Best of the Week: July 15-21
I have been off of work this week. Admin is at a week-long training, so we can't do summer school for some reason--don't get me started; it is idiotic. Anywhoo...I have spent a lot of time this week watching movies. Here are my thoughts on a few of them
Roshamon: On Wednesday this week, I saw Seven Samurai. In preparation, I decided to watch my first Akira Kurosawa movie. In "Roshamon," a crime is told from three different points of view. I liked this movie. It is never clear which version is the correct one. All three people have their motives for the version of the story. It is well worth your time if you have not seen this one.
Seven Samurai: This is hailed as one of the greatest movies ever. When a movie has that moniker behind it, it comes with high expectations, and I always worry that it will not match what everyone says it is. "Seven Samurai" is an absolute masterpiece. A small village hires seven samurai to fight off a band of thieves who keep taking their crops. It may be a long movie (three hours and 27 minutes), but it makes the most of that time. You get to know each samurai and a few villagers, so you are invested in those involved when the attack happens. Everything about this movie is stunning; if you can find the time, see it.
Godzilla: A while back, I got the Showa-Era Godzilla Criterion Collection, and I am finally getting around to watching them. The movies in this collection are the first Godzilla movies ever made. The first one, released in 1954, is excellent. The hardest thing to do in a monster movie is to balance caring about the human characters with monster action, which this movie manages. One thing I love about all the films so far is the miniatures. When Godzilla attacked and destroyed a city, it was built for that purpose and looked spectacular every time.
Godzilla Raids Again: Here is one thing I never knew: the Godzilla in this movie is a different monster. Godzilla dies in the first movie, so this is the same species, just not the same monster. This movie sets the overarching plot of the rest of the films; Godzilla fights another giant monster or kaiju, in this case, Anguirus. Again, this movie is excellent, and the miniature work is impressive.
King Kong vs. Godzilla: This was laughably bad. First, I thought King Kong looked like Lotso from Toy Story 3, a stuffed animal that had spent too many years in a daycare being played with by toddlers. There is a scene where they are transporting Kong to get him to fight Godzilla, and balloons are lifting him, and I burst out laughing. Then there were the fight scenes. At one point, Kong swings Godzilla around by his tail after being powered up by lightning (according to my friend, the original co-star was going to be Frankenstein's monster). It's that bad.
Logan: I have been rewatching all the Fox X-Men movies in preparation for "Deadpool and Wolverine" next weekend. This is, by far, the best of those movies. It was R-rated, so it lets Logan be the vicious best that comic book fans had been waiting for. It is also a beautiful ending for Logan/Wolverine. He goes from someone who actively rejects a found family to dying to protect one.
Nimona: I hate that this is stuck on Netflix. It is a beautiful story of acceptance and the villains we make to feel safer. When I revisited my first review on Letterboxd, I was shocked that I had only given this movie three stars. When I give a movie that rating, it says, "This is good, but not great." On this rewatch, this is a great movie, and it would have been a massive hit if it had been released in theaters.
