greasepig reviews

This movie is W.C. Field's best work to date. I believe I remember seeing this movie when I was maybe nine or ten years old, and we had this Cub Scout all-night thing in some gym. The idea was to try to stay up all night long. So they made us play these games and sports and do these silly crafts. The best part, though, was the movies they showed us, all of them little 10-minute super-8 films borrowed from Elmore Public Library. They had a bunch of 3 Stooges, Abbot and Costello, Little Rascals, Oliver and Hardy, and WC Fields movies. Guess what, even 25 years later, that stuff is still funny. I like to look at this stuff imagining I'm hearing these jokes for the first time. You really don't need to rely on gratuitous sex, violence, or even language for something to be funny. It's all such simple stuff, with simple technology. Another thing that's fun about this one is that you can tell the dialect change from the two generations, W.C. Fields' and his daughter's, in the conversations. And the old technology - the cars and the roads are all so ancient. Add on that lots of fun jokes, and we have a winner here.
Rating: 5 Godzillas

I have been a Batman fan since I was this high. Of course, that means that my early experience with this icon was mostly with the circa 1966 television series that was pure camp in those days. When the Tim Burton version came out, in 1991, I believe, I was still excited enough about it that I went to the 'sneak preview' the day before the 'official release' (apologies to KP for the 'single quotes'), and I loved it. I never read too many of the comic books, so it isn't as if I really cared about these other stories. I pretty much like seeing all of this stuff on its own merits. The basic premise is all the same - basically some dude who's been wronged wants to be a superhero. That's all I need to make it interesting.

This movie had many things that just clicked for me. I think the first part, with all the flashbacks and stuff, was made partly in Iceland, and I definitely recognized some of the landscapes. This part also went by kind of quickly, and seemed like a continuation of the previews for a time, to be honest. But then when you realize the movie is 140 minutes, I guess they did have to cut some stuff out.

Anyway, I liked all the characters in here, even though some of them may not have gotten enough airtime. Liam Neeson was a great villain, although you didn't necessarily realize he has a bad guy until later. I suppose his crazy moustache should have given him away. The villain who had the most screentime, Dr. Crane played by Cillian Murphy (I had to look all that stuff up, because one bad thing about this movie was that they kind of overdid it with the orchestral soundtrack sometimes, making it difficult to hear the dialogue) was very effective, I thought. His persona and his evil gimmick were genuinely scary. Gary Oldman was great because of how subdued he played Jim Gordon (after this movie Commissioner Gordon). At the end of the movie (another spoiler here, if anyone cares), he uses the Batmobile to blow up some stuff, and, basically, save the city, and Batman's flying by, and he just simply holds up his hand to wave. Michael Caine's cockney take on Alfred was cool, too. The funniest line, IMO, was when Bruce said to Alfred, "Just tell them that one joke you know", so you get the idea that comedy wasn't an important element in this film. I guess there were other famous people in there too, but I didn't necessarily recognize them all. I mean, all movies these days have famous people, I guess, but this movie worked it pretty well.

Another great thing about this movie was the technical stuff. Of course you had to suspend some disbelief, but it allowed you some real-word fun stuff to like, too. The Batmobile just kicked a lot of major ass. It's basically some military vehicle painted over black so that Batman could use it. And he flies all over the tops of buildings with it. And the mechanism of the badguy, Scarecrow, or whatever he was called, was brilliant I thought. Whoever would have thought that a canvas bag could be so scary.

I guess I should mention Katie Holmes in here, too. Her part was pretty much the weakest in a really well-cast crew. I think any, random, well-developed human female could have played that part exactly the same way. It neither added nor detracted to the storyline. But somehow, even though I don't really believe that she had a part in the movie's script, she did manage to keep with her Scientology message that all psychiatrists and the drugs they use are evil. So good for you, Kate. Freak. BTW, is Nicole Kidman still a Scientologist these days?? just wondering.

One thing that surprised me is that I saw this movie on the first day it came out, at one in the afternoon. I would have expected a bunch of kids (school let out just last week here) to be the first to see this thing. But there were only maybe twelve other people in the whole theater, perhaps one kid. It's a nice big plushy theater, too (the Presidio). Go figure.
Rating: 4 Godzillas

At first glance, this does not look like my kind of movie: 1) it's French 2) it has the word "romantic" in its description 3) The publicity photo, with Am

I have learned, actually only far too recently, to go into a movie like this with no preconceived expectations of what the experience should be like. Of course, I can't forget the previous twenty or so kaiju movies I've already seen, but that doesn't mean they have to have any bearing on this one.

This movie can be summed up in one word: non-stop. It starts out with Godzilla being buried at the South Pole by another improbable attack vehicle commanded by yet another incarnation of one of those Earth Defense forces. Apparently all the people of the world have joined together to fight man's common enemy: monsters. This is awesome, because the movie spends no more time setting up that plot point than it took you to read that sentence. That's all I need, bring on the monsters! This movie steals from nearly every single Godzilla movie of yore, and about half the recent sci-fi movies. The movie's protagonist is certainly a long-lost cousin of Keanu Reeves, and the resemblance goes even further than that, with Matrix-style cgi fight scenes, and lots of silly closeup reaction faces. Oh, and don't forget Ultimate Fighter Don Frye, who is absolutely perfectly cast as the rogue Earth Defense Force commander who is the only one left who can command the battleship thingy to save the earth. The great thing about his dialogue is that you can tell it was originally written in Japanese; i.e., it's pure Engrish.

Other memorable points of this movie:

• Godzilla fights the American version of himself from the 1998 American movie, and (of course) has little trouble dispatching the little guy. (BTW, unlike most rabid Godzilla fans you might hear of on the internet, I had no problem with that movie, enjoying it as much as anything else in the genre. I guess when it comes to kaiju movies, I'm not very picky).
• When G fights Hedora, the smog monster, sixties-style flower-children music reminiscent of the original movie is played. I thought this was a nice touch
• Rodan's attack on New York is very well done. He causes a lot of gratuitous destruction, and the scene where he stands triumphantly against the moon is brilliant. Even four years after 9/11 though, viewing buildings falling down onto the streets of New York City can be kind of disturbing
• A motorcycle fight that, although cheaply implemented, was still a lot of fun to watch. Not quite as good as the bike duel in Torque, but still a big hit
• The aliens wore the same goofy sunglasses as the ones from Monster Zero
• Most of these movies have either a hot reporter or a hot scientist. This one had both. They also didn't miss any opportunities for gratuitous sexist leg-shots. Hey, that's part of what these movies are for. I mean, yeah, it's a kid's movie, but someone has to take the kids to the movie, you know.

The only things that weren't so good were the music: the soundtrack was by Keith Emerson of ELP, and it just didn't do it for me, for the most part. They couldn't go wrong if they just had some of the old standby Godzilla themes from Akira Ifukube. Also, King Ghidorah's necks were too short and not articulated enough. I know he's a lot tougher than was demonstrated here.

When this movie came out, it was supposed to be the last Godzilla movie ever. While this would be a fine end to the series, there will most certainly be more of these. And I, for one, welcome our campy, city-stomping, fire-breathing overlord Godzilla into our theaters.

Rating: 4 Godzillas