Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #16 8/20-8/24

[lhb412]

[Alpha OTS]

[metal_bryan]

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

[metal_bryan]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Thomas]

Well, I didn't get to see this as I thought I would have so I'll have to go off of memory from the last time I saw it which was probably around 1995.

I got a copy of Gunhed around the same time that I got a copy of Godzilla vs. Biollante so around 1990. It didn't have subtitles same as my Biollante copy didn't, but Gunhed was half in english so it should've been and was fairly easy to put together what was going on. Coming off the high that was and still is Biollante I watched Gunhed and enjoyed it despite the lack of translation. I recognized the weakness in the execution of the action and some of the story, but by not getting a clear idea of the story due to lack of subtitles or dubbing or internet I was able to create my own ideas of what was needed to fill in the untranslated part of the story. I did seek out the info on the movie a number of years later when the internet was more robust and from what I read my take on the story was pretty much on par with that of the movie. Not knowing exactly what was said allowed me to create my own bits of story to fill in the gaps and that might have helped with my enjoyment of the film.

I like this movie. I liked it then and I suspect I'd still like it now. It's not great, and parts of it are not good, but it's not boring. The action sequences are standard fair for a late eighties stateside movie with a low budget and or poor action directing. Taking into account the poor action sequences it visually all pretty much works for me; from the usual sets of an old vacant factory standing in for a futuristic bombed out "world" (though this factory actually looks more junked up and abandoned than compared to the other abandoned factory settings used in other contemporary movies), to the costumes of a bunch of misfit "individual" mercenaries, and the contrast of Brenda Bakkes cleaner and more together uniform, to the look of the mech (Aerobot, Gunhed, the mercs air transport, and the motion or noise detecting bombs). I also enjoyed that the main character is named Brooklyn and he wears a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey which works for me. Story wise it's your standard robots try to take over the world stuff with a few bits of interesting sprinkled in. Like the hibernating over lord computer, the AI of Gunhed using baseball analogies, the kid watering the garden like the movie Silent Running, the never revealed outside world leaving it up to us to visualize the world be it post apocalyptic or beautiful and restored or some combination or just continuing to move on, neither all destroyed or all beautiful or all mundane.

All in all I enjoyed Gunhed then and based on my memory of it it's a movie I think of fondly now.


hopefully that link works

[MekaGojira3k]

See of all the things Gunhed is guilty of, I think being boring is the worst.

[metal_bryan]

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

"Texmexium" sounds like the name of a Mexican restaurant or something.

Anyway, I finally just NOW powered through the rest of this pile of crap. I really don't have anything to add that Bryan didn't already say... its the worst and most incoherent of all Toho science fiction films and aside from the effects, it is a failure on EVERY LEVEL. As in directing, writing, acting, cinematography, musical score, editing... a total wreck.

Anyway, here's my long awaited review.



F*ck this movie.

That is all.

[Alpha OTS]

[metal_bryan]

[Henry88]

and this was the most active poll out of them all.