SHATNADO!

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Following the success of Godzilla, Toho set out to build on its success with a sequel: Godzilla Raids Again. On its own, this film is fun and entertaining, but it lacks the top quality of the original masterpiece. While Godzilla’s image of an atomic threat is still present in this film, the gravely feel of a post-world war climate is gone. Also, half of the camera shots of Godzilla in the film look like cheap hand puppets. And the puppet doesn't look anything like the face on the monster suit! And the face of the suit has a slight grin, giving the monster a less threatening appearance. The deep roar is kept from the original film, as is the overall suit impression.

     What makes this film so unique is that it is the first to feature a one on one monster battle, thus laying the groundwork for the rest of the series. Godzilla’s nemesis is called Anguirus, a mutated Ankylosaurus that too was awoke from nuclear testing. As a result, they fight first on an island, then carry it to Osaka. Again, half of the close-ups of the fight are two hand puppets grappling with each other, so it can be disappointing for some fans looking for a great battle. But it’s still entertaining, and the fight’s conclusion boosts Godzilla’s image as a powerful threat.

     The golden moment of the film is the military’s unique attack on Godzilla, as its jets fire missiles at an icy mountain wall, causing avalanches to bury him. What’s amazing is that the military actually prevails, and the beast is buried. This conclusion also provides viewers with continuity, for this is precisely where they find Godzilla in the next film. But we will get to that in the next review.

Overall, Godzilla Raids Again is a transitional film. It carries the serious gravity of the original Godzilla, but also gives audiences a first glimpse of the cheap monster fights and model sets that the series is so renowned for. With that said, it doesn't deserve the negativity it gets from critics. It’s an old fashioned 50’s monster movie. It’s not supposed to be overly serious or saddening. The film is just good Saturday night fun. I give it 3 out of 4 stars! 

~Seth

Didja Know?

• This is George Takei (of Star Trek fame)'s first film project. 
• Although special effects director Eiji Tsuburya wanted the fights filmed in slow motion, the camera crank operator misunderstood and under-cranked instead of over-cranking. The resulting faster fight scenes won Tsuburya over, and they kept it in the final version.
• Unaware of Godzilla's impending runaway popularity, American producer Paul Schreibman inexplicably changed Godzilla's name to "Gigantis" for the American print!

Battle Beyond The Sun (1959) aka. Nebo Zovyot (Russia)

The late 1950's represented something of a cross-roads in human history. The US was past World War 2, rock and roll began to surface, and a new dawn in scientific discovery was just around the corner.  Now that the world had defeated the Nazis, there would be a new threat to peace: The Atomic Age. This was due in no small part to the race to be the first country to explore space.  The first moon landing would not be complete until 1969 (that is, unless you are part of the conspiracy movement who believes we were never there, but that's another blog).  President Kennedy challenged the U.S. to be the nation leading the way to this new frontier of scientific achievement. While we were told that the advancement of knowledge was the endgame, make no mistake: It was about defense.  And at the moment, the Russians were whipping our tails. 

I really will get to the movie; bear with me :-)

In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, officially kicking off the Space Race.  The same year, they also launched Sputnik 2, the first spacecraft with a living animal on board, the ill-fated dog Laika.  I've said before that B-movies, and in particular science fiction B-movies, often reflect cultural and social issues that people don't like to discuss.  For some reason, against the backdrop of space and set in the future, the issues are much more palpable. Film makers give the best social commentary, a fact still true today. I would make the case, for example, that Bryan Singer's X-Men is just as much about gay rights as it is a series about mutants fighting the bad guys, but I digress.

Enter Battle Beyond the Sun.  This Russian-made science fiction movie came out in 1959 in the U.S.S.R. and was brought to America in 1964.  The story is about two superpowers racing to the planet Mars. The two political factions presented to us are separated by hemispheres.  They go by the very creative North Hemis, and South Hemis.  The North Hemis sent a team of astronauts to their space station to prepare for the first flight to Mars. While there, they notice another ship coming in. They identify it as a South Hemis ship, which is in need of repair.  The two astronauts get permission to land, and we learn that their ship is in a state of disrepair.  The North Hemis scientists decide that science is above politics, and they help them repair the ship.  While there the South Hemis scientists learn that their political adversaries might be the first to get to Mars, and national pride takes over.

They decide to take their ship out despite the fact it's not 100% ready for the flight. They choose to take the risk of certain death in order to be the first team to Mars.  Naturally, they experience difficulty, discovering that their boosters are inadequate to counter the sun's gravitational pull.  It is up to the South Hemis team to rescue them.  They do manage to extract them from their doomed ship, and they all try to make it to Mars. They do, sort of, by landing on a moon or planetoid orbiting the Red Planet, but lack the fuel to make it to Mars itself.  Still, the scenes on the rocky moon are the best in the film. The sets are large, atmospheric, and moody.  The scene that sticks out in my mind the most is the one in which the men watch the horizon as Mars rises, much like we would watch the sun come up here, except they are right next to Mars, so the planet is large and overwhelming. For a movie from the late 1950's, the scene is well-done, and for a geek like me, kind of moving.

They also discover two monsters (one shaped like a giant space vagina and the other sort of phallic looking) on the moon which battle each other, but from what I can tell, were not a threat to the humans.  There was also a sub-plot about them needing a fuel ship to come and deliver rocket fuel which crashes on the surface.  One of the astronauts ventures out by himself and is critically injured somehow.  The plot here, believe it or not, gets a little weird.  He dies, but one of the scientists speaks of how he "gave his life up for them".  The print of the movie that I observed is missing some scenes, so it is never clear what the guy did to save the crew, or how they miraculously now have fuel to get back home, despite it being established that the fuel ship crashed and was useless to them.  Anyway, they return home to a glorious heroes welcome, roll credits.  OK. Grab a glass of wine and get comfortable, I have lots to say about this one.

The first thing I noticed about Battle Beyond the Sun is the pace of the movie.  Today, we like our movies with quick, stylized cuts and a fast beat with the dialog.  This movie will absolutely try your patience if you are part of the MTV generation who enjoy fast pacing.  They absolutely take their time to deliver dialog and exposition. The scenes which involve the NASA-like commander have a woman talking on the radio at a very slow, deliberate pace.  Another odd thing to Americans now would be the uncomfortable distance between the male leads.  Today, especially in America, we have a very solid concept of personal space. You stay in your space, this is my space, don't come near my freaking space.  In this movie, everyone seems like they are inches away from each other, especially during emotional scenes.  Also, there are several instances of older mentor types talking to their younger counterparts.  During these segments, you see things like the younger guy sitting, while the older father-figure type seems to hover over them in an uncomfortable way.

This will make American viewers today a little uncomfortable.  There is no need to be though, as it's a cultural thing.  In much of Eastern Europe, it is acceptable to invade someone's space like that, showing trust and friendship.  Another interesting thing about this story that struck me is how the protagonists place science above nationalism.  This seems counter intuitive for the time, given the condition of the U.S.-Soviet space race.  The idea that they could work together with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts was highly progressive.  It makes you wonder what we could have achieved in the 1950's and 1960's had the superpowers shared everything.  Maybe we really would have a base at Mars by now, who knows?

From a technical standpoint, the movie is full of very large holes.  They perform space walks out on their ships without flying out into space.  There is no explanation, not even a mention of magnetic boots.  They make the trip to mars very quickly, without so much as a nap.  They do earn points for detail, however.  The space station, rocket interiors, and the space command headquarters are all large and  very believable.  Lots of techno-babble at least makes them sound like they know what they are doing, and given the probable lack of common knowledge about space in 1959, it likely seemed pretty advanced. 

Special effects range from pretty decent to very good.  Unfortunately, to show rockets flying they always rely on the sideways still of the ship with stars flying by quickly shots. Every single shot is a profile like that; no views of a rocket flying toward or away from the viewer.  The set of the Martian moon is pretty amazing.  The monsters are okay, but I can't really credit the original makers as that was tacked-on for the American release.

The editing for this film in the version I saw was very heavy-handed.  A character would be talking, and in mid-sentence the movie would jump to the next scene.  Entire scenes are missing, making for a sometimes-awkward plot.  As I said previously, the pace is very different from what most people are used to.  About the most popular example of something similarly-paced is 2001: Space Odyssey.  While that film was superior in other ways, it had a similar slow beat to it.

Overall, it was a decent movie experience.  I enjoyed it for its themes, and, uh, well...I like the themes of cooperative exploration and sacrifice.  Visuals are above average for 1950's space fare, the music was wonderfully eerie and mysterious, and the  acting was pretty good. I rate it two out of four.

DIDJA KNOW?

Thomas Colchart was credited with creating the two space monsters for the American release.  Colchart has another professional name: Francis Ford Coppola.

Godzilla (1954) aka. Gojira (Japan)

By Guest Reviewer Seth Bradley:

A massive storm blows through an island. The villagers are fast asleep, except one family of three. Something is shaking the house, but it’s not the wind. Finally, in a dead panic, the younger brother bolts outside to confront the invader, with the others remaining in the home, doomed to their fate, as the house crumbles around them. An ancient roar rips through the air, as a bipedal behemoth rumbles through the village. The year is 1954, and Japanese audiences have just met Godzilla.

By far, Godzilla (1954) is the best and one of the most influential of all Science Fiction films. Even if you’re not into the big kiddie camp of the Japanese monster movies, this one is a must see! It follows the resurrection of a dinosaur, reawakened by radioactive weapons testing. Suspense fills your mind as a dark and foreboding animal raids through a village in the dead of the night. This is not a misunderstood creature, like the 1998’s Godzilla. This animal has purposely vaporized ships, killing its crew members, for no reason in particular. Sure, it sounds cliché in retrospective, but remember this is still the early 50’s. The film follows Godzilla as he rips through 300,000 volts of electrical wire, wipes out a tank division, and purposely pulls down a tower full of reporters, who annoy him with flash photography. At one point during the raid on Tokyo, he even breathes his trademark radioactive fire on the highway in front of him for no apparent reason. Clearly, this creature is looking for total destruction of Japan, as vengeance for waking him. No creature sympathy here.

The sadness comes into play in the second half of the film, after Godzilla destroys Tokyo. The city’s survivors are being corralled into field hospitals. As the camera pans over the miserable scene, you hear a baby crying somewhere in the background, reminding viewers that even the innocence of children were destroyed, along with homes and lives.

Before you start to say how silly and unrealistic a guy in a rubber suit looks on screen, I have to say in advance that the director actually made Godzilla look better in a suit than in stop motion, for the suit’s movements are slow and lumber some, as if he were actually a thousand tons.Another cool trick is that most monster scenes are shot with a low camera angle, so the audience feels like it’s looking up at something tall and massive, and not just a six foot tall guy in a suit The pitch-black night sky also casts a little darkness on the suit, hiding some of the less convincing prosthetics. One noteworthy feature is that this Godzilla design sports a pair of blank, crazed-looking eyes that stare down wildly at the fleeing people. It also has a pair of fangs, jutting out from his top jaws, like a viper. Its roar also has a much deeper pitch than the later models, giving it the sense of something powerful and angry. The sound of Godzilla’s roar was conceived by rubbing a pair of resin gloves across a bass violin, then slowing down the sound when the recording was played. 

The big G is the grand-daddy of the many giant-monster-destroys-city genre, and its influence can still be felt, including in the upcoming Pacific Rim.  This dark intro to the series is still the best, and highly recommended. Four out of Four.

(Editor's note: Did you know the director of this film, Ishiro Honda, also directed The Mysterians, as well as many other movies in this category. See the review here.)

Happy Monday the 13th!

Yor, the Hunter From the Future

Yor, the Hunter from the Future struck with a vengeance in 1983.  It is widely considered to be one of the most enjoyable bad movies ever made, especially among my generation-kids of the 80’s.  Part prehistoric adventure, part sci-fi, and all fun, this beast of a movie has it all for fans of campy B-movie fare: a silly plot (and I use that term loosely), questionable acting, hilariously bad dialog, and laughable effects.  These components are not meant in a derogatory way; it’s part of the immense charm.  Without movies of this stature, I would probably be writing about something boring!

Our movie follows the exploits of Yor, a barbarian hero who travels around bearing a constant wide grin and toting an axe, which he uses frequently when he crosses dinosaurs, giant bats, and purple cavemen, while on a quest to discover his people. I will discuss the film with specific plot points, so if you do not want to read any spoilers…you are probably at the wrong site.  You should skip to the bottom of the article where I grade the film.  Suffice to say, you should locate a VHS or burned copy of this ASAP, especially if you enjoy movies like those you would see on a typical episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The choppy narrative of the film is often attributed to it originating as a mini-series in Europe, and then edited down to its theatrical length.  While I have not confirmed this, it would explain the odd tone and pace of the story.  As he marches around, he meets up with a clan of hapless but friendly cavemen.  They are being attacked by a triceratops, which is actually an herbivore, but go figure.  He swings his axe, and saves the day.  In return for saving them, he is granted a new wife, in the form of Ka-laa, played with great 80’s big-hairiness by Corrine Clery. Yor travels around with her and her adoptive father for the rest of the movie, encountering strange and entertaining threats.

At one point, our hero gets in a skirmish with the purple cavemen, who steal Ka-laa in hopes to populate their purple clan with beautiful big-haired people I guess. Yor and Ka-laa’s guardian Pag try to figure out a way into their cavern without being overwhelmed.  As fate (and script) would have it, they are attacked by a giant bat creature. They shoot an arrow at it, and it dies immediately, falling to the earth with instant rigor mortise.   Yor gets an inspiring idea, and what follows is perhaps the greatest single scene in movie history.

Yor decides to hoist the dead rigor mortise bat over his head and use it like a hang-glider to enter the cavern, taking the cavemen by surprise and kicking much butt to the tune of his awesome theme song.  I love that.  I wish that every time I did something epic, I’d have my own theme song blaring. He flies in, and all you hear is “YOR’s WORLD! HE’S THE MAAAAN! YOR’S WORLD!”  If the energy of hearing your own theme doesn't inspire you to accomplish great things, something is wrong with you!

I won’t divulge the whole movie in this review, but I have to tell you about the final act. Yor and his friends travel to a mysterious island to search for clues about his origins.  While there, he encounters The Overlord, who runs things with his army of androids.  These guys look like a love child between Darth Vader and one of his Storm Troopers.  Yor battles the Overlord, who we’re told is the bad guy, although, come to think of it, I never really saw him to anything particularly evil.  We just know he has a dark cloak, and a beard; so, these two factors are enough to communicate to audiences that he is the bad guy.

Yor and his friends meet up with some other blond good-looking people who are decedents of his relatives.  They stage an uprising, and Yor and his caveman friends demonstrate an amazing mastery of futuristic weapons and technology, firing laser cannons and using time-bombs as if they were trained by Seal Team Six. Hey, if you’re looking for logic you are not in the right place! Yor has to swing across a chasm to deliver the bomb which is going to go off in 8 minutes. Unfortunately, he lets the cable he swung on go, and can’t swing back.  What follows here is the second most awesome scene ever, right behind the bat-glider incident.

Gal, despite being in his 60’s, grabs the cable and literally swings out to Yor, and flips upside down, allowing Yor to jump out and grab his wrists. They swing back, land safely, and Gal flips back up and jumps down, too.  This movie is flipping awesome.  Naturally, they escape just in time to not be blown up, and the narrator tells us how they live happily ever after, but he doesn't tell us how the caveman knows how to fly the star ship. Who cares, this movie is the greatest thing ever.

Yor was played by Reb Brown, a former athlete who boxed professionally and also played football at USC.  Here, he kind of looks like a cross between Steve Oedekerk from “Kung Pow” and He-Man from Masters of the Universe.  His acting is not real deep, but it is not a requirement in this project. He handles action scenes well, and is likable.  The film was directed by Antonio Marghereti, a prolific film maker who is also known for “War of the Planets” and “Hercules Against Karate”….man, how have I not reviewed that last one? Note to self: Locate “Hercules Against Karate”, like, now.  Marghereti made too many movies to list here, and his influence is wide, as noted by Quinten Tarantino’s film “Inglorious Basterds”, when a character shouts ‘Marghereti!  Marghereti!”.  It’s kind of a subtle reference, kind of a gift for the small group of the population who even know who that is.

Overall, this movie is great.  It has everything for people like me who like Bad Cinema.  It is mostly clean, with some bloody violence involving Yor hacking up the occasional dinosaur, but violence with other humans is fairly bloodless.  My only beef is the way some of the characters dress.  Their loin cloths do not hide much, so you see a little more of Yor than you would probably like to when he jumps around. It’s not anything you don’t see at the beach, but…yikes, it’s not my thing. Oddly enough, the women are better covered than he is.  The special effects are about what you would expect from a low-budget indie movie.  The dino’s are animatronic, and the sci-fi elements are pretty basic; not the same level you’d see in Star Wars, that’s for sure.

Still, I’d recommend this to anyone who is already a fan of B-Movie’s with a sci-fi/fantasy theme. 3 out of 4.

Strange Invaders (1983)

1983. It was an amazing year for those of us who were born in the early 70’s. We were old enough to appreciate the excessive style of 80’s entertainment.  Everything was over-the-top!  That year, I rocked out to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, saw the last truly good Star Wars movie, and discovered the amazing Wild River Country Park in Little Rock. It was a great time to be a kid.

One of my favorite movie memories from that year came in the form of Strange Invaders.  I didn’t get to see it until it came on HBO, but every time it surfaced my brother and I stopped whatever we were doing to watch.  For one reason or another, this crazy movie mesmerized us.  Naturally, since it was on HBO, it received lots of airtime. The channel even then had a remarkable talent for showing you the same movie over and over. We didn’t complain, though.

Cut to the present. I hadn’t seen it since then, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered it as part of a DVD collection in the clearance rack in Big Lots.  Oddly enough, Strange Invaders hasn’t aired to my knowledge much at all in 25 years. Granted, it was not Citizen Kane, but still…I mean, they air Pooty Tang for cryin’ out loud.

If you’ve never heard of this, you’re not alone. It ran briefly in the cinema, and then later became a cult hit on cable before being placed in the carbonite chamber and largely forgotten until Big Lots purchased a stack of them from some distributor. It is included with three other movies with “Invaders” or “Invasion” in the title as one of those theme collections. Naturally, I was curious as to whether it measured up to my memories of staying up late to see it every time it aired in 1983.

I wasn’t let down.

Less B-movie, and more of a loving homage to B-movies, Strange Invaders is a fun romp through the genre of Flying Saucer films.  The story involves an Everyman named Charles, who is divorced and lives in the city. He agrees to take his daughter so his ex-wife can go to her home-town on a trip. She doesn’t return, and as movie convention goes, he goes to investigate.  Here, the movie borrows the guy-goes-to-weird-place motif from countless other horror movies.

While there, he discovers a small town full of residents who are stuck in the 50’s. We soon figure out that each resident is not really human, and actually is an alien in human skin.  You see, in the 1950’s saucers came to town and aliens took over. They were only interested in this town, however. Apparently, they want to study humans, possibly for the purpose of later invasion and colonization. Where they failed was they do not understand that human culture is in a constant state of evolution, so although the story takes place in the 80’s, the inhabitants still dress like it’s the 50’s, use 50’s vernacular, and even drive old cars. This gives the town an ambiance that is both retro-cool, and simultaneously creepy.

I’m going to include some important plot points ahead, so if you don’t want any spoilers, this is your fair warning. OK, here goes…

 

Charles Bigelow discovers that his ex-wife is really an alien sent to Earth to learn about the planet, but she loves it and wants to save it. If you’re paying attention, that makes the daughter half-alien. The aliens aren’t real happy with the former Mrs. Bigelow for interbreeding, but take an unnatural interest in the daughter. Charles tries to explain the alien situation to the FBI, but is only treated like he is crazy. He takes his story to a tabloid reporter, played by Nancy Allen. Miss Allen also played in Robocop, as Robocop’s partner. She plays the part with sarcasm and disbelief, until she has a run-in with an alien herself.

She also faces disbelief from her landlord, played by the great Wallace Shawn. He has a marvelous way of playing characters that are high-strung, cocky, and nerdy all at once. If you don’t know who he is, try to remember The Princess Bride, where he is the boss character running around exclaiming, “INCONCEIVABLE!” He always plays the same way; high-pitched, wild-eyed, and hilarious.

At any rate, Charles loses his daughter to the aliens and has to get her back. He and the reporter head back to the mysterious town, only to face resistance from the FBI who really know what’s going on. It seems the aliens have an agreement with the US Government, which has been keeping their existence secret.  Charles makes it to the town anyway, and learns that the alien mother-ship is on its way back to retrieve the inhabitants, including his daughter.

The finale is pretty good, bringing the mother-ship in and letting us see the aliens in all their gooey glory. The daughter saves the day with her Force Lightening abilities, something we didn’t know about until the end. That’s ok, this Deus Ex Machina didn’t bother me because by this point, the movie has already laid the ground rules, which are basically, “Leave your disbelief at the door”.

Special effects are wonderful for a movie made in this era. There are plenty of times when we see the aliens in their normal state, and it can be awesome. The makers used practical effects to show aliens who look human peel their skin off and reveal their true selves. During the finale, we see a whole town full of people walking to the mother-ship, all while their skin oozes off to show their actual appearance. The design is kind of a cross between the typical “greys” with some reptilian features.

Aliens all have Force Lightening abilities, and absolutely hate cars (they blow them up frequently). Another ability they share is the ability to suck the soul out of humans. The effect is kind of alarming, as it resembles a person emptying out like a tube of tooth paste. In addition, the soul, or spirit ball, or whatever it is, floats away and is still sentient. When you see a kid’s energy ball sucked out of his body, you’ll hear his or her voice still saying things, calling out for the parents. I remember this aspect upsetting me a little as an 11-year-old, so maybe this movie is not for little ones, but every parent can make their own judgment.

Strange Invaders borrows from lots of great movies, and does so un-apologetically.  You’ll see bits of Invaders From Mars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and War of the Worlds. It is not as original or as good as any of those, but it is not meant to be. There is a consistent nudge-and-wink quality that is present, reminding us that this is not a serious character study or statement about the human condition. It serves as a reminder of the movies of yesteryear without devolving into parody. I'm going to rate this one 3 1/2 out of 4, falling just shy of 4 only because it's not totally original, being mostly a salute to several other superior sci-fi films from back in the day. Highly recommended!

Didja Know?

Eagle-eyed fans of the original “Lost in Space”, will spot June Lockhart and Mark Goddard in this movie, as part of its salute to campy cult science fiction shows.