The Top 25 Movies of 2010, Part 4

True Grit
Directed by the Coen Brothers

Every time the Coen Brothers release a movie, it's a safe bet that it'll be on my Top Movie list.  This one's based on the novel by Charles Portis novel which was previously adapted for the screen in the 1969 classic starring the one-and-only John Wayne.  This new version hews much closer to the source novel and, while it doesn't surpass the Wayne version, it does equal it in quality.  After her father is killed by a no-good horse thief, young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) sets off on a quest to find and punish the man.  She hires herself an experienced (and often drunk) U.S. Marshal named Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges, at his most mumbly) along with high-and-mighty Texas Ranger LaBeof (Matt Damon, always good) to track the murderer down.  While everyone in the cast does an excellent job, it's Ms. Steinfeld who carries the movie, and she does so with great ease.  She's a talented one.  And, while this may be the most "mainstream" movie in the Coens' filmography, it's still filled with Coen-y vintage dialogue, surprising violence and eccentric characters (like the bearskin-clad trader/traveling dentist Ross and Cogburn meet on the trail).  Thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Directed by Edgar Wright

I don't like Michael Sera in films.  He bugs me.  I have it on good authority that he's kind of a dink in real life, as well.  Having said that, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is good enough to surpass the Cera curse.  Based on a graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley, in the wrong hands this movie could have been a train wreck, but Edgar "Shaun of the Dead" Wright makes it work.  It hits me and my generation right in the cultural touchstone.  The story follows Canadian slacker and amateur musician Scott Pilgrim (Cera) as he embarks on the quest to win the hand of Ramona Flowers (one of my screen crushes, Mary Elizabeth Winstead).  One problem - he needs to defeat her Seven Evil Exes before he can even hope to be her man.  It's metaphor played out in a colorful outburst of video game mania and Anime fury (and many other references as well).  The stylized look, which could have become real tiresome real quick, is guided with a sure hand, the sound design is breathtaking, and it's just plain funny as hell.  It's also one of "those movies" where I notice something new and surprising with each successive viewing.  It's one of the ultimate representations of the battlefield of love, from the 8-bit graphic version of the Universal Pictures logo to the explosion of coins that occur when a bad guy is defeated, it's real fun.  Watch out for the Vegan Police!

Let Me In
Directed by Matt Reeves

I was resistant to putting this movie on my list for one main reason - this is the American remake of one of my favorite horror films of all time, Sweden's "Let the Right One In", based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and it isn't quite as good.  But the powerful story and the fine performances by the two lead actors make this well worth watching.  It's the story of a lonely, constantly bullied boy named Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and the friendship he strikes up with his new next-door neighbor Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz), who is a bloodsucking creature of the night.  Ultimately it's a story about the traps of love and friendship, the ones we let ourselves get into and the ones we are unable to avoid.  It's grim, bloody, and rather twisted, yet at the same time is very touching and strangely heartfelt, which is a hard combo to make work.  The American version lacks the odd fairy tale quality that the original Swedish version had, some of the more controversial story points are ignored, and there are a couple of obviously digitally-created body doubles that momentarily take me out of the movie, but Matt ("Cloverfield") Reeves holds this remake together (with help from Michael Giacchino's empathetic musical score).  It's a good first film from the newly-reformed Hammer Film Studios (I love the classic horror movies they produced from the '50s to the '70s).  Welcome back, Hammer!

The Expendables
Directed by Sylvester Stallone

Sometimes Extended Director's Cuts of movies replace the original Theatrical Cuts in my heart and I can never go back.  For example:  the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Brazil", "Kingdom of Heaven".  And "The Expendables".  I liked the original version, but the Extended Edition adds the soul that it lacked in theaters.  It also features more great character building moments, more lines (which make the dialogue flow better and seem less stilted), a new opening credits sequence and a couple of additions to the musical score which, well, rock pretty hard.  Stallone has been experiencing a career renaissance, lately.  His final chapters of the "Rocky" and "Rambo" sagas were spot-on excellent and, while "The Expendables" doesn't quite reach those heights, the Director's Cut comes pretty close.  As a child of the '80s, putting all of these action heroes together in one movie is a celluloid dream come true (need I mention the infamous scene featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Stallone all onscreen at the same time).  This story of a group of rootless mercenaries who make the choice to fight for honor rather than money, is a good, old-fashioned, testosterone-fest from the opening to the spectacular final 30 minute action sequence.  Plus, it's so heartwarming to see really bad guys explode into meaty chunks.  (Sniff)

Mother
Directed by Bong Joon-Ho

Have I mentioned, lately, how many great films are coming out of Korea these days?  Here's one more, a twisted drama from the director of "The Host".  Kim Hye-Ja is a crazy lady who works in an herb shop by day and performs illegal acupuncture procedures at night.  When her borderline-mentally challenged son (Won Bin) is accused of murdering a schoolgirl, she sets out to prove her son's innocence, no matter the cost.  The less said about the plot, the better, so I'll just say that it's a brilliantly twisty affair with many tense sequences and lots of quirky, gut-busting humor.  Hye-Ja is awesome in the title role - you will never forget "the dance".  The cinematography is beautiful, the story is surprisingly powerful and I find it incredibly fun to inflict this movie on unsuspecting viewers.  Heh, heh.

The Wrath of Godzilla, Part 12: In the Beginning. . . Again

By the late 1970s, Godzilla was dead.  His final movie, "Terror of Mechagodzilla", was a disappointment at both the American and Japanese box offices (officii?).  That, coupled with the fiscal woes of the Japanese film industry, sent the big lizard packing. . . for a couple of years.

From 1978 to 1981, an American Saturday morning cartoon version of Godzilla aired on a weekly basis, courtesy of Hanna Barbera.  In my neck of the woods it was known as "The Godzilla Power Hour".  It had no relation to the original Godzilla films series at all.  From what I can recollect, the story centered on a group of people who had a special device that could call Godzilla to fight for them.  In each episode, a new monster would show up to threaten the Earth and the Big G would be sent in to beat it down.  While I don't recall too much about the details of this show, I distinctly remember being disappointed in it.  This animated Godzilla was a poser.  He looked nothing like the original and didn't even have his distinctive roar.  He also had a lame comic relief sidekick, this show's version of Minilla.  Sadly, this wasn't the last time that America would treat him like crap.

Here's the opening sequence, anyway -

Then 1984 rolled around, Godzilla's 30th birthday.  The Japanese film industry was in recovery, and Godzilla's longtime producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, decided it was time to bring the big beastie back.  Based on a storyline crafted by Tanaka himself, the new movie was a direct sequel to the original 1954 "Gojira", totally ignoring all of the sequels.  It was titled "The Return of Godzilla" (or "Godzilla 1985", in America) and it marked the beginning of the second series of Godzilla movies, known as the Heisei series (named after the Emperor who was in power during the time these movies were released).  For the record, the Heisei series is my favorite of the 3 (soon to be 4) different Godzilla movie eras.

Before I move forward, I would like to take a quick look back at the American version of the very first movie, which I barely covered back in Part 1.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters  (1956)

The original version of "Gojira" wasn't released in America until 2004.  Up until then, the one I grew up with was this American release starring Raymond Burr.

It's mostly the same story.  A dinosaur mutated by atomic bomb tests rampages through Tokyo, and troubled scientist Dr. Serizawa uses his oxygen destroyer weapon to kill both Godzilla and himself, blahbitty blahbitty blah.  The major difference here is that the tale is told from the perspective of an American reporter named Steve Martin, played by "Perry Mason" himself, Raymond Burr.  While stopping over in Tokyo to visit his "old college friend" Dr. Serizawa, he gets conveniently dragged into the investigation on Odo Island, where Godzilla makes his first appearance, and is always there on the sidelines, making commentary as the monster smashes cities.

American director Terry Morse was hired to shoot all of the added scenes with Burr.  He does a decent job of integrating the footage, using body doubles, trick editing, and other devices to make it all cohere.  The fact that Burr is on the sidelines for most of the movie makes for a bit of a laugh (he states the obvious quite a lot during his commentating), but you can tell that Burr was a professional who took his work very seriously.  The legendary English dubbing of the Japanese-speaking actors is present here, but it's limited in its use and is fairly well done.  It's not until later sequels that the English dubbing would get cheesy and ridiculous.

Despite the added footage, the American version is 18 minutes shorter than the Japanese version.  While all of the special effects and music remains, lots of character footage was cut in order to make way for the added Burr stuff.  Some anti-war political dialogue was also cut, as well as some dialogue where characters refer directly to the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The scene where a desperate mother consoles her children as they are about to be killed during the Tokyo attack was also cut - it was probably considered too intense for American kiddies.  There's also a Raymond Burr speech at the end which takes the movie out on a slight note of hope - the original version was much more bleak and hard-hitting.

In summary, while the Japanese original is clearly the superior film, I still love the American version.  After all, it's the one I grew up with!  Also, the American version has a bit of that retro-'50s American cheesiness, which gives the story some added flavor.  And Burr's serious performance is fun to watch, too.  It's a classic.

Dynamic Violence!

Godzilla 1985 (um, 1985)

I remember the day my parents showed me an article in the local Star Tribune newspaper which proudly announced that Godzilla would be returning to big screen in an all-new movie with updated special effects.  It was an incredibly exciting event for 9-year-old me!  Finally, I would be able to see my favorite movie monster in an actual movie theater, with popcorn and sticky floors and everything.  I still remember that weekend.  While I was ultimately a little bit disappointed with the actual movie, the experience itself was a milestone in my moviegoing life.

Plus, they played this very funny (and very short) cartoon in the theater before the start of the movie.  Here it is. . .

Ah, it still cracks me up.

"The Return of Godzilla" was released in Japan in 1984, and was a monster hit (pun intended).  B-movie king Roger Corman soon snapped up the U.S. release rights, re-edited the movie, added new footage (with Raymond Burr!), and released it in American theaters (through his company New World Pictures) as "Godzilla 1985".  As the Japanese version of this movie has never been released in America - hell, the American version hasn't even been released in America (except for on VHS, which I referred to for this review) - I will be focusing on the American cut.

The story:  A ship is lost at sea during a massive storm.  The crew witnesses a brand new Godzilla rise from an erupting volcanic island.  What's he doing there?  You'll find out in a later movie.  I maintain that, like the second Godzilla from "Godzilla Raids Again", this new one is a male of the species.  Just sayin'. . .

A reporter (natch) on a sailboat finds the lost ship and its sole surviving crew member.  The rest of the crew was eaten by a man-sized mutated sea louse (this scene scared my pants off as a kid), which the survivor kills with an axe, saving the reporter.  The Japanese government, upon learning of the arrival of a new Godzilla, decides to keep the news a secret so as not to panic the populace.

Meanwhile, the reporter is sent to see a scientist who is an expert on Godzilla (his parents died in the '56 attack).  Coincidentally, the scientist's assistant happens to be the sister of the survivor from the ship in the opening sequence.  The reporter decides to tell the sister that her bro is alive, and much melodrama ensues.

Godzilla destroys a Russian nuclear submarine.  We also discover that Godzilla has active sonar.  Naturally, Russia and America are soon at each other's throats (this is 1985, remember), but all of that is put aside when Godzilla makes his first appearance, destroying a nuclear power plant on the Japanese mainland and feeding off of the reactor.  See, in the Heisei series, Godzilla has a nuclear-powered heart.  Then a flock of birds fly by and he turns to follow them, moving away (Important Plot Point).

After a press conference, where it's decided that nukes are not to be used to combat Godzilla, the Russians disobey - they have a ship in Tokyo Bay which is a secret launch facility, and it's put on standby.  The Americans, in new footage shot for the American release, decide to call in an expert - Raymond Burr, reprising his role as Steve Martin (only referred to as "Mr. Martin", because of the popularity of the famous comedian also named Steve Martin).  He's still very serious, and carries around an ivory dragon carving, which he likes to fondle in a disturbing manner.

Japan decides to use a secret weapon called Super X, which was originally built to defend the capital, to fight off Godzilla.  They arm the super weapon with cadmium bombs and other explosive goodies.  Meanwhile, the scientist watches footage of Godzilla turning away from the nuclear power plant.  He appears to be following some birds, perhaps because dinosaurs and birds share a common ancestry and the bird calls appeal to some sort of animal instinct in Godzilla.  Hmmmm (Important Plot Point).

Godzilla finally arrives in Tokyo, and the big showdown between the monster and the army begins.  The army loses.  The city gets smashed.  The Russian ship in the bay is also smashed, and the Russian agent, in his death throes, launches a nuke at the Big G -

Here is a difference between the American and Japanese versions.  In the American version, it's edited in such a way to suggest that the Russian agent deliberately launched the nuke at Tokyo.  In the original cut, the Russian agent was apparently trying to stop the nuke from launching, but was too late.  Ah, those wacky Americans.

While the good guys (reporter, sister, bro, scientist) run around the destroyed city (very impressive "rubble" set dressing here), the Super X engages G, taking him down by shooting a few cadmium missiles into his mouth.  The Americans, urged by the Japanese, fire a nuke at the incoming Russian missile in an attempt to stop it.  The missiles collide in the atmosphere, causing a nuclear blast which knocks out all power with its electromagnetic pulse.  Red lightning (nuclear, I guess) strikes Godzilla and, boom, he's revived.  He takes out the Super X by dropping a building on it.

The scientist enacts his plan.  He causes Godzilla to follow him by emitting a signal like that of the birds in the power plant scene (Important Plot Point).  Godzilla is led to a volcano on Oyashima Island, where the military sets off explosives around the rim to create an eruption.  Godzilla is swallowed up by the volcano but, like Raymond Burr says in his final speech, he ain't dead, just resting.

Like I mentioned earlier, I wasn't a big fan of this one when I was younger.  Heck, I wasn't that fond of the original Godzilla film, either, as a kid.  But as an adult, my appreciation for both these movies has grown quite a bit.  This is the definitive Godzilla movie of the '80s ("Gojira" defined the '50s, "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" the '60s, and "Godzilla vs Hedorah" the '70s).  I also enjoy the serious approach to this movie.  It's slicker, more intense (with a grim, majestic new musical score).  I think I didn't enjoy it as a kid merely because Godzilla didn't fight another monster.

I love the new Heisei Godzilla design.  He's meaner, more badass, more unstoppable, and his lip curls like he's sneering.  The coolest change, to me, concerns the monster's tone.  There's an element of deep sadness to the Heisei Godzilla.  He's like Frankenstein's monster, a rampaging thing forced by his own nature to punish his creator (us).  The Japanese treat him as something to respect as well as fear, like a force of nature.  When Godzilla is thrown into the volcano at the end of the movie, it's kind of sad even though we all know he's not dead.  It's a fascinating dichotomy.

I think that director Koji Hashimoto did a fine job with "Godzilla 1985".  This would be his one and only Godzilla movie, unfortunately.  He brought modern sensibilities and a slick style to the series, updating it quite nicely.  It didn't have "Star Wars"-style special effects or anything, but they were much improved and creatively realized.

R.J. Kizer directed the American scenes.  Cheesy.  While it's nice to see Raymond Burr back (he's still a consummate professional), he has virtually nothing to do.  He stands around the Pentagon, saying things like "Godzilla's not dead yet" while a Grumpy General and a Funny Redheaded Officer make "funny" quips.  Apparently, Roger Corman originally intended to make the American version entirely a comedy, but Burr urged him to keep it serious.  Thank you Mr. Burr.

If there's one thing I learned from the American scenes, it's this - people at the Pentagon sure do enjoy Dr. Pepper.

Sadly, "Godzilla 1985" was not a box office hit like the Japanese original.  While Japan continued on with the series, Godzilla would not be seen again in the U.S. until the late '90s.  It was a sad time to be a Godzilla fan in America.

But that's all in the past!  Join me next time for robots, time travel, genetic mutations and. . . gardening?

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Take Shelter (2011)

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?  I would like to direct your eyes to a great new movie I've recently discovered.  It evaded me during its limited theatrical run, but after viewing the trailer in the Special Features section of another movie's DVD, a little voice in the back of my head told me to go to my local Best Buy and blind buy it, something I rarely ever do.  So I did.  I was not disappointed.  I think I've watched it about a zillion times since I bought it (my calculations might be off by one or two times).  It's one of my favorites of 2011.  I only wish that I could've seen it on the big screen.

I personally recommend you go into the movie blind, but if you need some incentive, here's the trailer -

Okay, if you need some more convincing, I'm going to talk about the movie a little.  I absolutely refuse to spoil a couple of particularly sensitive plot points (even though this prevents me from talking about my favorite elements of the film), but I will still label the following paragraphs with a . . .

SPOILER ALERT

So you've got the general idea of what the movie is about - it concerns the mental breakdown of a family man and the consequences of that breakdown on his life and loved ones.  Thematically, it's about a man who doesn't want to lose his family and will go to whatever lengths he can to prevent that.

Michael Shannon gives a splendidly understated portrayal as Curtis LaForche, the guy going crazy.  You may not recognize his name, but his face may be familiar.  He's been in lots of movies but this is his first starring role (we'll see him next summer as the new General Zod in "Superman: Man of Steel").  He does the most important thing an actor can do with a role like this - he generates sympathy.  For the entire movie, I was rooting for him to overcome his demons.  It's a very hard performance to pull off convincingly, but he does it.

While Shannon hogs the spotlight, it's Jessica Chastain, as his wife Samantha, who is the absolute heart and soul of the movie.  Chastain has broken into the "big time" this year.  She was nominated as Best Actress for her role in "The Tree of Life" but, frankly, she gives a far better performance here in "Take Shelter".  She's awesome.

Actually, there isn't a weak link in the entire cast.  Everyone, from the leads on down to the extras, are 100% authentic, and that's a rare thing to find in any movie.  It's a gall durn miracle.

Jeff Nichols is the guy who wrote and directed "Take Shelter".  This is only his second feature film, after his debut with "Shotgun Stories".  He does a bang-up job of slowly and expertly building up the tension, slipping from a deliberately disjointed opening act to a maddening downward spiral into crazytown.  "Tense" is the key word here - it's ever-present, a haunting aura that drives the movie forward at a constant pace.  It's not a face-paced movie by any means, but it goes by quickly, if that makes any sense.  Well, that's how it felt to me.  I also get the feeling that Stephen King would love this movie if he saw it.  There's a definite "Kingly" air to the story.

Speaking of tension, have I mentioned that the storms in Curtis's vision aren't your normal, garden variety thunderboomers?  They're massive buggers that spawn multiple tornadoes and drop a thick, yellow rain which drives people (and animals) into a raving mad frenzy.  Yikes!  All these visions are expertly realized by the visual effects artists at Hydraul-x, despite the film's minuscule budget.

I need to stop now.  There's only so much praising you readers can take before the urge to vomit sets in, so I'll call it quits 'til next time.  You know how sometimes you run across something (a song, movie, or book) so extraordinary that you can't resist the urge to run wildly into the streets, singing its virtues at the top of your lungs for the rest of the world to hear?  This is one of those things.  And I know I'm not alone.  I've already met two other people who are just as crazy for this movie as I am, so it's a madness shared by at least three.

Check it out and see for yourself.  Join us. . .