GODZILLA! ..... Has Arrived!

A sorta kinda "demotivational". Got this from Bits & Pieces.

                                                      GODZILLA! ..... Has Arrived!

      Had preordered The Criterion Collections' "redo" of Godzilla/Gojira & it appeared in my mailbox yesterday. From a quick look at both discs it's everything they said about picture/sound quality & more.

      Will be watching the "Americanized" version (Godzilla King of the Monsters) tonight. I'm saving the "original" (Gojira) viewing this weekend with friends. Am so looking forward to that!

Go to Main Page here.

Godzilla/Gojira. Oh boy! Oh boy! OH BOY!

Big G on the rampage. Credit: Toho Co. Ltd.

                               
                                Godzilla/Gojira. Oh boy! Oh boy! OH BOY!

       It's been announced the original 1954 Godzilla is getting the ole Criterion treatment. This means high quality/high resolution restoration. NOT the kind where every little scratch, burn, cut, splice, hair, whistle, snap, crackle, n' poop comes in with crystal clarity on whatever old public domain print someone dug up from under an outhouse. No, it means the results from the best print obtainable will be presented as audiences saw it when it was first released.

      Not quite in this case. Due to the then gritty conditions at Toho studios back in the early 50s the original release prints had some defects. As I understand it Criterions' treatment will correct that. I am so waiting for this.

      And that's not all! Not only the original film but a second disc will have the version we older westerners grew up with: Godzilla King of the Monsters with Raymond Burr (Where Perry Mason takes the big guy on as a client. NOT!). This pairing has been done already by Classic Media, howsomever, through their contacts, Criterion has managed to obtain a "lavender" (first generation) print of the Burr version! Hopefully this is what is used in the restoration.

      Due out with extra features 1-24-12.

Websites of a couple of real G-fans here & here.

Go to main page here. 

Atragon: One That Grew On Me

                                          Atragon: One That Grew On Me

                                                                  by

                                                                     Jay Agan

      In my younger days, I really got to hate this one.

      The early 70s were a time when Screen Gems' Shock Theater package was pretty much played out as TV stations had their pick of other horror/sci-fi selections. For some reason (cheep?) Channel 10 (WBNS Columbus, Ohio) got one or more crammed with these (then) execrable Italian, Spanish, & Japanese flicks. We could only get four stations (Cable wouldn't come out our way.) so I had to make do with 10s' Chiller Theater for my diet of the fantastic.

      Because of the above situation the 30s, 40s & 50s classics Famous Monsters of Filmland had me so hyped up over were few & far between. When one was on, it was usually as the second feature on Chillers' double bill for Friday night. I wasn't allowed to stay up late except on Friday/Saturday & only then for the first movie. The "good" folks at 10 had a nasty habit of putting the crappy one of the two on first thus the "classic" was out of reach (Today, a lot of these clinkers are considered classics & must sees!). I really got to hate Dan Imel & later Fritz the Nite Owl for that.

      One of these "cheezits" was Atragon. It was to Chiller Theater what Trouble With Tribbles was to channel 4s' (WLWC/WCMH Columbus, Ohio) Star Trek scheduling. PLAYED TO DEATH! I was something of a media snob & wanted only stuff from 30s to 50s. Foriegn films, especially Tohos' unbearable cheesiness of being, were too much for me. Atragon came to symbolize all that I then disliked in Japanese movies. The flick itself is draggy at times & the commercials certainly didn't help it any.

      Synopsis: Before the Mu Empire makes its' moves on Japan & the rest of the earth, it tries through covert means, to destroy its' only real opposition: Captain Jingujis' super submarine, Atragon. The captain is more interested in securing the glory of Japan until the bad guys snatch his daughter. Then it's a harrowing escape & a battle royal against Mu & their serpent/dragon god Manda. You know the Mu Empire is mean as the empress has a head of Chernobyl red hair to rival anything in anime.
     
      In 2005, I attended the Ohayocon anime convention at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus (I prepped myself the night before by watching Frank Capras' Know Your Enemy: Japan.). There, while fishing around for goodies in the dealers room, I came across a table selling live action films (There was a table next to it with a young lady YELLING out "We got yaoi!" every so often. Sheesh!). Scrabbling through a stack, I found Atragon. Not having seen it in over 20 years, I thought, "why not?" The price was right so I snapped it up.

      Big difference. Seeing something in color, widescreen, & NO commercials I actually got to liking it. Tsuburayas' spfx don't look so cheezy when viewed properly. From hated film to one liked. It's not a bad little time waster.

Article copyright © 9-17-2011 Jay Agan

Go to Main Page here.

DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article (only) may be copied in whole or in part. Please cite proper credit & backlink.

     
     

New Perspectives On Movie Watching

                                    New Perspectives On Movie Watching

                                                                  by

                                                                      Jay Agan

      Back in the day (Yeah, the old guy's gonna reminisce, so pay attention.) before what we know as home video, we were pretty much resigned to whatever the TV stations were going to air at any given moment. When it came to older films, one was stuck with watching lots of defective prints (cuts, burns, splices, etc.) with low quality sound. This was in the days before the film restoration movement wasn't even a glint in Ted Turners' eye.

      The BIG drawback (To me.) was & still is commercials. Tons of em'! Make no mistake. The primary purpose of commercial TV is NOT to entertain you. It is to induce you to buy stuff. Always keep that in mind. It's one of the reasons I don't watch commercial TV.

      Ads can really drag out a movie. Nothing like getting into a flick & BAM!, having to cool your jets for 5+ minutes as they try to sell you junk. I was turned off to a lot of films thinking they were slow paced & dragging. Later, when I started collecting tapes in '91, I noticed how a film I originally disliked would, without ads, pick up & come alive, "magically" transforming into a fast paced actioner.

      I'll use Tohos' The Mysterians as an example (Space alien scum want earth women! Oh yeah!? Bring it on!) Yeah, it's a cheesy (By todays CGI ridden standards.) little time waster. Chs 10 (WBNS) & 4 (WLWC now WCMH) would show this Japanese sci-fi flick off & on during the 60s & 70s. I always tried to see it even if it was a bit (To me.) overlong. Once, in 1965, I had to stop watching it & come to dinner. Half hour later I went back & noticed I hardly missed anything. That's how big  the number of commercials could get. In '92 I snapped up a VHS of it (I think it was a Goodtimes tape.). I was amazed at how much "peppier" it was without the ads.

      After a brief bout with cancer in '94, I got rid of my VHS collection & didn't touch home video again until 2001. When I did ..... Advancements in film restoration & technology opened up new things to me.

      I was cognizant of aspect ratio back in the 80s but I wasn't concerned with it overmuch. A movie was a movie as far as I was concerned. When I started on discs however, I made sure a film made after 1950 was in its correct ratio before buying & found it did make a difference.

Lobby card for The Mysterians. Credit: Toho Co. Ltd.

      Back to The Mysterians. Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock puts out an excellent example (Got it at Best Buy on impulse.). Had to have been gotten from a superior print. I was also pleased to recognize several "anime" names in the English dub cast. Campared to the Goodtimes VHS & past viewings on TV in bygone years, I marvel at what an expansive, colorful film it is. Instead of the washed out, cheesy, claustrophobic little mess I was used to, I was seeing it as it was meant to be without the constraints television has put on it.

      The Mysterians is but one example of the difference this technology has made for me in viewing movies. There are dozens of others. It has made "bad" ones good, & good ones even better.

                                            
                                          Article copyright © 7-1-2011 Jay Agan

Go to Main Page here.

DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

Two Ring Circus

Nanako Matsushima finds out that movies are still your best
entertainment. Ringu (Toho Co. Ltd & Kadokawa Shoten 1998)

                                                      Two Ring Circus

                                                                 by

                                                                    Jay Agan

     So, what is it with "Hollywood"? (I'm referring to the mentality. I know a lot of films are not "made" there.) Just what is it that makes these folks take a property & mess with it? We've all seen it before: A best selling book. A great foriegn film/classic film. Something that was wonderful, inspirational, or just dang kool. They take it & make/remake it into a piece of on-screen garbage. Look at what they did to Lord of the Rings, Godzilla, or any original & see the mess they made of it. Krap! Whole & total.

     I can only imagine how these "products" came to be. The book, concept, script, original work goes in one end of the "mill" & out the other. Passed from one to the other, everyone along the line has to put his mark, his stamp on it in order to make it "his". Each one wants to take his/her respective "significant other", point to the screen at a certain part & say, "see baby? This is why this film is 'mine'." It may be his/theirs but it's not one I'd want.

     What are they thinking when they "communicate" with one another? What goes on in these meetings of theirs? What kind of sick demons are rattling inside their skulls as they sodomize a property beyond the point of undeath?

     "Hey! Let's take out/add/change characters!"

     "Let's change the setting & plot!"

     "Why don't we jazz up the concept? See how much of an event we can make of this!"

     "Moderize it! More action & zip!"

     "Y'know? A nude scene or two definitely wouldn't hurt. Yeah! Let's go with that!"

     "We can get (Insert name of latest actor/whore du jour.) for the part. I know he/she's not right for it but audiences love him/her!"

     "Let's ....."

     "Let's appeal to the lowest common denominator!"

     If they were at all honest with themselves, their meetings would start off with:

     "How do we (With a capital F.) this?"

     Take Ringu for instance. I picked it up as a three buck special at Big Lots. I had seen The Ring a few years before & did not like it. Thanks to this Japanese original I like it even less.

     Ringu is a nice little "subdued" supernatural thriller about an urban legend where viewers of an off beat short film are killed off by a curse within a week unless they "pass" the tape on. The U.S. ("Hollywood"!) remake covers the same ground though execrably so.

     Ringu has only about two "vague" death scenes (I guess the babe coming out of the TV induces heart attacks or something.) Most of the film is devoted to tracking down & stopping the curse.

     The Ring? Well ..... The only thing I can write in its favor is they didn't add or take away much in the way of plot but what they did was more than enough to ruin it.

     I can see it now: "Hey guys! I gotta great idea! Let's add a some more deaths & kill a horse!"

     The extra deaths did nothing at all for the story & "broke up" the investigations' progression. As for the horse ..... that was just mean.

     If they wanted to "improve" on RIngu all they had to do IMHO was release it here with an English voice track. As it is, Ringu is the superior film even if I have to "struggle" with subtitles.

     "Hollywood" .....

     By the way ..... If you re-view the tape on the sixth day, do you get a seven day extension?

                                            Article copyright © 2-1-2011 Jay Agan

Go to Main Page here.

DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article (only) may be copied (with permission) in whole or in part. Please include credit reference & backlink.