A Week (or 2) of Entertainment - Issue 11

Well, last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, so I took the week off from writing this column.  I hope everyone had as pleasant a weekend as I did.  I will mention the stories from this past week and the week before still.  That being said, I may shorten my take on them since some will be quite old-hat by now.  Have a great week!


RIP Gordon Willis - Gordon Willis passed away at 82.  He was the cinematographer for one of the greatest trilogies out there.  The Godfather Trilogy.  With this, and many other great movies, his work will not soon be forgotton.


RIP Ann Davis - Just today the Brady Bunch's maid, Alice, passed away at 88.  Many generations grew up with Alice and the Bradys.  She even managed a cameo in the 1995 Brady Bunch Movie.


What's in a title? -  Apparently everything.  The Man of Steel follow-up has now gotten an official title of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  They managed to get the story down to a two part title.  First part of the movie will be Batman dukin' it out with Superman cause he finds him to be a threat.  Second half will be them coming to the conclusion that they are on the same side and find others to form the Justice League.  I am still totally on the fence about this new title.  I like it alright, but with the v instead of vs, and the word Justice, it makes it sound like this is going to be a courtroom drama.


Be in a movie! - Have you ever wanted a walk-on role in a Star Wars movie?  Who says no to that?  Well, here's your chance!  J.J. Abrams is auctioning off a chance to win a walk on role in episode VII.  For every $10 you donate to UNICEF's Innovation Labs you get one entry into the drawing.  There are also cool gifts and prizes you get at each donation level.  If you want to donate to a good cause, here's your chance at a win/win situation.


From Monsters to Aliens - Speaking of Star Wars, Gareth Edwards has been announced as the director for one of the as yet unspecified Star Wars spin-off movies.  Godzilla was not a perfect movie by any means, but I enjoyed it.  And between that and Monsters, I would like to keep an eye on this director.  Like they say, it can't be as bad as the prequels, right?


Shrinking Interest - Ant-Man, which was to be part of phase 3 of the Marvel movies has lost it's director.  After a bout of creative differences, Edgar Wright dropped out of the production.  This is one movie I've been really looking forward to since they announced him as the director.  I'm sure Marvel will step up and find the right director to replace him, but until then I'm a little saddened by this news.


Butterfly in the Sky - On a final note, here's a story that brings back a little faith in humanity.  LeVar Burton wants to bring Reading Rainbow back on the air.  He also wants to bring the Reading Rainbow program to poor schools for free.  That alone is good news to hear.  As much as I love movies and television, I am also just as in love with books.  I also have two young daughters and love to hear celebrities bring their voice to the encouragement of better education for our youth.  What makes this story even better is that Burton started a kickstarter campaign trying to raise a million dollars by July (a little over a month), and met his goal in less than 24 hours.


Until next time......Take a look.  It's in a book.


Weekend to 10 at the box office:
1 - Maleficent (new release) $70M
2 - X-Men: Days of Future Past $32.6M
3 - A Million Ways to Die in the West (new release) $17.1M
4 - Godzilla $12.2M
5 - Blended $8.4M
6 - Neighbors $7.7M
7 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $3.8M
8 - Million Dollar Arm $3.7M
9 - Chef $2M
10 - The Other Woman $1.4M

Movie Review: Godzilla (2014)

After that sad state of affairs in 1998, Godzilla is back for another round.  This time he is bigger and badder than ever before in Gareth Edwards' (Monsters) second directing effort, Godzilla.

The story starts in 1999 with Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad) and his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche, The English Patient) working in a nuclear plant in Japan.  There is seismic activity that destroys the plant that is explained away as an earthquake.  Joe doesn't buy it because it is not random.  He sees a pattern.  Fifteen years later the "quakes" are happening again and he gets arrested for entering the quarantined zone looking for his old data to compare.  His son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kick-Ass), who is now in the navy, gets him out of jail and is convinced to go back into the quarantine zone with him.  Here they learn, from Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe, Batman Begins), of a monster referred to as MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), which was the cause of the quakes.  It is headed for the states pursued by another monster, our titular Godzilla.  Ford then joins up with the rest of the military to try to stop these monsters.  Then you get what you all came for, giant monster fight!

This movie, in a way, almost felt like two different movies smashed together.  Edwards tries to give his characters a little depth, and make you care about them.  This was done to great effect in the first act of the movie with Cranston and Binoche.  You really bought their affection for each other and got invested in his struggle to find the truth.  Then there was the second movie, which happened in the third act.  This section gave viewers what they were waiting for with an all out brawl between the monsters.  The characters were still good, but were not given as much to work with as some had in the first act.  The second act tried to bridge these two movies together, and this is where it went into kind of a lull for me.  We follow Ford's journey from Japan to the states.  The problem lies in the fact that Ford was the least interesting character for me.  Aaron Taylor Johnson just seemed a little wooden in this role.  Luckily, this act is redeemed a little with teasing glimpses of the monsters.

So, the acting is great for the most part.  Johnson is the only weak link, but he is still passable.  Cranston and Binoche (who has very little screen time) make you wish they were the protagonists through the whole film.  Watanabe and Elizabeth Olsen also did a fine job with what little they were given to do.

Some of the plot is where you have to kind of turn off your brain and just enjoy the ride, but I'm suspecting most people will have done that just knowing it was a Godzilla movie.  Godzilla himself is supposed to have been around since 1954, but he has been kept a secret.  Seriously, he's the size of a skyscraper.  That is one BIG secret.  Another thing is how stupid the military is portrayed.  They get in the way of fleeing civilians to shoot at these giant monsters with puny little bullets and missiles, doing about as much damage around them as the monsters themselves.  The real fun bit though, is their ultimate plan.  It is established over and over again throughout the movie that these monsters eat radioactive materials, so they come up with the brilliant plan to hit them with a giant nuclear bomb.

The biggest fun is the throwdown at the end.  Godzilla proves he is the baddest monster in town.  Between him and the MUTO's you get your fair share of fighting and destruction.  A lot of the fighting takes place in the evening, but the action is clear and you get a lot of great shots.  The effects are done real well.  The cinematography is also beautiful in this movie.  There is a scene (also shown in the first trailer) where the military does a HALO jump into the thick of it all, and it is quite breathtaking.

The second act lulls a little, and Godzilla himself does take quite some time before he shows up for the first time on screen.  I think these are minor quibbles in the long run.  The story with certain characters makes up for some of this, and Godzilla really does make good use of all of the screen time that he does get, beating up the MUTO's, which themselves are quite cool looking.  Overall, good popcorn summer movie with some character development in the first half that you don't normally see in this type of movie.

Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10)

Memorable Quote:

Serizawa: Let them fight.