by MouthForWar » Sat Jan 22, 2011 1:08 pm
-Blue Valentine- A boring movie about two boring, insufferable people being awful to eachother. Can't see what anybody sees in this garbage. Its Revolutionary Road without the class.
-Mark of the Vampire- Directed by the great Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi!! Wait, too bad it sucks. This movie is a bore and a half with an awful Scooby Doo plotline. Its a remake of the lost movie London After Midnight, and if this version is as tru to LAM as they say, I think I'll be able to deal with it if they never discover that film. Browning was a fantastic, influential director, but I don't think he adapted out of the silent era very well. Aside from Dracula (which he really didn't even direct) and Freaks, I haven't seen any talkie work of his that was the least bit impressive.
-Mad Love- Peter Lorre's English speaking debut is an ok, pulpy horror flick. Lorre is great, but the story really didn't do much for me, and I found Colin Clive surprisingly boring as the hero.
-Half Human (Japanese version)- FINALLY got my hands on a subtitled copy of this banned, lost Ishiro Honda film from the golden age of Toho monsters. I've had a raw Japanese copy for a couple years, but finally, someone had the decency to subtitle it. Even though the human cast gets kinda lost in the shuffle in the middle, this is a great film. If it wasn't banned, there's no doubt in my mind it would be considered a classic up there with Gojira, Rodan, etc. The nature of the monsters is extra heartbreaking and even poetic in this film. Also, this movie, almost more than any other show the massive influence that King Kong and Mighty Joe Young had on Honda/Tsuburaya. And the ape creatures look great. If only the Toho Kong suits looked this cool. Seeing an old school Toho monster flick that I'd never seen before made me feel like a kid again.
Kaiju Transmissions Podcast-
If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It Podcast