War of the Gargantuas

A direct sequel (with some small retconning) of Frankenstein vs. Baragon, War of the Gargantuas is mostly a generic Honda kaiju (or kaijin?) movie. There's still the thin characters, the insistence on categorization as a major plot thread, and then Eiji Tsuburaya's great special effects work. There's an extra wrinkle in the final act that…

Invasion of Astro-Monster

Huzzah! A Godzilla movie I actually like! Sure, it's still not great cinema, but it doesn't try to be. Invasion of Astro-Monster still only carries the modest ambition to entertain, but the writing is finally the kind of well-assembled series of events where character arcs and motives have bearings on the plot. It's just about…

Frankenstein vs. Baragon

Toho was always searching for the next monster to add to its pantheon, wasn't it? Taking and modifying the particulars of the Creature birthed from Dr. Frankenstein's work and throwing it together with another giant lizard thing, hidden away from the ravages of time and coming up because coincidence drives all of this stuff. Bringing…

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster

Toho takes the monster mashup to the logical conclusion: turning the familiar ones into good guys to fight the new monstrous bad guy. These sorts of franchises can't go on forever making a huge threat repeatedly defeatable. The threat loses its sense of danger by the tenth time. So, if you're going to bring Godzilla…

Megalopolis – Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jwmeJq8384 I've been hearing about this movie for decades. Conceived of in the 70s, rewritten endlessly, hopelessly expensive, it was never going to get made. And then Francis Ford Coppola sold his winery and just made the thing. I gotta see this. Please, American distributors, pick this up. It's sure to be better than Jack,…