tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-267979172024-03-14T05:48:04.961-05:00Club ParnassusMovies, books, comics, and assorted miscellany from sometimes-critic Evan Waters.Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.comBlogger652125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-61636256468425939332015-12-25T10:25:00.001-06:002015-12-25T10:25:05.503-06:00The new Star Wars is true to the series' B-movie spirit<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ovuKDxMSbRi4zz0tP1JvoR4KfxD6-GFRRYujeC8-veaiPWzh904cy-lUoE9t9kP6AjNCvKoX3LMS0lXSVdXh0NZwCbbYfkbvctY7MxXCpyImBfxm-HSld_bYAiAapiPkTGU/s1600/1-JJKathy-NO-LOGO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ovuKDxMSbRi4zz0tP1JvoR4KfxD6-GFRRYujeC8-veaiPWzh904cy-lUoE9t9kP6AjNCvKoX3LMS0lXSVdXh0NZwCbbYfkbvctY7MxXCpyImBfxm-HSld_bYAiAapiPkTGU/s400/1-JJKathy-NO-LOGO.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from StarWars.com</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">As one of a select minority of people who both enjoyed the Star Wars prequel trilogy and are unafraid to say so, I was ambivalent when it was announced that George Lucas had sold the series to Disney, who planned to finally continue the story with Episodes VII through IX (at least.) On the one hand, I thought it a shame that one of the few major creator-owned properties in film was no longer so, but yet another IP in the arsenal of a major megacorporation, and I was unsure how best to continue the story after both the Sith and the Empire were thoroughly defeated.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">On the other hand, I like movies where spaceships explode and where people fight each other with laser swords, so, yes, I had to see it at least once.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>The Force Awakens </i>is also divided, telling a new story for a new generation while, at the same time, appeasing everyone who grew up on the originals and rejected the prequels with so much disdain that Lucas himself is now something of a pariah. The needs of nostalgia (and of the Disney corporation) do pull at this film, but there’s enough talent and genuine ingenuity at work for it to be a satisfying space opera in its own right. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">There is much to potentially spoil in the plot, suffice it to say that many years after the defeat of the Empire, a new and brutal First Order has arisen and taken over a portion of the galaxy. With the restored Republic unwilling to declare war, a covert Resistance is left to oppose the Order. In the midst of this Luke Skywalker has vanished, and the Resistance are searching for him. Ace pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), seeking information, is captured by the First Order, but his loyal droid BB-8 escapes into the deserts of the planet Jakku, a desolate world whose main industry appears to be salvaging parts from the crashed starships and vehicles left over from a battle between the Rebels and the Empire. BB-8 is recovered and befriended by Rey (Daisy Ridley), a young scavenger, who falls in with Finn (John Boyega), a former stormtrooper for the First Order who defected shortly after refusing to massacre a small village. The two manage to escape Jakku in a familiar-looking space freighter, only to run into its original occupants…</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The fundamental question I had when dealing with a continuation of the Star Wars story was who the new villains would be. The Sith have been successfully eradicated thanks to Vader’s sacrifice and just having the Empire still around would be, to say the least, anticlimactic. <i>The Force Awakens</i> is a little vague in defining the First Order and their intentions for the galaxy, though an appropriately Nazi-esque rally on board their new superweapon at least conveys the right feeling. They quite closely resemble the Empire in fashion and interior design, even fielding Star Destroyers and TIE fighters which are only slightly different from the originals (some new designs would have been welcome, honestly.) They’re mostly led by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a sinister acolyte of the Dark Side who appears to be a big fan of Darth Vader before he went all soft- guiding him is the enigmatic Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis in voice and gesture), who makes it clear that it’s not only George Lucas who has trouble coming up with cool outer space names.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The old guard plays a big part in the proceedings. Harrison Ford is back as Han Solo, Chewbacca’s at his side, Carrie Fisher returns to the role of Leia, and I guess it really wouldn’t be Star Wars without R2-D2 and C-3PO putting in appearances. (Threepio does have one of the film’s best lines.) At times the veterans threaten to overshadow the new cast, but the new characters all have enough time to win us over: Rey is clearly getting the main hero’s journey here with Ridley displaying the right intensity, Boyega's Finn is a likable everyman despite having been raised from childhood in a soulless military machine, and Poe Dameron is a callback to the series’ genre roots, a Buck Rogers hero who happens to be taking a supporting role in someone else’s story. (Why Oscar Isaac wasn’t an A-list star before this is mystifying.) </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Abrams keeps the action fast paced and visually dazzling, emphasizing a red-blue color scheme which fits the iconic divide between the light and dark sides of the Force. A few parts of the story remain fuzzy, perhaps out of a desire to avoid the prequels’ criticism of being too politically focused (it’s never really clear why there’s both a Republic and Resistance, and even with an in-story explanation it feels inelegant), but for the most part the film plays by the pure cinematic logic of the Star Wars series. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">For the most part I find myself with a large roster of small complaints (Gwendoline Christie does not get enough to do), all overshadowed by a sense that Abrams and company have gotten the basics right. If the specifics of the story are a little familiar, the specifics were never the point; Star Wars is about a rhythm and an attitude, and the film uses that style to tell an engaging story. It’s a safe film which takes time to make sure the nostalgists and hardcore fans are in its corner, but it still has something new going on. As the first of a new trilogy it could have been more self contained, but the questions it leaves us with do make for a nice cliffhanger. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Written by Lawrence Kasdan & J. J. Abrams and Michael Arndt</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Grade: B+</span></div>
Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-55552490739200196762015-10-24T11:44:00.001-05:002015-10-24T11:44:15.125-05:00The Audio Locke & Key Is Potent Stuff, Worth Reopening a Blog For<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/FREE-Locke-Key-Audiobook/B00YI1CTVU/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1445704937&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img alt=" Free until Nov. 4!" border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1YXp8iT0c-srKgmiHimzVs3Gek9pdS8VP8PgsuhAS0b2PmKTk5WvNgPXqzurnKhdXEQkhsmq5VTxv2pSEZqspAqwdrgCt04XBAUfQmn3Zu9nayhnDaWLxhNrwTZ07-OSJDBE/s320/Locke-and-Key.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">American audio drama has been very slowly rebuilding itself ever since the massacre that was the coming of television, and over the past few years a critical mass has started to form. <i>Locke & Key</i> is an ambitious epic, a thirteen-hour-plus adaptation of Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez’s graphic novel featuring a massive cast and co-produced for Audible by Audio Comics and Final Rune productions. I haven’t actually read the graphic novel, so I’m forced to judge this entirely on its own merits. It can best be described as an adult take on a YA fantasy concept, using magic and the supernatural to tell the story of a family haunted by bad decisions made in the past and by the ones they keep making. Parts of it are whimsical, other parts are very sad, and the overall effect is very powerful indeed. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The story centers on the Locke family, who move back to the town of Lovecraft, Massachusetts after the murder of father Rendell, into their ancestral home of Keyhouse. Appropriate to its name, Keyhouse holds a number of strange keys which unlock magic doors- there’s a key that turns you into a ghost, one that lets you open your head and root around, and one key that literally lets you go anywhere. But the Locke family is being chased by the same madman who killed Rendell, and he’s the servant of a dark power- one which dates back to a fatal mistake Rendell and his friends made when they were teenagers, and which the youngest child, in order to save his family, ends up setting free. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">A strong sense of trauma pervades the story. It starts with tragedy and never quite stops, even as it uses magic and fantasy to cushion the blows. Every death is given weight and consequence, and we track the psychological toll it takes on those left behind. Which isn’t to say this is an unrelenting parade of misery and despair; there’s an honest mix of emotions here, as the Locke family (notably teenagers Tyler and Kinzie) try to go about their lives and make friends and survive school, all between attacks from terrifying monsters. But the weight of tragedy is definitely felt throughout the story, and it can be quite brutal at times. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The emotional honesty of the story is supported by some very strong voice work; even the minor parts are memorable, and while some of the more prominently advertised celebrity cast members are hard to recognize (it doesn’t help that Tatiana Maslany is most famous for being chameleonic) nobody sounds out of place. (There are even cameos by Hill and Rodriguez, as well as Hill’s dad, Stephen King.) </span></div>
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<span class="s1">This is a production which has to keep a lot of plates spinning, as it were, and a lot of what really impressed me about it is just how well it pulls off the inherent challenges of the material. A lot of very visual things happen, and the dialogue manages to get across what’s happening without the explanation getting too belabored. There are a few moments which are a little confusing until they’ve been resolved, and maybe one or two I still don’t fully get, but considering the sheer length of the piece that may be inevitable. The cast is also appropriately huge, and the narrative jumps from place to place frequently, but it’s never hard to keep track of that. There’s a good lush quality to the sound design, and the theme music is particularly effective.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Locke and Key</i> is free on <a href="http://audible.com/"><span class="s2"><i>audible.com</i></span></a> until November 4, and there’s no good reason not to pick it up. This is a big, handsomely mounted work of audio drama which is not only technically slick but emotionally intense, a satisfying and complete dark fantasy adventure about the end of childhood. I don't like to talk about the “return” of audio theater, since it never went away entirely, but a project like this says a lot about the medium’s returning health. There’s clearly plenty of fertile ground left, and many doors to open.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Grade: A</span></div>
Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-25811697691414322082014-11-22T11:51:00.000-06:002014-11-22T11:51:08.742-06:00Random Movie Report: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKiv2sRZXE3Orcha5mkXRihlsg82bIjlYC1A8gjMtfOY-sbHwmvwv-jyBrBo5oi87XT4Oq2QEKHWZ9QDQNbkUeXrz-BIIb1ldSCHbKlvZYbG0IGXitHDKZgNdZ-wObGozQMg/s1600/beast_from_twenty_thousand_fathoms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Beast from 20,000 Fathoms Poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAKiv2sRZXE3Orcha5mkXRihlsg82bIjlYC1A8gjMtfOY-sbHwmvwv-jyBrBo5oi87XT4Oq2QEKHWZ9QDQNbkUeXrz-BIIb1ldSCHbKlvZYbG0IGXitHDKZgNdZ-wObGozQMg/s1600/beast_from_twenty_thousand_fathoms.jpg" height="233" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster via IMPAwards.com</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The sci-fi movies of the 50s were full of monsters; aliens, insects, and dinosaurs, the latter two usually having something to do with the atomic bomb. The origin point of this unique explosion was 1953’s <i>The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms</i>, a low budget thriller which made millions off the image of a giant prehistoric reptile rampaging through the modern world. Though <i>King Kong</i> and <i>The Lost World</i> both featured giant monsters attacking major metropolitan areas, those sequences were climaxes following various jungle adventures; here, for apparently the first time, was a film devoted entirely to the subject of a giant monster on the loose. The film was freely adapted from a Ray Bradbury short story, which is fitting as it marks the solo debut of Bradbury’s childhood chum, stop-motion animation auteur Ray Harryhausen; while the live action of the movie sometimes flags, as an effects showcase it more than holds up.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />A government project (with the uninspired codename “Operation Experiment”) is conducting nuclear bomb tests in the arctic, and the heat and radiation manage to melt a glacier containing a four-legged carnivorous Rhedosaur, which wakes from its suspended animation and immediately starts heading south. Prof. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian) sees the beast before it makes it to the ocean, but is unable to convince anyone else of its existence, even as ships start disappearing. Finally, with the help of paleontologist Prof. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his assistant Lee (Paula Raymond), the beast is located in its ancestral grounds deep underwater in the Hudson canyon- however this expedition ends in Prof. Elson being eaten by the monster. The Rhedosaur finally surfaces in Manhattan and rampages through the city, and while the military are able to wound it with cannon fire, they soon discover that the beast’s blood contains an ancient and lethal pathogen.<br /><br />The makers of this film were treading into unknown territory; this was effectively a new genre, and the story which inspired the film was a short vignette about a dinosaur mistaking a fog-horn for a mating call. As a result the pacing suffers a little; a long time is spent on Tom trying to convince the authorities of the creature’s existence even after it sinks a few ships. We don’t really care, since we know it’s real and are waiting for the big rampage to begin, and it simply feels like a lot of time is being wasted in order to stretch out the film’s low budget. It doesn’t help that director Eugene Lourie’s visuals are generally flat and unimpressive, though again this may speak more to a lack of money than anything else. <br /><br />One thing Lourie definitely did right, however, was letting Ray Harryhausen- working alone on a feature after assisting his idol Willis O’ Brien on <i>Mighty Joe Young</i>- basically do whatever he needed to do to bring the Rhedosaur to life. The Beast itself is a joy to watch, as so many of Harryhausen’s creations are; it’s a simple design, but animated with a lot of flair, and the animator does a lot more with light and shadow than is seen in the live action plates. Harryhausen also had a hand in devising the film’s climax on Coney Island, a superb setpiece involving a roller-coaster and a top marksman (Lee Van Cleef, already typecast.)<br /><br />Most 50s sci-fi would be defined by the atomic bomb, and Beast provides an early example of American film’s ambivalent attitude towards the subject. The bomb is directly responsible for the monster being unleashed (though the film avoids the direct metaphors that would make Godzilla so powerful), but in the end a radioactive isotope proves key to defeating it. The atomic age held both peril and promise, and throughout the decade Americans were reminded that the same force which had levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki could also provide power and save lives with X-rays. The only real constant in films like this is that atomic energy has changed the world, though in this case the new technology digs up something very old indeed.<br /><br />Even if <i>The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms</i> was surpassed by some of its imitators (most notably one in Japan), it remains a pretty effective thriller with strong performances and a memorable monster. It’s the rare B-movie which actually gets to explore new territory and invent new concepts, and its missteps can largely be put down to the filmmakers not knowing what would work. It’s a great showcase for Harryhausen, who would go on to even bigger things. A pity we never had a proper collaboration between him and Bradbury, though.<br /><br />Based on “The Fog Horn” by Ray Bradbury<br />Screenplay by Lou Morheim and Fred Freiberger<br />Directed by Eugene Lourie<br /> Grade: B<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-39475448902739203152014-10-31T13:00:00.002-05:002014-10-31T13:00:51.696-05:00Halloween Monsterthon, For Your Ears Only Edition: The War of the Worlds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns" target="_blank"><img alt="The War of the Worlds at the Internet Archive" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1VhdYc7rdqwGH4EAH_5kVAtQ868V_qQExL3_O6tb9lUzpwQ_zq4jsLKPCmRmq5hHKEMB1CyWKCogY_BFyJUt6Btoik30aCPbL_9M_fKi9SiLbq_WHhRvKRfFa7pWUpQSJsE/s1600/war-of-the-worlds-record.gif" height="320" width="306" /></a></div>
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Since the Monsterthon has unintentionally taken on a very alien character, it’s appropriate to use the holiday to commemorate the Halloween edition of the first alien invasion story of all time. The Mercury Theatre On The Air’s broadcast of <i>The War of the Worlds</i> is a thing of legend, a radio play that allegedly spooked an entire nation with its documentary realism. The furor over it helped catapult Orson Welles into the national spotlight and resulted in a lot of rules preventing radio and TV from ever being too convincing in the future. But setting all that aside, it’s just a damn good audio play, one of the great works of the medium.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />After a brief prologue, the first half of the play unfolds as a series of news reports interrupting regular broadcasting, detailing first an eruption on the surface of Mars, then a strange object crashing near a farm in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. Welles voices Andrew Pearson, a scientist who heads to Grover’s Mill in time for the cylinder to begin unscrewing, revealing first the Martian invaders and their weapon, a deadly heat ray. The aliens then fan out in giant tripod machines, spewing poisonous black smoke and destroying airplanes and artillery units with their rayguns, and climactically sweeping through all of Manhattan. The second half abandons the documentary conceit, however, and presents the narration of Pearson as he tries to survive and explore Earth under the Martians.<br /><br />The building of tension in the play’s first half is beautifully orchestrated. The writers specifically timed the actual attack of the Martians to begin during a musical break on Edgar Bergen’s show, which had been walloping them in the ratings. The key was to catch listeners who were just tuning in, and obviously audiences who missed the prologue and didn’t stay around long enough for the intermission and second half were the ones who started making a fuss about the Earth actually being invaded (though newspapers exaggerated the story in an attempt to warn people of the dangers of a competing format- while some people were undoubtedly fooled, it's difficult to know how many.) The gravity and intensity of the story builds segment by segment, and the producers managed to capture the sound of outdoor and other remote broadcasts in studio, which is impressive given the limited technology. The most effective sound, though, is that of the heat ray, an almost musical hum.<br /><br />Inevitably the play loses some momentum in its second act, with Pearson’s diary narration not being quite as convincing a device, and making most of it a monologue. But a slight slowdown is welcome after the harrowing tension of the first half, and listening to Welles deliver a monologue in his prime is never a bad thing. The protagonist’s encounter with a half-mad artilleryman does help break up the pace, though, and helps key off some of the contemporary fears Welles was taping into. When this play was broadcast, war was already engulfing Europe and the fascist threat of the Third Reich was strong; while there are echoes in the early scenes, the fear is driven home most keenly when the artilleryman begins to talk about the new society he wants to create, one without room for weakness or mercy. <br /><br />The play famously ends with a disclaimer by Welles, which was thought to be a response to the unexpected panic but actually appears in the original script; it’s the kind of wonderfully smug treatise the man was great at, and it’s easy to forget that he didn’t actually write the production- rather, it was a collaboration by many extremely talented people all in the name of delivering a good Halloween scare, and hopefully goosing the ratings. The original broadcast is free to stream from the Internet Archive and is available on just about every “old time radio” compilation there is, so there’s really no reason not to have experienced it. Happy Halloween.<br /><br />Based on the novel by H. G. Wells<br />Written by Howard Koch and Anne Forelock<br />
Produced by John Houseman and Orson Welles<br />Directed by Orson Welles<br /><br />Grade: A+Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-30872242227726583162014-10-30T18:35:00.000-05:002014-10-30T18:35:06.376-05:00Halloween Monsterthon: Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Science fiction in the sixties couldn’t help but focus on the social turmoil erupting across the world, and Japanese sci-fi filmmakers did their part. While <i>Matango</i> tackled social conformity, <i>Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell</i> is about disintegration. Born of the chaos of wars, assassinations, and political corruption, it’s a surreal parable that makes up for in intensity what it lacks in coherence. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Chaos erupts on an airplane in flight when the crew and passengers discover an assassin on board, just before something in the sky forces the craft down into the mountains. When the gunman makes a break for it, hostage in tow, he runs across a glowing saucer that has touched down nearby, and is taken over by one of the craft’s shapeless inhabitants. He emerges a vampirish killer, stalking and picking off survivors one by one- a soldier of an invading alien race that has decided now is the perfect time to destroy humanity.<br /><br />The film benefits from a colorful and intense style, the stark mountain setting providing a good backdrop for glowing alien weirdness. The opening scenes take place against a fiery red sky, and the aliens and their ship are marked by intense bright reds, oranges, and blues. It all contributes to a sense of genuine chaos unfolding, and the monster evokes not just classical horror in its vampire tropes, but also a sick and demonic liveliness. (One of the more memorable images of the film is that of the creature entering the hijacker through a hole in his head, the resulting wound becoming a plot point.) These aren’t the usual bloodless, passionless invaders from beyond; there’s something more primal to them.<br /><br />The film isn’t exactly subtle in its social commentary, not that subtlety was the in-thing in those days. The passengers include a corrupt politician, the arms exporter who plies him to the extent of pimping out his wife, a young troublemaker who called in a bomb threat, and an American war widow who goes on long, hysterical tirades while the Japanese characters semi-accurately translate what she’s saying (a practice which makes one wonder just how wrong we get foreign language dialogue in our films.) It’s possible to lose track of characters, and there’s not really time to develop anyone beyond broad stereotypes, but it’s effective in a <i>Twilight Zone</i> kind of way. Throughout the message is that mankind is destroying itself; that the violence of the times has summoned the agents of our extermination. <br /><br />The movie builds to an absolute killer of an ending, one which perfectly encapsulates the picture’s sense of nihilistic fear. It’s the sort of thing which elevates everything that came before, and while <i>Goke</i> does lose momentum at times, the payoff is more than worth it. There’s a certain merit in being this strange and unusual, and the surrealism is backed by a brutality which evokes Romero’s <i>Night of the Living Dead</i>. But for all the links that can be traced, <i>Goke, Body Snatcher From Hel</i>l is unique, and unforgettable.<br /><br />Written by Kyuzo Kobayashi and Susumu Tanaka<br />DIrected by Hajime Sato<br /><br />Grade: A-<br /><br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-80331968037523151982014-10-27T23:24:00.003-05:002014-10-27T23:24:49.217-05:00Halloween Monsterthon: Robot Monster <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUXFDHOo-ICuXH6irBpLiGFH70xpnGpaDdmngQBhdt8dFFUZduCw5A45DI1AfIZWlz9Sh_8gzBQXgTWU22JG4sIIv6lbKnO4xs2qMIjI4bSlnQEP7V-c-F1bmFq9QFqrn0jM/s1600/robot_monster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Robot Monster poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfUXFDHOo-ICuXH6irBpLiGFH70xpnGpaDdmngQBhdt8dFFUZduCw5A45DI1AfIZWlz9Sh_8gzBQXgTWU22JG4sIIv6lbKnO4xs2qMIjI4bSlnQEP7V-c-F1bmFq9QFqrn0jM/s1600/robot_monster.jpg" height="320" title="The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms wishes to clarify that he does not appear in this film." width="125" /></a></div>
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Often ranked among the great bad movies, <i>Robot Monster</i> certainly merits the kind of bizarre attention and appreciation that’s been extended to Ed Wood’s filmography. Again we have a movie whose ambitions vastly outstrip both the filmmakers’ resources and technical skill, but which marches on regardless. It is not what one would traditionally call good, but its originality and charm- as well as the fact that it runs barely over an hour- makes it damned entertaining. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The story is framed as a child’s dream; little Johnny (Gregory Moffet) takes a nap on a picnic and wakes up to a world where mankind has been all but wiped out by an alien invasion. His family- a professor (John Mylong), his wife (Selena Royale), his grown sister Alice (Claudia Barrett) and kid sister Carla (Pamela Paulson)- survived the attack of the Ro-Men and their destructive Calcinator Beam by hiding behind an electronic screen, and taking a serum that renders them immune to the monster’s death rays. The Ro-Man XJ2 (played by George Barrows and voiced by John Brown) seeks to finish off mankind, but finds himself strangely drawn to Alice. <br /><br />Did I mention that Ro-Man is a giant gorilla with a space helmet for a head? This famous bit of low-budget jury-rigging creates one of the most memorable images in 50s sci-fi cinema, as a man in a bulky ape suit lumbers around Los Angeles’ Griffith Park and occasionally communicates with the Great Guidance, who is the same actor in the same gorilla suit with a slightly different helmet. Since the Ro-Men don’t have mouths, they augment all their dialogue with wild gestures. It’s hard to really imagine the Ro-Man as a one-ape invading force who managed to murder everyone on Earth except one family (and Roy, the film’s requisite strapping male lead.) At the same time, though, it’s far more distinct a visual than simply putting an actor in a space suit (which was the plan), and it’s not like the film had much chance of being technically convincing otherwise, so the weird option was probably the best way to go.<br /><br />One thing that distinguishes this movie from those surrounding it is just how unrelentingly bleak it is. This particular scenario has mankind effectively doomed, since one family and one not-relative are not enough for a species to propagate even if they weren’t being systematically hunted and killed by gorilla robots from space, and it’s just a question of how much of a fight the humans can put up on the way out. The story takes even grimmer turns before it’s over.<br /><br />The screenplay for this one was written over a weekend, which probably accounts for some of the dreamier aspects of the story. There’s a brief subplot involving contact with two men at a rocket pad and an alleged garrison on board a flying “space platform” (which when shown is simply a rocket ship flying in a circle), but of course we never meet any of these people and they’re just there for Ro-Man to destroy in one scene. Since this is apparently all happening in a little boy’s imagination, the incoherence of it makes a certain amount of sense, and there’s a lot to be said of the psychological implications of him dreaming a father figure back in his life as well as an assertive alpha male type who bosses his older sister around.<br /><br />None of this is executed terribly well; beyond the bad effects (which are the sort of thing you can partly blame on a low budget), the visuals are pedestrian, the dialogue’s generally pretty bad, and none of the human characters is nearly as interesting as the tortured and confused Ro-Man himself. Money doesn’t make a movie good, but <i>Robot Monster</i> clearly didn’t have enough to realize its vision and feels a little incomplete as a result. None of its ideas ever gets developed very far, and the story feels random at times.<br /><br />But it’s still pretty entertaining. Buried in all the ineptitude is a sincere little story about the indomitable human spirit, standing up in the face of extinction and even surfacing in its attackers; it’s a goofy conceit but a charming one. There are a lot of little things to enjoy here: the bickering between Ro-Man and his Great Guidance (both of whom, not having mouths, are given to gesticulate wildly when speaking), the random appearance of dinosaurs and giant lizards from older movies, and a frankly inventive score by Elmer Bernstein. It’s hard to call it legitimately good, but I feel like giving it a pass anyway.<br /><br />Written by Wyott Ordung<br />Directed by Phil Tucker<br /><br />Grade: B-<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-65569632677909821132014-10-17T21:07:00.006-05:002014-10-27T23:25:11.459-05:00At Ringside: Wrestlemania (1985)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUwnLEQiKdVTrLyAIw42I468ZADCbcMGjukISbV435gQuLcfqz5onaTDAZYcA19OPUWHIup1GypHbUrqAJ3Y99cIkU4McEhCZc0quDB6RPbYixdlHabEJNfckEUGb1Ze_hvA/s1600/mania1_tito.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tito Santana vs. The Executioner" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUwnLEQiKdVTrLyAIw42I468ZADCbcMGjukISbV435gQuLcfqz5onaTDAZYcA19OPUWHIup1GypHbUrqAJ3Y99cIkU4McEhCZc0quDB6RPbYixdlHabEJNfckEUGb1Ze_hvA/s1600/mania1_tito.jpg" height="179" title="The Saga Begins" width="320" /></a></div>
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With the 1993 WWF in a rut, I’ve decided to look at a few other events on offer on the WWE Network for the price of... uh... it’ll come to me. And really, there are few places to start better than the very first <i>Wrestlemania</i>, broadcast March 31, 1985 on closed circuit TV across the world. <i>Wrestlemania</i> wasn’t the first such special- Jim Crockett’s <i>Starrcade</i> had played closed-circuit PPV since 1983- but that event was strictly regional its first few years, whereas Vince McMahon and the WWF were aiming to take their show national. But apart from its historical significance as the event that made the company what it is today, the first ‘Mania holds up well as a well-paced collection of matches, with a nervous energy that later, more assured PPVs would lack.<br />
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One of the fundamental things that <i>Wrestlemania</i> was trying to do was to take pro wrestling mainstream; in order to make the WWF a truly national promotion, it had to appeal to at least some people who weren’t already wrestling fans. So it’s appropriate that the first ever <i>Wrestlemania</i> match, and its setup, act as a kind of Pro Wrestling 101. We’re introduced to The Executioner, a sinister masked man who has yet to be defeated, and to Tito Santana, a handsome and identifiable athlete. It’s a basic match with straightforward psychology- Tito hits some impressive moves to start, the Executioner starts to take over with some dirty tactics, Tito rallies, the intensity of each exchange ratchets up as the match progresses, and finally Tito slaps on a figure-four leglock to win. Good work by both men, and the match works both in that it sets the pace for the event and in that it serves as a lot of people’s first wrestling bout.<br />
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Throughout the commentary, Jesse “The Body” Ventura (future governor and all-time sexual tyrannosaurus) remarks that you can get a dead Super Bowl or World Series, but never a dead <i>Wrestlemania</i>. In the era where kayfabe held sway, he’s hinting at a good part of wrestling’s appeal- since the promoter controls the outcome of each fight, they can rig it so that it’s always a tense contest with plenty of drama and excitement. So it’s a bit curious that the second match is an absolute squash with the enthusiastic SD “Special Delivery” Jones being quickly slammed down and pinned by the massive King Kong Bundy. Matches like these were especially common in old pro wrestling, with colorful jobbers being quickly defeated to make someone look like a threat, but in a paid event it always feels like a cheat.<br />
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I also should mention Lord Alfred Hayes, who is on hand to provide recaps and announce upcoming matches, and who would make frequent appearances on commentary and other duties in WWF in the Eighties. Hayes delivers his lines like someone who has never been on camera before in their life, and who is only vaguely familiar with the concept. He seems to have been dragged in off the street and forced to read from cue cards with only the slightest idea of what the Hell is going on. It’s almost endearing, like watching a six year old child host the Oscars.<br />
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“Maniac” Matt Bourne and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat cut a couple of slightly clumsy promos before their match together; neither of them are bad on the mic but it’s little stumbles like this that show there were still some things to iron out in the ascendant WWF. There’s still not a lot of story here; at this point the event itself was the story, and all the wrestlers are fighting to prove themselves on the largest possible stage. Steamboat dominates most of the match and picks up the duke, but it’s not nearly as one-sided as the last one so a step in the right direction. It’s definitely always fun to watch someone as good as Steamboat is at work, and his final flying cross body is particularly good. <br />
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The next match is a bit of a legacy- David Sammartino is the son of Bruno Sammartino, who was so popular in the original WWWF that he managed to hold onto their world title for nearly eight years in one run. Bruno is in his son’s corner for his match against then-heel Brutus Beefcake (who had yet to acquire the “Barber” moniker), who is represented by the sleazy Johnny Valentine. Beefcake and the younger Sammartino manage to put on a really solid show, a mix of grappling and faster exchanges that builds to a tense climax, but it’s all prelude to when Bruno, seeing his son attacked by Johnny Valentine, starts a fight with the manager, allowing the New York audience to pop for the legend. It ends on a double disqualification, but the Sammartinos clean house and the crowd goes nuts.<br />
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The one clunker of the night follows, an Intercontinental Championship match between champ Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (represented by a then-villainous Jimmy Hart) and perennial crowd favorite the Junkyard Dog. Valentine’s ring work can be really variable, whereas the JYD was always better known for his lovable personality and catchy theme song than any ability to actually wrestle. This one doesn’t build much momentum, but it’s over quickly, the Dog winning by countout and thus missing out on actually becoming champion. <br />
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“Classy” Fred Blassie leads a tag team of foreign heels, Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik, against current Tag Team champions Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo, managed by Captain Lou Albano. Despite some impressive aerial maneuvers by the champions, they- and the titles- fall when the Sheik uses Blassie’s cane to score a cheap pin. It’s good that at least one title changes hands on the WWF’s first nationwide show, and in the midst of Cold War mania two anti-American heels made for a good threat, even if they move a little sluggishly. <br />
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Andre the Giant and Big John Studd have an usual matchup, a challenge to see which of the two behemoths can body-slam the other first. Studd, managed by Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, has put up $15,000 dollars in cash against the friendly Giant’s career, and Andre also has to retire if the match runs to the time limit without a victor. While the match isn’t exactly a technical masterpiece it’s a fun little contest of strength with a good story element. If you know the history of the WWF you know that Andre is victorious, and it ends with him throwing the money to the crowd.<br />
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It’s important to remember that it really wasn’t clear that <i>Wrestlemania</i> would succeed. Down to a week before the show Vince McMahon had to do whatever he could to sell tickets and make sure people were paying to watch remotely in Shriner halls and movie theaters. (Pay-per-view technology was not yet widespread enough for wrestling to rely on it.) A big part of the marketing for <i>Wrestlemania</i> was done via the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection”, getting celebrities from music and movies involved in the WWF’s programming, and using this to get publicity on MTV and other outlets. Hence, Cyndi Lauper appeared with Captain Lou Albano and, under his tutleage, became the manager for Wendi Richter, throwing herself into the role with an admirable enthusiasm. Richter is looking to win back the Women’s Championship from Leilani Kai, who is managed by the Fabulous Moolah, a legendary figure in the history of women’s wrestling despite being both a horrible wrestler and a pretty terrible person. <br />
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Fortunately both women actually in the ring know what they’re doing, and the match is pretty entertaining. There’s a lot of submission moves chained together along with some flipping around, and given that we’ve mostly been watching big man matches it’s a good change of pace. The end is a little botched, with Richter a little less than convincing as she reverses a pin for the victory and the title, but it’s quickly forgotten as Cyndi beats up Moolah and celebrates with the new champ. Women’s wrestling didn’t have a regular berth in this period of WWF history, so it’s nice to see it have as prominent a place here as it does.<br />
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Which brings us to the main event. It is, interestingly enough, a non-title bout, meaning the WWF Heavyweight Championship was not defended at <i>Wrestlemania</i>. Instead, it’s another celebrity match, as champ and growing media phenomenon Hulk Hogan teams up with Mr. T (his <i>Rocky III</i> co-star, though the two sadly never shared any scenes) to take on the dastardly Rowdy Roddy Piper and his partner, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff. Piper also has at ringside his henchman Cowboy Bob Orton (father of Apex Predator Randy), who spent much of this time claiming to be out of action due to a broken arm so that he could hit people with the cast. <br />
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Even before the match begins it’s all about the showmanship, as Guest Timekeeper Liberace dances with the Rockettes in the middle of the ring. For all the times that the WWF would go to the celebrity well in the future, putting America’s favorite gay uncle center stage probably says the most about how broadly Vince McMahon was casting his net. Of course, dedicated sports fans probably responded more to the entrance of the Guest Referee, Muhammad Ali, who gets a standing ovation from the MSG crowd. But Liberace brought his own bell, and rings it to start us off.<br />
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There’s no two ways around it- the match is a mess. There’s a solid minute of staredowns and both men in the ring tagging out before finally somebody slaps someone. It quickly becomes utter chaos, brawling outside and inside the ring with little regard for who legally should be where. And yet it is hugely entertaining. Whereas something like <i>Wrestlemania IX</i>’s tag team semi-main falls apart quickly due to poor structuring and endless posturing, here the participants work the crowd and keep things moving. Eventually Bob Orton dives from the top rope in an effort to hurt Hogan, but ends up knocking Orndorff down, letting Hogan get the pin and the victory. <br />
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There are about ten minutes of post-game recap following before Ventura and Gorilla Monsoon sign off, and it was probably good to give the audience time to process everything. <i>Wrestlemania</i> is aptly named; it’s a crazed affair which relies on pure showmanship and enthusiasm to get us to overlook some amateurish qualities. It’s never dull, and there’s a lot of charm in seeing the WWF work out the kinks. There was no guarantee that <i>Wrestlemania</i>- and the great experiment it represented in taking wrestling national- would work at all, and some of that pressure and uncertainty comes through in the final product. While it’s interesting to watch as a time capsule, <i>Wrestlemania</i>’s $9.99 worth is in confirming that Vince McMahon seems to do his best work when his back’s against the wall.<br />
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Grade: A-Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-19341460205214757202014-08-23T12:19:00.000-05:002014-08-23T12:19:15.592-05:00At Ringside: King of the Ring 1993<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBTurdpsME6cisxTxVTkB1b5EnHb3jW2-faw8yhvWZSqWF8tbwHyMqEg9EI_zWdI2QnZUb2SagX1vVm5GM_UwMUTE5mibd6A-8OzznpHT6UfACokJIdb4CPhFXInJoNkVuVk/s1600/kor1993logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="King of the Ring logo" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBTurdpsME6cisxTxVTkB1b5EnHb3jW2-faw8yhvWZSqWF8tbwHyMqEg9EI_zWdI2QnZUb2SagX1vVm5GM_UwMUTE5mibd6A-8OzznpHT6UfACokJIdb4CPhFXInJoNkVuVk/s1600/kor1993logo.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
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Tournaments in wrestling are a tricky thing. Drag them out too long and an audience loses interest; do everything in one night and you have wrestlers working multiple matches in a row, with a greater risk of injury and of the audience being bored by the redundancy. “King of the Ring” was a WWF/WWE tradition for many years, but in the very first KotR pay-per-view from 1993, the titular tournament isn’t even the most memorable part. Hulk Hogan, around whom the WWF’s success had been built since before Wrestlemania, was on his way out, and so this otherwise average wrestling event marks the passing of an era. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The King of the Ring tournament actually began before the PPV in an attempt to speed things along, with preliminary matches taking place on WWF’s various TV shows. Here at Dayton, Ohio, the field has been narrowed down to eight competitors. The first contest is a Royal Rumble rematch, pitting former champion Bret “Hitman” Hart- the victim of much booking chicanery at Wrestlemania IX- against Razor Ramon. It’s a fast but appropriately brutal reprise of their former PPV encounter, and it sets the pattern for the event- since we’re going to see a lot of repeat performances and a lot of matches overall, they’re mostly going to be short. Bret turns an attempted suplex into a pin to advance. <br /><br />The next match pitches Kansas City’s own Mr. Hughes, a scowling suited heel, against Mr. Perfect. Mr. Perfect is very fast, Mr. Hughes is not, and the match is mostly the former jumping around and selling the latter’s moves. When Perfect starts to make a comeback, Hughes pulls out his secret weapon- the Undertaker’s urn. The Undertaker himself is nowhere to be seen, but Hughes uses it as a blunt object against Perfect, and is disqualified for his troubles. Probably not the best use of resources there.<br /><br />Our next match pits superpatriot Hacksaw Jim Duggan, whose affable personality almost makes up for his inability to wrestle, against Bam Bam Bigelow, a guy I’m still unreasonably prejudiced against because of his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAGaZwVAzFs" target="_blank">hilarious theme music</a>. This match isn’t particularly good, but it’s a short affair as both guys show off their big moves and Bigelow gets the win. Unremarkable but I like the result, since though Bigelow has not had the best run in what I’ve seen so far, he clearly has some talent.<br /><br />The first round closes out with Lex Luger as The Narcissist battling the still undefeated Tatanka, and it’s the most grueling to date at 15 minutes, running out the time limit and resulting in a draw. A finish like this kind of had to happen, but the fact that it had to happen points to a problem: Tatanka couldn’t lose, but they weren’t going to do anything with that. He wasn’t moving up the card or winning titles, and in a tournament he can either win the whole shebang (which is not what they wanted) or endanger the one push he has. The issue is amplified by the Narcissist’s presence, as he too was someone they wanted to push but not someone they were pushing right to the top. Lex’s gig as the Narcissist would come to an abrupt end soon, but that’s a story for another PPV.<br /><br />So for a semifinal, while Bam Bam Bigelow gets a bye, we have Mr. Perfect battling Bret Hart. An initial interview plays off the tension and respect the two babyfaces have going on, but once the match begins it’s clear Perfect is playing the baddie, getting more desperate as the action goes on. The pace of the match veers between long rest holds and some very fast exchanges and leaps, but there’s an excellent sense of mounting brutality, as befits two very talented ring technicians. The ending is rather novel as well, with Bret Hart reversing Mr. Perfect’s cradle to win- modern WWE and a lot of wrestling overall has a problem with relying too heavily on the participants exchanging their trademark finishing moves, so it’s always good to see the formula changed up. A very good fight. Perfect acts a little bitchy at the end but shakes Hart’s hand, his job of being the temporary heel performed. <br /><br />The next match is what would be the main event in more or less any other PPV, with Yokozuna getting his rematch with Hulk Hogan for the WWF title. This isn’t the best match of the night, but it’s the most significant by far. The actual fight is pretty good, as Hogan sells Yokozuna’s strength and sheer size; he’s confounded by his inability to knock down or lift the Japanese giant. After a few near-falls, and Hogan almost passing out from a hold, the champion hulks out and delivers three big boots to Yokozuna to finally knock him over, and a legdrop results... in a near-fall. Realizing he has to do more, Hogan starts signaling to the crowd that he’s gonna try and bodyslam Yokozuna like he did to the one-ton Andre the Giant in front of a million screaming Hulkamaniacs at the Pontiac Silverdome. Just then, a photographer standing at ringside accidentally blinds Hogan with his flash, enabling Yokozuna to knock Hogan down and hit a legdrop of his own for a count of three. Yokozuna is once again the WWF Champion, and Hogan is down worse than he’s ever been. <br /><br />This was Hogan’s last televised match in the WWF before quitting. In classic wrestling fashion he goes out on his back, albeit in a tainted finish which probably didn’t help Yokozuna’s push. There’s something really odd about the way it plays out- the photographer whose faithful flashbulb decides the match (apparently played by manager Harvey Whippleman) is wearing an oversized fake beard, and the bulb itself explodes with such prop-like flair that it seems like this has to be an angle. It seems for all intents and purposes that someone deliberately set out to blind Hogan and hand the match and the belt to Yokozuna, but since Hogan was leaving, nothing ever comes of it. (All of this also makes Hogan’s showboating at Wrestlemania IX all the more galling, since he put himself over at the expense of not one but two performers who actually intended to stay.)<br /><br />All behind-the-scenes drama aside it’s an effective moment. Heenan declares Hulkamania dead (and it would be, at least until Hogan signed with the competition at WCW), there are shots of sad children and devastated Hulkamaniacs in the audience, there’s a legitimate sense of a sea change in the WWF. On the one hand, this was something that probably needed to happen, due to Hogan's relentless hogging of the spotlight; on the other, his departure led to years of floundering and near-bankruptcy for the promotion. <br /><br />After some hullaballoo with Shawn Michaels introducing his bodyguard Diesel, we get an eight man tag team extravaganza. On the face side are the Steiner Brothers and Bart and Billy Gunn, the Smoking Guns. The baddies are Money Inc. (still champions), and the Headshrinkers. Despite the large crowd it’s a pretty quick match, not bad, but unremarkable. Billy Gunn puts Dibiasie in an inside cradle to win, but due to the unusual set-up the titles aren’t up for grabs. Money Inc. continue to evade justice.<br /><br />Shawn Michaels defends the Intercontintental Championship (which he lost on Raw then won back at a house show) against blonde Hawaiian giant Crush. Shawn is escorted by his new bodyguard, Diesel, who ambushes the challenger outside the ring and beats on him a bit. However, he doesn’t figure in the match’s finish, in which Crush is distracted by Doink the Clown and his double long enough for Shawn to deliver some sweet chin music. Crush shows some personality in the ring, though Michaels seems to be doing most of the work, overselling the challenger’s moves and throwing himself around the ring. Whoever deserves more of the credit, however, it’s a good match.<br /><br />Which brings us to the main event, Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Bret Hart for the King of the Ring. This is a brawl for most of it, with a fresh Bigelow beating on a weary but resilient Hart. The headbutt seems to be Bam Bam’s preferred mode of attack, and he has the advantage for most of it, but Luna Vachon- she of the gravel voice and varicose head- feels the need to help him along by hitting Hart with a steel chair outside the ring. Why is she even involved? It's not clear. Luna remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Bam Bam executes a diving headbutt for a clean 1-2-3 count, but then a referee who saw Luna’s attack argues with the ref in the ring, and we hear Howard Finkel announce that “THIS MATCH MUST CONTINUE.” I’ve heard these words before in mid-90s WWF material, and it’s always a sign that they weren’t quite sure how to finish things. The fight goes on for a bit more, still good, still grueling, and then Hart wraps up Bigelow in a victory roll for a much-needed win.<br /><br />The actual finale of the show has Bret’s coronation interrupted by the self-proclaimed King of Wrestling, Jerry Lawler. The former Memphis champion was working heel in the WWF and he shows up to complain that he’s the real king- which prompts the audience to start heckling him with chants of “Burger King”, and I hope WWF got some good sponsorship money from that because they were gonna need it.<br /><br />It’s an odd choice to end the PPV with Lawler beating down Hart, but this was sort of an odd show. It’s not bad, especially by comparison to the disastrous event that preceded it, but uneven match quality and some half-assed finishes keep it from being particularly good either. It does have one really memorable development, in Hogan’s last big defeat and the establishment of Yokozuna as an intimidating heel champion, and the latter would dominate WWF programming for a time while they searched for a new guy to put on the top. This, as it turns out, would take a while.<br /><br />Grade: B-<br /><br />
<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-57282820563405674182014-07-29T10:49:00.005-05:002014-07-29T10:49:59.858-05:00Frasierquest 5.18: Bad Dog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrRtnPuvSV_jjxu9H_wArMDaamse8Tgpv1mbeK-VYh3sfcT07GWxl0N_fcM4wadkaLoMMdFS-kmOUzuh7_ivVDazWqaR-z2s5nTFca7vzqk41xEStAd_Pr4mI8Gz3FQ1awB8/s1600/5-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bulldog strikes a heroic pose" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrRtnPuvSV_jjxu9H_wArMDaamse8Tgpv1mbeK-VYh3sfcT07GWxl0N_fcM4wadkaLoMMdFS-kmOUzuh7_ivVDazWqaR-z2s5nTFca7vzqk41xEStAd_Pr4mI8Gz3FQ1awB8/s1600/5-18.jpg" height="230" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Daphne: My life suddenly seems long, measured in muffins.</i><br /><br />After a couple of undercooked episodes, Season 5 returns to form with "Bad Dog", which as its title suggests revolves around the exploits of Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe. Of all the show's major character, Bulldog is probably the biggest contrast to Frasier himself. Martin is a slob and a curmudgeon, but he shares his son's strong ethical sense; Roz is more worldly, but she's his closest friend. Bulldog, at least much of the time, is just a jerk; he has his moments of decency (especially later on), but for the most part he pops up because he makes a good adversary, without the scruples that restrict the rest of the group. "Bad Dog" shows him at his most shameless, presenting a formidable challenge to Frasier's ideas about human decency, and wraps this around the SeaBees, the writers' annual opportunity to mock the awards shows which have been so very good to them.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />When a man shows up with a gun to Cafe Nervosa, seemingly with ill intent, Bulldog is seen throwing coffee on the assailant and spinning a pregnant Roz out of danger. He's instantly feted as a hero by the people of Seattle, and he's selected to win a special humanitarian award at the upcoming Seabees. But Frasier saw a little more than everyone else; Bulldog thought somebody else was the gunman, hid behind Roz, and accidentally spilled coffee on the real culprit. Frasier believes that Bulldog's guilty conscience will eventually force him to confess, but is continually flustered by his refusal to do so. However, Frasier is acting as M.C. for the Seabees and presenting Bulldog's award, so he hopes to use the opportunity to push him over the brink.<br /><br />There's a certain naiveté in Fraiser's position here. Bulldog has always been shameless in his behavior, and Frasier expecting him to behave differently just because this situation is more shameful is almost hard to believe. We're expecting Bulldog to take full advantage of his temporary hero status, and so he does, which sounds like it would be boring in its predictability. But the story's driving force is the conflict between the two characters. When Frasier's high-minded convictions meet Bulldog's absolute lack thereof, it's the irresistible force against the immovable object, and while it's funny that Frasier gets flustered, we want to see Bulldog's wrongdoing meet with its proper comeuppance. <br /><br />I haven't written enough about Dan Butler on this show, although by this point he was now one of the main cast. As the show's most overtly unlikable character, Bulldog is a tough role to play, and Butler often has to walk a thin line in order to keep him amusing rather than irritating. Butler brings a kind of nervous energy to the role that suggests that Bulldog is always overcompensating for something; he's the guy who has to prove himself to everyone in the room. So not only does it make sense that Bulldog milks his hero status for all the sex and adulation it can bring him, we anticipate that he's being set up for a fall. A guy like him simply can't fool everyone for that long; Bulldog isn't just hiding his specific shameful actions at the Cafe, but his true nature. <br /><br />The Seabees aren't as prominent in this episode as they are in other seasons, and in theory they could have been removed with only a few alterations needed to the major plot. But the awards show setup does give some of the other characters a few moments to shine; Niles has an amusing subplot wherein his own pride at an awards nomination is deflated when he realizes he's been relegated to the technical awards (which are kept offscreen, though we can imagine the squalor.) Roz, meanwhile, struggles with finding a formal maternity dress, leading to a couple of moments I felt slightly guilty for laughing at. <br /><br />Frasier gets a kind of victory in the end, when Martin tricks Bulldog into repeating his earlier human shield tactic with his own mother; it doesn't really prove him right about the greater point, since Bulldog would happily have kept up the lie as long as possible, but sometimes you just have to take the win. The whole story proves right an assertion Martin made back in 2.14- some people just stink. If Frasier's faith in humanity is shaken a little, he can at least take comfort in the fact that the truth eventually gets out, one way or another. <br /><br />Written by Suzanne Martin<br />Directed by Pamela Fryman<br /><br />Aired April 7, 1998<br /><br /><i>Roz: I'm fine. It's just that my hair is huge and my dress is a joke.<br /><br />Frasier: No, nonsense, Roz. You look divine.<br /><br />Roz: No, I look</i> like <i>Divine.</i><br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-389637939020246882014-07-21T00:30:00.003-05:002014-07-21T00:30:37.363-05:00Random Movie Report: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprLlIv8iHnV6Tby3H9lUaSFdtnoRJUCvFNlFOq4kF0SWHUWqwcZL3Q7pQAkuS-5cAcqiPoFlHcH4jS7lPM2aPdvvTPLncXzWZxwDMJDSpRNi_-_EZ3kLyhEe39Fin1P35TQI/s1600/godzilla_vs_mechagodzilla_1993_poster_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprLlIv8iHnV6Tby3H9lUaSFdtnoRJUCvFNlFOq4kF0SWHUWqwcZL3Q7pQAkuS-5cAcqiPoFlHcH4jS7lPM2aPdvvTPLncXzWZxwDMJDSpRNi_-_EZ3kLyhEe39Fin1P35TQI/s1600/godzilla_vs_mechagodzilla_1993_poster_02.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster via <a href="http://wrongsideoftheart.com/">WrongSideoftheArt.com</a></td></tr>
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It's easy to see why <i>Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II</i> is a fan favorite. Not only is it probably the slickest and most technically accomplished of the Heisei Godzilla films, it's also the only film in the franchise to not only pit Godzilla against humanity, but to make humanity the villain. Sure, in the original <i>Godzilla</i> he's a kind of punishment for our use of nuclear weapons, and <i>Godzilla vs. Hedorah </i>is about manmade industrial pollution, but in stories like that the audience is expected to empathize with the humans struggling to overcome their own folly, because we are dealing with Major Problems that all of us must reckon with. Here, humanity just makes some bad decisions with the monsters as the injured parties, so we can finally stop pretending and cheer for some miniature cities to get squashed. Sometimes we just have it coming.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The film begins with the unveiling of Mechagodzilla, built as part of a UN initiative against Godzilla (called the UNGCC, or G-Force.) It's a terrifying beast indeed, with titanium skin and a plasma grenade weapon capable of absorbing Godzilla's radioactive blast and firing the energy back at him. Kazuma Aoki (Masahiro Takashima) is G-Force's newest recruit, a goofy "dinosaur fan" (fixated on pteranadons) who was previously doing maintenance on Garuda, a now-obsolete flying attack vehicle now languishing in storage. As he is trained to become part of the team piloting Mechagodzilla, a band of paleontologists discovers a giant egg on a remote island near Russia, and also its guardian- the mutant pterosaur Rodan. Godzilla shows up to fight with Rodan, and the humans abscond with the egg. When the egg hatches, however, what emerges is a miniature Godzillasaur, who bonds with the first person it sees, a young paleontologist named Asuza (Ryoko Sano). Godzilla returns to Japan, seemingly drawn to the younger member of his speeches, and the UNGCC decides to use the little monster as bait to lure their target to his final destruction at Mechagodzilla's hands.<br /><br />Takao Okawara returns as director, on surer footing this time. While <i>Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth</i> looked a little slapdash, <i>Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II</i> feels polished and majestic. Colors are muted and earthy, and there's a real sense of power given to the prehistoric titans the film centers on, as well as the modern titan sent against them. Helping things is some superb musical work by composer Akira Ifukube; Mechagodzilla's theme is particularly beautiful and sinister, and Little Godzilla's birth is heralded by a strange, haunting lullaby. The film's slick look echoes Air Force epics like <i>Top Gun</i>, but for once doesn't borrow too directly. <br /><br />If the movie has a stumbling point, it's in its human characters; Aoki is sometimes grating, especially when rather insistently romancing Asuza, who herself is a little too breathy and childlike to be credible. There are also some very wooden English-speaking actors (added in an attempt to give the film an international feel), and at times the Mechagodzilla crew communicate in English as well, and while the Japanese audience got subtitles for those scenes, we don't, even though we often still need them. (There's a scene in a lecture hall that was unintelligble to me until I saw a dubbed version. I dare you to figure it out on your own.)<br /><br />The film's redesign of Mechagodzilla is a triumph in and of itself- a much more drastic overhaul than what was done to King Ghidorah or Mothra, which makes the robotic kaiju resemble a suit of plate armor as much as anything. The bulky design means SFX director Koichi Kawakita has to rely more on exchanges of laser beams and fire breath than physical confrontation (Kawakita reportedly disliked the pro-wrestling aspect of old school kaiju fights anyway), so the action sequences are a little stiff, but the battles are still impressive. Rodan is also looking good, though his transformation into a bright red fire-breathing incarnation can't help but look a little gaudy. Still, these are some of the best effects of the Heisei series, without any of the cost-cutting of other installments.<br /><br />I'm not sure this is the best of the Heisei movies, but it's one of the most confident- an atmospheric and tonally provocative thriller that does a lot to establish Godzilla as a crusading force of nature. He is not benevolent, but he takes care of his own, and that's the kind of brooding antiheroism that nerds tend to eat up. A conflict of real life vs. artificial life, the story shows us Godzilla punishing mankind for our arrogance without making us feel too bad about it. If not truly subversive, <i>Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla</i> <i>II</i> is at least resolute enough in its convictions to make for a convincingly important and majestic battle of titans. A high point of the era.<br /><br />Written by Wataru Mimura<br />Directed by Takao Okawara<br /><br />Grade: A-<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-15368745961056627452014-06-30T23:09:00.001-05:002014-06-30T23:09:50.203-05:00The Tabletop: How D&D Fifth Edition Can Be Truly Modular (Or Something Like That)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtUDp9vNnbsyJq0bjVepR66xkQOrtg6VpAQfq_3KNXMqdpbTdLZuYis3moyHr-3_WT4WIiSzXNMbe2eRXb36xqBKmCo1IxIEPBZG3pG6g7-d9ZJu1iBF4kG1tW6sFn93mQNQ/s1600/ph-barroom-brawl.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The edition wars summed up in one image." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtUDp9vNnbsyJq0bjVepR66xkQOrtg6VpAQfq_3KNXMqdpbTdLZuYis3moyHr-3_WT4WIiSzXNMbe2eRXb36xqBKmCo1IxIEPBZG3pG6g7-d9ZJu1iBF4kG1tW6sFn93mQNQ/s1600/ph-barroom-brawl.jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've been looking at the previews for the fifth edition of <i>Dungeons and Dragons</i>, and was worried that I was starting to get truly edition-warriory about the whole thing. The more and more the gaming press and the developers themselves treat Fourth Edition as the redheaded stepchild of the family, the more I've been inclined to see it as a misunderstood masterpiece, the <i>Community</i> to Pathfinder's <i>Big Bang Theory</i>. I've been increasingly skeptical of every single teaser being released, and while there is some material here that bears watching, it was the newer, more lethal monster entries that pushed me beyond skepticism, past dismissal, and into some weird academic thinkspace. <br />
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What I noticed was that the Ogre, a monster given a "Challenge" rating of 2- theoretically indicating that it's a good challenge for a 2nd-level party- was in fact capable of turning second-level player characters into paste with one good hit. This struck me as excessively lethal, but people on various fora were quick to point out that it was a fair challenge if the players thought outside the box and did some actual strategy before confronting the beast. This is, after all, supposed to be a grittier game than the high-powered heroic fantasy of 4th or even 3rd edition, closer to the old school where life at low levels is very cheap but chargen is fast so death isn't that big a deal. At least I think that's the idea. And here's the rub.<br />
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Fifth Edition has been caught in the position of trying to be all things to all players, of trying to appeal to fans of old-school D&D, early AD&D, 3e/Pathfinder, 4e, you name it, in the hopes of creating an ur-D&D capable of propelling revenue into the sacred "core brand" territory inhabited by <i>Magic: the Gathering</i>. It promised to do this via modularity, the pitch being that the rules would be presented in such a way that you could easily swap around various modules that would make it more tactical, less tactical, more complex, more magic-heavy, less magic-heavy, etc. Every gaming group would have its own selection of modules, easily tailoring the game to their standards. What we're seeing first is just the core, you'll be able to change everything.<br />
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As time has passed, skepticism has grown around this claim. We haven't really seen any full modules, or explanations of what makes this modular structure different from just having optional rules- which have been present in nearly every edition of D&D- and everyone's starting to wonder if the team are really as committed to this idea as they were two years ago. I'm not sure they are, but what I'm starting to see is how they can be if they so choose. It's not about the edition wars, in the sense of making the game look more like 4th edition or 3rd edition or the Red Box. It's about the underlying assumptions of design and play, and making those clearer to the players. <br />
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The original <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> was designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson based on the assumptions of their own gaming group up in Wisconsin. Through early releases you can see tweaks and additions to the rules based on what this relatively small crowd of players was doing. They asked for different weapons to do different amounts of damage, and they got it; they asked to play elves and dwarves, and Gygax let them after grumbling a bit. The rules were thus built around a very specific play experience, one in which open combat was basically a sign that you had done something wrong. The rules reward you sneaking by the monsters and grabbing their treasure far more than they do cutting them down in a swarm of blades and fireballs. They reward cautious exploration over boldly charging forward. It's a valid style of play, sometimes referred to as "Subterranean Fantasy Fucking Vietnam", and it reaches its apotheosis in adventures like the <i>Tomb of Horrors</i>, where the best way to prevail is to never touch anything with your own hands.<br />
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But of course, the game was not just played by one community of hobbyists in Wisconsin. It sold millions and became the cornerstone of the new hobby of roleplaying games, and attracted groups with very different preferences and playstyles. In later editions of Basic and Advanced D&D, the game would expand, trying to accommodate these different approaches. And inevitably there were those who wanted to kick in the door, slaughter orcs, and then take their stuff. There were those who wanted to enact epic fantasy sagas and rescue princesses or save kingdoms, those who wanted to simulate the workings of a fantasy kingdom, and so on. There's <a href="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?668828-Theory-Flavors-of-D-amp-D" target="_blank">an excellent thread at RPG.net</a> which sums things up better than four solid decades of edition warring ever could.<br />
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So the rules for <i>Dungeons and Dragons</i> have been pulled in every which way, but the problem is not so much that the game has changed, or that people aren't playing the same game. It's more that the game, in its status as the definitive fantasy RPG, is so rarely clear about what it is. And this is the key ingredient of modular design that the new edition's designers, so far, haven't talked about- transparency.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsFn_mW39kwJNrpns5NxX4XJbei-qMZ7Cuzah4U392gQpEJUMrX5XoE9zzCXoZez7PDjRHVRLwc6uptaXifFL9i5c7dKdk9Yll63guYY0WG6MvELHk3pqLPbhEBTXwOWl6NAw/s1600/Paranoia_XP.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Modularity is Mandatory" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsFn_mW39kwJNrpns5NxX4XJbei-qMZ7Cuzah4U392gQpEJUMrX5XoE9zzCXoZez7PDjRHVRLwc6uptaXifFL9i5c7dKdk9Yll63guYY0WG6MvELHk3pqLPbhEBTXwOWl6NAw/s1600/Paranoia_XP.png" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
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In wondering whether a truly "modular" RPG was possible, I suddenly remembered that there is, actually, an excellent example. <i>Paranoia XP</i> was released by Mongoose Publishing ten years ago (they have since had to retitle it to avoid the wrath of Microsoft), an update of the legendary darkly comic dystopian RPG that for years had PCs accusing each other of being Commie Mutant Traitors, actually committing acts of treason, and dying in such quantities that giving everyone six clones might just get them halfway through a given adventure. One of the great things about that book is that it actively sought to reconcile the disparate playstyles that had already cropped up in the game's history. It presented throughout the rules and supplements three major styles of play- "Straight", "Classic", and "Zap!"- attuned to, respectively, semi-serious dark future intrigues, healthy combinations of deception and violence, and finally wacky slapstick chaos. The game line had been many things over the years, and there were adventures, rules variants, and GM advice explicitly tuned to these three categories. Even with the Mongoose team's noted distaste for the wacky puns and parodies of late-period <i>Paranoia</i>, they didn't leave fans of that approach out in the cold.<br />
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So the new <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> has to actually lay all this out on the table- talk about the different ways people play it and the best way the rules can be used to those ends. The rumored "tactical module" shouldn't just incorporate grid-based movement for the sake of grid-based movement, but to enable large setpiece combats with characters making meaningful decisions each round. There should be obvious dials to make the game more or less lethal, to actually change the fundamental workings of the game, and there should be clear explanations of how it all works.<br />
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Can Wizards of the Coast do this? I think so. Will they? That's another matter. We won't know until November, when they release the Dungeon Master's Guide, which is supposed to actually have all the advanced modules and rules-hacking advice. I'm not exactly holding my breath; so far what we've seen is incredibly opaque, trying to evoke an ineffable "feel" of D&D without getting into any nuts and bolts. In the meantime 4e books are still pretty easy to get, as well as alternate systems ranging from old school retroclones to more progressive entries like <i>Dungeon World</i> and <i>13th Age</i>. And I suppose there is that Pathfinder thingy. I'm not really excited for the Fifth Edition, but I am willing to allow for the possibility that it can work. It just has to be more versatile and more transparent than any edition of the game has ever been. That's not too hard, right? Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-6584608553167873812014-06-23T10:38:00.002-05:002014-06-23T10:38:31.299-05:00Random Movie Report: Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSVQDUZpKEgg5Pv66ZDSEw-vvF6rgsOIQqLpc1QZKu8wKXrf1OUdL5zMIMYGGwAzp_j7JdWf-UBayJcd9vbPkBX0fpRDP1qzkDCVHQa6mxiKq7FwdnjWPnlUJX9QJOJ8Y78yA/s1600/gvsmposter1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Japanese poster for Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSVQDUZpKEgg5Pv66ZDSEw-vvF6rgsOIQqLpc1QZKu8wKXrf1OUdL5zMIMYGGwAzp_j7JdWf-UBayJcd9vbPkBX0fpRDP1qzkDCVHQa6mxiKq7FwdnjWPnlUJX9QJOJ8Y78yA/s1600/gvsmposter1.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></div>
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The most commercially successful entry of the Heisei Godzilla series, <i>Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth</i> is also its weakest; not a bad movie, but less than the sum of its parts. Once again, Toho went to Godzilla's past and resurrected one of his most durable foes, reinventing the giant flying insect as a mystical Earth god(dess?) engaged in an eternal struggle to protect the planet. With Takao Okawara taking over the director's spot, the film feels a little unsteady, but does manage to introduce a few new things in amongst references to classic kaiju films and American blockbusters. <br />
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An asteroid hits Earth in the Pacific Ocean, kicking up storms, landslides, and further disturbing an ecosystem already made fragile by manmade pollution. International artifact thief and adventurer Takuya Fajita (Tetsuya Bessho) is enlisted by his ex-wife Masako (Satomi Kobayashi) to investigate disturbances at Infant Island, where it turns out storms have uncovered a giant egg. Meanwhile, the melting of polar ice releases the insectoid monster Battra, who rampages across Japan. Two tiny fairies, the Cosmos, explain that Battra and Mothra are both the guardians of an ancient race that destroyed itself long before the rise of man, and that environmental catastrophes have brought the monsters back to life. Godzilla rises from the deep to attack the egg, which hatches, releasing Mothra, and soon the benevolent insect is battling both its dark counterpart and the King of Monsters.<br />
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If the film has a fundamental problem it's that the story is not really clear on its narrative drive. There's some kind of environmental disaster at hand, but that's mostly just a pretext for Mothra and Battra to show up. Godzilla looks like the main antagonist for a while, but is swallowed up by a lava flow and stays offscreen for a while as the plot takes a side-tour into the abduction of the Cosmos by a salaryman eager to impress his bosses. When that gets resolved, Godzilla and Battra appear again, but the climactic throwdown suffers a little from the prior lack of focus. <br />
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The Heisei series had an odd tendency to directly riff on popular American movie imagery; just as M-11 in <i>Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah</i> was a less intimidating Terminator, our protagonist is basically Indiana Jones (fedora included), and there are two major setpieces involving his cliffhanging adventures. While there's some tie-in to the film's environmental themes, with Takuya as a thief plundering the world's past to enrich himself, the faux-Spielberg scenes come off as clumsy and tedious, especially an overlong sequence on a rope bridge.<br />
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I can't help but feel that the direction is partly to blame. This was Okawara's second film and he lacks Kazuki Omori's visual flair; he would go on to do better work in the series, but here he's clearly learning the ropes. The photography is mostly uninspired and the pacing is slack. But then Omori, who wrote the script, also shares in the blame, because as said above, the story never develops a central focus. Lip service is paid to environmentalism and corporate greed (the latter having been such a major factor in Mothra's Showa-era outings), but the metaphor isn't quite there.<br />
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But hey, we're watching this for the kaiju, right? While an early battle between Godzilla and Battra on the ocean floor doesn't quite work (owing to a bubble screen overlay that really obscures the action), the monster action is solid, with Battra impressing both in design- all gnarled and black, with glowing red eyes- and character, turning out to be a little more complex than the force of pure evil we expect. Mothra's update is solid, even if his (or her) butterfly form looks a little bit like a plush toy. (Toho officially calls Mothra a "he", but the monster has always coded feminine as a kind of Earth mother goddess.) Godzilla's design is tweaked a bit from the last movie, but only in a way the true kaiju nerd will even notice.<br />
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Overall there's just enough visual sparkle and flair to make this a passable monster romp. We get a genuinely cool new monster, some good effects setpieces, and the introduction of magic and mysticism into the Heisei series. It just feels a little dumbed down compared to the surprising ambition of Biollante and King Ghidorah, focused on delivering what it thinks the audience expects. To be sure, it got results, and Mothra would end up with her own trilogy after Godzilla packed it in; you can easily see the giant bug's appeal, and it doesn't seem entirely fair to complain about sparkle over substance in a movie where giant flying insects battle a radioactive dinosaur. It's just that we've already seen the series capable of better.<br />
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Written by Kazuki Omori<br />
Directed by Takao Okawara<br />
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Grade: B-<br />
<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-24660204278629683222014-05-31T23:20:00.004-05:002014-05-31T23:20:35.489-05:00Random Movie Report: The Manster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFzR_vXULuR-d9jgyhY6jIwFpXZVRIqj5kbQb6dFSGbRHkVPN_0axwX43xmgV6836zMrQLr-vOjRVt8Zel6GyaXBofNzmwa8cUiJFOWpOaLmYgeqL0WZUizzqQj3O283ZvpVg/s1600/manster-cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Manster DVD cover" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFzR_vXULuR-d9jgyhY6jIwFpXZVRIqj5kbQb6dFSGbRHkVPN_0axwX43xmgV6836zMrQLr-vOjRVt8Zel6GyaXBofNzmwa8cUiJFOWpOaLmYgeqL0WZUizzqQj3O283ZvpVg/s1600/manster-cover.png" height="320" width="222" /></a></div>
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The story of Jekyll and Hyde is one of the classic horror tales, one of hubris and the inescapable animalistic nature lurking in the calmest of men. There have been many attempts at this material, but only one quite so bold as to set the whole thing in Japan and posit Mr. Hyde as a second head growing out of Jekyll's shoulders. Hence <i>The Manster</i>, a gleefully insane, sometimes weirdly adult, and generally not-ineffective take on the classic story. Of the many monster movies pervading American drive-ins and matinees in the late 50s, this has a distinctive character, which carries it through its slower moments.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Dr. Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura) is a scientist working on bizarre evolutionary experiments with human beings- the last one of which got out and murdered quite a few people before being killed, leaving him in need of a new subject. Enter reporter Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley), wrapping up his time in Japan with a visit to Suzuki, who is quickly hypnotized and injected with something sinister. He doesn't turn into a ravenous beast right away, of course- no, first he just gets sleazier, flirting with the Doctor's lovely assistant (Toyoko Takechi) and enjoying the local sake bars and communal baths, all while neglecting Linda, his wife back home (Jane Hylton). She eventually shows up with friend in tow to try and figure out what's gotten into Larry, but he soon has bigger problems to deal with, as by night, it seems he's been stalking the streets of the village and terrorizing innocent women. And to top things off he now has an eyeball on his shoulder. That can't be good.<br />
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There's a weird sexual undercurrent to this movie that seems atypical for the time. Censorship standards for movies were very slowly loosening in the late Fifties and exploitation producers raced to see just what they could get away with staging, and while there's nothing explicitly R-rated in this movie, there's enough obscured nudity and implied adultery to make it clear that Suzuki is trying to bring out the primitive animal in Larry. The violence is also bloodier than it would have been a few years earlier, and the lurid atmosphere helps give the story a certain power. <br />
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Of course there's an element of sinister Orientalism here, with Japan being a source of bestial temptations to our white protagonist, but of course most of the victims are Japanese as well and the picture was actually shot on location as a Japanese-American coproduction. It's possible this is an outgrowth of the success of <i>Godzilla, King of the Monsters</i> and its imitators, with American producers seeking to give their monster stories a new flavor. To be sure, the locations give the picture a distinct visual style, enhanced by noir-esque photography. If nothing else it helps to hold our interest before Larry starts growing a second head and the story gets really crazy.<br />
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About that, yeah, the story takes a very odd turn in its last act (one that at least partly inspired the "evil twin" subplot in Sam Raimi's <i>Army of Darkness</i>), with Larry's bestial half starting to emerge as a separate creature in a way that anticipates the gory body horrors of the 80s. For all this the wrap-up is pretty typical of the genre, but the ride there is interesting at least. <i>The Manster</i> doesn't fully explore its story potential but it pushes at the borders of the genre in ways that make it memorable.<br />
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Story by George Breakston<br />
Screenplay by Walt Sheldon<br />
Directed by George Breakston and Kenneth G. Crane<br />
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Grade: B+Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-646393988883547442014-05-31T00:54:00.002-05:002014-05-31T00:54:37.606-05:00Random Movie Report: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg5v47Zl7B7tex68K7BCvL_ZcDZP4L55okEM8aTrgSxumCtSQ9ixieJP8zBQA__xWqcKFPe39k5GKG3b57Io9lkHLWPytV1o_tOZ-5sFMS9DB0Emd9I5Br2vF7e8Y0nTRYXc/s1600/godzillavskg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg5v47Zl7B7tex68K7BCvL_ZcDZP4L55okEM8aTrgSxumCtSQ9ixieJP8zBQA__xWqcKFPe39k5GKG3b57Io9lkHLWPytV1o_tOZ-5sFMS9DB0Emd9I5Br2vF7e8Y0nTRYXc/s1600/godzillavskg.jpg" height="320" width="173" /></a></div>
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In some ways <i>Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah</i> is a return to tradition for the series. After <i>Godzilla vs. Biollante</i> failed at the box office, Toho decided that their next Godzilla movie needed to pit the monster against a classic enemy with name recognition of his own; hence, four-time Godzilla opponent King Ghidorah returned to continue the pair's epic rivalry. But this is pretty much where tradition ends, as King Ghidorah is one of the most radical and unusual entries in the series, featuring geopolitical subtext, a downright loopy take on time travel, and a surprisingly long dearth of Godzilla himself. It's the Godzilla film that got mentioned on <i>The McLaughlin Group</i>, and watching it is like taking a trip back to a time when Japan seemed poised to conquer the world.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />A flying saucer appears over Japan, eventually landing and disgorging three emissaries from the future. They claim to be here to prevent Japan's destruction at the hands of Godzilla, and enlist the aid of Teresawa (Kosuke Toyohara), a writer who has been investigating Godzilla's origins and believe he began life as a Godzillasaur discovered on Lagos Island by Japanese soldiers near the end of World War II. The time travellers travel with Terasawa and others back to the fateful last days of the war, where the Godzillasaurus actually helps save a doomed Japanese platoon before being gravely wounded by American naval fire. The time travelers move the dinosaur from the island to a place farther north in the ocean, ensuring that it won't be mutated by future nuclear testing- however, they leave behind three "dorats", cuddly winged creatures. When the team returns to the future, Godzilla has disappeared, but the dorats have become the three-headed dragon King Ghidorah. The time travelers, as it turns out, have actually been out to conquer Japan in the present to prevent it from becoming an overwhelming empire in the future; Ghidorah is under their control, and will bring the country to its knees. <br /><br />Time travel works weirdly in this one, which is fair enough given that it doesn't actually exist. When the "Futurians" (that's what they're officially called) prevent Godzilla from coming into existence, everyone back in 1992 still remembers him; it's not so much that he never existed, but is rather replaced. It's an odd approach to time travel, one I haven't seen elsewhere, and to the film's detriment this is never quite explained. However, since time travel doesn't actually exist, there's no reason it can't act this way and the presentation of it is consistent. It's a little bit awkward but I'll allow it.<br /><br />The really interesting stuff going on in this movie involves its take on nationalism. Made at a time when Japan's economic expansion seemed potentially unlimited, <i>Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah</i> came in for criticism for its apparent anti-American stance, hence appearing on John McLaughlin's panel show and not getting an American release until 1998. To be sure, the evil Futurians are Americans (except for the Japanese Emi Kano, who turns out to be not so bad), there's a long sequence of a fairly sympathetic Godzillasaurus battling American troops, and for a while it looks like it's drawing a clear parallel- Godzilla is Japan and Godzilla is the hero this time, so Japan is good.<br /><br />But then it turns on you. When Godzilla is finally revived it's due to a Japanese corporation happening to have nuclear-armed submarines prowling around in international waters, and because modern nukes are so much more powerful than what was being deployed in 1954, the monster is larger, meaner, and more destructive, a greater threat to Japan's future than King Ghidorah. He becomes a symbol of Japan's excess, no more clearly demonstrated than in a scene where he comes face to face with one of the soldiers who saved him, a man now head of that same company. in many ways the film critiques the idea of a dominant Japan (which would not be a problem for much longer anyway) and of nationalism as a whole.<br /><br />Just as idiosyncratic is the film's structure. Godzilla shows up briefly under the main title in a kind of flash-forward (or flashback- the time travel business is tricky), and then stays offscreen for over an hour while the plot to eliminate him from history plays out. We do see a sort of appearance in the Godzillasaurus, complete with a theme by Akira Ifukube that's almost but not quite the classic Godzilla march, but true city smashing action has to wait for a while. Once Godzilla shows up, the picture turns into a pure kaiju rampage, intensified by the addition of the cybernetic Mecha-King Ghidorah. The film's effects are as ambitious as everything else in it, and they're not consistently successful as a result- the Terminator-esque android M-11 (Robert Scott Field) is handled especially oddly, with no less than three separate and wildly different-looking camera tricks used to portray his super-speed. But there are some quite impressive effects shots as well, such as a view of Godzilla's spines crashing into a hotel room. <br /><br />It's a messy film but an engaging one as well, a kaiju film that deals with knotty issues of patriotism and economic exploitation, and doesn't give easy answers. It does this while still working as a Godzilla movie, albeit one that holds off on delivering the goods until the final third. Kazuki Omori clearly had some big ideas for the Godzilla franchise, and while he never directed another kaiju film, he left an indelible mark on the series.<br /><br />Written and Directed by Kazuki Omori<br /><br />Grade: B+<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-44204788323078712552014-05-23T12:38:00.000-05:002014-05-23T12:38:04.635-05:00In Theaters: Godzilla (2014)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier8mv8jHiL1ssJgWEB6ZBREHxRnnIeNOqK7fFoBFrw6EY717iaImzBw2BUWOOuDVsBr0NVZ4DQMbJwZocRMnuftjA1_8aynuPfC25OfoQ014E0YGR1MRNoshYKWcr24jQp1g/s1600/godzilla_ver4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Godzilla poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier8mv8jHiL1ssJgWEB6ZBREHxRnnIeNOqK7fFoBFrw6EY717iaImzBw2BUWOOuDVsBr0NVZ4DQMbJwZocRMnuftjA1_8aynuPfC25OfoQ014E0YGR1MRNoshYKWcr24jQp1g/s1600/godzilla_ver4.jpg" height="320" title="Poster via IMPAwards.com" width="215" /></a></div>
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<i>Godzilla</i> is a film that feels well overdue. There was, of course, one past attempt at making an American take on the character, and while <a href="http://evanwaters.blogspot.com/2008/05/academy-of-underrated-godzilla-1998.html" target="_blank">I'll always have a soft spot for it</a>, the filmmakers basically dodged a lot of the inherent challenge by making their monster less grandiose, less powerful, and theoretically more plausible as a result. After that didn't quite work, Toho brought back the "proper" Godzilla for a series of films that, while sometimes good, never had much of a reason for being other than reasserting tradition. Godzilla has been dormant for ten years, falling out of favor even in his native Japan, and so making a true, traditional Godzilla film for American audiences used to seeing him as a camp figure seemed like a long shot. <br /><br />Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters, is at the helm for what turns out to be a slow, methodical burn of a monster movie. Godzilla eases the audience into the concept of a giant radioactive dinosaur who fights other giant radioactive monsters, knocking over skyscrapers in the process. People have complained that the King of the Monsters doesn't get enough screentime, and to be sure there's a lot of teasing involved, but the payoff is worth it. It's both a fantastic reintroduction to the kaiju eiga genre, and a film about reckoning with forces greater than ourselves. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) lost his mother to a nuclear plant disaster in Japan when he was a little boy, and has spent most of his life estranged from his father (Bryan Cranston), who is convinced a cover-up took place. Convinced by his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) to come to his father's side after he's arrested for trespassing at the still-restricted accident site, Ford ventures into the ruins with him only to witness the emergence of a strange prehistoric insect (called a Muto) feeding off the radiation. The creature destroys the government's installation and heads east, while Ford is dragged along with a research team headed by the obsessive Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe). The Muto's journey attracts the attention of another prehistoric beast, the "apex predator" Godzilla who emerges to confront the new challenger to his supremacy. <br /><br />In a move reminiscent of <i>Jurassic Park</i> or <i>Jaws</i>, the filmmakers spend a long time building up to Godzilla's first proper appearance, and are almost as stingy with the spindly Muto. Perversely, there are a few points where the film shows us what is clearly the beginning of a fight between the monsters, and quickly cuts away. Part of this is a showman's trick, keeping the audience wanting more and making sure you save your best stuff for last. However, I also get the feeling that, rather than throw the audience in the deep end of insane kaiju action as <i>Pacific Rim</i> did, <i>Godzilla</i> is slowly acclimating the audience to its absurdity. We're given realistic scenes of human response to disaster, of families separated and people fleeing for their lives, and the monsters are shown from ground level, often through windows or on screens. Though the film isn't as bleak as the original <i>Godzilla</i>, it retains that classic's serious approach to the subject matter, and the naturalistic approach makes the absurdity, when it happens, all the more convincing.<br /><br />This gradual approach does mean we spend a lot more time than we probably expected to with the film's human characters, though way less with Bryan Cranston. Ford Brody is something of a generic character, a little flat, and Taylor-Johnson doesn't do a whole lot with the part. I'm not sure there was a lot for him to do, however, and the simplicity is something of the point. As little screen time as the monsters take up, the movie is basically about them; nearly every scene with the human characters ends up revolving around the monsters and their effect on the world around them. This is a film where gods walk the Earth, and for the most part we can only stay out of their way.<br /><br />Godzilla himself is beautifully realized, a great hulk of a beast standing in defiance of modern cinema's trend towards fast and sleek monsters. When we finally see the monsters fight each other, it's with a perfect brutality and intensity. And in the film's dark, smoky climax, a remarkable kinship is drawn between Godzilla and the humans scampering at his feet, and there is the hopeful implication that we're not totally helpless in the tide of larger forces. The film's story does rewrite Godzilla's origins so as not to connect him so closely with the atom bomb, but there is still the implication that our use of nuclear power has drawn terrible things out from the depths.<br /><br />In many ways this is not the Godzilla film I expected, but it does its job very well regardless. Though it starts cautiously, keeping the monsters and their clashes offscreen for some time, but by the end it fearlessly embraces one of the most outlandish elements of the character's history. I have quibbles, the dialogue could use some punching up, but what's important is that the filmmakers have made Godzilla's comeback a meaningful one. This is a film clearly made with genuine love and dedication, and it has given the King of Monsters a new lease on life.<br /><br />Story by David Callaham<br />Written by Max Borenstein<br />
Directed by Gareth Edwards<br /><br />Grade: A-Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-34887386532244276782014-04-30T23:43:00.001-05:002014-04-30T23:43:11.072-05:00At Ringside: Wrestlemania IX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMNtnya5KfqxgZrxHPp08UNjFZQThASO7rqrt_VGnTYlptV6cd0mFVa7UFMOmn5B_8dev_dJUxu110PUnvI52PscFNsarnwA-U906Ko8fayihzz-gYF-T7XnIDaW5Ln6iqhqU/s1600/WM9_010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="CAESAR'S PALACE! LAS VEGAS! NEVADA!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMNtnya5KfqxgZrxHPp08UNjFZQThASO7rqrt_VGnTYlptV6cd0mFVa7UFMOmn5B_8dev_dJUxu110PUnvI52PscFNsarnwA-U906Ko8fayihzz-gYF-T7XnIDaW5Ln6iqhqU/s1600/WM9_010.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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Well, I knew what I was getting into. Wrestlemania IX probably has the worst reputation in the history of wrestling's most prestigious event, and it certainly represents the WWF at its most confused. 1993 was not a good year for either of the Big Two wrestling promotions, and the WWF's problem was trying to transition to new stars and storylines while still cashing in on what remained of the star power of the Eighties, specifically their slowly-departing star Hulk Hogan. While just about any wrestling PPV is a grab bag of matches reflecting current storylines and star positions, Wrestlemania IX is especially messy, full of cheap finishes and unsatisfying matches. A gaudy purple-and-yellow spectacle broadcast from outside Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, this one just never builds any momentum.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />But first, a word on the presentation. Since they were holding the event at Caesar's Palace in an open ampitheatre, the WWF decided that this Wrestlemania would have a Roman theme. All the non-wrestling personalities on display (and several stage hands) are in togas, commentator Randy Savage is accompanied by vestal virgins, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan rides in backwards on a camel, and ring announcer Howard Finkel is now Finkus Maximus. Even Caesar and Cleopatra make another appearance to kick off the games. All this I like. There's a sense of fantasy and old fashioned hullaballoo to it, and it's an early step by the promotion towards the kind of crazy presentation their top events have now. If nothing else you get the sense that the live crowd probably enjoyed themselves.<br /><br />It begins reasonably enough, with a fast-paced if unspectacular title bout between Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and challenger Tatanka, a Native American on an undefeated streak. Sensational Sherri Martell has firmly turned against Shawn by now and is in Tatanka's corner, so Michaels brings his own valet, the gravel-voiced punk Luna Vachon. Here WWF ran into an odd booking situation- they wanted to keep the belt on Michaels, but weren't ready to end Tatanka's streak, so the latter technically wins via DQ so that the title doesn't change hands. A bit of a cheap finish, which wouldn't be the worst thing except as a harbinger of what's to come. Also there's a long post-match segment where Vachon attacks Martell backstage, and this too is a sign.<br /><br />Up next, the Steiner Brothers take on the Headshrinkers, Fatu and Samu, racially insensitive descendants of the Wild Samoans. As in the Royal Rumble, Scott Steiner spends most of the match as the face in peril- however, the Headshrinkers' moves are mostly limited to punches and headbutts. It's a sluggish match in general, and the lack of any story context doesn't help. Even the Frankensteiner at the end is botched, so yeah, the whole thing does not end well.<br /><br />The next bout is at least interesting. Doink, the evil clown described as being out to make children cry, has been feuding with the "Big Hawaiian" Crush, and it comes to a head here in Las Vegas. Doink is the kind of cartoonish character that could only have worked in the pre-Attitude era, and I like the horror-movie music he enters to. Crush, on the other hand, is… well, Crush. A generic muscular babyface whose only distinction is being rather large (which doesn't mean much in the WWF), he never demonstrated much personality in the segments building to this match. As for the match itself, it starts with Crush attacking Doink as the latter enters, and works as a normal fight for a while. <br /><br />And then another Doink shows up and clobbers Crush from behind, allowing- well, the other Doink to pin him for the win. It's an interesting finish, but then there's a long and largely pointless sequence of another ref trying to convince the match referee that there was a second Doink, but the double has disappeared. Bobby Heenan on commentary even argues that it was an "illusion". Nothing comes of this post-match segment; it's just filler.<br /><br />The next match pits Razor Ramon against Bob Backlund. These two could potentially give us a really good show, but before you know it Ramon rolls up Backlund for a three count. I have no idea why this match is as short as it is, whether it was time crunch or health-related or whatever, but it's pointless except as a way for Ramon to regain a little heat after losing his title shot. In short there's nothing here that couldn't have been accomplished on an episode of Raw.<br /><br />And that brings us to the first main event. Even though Brett Hart vs. Yokozuna for the WWF Championship is the actual main event, it doesn't have Hulk Hogan in it, so the other main event is the Hulkster teaming with Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake- returned from a fairly horrific real-life facial injury and wearing a hideous protective mask- to take on the WWF Tag Team Champions, Ted Di Biase and evil taxman Irwin R. Schyster, the team of Money, Inc. (And the political ramifications of a millionaire and a tax collector being on the same side are complex to say the least.) Hulk and Beefcake, with manager Jimmy Hart in their corner, are billed as the Mega Maniacs.<br /><br />The match is basically a disaster. A lot of wrestling heels play chickenshit, trying to stay out of the ring and out of the path of the babyface trying to righteously beat them up; they appeal to the referee or to their opponent and do anything possible to avoid a serious exchange. This is an old tradition but it's best used in moderation. The Mega-Maniacs vs. Money Inc. battle is a series of ref arguments, distractions, bumps, and just about anything that will prevent a reasonable flow of action in the ring. It's chaotic and confused, and once again, we're denied a clean finish, with Money Inc. given the win by disqualification.<br /><br />But of course it doesn't stop there! To save face Hogan and Beefcake manage to get a hold of IRS' briefcase (with which IRS had been assaulting the face of the still-recovering Beefcake) and distribute the money inside to the crowd as Hogan's music plays. (Throwing money to the crowd is sort of an old-school wrestling trick, not seen much these days because large amounts of cash typically aren't brought into the ring. More's the pity.) He has to be the winner even when he loses. <br /><br />You may have noticed a couple of trends so far. One is a dearth of clean finishes, especially for Wrestlemania which is often used to settle feuds and bring stories to a conclusion. The second is a fixation on long, bland post-match segments which generally try to steer the viewer in the direction of a proper reaction, as here when we're supposed to end the match on a high note even though the bad guys won. These elements drag the pay-per-view down more than the quality of wrestling ever could- it's not just that we're seeing poor matches, but matches which fail to provide proper payoffs.<br /><br />Lex Luger, the Narcissist, heads to the ring, escorted by showgirls in bikinis who help set up some mirrors for him to pose in front of. His opponent is Mr. Perfect, Curt Hennig, fresh from his retirement of Ric Flair on Monday Night Raw. The two proceed to have what is probably the best match of the night. It's straightforward, traditional wrestling with clear exchanges and near-falls, and I'm probably overrating it some because it's the only properly paced match of the night. Luger gets a dirty win, pinning Perfect despite the latter having his feet on the ropes. After the bell, Luger attacks Mr. Perfect, and the beatdown continues backstage with Shawn Michaels helping the Narcissist. An oasis of relatively decent work in the middle of a lot of crap.<br /><br />And now we're on to the worst match of the evening, the Undertaker's faceoff against the Giant Gonzales. Gonzales is accompanied to the ring by his manager Harvey Whippleman, while Undertaker is accompanied by a turkey vulture. I'll let you decide who got the better end of the deal. As at the Rumble, Gonzales is wearing a muscle suit with patches of hair to cover inappropriate places; however, owing to the heat of Las Vegas (presumably), the actual patches of fur are replaced with drawn-on fur. For whatever reason, whoever did this opted not to cover the giant's rear end, so even more than before we get the impression that Undertaker is battling a giant naked man. <br /><br />Gonzales has not learned to wrestle in the time since we last saw him; he's slow, he telegraphs everything, it's basically bad stage fighting. The Undertaker does his best to make it look like a fight, even if he's sort of slow too. But then Harvey throws his theoretically inhuman monster giant a chloroformed rag with which to attack the Undertaker. The referee sees this, takes a few seconds, and finally disqualifies the Giant. So even the Undertaker's streak is tainted by Wrestlemania IX's indecisive nonsense.<br /><br />There naturally follows a long epilogue wherein Gonzales starts attacking refs, a guy in a toga with a stretcher shows up to help them off stage, and finally the Undertaker re-emerges to attack Giant again and drive him away. This takes so goddamn long.<br /><br />Before the main event, we see Hulk Hogan. Giving a promo for a match he's not in. This is not a good sign. It wasn't apparent in his match, but Hogan has a really ugly eye injury that makes this segment really hard to watch. When asked his prediction for the upcoming battle between the Canadian champion Bret Hart and the Japanese challenger, sumo wrestler Yokozuna, Hogan predicts the belt will stay right here in the USA. <br /><br />At the time, amusing. In retrospect, ominous.<br /><br />Yes, it's Hart vs. Yokozuna for the gold, and this is actually, for the most part, not bad. It's hard to evaluate a wrestler like Yokozuna fairly, because of course he isn't going to be especially agile. He's slow, but he's convincingly powerful. Hart plays a very good strategy, slowly chipping away at the big man, making it look like a real uphill struggle. After a long battle, Hart finally gets Yokozuna knocked over and applies the sharpshooter to his gargantuan legs. It looks like the WWF title is secure, when Mr. Fuji, Yokozuna's manager, throws a handful of salt into Hart's face, completely incapacitating him, letting Yokozuna get a quick roll-up and a victory, becoming the new WWF champion.<br /><br />It's a bit of a cheap finish, not handled as well as it could have been. Yokozuna does kind of mess up the final pin, and Hart oversells the salt as not merely blinding him but somehow knocking him out cold. Still, not too bad as a capper to the evening.<br /><br />But oh no, we're not done. Hulk Hogan rushes in again to rescue his buddy Hart, and this pisses off Mr. Fuji something fierce. He demands a match between Hogan and Yokozuna right the Hell now, and when Hogan initially refuses, he puts up his new champion's belt. Hart tells Hogan to go for it.<br /><br />Yokozuna grabs Hogan, and Mr. Fuji makes to throw the salt again, but Hogan ducks just in time, meaning that Yokozuna gets blinded and incapacitated again. Hogan hits a leg drop and covers Yokozuna for the pin. Yokozuna's short reign is over, and Hulk Hogan is the new WWF champion. Again.<br /><br />It's well known among wrestling fans that Hulk Hogan is the kind of wrestler who pushes himself at the expense of anyone else, and during his initial run with the WWF he had plenty of creative control to make sure this happened. It's understandable to some extent- it can be a pretty cutthroat industry, and protecting your spot is the kind of basic office politics everyone has heard of.<br /><br />But it's amazing just how shameless this is. Hogan managed to muscle himself into winning the WWF title one more time, at the expense of two wrestlers that the WWF was trying to promote as part of a new generation. In a match he wasn't even in. <br /><br />And the capper? We're just one more PPV away from Hogan leaving the company altogether. Though I'm not sure of the exact timeline, by the time Wrestlemania IX was booked it should have been obvious that Hogan was eyeing the exit. But he had to exit on his terms, of course. <br /><br />Wrestling pay-per-views tend to be uneven at their best- there's simply so much going on that consistency is hard to maintain- but Wrestlemania IX is oddly reliable in how it falls apart, regularly avoiding clean finishes or even terribly good wrestling. Hogan's ego-tripping would be bad enough on its own, but when an entire show seems to be built around frustrating non-resolutions to ongoing angles, the results are pretty much dire top to bottom. A waste of Jim Ross and some wonderfully ridiculous art design.<br /><br />Grade: D+<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-70398157390381134672014-04-20T10:17:00.002-05:002014-04-20T10:17:27.828-05:00Frasierquest 5.17: The Perfect Guy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPq3j7dgWucRS0YtPaRmyTV3Yf-q1kc6F3_mYolXQ_nEk0cvhSmucZupEybhs312XyN01wrfvtDAmBlSjbGkST2XDMXiCQfOxLEaUp5LLv18ab2Y3S3DLXbN358UWNKvfjUQc/s1600/5-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Billy Campbell as Dr. Clint Webber" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPq3j7dgWucRS0YtPaRmyTV3Yf-q1kc6F3_mYolXQ_nEk0cvhSmucZupEybhs312XyN01wrfvtDAmBlSjbGkST2XDMXiCQfOxLEaUp5LLv18ab2Y3S3DLXbN358UWNKvfjUQc/s1600/5-17.jpg" height="246" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Frasier: Oh, I am not jealous. Yes, the man is handsome, but I'm sure there are a number of areas in which I am his superior. You know, let's not forget that good looks can be a mixed blessing. People just roll out the red carpet for you but that robs you of any incentive to develop other qualities. After a while you're left an aging narcissist bent at the water's edge, realizing those lines in the pond aren't ripples, they're wrinkles.<br /><br />Martin: Amazing.<br /><br />Frasier: Thank you, dad, I rather like that one myself.<br /><br />Martin: That guy could be a movie star!</i><br /><br /><br />It's been a while, I know. Sorry about that.<br /><br />"The Perfect Guy" is one of those episodes with not a lot to write about, even in comparison to "Beware of Greeks" (which at least offered a change of scenery.) It's not bad, but it feels underdeveloped, one of those scripts a show has to go with because there isn't time to do something better. We do get a fun performance from Bill Campbell, though, and another look at Frasier's own insecurities- not to mention a brutal exposé of the gourmet dog food racket.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />There's a new voice at KACL, that of Dr. Clint Webber (Campbell), who's hosting a medical show. He's handsome, brilliant, and really just the nicest guy. Roz gets all twitterpated just talking to him, as do the other women at the station, much to Frasier's chagrin as he was just getting flirty with Sharon (Lindsay Price.) He searches desperately for something with which to one-up the new arrival, but is continually flummoxed. Where he knows opera, Clint has Jose Carrera for a godfather; where he played a little squash, Clint is a former champion. At a certain point it becomes less about being better than Clint than about finding something wrong with the new guy. Meanwhile, Martin goes and gets Eddie hooked on gourmet dog food which is only available from one shop in town, where he had, at the start of the half hour, insulted the snooty owner (Francois Giroday) and been banned from the store. <br /><br />After several farces in a row, the story for this one is disarmingly simple. It's entirely about Frasier trying to find some flaw in a flawless man, and even given the limitations of a half hour sitcom format, it feels like more could have been done here. Clint, being a one-off, isn't given a lot of room to develop as a character, but then that's the problem with being "perfect". Campbell (formerly the Rocketeer) does his best with the material, though, and plays it at the right level of plausibility.<br /><br />That being said, the story is less about Clint than Frasier. He's doing what he normally does, obsessing over things he can't control. He's partly driven by his conviction that Clint can't be better than him in every single way. But there is at least some sense of Clint being a threat; Sharon is clearly impressed by him, and when Clint does a guest spot on Frasier's show he ends up giving better advice to the first guest caller we've heard in a LONG time. The stakes are pretty low but there's just enough of a conflict to move things along.<br /><br />The upscale grocery subplot is pretty basic as well- a lot of it revolves around Martin's, and later Daphne's, disbelief that places this pricey actually exist. There's not a whole lot of material there, but Giroday gives a memorable turn without going too over the top. Generally there's a sense that the actors are carrying the material this week, but it's a testament to their ability that it works. More notable is a scene where the effeminate Gil "comes out" as straight, revealing he has a wife, in what would be the start of a running gag with surprisingly long legs.<br /><br />"The Perfect Guy" ends abruptly, with Frasier getting an unusual win; not only does he discover Clint's fatal flaw (he's totally tone deaf and doesn't know it), he exposes it to all of his coworkers. There's something unsatisfying about the resolution, and the sparse feel applies to the episode overall; there's just enough material here for 22 minutes of reasonably diverting television, but it's nowhere near as satisfying as the show's best installments. It's not so much a failure as an inevitable result of the demands of a full television season; sometimes a story or script isn't great, but it's functional, and serves to feed the beast. <i>Frasier</i> was not immune to the pressures of network TV, but here it handles them with just enough charm and grace to get by.<br /><br />Guest Caller: Jill Clayburgh as Marie<br /><br />Written by Rob Greenberg<br />Directed by Jeff Melman<br />Aired March 24, 1998<br /><br /><i>Clint: Who's as lovely as a chicken beak?</i><br /><br />[Transciption via KACL780.net]<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-75630429313025140422014-04-19T14:52:00.000-05:002014-04-19T14:52:28.809-05:00At Ringside: WWF Royal Rumble, 1993<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWFp_NTf9np88huBsDWRJYmI0en3iVBsVMMQPUMWmilg5q2czqcfI0G9j8jBES94wmQDjDB4TaHMzFhcVKf2vCzj0omuBsP0SgA4uxA2uy3rKhgp-GTOSuDyCeBKFnpYDzI8/s1600/rr_1993_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bret Hart and Razor Ramon in the ring." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWFp_NTf9np88huBsDWRJYmI0en3iVBsVMMQPUMWmilg5q2czqcfI0G9j8jBES94wmQDjDB4TaHMzFhcVKf2vCzj0omuBsP0SgA4uxA2uy3rKhgp-GTOSuDyCeBKFnpYDzI8/s1600/rr_1993_l.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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While the WWE Network- the wrestling company's online streaming service- is mostly being sold on access to the company's live PPVs at a fraction of what buying them all would normally cost, for many wrestling fans the real value is in the service's extensive backlog of old wrestling shows and pay-per-views. For me it's an opportunity to explore a history I've mostly read about, and there are a lot of potential access points. I chose to start with 1993, because that's when the company's now-flagship show Monday Night Raw began airing, and that's a decent bridge between PPVs.<br /><br />In any case the Royal Rumble is always a good starting point. Timed to get people's attention around the end of football season, the WWF/E's January pay-per-view is constructed as a way to set up characters and stories for Wrestlemania in the spring, and the title match itself is key to that. A battle royal with wrestlers entering in regular intervals and eliminated by going over the top rope, the Royal Rumble gives quick introductions to a good portion of the roster and lets us see who's a big deal and who is… not so much. It's almost always good because the concept itself is so inherently strong, and even though 1993 saw the WWF a little unsure of where it was going, the '93 Royal Rumble has more than enough to recommend it.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The fun begins with the Steiner Brothers, Rick and Scott, battling the Beverly Brothers, Beau and Blake. I actually had to watch this match a couple of times because I didn't remember it much the first time around, which shouldn't speak well for it, but it's actually pretty good. There's not much story to it, other than the Steiners being pushed further up the card, but the Beverlys are strong heels who pull all the standard tricks without hurting the pace of the match. And of course the Steiners are both good workers, with Scott playing the babyface in peril for most of it. (It's genuinely odd to see the future Big Booty Daddy in this role.) It ends with a genuinely ugly Frankensteiner that I hope didn't land as stiffly as it looked, but anyway the good guys win. <br /><br />For a match with a little more story to it, you get Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid, defending the Intercontinental Title against his ex-partner Marty Jannetty. The two had been a big success as the Rockers, but Michaels decided he needed to strike out on his own and superkicked Marty through a window, so war it is. Both men are talented examples of the "New Generation" Vince McMahon was starting to promote in lieu of Hulk Hogan & Friends, but there's a third element in "Sensational" Sherri, the group's valet, now torn in her allegiances. (Though she still sings Shawn's entrance theme. Terribly.) <br /><br />The match itself is showy and fun, even if the finish mars it- Sherri attempts to intervene to help Marty but ends up hitting him instead, letting Shawn get the pin. Michaels winning is clearly not a bad decision- he would be a major player over the next few years, and was a bright spot in the WWF's worst periods- but it's something of a cheap finish, more about Sherri than the combatants. <br /><br />We then get to the show's only outright stinker of a match, featuring big man Bam Bam Bigelow (whose theme music amusingly has him shouting "Bam! Bam! Bam!" throughout) vs. the Big Boss Man. There is no story whatsoever to this match, except that Bam Bam was returning from an injury and Boss Man was on his way out. It's two big guys very slowly punching each other and executing basic maneuvers, something of a McMahon signature piece, and while this sort of thing can be done well, in this case nobody's putting in the effort. So, yeah, Bam Bam wins and his hilarious theme music starts playing again. <br /><br />Fortunately the worst match on the card is followed by easily the best one, with Bret Hart defending the WWF Championship against Razor Ramon (a.k.a. Scott Hall pretending to be Al Pacino in Scarface.) Hart was well established as a fighting champion before this, defending his title against all comers, while Ramon was tearing through jobbers on Superstars and the newly-launched Monday Night Raw. They're a great contrast in terms of appearance and personality, Hart the reasonably-proportioned technician and Ramon the giant brawler. <br /><br />There's also a very good flow in the match, with Hart targeting Ramon's legs (the better to set up a Sharpshooter) while Ramon focuses on Hart's ribs. Hart is methodical, Ramon is vicious. Hart ultimately retains, but Razor is kept strong throughout. Scott Hall would make a big impact both here and in WCW, but his career was essentially brought to a halt by excessive drinking, and matches like this make you realize just how much of a shame that was. (Though, thankfully, he seems to finally be getting the help he needs, thanks to Diamond Dallas Page of all people.) The match maybe stops short of greatness, but it's the highlight of the night.<br /><br />Between main events, we're given a breather as announcer, manager, and general no-goodnik Bobby "The Brain" Heenan- he who sent Andre the Giant against Hulk Hogan- departs the table to unveil his latest client, the Narcissist, Lex Luger. The blond muscleman (originally called Narcissus but changed because, I'm not sure actually) poses and flexes in front of several mirrors, while Heenan gets really into describing how gorgeous and powerful he is. Vince McMahon probably loved this segment, and Heenan deserves credit for selling it as thoroughly as he does. It's interesting to consider how short-lived this gimmick would be for Luger, but that's getting into future events. It's a short and harmless fluff piece. <br /><br />Another personal appearance, this time by "Julius Caesar", serves as an extended ad for Wrestlemania IX, which would be held at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and thus employ a gaudy Roman theme. And while Wrestlemania IX would end up basically a disaster, I really enjoy the goofy fantasy element as it's used here. More time filler, but I'll allow it. It's basically the retro version of the WWE's current practice of plugging their next PPV in the middle of the one they're showing you. Caesar reminds us all that the winner of the Rumble will compete in the main event at Wrestlemania, and bids the games begin. <br /><br />And with that the Royal Rumble proper starts. Ric Flair, last year's winner, enters first, followed by veteran Bob Backlund. Flair actually gets to look pretty good considering he was about to leave the WWF, and his eventual elimination at the hands of Mr. Perfect helps play into the Loser Leaves Town match on the following Raw that was his farewell. Backlund, meanwhile, hangs in for a very long time, likely helping guide the others. In addition to those two there's a good variety of combatants; they're mostly on the obscure side, but the advantage of classic WWF's comic-book style is that everyone is distinct, if only because of their hideous, hideous outfits. (I'm especially fond of Damien Demento's downright Gigeresque shoulder piece.) <br /><br />The match is dragged down, however, by another bit of 'Mania setup, when Giant Gonzales, a towering lunk of a man wearing an airbrushed muscle suit with patches of fur to protect his dignity, enters the ring despite not being in the match and eliminates the Undertaker. This leads to a long, protracted sequence of Gonzales very slowly attacking the Dead Man, setting up their Wrestlemania match. It's clear even from this brief taste that the man cannot really wrestle; he lumbers around stiffly and grimaces, and the whole thing is an unwelcome interruption to a match that was actually going well. Eventually the giant leaves and the actual fight starts again.<br /><br />The last two men in the ring end up being Macho Man Randy Savage and Yokozuna, a massive sumo wrestler who at this point was not only undefeated, but claimed to have never been knocked off his feet. After taking a couple of body splashes in the corner, Savage manages to knock Yokozuna down to the mat, then forgets what kind of match this is and goes for a pin. Yokozuna somehow kicks out with enough force to send Macho Man stumbling back over the top rope, and the match is over.<br /><br />It's a disappointingly abrupt finish, but it establishes the power of Yokozuna as he heads into the main event at Wrestlemania. I tend to prefer it when the Rumble is used to elevate someone who isn't already a main eventer, whether the push works or not. Yokozuna may not be as intimidating as he was; back in 1993 America was still pretty firmly convinced that Japan was going to take over the world with inexpensive cars, and without that xenophobia he loses a little something, but he's still a mountainous sumo wrestler with a mean attitude. <br /><br />There's definitely more good than bad in the 1993 Royal Rumble, even as the WWF as a whole was having trouble figuring out where it wanted to go. You can definitely see signs of this; the tone is almost sedate by pro wrestling standards, without the intensity that really good pacing can bring to an event. But the wrestling is solid, the commentary is enthusiastic, and the jobbers are colorful. It works particularly well as the setup for Wrestlemania, but… we'll get to that.<br /><br />Grade: B<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-55585756201210954782014-03-30T01:58:00.001-05:002014-03-30T01:58:33.575-05:00In Theaters: The Lego Movie<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtMkookD5HetraJQQxgIxKyDyRu6yfbEjHhJYr426qcsL54z5TCHgvrTB6NKRvvDcCA-3m6aI-c0Mqp8iwzP9qKUqoQJ9Ccr9U0Kwg90FbcDm4bU-nlMbYmHngvLtWMnktoRo/s1600/lego_movie_ver9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtMkookD5HetraJQQxgIxKyDyRu6yfbEjHhJYr426qcsL54z5TCHgvrTB6NKRvvDcCA-3m6aI-c0Mqp8iwzP9qKUqoQJ9Ccr9U0Kwg90FbcDm4bU-nlMbYmHngvLtWMnktoRo/s1600/lego_movie_ver9.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster via IMPAwards.com</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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If something called <i>The Lego Movie</i> were going to work on anyone, it probably would work on me. I had a tubful of those damned bricks as a kid, and to this day, they exert a certain hold- it's hard NOT to start building something with them, and harder still to keep that construction from growing increasingly elaborate, until of course I realize I need even more of the bricks to round out my concept. I think they may actually create some kind of chemical dependency. But I was wary when seeing these generic toys made into a movie; it could either work really well or come off as the most cynical, calculated exercise imaginable.<br /><br />It works. Oh man, does it work. The makers of <i>Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs</i> and <i>21 Jump Street</i> would be the ones to make such an unlikely concept sing, and they bring to this colorful brickfest a fittingly anarchic sense of humor, melded with a sincere and kind of sophisticated message about human creative potential. It's a film that gives us a peppy song called "Everything is Awesome" first satirically, then enthusiastically, a film that deflates the myth of the Chosen Hero of Destiny before building it up all over again, and a film full of surprises. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Chris Pratt is the voice of Emmett, a solid Lego citizen of a solid and orderly Lego city in which everyone is encouraged to fit in under the wise and beneficent rule of President Business (Will Farrell). He watches the #1 TV show ("Where Are My Pants?" for those curious), listens to the top song (the aforementioned "Everything is Awesome"), buys overpriced coffee, and helps his fellow construction workers clear away strange old buildings in favor of an orderly metropolis. One night, however, he meets the strange rebel Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), fuses with something called the Piece of Resistance, and finds himself the Chosen One, destined to halt the evil Business' plan to destroy the world, with the assistance of the Lego multiverse's master builders, including the masterful wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), Benny the Spaceman (Charlie Day), the sparkly Princess UniKitty (Alison Brie), and of course, Batman (Will Arnett). <br /><br />The story is positioned primarily as a clash between order and freedom. Lord Business' plan is to use the Kragle- apparently a tube of glue- to freeze the inhabitants of the Lego universe in place, all in perfect poses within buildings and vehicles built according to the instructions. The master builders, on the other hand, are imaginative and versatile thinkers who can see every brick and piece as new possibilities. Emmett is used to following the rules, though, and teaching him to think of said possibilities is a slow process. It's a conflict that echoes criticisms of the Lego line itself as it moved towards sets with seemingly more specialized pieces (though any respectable toy store should still sell those big tubs.) The film doesn't advocate pure chaos, though- Emmett's skill at following directions does come in handy, and we see at least one case of the master builders' inability to collaborate causing problems. It's a conflicted world in need of harmony.<br /><br />The film gets a bit more daring in its handling of the "chosen one" theme. The idea that heroes are inherently special and destined to do great things has come in for a fair amount of criticism in recent years, not entirely undeserved, and at many points the film forces us to consider the idea that Emmett may not really be anything special at all. Rather than deconstruct prophecies and the heroic ideal altogether, though, the movie offers a more democratic solution, and couches it within a plot twist that's genuinely stunning both for how surprising it is and for how well it works.<br /><br />There's a very loose, Mad Magazine kind of feel to <i>The Lego Movie</i>; it's a very busy film, full of throwaway jokes and nods both to pop culture and Lego history. The relentless pace of the jokes means that most of them hit, and the ones that don't are gone anyway. Parts of the film are clearly targeted at people who grew up with Lego- Benny, with his cracked helmet, faded insignia and obsession with building spaceships, will especially speak to viewers of a certain age- while others are more universal in appeal. The film's voice casting is frankly remarkable- in addition to the above, we have Liam Neeson as a cop and Lord Business' enforcer, Nick Offerman as a pirate, and an all-too-brief appearance by Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman. <br /><br />The film was computer animated but manages to look like really good stop motion, and a lot of the simple joy of the film is in its wash of shapes and colors, bricks flying about freely and being quickly repurposed. Many of the film's best visual gags are simply in how the pieces are used to represent things. In many ways this is a movie serving as a toy commercial, but as dreadful as that would normally be, I'm willing to allow it now. When a movie is this sincere, this clever, this inspiring, and this good, I can live with the advertising.<br /><br />Besides, I don't exactly need much of an excuse to start buying blocks again.<br /><br />Story by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller<br />Written for the screen and Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller<br /><br />Grade: A<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-50925877311928775972014-03-25T00:57:00.002-05:002014-03-25T00:57:28.266-05:00The Bookshelf: The Beach House by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip47Y5Bckfd3QWRtafiStM1Oej6q_rStNHSUsaQ-DSu1wfmJYg27OCuL8M0CjX63bW9rvYWrQm9mCPc55fBsmmbKuDW9UvLqwNDbJSjV_LxH6wepc8XoAoqIdb8bqWZerwrfk/s1600/BeachHouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip47Y5Bckfd3QWRtafiStM1Oej6q_rStNHSUsaQ-DSu1wfmJYg27OCuL8M0CjX63bW9rvYWrQm9mCPc55fBsmmbKuDW9UvLqwNDbJSjV_LxH6wepc8XoAoqIdb8bqWZerwrfk/s1600/BeachHouse.jpg" height="320" width="189" /></a></div>
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When I was given this book, I saw an opportunity to take a look at modern thriller fiction, which is something I don't normally pay much attention to. James Patterson is one of those writers whose books you see everywhere, and he makes no secret of relying on co-authors to deliver the apparent hundreds of titles expected of him per year. Far be it from me to look down on popular fiction; there is an art to a good page-turner, to making the reader feel they just have to see what happens next. <i>The Beach House</i> isn't a complete letdown on this front, to be sure, but it's a toothless experience, a conspiracy thriller which avoids visceral bite in favor of vague class-awareness posturing. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The book begins with the murder of Peter Mullen, a young man working as a valet for a party at the titular beach house in East Hampton. His body is thrown in the ocean and his death ruled a suicide, but his brother Jack, an attorney, refuses to believe it. He's convinced the wealthy Neubauer family, who owned the place, are covering something up, and tries to rally the rest of the non-insanely-wealthy townsfolk to find out what it is. Of course the Neubauers are powerful enough to obstruct investigations, buy off or intimidate witnesses, get people fired, and much, much worse. Jack puts his career on the line trying to discover the truth, and eventually finds he has to go outside the law to get justice.<br /><br />It's a strong enough hook. The authors aren't exactly subtle when it comes to working the angles of class conflict and the unlimited powers of the 1%. The Mullen family are true working-class salt of the earth folk, and so are most of the people in East Hampton, and much of the story is them being pushed around and increasingly ground into the dirt by the Neubauers and friends. Frankly, it starts to get repetitive after a while, without much progress into the mystery. A good thriller depends on the slow unravelling of the plot, either showing the audience more of the story or pretending to do so. What revelations do take place aren't earth-shattering enough to justify the slow drip. <br /><br />Part of the problem may simply be the prose. Books like this don't sell themselves on their master wordcraft, but one should probably still expect a certain intensity or punch to the writing in a thriller. This is mostly just dull and functional, not helped by the generic personality of the first person narrator whom the book occasionally just abandons anyway for the sake of a few vignettes focused on a shadowy "fixer". Too often the book tries to go for the heartstrings when it should be punching us in the gut, trying to evoke working class sympathy instead of terrifying us. <br /><br />Despite these problems I will say I kept reading, and was curious as to how it turned out. But any chance I might give the book a pass as a page-turner evaporated with the climax, which quickly becomes too ridiculous even for the standards of cheap summer reading. It's not just that the set-up strains credulity, which it does, but it attempts to draw itself out over such a long period of time as to kill all the tension. There's a really intense and brutal scene buried in the last several chapters (this is one of those books which drops chapter breaks every two pages), but it's spread out over several days with time for a sex scene, an abortive chase, even a positive shout-out to Geraldo Rivera of all people.<br /><br />It may be inevitable that a book like <i>The Beach House</i> ends up bland. Patterson and his various writing partners (who according to some do most of the work) are part of a machine plugging out these things in absurd numbers. To be sure, many of the things that drag the book down for me are part of that successful formula; ultra-sharp delineation between the heroes and villains, bare and functional writing, and a glowing sense of assurance that of course the hero will win. I can accept these things in their proper place, but in <i>The Beach House</i> they're tension killers, and the book's attempt at populist appeal seems desperate, pandering. There's an art to writing good popular fiction, arguably one that is not given the scrutiny it deserves. When we let our standards get too lax, dull reads result. <br /><br />Grade: C<br /><br />
Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-46554949407734993282014-02-21T14:00:00.003-06:002014-02-21T14:00:55.940-06:00In Theaters: The Wolf of Wall Street<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HrZOLaBYDWGuTJnLQE20TOfYQG7sDPJoYytnSO6EYJx7M50rwFgJraxMVE2DprqdfuoZruU-fqPLh6ZwzugvxIQoiPGPjp7PHLXLER-bovKq8K-WPON9mLJtRe_CFB6zYzA/s1600/wolf_of_wall_street_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Poster via IMPAwards.com" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HrZOLaBYDWGuTJnLQE20TOfYQG7sDPJoYytnSO6EYJx7M50rwFgJraxMVE2DprqdfuoZruU-fqPLh6ZwzugvxIQoiPGPjp7PHLXLER-bovKq8K-WPON9mLJtRe_CFB6zYzA/s1600/wolf_of_wall_street_ver3.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster, as usual, from IMPAwards.com</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<i>The Wolf of Wall Street</i> has been accused of glamorizing the life of Jordan Belfort, a broker who made millions on bad and often fradulent stock deals before being caught and serving a minor sentence in a minimum security prison. And to be sure, it's a very decadent experience, full of sex, wild parties, and frankly absurd displays of opulence for opulence's sake. The mood, however, is not quite aspirational, and not quite cautionary, but something intense, insane, and energetic. Martin Scorcese's work is almost always animated by a kind of mania, and in this case it's ideally suited to confronting the mindset that has dominated the financial world for so long.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Leonardo DiCaprio plays Belfort, who began his financial career shortly before the 1987 stock market crash wiped out the company he had just been hired at. Belfort ends up at a slightly less ritzy firm selling penny stocks- stocks not big enough to be listed on the major exchanges- to the poor and easily misled. He decides to strike out on his own, and starts assembling a team which uses the same aggressive sales techniques to get the rich- and apparently just as easily misled- to invest in similarly shady stocks. Belfort becomes insanely rich, and becomes addicted to, well, a lot of things- sex, cocaine, quaaludes, alcohol, ridiculously extravagant purchases, the lot. He dumps his first wife Teresa (Cristin Milloti) for a model named Naomi (Margot Robbie), but they quickly become estranged as well as he starts to disappear into decadence. Instead, his major partner in all this is Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), who despite a meek exterior has even larger appetites and a clumsier way of indulging himself. The richer they get, the harder it is to handle all the money they have, especially since they're not necessarily supposed to have all of it. And there's an FBI man, Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), who knows something is going wrong here, but has a long way to go putting it all together.<br /><br />Much like war, economic gluttony is something that's hard to portray without making it look at least somewhat exciting. Everyone wants to have the good life, and it may not help that we never directly see anyone whose lives were ruined by Belfort's shady dealings. But Scorcese (who fought drug addiction in his own life) creates a sense of vomitous excess easily, adding an oppressive atmosphere to go along with the script's black comedy. It becomes clear that there's a compulsion in Belfort and Azoff and their cohorts' behavior, and underneath it all there's a desire to degrade both others and themselves. <br /><br />The really surprising thing about the film is just how funny it is. For much of its running time the film is an utterly pitch-black comedy, showing both the absurdity of the characters' depravity and the desperation they have to hang on to their privilege. A sequence with Belfort on a particularly strong dose of quaaludes allows DiCaprio to engage in a level of slapstick I never knew he was capable of. The casting itself provides a few chuckles, notably Jean Dujardin as an unethical Swiss banker and Joanna Lumley as Naomi's aunt who volunteers to be a mule. It's mostly DiCaprio and Hill's show, but with a solid ensemble behind them. <br /><br />Being based on a true story does limit the film somewhat dramatically. Belfort never quite felt the full sting of the law, and most of the film is a series of narrow escapes that can be frustrating if you're waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's the eternal question of just how sympathetic a character has to be for us to follow them as a protagonist- or, in the absence of sympathy, how compelling they must be. We may not like Jordan Belfort but we can be amazed that it's possible to do what he did and get away with it for so long.<br /><br />Belfort and Azoff weren't directly involved in the financial shenanigans that precipitated the most recent financial collapse and recession, but the film provides a stunning insight into how those sorts of things happen. We see just how absurd and unreal life can become when money flows freely, bringing with it sex, drugs, and the desire to throw little people onto velcro dartboards. I'm sure there will be those audience members who see this as something to emulate, but some people can't be helped. For the rest of us it's an entertaining and disquieting experience, a provocative look into a world that has way too much power over our own. We laugh because it would be far too depressing otherwise.<br /><br />Based on the book by Jordan Belfort<br />Screenplay by Terence Winter<br />Directed by Martin Scorcese<br /><br />Grade: A<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-80342430724328541562014-01-30T23:17:00.001-06:002014-01-30T23:17:15.723-06:00Random Who Report: Terror of the Autons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwza0RDw3AiqECHt-6oqe1Ym3iLI_not7RadoVw3zT0akuR79Zhgt-oiFdBtM7QwMUBKsH169PAfvkjrFaD1MwwT-e0wpS70PpfkjKml2q-Jxh01E3FdFziM83gyaQLKqkxo8/s1600/TerroroftheAutons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Terror of the Autons DVD cover" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwza0RDw3AiqECHt-6oqe1Ym3iLI_not7RadoVw3zT0akuR79Zhgt-oiFdBtM7QwMUBKsH169PAfvkjrFaD1MwwT-e0wpS70PpfkjKml2q-Jxh01E3FdFziM83gyaQLKqkxo8/s320/TerroroftheAutons.jpg" /></a></div>
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There are only a few <i>Doctor Who</i> stories which are really direct sequels, but "Terror of the Autons" occupies an interesting space. It's a reprise of "Spearhead from Space", the third Doctor's inaugural story, not just in reintroducing that story's villains, but also in accomplishing another tweak to the show's format. It gives the Doctor an adversary, the Master, an evil Time Lord who's just about his intellectual equal. That alone guarantees its significance, even if the story sometimes plays like a dry run for the season to follow; it ends up being fairly effective, but takes a while to get to its payoff. <br />
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The Doctor (Jon Pertwee), still trapped on Earth and working for the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, is paired with a new assistant after the (offscreen) departure of Liz Shaw. Jo Grant (Katy Manning) is young, perky, and kind of silly, but she's determined to help. In the meantime the Master (Roger Delgado) has landed on Earth, and with his power of hypnosis has managed to steal a meteorite containing the essence of the Nestene Consciousness, the intelligence that tried to conquer the planet with an army of living plastic drones. The Master hypnotizes his way into a local plastics factory, sets up shop, and kills most of the senior staff with an assortment of killer plastic novelties, including a living troll doll and a plastic lounger that inflates to suffocate its occupant. His plans is to help the Nestenenes conquer the Earth and in the process, hopefully kill his old enemy, the Doctor.<br />
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This is a story with a somewhat controversial reputation, at least at the time it was broadcast. Much of the story involves The Master's killer plastic creations, all of which hit a little too close to home for younger viewers- killer dolls and suffocating novelty flowers were a stretch too far, even if the story doesn't actually show much of the titular Auton terror. It's in the story's mixture of the innocuous and the deadly that it's the most effective, but many of the complaints seemed, in the end, to stem from the fact that Doctor Who had, up to this point, been considered a children's show and was starting to leave that initial audience behind. Out of context the Auton attacks are scarcely more terrifying than the average episode of The Avengers, but there is something wonderfully effective about the faceless Autons who abduct the Doctor and Jo in the guise of policemen, as well as the ones "disguised" with oversize novelty mascot heads passing out fatal flowers in market squares across the country. <br />
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Jo Grant has something of a mixed first outing. The sad reality, of course, is that Liz Shaw was written off (without even a goodbye scene) because the people making the show were having trouble writing for a companion who was nearly as clever as the Doctor, and needed a sillier, more naive female character who could ask the Doctor to explain everything and get herself in trouble. In the course of the first episode Jo manages to get hypnotized by the Master and nearly destroy Unit HQ with a bomb, and her record doesn't improve much from there- Katy Manning is nicely enthusiastic but the character has yet to establish herself.<br />
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The Master, on the other hand, doesn't take long to prove his worth. While he and the Doctor have history together, there's something amusing about the fact that the Master treats his attempted conquest of the Earth as part of a long game of oneupsmanship; even his attempt to kill his nemesis is less the settling of an ancient grudge and more the ultimate last word. But just because the Master is being unbelievably petty doesn't mean he isn't ruthless or clever, and Roger Delgado gives the character more than enough presence to be a perfect Moriarty figure. It helps that he also has a strong theme as a controller, someone who forces his will upon others, and leading an army of plastic men helps establish what kind of bad guy this is. <br />
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Visually and dramatically the story is a bit lightweight, never really establishing the deadliness of the Autons as they had been in their first appearance. At times the whole thing plays more like a low-key Avengers episode than an alien invasion saga, and though a certain mundanity was always a peril of UNIT stories, here it feels like things have specifically been stripped down so as to focus on the introduction of the Master, who would, in a further twist on an already changed format, be the major villain for every story in the season (and who would be a major presence throughout the Pertwee era until Delgado's untimely death.) This may be why the Autons returned in the first place- a familiar villain from the prior season wouldn't need much explanation or exposition. <br />
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So while not a classic in its own right, "Terror of the Autons" lays the groundwork for a further spin on the Doctor Who formula. Time has diminished some of its shock value, with the result that it seems to take a while to get going, but it's worth it just to see the Doctor face off against his evil opposite; the rogue wanderer confronting a would-be tyrant. Pertwee and Delgado only get to interact for a few scenes, but it's the start of something special. <br />
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Grade: BEvan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-26071659198862668262013-12-31T19:03:00.003-06:002013-12-31T19:03:46.210-06:00Opening Credits Sequence Theater: Dead Ringers<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gbZzpXMfwvE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(Why is there still no soundtrack album goddamnit.)Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-89241523706831536222013-12-31T18:13:00.004-06:002013-12-31T18:13:38.840-06:00In Theaters: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The Secret Life of Walter Mitty</i> is probably not a great film. It has a number of flaws, and signs of compromises made in the name of box office appeal. But there's something remarkable about it. It's often beautiful, meditative, and disarmingly sincere. It really isn't much of an adaptation of the short story and at many times seems to drift away from the very premise, but since fidelity to the source material and actual quality are two completely separate things, the worst that happens is the film gets a little unfocused. It has all the signs of the familiar Oscar-bait feel good picture, but its true atmosphere is more relaxed. And there's the very real danger that the conventional elements of the film, as well as its nature as an adaptation, will overshadow its very real and very odd strengths.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Mitty (as played by Ben Stiller) spends much of his life dreaming about possible adventures and action movie heroics, in between working at Life Magazine's photo archives. His primary interest, though, is his lovely co-worker Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig), whose attention he's been trying to get without seeming too interested. However, the magazine is about to cease print publication, and the negative for the picture that's supposed to be their final cover has gone missing. The only way to track it down is to contact the photographer, old-fashioned adventurer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn), who is… well, off the map. Fueled by a desire to make his life interesting, and a need to stave off the inquiries of his new boss (a perfectly cast Adam Scott), Walter heads off in search of O'Connell across Greenland, Iceland, and places further away.<br /><br />So this is a very loose adaptation of the original story (the point of which, of course, is that Walter's adventures stay in his head), and this is the main obstacle the film faces with skeptical critics and everyone who has read the story. Thankfully for director Stiller and scripter Steven Conrad I have not, and more importantly, fidelity to a source is entirely orthagonal to film quality. If a film is well written, acted, shot, paced, etc., should we love it less because of its relation to another work of art which shares the same title? Even the familiar refrain of "Why did they even bother buying the rights" means little to me- they buy rights because original films are harder to market, and in any case if a company wants to throw money at authors and their estates for no good reason that's none of my business.<br /><br />Even considering the film in a vacuum, however, it does seem a little odd to establish a character who leads a boring life and fantasizes about a better one, and to very quickly send him on a real-life adventure which removes much of the need to fantasize. The dream sequences in the film are superb, evoking the clichés of Hollywood action spectaculars and even having the subtle signifier of richer color saturation, but they start to trail off rather abruptly when Walter's actual journey begins. <br /><br />What saves the film is that the real-life sequences have a power of their own. There is something vividly real and intense about Walter's travel to the frozen North, with subtle CG effects and the occasional fantasy enhancing gorgeous real-world imagery. The film is just plain beautifully photographed and features a lovely soundtrack, and there's a lot to be said for the picture as a purely sensory experience. <br /><br />There is perhaps something predictable in the film embracing messages of going out and finding yourself and seizing the day and so on, but Stiller keeps the schmaltz reasonably in check. Kristen Wiig continues to prove that when given an actual character (as opposed to the one-note recurring roles she had on SNL), she's a splendid actress, and there's something very real and subtle about the characters' relationship even if the literal plot makes sure to check off a few clichés. <br /><br />There's something just appealingly rare about this film- we've seen this story before, but not quite like this. As a director Ben Stiller is interested in images and the way we define ourselves in relation to them (his films before then have involved video dating, cable repairmen, and modeling), and in <i>Walter Mitty</i> he gives us a portrait of a man who has been surrounded by images which make him want to live a better life than he does. And he… may eventually realize that. Sentimental, maybe, but I refuse to consider that as any less valid than a story about the darker sides of human nature. I'm not entirely sure why I like this film so much. But I think there is something special here.<br /><br />Based on the short story by James Thurber<br />Screenplay by Steve Conrad<br />Directed by Ben Stiller<br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26797917.post-44640524714416574242013-12-31T17:39:00.001-06:002013-12-31T17:39:37.806-06:00Frasierquest 5.16: Beware of Greeks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjarG0IncBxVq_BXnYECcEYyb_DDXRek_b8JvTDPc0teAbAIzrrcbXyP84pL2hkU91THYL_PJk_E97tyf1NCDmgXM9h5YE2kHW947EfgVFER1pBFM-zDkIRAYVgH_Yitq2nQ_k/s1600/Ep111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="I have a feeling the screencaps are going to get rougher from here on out." border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjarG0IncBxVq_BXnYECcEYyb_DDXRek_b8JvTDPc0teAbAIzrrcbXyP84pL2hkU91THYL_PJk_E97tyf1NCDmgXM9h5YE2kHW947EfgVFER1pBFM-zDkIRAYVgH_Yitq2nQ_k/s320/Ep111.jpg" title="Niles, Aunt Zora, and Frasier" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Daphne: I'd like to venture an opinion here. I know this doesn't exactly concern me, but I feel very strongly about this. I like zither music, and I always have!<br /><br />[She goes to her room. Silence for a moment.]<br /><br />Frasier: And we're back! </i><br />(From KACL780.net)<br /><br />Sitcoms introduce us to families and groups of friends, but inevitably they leave people out. It's a fair bet that if a show runs long enough, we're going to meet long lost cousins who didn't exist before because the writers didn't need them to exist. "Beware of Greeks" basically posits an entire bough of the Crane family tree who we've never seen, all to get Patti LuPone to do a Greek accent and threaten people with violence. It's a silly contrivance and the whole episode is basically an odd excursion into a parallel universe, but it is amusing enough for the duration.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Frasier gets a surprise visit from his heretofore-unmentioned cousin Nikos (Joseph Will), who is getting married and wants him and his family to attend the wedding. Martin would love to see his brother Walt (John Mahon) again, but his wife Zora (LuPone) harbors a grudge against Frasier for persuading Nikos to forsake medical school in pursuit of his true passion, street juggling. To get the family back into Zora's good graces, Frasier promises not to meddle, but when he sees that Nikos' fiancee is primarily interested in mortifying her parents, and that Nikos himself is still nursing feelings for a fellow street performer, he can't help but bend the terms of his agreement.<br /><br />We've never met any of these people before, and in fact there's a bit of a continuity cheat here; Martin specifically told Niles and Frasier that he never had a brother way back in the first season. (Then again, considering Martin is supposed to be a dead research scientist according to <i>Cheers</i>, we can assume many things change over time.) When a sitcom does something this left field it's hard to avoid wondering if the writers aren't starting to run low on ideas, and there's something weirdly self-contained about the whole affair, as though we know none of these people will be on the show again. <br /><br />But the contrivance offers a few pleasures, not the least of which is LuPone. Her character is over-the-top, but in a way that's theatrical enough that it fits with the show's overall tone. There's something of a Greek stereotype in this, the fiery hot-tempered Mediterranean woman, but LuPone's performance is good enough to make that aspect worth overlooking. The exotic setting adds some visual interest to the whole affair, with most of the episode set in Zora's restaurant. There's also an amusing subplot involving cousin Yvonne (Lori Harmon), a downright Amazonian- or at least Russ Meyerian- figure with an obsessive crush on Niles. There's a lot to be said for the playful pageantry of the episode overall, even if it feels inconsequential even for a sitcom episode.<br /><br />At its core the episode is a test of Frasier's ethics, which puts him back at the center of things after a few episodes. He's forced to weigh his promises against his innate desire to do the right thing, and it helps the episode as a whole that the final encounter between Nikos and his lost love Crystal (Heide Karp) is very sweet. The inevitable breakup between him and fiancee Mary Anne (Valerie Dillman) is predicated on her only being interested in him for his ability to annoy her parents, so we don't feel too bad about that. <br /><br />"Beware of Greeks" is a fall back to the territory of the conventional sitcom, where in-laws and distant cousins can be introduced and forgotten about in the same episode all in the name of creating a funny half-hour. It's not necessarily a bad approach to the genre, even if it's one that continuity-savvy audiences have grown acutely aware- and wary- of. It's hard to argue that the episode doesn't, at the very least, represent a substantial step down from the heights of the last three installments. But it's not exactly bad television either. It's a silly side-step into classical comedy, and offers some pleasant sights and sounds along the way.<br /><br />Written by David Lloyd<br />Directed by Jeff Melman<br />Aired March 17, 1998<br /><br /><i>Niles: Do you have a death wish? She'll eat you alive!<br /><br />Frasier: Oh, I'm not afraid of her!<br /><br />Niles: Everyone is! Have you forgotten the family legend that when Hitler invaded Greece she joined the partisans just so she could strangle Nazis?<br /><br />Frasier: I have never believed that. She would have to have been five years old at the time!<br /><br />Niles: Well, that's why the legend says they were strangled with jump ropes.</i><br />Evan Watershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17263250766060234515noreply@blogger.com1