Expelled Grey Matter

While Toho was a bit uncomfortable with Ishiro Honda's decision to make a monster movie that also had a bit of a political agenda, the gamble worked.  Godzilla was the third most profitable movie for the studio in 1954.  The re-cut version, Godzilla: King of the Monsters  was two years away, so  Godzilla was strictly a Japanese phenomena, and so much so that Toho decided it was in their best interest to get a sequel into theaters as quickly as possible.  Honda had not planned on further movies at the time, even though the possibility of sequels was left open by Professor Yamane (Tokashi Shimura) stating at the end that he was concerned that others of Godzilla's species may be lurking in the depths.  Motoyoshi Oda was brought in to direct Godzilla Raids Again , and right away the tone is different.  It's still in black and white, but Honda used monochrome much the way his friend Akira Kurosawa did, taking advantage with lighting and effects to provide ...

If the Saw series did anything different it was killing its main villain off after just three movies.  Yes, technically, Jason Voorhees was only around in pre-zombie form for parts two through four, but for him to avenge his mother he had to be lurking in the background somewhere in the first movie.  In Saw John Kramer was dying from the very beginning, and in the third installment his demise was made quite final - emphasized by the fact that number four starts with Kramer's autopsy. To untangle the ever evolving Gordian Knot that is the Saw saga, Kramer (Tobin Bell) had taken on an apprentice - Amanda (Shawnee Smith) - to continue his "teaching" after he passed away.  Unfortunately, she decided that she was going to do things her own way and, instead of teaching a lesson, straight up used the devices and methods of Jigsaw to murder people.  Kramer becomes wise to what she is doing and tests her while also running Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen) through a one of his g...

There are few suppositions I would make, but one I think I am safe in making is that almost everyone, even if they have not seen any of the movies, has heard of Godzilla.  Sometimes a force of destruction, sometimes the protector of Earth, he has represented everything from the atom bombs dropped at the end of World War II to the angry spirits of Japan's war dead.  There are cartoons, there is anime, and there are (approaching) nearly 50 movies, both made in Japan and in the U.S.   It is a worldwide phenomenon that sprung from Japan in the 1950s.  Influenced by such movies as the original King Kong , Ishiro Honda and his collaborators decided to make their own giant monster film, and Toho Studios decided to go with it.  The movie ended up being one of the most expensive for the studio, but also one of the most profitable of 1954, along with such classics as The Seven Samurai .  In addition it got dubbed, recut and had Raymond Burr inserted rather clums...

Supposedly the point of remaking a classic film is to make the story more accessible to modern audiences.  I say supposedly, since the real reason is to make money without much effort, or by fooling people into thinking they are are about to watch the original.  Either way there are rare times when the people involved in the remake have actually seen the original and even rarer times when they have respect for the original.  In this case both writer James Gunn and director Zack Snyder had George Romero and the original Dawn of the Dead in the front of their minds when doing the remake.  Ana (Sarah Polley) comes home after a hard night working at the local hospital for some alone time with her husband and a bit of rest.  She awakes the next morning to find the neighbor girl (Hannah Lochner) in her home.  After the girl attacks and kills Ana's husband (Louis Ferreira), he comes back to life and attacks her.  She manages to flee and, after wrecking her ca...

The reason I missed Reservoir Dogs in the theater is kind of interesting.  I had heard about the movie, definitely wanted to see it, and figured it would still be around for a third week.  George Bush was up for re-election, and Ronald Reagan was still pretty much lucid at the time.  He was on the campaign trail for Bush and I had a choice before I worked that day - see Reagan, see Reservoir Dogs .  While I definitely do not regret my decision, Reservoir Dogs ended up waiting until it came out on VHS.  When I did see it I don't think I realized how low budget it was.  That may be because this was riding a wave of independent films that were coming out in the early 1990s.  At the time American cinema was starting to experience a renaissance that it had not seen since the early 1970s, except slightly different.  While former independent directors such as Jonathan Demme were making what would be blockbuster films, there was suddenly room for true ind...

I will admit that I have not read these books.  Despite the fact that the romantic subplot was obviously aimed toward teenage girls, the world building that Suzanne Collins did is quite admirable.  Sure, there are a lot of questions, but these are questions that no one that lives in the society of Panem would be able to answer anyway.  It is a world that is alien but, at the same time, still has much of the familiar, and at the heart of everything is a good story that can be appreciated no matter the age of the reader. The Hunger Games , as a movie, took me some time to warm up to, especially since Gary Ross's direction seemed in some ways more akin to an indie film.  I appreciate it more because of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , which is a superior film, but also owes a debt to the casting and style of the first even if the tone is completely different.  The first is largely establishing the world, and the Hunger Games themselves.  Though a significant ...

Before Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Deodato Ruggiero, there was one undisputed king of Italian horror: Mario Bava.  Truthfully, it wasn't hard to be such when he was the only one making such movies for a while.  Benito Mussolini, during his time as the country's dictator, had banned the making of horror films, and most post-war Italian directors seemed more interested in either more realistic or artistic cinematic pursuits.   Bava himself was born to a father who worked in cinema, so young Mario followed in his footsteps and soon became one of  the most in-demand cinematographers in the country.  Thus, when he finally got to do his own film, the studio had confidence in him, giving him a larger budget and an extended shooting schedule.  Their faith was rewarded as La maschera del demonio , known internationally as Black Sunday , not only made money for Galatea Studios in Italy, but became American International's biggest hit up to that point in the U...