Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Richard Willis]

JD DeLuzio said:

....the decreepified Kong Girl element, for example. The actress outshone a lot of her adult co-stars....

xxxx I just rewatched the movie King Kong (1976). This is only the second time I've seen it. I saw it in its original theatrical release and have a soft spot for it.

This is the movie that introduced Jessica Lange. She did such a good job of playing an airhead actress that I thought she was an actual airhead. Her understated-but-scary performance as the Angel of Death in All That Jazz (1979) showed me that she was a hell of an actress. For those of you who are musical-haters, this is not a musical. I highly recommend it.

I believe this was the first version since the original 1933 movie. It's not a bad version, especially since they had no CGI at the time.

[The Baron]

Certainly the first American version.  I've heard that there were two different Japanese knock-offs made back in the 1930's, both of which are long lost.

Richard Willis said:

JD DeLuzio said:

I believe this was the first version since the original 1933 movie. It's not a bad version, especially since they had no CGI at the time.

[JD DeLuzio]

For the morbidly curious, my Godzilla vs Kong review appear here and here.

[The Baron]

Re-watched  Son of Godzilla (1967), Destroy All Monsters (1968), All Monsters Attack  (a.k.a. Godzilla's Revenge) (1969) and Godzilla vs. Hedorah (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster) (1971)

[The Baron]

Re-watching Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)  It is painfully obvious how much of this picture is re-used footage from earlier movies.

[Philip Portelli]

And skimped on the flying effects!

The Baron said:

Re-watching Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)  It is painfully obvious how much of this picture is re-used footage from earlier movies.

[The Baron]

The Ghidorah prop they mad for Gigan was rigid and fake-looking and totally didn't match the footage from Monster Zero that they spliced in.

Philip Portelli said:

And skimped on the flying effects!

The Baron said:

Re-watching Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)  It is painfully obvious how much of this picture is re-used footage from earlier movies.

[The Baron]

Re-watching Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

[The Baron]

Re-watched Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

Re-watching Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

[The Baron]

Re-watched Godzilla (1984) and its American re-make Godzilla 1985, as well as Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989).

Now re-watching Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991).

[The Baron]

Re-watched Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993), Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994) and Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995).

[Richard Willis]

From the Red Lobster restaurant chain: