In the history of cinema, you have a variety of incredibly recognizable characters: Darth Vader, Indiana Jones, the xenomorph from Alien, the Terminator.  But there are two characters in particular that have lasted longer than any other character.  The first one was the super spy James Bond.  Come on, EVERYBODY knows 007, regardless of which actor that played him.  The other is Godzilla.  Even if you haven’t seen ANY Godzilla film, you know who and what that big guy is.  He’s one of the most iconic characters in pop culture.  Well, we are coming up on the 70th anniversary of the original Kaiju’s appearance.  The original Gojira was released in 1954 as a response to the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki just 9 years prior.  Most people will recognize the Godzilla from the 60s and 70s.  You know, the really campy and silly monster movies that ended up defining an entire sub-genre of movies.  But the original film was deadly serious.  I want to talk about the Godzilla movies that I’ve seen, including the recently released Godzilla: Minus One.

Just this weekend, I went and saw Godzilla: Minus One, the latest Godzilla film from Japan’s Toho Entertainment.  I won’t go into full spoilers or a full review here, but let’s just say that Godzilla: Minus One is perhaps the best Godzilla movie since the original.  Some might it’s the best one yet.  It’s not just a great monster movie.  It’s a great movie.  Yeah, the big guy gets to destroy stuff, but all of that is anchored by a really strong and human story about the struggles of a post-war Japan.  This movie is set just after World War II when Japan was still picking up the pieces from the attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  Unlike most movies of this kind, the focus is on people and how they come together to solve a common problem: Godzilla.  I absolutely recommend this movie.

As of this writing, Warner Bros. has released a new Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire trailer.  The New Empire is the latest in series of Godzilla films that were started by Gareth Evans back in 2014.  I loved the 2014 movie, and I enjoyed the last two American-made Godzilla movies, but this new one just looks ridiculous.  This has been a huge problem with American-made Godzilla movies since Roland Emmerich’s 1998 film.  The tone is all over the place.  It’s like the film-makers decided to jettison the serious tone of the 2014 film and embraced the lunacy of the 60s and 70s movies.  That’s fine, but it just goes to show the disparity between the western approach to Godzilla versus Toho’s approach.  That’s not to say that Toho’s movies have all been good.  They haven’t.  Again, the 60s and 70s Godzilla films are just pure insanity with the amount of destruction and monster mayhem.  There’s nothing wrong with that approach as long as the film-makers go in head-first with that intention.  The problem is that the western approach to the characters in these movies is that the human characters are always boring or irritating.  I get it: Most people don’t go to these movies for the human characters.  They come for the mayhem, and that’s all well and good, but if you’re going to put a focus on the human characters, you need to not make them irritating douchenozzles.  Otherwise, just take them out of the film completely.

While we’re at it, lets discuss the 1998 Godzilla film starring Matthew Broderick and Hank Azaria.  The design of Godzilla has undergone changes over the years since he first appeared in 1954, but most of those changes adhered to a specific overall look to our favorite Kaiju.  Well, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich took that design and threw it out the window with their 1998 film.  What we ended up with was essentially an overgrown iguana.  Granted, the CGI character was fairly well executed, but fans of the OG monster took a lot of issues with the creatures design.  Godzilla has generally been indestructible and feared NOTHING.  The changes to the character’s design and motivations was just…weird.  The OG Godzilla wreaked havoc because it was essentially nature reacting to the use of nuclear power.  In the 1998 movie, the creature just wanted to settle down and have a family.  Ignoring the terrible miscasting, the 1998 movie just wasn’t what people were expecting.  Toho was PISSED at what Emmerich had done, and this would eventually result in Toho going full-bore into THEIR movies with Godzilla 2000 and Final Wars.  The west would not make another Godzilla movie until Gareth Evans’ 2014 film.

Gareth Edwards’ film marked the west’s return to the giant monster movie genre with a pretty spectacular movie starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe.  Now, there was a lot of criticism about Godzilla not being featured as prominently in his own movie as he was in others.  People often forget that Godzilla didn’t have much screen time in the 1954 film, either.  He didn’t need it.  His presence was felt throughout the entire movie, and when he showed up, shit got wrecked.  That was the approach that Gareth Edwards took with the 2014 movie, and I thought it was much better for it.  Even the human characters were given more to do than just be crushed like insects.  Movies like this can have more impact(pun intended)when they’re anchored with good writing and good characters.  WB responded to the negative reactions to the 2014 film with Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019 by throwing in everything but the kitchen sink.  Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidora and other giant monsters make an appearance.  As usual, the humans are the focus, but poorly written.  Godzilla Vs. Kong at least embraces the ridiculousness and just goes full ham and the monster mayhem, and the movie is actually a lot of fun.  Again, though, the west has drifted so far from what Godzilla represented.

In 2016, Toho released Shin Godzilla, a reboot of sorts that really put the emphasis on why Godzilla was a problem for Japan and it focused on the people trying to solve that particular problem.  The design of big G was very reminiscent of the old-school Godzilla, but it also showed different stages of the creature’s evolution.  What Shin Godzilla and Minus One have shown is that Toho has a completely different idea on how to involve people in a story that’s centered around a nuclear-powered monster.  Toho has a much better understanding of how to use Godzilla as well.  Yeah, the massive destruction brought on by the monster is amazing, but without the human element to connect the audience to those events, it’s pure spectacle.  Again, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but I feel that the modern non-Toho Godzilla movies have failed to really capture the spirit of Toho’s movies.  Now, some of you might wonder about the campy movies of the 60s and 70s.  Fair point, Toho was riding on a massive high with the success of 1954’s Gojira.  So, the approach changed.  The seriousness of the original film wouldn’t necessarily bring audiences back to more movies, so they had to up the B-level factor and make movies that were…more fun, hence the addition of monsters like Mothra, Rodan, MechaGodzilla, Ghidora, Gigan, Jet Jaguar, and Destoroyah.  The less said about Baby Godzilla, the better.

Godzilla has been a huge part of the public consciousness for 70 years, and I don’t see it slowing it down.  Minus One looks like it’s going to be a huge success, and there are plans for Toho to make more of these.  Personally, I can’t wait.  I will go see the new Godzilla X Kong movie when its released next year, because I’m a huge fan of the genre.  However, I can’t escape the idea that the divergent paths that the American and Japanese approach to Godzilla is going to lead to an oversaturation of these movies.  If that must be the case, then I would rather lean towards the Japanese approach.  I really love how they manage to make such big movies for what is essentially a fraction of what it would cost to make the same movie in the United States.  Yet, for all the rough patches in the career of big G, he’s the gift that keeps on giving, because I’m always going to see his movies and so will a lot of other people.  I’ve been watching these movies since I was a kid, so I do have an interest in how these movies are made.  Godzilla will always be Godzilla, and as long as people try not to deviate to far from what makes him work, there’s no limit to what you can do with him.  Just try not to make a romantic comedy where Godzilla is involved in a love triangle between Mothra and Rodan.  Nobody wants to see that…or do they?  No kink shame here.

For those of us that love physical media, the last few years have been outstanding.  Here’s the thing, though.  The quality DVD’s, Blu-Rays, and 4Ks haven’t been coming from a lot of the major studios, because THEY’VE been focusing on streaming, which isn’t doing very well right now, except for Netflix.  No, the best physical releases have been coming from the boutique labels like Shout! Factory, Criterion, Kino Lorber, Grindhouse, Blue Underground, MVD Releasing, Vinegar Syndrome, and many others.  Now is the best time to be a fan of physical media.  2023 has seen a HUGE number of outstanding releases.  With streaming in its current…predicament, it’s important to remember that physical media still has an important part to play in the world of movies, and it will for at least another decade.  With that out of the way, let’s take a gander at some of the stuff I’ve picked up since the last haul.

The Vincent Price Collection – Scream Factory

For some bizarre reason, I decided I needed some Vincent Price in my life, so…I picked up the Vincent Price Collection.  This was the first of three collections that became available.  Vincent Price is one of the legendary actors of the 50s and 60s, known mostly for his gothic horror films where he played villains.  He would be the first person to tell you that he doesn’t have much range, but what he gives us is fantastic.  This collection has 6 movies spread over 4 discs: The Pit and The Pendulum, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Haunted Palace, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, and Witchfinder General.  These are all classics in their own right.  I might do a review on Witchfinder General later, because this was not your typical horror film.  Most of the films in this collection are based on Edgar Allan Poe’s work, but Witchfinder General really wasn’t.  It was inspired by the notorious real-life witch hunter, Mathew Hopkins, during the 17th century.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 – Paramount Pictures

To say that I’m a fan of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible movies is a gross understatement.  I love all these movies, especially the more recent ones like Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout.  Tom Cruise has made a habit of upping the ante with the stunts that he does, because he does them all.  But these are great spy capers that are a lot of fun, although, I will admit that MI: 3 was the weakest of the bunch, in my opinion.  But this latest entry: Dead Reckoning: Part 1 takes things to a whole new level in terms of action and stunt-work.  The story is kind off…eh.  But we all go to these movies to see what shenanigans that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt gets into, and they don’t disappoint.  For a movie that’s 2.5 hours long, it doesn’t feel like that.  It moves pretty quickly.  While I can’t wait to see Part 2 when it comes out, Part 1 didn’t do very well at the box office.  The budget ballooned like crazy because of Covid, but it’s still an awesome action movie.  I just wish the special features were more in-depth then they were.

Meg 2: The Trench – Warner Bros.

Never let it be said that Jason Statham kicking a giant shark in the face is a bad thing.  The first Meg was a surprising amount of fun.  Giant sharks are awesome, but my biggest issue with the film was that there wasn’t enough carnage with the megalodon.  Well, you definitely get more carnage with this movie and that makes it a bit more fun.  Perhaps the most interesting addition to the film was Wu Jing.  Most western audience aren’t going to know how this guy is.  He’s a martial arts actor who made his break in Hong Kong’s kung-fu movies during the 90s and early 2000s.  He’s FAST, but he doesn’t do any martial arts in this movie.  He’s actually got pretty good chemistry with Statham, so these two are a blast to watch.  Don’t listen to the critics who hated this movie, it’s a lot of fun.  Special features-wise though, this release is anemic.  Two featurettes that don’t even hit 30 minutes total.  Lame.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter – Universal Studios

When it comes to legendary monsters in literature, you don’t get more infamous than Dracula.  There have been so many adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel over the past century.  The most famous of which is Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi.  But one of my favorites was Nosferatu, which was released in 1922.  Between Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman, the eponymous vampire has endured.  With The Last Voyage of the Demeter, the film-makers explored a part of the book that most would probably gloss over: Chapter 7.  In this chapter, the captain’s log of the Demeter describes the last days aboard the schooner.  The film-makers decided to turn this story into an Alien-style thriller.  You know what?  It worked.  This is one of the best thrillers of the year, and I just wish that Universal Studios gave it more attention.  It bombed at the box office, and the marketing for the home video release was sparse.  It’s too bad, this is one of the most underrated movies of the year.

Crocodile – Synapse

In 1975, the world’s first summer blockbuster hit the silver screen around the world: Jaws.  It was one of the biggest movies of that year.  It was amazing, because it wasn’t just about the shark, it was about people dealing with the shark.  Steven Spielberg made his name with that movie.  Jaws fever gripped the world, and film-makers were eager to capitalize on the film’s success.  One of the first ones was Piranha.  It was quite the knock-off.  But it wouldn’t just be the United States that would rip-off Jaws.  Thailand would get one of the more bonkers movies in Crocodile, or Crocodile Fangs as it was known overseas.  This featured a giant crocodile as a result of nuclear testing, and it follows the Jaws formula to a tee.  Except that the two main leads lose their loved ones to the beast.  Other than that, it proceeds just like Jaws.  I love this movie.  The carnage is over-the-top and plentiful, despite the odd quality of the miniatures.  During the final act, the size of the croc changes.  It’s not a good movie, but it IS a great time.

John Carpenter’s Vampires – Scream Factory

Of all the vampire movies I’ve seen over the years, and I’ve seen a lot, John Carpenter’s Vampires was not one of his best movies.  At least, not when I first saw it.  I thought it was alright.  When I picked it up on Blu-Ray, I had a lot of fun with it.  Whatever you think of James Woods’ politics, he’s an electric actor, and his performance in this movie is wild.  Thomas Ian Griffith as Valek, almost steals the show.  He’s pretty terrifying.  The other actors including Tim Guinee and Daniel Baldwin did a pretty good job.  It’s definitely a bloody movie, and it starts off with a bang and ends with a bang.  The special features are pretty good here, including a commentary by the man himself, John Carpenter.

John Carpenter’s In The Mouth of Madness – Warner Bros.

This one was available from Scream Factory, but I bought the WB version instead.  It was cheaper.  Still, it’s a decent disc.  In The Mouth of Madness is the second John Carpenter film on this list, but it’s also directly inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  It’s got a solid cast including Sam Neill and Jurgen Prochnow as Stephen King-style author Sutter Cane.  Things really start taking a turn for the bizarre when Trent goes in search of a town called Hobb’s End.  The closer that he gets to Cane, the more off the rails the world seems to go.  It’s the best H.P. Lovecraft movie that’s not H.P. Lovecraft.  It’s bonkers and at times really funny.

And that’s all I’ve got for this haul, but don’t worry, there’s more coming out next week including Saw X and Oppenheimer.  Until then: Ciao!

About an hour and a half ago, as of this writing, the Screen Actor’s Guild brought their strike to an end following a tentative deal with the AMPTP(Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers).  While the details of the deal probably won’t be released until Friday, what we do know is that the actors will see pay increase of 7 percent, which is 2 percent higher than the director’s and writer’s guild got.  Also part of the deal is a “streaming participation bonus” as well as increases in health contributions and pensions.  Overall the deal is valued at about 1 billion dollars.  It’s pretty significant.

One of the biggest sticking points during the strike was the use of AI or artificial intelligence like ChatGPT.  What the studios had proposed initially was a one-time pay-off to an actor so they could use their likeness in any way they wanted essentially forever without compensating the actor or their estate if the actor dies.  That was the one issue that SAG was not willing to budge on, and I’m glad they didn’t.  The irreparable harm that could have been done to the industry would be catastrophic.  Look, AI is a part of our every day reality.  But the way it is used is something that requires further study and discussion.  Laws need to be put in place for certain protections against the abuse of the technology.  It’s something that’s going to affect ALL industries, not just Hollywood.

It never should’ve gotten to this point.  The movie and TV studios got greedy and they were called out on it by the DGA, WGA, and SAG.  The DGA and WGA got their deals earlier this year, but the actors really pushed to make sure that they had proper protections against the abuse of AI.  The fact of the matter is, this is the studios’ fault.  One hundred percent.  A bunch of Wall Street-owned jackasses got the idea that they could screw actors out of what they’re owed and what they’ve worked so hard to build.  Look, union negotiations can get heated and compromises have to be made on both sides.  That’s how things are done, but at the end of the day, nobody’s going to be completely happy, which means something got accomplished.  It’s going to be another 3 years before the contracts are up.  Once I get more details on the deal that was struck between the studios and SAG, I’ll post it here with my thoughts. Just thought I’d let people know what’s up.

There’s been a lot of stuff on my Twitter feed about the new Blade film being rated R.  I recently reviewed the Blade Trilogy over the weekend, which was R-rated.  There are some places out there that are announcing that the new film will be rated R.  Screenrant says that the director of the new film, Yann Demange says that the movie will be the second MCU movie to have an R-rating, with the other one being Deadpool 3.  Here’s the problem: It wasn’t announced by Marvel or Disney, and this isn’t showing in any of the major trades like Deadline or Variety, at least not yet.  The reaction across twitter has been, “Hell yeah, the movie’s going to be rated R!  It’s going to suck if isn’t!”  Hold your horses, ladies and gents.  Let me throw some cold water on that: The rating of a movie does NOT determine its quality.  If the film’s rating was all that it took to be successful, then Expendables 4 should’ve been a box-office knock-out.  It wasn’t.  It was advertised as an R-rated movie because the third film was PG-13.  I can tell you that Expendables 4 was NOT a good movie, and it didn’t do well at the box office.  In fact, the movie ended its box-office run at 16 million dollars on a hundred million dollar budget.  That’s a catastrophic failure of a movie that pretty much ensured the end of that franchise.  The point is, is that whether a film is rated PG or R, it doesn’t guarantee a film’s success.  A film’s success is determined by how many people bought tickets to go see it, and the only way that can happen is if people are interested in it.  Also, word-of-mouth and reviews and all that jazz has an effect.

Don’t get me wrong: A lot of my favorite movies are R-rated films.  There’s a certain degree of freedom that you have with an R-rating, but it’s important to understand that the writing of a film and it’s story is what determines the film’s rating.  What is the intent of the film?  What audience is the movie for?  Historically speaking, R-rated have always done worse than PG-13 or PG movies, because those movies command a wider audience.  You don’t necessarily have to worry about your child seeing somebody get dis-emboweled, decapitated or an other horrific methods of death and destruction.  If all you have in your R-rated film is titties, f-bombs, and gore, it’s not going to be successful, at least not with your average film-goer.  There has to be context and subtext behind such things.  There needs to be a reason for it.  I’m all for a good splatter-fest, but gore for the sake of gore is boring.  There needs to be more than stomach-churning violence to be compelling.  Look at this summer’s Oppenheimer.  It’s an incredibly successful R-rated movie, but it didn’t rely on cheap tactics like gore and over-the-top violence.  It was rated R because of the story of the man who created the atomic bomb.  That’s inherently NOT a family-friendly story, yet it was incredibly successful.  Now that had a lot to do with people not able to get tickets for Barbie, but regardless, it was a smash hit.

Now, certain genres do lend themselves better to an R-rating than others.  Horror movies in particular tend to be R-rated.  But not all of them.  Some of the best horror movies are PG to PG-13.   Ghostbusters, Poltergeist, Tremors.  These movies didn’t need to be rated R to be amazing.  You also need to understand that the bar for what constitutes a certain rating has changed over the past 40 years.  There have been PG-13 movies released in the past 20 years that have pushed that rating to its absolute limits like The Dark Knight.  Not kidding.  If you’re going to the movies these days, don’t really worry about the rating unless the movie was made for it.  MPA’s rating system is all over the place.  The standards for what makes a certain rating changes like the weather.  My final point is this: Don’t get excited for a movie because it’s rated R.  Get excited for a movie for the experience you might get from it.  If the film happens to be rated R, then that’s just icing on the cake, but it shouldn’t be determining factor for seeing a movie.  That kind of mentality is really narrow-minded.  Open yourselves up to all kinds of movies regardless of the rating.