by ·Comments Off on Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989, Kazuki Omori)

A very silly movie, rarely ever good, with big sweeping symphonic music that sometimes gets close to ripping off Star Wars. Jeers to Criterion for getting people to take a 1980s Godzilla movie seriously enough that I was tricked into wasting an evening on it.

Army weapon temporarily turns Godz into a Trapper Keeper graphic:

Competing English-speaking forces kill each other to capture Godzilla DNA, then a plant lab gets blown up, then a psychic girl speaks to plants. Botanist creates a plant monster and the next time hitmen come to steal secrets they get Little-Shopped. Plant monster and Godzilla fight.

What? Your IVYSAUR evolved into BIOLLANTE

Some of the human players: Yoshiko Tanaka (right) starred in Imamura’s Black Rain the same year, the plant scientist had starred in Samurai Spy in the 60s, the psychic girl became a Godzilla regular.

Godzilla will return, and return, and return

by ·Comments Off on The Daytrippers (1996, Greg Mottola)

Family goes on a trip to the city to investigate Hope Davis’s husband’s goings-on, finds him smooching another man, as was all the rage back then. In a movie full of 90s darlings, it turns out Ben Stiller’s mom is the best actor around.

by ·Comments Off on Universal Language (2024, Matthew Rankin)

“Isn’t this the same movie you watched last night,” said K when I put on Where Is The Friend’s House the night after this. Besides a couple of distinct Friend’s House references (the dickhead teacher in the opening scene, the guy inside a tree) I’m pretty sure there was some White Balloon (finding tools to retrieve money from under the street). An extremely specific kind of weird thing, in which the director plays “himself” as both a Canadian and Iranian, and his selves and cities swap and merge. Of course I love it.

Mouseover for the reverse angle:
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by ·Comments Off on Woman in the Window (1945, Fritz Lang)

Edward G is a murder professor, and while his family vacations without him, he’s invited out by titular woman Joan Bennett who likes how he gazed at her painting, then he kills her ex-bf in self-defense when the guy barges in. Having studied murders extensively, Ed knows to go home for his car then return to hide the body. The girl doesn’t know his name and he plans to disappear from her life, but his huge face gets published in the newspaper due to a job promotion, then she looks him up, followed by the dead guy’s blackmailer buddy Dan Duryea, completing the Scarlet Street cast.

L-R: woman, window

The recent Amy Adams movie with the same title is a trauma-remake of Rear Window, not of this – and studying crimes while covering up having committed crimes makes this the original Juror #2. Some sweet camera moves, the movie works when Joan is around and it dies when all the men get together. It has a decent doom-ending (she fucks up taking care of Duryea but he’s killed in a police shootout outside, and she calls the professor with the good news too late as he overdoses on meds) then blows it with a cornball it-was-all-a-dream second ending.

the fatal glass of beer?

by ·Comments Off on Heat (1995, Michael Mann)

Hadn’t seen this in a while. I think I bought the blu (cheap!) to rewatch when the book came out, but given my current books backlog, by the time I get to Heat 2 I’ll have to rewatch the movie again (with pleasure).

Al’s wife is Diane Venora, queen of the Claire Danes Juliet and the Ethan Hawke Hamlet, and Bob’s new girl is Amy Brenneman, who starred with Al in 88 Minutes. Danny Trejo is their driver who gets no lines or closeups until his big death scene. Disastrous new teammate Kevin Gage (May‘s dad) has a side gig killing prostitutes. Kilmer gets away.

Gage with stalwart 90s actor Henry Rollins:

by ·Comments Off on Blue Velvet docs

Catching up with some Lynch-related artifacts, I’ve got two different behind-the-scenes docs about Blue Velvet.

Blue Velvet Revisited (2016, Peter Braatz)

Movies are magic, but making movies is dull. Occasionally has sync sound, asking unenlightening Qs to Lynch, or sometimes overlaying shoot audio, or sometimes just playing trippy music, flashing up the old footage with fancy titles – it’s tough when you’re trying to piggyback your art off one of my favorite films.

It’s a Strange World (2019, Shane Callahan & Benedict Fancy)

In the first five seconds someone says the town was like a character in the film. Director of the first doc appears in this doc. Props guys tell stories about the ear, the “In Dreams” worklight mic, the brain splatter, a steadicam shot on the stairs, some random little things.

by ·Comments Off on Ghost in the Shell 2 (2004, Mamoru Oshii)

Very CG movie, but that feels appropriate for the content. Some idiot corporation has produced a bulletproof kung-fu sexbot, and the cybercops have to stop the killing while negotiating different levels of reality, like a boring eXistenZ.

by ·Comments Off on Nowhere (1997, Gregg Araki)

Polishing off the Criterion set, and it’s another horny ensemble movie with Argento lighting, the music good as ever. Group of kids dying off one by one, from murderous lizard alien or homi/sui/cide. “Our generation is gonna witness the end of everything.”