Godzilla - Extended Look

     Ever since I was a little kid I have loved Godzilla.  I have seen every film made on this character and for some reason I can't get enough.  I was even in line to watch the American remake back in 1998 and then after I saw it I wanted to throw things at the screen.  In that film it wasn't Godzilla!  That was a giant fuckin' iguana that laid eggs all over the city.  And it was made by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the team behind the spectacular ID4 and Stargate films.  Why the hell they thought it was a good idea to take one of the most, if not THE most iconic character of all time and jack him up til he has nothing left to compare him to the original.  Oh my bad, he sounded the same!  That was it.  So when I first heard that Hollywood was making yet another remake of a classic, knowing the last one was a fuckin' disaster, I thought instantly they would mess it up!  Now, this film has yet to be released, but from the extended trailer it seems as thought the filmmakers have done Godzilla's look some justice.  The sounds in the trailer, as well, sound correct.  From this trailer I can deduce that for 1: he is absolutely humongous, ever so much more then the original Gojira!  He actually looks like his leg is as tall as the originals full height.  And 2: It actually looks wicked good!  Although I am still skeptical because the '98 version looked good but was far from it.  But, I won't lie every once in a while I get in the mood to watch this inferior version for some reason, and all I can do all the while is make fun of the atrocious acting.  Anyway, to the point...I really want to watch this new one pretty badly! 

Nothing Is As Scary as A Big Smelly Sasquatch!

     

     I was 10 years old when this came out and I watched it the first time and have loved it ever since.  This film really is that good.  And not in the 80's sense.  Well it's good for an 80's movie too but it would be great if it came out today in the same state as it was released originally.  The only thing about that is if it were made today the sasquatch would be completely CGI, and that would strip away what makes this movie so good.
     I am gonna make this short and sweet here.  The story is quite good, the acting is quite good, the comedy relief is incredibly good and the special effects are spectacular.  The effects really boil down to Harry's costume.  It was made with all practical appliances and makeup and animatronics for the face.  The actor who plays Harry is really that tall, well he may be 6 inches taller after all the head pieces are in place.  He looks so much like a sasquatch that when you watch this picture you kinda forget that they do not really exist.  The costume really is as good or better then all similar costumes made today without the help of CGI.  His face shows real emotion and that you won't normally get with a mostly animatronic face.
     This movie has to be seen by all and especially by a family.  It is an outstanding film that should keep adults entertained as well as small children with the comedy that's in it.

"Incredibly Long Title" Review!

     

     I originally saw this film when I was a kid so maybe that was about the time it was released on VHS.  I believe I watched it with my father, if I am not mistaken, as he is a big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote the novel.  I only remembered one part of it, until today that is.  The part I could recall was Tarzan as a teenager and taking a nice long hearty piss on the mean apes head.  My only guess as to why I remembered this was, it's friggin funny, even for an adult it's a mite amusing.
     So I had been in the mood to watch a good Tarzan movie and for people that are in the know, a good one is very hard to find!  This one with its ridiculously long title is considered by many to be the best of the lot.  I personally haven't seen all of them so I really can't say at this point.  
     Most people know the story of Tarzan either by stories they were told as kids or they went about it the easy way and watched the Disney cartoon of a bunch of years ago.  The Disney one is okay but I wanted live action.  This particular film is acted pretty well on the whole.  Christopher Lambert in his first English speaking role of his long career and Andie Macdowell in her first movie role ever and they both do rather well.  Ian Holm, who plays the Captain that brings Tarzan back to civilization, plays him for the most part well.  There are a few times where he goes a bit on the over acting side but he kinda is an over actor anyway.  The other cast members do a decent job of not sticking out, so i guess that's good because if they stuck out that usually means they were bad.
     All of the effects are completely practical so no CGI at all in this, well because it wasn't really in used yet for drama films and saved mainly for science fiction.  I do believe there is a few real apes in this picture but for the most part they are all people in ape suits and it sticks out badly.  All the blood is very bright so it kinda sticks out like red paint, but that was how things were done in the 80's.
     I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this picture when it took place in the jungle and showing how Tarzan grows up.  Very entertaining!  Then when the film shifts to civilization it kinda gets boring and the time between they skip over a bunch of shit that would have been interesting to the story.  It does have a rather uneventful climax and abruptly ends when I was ready for more jungle activity.
      I have to say that this movie is just okay.   

What Kind Of A Legend Is This Hercules?

   

     I am watching this one as I am writing this because so far there is entirely too much to remember.  About halfway through and I already am of the opinion that this movie sucks ass!  I intend to finish it though because I have a problem in my brain and have to finish the films I start.
     First off, the producers of this film thought it a good idea to make Kellan Luts Hercules! What the Fuck were they thinking?  This guy can't act his way into a non-speaking role in a commercial!  But, it isn't his fault entirely because not one person in this picture even attempts to act.  Most of the people are supposed to be from the same general area yet they all have different accents?  The sad thing about the acting is the best actor in it happens to be Scott Adkins and he is really only an established martial arts master.  
     The special effects and the CGI are completely atrocious to the point of making Tron and The Last Starfighter seem real.  There is way too much green screen!  There isn't enough blood considering that alot of the film takes place in gladiatorial games in arenas.  Way to many slow motion scenes just thrown in to make the 3-D seem cooler but overall fails miserably.  There is a lion during a scene and it looks like a stuffed animal.  All the fire in it is done with computer, what they couldn't afford a fuckin' match?  The effects look bad even for a made for TV movie!
     There are some small positives and those are a couple of the fights scenes are okay.  I mean that, they are just okay.  Some of them also, you can tell they are choreographed.  Especially the times when the people fighting completely miss each other but are meant to look like they connected.  
     This film wears its influences right out in the open.  You can tell it got the slo-mo from 300, the gladiator stuff from...well, Gladiator, and the CGI looks stolen from a shitty version of Spartacus.  
     Now this film is directed by Renny Harlin who is of the Long Kiss Goodnight, Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger fame from back in the 90's.  He did a good job with those few action films but we must not forget that he also made Cutthroat Island!  Island in my opinion wasn't bad although it wasn't remotely good either, it was though, a kind of fun, campy pirate film.  Island did so bad in the theater that it single handedly killed Carolco Pictures, they went bankrupt even before the film got a theatrical release.  Onto my point here,  I wouldn't be surprised if this movie destroys Millennium Pictures!
     At this very moment I am at the end of this film and it just had some of the worst CGI in the entire picture.  If you watch this film just remember the lightning sword!  
     This is by far one of the sorriest excuses for an "A" film ever!  It is 2014 now so there is no reason why this should be made so badly.  There is another Hercules movie on the horizon, being released in June and starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and that reason alone it will be a better film.  I have my fingers crossed still

Game of Thrones Season 4 Premiere!

   

     I finally get my yearly dosage of crack!  No, not the actual drug, I am talking about Game of Thrones.  Every year when the show begins a new season it only lasts about two and a half months.  Then you get to wait another ten months for a new season.  I believe each season has been worth the wait but it really is bullshit we all have to wait almost a year for a fix!
     The season 4 premiere was last night and I was expecting to see a few things as I have read all the books and I knew that season 3 ended a bit early for me.  I seem to remember the third book, A Storm of Swords, having a huge shift in the narrative and a massive cliffhanger.  So last season I had planned on seeing this happen and it did not, so naturally I half expected it to take place in this first episode, but it did not.  I guess what we all should come away from this with is, in Game of Thrones don't ever expect anything because most likely it won't happen! 
     I will not have any spoilers for any episode I write about so people can know that I am not into ruining the show for anyone as I would also hate it.  Even though I have read the books and know generally what is gonna happen, the producers of the show are doing their damnedest to keep even the book readers on their toes.
     So, with all that said I get to a small review of the premiere episode of season 4.  It was pretty uneventful for me, mainly because maybe I was waiting for that big thing to happen that just didn't.  I suppose it was completely uneventful because obviously there are some big things that happen in each episode.  This show isn't into filler episodes like most other shows that have ever aired.  This has big shoes to fill especially seeing as how the previous season ended.  So it's understandable that the producers would want to give you a break from all the shock and awe.  
     Every single actor in this show is cast about as perfect as can possibly be imagined.  They all do an outstanding job with a few special standouts being Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Jack Gleeson.  I say Jack Gleeson because regardless what people have to say about his character they all have to be in agreement of one fact...everyone absolutely hates him!  So either that is a very young and gifted actor or he is a fucking dirtbag in real life and not acting at all.  I am leaning towards gifted.  No matter what happens in the show I am of the belief that young Mr. Gleeson's career is over after this show because he has played such a hateful and hated character that noone will ever be able to believe him in anything else.
     Great story throughout, as is the case with all the episodes ever of this show so basically what I really want to say is if you have seen the show then you won't miss this episode and if you haven't watched any of the previous seasons then....What are you waiting for?  This show is easily one of the best to ever air!

40 Years Later: Remembering Texas Chainsaw Massacre

     As most that know me know that I love all movies.  And most that really know me know I have a very long and loving relationship with horror movies.  Not just the ones that the majority of the world watch, meaning the theatrical American films.  I happen to love all horror movies whether they are big A films or your run of the mill B films.  I mean there are a few out there that are really shitty but I love them, maybe because I saw them during my early teenager stage when I was developing my love for film to begin with.  I also love foreign pictures, mainly because they are raw as raw can be.  
     So, onto the point of this post.
     I don't remember when I first saw this film, I do remember which part I first saw.  I was young at the time and my sisters and brother and I went to the movie theater closest to where we lived at the time.  Since my brother and I were too young to watch this type of film we had to watch something else.  I don't even remember what we had watched, only what we were not supposed to watch.  What I do remember was our film had ended and we had to wait for my oldest sister and maybe her boyfriend or some shit like that.  we started to wait in the hallway outside the screen this film was being played in.  My other sister that was with my brother and I may have gotten restless so the three of us went just inside the door of said theater.  I will never forget what I saw on that screen.  There was a fuckin' huge man with a jacked up face standing in the middle of the road swinging a chainsaw around, meanwhile a girl in the most hysterical state I can think of sitting in the back of a truck,  then the credits.  That was all I saw, but it was enough, I was hooked.  It wasn't until a few years later when I met my best friend that I would even find out the name of the film.  His parents owned a video store and we were able to take any movie for any amount of time.  So we were looking through the shelves of horror movies when I came to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  I knew at that moment I would finally be able to see the film that haunted (in a good way) my dreams.  This is what I found on the shelf covered with VHS tapes...

     After watching it I knew that I had found the holy grail of horror movies.  I am now 36 years old and this movie has stayed with me longer then any other that I've seen.  Today being 2014 and we now have a handful of sequels and the ultra-violent remakes of a few years back, but none have ever come close to the original!

     Now I am gonna go into a little story that happened to me in the year 2006. 
     I had been living in southern California for about 10 years at the time and I decided to move back home to a small town in Maine.  I got a job at a restaurant as the kitchen manager on Mount Desert Island, in a town called Northeast Harbor.  I had gone for a walk one day just to see the sights that surrounded me and I happen to be walking by a house and I noticed a Ford Focus.  Now normally I wouldn't have taken a second look but it just happened to be the same as mine just different color.  So, I looked a bit closer at this vehicle and I have a little problem in my brain that if I see a license plate cover I have to read it.  This car had one that read "What Would Leatherface Do?".  Naturally I thought to myself, wow, that's pretty weird!
    A few days had passed and I was talking with the owner of the restaurant and she was telling me all the famous people that live or lived on the island.  She went over a ton of names but one stood out, Gunnar Hansen!  I got excited!  She noticed my excitement and she asked if I knew who he was.  I said "Ummm, Yeah!".  It's weird to me that someone that has lived there their whole life didn't know what a famous person living there, also for along time, was famous for.  I schooled her.  My last day on that island I made a decision to do what I had been trying to get the courage to do the entire time since I found out he lived there.  That decision was to knock on his door and annoy the shit out of a famous person at their own home.  So, on this day I took a couple things with me and I stood on his porch outside his house for what seemed like hours but it was actually about a minute.  I was just hoping that he didn't freak out and tell me to get off his property and stop bothering a man at his home.  I knocked.  The door opened and my heart skipped about 12 beats at that very moment.  This man took up the entire doorway, he is a mountain of a man!  Or maybe it was just celebrity status that made him seem like it, but I think he is just a big ass dude.  
     He says to me, "Can I help You?".  
     I come back with, "Are you Gunnar Hansen?".  
     He answered with a simple "Yes".  
     I then asked, "As in Leatherface-Gunnar Hansen?".  
     He then answered with another "Yes".  
     "I know this is very annoying to have someone come to your house like this but I gotta know if I could get your autograph?"
     "Sure, come on in."  I follow him into his house and we go into his, what looks like an office/library room.  "What ya got for me?" he asked.
     I opened my bag, "I got my copy of Texas Chainsaw on DVD and Leatherface #1 comic book."  I hand them both over to him and he just looks at the comic and says, 
     "I've never seen this before!"
     "I've had it for years." I replied.
     He signed both things for me and I apologized to him for coming to his home and all he said to me was, not a problem.  To him, I can only imagine, the memory of the guy showing up at his house is not even a memory.  I can almost guarantee, that he does not remember that, but to me, that is one of my all time favorite memories and now 2 of my favorite pieces of film memorabilia I own.  
     I would like to thank Gunnar Hansen again for even answering his door that day and I want to leave this post with a picture of the DVD he signed for me.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Short Review

   

       I just got done watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier and well I can say this right at the beginning that is is friggin awesome.  Yeah I know, it kinda ruins the surprise.  
    I am a fan of comic book films for the most part but the first Captain America movie is by far my favorite one made so far.  This sequel to that film a very close second.  In this we finally get to see Cap do what he does in the comics and the cartoons, afterall he is kind of an acrobatic martial artist, but he gets to do all of it finally.  He was barely in any action in the Avengers film and the first Cap he was really just getting to know himself.  There is alot of action, hand to hand and a bit of bullet dancing and it's all choreographed very well.
     We get a new addition to the Marvel family in Falcon and I gotta say all Anthony Mackie's actions scenes are quite exhilarating and he is comic relief for the entire film.  Then we have the other title character in The Winter Soldier.  He has a cool little back story to explain where he came from 
     All the acting is done very well in my opinion, but I am also comparing it to the other Marvel phase films.  But it is acting quite well, all is believable all through it.  The story is quite engaging and seems at times kinda like a Bond film, I really mean that.  
     I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys comic movies or like an awesome government espionage type film.  It is easily one of the best Marvel movies to date.