

There are about twelve different Transformers in this movie. They are all much more alien and intricate then the classic designs and are composed of thousands of small moving parts. Their faces are composed of small metal flaps and lids that move to read emotions. For example, their eyes are colored bulbs (blue for Autobots and red for Decepticons) and they have little metal lids above and below the eyes that move in a particular way to convey different emotions. It’s all fodder for slow motion BluRay viewing.

While the Autobots are well realized in the movie and are all given lines and plenty of screentime, the Decepticons do not fare as well and this is my only real gripe with the movie and probably comes from being overly familiar with the characters in the cartoon. Of the Decepticons, most of the screentime goes to Blackout (the kick-ass giant military helicopter,) Scorponok, Frenzy (the small gremlin-like robot that can turn into a boombox,) Barricade (the police car,) and towards the end, Megatron. Starscream, Bonecrusher and Brawl show up later and are relegated to cameo roles. You never really get a sense of who the Decepticons are and how they work as a group. This is a particular loss when it comes to Starscream who was always a genuinely interesting character on the cartoon because of his constant Shakespearean power struggles with Megatron. This would have been a good and very obvious opportunity to make the Decepticons more than just hulking brutes. On the side, as a purely fanboy complaint, I wish they had gotten someone to do Starscream’s voice who sounded like the late great Chris Latta who had one of the most recognizable voices from the cartoon. His raspy high pitched voice was the essence of Starscream.

The most radically redesigned character in the movie is probably Megatron, who no longer changes into a gun to be wielded by others (thank God) and has a purely Cybertronian design as he does not assume an earth form during the course of the movie (his alternate form is a Cybertronian jet.) When he was first leaked on the net I hated his design because it is very pointy and alien and weird but I’ve grown used to it and now I quite like it (although it looks like crap in profile.) Megatron is voiced by Hugo Weaving in the movie but his voice is so electronically processed and deepened that I couldn’t even recognize him but that’s good because he is appropriately big and scary in this movie.

The effects through out the movie are eye-popping and hyper realistic. Bay is a big fan of using practical on set effects and explosions whenever possible and it gives Transformers a sense of realism that is missing from a lot of purely studio shot CGI effects films.

MONSTERS FEATURED

Optimus Prime - Semi truck

Bumblebee – A ’74 Camaro then a 2009 Camaro.

Jazz- Pontiac Soltice

Rachet-some sort of hummer ambulance (WTF?)

Ironhide-GMC Topkick

Megatron-Cybertronian jet

Starscream-F22 Raptor more or less like his G1 appearance

Barricade-some sort of Mustang derived police car (yeah, that’s low profile.)

Blackout-a big military helicopter

Brawn-a tank (kind of superfluous to the movie.)

Scorponok –a mechanical scorpion with no robot form

Frenzy-transforms into various small electronics

Bonecrusher-a clawed minesweeping military vehicle

There are some other “accidental transformers” as well as a pissed off Nokia phone.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available in both DVD and BluRay.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I loved Optimus Prime’s highway fight with Bonecrusher. So good and so like every Godzilla movie should be.

SEQUELS

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen 2009, which is about as hot a mess as you are likely to see in a big Hollywood movie.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

SEE ALSO:

Transformers: The Movie 1987

TRIVIA:

The Soundwave problem:

Blackout, Barricade and Frenzy were originally going to be called Soundwave at different times in a nod to the original iconic Decepticon who turned from a giant robot to a tiny cassette player. Barricade and Blackout both “eject” smaller Decepticons much like Soundwave (the Barricade action figure actually features a small Frenzy figure that can be removed from his chest a la the original cassette figures) but fan reaction to such a great departure was so intense that they changed the names (and presumably the heads.) Frenzy changes into a boombox but is only about seven feet tall and very different in character from Soundwave, so the filmmakers decided to name him after one of the robot cassette figures.

Soundwave appears in the sequel Revenge of the Fallen, in which he spends the entire movie in orbit making sweet love to a satellite.

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Hate Hate Hate Hate.

This makes Sofia Coppola in The Godfather Part III forgivable.

HEAT

God I love Michael Mann’s “Heat”. I will kick you out of my goddamn apartment if you tell me you haven’t seen that movie. The following are conversations that have all happened in my apartment over the course of time and more often than not over the course of an evening:

MY AWESOME SELF: You haven’t seen “Goodfellas”???

SAD SOUL #1: No.

MY AWESOME SELF: Get the FUCKouttamyhouse!

MY AWESOME SELF: You haven’t seen “Do The Right Thing”???

SAD SOUL #2: No.

MY AWESOME SELF: Get the FUCKouttamyhouse!!!

MY AWESOME SELF: You haven’t seen “The Never Ending Story”???

SAD SOUL #3: No.

MY AWESOME SELF: Get. The. Fuck. Outta. My. HOUSE!!!!

I saw “Heat” at least 5 times in the theater when it was released in 1995 (the year of our Lord but more importantly the year of Kevin Spacey’s appearance as John Doe in “Seven”), I owned the double cassette VHS copy, the soundtrack, several posters, the laserdisc, the DVD, and now the Bluray. You know how much I love “Heat”? Last week I put it on with the volume down. I wasn’t even looking at it. I just wanted it in my peripheral. Then I had to go run errands and I didn’t turn it off. Why? Because what kind of crazy bitch takes the ice trays? No. Because I wanted to come home and look at my television and think, “Oh! Heat is on!” And I did. Cause I’m a genius. Go ahead and chest bump your monitor player, I love ya’.

My buddy/comedian Sean Flannery (my guy!) has two of my favorite Flannery arguments that always get under my skin and make my head explode in rage:

1. Stevie Wonder is overrated. (How would you react to that?)

2. “Heat” sucks.

My reaction to number 2 is almost identical to my reaction to number 1.

If you’ve never seen “Heat” Jesus Christ! Will you please handle that? Will you get on that? Or would you rather get the fuck outta my house because I have no problem kicking you out. Real talk, I’ll kick your ass out if you haven’t seen “Vampire In Brooklyn”***. If you have seen “Heat” Roger Ebert just tweeted a link to an article about it:

@ebertchicago: “Heat” deserves recognition as one of the all-time greatest crime films, sez my Cairo Correspondent Wael Khairy. http://bit.ly/f1Ab69

***I will not kick you out if you haven’t seen “Vampire In Brooklyn”. You can actually move in. “Vampire In Brooklyn” was released the same year as “Heat”. Also released to the public that year? My disappointment in Eddie Murphy.

Monster Movie of the Week: Deep Rising (1998)

Note: Not really sure what is going on in this poster. And why is Special Effects Team in quotations? Do they mean it sarcastically?

Deep Rising (1998)
Director: Stephen Sommers
Genre: Survival Horror/Action

THE MOVIE:

Few movies have as solid a genre movie/B-movie pedigree as Deep Rising. It was written and directed by Steven Sommers, who would later go on to do The Mummy series and GI JOE. It featured Treat Williams (The Phantom and The Substitute 3,) Famke Jensen who, up until that time, was known for being the best Bond girl ever in Goldeneye, Anthony Heald from Silence of the Lambs, Wes Studi of Streetfighter: The Movie, Trevor Goddard (Kano in Mortal Kombat,) and Djimon Honsou, at that time best known as Horus in Stargate. So pop this movie in your DVD player knowing what to expect: Deep Rising is not an allegory for anything, it is not trying to make any particular statements about the world. It is, however, a solid monster movie.

Sommer’s movie was part of the ‘90’s wave of creature flicks that were just beginning to cash in on the digital promise of Jurassic Park. No longer were movie monsters to be encumbered by only having to use clunky rubber suits, stop motion effects, or animatronics. Finally we had a generation of movie creatures that were capable of real kinesis. These monsters could convincingly run and jump and give chase which added a new level of fun to the genre.

Deep Rising involves a plot to destroy a luxury cruise liner so that its owner (the typically slimy Anthony Heald) can cash in the insurance money. He hires a group of mercenaries to intercept and destroy the ship. The mercenaries charter the boat of the very Han Solo-esque John Finnigan (Treat Williams, who actually says “I’ve got a very bad feeling about this” at one point during the movie). When they arrive at the ship they find it deserted with the exception of a few crew members and a Sexy Jewel Thief (Famke Jensen). The survivors tell of sea monsters that have eaten the rest of the passengers. The remainder of the movie involves Finnigan and the mercenaries’ attempts to escape the tentacle monsters and get off the ship.

Roger Ebert gave this movie a very unfavorable review, referring to it as another Alien clone, which I find odd because its tone and content are totally different from Ridley Scott’s movie, which was relatively cool and humorless. Yes, it has a toothy monster in a confined space but that’s about the only similarity. I would say it actually has more in common with James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) because it features a bunch of gun-toting machomen who get their asses handed to them by monstrous forces they don’t understand.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

Most of what we see of the monster are its tentacles, each one ending in a toothy maw. This creature seems to have an infinite number and length of these tentacles. This has led some to believe that there is in fact more than one monster. However, we only actually get a look at one of them in its entirety during the very cool ending of the movie and the monster is revealed to be a sort of giant Lovecraftian octopus (a Kraken, perhaps?).

MONSTERS FEATURED:

Just the one.

DVD AVAILABILITY:

Available in a plain-jane early generation Disney DVD, with practically no extra features.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:

I don’t know about you but I’m a sucker for a good still-alive-regurgitated-victim scene.

SEQUELS:

None yet, but there have been rumblings.

SEE ALSO:

Anaconda(1996)

TRIVIA:

The original title of this movie was “Tentacle,” for obvious reasons.

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Hey Have You Seen The Tree of Life Trailer?

Damn. I wish my eyes could see the world the way Terrence Malick’s movies visualize it. I don’t want to come off as corny right off the bat but watching his movies, well the only intelligent way I can put it is that shit is like watching a moving painting. I get blown away by each frame. Here’s the trailer to his next movie The Tree of Life.

I get a very Thin Red Line-esque (that’s right I make up words on this) vibe from this first trailer. I have no problem with that. I love The Thin Red Line. When it comes to contemporary war movies people usually fall into three categories: Saving Private Ryan people, Black Hawk Down people, and people like me who don’t shut the hell up about The Thin Red Line.

The Thin Red Line was a huge deal when it first came out. It’d been twenty years since Malick had made a movie and every actor around wanted to be in on this one. Go back and look at the cast of The Thin Red Line. Everybody is in that movie. I’m at the point now when I watch it I’m just looking to see who’s not in it. Like how is Billy Crudup not in TTRL? If I was Billy Crudup and I was watching TTRL on a lazy Sunday afternoon sitting on my couch butt naked and blue in my Watchmen makeup I’d be like, “Am I in this movie? Jesus Christ aka Jim Caviezel is in this, Adrien Brody’s in this movie, there’s John C. Reilly, John Travolta, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Nick Nolte’s sweaty forehead veins. Damn! Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is in this! Am I in this? Why am I not in this?”

Talk to that Criterion Collection blu-ray if you haven’t yet. It’s fantastic. It’s a a great way to see the movie for the first time and the bonus features do as good a job as I’ve seen on Malick’s movie making process.

*Spoiler alert, according to everyone who worked on TTRL Malick’s way of making movies is: 1)Genius oozes out of him. 2) He makes a lot of it up as he goes along.

Damn, I said all of that and I’m supposed to be talking about The Tree of Life. You’re going to get everything in this first trailer that you’ve come to expect from Malick. Voice overs, eye candy galore, and visions of space that I haven’t seen since the last time I did acid and was convinced tacos were the key to life’s answers. Sign me up! It stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain (her last name should be Chastity. Don’t ask me why but it should.) The Tree of Life opens on May 27, 2011. You’ll be wondering what the hell it was about on May 28th.

Monster Movie of the Week: Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE (1989)

Director: Kazuki Omori

Genre: Daikaiju eiga

Country: Japan

After the Showa series ran its course with 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla, the Godzilla franchise went on a long hiatus until 1984’s relaunch, Godzilla (known here as Godzilla 1985). The movie was praised for its return to the darker themes of the early films but was criticized for its often ponderous tone and its lack of a monster opponent for the Big G. It would be another five years before the new Heisei, or versus series, would resume in earnest with Godzilla vs. Biollante, a movie that is notable for its remarkably unique and imaginative creature design, introduction of new “hard” science fiction elements, and often bizarre plot.

Biollante begins in the aftermath of the previous movie, as scientists are sifting through the rubble of Godzilla’s most recent attack on Tokyo and pulling out bits of the monster’s biological material from the debris. Godzilla vs. Biollante introduces a element into the series through its biotech subplot. In the Showa movies, Godzilla’s biology had not been given much attention, but in the 1990’s and 2000’s it is a recurring theme. In the 1980’s, the use and ethics of biotechnology and genetics was a huge issue. Biollante was actually released the same year as Michael Crichton’s landmark sci-fi novel, Jurassic Park, which also featured the application of biotech as one of its main themes.

Much of the human activity in the movie concerns the quest to obtain and use the Godzilla cell samples by different factions. This is actually kind of a cool idea, and if there had been a Godzilla attack, you can bet that lots of people would like to get their hands on his samples to use for their own ends. Researcher Dr. Shiragami, mourns the loss of his young daughter in a terrorist attack and spends much of his time looking into psychic phenomena, especially the psychic properties of roses (Um, whaaa?). One of his students is Miki Saegusa, a psychic who develops a bond with Godzilla. Miki becomes a fixture in the later Heisei movies, which feature a fairly tight continuity.

Meanwhile, Dr. Shiragami has come into possession of some Godzilla cells and has been tasked with using them to create a weapon to be used against Godzilla. Unbeknownst to his employers, Shiragami has been combining them with both the DNA of one of his psychic roses and that of his dead daughter (WTF?!), needless to say this does not end up well, and the resulting creature, Biollante, escapes into a nearby lake and grows to an enormous size. Biollante is a genetic relative of Godzilla and begins calling him to her. When the King of the Monsters arrives, the two have a skirmish, and Biollante is apparently defeated.

Godzilla then makes his way to the nearest nuclear power plant (as is his wont) he faces an all out attack from the humans, who unsuccessfully attempt to use Shiragami’s weapon against him. A fully-grown Biollante also appears, and battles Godzilla, nearly destroying him, before he triumphs and heads to sea. Biollante releases spores which briefly form into an image of Shiragami’s daughter and then head out into space(!?).

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

First, Biollante features a new look for Godzilla and one that stayed fairly consistent throughout the 1990’s. The Biollante suit remains an iconic look for the character and one that is beloved by many fans. Strangely, it adds features that are actually less reptilian, such as a set of mammalian specialized teeth instead of the fangs or jagged teeth of past suits, an almost feline face, topped with what look like cornrows, and small, intelligent eyes. Apparently, this Goji has been doing push-ups, because he has a more muscular upper body, with pronounced pectorals and deltoids (the lower body is still flabby though).

The real star, however, is Biollante herself, who is totally unique in the history Godzilla monsters. This is the rare instance of Toho forgoing the usual man-in-suit technique and opting for a different approach to bring its monster to life. Biollante, in her final form, looks like a giant Audrey 2 from Hell and actually dwarfs Godzilla in comparison. She is a genuinely horrible monster and not at all goofy-looking, as many other Toho monsters are. Her “body” is sort of bulbous with a luminescent potbelly, crisscrossed with sinewy vines . She moves on a bed of tentacle-like vines, many of which end in toothy jaws. On her back are mossy scales. Half of her body is taken up by an absolutely huge and croc-like mouth, which is full of teeth, even on the base and roof of the mouth, and from which she sprays a radioactive sap. She is definitely one of the most original and compelling monsters to have appeared in a Toho movie.

As a Toho monster, Biollante is part of a long line Godzilla clones, demi-Godzillas, usurpers, and wanna-bes that include, the original Mechagodzilla, Spacegodzilla, and Orga (from Godzilla 2000). Even the American Godzilla has been worked into the mythos as a pretender with his reference in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah and finally his appearance in Godzilla Final Wars. In GMK, poor Baragon, is temporarily confused with Godzilla and it doesn’t end well for him. If there is a real theme to the Godzilla franchise, is that there can only ever be one Godzilla, and you’d better not even try to replace him.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The battle at the end is quite good, and represents a rare moment where Goji is truly outmatched by an opponent.

SEQUELS

Followed by the also interesting, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.

Sadly, this is Biollante’s sole appearance in a Godzilla movie. She does appear in the recent Wii game, Godzilla Unleashed as a playable character. And Shiragami appears in the cutscenes as well.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

In the DVD and Bluray age, Godzilla vs. Biollante has been pretty much unavailable in the USA. With no official DVD release, it is necessary to order it as an import or wait for the movie’s eventual release on Bluray. As of yet, only the very first Godzilla has been released on Bluray and the 1998 remake. If Toho and Columbia follow suit with what they did last time, you can expect most of the catalog to be released on Bluray with the new American movie in 2012.

TRAILER




Patrick Garone
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