This Week in Geek (3-9/12/07)

Buys

Still nothing. Worst Christmas ever.

"Accomplishments"

Aside from the blog hitting the 1-year mark yesterday, I've managed to flip a few DVDs and create 10 new Doctor Who CCG cards, which wraps up the Time Meddlers set but good. One of the 10 is a reject referencing some Monty Python sketches I like...So let's get into the movies. First up is a Godzilla double feature, starting with Mothra vs. Godzilla. I've always loved Mothra, especially the image of her blowing Godzilla to the ground with the beating of her wings, and the match-up is top notch in depicting creature effects and life-like movement for all the monsters. After sitting through both the Japanese and US versions (the latter has an extre scene even), I have to applaud the effects, but each of them does go on for a bit too long.




By the next story, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, the Godzilla franchise is well and truly on drugs. In this, a terrifying space monster is mixed in with Bondian intrigue surrounding a Venusian prophet reincarnated as a princess with a price on her head. Throw in Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra's larva to turn them into a Band of Brothers, oh, and the singing fairies from the other Mothra films are also back with a song that you won't be able to get out of your head. It's so crazy, it works. The commentary track (on the US version) does a good job of singing the praises of the camp era of Godzilla, and I agree there's real invention and charm here.

In the non-Godzilla section, we find Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai starring Forest Whitaker as a mysterious hitman who must take revenge on a crime family that has betrayed him. I loved this! Jarmusch really takes the piss out of mob movies first by making the protagonist a man of honor who follows the samurai code, and second, by making that having that crime family be composed of old men who can't quite shoot straight anymore. Not the first Jarmusch film to make me wonder whether it's supposed to be a comedy or a tragedy. Beautiful, ridiculous and tragic all mix together wonderfully.

Website Finds

Everyday is like Wednesday made me discover this bit of business and I'm spreading the wealth, so if you haven't had a good laugh at Rob Liefeld's expense today, check it out: The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings. At least his work has a redeeming feature: It's good blog fodder.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Still nothing. Worst Christmas ever.(Dec 9)

Hopes set a bit too high, maybe?
;-)
Siskoid said…
I would usually have bought myself a CRAPload of stuff by now.
Anonymous said…
As witnessed by your blog, you get craploads of geeky goodness all year long, my friend. Wait until boxing day and get better deals.
Want anything?

BTW, your John Cleese card is da bomb!
Siskoid said…
For more Cleese in Who, check out Everyone's a Critic.
Anonymous said…
First of all - "GET OUT OF MY HEAD."

I got the Godzilla and Ghidorah discs recently too.

Personally I think Rodan was too cool to just be Godzilla's frenemy!

- mwb
Siskoid said…
"Frenemy"! I like that!

Rodan did star in his own movie prior to this, and it's very good apparently.

I've yet to watch Invasion of Astro-Monster, but all the monsters are back again. Hopefully Rodan gets a good role.
Anonymous said…
"Rodan did star in his own movie prior to this, and it's very good apparently."

Indeed he did. I even have the DVD (now out of print I believe.)

And it was actually quite good. What sets it apart from some of the others of its stripe - is that Rodan doesn't mindlessly smash cities for no real reason.

He's hunting for food and scooping up humans like Tapas in a bar to eat and feed his young.

That is cool!

- mwb