Godzilla 2014 In Theater Review

It is said that it is better late than never and I hope that applies to this review, not to mention the movie. If it weren’t for the local theater in the small town of Spring Grove, I wouldn’t have gotten to see the new Godzilla on the big screen at all. Happily I can report the film is good and worth of the name.

Showing influences from more than just the Godzilla franchise, the film contains elements borrowed from Rodan, Cloverfield, Battle Los Angeles, and even the abominable previous Hollywood attempt from 1998. Oh what a difference proper execution and intelligent usage of those concepts make!

Since I’m late to the party, I’ll start off be addressing some of the criticisms of the film. Might as well take the bull by the horns before extolling the virtues of the piece.

Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003) Review

A muddled mess of a Godzilla film that is a direct sequel to 2002’s much better Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla this is probably the worst of the Millennium series. A weak script that links back to the original Mothra makes it more of little kids movie ala the 1970s entries. UPDATED with “HD” screen captures and Blu-ray details.

When I was a kid growing up, often there would be showings of Godzilla films on broadcast TV, usually Saturday night at 10:30 or in the afternoon. It dawned on me it might be fun to review some of the monster destroying cities films for the blog. So I chose Godzilla: Tokyo SOS as a guinea pig for this project.  I now regret that as I had to sit through the film twice like I do for every review.  Yes, you’ve been warned. Be afraid.

The movie starts out promisingly enough, with a sequence of code showing Mechagodzilla’s DNA based computers being tested segueing to Godzilla’s eye opening in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Moments later a US Air Force base picks up a UFO flying at high Mach speeds towards Japan and notify the local authorities.  Two F-15J Eagles are scrambled to intercept the UFO which has slowed to Mach 2 and is disturbing the cloud layer in a fairly decent CGI sequence.  Warning shots are fired ahead of the object without it reacting.  However, the lead pilot hears singing women and ground control doesn’t believe him.

The giant moth called… well, Mothra, emerges and the two jet fighters engage her with missiles.  Suddenly, the supersonic insect emits a golden cloud of glitter which fools the missiles into missing.  Who knew the beloved Japanese monster had chaff dispensers?

A Week Gone By

Things have been hectic the past week, hence the lack of posts. My sister arrived late on Memorial Day and stayed through until Friday night. Between mowing the lawn and teleworking, she also got  some paperwork moving forward on getting some kind of financial assistance for Dad. Cancer racks up amazing bills even with Medicare insurance and then there was the horrific heating bill due from the very harsh winter.

We’d previously gotten things moving on the latter and some help will be coming via SEMCAC with the possibility of more from the state of Minnesota. Initial application for help to the local county social services has produced a denial letter and we’ll have to follow up on that since I’m not sure what all my sister applied for in Dad’s name.

A rare bit of socializing for me occurred on Friday, the first in months was made possible by her being able to watch him. My friends, the Kuglers, had me over for dinner and conversation for a welcome break. Fun was had and I found myself very tired once I arrived home.

Things being the way they are, that socializing came at a penalty.

Memorial Day Thoughts

My first thought about today’s holiday honoring fallen American soldiers was not about their sacrifice, I’m sorry to say. Instead it was muted surprise that the date had advanced so far into 2014. Time flies when you aren’t having fun. Thoughts did turn toward the real meaning of the day, but more on that later in the post.

Yesterday was a rough day starting out with another minor emergency with my cancer stricken father. After the overnight feeding through his nasal tube, it stopped up completely for a good hour after finishing. I’m supposed to flush it with a 60ml syringe and it back blasted after 10-15ml of water. Second attempt blew open the secondary port on the tube. Talking to the nurse on duty, I was told to bring him in to the ER again within four hours of the failed flush.

There went plans to teach Sunday school at church and we ended up at Gundersen again. He had about 8 inches of tube coiled in his stomach, yet the end was in the right place in the small intestine. The nurse called from home had no problem flushing him and pulled the extra length out leaving the tube dangling quite a bit. That’s actually turning out to be handy in regards to flushes and feedings.

She also gave me smaller 20ml syringes that generate more pressure plus adaptors to get a more snug fit into the port. With that, we headed home and I collapsed in bed from total exhaustion.

When the same thing happened again this morning, I was not pleased. Multiple failed attempts to flush complete with water blasting out the secondary port had me stewing. This time I didn’t call in or take Dad to the ER, choosing to wait and see if things would change after an hour.

Turns out it took a little more than an hour, but I was finally able to flush the tube. Something odd is going on with it and it may be related to Dad sleeping on his back rather than at least 45 degrees upright like he should. As it is, my plans of going back to bed and getting some rest didn’t pan out this A.M. which means I get to inflict this post upon the virtual world.

Back to the title topic!

In the spirit of Memorial Day, I’m going to list the war films that I own that accurately depict the sacrifices of our service men. I recommend them to anyone who wants to understand the sacrifices made to protect our country and aid others.

In no particular order:

• Patton
• Tora, Tora, Tora
• Blackhawk Down
• Hamburger Hill
• The McConnell Story
• The Bridges at Toko-Ri

Three television series also make the cut:

• Victory at Sea
• Band of Brothers
• Dogfights.

I do own other war movies, but these are the realistic or factual ones. Sorry, I don’t think watching the superb Kelly’s Heroes qualifies as observing Memorial Day. It should be a day of sober remembrance, not just an excuse to cook outside with family and friends.

PARENTAL NOTE: Blackhawk Down, Hamburger Hill, and Band of Brothers are all R rated for good reasons and contain nudity, prolific profanity, and realistic gore. They are unflinching in showing the horror of combat and immoral behavior of soldiers.

Gamera the Giant Monster (1965) Review

Only one giant monster series managed to compete with Godzilla -- and it took a flying turtle to do the job. Done on the cheap amid a great deal of internal doubt about the project, Gamera spawned a franchise that lasted for years to the delight of many children. The American edits are the ones most have seen, but the original Japanese version turns out to be a slightly more serious film with Cold War themes. It also portrays the life of one very disturbed little boy. UPDATED with HD screen captures and Blu-ray details.

When Toho’s Godzilla series suffered a false start in the ‘50s, many a movie studio tried to horn in on the big monster action including Toho themselves with Rodan and Mothra. But it was not until the head of Daiei Studios saw a turtle shaped cloud while flying across the Pacific Ocean that the only true rival emerged. With none of the accomplished directors at the studio wanting to make the movie, it fell on struggling young Noriaki Yuasa to make the mad idea work. Equipped with a quiet agenda of his own, he led a production crew into uncharted waters for Daiei had never made a movie like this. Did he succeed? Oh, yeah he did -- and then some.

Thanks to Shout Factory, we finally can see what the Japanese audiences originally saw in a completely restored and remastered version. Please join me for a slightly less snarky review than that of the NTA version, Gammera the Invincible. If you want to see what professional mockery can do with the Sandy Frank version, check out my Gamera: MST3K review.

Gamera the Giant Monster starts with Soviet bombers flying over the Artic ice and a Japanese scientific expedition arriving at an Eskimo village. I may have missed it, but the reason to be there never seems to be fully explained. It is more important that our three main characters just happen to be there to witness events. They are Dr. Hidaka (Eiji Funakoshi), his assistant Kyoke Yamamoto (Harumi Kiritachi), and news photographer Aoyogi (Junichiro Yamashiko).

Buzzed by the Soviet bombers which look suspiciously like British V-bombers (specifically the Victor), Hidaka makes a comment about the Cold War going on. The fears and tensions of the not so hot clash between East and West forms the backdrop for the film, unlike Gojira where it was the simple reaction to the atomic bomb drops that ended World War II. Eleven years had gone by with new concerns replacing the old which is perfectly understandable given Japan’s geographic location. They were smack dab between the two superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

Delays in Reviews

At least I got the Godzilla flicks promised earlier posted, though the bonus one was a bridge too far to complete. That’s my sole consolation because there is nothing in the pipeline due to how things have gone with my father’s health the last few weeks. His having taken up residence in the living room, I can’t evaluate any movies with 5.1 sound until he starts feeling better and can stay awake for two hours of film.

Note: A sure way to put him to sleep is to put on a movie. Only exception is if it is loud, which is a characteristic of most surround movies these days.

At the moment, I’m thinking of going to the older classics in my film library for material to review. Monaural sound is something I can do on the PC with headphones, ditto for stereo. There are a few older reviews that need rewriting and better screen captures, so maybe that will be a way to get some writing done.

It’s Always Something

“All in all, it was a good day.” – My father.

Yesterday turned into a minor crisis event when Dad’s feeding tube malfunctioned. First clue something wasn’t right was the slower than normal rate of liquid food being pumped into him with it taking an hour longer than usual. It was his vomiting up the horrible stuff that caused alarm, because it meant the tube might be in the stomach, not the small intestine. Flushing it resulted in water back blasting the syringe out of the adaptor on the tube which would indicate a blockage or crimp somewhere.

Phone calls to the oncology and nutritionist departments followed with the latter responding. Checking the tube for crimps discovered none and the recommendation was given to bring Dad into urgent care, which we discovered is a department of the emergency room. Before leaving, it checked the tube one last time since Dad was choking and gagging on it.

It wasn’t long before he was uncontrollably heaving and unable to catch a breath. One thing about emergencies that fascinates me is the time dilation effect experienced. Thoughts race at faster than normal speeds, at least for me, which leads to an increase in calculations – not to mention movements. Slipping on the last pair of vinyl gloves in the box we have, I carefully and very quickly pulled the tube out so Dad could travel while still breathing.

With that done and him no longer in distress, we headed for La Crosse and the ER. After a long wait, he was wheeled to the clinic building and the fluoroscopy unit to have a new NJ tube put in. After briefing the RNs involved, I went to the waiting area expecting it to be awhile due to difficulties involved the first time compounded by the possibility that the night’s feeding had ended up in the stomach.

Sure enough, it took a great deal of time and effort including pumping his stomach which was filled and unable to drain. But the new tube is in. We’ll be monitoring it closely since we suspect that if this happens again a surgically implanted one will be necessary. Last night’s feeding went well according to Dad and was the most restful one in days. We’ll be modifying his feeding routine to shorten it from being 12 hours straight at night. The new schedule will be 11PM to 7AM nominally, then noon to 4PM.

If you are wondering why my father said what he did at the beginning of the post, it has to do with the fact of how well he physically handled the day. While it was “a challenge,” he got outside under his own power and even burned trash. He was up and down going to his PC transplanted to the dining room as well. Energy and activity levels were up despite the major malfunction.

Silver linings, to be sure.