Tag: Kyle Chandler

The Bigger They Come Part 14 (Godzilla, the King of the Monsters, 2019)

Godzilla_King_of_the_Monsters_PosterReturning to the present after Kong Skull Island’s 70’s setting, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is our chance for some giant monster against monster action.

With a quick revisit to the destruction of the end of 2014’s Godzilla by Gareth Edwards, we meet the Russell family who are searching for their son while Godzilla fights the MUTOs.

Jumping to the present, Mark and Emma Russell are estranged, with Emma continuing her scientific work with Monarch. When Emma and their daughter Maddie are kidnapped by Echo-Terrorists, along with a weapon that allows for some communication with the titans, Mark is recruited by Monarch to help get them back.

It turns out to be more complex than that, some believe that the Titans are the key to healing the planet.  But their confidence lacks important data that could doom the planet and humanity.

So… One of my complaints with Edward’s Godzilla was it’s slow drawn out reveal of Godzilla. This was the umpteenth version of Godzilla and the slow reveal was unnecessary and pretty annoying. Here, we get to start seeing the titans very quickly and dramatically.  Director Michael Dougherty knows that a movie called Godzilla: King of the Monsters will need to deliver on the monsters.

And boy does he.  The film has several exciting sequences as Godzilla fights the new renditions of classic ToHo monsters. The designs of the creatures are great, they have a sense of life and threat.

I also liked the human characters in this film. It was nice to see Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins return from the previous film. Chandler is solid as a character who would just as soon see the titans all dead, but is forced to confront his anger and bitterness to save his family and the world. Vera Farmiga is both sympathetic and frustrating as Emma, who loves her family, but seems to skirt the line of ethics in her choices.  And Stranger Thing’s Millie Bobby Brown is very good as the surviving child who really wants to do what is right and also honor her lost brother.  The film has a fun supporting cast as well.

I really enjoyed this film.  The myth building, the action and the characters came together for crazy monster bashing fun.

 

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The Competition of Life (Game Night, 2018)

Game_Night_PosterGame Night introduces the viewer to Max and Annie, a couple that are a very competitive team in games. Any game. Trivia, board games, whatever.  It shows us a series of events leading to the present, framing their relationship in this light of their aggressive “We have to Win Spirit”.

One night Max’s older brother invites he and some friends over for a special game. It is a kidnapping  mystery hunt, in which actors show up to kidnap brother Brooks. But when gangsters show up and kidnap him in front of Max, Annie and their friends, they believe it is just part of the game. They set about trying to find Brooks, never realizing the threat of the situation until they are in to deep dealing with the criminal underground.

All of this is, of course a lesson for Max, who fears that if he and Annie have kids, their fun care free life is over. His competitive focus is never satisfied because of his fears of their lives changing. It is not anything super profound, but it works within the context of the tale which is more about the screwball antics.

Game Night is a pretty fun movie (though there are some tonal issues). It has a likable cast and some memorable performances. It yields plenty of laughs and entertaining.

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The Bigger They Come Part 3 (King Kong, 2005)

king-kong-2005-posterFollowing the smashing success of the Lord of the Rings films, Jackson had the cred to get a pet project off the ground.  A remake of 1933’s classic King Kong.  He wanted to make an epic, and it is far from the cheesey camp of the 1976 film starring Jessica Lang, Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin.

Instead of updating the location to modern times, Jackson meticulously recreates 1930s New York.  He introduces us to Carl Denham, a director who dreams very big and is trying to secure financing to go to a mysterious island shown on a map he has acquired.  He hires down on his luck playwright Jack Driscoll to write a script for a grand adventure.  He finds a beautiful leading lady in struggling actress Ann Darrow. His male lead is the egotistical Bruce Baxter.

They get on a boat, go to Skull Island, explore, find monsters, the Natives kidnap Ann who is sacrificed to a mysterious monster.  The monster is the giant ape Kong who takes a liking to Darrow.  Jack and Carl lead the crew to rescue Ann.  Denham, of course, has an ulterior motive of getting film of the monsters on the island.  They save Ann, capture Kong and Kong is brought to New York.  Kong Breaks free and runs amok in the city.

Jackson hits all the beats, and it all sounds exciting.  He is very faithful to the original story.  Except…well, in typical Peter Jackson fashion, he overdoes it.  The film takes an hour to set things up.  A full hour before they get to Skull Island.  All in a misguided attempt to set up character motivation and romance.  Once on Skull Island, the film picks up and gets very exciting.  But an hour of setup and added time for the reveal of King Kong…makes for a dull and slow film.  The whole cruel savages approach to Skull Island’s natives is embarrassingly dated.

The performance by Andy Serkis as Kong is really impressive looking.  The digital Kong is still impressive looking.  But the film clocks in at three hours (and that is before Jackson’s expanded cut) and that results ina ridiculous amount of bloated storytelling.

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