Sodium for Godzilla

I figured we should check out Shin Godzilla (2016) since we enjoyed Minus One so much. It was completely different in every way, except that it was a novel re-imagining of the concept. Also, very fun.

It starts with news reports of an abandoned yacht in Tokyo Bay, then a leak in a subway tunnel. There's an investigation, but it doesn't get very far until the monster starts showing up, in the bay and soon, the city. The monster looks very weird, not Godzilla-like at all. 

The governments response team is led by the unconventional but handsome Hiroki Hasegawa. America sends Japanese-American Satomi Ishihara as liaison (note: the actress doesn't do that well with the English dialog - just roll with it, she's great otherwise). She tells them about surpressed research on radioactive mutations, including the code name they gave a hypothetical monster: Godzilla. She lets them know that the monster would mutate further - and it does, looking more like her classic Godzilla self each time they encounter it. 

The fun part is that most of the movie is a bureaucratic procedural, showing how Japan's institutions would deal with a threat like this. There is a lot of responsibility shifting in the first part. There are solutions offered up by the lower levels, which are brought up to higher and higher levels, until the Prime Minister has to decide. Halfway through, he is killed (by Godzila's atomic breath), and replaced by the sleepy, unambitious Farm Minister. This man, though completely out of his league, makes the right decision at a crucial time.

You see, Ishihara-san has assembled a misfit ragtag team of outsiders and nerds, who plan to use blood coagulants in industrial amounts to freeze Godzilla. Now, he literally gives a speech about how they are all ragtag misfit outsiders who need to think outside the box. Heck, his character's name is "Rando". And the solution they come up with is coagulants? Clearly, this is a comedy, a spoof on bureaucracy and disaster movies. At home, we just kept saying "sodium" (ref. MST3K #817, Horror of Party Beach). 

So, like Godzilla Minus Zero is largely a post-war neo-realist film, this is a movie about how the rigid Japanese system deals with disasters and novel situations. And, of course, atomic monsters. 

Dune It Two

Well, we finally watched Dune: Part Two (2024). I say finally, because we have been getting it from the library for weeks, but never watching it, due to its length and our busy schedule. Also, we tried it once, and I fell asleep about an hour in. Ms. Spenser was not having that. So it took a while to clear some time early on an evening.

It starts right after Part One ended. Paul, Chani, Ladt Jessica and the crew are headed for a sietch. They are carrying the body of the Fremen that Paul had killed in a duel. A band of Harkonnen attack, using antigrav, but the Fremen fight them off. Chani thinks Paul was distracted, and she is right - he is having prophetic visions due to the spice he is ingesting. 

In the sietch, the Fremen want Lady Jessica to take the poisonous Water of Life and replace their aged Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. After she takes the drink, they realize that she is pregnant - meaning that the child, Paul's sister, will be affected. I wonder how a Reverend Mother could have missed this. 

This middle section mainly deals with Paul joining the Fremen in fighting the Harkonnen, disrupting the spice harvest and falling in love with Chani. Of course, Chani still doubts that Paul is the Mahdi, considering it to be Bene Gesserit propaganda. Paul gets his names Usul and Maud'Dib in there, and meets up with old Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), who has been doing some guerilla spice harvesting on his own.

They are doing so well that Baron Harkonnen demotes Beast Raban, and replaces him with Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), who is even sicker and nastier. So Paul's group retreats to the deep South. There, Paul is convinced to drink the Water of Life, and see his fate, and the fate of the universe. 

It goes without saying that we loved this movie. It was beautifully made, with some great acting. That said, we also were a little ... not disappointed, but maybe amused by it. The battle tactics never quite made sense. They never discussed the uses and limits of shield technologies, so you see soldiers switch from lasers to swords for no special reasons. Slow-knife fights could be so cool on film, but not here. 

The romance between Paul and Chani never really took off for us, either. She was always too skeptical of him, so when he betrayed her in the end, it didn't quite work. 

The worm-riding scenes were pretty cool, but again, seemed to lack some logic. Ms. Spenser complained, "The segments open the wrong way!" Also, seeing the worms scooting around in the background emphasized their speed, but made them seem a little cartoonish - zoom!

Oh well, this is a hard story to adapt, particularly because the noble hero knows that he is destined to kill billions, and that's his best chance. Villeneuve and Chalamet do a pretty good job of showing how Paul sort of goes dead inside when he accepts this. Of course, this facet of the tale really develops in the next movie. I guess we'll have to wait a while. 

Just Came Dragon Inn

I finally found Dragon Inn (1967), recently released on Criterion. I'd seen the remakes/reimaginings already, Dragon Inn (1992) and Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011), but hadn't seen the original, King Hu version.

As usual, the Imperial eunuchs are causing trouble. Cao Shiao-qin is trying to kill off the family of a rival general, who have fled to the west. His intelligence agencies set up an ambush at the Dragon Inn, a low-down spot near the border. They meet up with martial artist Shih Chun, who wants to meet innkeeper Tsao Chien for some unknown purpose. Another pair of fighters show up, one of whom is referred to a handsome young man, although she's clearly a woman... And it turns out that the innkeeper is quite a martial artist, too. These four will protect the general's family against the secret police, and eventually, the eunuch himself.

There are some nice little set pieces, like when someone tries to stab Shih Chun when he's drinking. He grabs the point of the sword between his thumb and finger, with the winecup balancing on the flat of the blade. The assassin can't move it in any direction, and is thrown back into the wall when he flicks the sword away.

But, and I may be jaded by more modern styles, the fighting is good but pretty old fashioned. There's no wirework (I think), but a lot stunt tricks. Also, the Tartars aren't as cool as in Flying Swords. 

Still, it was great to see one of the old school wuxia movies. Hu made this in Taiwan, after making Come Drink with Me for the Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong. I think I liked Drink, better, but I'd watch more of these if I find them. 

Killer Content

This entry is about one of my favorite movies: Once More, My Darling (1949). Ms. Spenser and I taped it off of AMC, back in the eighties or nineties or whenever we recorded VHS tapes of cable channels, and AMC was a movie channel.

We watched it together many times over the years. I found myself daydreaming about the movie on lunch breaks or when out walking. I had things to say about Ann Blyth - so I started a blog as was the fashion of the time. But I don't think I've really said much about Ann Blyth on it.

Then let's talk about Robert Montgomery. who directed this, as well as starring. He plays Collier Laing, a very minor actor from a rich family of lawyers. He is perfect in every way and extremely handsome (Maybe he wrote this too). His mother, Jame Cowl, wants him to give up acting (and running around with women), take up law and settle down. But before he has to make up his mind, he gets a telegram from the government. He's been drafted - re-activated.

You're going to have to take this next part on faith. It's the plot of the movie. You see, a notorious jewel thief has disappeared, but left a necklace with his girl. To flush out the thief, they want to make him jealous, which means Montgomery has been drafted to seduce the girl.

And the girl is Ann Blyth.

When he first meets her, he doesn't recognize her as his assignment. She is dressed in tennis shorts, a tee shirt that says "KILLER", big sun glasses and a ball cap. She tells him right away that he is a very attractive man. He basically tells her, go away kid. But once he realizes it's her, he starts the seduction - except that she has already fallen for him, and wants him all to herself.

Before their first date, she wants to meet his mother, who's hosting a party for a few legal sorts. She shows up in her pajamas (she snuck out of bed), doused in perfume. The maid, Lillian Randolph, says she could wear those pajamas to the races, and inhales the perfume deeply (while everyone else is gagging on it). See, it's always the black actors in the tiny roles who know what's what. 

Her scene at the party is brilliant. She is socially correct, doesn't want to intrude, remembers all the guests names, and speaks quite freely about love at first sight, "youth calling to youth", and her attraction to Cowl's son.

But by the next day, it seems like she wants to get married. Immediately, in Las Vegas.

Blyth is wonderful here. Of course, she's beautiful, a sort of elfin beauty, with a high forehead, almond eyes and a tiny nose and chin. But the way she plays Killer! As she tells Montgomery, she's nineteen years old, American, her friends tell her she isn't bad looking, and as for money, she's rolling in it. She's nearly perfect and she is going to get him if it's the last thing she does.

Montgomery is good too, but he's 45 and looks it, or worse. Blyth is 24 and having no trouble playing 19. The idea that teenagers would go nuts over him might have worked for Cary Grant, but for him ... well, just suspend disbelief. Anyway, he's directing so of course.

In conclusion, Blyth is playing a very particular type of teenaged girl, a very serious, intelligent girl who thinks she's sophisticated and adult, who's just as ditzy as any bobbysoxer in her own way. We don't see it that often. 

Bone Voyage

For the first horror movie of spook season, we picked The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023). It's based on the voyage that Dracula took to England. SPOILER - Everyone on the ship dies. 

It starts with a set of coffins boxes being loaded on the Demeter in some Eastern port. The quartermaster Wojcek (Daniel Dastmalchian) hires a band of laborers for the voyage. An educated black man, Corey Hawkins, tries to get a place, but they pick a stronger looking man. However, when he sees the dragon labels on the boxes, he bails, and Hawkins gets to go onboard.

One of the boxes broke open in moving, and after they are underweigh, Hawkins goes to investigate. He finds a comatose girl, Aisling Franciosi, in a pile of dirt. He starts giving her transfusions to see if he can save her. Most of the crew is against the idea of a woman on board, but the captain won't put her off, if Hawkins takes repsonsibility.

He soon has her awake, and she tells them that there is a horrible monster aboard, and they all need to get out!

Soon, all hell breaks loose. The animals are all killed, then the ship's dog, then the captain's cute little son. Good riddance. Through all of this, Hawkins tries to find a scientific explanation. And if you think Franciosi can give them some advice in killing the monster, she says if they knew how to kill the monster, they would have killed it centuries ago. 

This is the part people call "Alien on a boat". We know there were no survivors - no live survivors, ecept the rats. So we watch people getting picked off one by one. Sadly, this is hard to watch, because they all die so dumb. For instance, they figure out that he needs to be in his coffin by day. Then they ignore that, even after seeing several of the bitten go up in flames in the sun. 

So, in spite of a good idea and best intentions, this wasn't thatgood. Partly the lack of tension - everyone dies - except the undead. Then, the stupidness. Maybe the monster could have been more effective, but it wasn't bad, and you got to see a lot of. We liked Hawkins, Franciosi, and Dastmalchian. I guess it's worth watching, in Spooktober, anyway.

Girl Fighters

For the last action double-bill of my solo viewing weekend, I went with the trieds and true female-lead type: Sri Asih (2022) and Becky (2020).

Shri Asih is a bit of an oddball - a comic superhero movie, but based on an Indonesian comic. It starts with a tourist couple visiting an Indonesian volcano (Mt. Toba?). The volcano explodes, and more than that, we see an evil face in the ash cloud. The couple flee, but are killed in a car crash. She is pregnant, and manages to give birth before she dies.

In the orphanage, the daughter is a strong willed girl. She has a friend who is a mild and bullied boy - and she always fights for him. But she is adopted by a nice woman, who starts training her in fighting arts. Now grown, she is played by Pevita Pierce. She is a strong fighter, but has trouble controlling her anger. 

When she meets up with her friend from the orphanage, she finds him as part of a semi-underground group trying to protect his apartment complex from gangs and corporate goons, who want to tear it down and [some corporate plot I don't really remember]. So she becomes their defender.

But then she learns that she is part of an ancient race of heroes with super-powers (good!) but that the evil volcano demon is trying to possess her, for evil (bad). To avoid this, she'll have to learn to control her temper. 

The action here is very much sub-Iko Uwais. But it's still a lot of fun. 

I wanted to watch Becky because I had seen some good reviews of its sequel, Wrath of Becky. It's about a defiant teen girl, Lulu Wilson, who has recently lost her mother. Her father, Joel McHale, is taking her to their lake house to grieve (good), but has also invited his new girlfriend, Amanda Brugel and her young son (bad - especially because they announce that they are getting married).

While she is out in her playhouse/treehouse brooding, a small gang of White Supremicists invade the house. Although McHale and Brugel try to hide the fact that there is one other member of their group, the Nazis figure it out and send one of the crew out to get her. She is ready for him, and kills him with a broken ruler and a bundle of sharp colored pencils. 

That's sort of what this movie is about - a teen girl Home-Aloning a bunch of Nazis. It's pretty brutal - a dog gets killed, McHale gets killed, etc. The lead Nazi is played by, of all people, Kevin James, and not in a funny way at all. His enforcer, Robert Maillet (pro wrestler Kurgan), is pretty scary, but in the end, a little more sympathetic.

But it's all based on Wilson feeling that she has nothing to lose, especially after her father is killed. The gang offers to let her go in the custody of her new stepmom, and she essentially goes fuck that, never liked the bitch (Brugel is not a bitch, she is very understanding, but you know how girls are).

However, I felt the movie spent too much time on the teen angst, not enough on the Nazi-killing. The kills are all right (lawn mower to the head, for ex), but they just take too long to get to. I think I would have preferred something campier and more off-the-wall. I think I'll skip the sequel.

So this long weekend was a bit more successful than the last. I took fewer chances, went with more crowd-pleasers (me, I'm the crowd). Ms. Spenser even caught part of Equalizer 2, and thought she might enjoy it. Well done, me. 

One-Man Armies

The next pair of movies I watched on my batchelor weekend were assassin movies, both sequels for no special reasons.

I've been aware of Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) for a while, as well as being aware of the widespread opinion that it isn't very good. It stars Rupert Friend as the eponymous hitman. He's an Agent - a gene modified superkiller with heightened strength and reflexes, and diminished conscience and introspection. He s supposed to track down Hannah Ware, daughter of the scientist who developed the agents. He has gone underground, and this is a plot to get him back. 

It turns out that Zachary Quinto is a more advanced agent, with subcutaneous armor, making him bulletproof. Friend goes over to Ware's side against Quinto. Fortunately, it turns out that Ware is the most advanced Agent of all.

I actually quite liked this - mostly for image of Friend in a sharp suit, skinhead haircut, jug ears and no expression. The action is sort of John Wick adjacent (not as good, but what is?), and fun. I never played the video game this is based on, and I guess that's good. I also had no idea that there was an earlier Hitman (2007) movie, which is also supposed to be bad. But I'll watch it if I come across it. 

I picked The Equalizer 2 (2018) because I've given up looking for part one. Is it really bad? I guess it's on Paramount+, so next time we want to stream Star Trek, I'll check it out. Anyway, Denzel Washington is the Equalizer, a Boston Lyft driver who sometimes helps the people he drives for. When some douchebags load an obviously drugged woman into his car, he takes her to the hospital, then comes back and beats the douchebags up. He also gives a black teen a job cleaning and repainting the wall outside his apartment.

But the real plot is about Pedro Pascal, who was in DIA with Washington, but is now running a kill-for-hire company. Thwarting them involves a little globe-trotting and braving a hurricane on the North Shore. 

I liked the action, and of course Denzel is always a treat. The Boston locations were fun too, for an old Masshole. I wasn't that thrilled by the various subplots, although some of them did pay off. 

I guess this was originally a TV show, which I didn't see, and later another TV show (starring Queen Latifah!), which same. The latest entry is The Equalizer 3, which features Washngton coming out of retirement for one last job. I'm looking forward to that.