So I’m bumping this old post up as I just noticed Red is available right now on Comcast OnDemand in both standard definition and HD for $6.99, which is really less than most movie tickets. The film hits DVD October 28th, but for those that don’t want to wait or can’t get to a theatre to see it, this is by far an awesome choice. Expect a review soon. If you don’t already know about the film, read on for the original post.

Avery Allan Ludlow (Brian Cox), a Korean War vet with a tragic past, lives alone in a small town, where he runs the local hardware store. Av’s only companion is a 14 year-old ginger-haired dog, aptly named Red by Av’s late wife. One day, Av and Red are enjoying a placid outing at their favorite fishing spot when three boys and a shotgun come along. In an instant, Av’s lifelong friend is gone, the victim of a cruel, senseless act. Devastated, Av determines to find out who the boys are and why they did it. Helped by a local reporter (Dickens), Av tries to expose the truth, but his efforts are ignored by authorities and mocked by the teenagers. The boys’ parents, a rich local businessman (Sizemore) and, across town, a hardscrabble laborer (Englund) and his wife (Plummer), are just as determined to keep Av down. But, faithful to the memory of his best friend, Av single-mindedly presses for justice-with or without the law on his side.

Is it just me, or did they misspell Ketchum’s last name in the trailer??

Okay, so what jerk-off film fan DIDN’T have a nerdgasm when they heard Criterion was going Blu-Ray? Raise your hand, because you have to turn in your elitist card NOW! But seriously, Criterion announcing Blu-Ray support was one of the best announcements so far for the format, and the initial line-up wasn’t too shabby either, mixing the older catalogue with brand new releases. The following announcement that these releases would be priced exactly the same as their DVD counterparts was nerdgasm number two (and a collective sigh was heard from millions of wallets). Hopefully, you aren’t all dried up yet, because the first 5 Criterion Blu-Ray’s are hitting the shelves in November, and they look sexy!

So there they are, all due out in November (I now have a raging hard-on anticipating Chungking Express on Blu-Ray…and how cool-looking is the Criterion “C” logo inside of the films title?) You can check Criterion’s website for specific specs, but I can tell you they all include the same extras as their DVD counterparts, which is already a great move by Criterion, especially on the re-releases, as so many companies seem to miss the boat when it comes to putting the extras from their older DVD’s on their Blu-Ray’s. Also of note is that while not all of the films will have 5.1 audio, sticking with Criterion’s stance on keeping films intact as they were originally presented, all of the audio tracks on the Blu-Ray’s WILL be uncompressed. I personally have no idea how much better an uncompressed mono track will sound over a compressed one, but my educated guess would be clearer and more robust sound.

The only real notable difference I could see with the Blu-Ray releases is that The Last Emperor Blu-Ray will not include the extended Television version of the film like its DVD counterpart does. I’ve never seen the film, so I can’t comment on whether this is a monumental loss or not. This does however make the Blu-Ray $20 cheaper than the DVD. I’ve also noticed that the booklets for the 3 re-releases seem to only include one essay each, while the DVD’s for these same films had multiple essays included. The Man Who Fell to Earth Blu-Ray will also be without the reprint of Walter Tevis’s novel.

Lastly, these don’t appear to have a spine number yet. Will Criterion be completely tossing out their spine-number business on the Blu-Ray’s, will they have the same spine-numbers as their DVD cousins, or will we be starting again from number one and they’ve yet to announce it? The real question here is does anyone besides my dumb ass even care? At the end of the day, it’s Criterion on Blu-Ray, and I think we’ll all settle for what they give us, spine-number or not.

Remember the good old days of thrillers that took place on a train? It’s such a ripe setting to create suspense, as films like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes and Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express have proven. It seems like in modern times though, with so many people opting to travel by their personal cars or planes, the genre has suffered. In recent memory, films that mainly take place on a train have been quite scarce, if not altogether absent. Director Brad Anderson looks to change that however with his latest film, Transsiberian, which travels through some of the seedier locales of Russia, picking up some trouble along the way.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 stars

All is going well until they make a stop at one of the various train stations on their route. There, Roy ends up getting left behind, and Jessie, along with Carlos and Abby, wait at the next train station until the train travelling behind them arrives so they can reunite with Roy. At the hotel they end up staying at, cops are making drug busts, and Carlos and Abby begin to act suspiciously. Meanwhile, Roy meets up with Detective Grinko (Ben Kingsley), who begins telling him that the Transsiberian railroad is one of the hottest routes for drug smuggling, and most drug smugglers use young, normal-looking people as “mules” to traffic the drugs on the trains. This causes Roy to wonder if Carlos and Abby are really who they say they are…

One of the best things Transsiberian offers is an air of unpredictability during most of its runtime. Anderson acts like some expert magician, having you believe the film is going in one direction, while it actually ends up veering off into territory you wouldn’t have guessed 5 minutes earlier. Because of this, the mystery for the most part is very well orchestrated. Anderson further breathes new life into the genre by having characters come in and out of the narrative at different points throughout the film. Generally in this style of film, you have a large cast of characters on a train, trouble begins, and we’re all along for the ride. Here, many major events happen at the stops, where characters get dropped off, get left behind, or show back up. It keeps the viewer wondering when, or if, a character will show up again, and what they’ve been doing while off of the train.

This device however doesn’t stop the film from creating that claustrophobic atmosphere that other films of this ilk have. When the action is taking place on the train, there are some appropriately tense scenes. Also adding to the tension is that Roy and Jessie are basically “fish out of water”. Many of the passengers on board don’t speak English, and because of this act in ways they don’t quite understand, which always lends a suitably uneasiness to the film. Helping matters along even more are some great performances from everyone on board. Woody Harrelson and Ben Kingsley are in top form here, playing off one another wonderfully, and Emily Mortimer is excellent as Jessie, in a role that ends up being the real focus of the film. It’s pretty nice to have the female end up being the centerpiece of the film by the end, and Mortimer is more than capable of handling the job.

Sadly, Transsiberian does derail in a couple of spots. The unpredictability of the film starts to lose steam during the final act, when you can begin to see exactly where this train is going. It’s a bit unfortunate, because it really feels like you’re flying by your coattails for most of the film, only to find out the final destination was pretty much pre-determined. This isn’t to say it’s bad, because it isn’t. It just feels like somewhat of a letdown when everything else succeeded in being quite unexpected. I also felt the role of Abby was played all wrong. It’s fine to make you, the viewer, think someone is suspect by their actions. However, when the characters in the film, namely Jessie, think that Abby is a “good girl” once the shit hits the fan even though it’s apparent to everyone watching that she’s been acting more suspicious than anyone else in the film comes off as a little naïve. It comes off even worse when we find out Jessie has a bit of a shady past, so these are things she should have clearly seen. Roy was always played up as the naïve member of the party, so if anyone would be so insistent that this girl is innocent, regardless of her fidgety and suspicious actions, it should have been him. Lastly, I felt the film lost a touch of suspense in its final act due to trying to be a bit too “Hollywood” in its execution.

At the end of the day though, Brad Anderson has crafted a very competent suspense film, one that may be his most mainstream to date. That’s not completely a bad thing, however. Sure, it does rely on a few tired conventions in the final act, but it still has enough of that bleak and rebellious atmosphere of his previous couple films to please fans of those works, and at the same time will likely attract casual viewers as well. People usually enjoy films where American’s end up in a foreign country and screwed up stuff starts happening to them, and thankfully this time, they’ll get a good and mostly fresh film out of the formula. So hop on, and enjoy the ride.

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Another day, another oddity from Japan. This time, it comes in the form of trashy, low-budget mayhem under the title The Girls Rebel Force of Competitive Swimmers. Well, at least that title wouldn’t have you think you were getting yourself into anything other than something off the wall. It’s how off the wall the film is however, that you may not be prepared for. You’ll get soft-core lesbian scenes, a juggling fire-breathing zombie that keeps mumbling about apples and bananas, and a pussy laser…yep, a pussy laser.

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars

Aki has transferred to a new school at the worst possible time. There’s some unknown virus spreading throughout the school, and all of the students and staff are being rounded up to get an injection to prevent being infected. Problem is, the people that have come to give the injections have their own purpose: to turn everyone at the school into mindless, flesh-craving zombies. Lucky for Aki, she ignored getting the shot. The swim team caught a break as well, as it seems that a chemical in the pools water effectively neutralizes the injection. Even luckier still for the ones that haven’t been infected, is that Aki was held as a prisoner some years back and trained to be an assassin, by the same people that are now injecting the schools population. Coincidence? Of course not!

So let me get one thing out of the way; as you can see from my rating, this is far from a great film. In fact, it’s pretty bad. Oddly enough though, it’s somehow strangely entertaining. Maybe it’s the inept nature of the acting, maybe it’s the laughably bad fight scenes, maybe it’s the awful FX….I can’t decide, however I never found myself looking at the time or twiddling my thumbs during the films 76 minute runtime. It sure as hell isn’t on the same level as the insane and wildly entertaining Machine Girl (or most other energetically nutty low-budget Japanese films), but it does effectively bring the sleazy, C-level goods. There is a pussy laser, after all.

Maybe its most redeeming factor is that among all of its shortcomings, it does find ways to be rather inventive. No where else have I seen a swim team take up arms and battle a horde of zombies (with nose plugs and flippers turned into weapons, no less), nor have I ever seen a person nursed back to health by someone transferring food to their mouth via their own mouth, like a bird feeds its chicks. The person being nursed back to health isn’t even injured in the mouth, so theoretically she can chew, and that wouldn’t matter anyway because the food we’re talking about here is soup! Oh wait, did I mention they were both girls and this was just an excuse to introduce a lesbian love-scene? Now it makes sense! Speaking of the sexual nature of the film, there’s a few soft-core scenes to be had, including the crazy guy behind all the mayhem using a flute like some insane piper to get chicks to take their clothes off so he can bang them. If the US could only make soft-core stuff like this, I’d probably stay up and watch Cinemax more regularly!

I suppose I should now touch on some of the films shortcomings, even though I doubt I’ll have the sort of time to go into all of them, as they’re numerous. Outside of what I’ve already mentioned (bad acting, terrible fight scenes, and 8th grade FX work), the film looks like it was shot for $100 on someone’s widescreen home video camera. The story makes ZERO sense, and absolutely nothing is explained. The music is cheesier than a Journey video. Some of the editing makes no sense. Shall I go on? But as I’ve already said, like some of Earth’s greatest mysteries, these all seem to help add to the trashy charm of the film. All the boobies and panty-shots didn’t hurt the proceedings either.

So yeah, as you can probably surmise by this point, The Girls Rebel Force of Competitive Swimmers is definitely not for everyone. If any of this sounds appealing to you however, it’s worth a look. Fans of trashy exploitation or wacky Japanese cinema will certainly get some degree of entertainment out of this one. Did I mention the film has a pussy laser?

If someone told Japanese author Futaro Yamada that his book The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, written in 1959, would become a multimedia explosion some 45 years later, I’m sure he wouldn’t have believed it. But that’s exactly what happened to the material, which is certainly ripe for the picking. A Romeo and Juliet style story set in the midst of rival ninja clans with magical powers is beyond awesome in my world. Obviously others agreed, and in 2003 it was turned into a 5 volume manga series entitled Basilisk, followed by a 24-episode anime series of the same name in 2005. That wasn’t all however, as at the end of the anime’s run, a theatrical live-action film was released, under the name Shinobi: Heart Under Blade. Apparently the subject matter can do no wrong, as the film is pretty much on par with everything that came before it.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

In an attempt to have the clans wipe one another out, the Shogun lifts the pact between the clans. The pretense given is that the Shogun, who is aging, needs to decide on an heir to his throne, and each clan would represent a potential heir, with the winning clans representative ascending to said throne. The leaders are to each make a list of their top 5 ninja and at dawn the next day, the battle is to begin. As fate would have it, Oboro is chosen to lead the Iga into battle, and Gannosuke is chosen to lead the Kouga. Can their love for one another transcend the bloodshed of the battlefield?

For anyone that’s seen the anime or read the manga (or read the source novel), you’ll notice that the film cuts down the opposing factions rosters by a few members each, but with a film that runs 102 minutes, it’s definitely a smart thing to do. While fans of the versions that came first will likely feel a sting of loss if their favorite character wasn’t included, everyone else will be fine. Had this film included every last character, it would have had to have been a 3-hour epic if it wanted to avoid being a complete mess. Even with the cut-down number of participants, a few of the included characters still only have a couple of minutes worth of screen time, so you can see it was certainly a wise decision to slim down the proceedings.

Left-out characters aside, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade manages to completely nail the feeling of the manga and anime before it. I’ve heard the statement “live-action anime” many times before, but it can be applied nowhere better than here. Wonder what a live-action adaptation of Ninja Scroll might look like in the right hands? Look no further. Sure, many of the cooler effects are achieved through wire-work and CGI, but how else could you translate the over-the-top nature of most action anime to live-action? Thankfully for the most part, the stuff looks damn good. There’s the occasional shot where the CGI is painfully obvious, and a couple shots here and there that look quite unnatural, but they’re few and far between, and the incredible action and moving story more than make up for any of the films technical shortcomings.

Speaking of the action, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is an action junkies dream. Whether you like your action by way of martial arts, weapons, supernatural abilities, or fueled by the melodramatic, the film has you covered. All of the characters are well versed in the ways of the ninja, and all wield unique weapons, as well as a specific “ninpo” (magic) technique. Among my favorites is Yashamaru, who fights with thin razor-sharp strings that he uses to lash his enemies with, as well as tie them up; once confined, if he pulls just a little harder on those strings, you can imagine that only bad things would come of it. You’ll also be treated to a shape-shifter, a literal “Poisonous Seductress”, an immortal, and more. All of these different aspects add up to some epic battles between the two factions. What lends even more weight is neither side is exactly good or bad. Through generations of bad blood, they feel almost obligated to hate one another, and have been manipulated by the Shogun to wipe each other out based on their long-standing hostilities. You’re likely to find yourself rooting for them to stop fighting altogether more-so than choosing a specific side.

While I found myself enjoying the hell out of this film, I can definitely see that viewers that have no knowledge of any of the previous works this story is based on not being as thrilled with the film as others that are familiar with the material. The story feels a bit rushed, some of the characters are woefully under utilized, and overall it does come off as fan-service for the already established fanbase. Regardless though, this is some of the best fan-service money can buy. Those that can put aside a somewhat shaky story foundation and enjoy the film for its excellent visual flare and amazing action sequences are sure to find much to love here. If you’re in the market for a cinematic thrill-ride, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is sure to deliver the goods.

Video
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, and is encoded in 1080p/AVC. It looks much better than the DVD, which was somewhat soft and not very sharp. The outside scenes are extremely sharp, with some nice depth and amazing landscape shots. The darker scenes lack the depth of the outside scenes, but it’s a small complaint. Also, the clarity of the picture sometimes pulls back the veil on some of the lesser CGI shots, exposing some technical shortcomings. Everything looks amazingly vibrant however, and the film for the most part is certainly enhanced by the HD treatment.

Sound
The Blu-Ray features a Japanese Dolby TrueHD 6.1 surround track as well as an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. Some may think I’m a snobbish purist because of this, but I hate dubs, so I’m only going to comment on the Japanese track, as I didn’t even give the English track a second thought. The Japanese track has some wonderful directionality, with shurikens whooshing by in the background and leaves rustling in the forest. Everything is balanced nicely, with no dialogue lost in the midst of all of the action.

Extras
No Blu-Ray exclusives here, as the disc basically features all of the extras from the DVD release, in standard definition. We get some storyboards, which to be honest I’m never much interested in. What I was interested in was a 40 minute featurette on the visual effects of the film, which took a different approach by focusing more on the VFX team and how they achieved their goals rather than languishing in lots of tech-speak. There’s also an interesting little piece on the history and legacy of many of the weapons used throughout the film. We also get a short peek at set-design, a short behind-the-scenes look at choreographing one of the fight scenes, and your standard trailers and TV spots.

If Shinobi: Heart Under Blade sounds appealing to you, and you have a Blu-Ray player, there’s no reason not to grab it. While it doesn’t have any exclusive content over the standard DVD, the upgrade in the picture quality is worth the price of admission alone, and when that price is only a couple dollars more than the DVD, you can’t go wrong. And as any other Japanese film fan can attest, a Japanese film on Blu-Ray is definitely a cause for celebration!

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The idea that your entire identity can be lost upon a horrible disfigurement to your face is nothing new to the world of cinema. Films such as Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face and Jess Franco’s The Awful Dr. Orloff have explored these themes before with varying degrees of success. These same themes in the hands of auteur Hiroshi Teshigahara and surrealist Kobo Abe however produce a beast altogether different than anything seen before. The Face of Another is a film far ahead of its time, and a masterpiece of identity lost.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 stars

The Face of Another is truly an anomaly when it comes to this style of film, choosing to focus more on the character with the affliction and how he struggles with it than on the actual situation he’s in. Okuyama is quite depressed, and rightfully so, but as the film unfolds, you begin to question his sanity, but not in ways you would have originally expected to. Of course you expect someone that’s been horribly disfigured to suffer mental instability, but would you expect to begin second guessing whether the way you see him is actually the way he is? In other words, this disfigurement that has caused him so much anguish may very will be internal, not physical. You’ll find yourself questioning whether the psychiatrist is truly a character in Okuyama’s world, or just another “face” of his own persona that is helping him cope with his internal strife. Teshigahara and Abe have certainly crafted a film about a crisis of identity that is on par with David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive or Lost Highway, and have astonishingly done it some 30+ years before.

A unique technique used by Teshigahara is inter-splicing an alternative story within the main stories narrative. Early in the film, Okuyama speaks with his wife about a film he had just seen at the theatre about a girl that, like him, has a facial disfigurement. With that, we are treated throughout the film with snippets from this story/film that parallels Okuyama’s own plight. The young woman in this storyline chooses to leave her scarred face out in the open, learning to live with her shortcoming as best she can. She is however more than inclined to cover the scar up with her hair if the situation calls for it; and as happy of a face as she puts on, she’s not as content with her problem as she portrays. At first, we’re led to believe that her story and Okuyama’s are meant to be taken in contrast, but as the stories move along, we see that they are maybe much more alike than we initially thought. While the transitions from one story to the other can at sometimes feel jarring and disjointed, overall it works very well in the confines of such a film that isn’t content with being conventional.

Tatsuya Nakadai is probably my favorite actor of all time, and here he does not disappoint in the least. In fact, it’s the nuances in his performance that actually led me to believe that this film is dealing more with an internal turmoil than something that’s on the surface. He comes off as two completely different people when he wears the mask versus the bandages, and there are a few other odd personalities he takes on during the film as well. While it’s not a selling point of the film, Nakadai seems to play multiple characters in this film, and in my eyes it rivals the performance of Jeremy Irons in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. Also worth noting is the score of experimental composer Toru Takemitsu, which becomes just as much a character in the film as the actors themselves.

As I stated in the opening paragraph, Teshigahara is certainly an auteur, and because of that you would expect some striking visuals, and you’ll indeed get just that. There’s some wonderful techniques used here, from the opening shot of the x-rayed skull of Mr. Okuyama explaining his plight, to bizarre visual cues that at first seem completely out of place, yet 10 minutes later prove to be foreshadowing of something that was to come. The ending sequence is truly something that any film fan should experience, and is a revealing affair that provides many answers through its surrealistic flourishes. Teshigahara proves in this film that you can be as surrealistic as you want to be, as long as you dangle that string in front of the viewer that will allow them, if they’re paying attention, to pull back the curtain on what the film is trying to convey. None of the imagery here is indulgent or merely for show; it all plays a part if you’re willing to look.

The Face of Another is a film that is ripe for discussion and debate. Whether you want to experience it for its amazing cinematic eye, its surrealistic descent into the mind of a man conflicted about his own identity, its tinges of horror and sci-fi themes, or its incredible score and performances, it is a film that certainly deserves to be experienced. The questions it asks are profound ones, and you may find yourself trying to figure out what makes you “you” after seeing it. Just try not to lose sight of your true self in the process.

I’m sure some of you may already know that Ong Bak 2 is in the works, with the star of the original, Tony Jaa, pulling double duty as not only the star but also sitting in the directors chair. He’s been working on the film for a while, and it still isn’t done. Word is that Jaa had become extremely stressed over directing the film (it’s his first), and he walked off the set 2 months ago. That’s not TOO weird, but it’s what Thai news sources are reporting he’s been doing in these past 2 months that may be some cause for concern.

So a few days ago, with the film only 20% away from being finished, the films financers announced they are bringing in Prachya Pinkaew, director of the original film as well as the very cool Chocolate (review), to finish the film up. But the rest of the film calls for Jaa in many scenes, and it’s been reported that Pinkaew and Jaa don’t exactly see eye-to-eye, let alone that the man can’t even be located. But wait! As of today, Jaa has resurfaced (looking quite the worse for wear in the picture above), and claims he will finish the film. Although he didn’t go into many specifics on what’s been going on, he did say he’s not dabbling in the art of black magic. Well, that’s good!

All I know, is I want to see this film. As much as I didn’t care for the original, this film looks absolutely amazing. Don’t believe me? Watch the promo reel, become a believer, and keep your fingers crossed that everyone can pull this thing together for its scheduled December release.

Our own MikeyB reported on Resident Evil: Degeneration a few weeks ago, and if you missed that post, it’s an all-new Resident Evil film done in full CGI that’s based on the storyline that was built in the game series. In other words, it means this might actually be good. Well, this past weekends San Diego Comic-Con has brought with it a new, full-length trailer for the film, and it definitely looks interesting. Seems like Resident Evil has gone the route of Dawn of the Dead, only in an airport. There’s also the introduction of a completely odd-looking new monster at the end of the trailer. Continue on for the trailer in very good quality.

Note: This review is for the original Japanese version

I hold a special place in my heart for Japanese films involving giant monsters laying waste to entire cities. In my younger days, I used to look so forward to Saturday’s when some local station would usually play one of these films on the “Creature Feature”. Unfortunately though, I think many that didn’t grow up as a fan of these films look at them as being nothing more than low-grade, cheesy entertainment. And I can’t blame them, as the US dubbed versions of most of these films are cringe-worthy. Many people probably don’t realize that the Japanese version of Godzilla (or Gojira to us purist snobs) is actually a meditation on the dangers of nuclear testing, and that most of these films are heavily altered upon import. Sure, many of them are just good escapist fun in their original forms, but there are those few that stand above the others and attempt to do something other than just provide monsters on the rampage. Mothra is one of those films, and it’s one of the most unique entries in the Kaiju genre.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Nelson however believes these girls could make him a lot of money, and he secretly takes a crew back to the island and kidnaps the girls, killing many of the islands natives. Nelson brings them back to Japan and forces the girls to star in a stage play, reaping in a massive profit. Back on the island however, the remaining natives pray to their god, named “Mothra”, which at this point is a giant egg, to go and save the girls. Nelson doesn’t realize that the girls singing actually acts as a homing device for Mothra, and when she hatches out of the egg still in the larval caterpillar stage, she heads straight towards Tokyo.

Like Gojira before it, Mothra is just as concerned with delivering a message as it is with delivering the destruction. Mothra features some heavy political subtext underneath its exterior that for the most part centers on the evils of atomic testing. Rolisica is obviously a sly substitution for America, and Nelson completely ignoring the fact that the island they’re testing on has a native population seems to be a jab at the US’s nuclear testing program. The bombing of Hiroshima was less than 20 years earlier, and many in Japan were surely still reeling from the tragedy. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most of Japan’s population were not too keen on atomic weapons.

Another way that Mothra stands out from the pack is that the monster here is portrayed as a sympathetic figure. She’s not bent on destruction, nor does she really wish anyone harm; she just wants to rescue the girls. It just so happens that she’s a giant, and destruction is sure to follow her. What also makes Mothra different from many similar films is that the creature here evolves throughout the films runtime. She goes from an egg, to a caterpillar, to her final form as a moth. Because of this, Mothra definitely has more character than many of her kaiju counterparts.

Of course, regardless of how well developed the story is, just like most films of this ilk, you’ll have to suspend disbelief just a bit to be able to enjoy yourself when it comes to the FX work. The tanks, cars, and boats look just like the remote-controlled toys they are, the scenes that involve super-imposing film on top of one another looks quite bad, and Mothra is far from frightening lumbering around on land and in the skies. Thankfully, she isn’t meant to be feared here, so it’s not too much of a sticking point. On the other hand however, some of the FX work here is among the best I’ve seen from the genre for this timeframe. Many of the destruction scenes are far better looking than they have any right to, and Mothra making her cocoon looks pretty impressive.

Among fans of these films, Mothra is among the most highly regarded, and with good reason. It sets itself apart from the pack by featuring a monster that isn’t inherently evil, and because of that it feels fresher than many of its companion films. Many true-blue Americans may frown upon the way the film portrays the US, although by the same token, I doubt the type of person that would be offended by something like this isn’t watching foreign films featuring giant monsters in the first place. For those that think this genre is just cheesy B-movie territory, Mothra is definitely a good jumping off point to see that that isn’t always the case.

So, can anyone tell me what in the hell that was?? I don’t pretend to know much about the source material, but the little I do know doesn’t indicate in the least that it’s as hyper-stylized as this Sin City-esque trailer. Nor did it ever seem like it was a “camp” comic book. It seemed very noir-ish and pulp-crime oriented. This looks campy as hell, and feels like Frank Miller overly indulging himself in green screen masturbatory excess. Someone needs to tell Frank to calm the hell down. I don’t know, it could end up being trashy fun, but compared to the original teaser, this is nothing like I expected.