Monsters: A review

I was excited to find a pre-theatrical rental of the film on Amazon this weekend, excited enough to pay as much online to see the film as I would in the theater and then disappointed to have paid that much.

I found Monsters to be incredibly disappointing for such a good movie. I am a huge fan of Cloverfield, The Mist and District 9 and after watching the trailer I expected a good mix of all three of these films in Monsters. The film was beautiful, the acting well-done the monsters looked neat. I really blame the trailer for my disappointment in the film, everything you see in the trailer makes up about 90% of the aliens in the movie, except for one scene right at the end.

Let me be clear, Monsters is a good movie, but Monsters is not a monster movie...it's not horror, it's just barely sci-fi. Imagine Cloverfield was about people being evacuated, but instead of being at the epicenter of the attacks, the movie was about a couple being evacuated from New Jersey and we'd see Clover on a television in the background sometimes. That's how much of a monster movie this was. You know how some Godzilla movies take a long time getting to the big monster fight? I've always imagined hell was a really long version of that...Godzilla and Ghidorah moving slowly closer to each other across Japan while the military and scientists talked about the upcoming fight FOR ETERNITY! That's how Monsters played me...I kept waiting and waiting for a sudden vicious monster attack, danger, suspense, fear...monsters!

But, if you go into the movie with no presuppositions, you're one of those insane people who run into a video store and ask the person behind the counter to surprise you, you could like this movie. I think the studio is selling it wrong and is going to piss a lot of people off. It's a good movie, a movie about people, a movie with a subtle (for a change) political message and it is very beautiful to watch. And after finding out it was made for only $15K? I am really impressed by it. Once again though, if you want to see Monsters based on the trailer, you may be disappointed. If you want to see monsters, see the Mist or Cloverfield. If you want political messages delivered with rockets and lasers, see District 9. If you want to see a surprising well made movie about two people with a backdrop of alien invasion, see Monsters. It's really not that bad.

Soapy! Kitty!

Girls, huh?

A Modern Guide

Skipper Learns a Lesson

Racism and bigotry are not funny....but a racist and bigot dog might be....

Boogie Boogie Boogie!

And this is probably one of the greatest things I've ever seen!

Maybe a staycation this year....

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IRON KING!

Just got in my Iron King DVDs today. I was very impressed by the package design and presentation. So much so that I'll probably order the Red Baron series soon too. Too bad that Bci/Ronin isn't doing these sets any longer. They had promised a Silver Mask release as well.

New DaiKaiju in 2010!

Media Blasters will be releasing a new Kaiju film March 31! Death Kappa!

Saturday Morning Flashback!

Mosura!

In celebration of finally getting a Region 1 release of Mothra (I know it was out months ago, but I just found out) here's the original trailer!

Time for Timers!

BOOKS! CHECK EM OUT!

Negadon!

If you haven't had a chance to see it, Negadon: The Monster from Mars is up on Hulu now!

New Bandai Godzilla Set in 2010? Kinda!

Yes there is a new series of Godzilla figures coming from Bandai Creations this spring, but don't get too excited. Only two of the figures in the set are new to the creations line, the rest are all rereleases, some from as recently as series four!

The set will include a new Godzilla '54, not quite new to the series, but a new sculpt anyway, and (CHEERS!) Mechagodzilla '74! The mo' Mecha, the mo' betta! So if you have complete sets of the previous Bandai Creations, don't splurge on a case of these just yet, unless you've missed a few. Series five will also include Millennium Godzilla, Destroya, and Godzilla '68, all from series four, so if you missed them in the past couple of years, now's your chance to grab them again. Also included is Final Wars Anguiris from series three. I predict Anguiris will be the most sought after since he's the odd duck and from an earlier series.

But we don't have to wait til March to get some Goji goodness right now! A new 12" figure has already been released! Final Wars Gigan, and it's a beaut!


Apparently it's been out for a while now, so happy hunting! I've been scouring the interwebs for a deal, but it's a collector's market now. Below are images of the new Godzilla '54 and Mechagodzilla '74. All images are from ToyArk.

Preorders for the set are available at Things From Another World.

Lucky Knisley does Marvel!

Lucy Knisley, the talent behind Stop Paying Attention and her LiveJournal work, will be featured in an anthology of "amazing women in comics"! Marvel has Lucy and all the other contributors here.

I haven't bought non-tpb comics in a while, but this may be too good to wait!

Tensou Sentai Goseiger!

Skynet Symphonic

Go-Go Godzilla!

After Saturday's post about some of our fave blogs, Jon K from Dracula's Crypt of Collectibles clued me in to one of its sibling blogs, Go-Go Godzilla! As a fan of the Kaiju I couldn't pass it up! Here's links to all of Jon's genre related sites!

Go-Go Godzilla!
Saturday Morning Superstars!
Blog of the Creature!
Curse of the Mummy's Blog!
Blog of Frankenstein!

I'd play that...

From Penney Design.

Reporting for Duty!

The Doc is a man after my own heart...but so far I've managed to fend off most of his agents! The Nega Claus will have all the toys! Sorry to all the girls and boys....

Let them eat cake! Just not these....

If you've not been to Cake Wrecks, it's a wonderful way to spend time on the interwebs. Some of them are laughable, but the Sunday sweets are amazing. Oh the things people can do to and with cakes!

Blackstar! Thundarr! He-man!

Thundarr was one of my favorite shows of all times. I even recall that Janus(?) was the only villain to appear on more than one episode. I think this was more of an attempt to cash in on Conan the Barbarian and Beastmaster type movies more than He-Man. I also think this was before the end of the restriction on cartoons having related merchandise.



So, no toys...maybe a lunch box, those were still common even before He-man.
He-man was the first cartoon to cash-in on the allowed toy tie-ins in the '80s. The toys pre-existed the cartoon by a bit. If you ever owned any of the first few (Battlecat was my first) the little comic inside told a completely different story from what was the Saturday morning cartoon. The DC mini-series developed the cartoon plot a lot.



Here's another trip down memory lane! I had a few of these figures, the 'good guys' came with a little Trobbit figure (troll+hobbit?) and the bad guys came with a little gremlin looking guy. I even had the dragon that Blackstar used, probably the best toy in the series. Blackstar was one of the more obvious He-man rip-offs, mainly for the two-halves of a power sword plot in there.

Mika goes Gaga

Blogs we "read" Part one....

I love blogs. They're a great source of camp and pop info and pics. Two of my faves have similar tastes it seems:

Dracula's Crypt of Collectibles features, of course, collectible Drac swag.



Frankensteinia is a plethora of Frankenstein nostalgia from the past nearly 200 years....

My personal favorite variation on the Frankenstein myth is probably also the campiest:Frankenstein meets the Space Monster!


You can watch the film here for MAXIMUM ENERGY!


And it's thanks to Monster Crazy that I found both. Monster Crazy is a portal for all sorts of creatures from various media sources and around the interwebs..

Metaluna Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Found this today on TMA Toy News and Reviews. I so want a Metaluna Ninja turtle, the rest are ridiculous though....

(The pic is from Geekologie though)

I so had these....

And would love to have them again!

Finally, a Sex and the City I want to watch...

I'm cool....like snakes!

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Japanese Spiderman!

Part of a deal with a Japanese production company (Toei, the same company that produced Kamen Rider) from the '70s. The deal also involved the importation of the Avengers, which became Battle Fever J, the first Sentai series to be referred to as 'Super Sentai'. Basically the Avengers became the Power Rangers.