Rate the latest movie you've seen.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Lisa Marie (Ichabod's mother) played the Martian hottie in "Mars Attacks".

[GSOgymrat]

Lisa Marie (Ichabod's mother) played the Martian hottie in "Mars Attacks".

Hands down the best gag in that movie.

[Hydra009]

I've been on a Godzilla kick lately, watching more of that franchise.

Shin Godzilla was pretty good.  I liked how we didn't get to see much at first and were initially in the dark as much as the Japanese leadership.  I also liked how it was near constantly interwoven with a boots on the ground perspective, which helped sell the sheer gravity of the situation.

But I like the old stuff for the sheer variety of the monsters.  And perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm a big fan of King Ghidorah.

Edit - I just watched King of the Monsters (2019) and the most unrealistic thing by far was near-instantaneous repair of electronic equipment in the middle of a storm.  Water is just pouring onto that circuit board and it boots on the first try like it's nothing.  That's the tech equivalent of walking to a naval battle and parting the sea to raise the dead.  There's miracles and then there's Miracles, know what I'm saying?

[drunkenshoe]

In my opinion, Sleepy Hollow was one of those ambitious works overestimating its own era.

[spoiler]The movie is made in 1999, in the millennial threshold, when it was just a few years away for science and technology to change our lives dramatically. What started in early 90s was speeding up. Mobile phones have become this colourful everyday gadgets, first sms messages, WWW browser, windows 95, Genom Project about to be finished, Dolly, tube babies...nothing was going to be same again. Science is about to become some 'magic' you can touch and then disappear on the horizon. Those days were weird. You could still get these kind of news in small screen and there was still one mainstream, 'one' reality.

The original Icabhod Crane firmly believes in every kind of supernatural, he is scared of them and he is some sort of a stupid conman, a pick up artist going on in women's circles with his supernatural stories and he wants to marry a wealthy man's daughter for her inheritance. He also believes that women are the most troubling, puzzling than any other supernatural entities. Well, in a nutshell, in the end he becomes the victim of his beliefs by a simple trick played on him, and that's how the story ends.

The Icabhod Crane in the movie exists in another millenial threshold, a world again that is about to change. He doesn't believe in anything supernatural. He is this innocent, clumsy, nerd inventor who believes everything can be explained, he believes in justice. Also his evil father killed her mother for being a witch. (It points to the real life witch burnings along with the killing of the midwife.)The rest is a gender play with metaphors. The character he loves and the villian of the story are both women and witches. One is good, one is evil. So women are not naturally born evil, but people become evil or good with what they live through. (The twin sister.) Headless horseman is not the villian. He is the wielded old power itself,  in this context it is masculine; the Empire; the religion. It kills everything against itself. In the movie the victims all knew and aware of what is going on; they know her 'secret'. As you know the Hessian soldiers have served in the British army in the American Indepedence war... The story ends good, all is going to change in the new world (America), and that's only possible with fighting against all supernatural beliefs; banishing the Hessian soldier. But the headless horseman 'exists', he'll never die and where he reigns is 'hell'. [/spoiler]

So it is a twist and turn on the old character and the story on its head; it was an overestimated wish for the dawning new era I guess. Cheesy, romantic comedy fairy tale with a good ending. I think that's why I love it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've been on a Godzilla kick lately, watching more of that franchise.

"Shin Godzilla" was an analogy of the Japanese government's response to the Fukushima meltdown. The governments, as they went past, were unable to produce a workable solution to the disaster, "as usual".

As for the 2019, we have a dozen or so kaiju running around, so worrying about who "just happened" to be carrying a soldering iron doesn't seem that important.

[Blackleaf]

I loved Shin Godzilla. The only part that took me out of it was the heavy Japanese accent of the woman who was supposed to be American. I actually felt invested in the human characters, which is a rarity in these movies, and was rooting for them to find a solution. It's also nice seeing Godzilla portrayed as the bad guy again, after so many years of him being rebranded as the hero. He was originally designed to represent the nuclear bombs we dropped on Japan, for crying out loud, and they were trying to turn him into a champion for humanity. lol

[drunkenshoe]

But why change the original mitten paws? He is even more adorable with them.

[Blackleaf]

[drunkenshoe]

Oh come on, King Kong only evolved to look more like a silver back. He can't get more adorable. He exactly 'looks' like a het male now. :p *Runs...

[Hydra009]

I loved Shin Godzilla. The only part that took me out of it was the heavy Japanese accent of the woman who was supposed to be American.

And aspirations to be President, too.  Good luck!

It was really jarring when everyone else was speaking japanese and she abruptly started speaking english.  It's like someone saying shikata ga nai during a joint session of Congress, lol.

*edit - though I did like the American bomber pilots speaking English, specifically them promising payback.  100% spot on.

[Blackleaf]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjk3f4RRFOs

Interesting video comparing the two Kaiju and their advantages. One thing the video doesn't take into account is human intervention, however. We see in the trailers that the humans are clearly backing Kong in this battle, even fashioning himself a weapon. In a 1v1 battle, there's a pretty clear winner, but the humans could possibly tip the scales in Kong's favor.

I wonder what the Japanese think about these movies. The American-made King Kong vs the Japanese Godzilla. I think Godzilla is much more popular in both countries, but I wonder if the Japanese think the idea of pitting their atomic titan against a monkey is stupid.

[Hydra009]

King Kong definitely has the edge in upper-body strength, the ability to leap and climb, and can get up quickly from being knocked down.  Godzilla is a bit sluggish getting up and afaik, in his more recent incarnation, can't jump at all.

My twin says that King Kong's weapon is unfair, but fighting a walking nuclear reactor isn't fair, either.  Also, using a stone age hand axe is perfectly in line with apes' natural talent for rudimentary tool-building.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I think Godzilla is much more popular in both countries, but I wonder if the Japanese think the idea of pitting their atomic titan against a monkey is stupid.

I watched pure, undiluted Japanese TV for two years. Anything is okay.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My twin says that King Kong's weapon is unfair, but fighting a walking nuclear reactor isn't fair, either.  Also, using a stone age hand axe is perfectly in line with apes' natural talent for rudimentary tool-building.

Kong's parents taught humans how to use tools.

[GSOgymrat]

This bulldog is into King Kong.

https://youtu.be/sLFZe-epD3M