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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated A Monster Calls (2016) in Movies
Sep 11, 2017
Tearjerker, exploring a young boy's grief
This was an unexpected little gem of a drama showing how a boy, who is having to deal with tremendous trauma, manifests his grief.
From being bullied, abandoned and dealing with a mother dying from cancer, one day a monster in the form of a tree visits him to reveal various tales with a moral context. These come in the form of beautiful animations, not too dissimilar from The Three Brothers sequence in one of the final Harry Potter films. What we have to establish is whether the boy is actually encountering this monster or whether it is part of his repressed emotions.
Acting from the entire cast including Felicity Jones and more so the young child actor was fantastic. An interesting watch.
From being bullied, abandoned and dealing with a mother dying from cancer, one day a monster in the form of a tree visits him to reveal various tales with a moral context. These come in the form of beautiful animations, not too dissimilar from The Three Brothers sequence in one of the final Harry Potter films. What we have to establish is whether the boy is actually encountering this monster or whether it is part of his repressed emotions.
Acting from the entire cast including Felicity Jones and more so the young child actor was fantastic. An interesting watch.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) in Movies
Mar 31, 2019 (Updated Mar 31, 2019)
Hugely likeable, tongue-in-cheek mash-up of monster movie and crime drama. An ancient Aztec dragon-bird-god begins terrorising window-cleaners, construction workers and other people on top of high buildings in New York. Small-time crook (Moriarty) comes across the lair but will only tell heroic detective (Carradine) if the price is right.
The stuff with the monster is grisly good fun, while the more down to earth scenes are lifted hugely by the terrific performance of Moriarty, who seems to think he's appearing in a John Cassavetes film. The special effects are heroically over-ambitious and a subplot about an Aztec cult committing human sacrifices feels like an awkward afterthought, but that just adds to the entertainment value of an unashamed exploitation movie, and a mighty fine one too.
The stuff with the monster is grisly good fun, while the more down to earth scenes are lifted hugely by the terrific performance of Moriarty, who seems to think he's appearing in a John Cassavetes film. The special effects are heroically over-ambitious and a subplot about an Aztec cult committing human sacrifices feels like an awkward afterthought, but that just adds to the entertainment value of an unashamed exploitation movie, and a mighty fine one too.
Lady Gaga X Terry Richardson
Book
The first official book by international superstar Lady Gaga In this book of original,...
Ducati Desmodue: The Complete Story from Pantah to Scrambler
Book
A definitive account of the popular Ducati Desmodue - the reliable, affordable, high-performance...
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated The Monster Squad (1987) in Movies
Mar 13, 2021
The Monster Squad is of course a 80s classic, and one of the great gateway horrors for a younger audience to enjoy.
Its biggest selling point is it's premise and the subsequent rogues gallery of classic horror monsters, as a group of misfit school kids (and Rudy, that weird older teenager who hangs round younger kids because it makes him feel cooler or some shit) take on the likes of Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and their leader Count Dracula. It's a hell of a lot of fun, especially for people who enjoy the old Universal movies.
The whole cast are pretty likable, a decent screenplay thanks to Shane Black and director Free Dekker, and delivers some solid effects work to top it all off.
Its biggest selling point is it's premise and the subsequent rogues gallery of classic horror monsters, as a group of misfit school kids (and Rudy, that weird older teenager who hangs round younger kids because it makes him feel cooler or some shit) take on the likes of Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and their leader Count Dracula. It's a hell of a lot of fun, especially for people who enjoy the old Universal movies.
The whole cast are pretty likable, a decent screenplay thanks to Shane Black and director Free Dekker, and delivers some solid effects work to top it all off.
The Jabberwocky Princess
10.0
Rate It
Book
Beware the Jabberwock . . . The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Kitchen maid Kainda is the...
Awix (3310 KP) rated Godzilla (1954) in Movies
Mar 24, 2018 (Updated Mar 24, 2018)
The very first Godzilla movie is essentially an unlicensed remake of Eugene Lourie's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, with a prehistoric monster roused by atomic testing and going on the rampage - but being a bit worried about atom bombs is clearly not the same thing as actually having them used on your country, for this movie has a dark, traumatised quality to it completely absent from American monster movies.
The sequences with the human characters have that slightly melodramatic, soap-opera-ish feel to them common to many B-movies, but the actual monster attacks are astonishingly bleak and explicit about the massive body-count left in Godzilla's wake. You get a strong sense of a country left reeling, struggling to come to terms with why this catastrophe has been visited on them (the movie reflects the widespread Japanese belief that the country was a victim of the second world war, not an aggressor).
It's quite hard to compare this to most of the subsequent films, for this is obviously a much more serious parable. Some of the melodramatic plotting lets it down a bit, and the climax is rather disappointing given the strength of the earlier set pieces. But it's clear why people are still making movies about Godzilla nearly sixty-five years later.
The sequences with the human characters have that slightly melodramatic, soap-opera-ish feel to them common to many B-movies, but the actual monster attacks are astonishingly bleak and explicit about the massive body-count left in Godzilla's wake. You get a strong sense of a country left reeling, struggling to come to terms with why this catastrophe has been visited on them (the movie reflects the widespread Japanese belief that the country was a victim of the second world war, not an aggressor).
It's quite hard to compare this to most of the subsequent films, for this is obviously a much more serious parable. Some of the melodramatic plotting lets it down a bit, and the climax is rather disappointing given the strength of the earlier set pieces. But it's clear why people are still making movies about Godzilla nearly sixty-five years later.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Godzilla Vs Megaguirus (2000) in Movies
Mar 9, 2018 (Updated Mar 9, 2018)
Excitable first Godzilla movie of the 21st century has some decent special effects but a more than usually ridiculous plot. Elite anti-monster force known as, and I kid you not, the 'G-Graspers' plan to kill Godzilla by filling him full of black holes; for an elite anti-monster force they seem very unconcerned when weapons test causes an infestation of giant predatory dragonflies known as Meganulons (a call-back to the original Rodan movie in the 1950s). The dragonflies proceed to flood Tokyo (quite how they manage this is not clear) and feed on Godzilla's irradiated mutant blood, which is bound to end badly.
One thing you have to say is that Godzilla Vs Megaguirus is full of big and wacky ideas, but the human characters are unappealing, the plot is very comic-booky even for a Godzilla film (and not in a good way), and the movie can't seem to figure out which of the monsters is supposed to be the good guy. The film drags on for another fifteen minutes after the climactic battle, too. The monster suits and special effects are not too bad, but the same is true of all the Godzilla films from around this point in time, and those don't have the weird flaws of this one.
One thing you have to say is that Godzilla Vs Megaguirus is full of big and wacky ideas, but the human characters are unappealing, the plot is very comic-booky even for a Godzilla film (and not in a good way), and the movie can't seem to figure out which of the monsters is supposed to be the good guy. The film drags on for another fifteen minutes after the climactic battle, too. The monster suits and special effects are not too bad, but the same is true of all the Godzilla films from around this point in time, and those don't have the weird flaws of this one.
The Ickabog
Book
From J.K. Rowling, a warm, fast-paced, funny fairy tale of a fearsome monster, thrilling adventure,...