Any gripes against
Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) are sniggling ones: For the amount of money
spent—and that bread is all on-screen—this is
about as perfect a giant monster vs. giant robot flick as you’ll find.
(This, more, and the films of June, all below)
Honestly, though, it
was a tad disappointing that all the robots are bipedal-humanoid-shaped, if
humongous. My nerd-inner-child wanted an entire arsenal of gigantic tinkertoy
weaponry! And while I wish the monsters had been more differentiated, or given
more individual personalities, the film is technically perfect, and as fitting
a tribute to Ray Harryhausen and Ishiro Honda as you could find.
PLOT: Monsters are
emerging from a dimensional rift at the bottom of the sea, and are decimating
cities all along the Pacific Coast. To fight these monsters, the governments of
the world have put aside their differences and joined forces to build giant
robot suits for humans to pilot in combat against the monsters. Everyone’s
noble and brave, with enough back-story to humanize them enough—and that’s it,
with non-stop action that pounds you into submission.
This is a movie made
by and for those kids who used to take their Aurora model-kit version of
Godzilla (with the glow-in-the-dark hands, head and tail) and place it in the
ring with their Rock ’Em-Sock ’Em Robots.
Pacific Rim is pretty lightweight in the
brain department, but I liked how in the exposition-heavy intro, you’re given the impression that the world is
even more corrupt and repressive after the monsters arrive than
before—especially with the movie’s scenes involving “the coast wall”: the
governments think that building a giant wall will keep the monsters out, an
idea one of the beasts makes quick work of, turning it to kindling. But I had
to think, whose buddies got their pockets lined with that stupid idea? Of course,
all this is dropped toot sweet so’s to provide more time to smash a city.
I’m also disappointed
that there is nothing deeper to the monsters attacking than alien
invasion—like, what if some humans had encouraged, or even asked the monsters
to attack, in order to get rid of excess population, create jobs, improve the
economy and make people richer? Nope, it’s a straightforward invasion: they’re
bad and want our perfect planet; we’re plucky and make sacrifices to defeat
them.
All that said, I
enjoyed Pacific Rim a lot—especially
in a theater with great air-conditioning.
There’s one of those
darn memes about favorite directors going around on Facebook like a bad social
disease, where a someone tags someone and it eventually gets to everyone, and
it’s finally gotten to me.
BMOC Sq.Dave tagged me with Big Otto Preminger—so here goes!
Thank you for this
honor!
The now largely-forgotten
(and often unjustly ridiculed) Otto Preminger was the master of the long,
complicated take and the controversial topic—and is someone who needs a serious
career re-assessment.
MOVIE I LOVE:
SKIDOO/LAURA
Skidoo isn’t “Camp” to me: it’s a crazy, crazy comedy that works.
Laura needs no
explanation.
MOVIE I LIKE: ADVISE
& CONSENT/BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (Preminger imitates Frankenheimer and
William Castle, respectively, with fine results)
MOVIE I DISLIKE: IN
HARM’S WAY/EXODUS/CARMEN JONES (some good scenes scattered throughout, but all
these films are mostly bloated and boring)
MOVIE I HATE THAT I
LOVE: HURRY SUNDOWN (for Michael Caine’s awesome awful Southern accent, and
Jane Fonda fellating a saxophone)
MOVIE I STILL NEED TO
SEE: BONJOUR TRISTESSE (Otto Mannix has been raving about this one for years)
HONORABLE MENTION: ANGEL
FACE (Mitchum & Jean Simmons in LUST: mad love and two awesome car crashes)
SUCH GOOD FRIENDS—much
better than its reputation, and flick that has aged well—this wicked satire was
ahead of its time in 1971, and now is one of the better time capsules
accurately depicting the soullessness of the “Me Generation.”
The release of a new
Preminger film used to be an “event,” and for a long time, he could do no
wrong.
One of these days, I
will get around to finishing screening all of Big O.’s flicks, and I can make
further determinations.
The Movies Screened
in June 2013 (in order seen—often the super-brief version)
Arrested Development:
Season Four (2013; created by Mitch Hurwitz)
Comedic gold, in my
opinion. Excellent stuff! I love all the call-backs and the looping references.
Yes, I watched all
the episodes in a few days, doing the marathon viewing. Why is that even a
topic of conversation?
Anyway, Arrested Development rules: the epitome
of contemporary comedy.
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| Pacific Rim's lead actress, the very cute Rinko Kikuchi |
Forty Guns (1957; Sam
Fuller) is Babs Stanwyck and Sam Fuller, so the flick’s practically perfect. Reviewed HERE.
The French Connection
(1971; William Friedkin) reviewed HERE.
Remembering Arthur
(2006; Martin Lavut) intriguing doc about experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett.
The man was tortured by inner demons, and eventually took his life, leaving
behind some incredible collage-films.
Very Nice, Very Nice
(1961; Arthur Lipsett; seven minutes) Beautiful evocative stuff—this Oscar-nominated cinematic
collage that was obviously the inspiration for the Parallax Testing Film.
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| A monster attacks Sydney in Pacific Rim |
The Sea of Perdition
(2006; Richard Stanley; eight minutes) Neat E.C. comic vibe to this tale of a
lost astronaut.
Wavelength (1983; written
& directed by Mike Gray) Reviewed HERE.
BEASTS: “What Big
Eyes” (1976; written by Nigel Kneale; directed by Donald McWhinnie) Starts off
well, but becomes an ultimately disappointing misfire.
As I’m mining the
works of Nigel Kneale, I’m discovering that his lesser known works are
rightfully so. In an attempted almost post-modern twist, this episode discards
the supernatural for the mundane by the third act, which is to its detriment.
Patrick Magee gives a performance worthy of a Samuel Beckett play, as he plays
a manic, chain-smoking lycanthropy theorist. But the tonal shift in the
teleplay finally undermines Magee’s performance, especially as it makes the
officious and narrow-minded animal control inspector the hero.
From Beyond the Grave
(1974; Kevin Connor) Amicus anthology movies—some of us grew up with them, and
have a soft spot in our hearts (and heads) for them. Peter Cushing, Donald
Pleasance, David Warner and others fill out the cast in several supernatural
tales all interconnected via a haunted pawn shop. Well-mannered, veddy British
horror with a touch of sardonic humor.
This Is Not a Test
(1962; Fredric Gadette) Wonderfully anti-authoritarian and self-consciously
arty, this film could be retitled “Ten Characters In Search of a Nuclear
Armageddon.” Watch it HERE.
About 80 minutes in
length, the film has a lot of filler, but it is an infuriating flick that’ll
make your blood boil because it says “authority” is worse than useless, it’s
interfering and dangerous: hidebound and willfully stupid. Melodramatic but
subversive, this flick must be the product of left-wing peaceniks!
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| Pacific Rim's humans |
The movie starts with
a proto-fascist dumb-hick highway patrolman setting up a road block “on orders”
regarding a possible nuclear missile attack, and he doesn’t let any drivers go
forward or back, under the threat of violence. He essentially dooms everyone,
and rather than let people live the end of their lives as they might, the
stupid cop imposes a ridiculous plan: hiding in a furniture truck.
The scene with the
psycho kid flipping out and attacking crates of chickens is filler, but great
fun—and indicates what would be going on in the cities during a missile
attack..
Threads (1984; Mick
Jackson; written by Barry Hines) is possibly one of the most intense,
gut-wrenching films I’ve ever seen, tied with Paul Greengrass’ United 93.
For a while there, I
was on an “Accurate Armageddon” kick, seeking out films that showed the end
like it would happen. Not monster-mutant visions or “Mad Max”-style adolescent
fantasies—nor white-washings like The Day
After, which concentrated too much on Americana/nostalgia/melodrama and not
enough on the physical effects of massive radiation on the human body, or the
changes in atmosphere and economy.
There isn’t an ounce
of sentimentality in Threads—bleak,
unrelenting horror as the bombs fall and society goes into the crapper. No
food, no medicines, corpses everywhere, nuclear winter, rampant disease, it’s a
world of no hope. Slow death, in a quasi-fake-documentary style. Brilliant,
simply brilliant.
The Man With the Iron
Fists (RZA; 2012) What starts out as a decent tribute to the “bad” kung fu movies
that used to pepper NYC (whether on Channel 5’s “Kung Fu Theater” or in the
variety of grindhouses around The Big Apple), becomes an overly sentimental and
self-satisfied vanity projects with terrible pacing. Too often the film
resembles a rap video instead of a movie, and only people who’ve never seen a
real kung fu movie would be impressed.
Better to stick with
Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords of Dragon Gate from 2010. Now, that’s a movie!
However, it’s fun to
watch Russell Crowe channeling Marlon Brando’s perf from The Missouri Breaks as
he plays a mysterious English adventurer.
The Wind Is Whistling
Under Their Feet (1976; György Szomjas) A beautifully shot Hungarian western (I
had no ideas such things existed!), but a smidgen clichéd with its character
development.
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| Dead monster on a boat: Pacific Rim |
You Don’t Know Jack
(2010; Barry Levinson) Better than the usual TV movie about the enigmatic and
controversial “Dr. Death,” Jack Kevorkian. Al Pacino really acts in this,
doesn’t just scream and pose, and the movie is more powerful for it.
Thankfully, the film doesn’t bother with the “Young Dr. K” story, and sticks to
the suicide machine years.
The Nines (2007; John
August) Spooky and metaphysical; neat and wonderfully astro-gnostic vision
about God and the creation/maintaining of the world.
Watched because of fascinating articles at The Secret Sun.
Fright Night (2011;
Craig Gillespie) Very enjoyable horror-comedy, with a high gore quotient. Never
seen the original, so can only judge on its own merits, but I had fun watching
this sly and fast-paced B-movie.
Mad Foxes (“Los
violadores”) (1982; Paul Grey—a.k.a. Paul Grau) Good lord, this is
reprehensible! A Spain-made revenge/biker flick that is…beyond the pale. Unrelentingly
grim and nasty violence and sexual assault. It’s fast-paced, and always
entertaining—but only if you’re a borderline nihilist. A Corvette-driving
Casanova runs afoul of a grotesque and stupid biker gang—and the mayhem
ping-pongs back and forth as each group takes revenge on the other, as the
brutal killings pile up.
The Bad Bunch (1973;
Greydon Clark) reviewed HERE.
Kuroneko (Black Cat)
(1968; Kaneto Shindo) reviewed HERE.
Ephemera—various
educational films from the 1940s and 1950s about socializing people: overcoming
shyness, learning good hygiene, and other interpersonal interactions. On
ongoing series at the fabulous Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, these very
dated films are unintentionally funny now—but still well-meaning—with a crazy
nostalgia vibe.
BOOKS READ IN JUNE
2013
Tentacle Death Trip by Jordan Krall—If H.P.
Lovecraft and Harlan Ellison joined forces to rewrite Death Race 2000, it might look like this. Fast-paced page-turner
that blows snark like John Dies at the
End out of the water.
The Best of Henry Kuttner by Henry Kuttner—a collection of
sci-fi stories from the 1940s; charming if dated, but sometimes really good
stuff remains. Read because the short story that is the basis of the film The Twonky is included.
Fletch Won by Gregory Mcdonald—Amusing snarky
fluff; perfect summer reading as Mcdonald is the master of the breezy-funny
detective story.
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| Behind the scenes on Pacific Rim |
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