Monster of the Day #1942
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1942

It's kind of unheralded but Amazon Prime has been really shoring up their selection of junk cinema lately. (Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake!) Since they added the pretty obscure trilogy of Hammer-inspired Toho vampire movies from the 70s, we showed the first one at the spring T-Fest. It was fine, but that was a…
9
Ken Recommends: March Comes in Like a Lion
Posted inBlog

Ken Recommends: March Comes in Like a Lion

I've really tried to go light on talking about my current obsession with anime. However, there's one title I think is perhaps the best such program I've watched, and certainly ranks in my own personal Big Three (along with K-On! and the Monogatari series, and believe me, I consider those shows to be the…
7
Monster of the Day #1941
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1941

The film definitely does right by Ghirdorah (I'm trying to get over 'Ghidrah,' but hey, that's how I knew him), who is really terrifying and powerful. Although I miss the days when he was so powerful it took the entire Big Three to take him down. Again, the film probably won't be theaters that…
16
Monster of the Day #1940
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1940

I probably liked the new Godzilla design a bit more this time, although as a Cranky Old Man I still prefer a more traditional design. Still, after the GINO design in the 1998 film, this was at least obviously Godzilla. Again, we'll see him one more time given that Godzilla vs Kong is basically…
10
Monster of the Day #1939
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1939

I can't say I love the redesign, but I get that while Japanese audiences appreciate beauty and symbolism much more than many audiences, which is why a Godzilla movie featured a monster that was literally a giant rose. So I get that Warners wanted to make Mothra "cooler" and more "realistically" a threat. In…
12
Monster of the Day #1938
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1938

The failure of the Godzilla "Monsterverse" franchise, for whatever reason (most probably mass apathy for giant monsters), just again emphasizes what a miracle the success of the MCU has been. Again, Kong vs Godzilla is pretty much already done, so it will be released, I'm sure. And MAYBE two 'stars' in the title will…
22
Posted inBlog

Quick Take: Godzilla King of the Monsters (2019)

No spoilers. First of all, it’s quite good. Don’t pay attention to the pro* reviewers, or the film’s weirdly low 40% pro score. Pay more attention to the 87% audience score. Even weirder, the film in no way reflected what had seemed the chief criticism of the critics. To wit, that the film went…
22
Monster of the Day #1936
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1936

I'm not sure about these numbers. The production costs for Rob Zombie's Halloween must have been very low. It made $80 million worldwide and got a sequel. Meanwhile, the 2009 Friday the 13th, with a modest $19 budget, made $91 million and killed the reboot franchise. I get the numbers there, actually. Roughly $20…
5
Monster of the Day #1935
Posted inBlog

Monster of the Day #1935

So I kind of get them screwing up Nightmare on Elm Street, because that was a very good film and thus easier to fail with. However, how the heck do you mess up a Friday the 13th movie? I won't say it's because people are just tired of them, because there were two Rob…
14