Based on the last four months of working box office at an independent movie theater, about 5% of all moviegoers.Quoting Skitch (view post)
Based on the last four months of working box office at an independent movie theater, about 5% of all moviegoers.
They live on the wild side.
I'd like to be more like that Grandma.
Perhaps I'm not understanding what is supposed to be so maddening about this, but I don't see there being anything wrong here. I've gone to the theater a few times almost completely blind to the movie I'm about to see and I recall those being pretty pleasant experiences. Walking in with little to no knowledge or expectation can be kind of thrilling and feel a bit more like a pure film-going experience than when I've already seen a teaser, two trailers, a TV spot, an interview on Colbert and browsed the Tomatometer.
Doesn't always matter what's showing. Sometimes people just wanna go to the fucking movies, ya know?
If it were cinephiles, it wouldn't bother me one bit. My issue is its usually people carrying infants or laptops into what I'm seeing.
Well, I was wrong. This was extremely well done.
I agree with most of the criticisms (Duke, KF, Dreams, Milky Joe) etc but also -- and I realized the massive hypocrisy of me saying this -- I think some of you guys are overthinking it. It's fucking Godzilla. We buy the ticket to see the lizard go smash. Anything beyond that is gravy.
I'm not a fan of these kind of movies. The original film is incredible (and depressing) but beyond that, the character and the monster mayhem setup has zero interest for me.
But! The first half hour was terrific. The two (!) plot turns there had me excited, because it made me think that this'd be a blockbuster with actual balls. There's a half dozen shots in there that were really striking.
The monster design was amazing. The first shot of Godzilla stomping through town made my eyes widen. When they panned up and he makes his famous noise, I yelled "FUCK YEAH!" at my tv. Much later, in another scene, I didn't understand when Godzilla was lighting up like that. Then, I yelled "FUCK YEAH!" again. You know why.
I liked the way the movie continually teased out the action and suspense. Watashi was dead on when he said that this is the anti-Bay blockbuster or whatever. I loved that it didn't shove everything in our faces at once. The way they cut the scenes -- ending them before you think they would -- adds to that effect. (Although, glancing through thread, I can see why this bothered Duke and KF). At least the thing felt consistent all the way through. It had momentum. It felt like it was building toward something.
My only criticism is that the humans here are pretty much the same as they are in every big budget disaster film. Passive canon fodder. You can't really dramatize nature this way. It doesn't work. Because nature doesn't make choices and humans, reacting to it, can't really make choices either. Drama requires choice.
In this movie, everyone is made an observer (I almost burst out laughing when David Statham asks, "What do you expect us to do? Just stand around and watch." Uh, yeah dude. You're in a fucking Godzilla movie. Get with the program.) So the people are shallow and mostly exist to drop exposition. At least the movie seems to know this, and cut between different groups of characters so that it wouldn't become soul deadening.
One thing I actively resented: The way the movie put children and small animals in harms way to goose the suspense. That was pretty shitty and ham-handedly manipulative. I could forgive the kid on the train,but []
One last: Some of the fights look great, others looked like shit. I have a lousy LCD. So many key scenes take place at night, in near total darkness, that all those blacks really don't display well at all.
Did you buy it on Amazon? :-D
That's too bad. They looked fantastic in theaters.
Movie Theater Diary
Yeh if he's referring to the bridge scene I have to admit, the art direction in that scene was pretty fantastic.
Ok, that was funny.
“What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, er... an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all.”
Wow just saw the [] in a commercial for the DVD. The most rewarding surprise beat in the entire movie just out there.
last four:
black widow - 8
zero dark thirty - 9
the muse - 7
freaky - 7
now reading:
lonesome dove - larry mcmurtry
Letterboxd
The Harrison Marathon - A Podcast About Harrison Ford
Well, Guardians of the Galaxy' [] started showing up in its commercials after the first or second weekend it was out. At a certain point, I feel like studio's marketing strategies with big movie become more about trying to re-hook those that already saw it.
I mean, seeing that bit in the ads did remind me it happened and just how cool it looked. It even made me consider re-watching it!
Imagine that!
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Remember back when tv ads for Attack of the Clones about a week or so after release were basically just the Yoda fight in its entirety?
I remember the DVD release commercial.
"Who da man? Yoda man!"
This movie pissed me off on a continuous basis. Every single time something cool was about to happen with the monsters, it would cut to something far less cool.
Also, the big reveal of the G-man was done....on an on-screen television?
Pretty bad movie.
Also, what was with Watanabe's face? He looked utterly dumfounded the entire movie.
That's because it's a fantastic movie. It's thrilling, scary, tense, well directed and acted, looks great, sounds great, and is genuinely harrowing.
The movie's one big long cocktease. And the reveal happens before the TV screen.
Huge buildup, explosion, camera tracks across ground level to Godzilla's foot, track up to reveal Godzilla, enormous, Cyclopean, who sucks in air and BELLOWS...
Cut to small TV screen.
I thought that was intentionally hilarious.
Yeah I agree with the above post. Nice bit of humor there. Also I can't wait to watch this again.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Yeah, the teasing was freaking awesome. Loved the pace of the movie - it's the best part.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
This movie just fails in every way imaginable. It has about ten minutes of solid kaiju action, and the rest of the two hours is just depressingly bad to the point of becoming unintentionally funny. But mostly it's just a bore.
I see there are a lot of defenders here... Explain to me how killing off the only more or less interesting character is anything but the oldest hat trick in thrillers done wrong. The amount of time we spend watching bland people delivering the most obvious Hollywood lines in the world vs. the screentime of the monsters is enough to sink this movie. Edwards gathered a fantastic cast (well, minus the protagonist) and then he just wasted the lot of them.
But the most important negative for me is how devoid of any sense of fun this is. Comparing it to Pacific Rim is an obvious thing to do, but it's enough to reinforce how flawed this was.
Probably my favorite summer tentpole in a while.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
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Rewatching.
This film is a borderline masterpiece of disaster-craft. Edwards is one of the few directors to not only speak Spielberg but to learn the right lessons from Spielberg, as far as the manipulation of the camera, withholding of spectacle, the sweet delicious buildup. He casually moves the camera to turn one shot into two or three carefully composed images. Old-time Hollywood face reveals too, as the camera follows behind Straitharn during his first scene before finally settling on his face as he turns around. There's a care to this film's image-making that is damn near impossible to find in the studio system.
The people are a real bummer after the first third, dull sources of expositional exchanges. I feel especially bad for Hawkins. She's a terrific actress, and every scene is another goddamn pensive look. Often with a hand to her face and one finger between her lips.
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