Posts Tagged ‘monsters’

Halloween Horror: Kaiju No. 8 Trailer

Friday, October 13th, 2023

Not sure if this quite qualifies as a Halloween Horror, but it includes monsters, and it struck my fancy.

Basically, it’s an anime series focused on a guy who’s crappy job is to clean up after kaiju attacks.

It’s basically Damage Inc. meets Godzilla. Plus the teaser trailer is giving off a tiny bit of a FLCL vibe.

I don’t subscribe to Crunchy Roll (or any streaming service), but I’d seriously consider buying the DVD set when it eventually comes out.

Movie Review: Kong: Skull Island

Friday, April 2nd, 2021

Kong: Skull Island
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Written By Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly and John Gatins
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Tom Hiddleston, John C. Riley, Brie Larson

With Godzilla vs. Kong upon us, I finally watched Kong: Skull Island. Even though I’m a Godzilla partisan, overall I think it’s the best executed of the Monsterverse films. (I’m seeing Godzilla vs. Kong this weekend.)

In 1973, with the Vietnam War winding down, LANDSAT has discovered Skull Island in the South Pacific, previously hidden because it’s perpetually ringed by storms. An Air Cav force, lead by Samuel L. Jackson in the Samuel L. Jackson role, escort a group of ostensible scientists to the island, including John Goodman (head of barely-funded Monarch, secretly looking for monsters), Tom Hiddleston (an ex-SAS pathfinder/tracker mercenary) and Brie Larson (a photographer). Soon they run into Kong, who crashes their helicopters a lot quicker than the Viet Cong. Jackson immediately goes full Ahab while another group runs for their life and right into John C. Riley, playing the American version of Sir Basil St. Exposition as a stranded WWII American flyer, along with the silent but friendly native tribe. Riley quickly explains to them that not only is Kong king, but he’s the good king, saving people from the monstrous subterranean “Skullcrawlers,” which look like giant tatzelwurms with vaguely possum-ish snouts.

The plot unfolds more or less the way you would expect.

This seems the best of the monsterverse movies because it has the best cast, and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (who’s primarily worked in TV) seems to have come closest to realizing his vision for it. It quickly and efficiently gets the ensemble to the island with a minimum of character exposition accompanied by a great classic rock soundtrack that runs the gamut of CCR, Jefferson Airplane and Black Sabbath. Jackson, Goodman and Riley all turn in their usual solid work in roles that might seem trite with less stellar performers (see: everyone who’s not Brian Cranston in the previous Monsterverse films). Larson is less annoying than her Marvel role. The support cast of mostly redshirts also do good work. Only Hiddleston comes across as Johnny Onenote And His Pet Stoic Gaze, but the script doesn’t give him much to do.

The special effects work on Kong is extremely solid (which you would expect from Industrial Light & Magic), even if not as expressive as the Andy Serkis version from Peter Jackson’s remake. The Skullcrawlers are appropriately menacing. But it’s the Huey flight sequences where the effects really shine. It’s obvious from the shot composition that Vogt-Roberts watched Apocalypse Now a whole bunch of times…

By jettisoning the “Kong takes Manhattan” plot from the previous versions, and dialing the Beauty and the Beast bits down to a bare whisper, Legendary Films has created a swift-moving kaiju film that even casual fans of the genre should enjoy.

Godzilla Christmas Tree

Tuesday, December 25th, 2012

The search for the coolest Christmas tree is officially over. You’re never going to beat the giant, fire-breathing Godzilla Christmas tree of Aqua City Odaiba shopping mall in Tokyo.

Merry Christmas!

First Pacific Rim Trailer Drops

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

The first trailer for Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s kaiju vs. giant mechs film, is out.

Oh yeah. I’m there.

Howard Waldrop and I have signed up to review this next year.

Monster Monday: Attack of the Monster From the Id in Forbidden Planet

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Today I heard that some people are participating in “Monster Monday,” where they talk about some of the their favorite monsters.

So here’s a quick glimpse of one of my favorite monsters in one of my favorite movies, the attack of the Monster from the Id in Forbidden Planet.

The sound of the monster attacking is one of tracks I play out my windows on Halloween…

Shoegazer Sunday: Jon Hopkins’ “Monsters Theme”

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012

Here’s Jon Hopkins haunting theme from the excellent science fiction film Monsters, featuring perhaps the climactic moment of the film. (Howard Waldrop and I reviewed it, and I highly recommend making an effort to see it.)

I defend this as Shoegazer mainly on feel; others may categorize it as electronica or ambient, but I think it falls between those two. Available on iTunes.

Movie Memories of Excessive Vagueness

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Last Saturday I was over at A.T. and Carol’s house watching a Japanese science fiction action film called Returner (imagine every big budget American science fiction film between 1980 and 2000 being jammed into a blender and set to frappe and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the plot elements). It was fine if you didn’t mind the complete lack of originality, but we watched it because I thought it might be the one I saw a clip from a year or two ago. The problem is, while my memory of the clip is fairly clear, I can’t remember sufficient details to find it via a Google search.

In the clip I saw, people were fighting some freaky looking monsters that were obviously some sort of CGI (about the same level of the CGI in Returner, i.e. better than the Skiffy Channel’s cheap monster movies, but not as good as a major U.S. release). I think the monsters were sort of pale and slightly taller than human sized (but not multistory kaiju sized monsters). It was live action, not anime. And they were fighting in some sort of open, brightly lit interior area, like an atrium, or foyer, or perhaps somewhere in a museum. And the monsters weren’t guys in suits and didn’t look anything like the monsters on Ultraman, etc.

This should be enough to find the clip again, but it doesn’t seem to be. Maybe it wasn’t a movie, but part of a TV show. And maybe it wasn’t from Japan, but Hong Kong or South Korea. Or maybe Taiwan. (But not the Philippines. Probably.) And maybe they weren’t monsters, but aliens. Or maybe demons. Beings from another dimension? And I thought I saw it on Fark, but couldn’t find it when I searched there. Maybe it was linked from comments in the thread?

Movies I know it’s not:

  • The Host
  • Funky Forest
  • The live action Hong Kong remake of Wicked City
  • Any ideas? It’s driving me to distraction…

    Un Court Essai Sur Les Exemples Récents Du Cinéma Loup-Garou

    Monday, February 28th, 2011

    Last year when Howard Waldrop and I reviewed The Wolfman (executive summary: don’t waste your time), I offered up a list of other werewolf films that would be more worthy of viewing. Two of those, Ginger Snaps and Kibakichi, were films I hadn’t seen when I wrote that. I’ve now managed to see both, and can offer up judgment: Ginger Snaps is well worth seeing, but Kibakichi isn’t.

    Ginger Snaps tells the story of the two Fitzgerald sisters, one (Ginger) hot, goth-y and redheaded, the other (Brigitte) dark and mousy, who go through their rebellious outsider phase by snapping artfully staged photographs of the other’s fake suicides, smoking, fighting with the stuck-up girls in field hockey, and generally behaving like teenage girls. Unfortunately for them, mutilated dogs have been showing up all around their neighborhood, and a late night encounter with what’s been killing them in a park leaves Ginger with wounds that heal entirely too quickly, newly grown patches of hair, a sudden taste for fresh blood, and the beginnings of a tail. And did I mention that the werewolf attack falls on the same day she get her first period?

    Om Nom Nom

    This is a very solid film with good acting, a clever script and firm direction. It can be enjoyed either as a straight werewolf film, or an extended (and unsettling) metaphor on the wrenching changes puberty inflicts upon the female body. (The film garnered a lot of comparisons with Carrie when it first came out.) Of werewolf films of recent memory, I would have to count this second only to Dog Soldiers.

    Also, Katharine Isabelle looks really, really good just before she goes all four-legged.

    On the other hand, Kibakichi is one of those films where all the best scenes are in the trailer. You would think that a Japanese film with werewolves, demons, samurai and Gatling guns would rock, but unfortunately Kibakichi has the quality of an exploitation film and the pace of a lush period drama, which is exactly the opposite of what you should be aiming for. The special effects range from the passable (they’ve mastered the art of copious geysers of blood) to the laughable, including one scene where the ghosts (demons? demon ghosts?) rip apart a gambler and its obvious that the attacking creatures are puppets on strings. (And at one point the titular protagonist is menaced by what look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, except not nearly as convincing.) Plus the werewolf transformation scenes are sub-par. While not unremittingly awful, even gorehounds and Asian horror fans are likely to find it disappointing. It also has possibly the worst dubbing I’ve ever seen in a film.

    Dwight’s thoughts on Kibakichi here.

    Roger Ebert Reviews Monsters

    Sunday, November 21st, 2010

    He liked it.

    Just like Howard and I liked it.

    If it seems like I’m pimping Monsters a lot, it’s only because I am. It’s the sort of independent film that doesn’t have enough of an ad budget for people to hear about it without word of mouth. So I try to do my part to encourage people to see it if it’s playing in their area. Consider that a recommendation, and remember it for Hugo and Nebula voting.

    Howard and I Rave About Monsters

    Monday, November 1st, 2010

    Over at Locus Online.

    Read the review, but the short version is that we really liked it. Here’s the short trailer:

    The problem with that trailer is that it makers you think the movie is something from the “BOO shock” school of horror films, and it really isn’t.

    And here’s an interview with director Gareth Edwards:

    If it’s playing anywhere near you I would encourage you to see it.