. . . the
Godzilla one! I had meant to post about the new reboot of the ultimate monster franchise, but then got tied up in a project over at the college and missed it, so - hey! here it is! Bryan Cranston has a starring role in the movie, so it fits. Cranston plays Joe Brody, a scientist determined to uncover the truth about what happened 15 years ago when . . . well, just go see the movie. And know that "Joe Brody" is a nod to the hero of the original summer blockbuster
Jaws. People will disagree with me and
Godzilla is certainly not a flat-out perfect movie, but as summer monster movie blockbusters-with-popcorn go, it stacks up just fine. It lacks some of the human drama of the original, although it tries. (And be on the lookout for the pocket watch. I'll say no more.)
Really, do yourself a favor and watch the original -
not the Raymond Burr version, but the actual 1954 original, sometimes titled
Gojira, which I maintain could ONLY have been made in post-WW2 Japan. Yes, it's a monster movie, but keep in mind it was made less than ten years after Japan had the singular experience in human history of having two atomic bombs dropped on its soil.
Godzilla ushered in the atomic age of movie monsters - we'd get mutated
spiders,
grasshoppers, and (ridiculously)
rabbits before the trend mostly petered out. (The rabbits had something to do with that, I suspect.) As a species, we weren't too sure about the benevolence of the genie we'd let out of that bottle and our fears came out in all sorts of ways - would this new force be destructive in the way of these monster movies or could it be a good thing, a la Spider-Man, who gained tremendous powers from the bite of a radioactive spider but was on our side?
In more closely-centered
Breaking Bad news, the
show is up for its last round of Emmy consideration this year. The final eight episodes (which include the sublime "Ozymandias") are up for consideration this year and I predict sunshine and
meth sorry -
much love for the show.
Wanna Cook? continues to be available through fine booksellers and through direct Internet sales, both here in North America and across the pond, where it's been published in the United Kingdom through
Myrmidon Books. (The German edition is being published next month - just hang on!)
Ensley and I are working with the fine folks at ECW to set up a few summer signings - let us know if you'd like us to appear in your town - we'll bring the blue!
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