"GODZILLA" (2014) Review

 

"GODZILLA" (2014) Review

"Godzilla again?" That had been my reaction when I learned about a new Godzilla movie to be released for the summer of 2014. The last movie about the iconic Japanese monster had been released some 16 years earlier and was met with a good deal of derision. Mind you, I rather liked the 1998 film, but I did not love it. But . . . I was willing to give this new film a chance.

"GODZILLA" 2014 begins with a montage of atomic test bombings in the Pacific Ocean by the U.S. Navy. In the last montage, a large creature emerges from the ocean depths. The story immediately shifts to the Philippines Islands in 1999, when a pair of scientists named Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham investigate a large skeleton discovered inside a collapsed mine. They also discover two egg-shaped pods. The broken one leaves a trail leading to the sea. The Janjira nuclear plant in Japan experiences unusual seismic activity. The plant's American-born supervisor, Joe Brody, sends his wife Sandra and a team of technicians into the reactor to check the sensors. When the team is inside, an explosion occurs, threatening to release radiation to the outside. Sandra and her team are unable to escape and the plant collapses into ruin. The disaster is attributed to an earthquake. But Brody suspects otherwise and spends a good number of years investigating the disaster.

Fifteen years later, Brody's son, Ford, has become a U.S. Navy bomb disposal officer, living in San Francisco with his wife and son. When Brody is arrested for trespassing at the Janjira exclusion zone, Ford is forced to travel to Japan. Convinced of a cover-up of the true cause of the disaster, Brody convinces Ford to accompany him to their old home to retrieve vital seismic data he had recorded before the plant disaster. Father and son discover that Janjira is not contaminated with radiation, unlike the official report. After recovering the data, they are arrested and taken to a facility containing a massive chrysalis within the plant's ruins. As they watch, a colossal winged creature emerges and escapes. After Brody is wounded by the creature, he dies from his wounds. Ford, Serizawa and Graham join a U.S. Navy strike force led by Admiral William Stenz on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Saratoga to track the creature, which has been labeled as a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). Serizawa and Graham reveal that only one creature can stop MUTO, an ancient alpha predator known as Godzilla. When the MUTO causes the wreck of a Russian submarine, Godzilla emerges to feed off the sub's radiation and pursue MUTO. More bad news arrives when Stenz, Serizawa and Graham learn about the emergence of a female MUTO in Las Vegas. The two scientists suspect that the MUTO from Japan is on his way to breed with his female counterpart.

Well, this was a first . . . at least for me. Godzilla as the main protagonist? That is exactly how writers Max Borenstein and David Callaham portrayed the monster. I suspect this has been done before in previous Godzilla films. Since I have never seen one, aside from the 1998 flick in which he was clearly the antagonist, this was news to me. Did I like the movie? Hmmmm . . . yes and no.

Let me explain. There are aspects of "GODZILLA" that I liked. The cast was pretty decent. Bryan Cranston chewed the scenery during his appearances in the movie's first half hour. Usually, this would bother me, but for once I welcomed his over-the-top acting for I thought it gave the movie a lot of energy. One would think I dislike the rest of the cast. Honestly, I did not. I enjoyed Aaron Johnson-Taylor's subtle portrayal of Brody's more reserved and equally intense son, Ford. Actually, I thought Cranston and Johnson-Taylor balanced each other very well and it seemed a pity that the elder Brody had been killed off after a half hour. Elizabeth Olsen, who portrayed Ford's more ebullient wife. Like Cranston, she also balanced very well with Johnson-Taylor. Unfortunately, the two younger stars spent most of the movie apart from each other. Ken Watanabe and David Strathairn gave solid performances as Admiral Stenz, who was willing to resort to anything to get rid of MUTO (and perhaps Godzilla) and Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, who believed that the only way to solve the situation regarding MUTO and Godzilla was to let them fight it off.

"GODZILLA" also benefited from some first-class photography, thanks to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey's stunning work. I was especially impressed by one sequence featuring the HALO jump of Ford and a team of Army soldiers into San Francisco in order to prevent a missing warhead from detonating, as shown in this image:

There were some sequences in the movie that I enjoyed, including the original accident at the Janjira plant, the first MUTO's emergence in Japan and especially the arrival of Godzilla and the first MUTO in Honolulu. Unfortunately, "GODZILLA" is not perfect.

I feel that "GODZILLA" had lacked two qualities that made the 1998 movie so likable for me - a more centralized story and more colorful characters. I hate to say this, but Borenstein and Callaham's story could have been a little more tighter. Actually, it could have been a lot more tighter. It seemed to be all over the map. Although the movie more or less ended in San Francisco, it took a long time for the story to arrive at that location. Gareth Edwards' lackluster direction did not help. Also, I was not that impressed by the writers' use of Godzilla as the main protagonist. It just did not work for me . At least not now. Perhaps one day, I might learn to embrace the concept. My problem is I found myself wondering why Godzilla went after the MUTOs in the first place. I doubt it he went after them for the sake of the human race.

And this movie lacked some serious characterization. Characters like Admiral Stenz, Doctors Serizawa and Graham were tight-lipped professionals, who struggled to keep their emotions in check. But I did not find them particularly interesting or found myself caring about their fates. I also felt that Juliette Binoche (who portrayed Cranston's doomed wife) and Sally Hawkins (Dr. Vivienne Graham) were simply wasted in this movie. I realize that many critics did not seem to care for Aaron Johnson-Taylor. I felt otherwise. I have always liked him a lot as an actor. But in this film, he had a rather subtle screen presence and needed someone more colorful to balance his quiet persona. He had the explosive Bryan Cranston and an emotional Elizabeth Olsen. But Cranston's character had been killed off after the first half hour. And Olson had very few scenes with him. In the end, the writers failed to provide Johnson-Taylor with more colorful characters to balance his style . . . something that Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich managed to do for Matthew Broderick in the 1998 film.
Did I bother to purchase a copy of "GODZILLA" when it was first released on DVD? Yeah, I did. It was far from perfect, but I cannot deny that I liked it. It was certainly great for a rainy afternoon.

"LOST": A Tale of Two Fathers

 

"LOST": A TALE OF TWO FATHERS

During its Season Two, "LOST" had aired an episode called (2.09) "What Kate Did". The episode revealed the crime that led castaway Kate Austen to being a fugitive for three years - she had murdered her father, Wayne Janssen, and used his death to collect insurance for her mother, Diane Janssen. The episode had also revealed Kate's reason for her act of murder. She had just learned that Wayne - a man she had presumed to be her stepfather - was actually her father.

Kate had made it perfectly clear that she disliked Wayne Janssen. She held him responsible for her mother's break-up with Sam Austen, the man she had longed believed was her father. She certainly disliked the fact that he was an alcoholic who physically abused Diane. And she found his habit of occasionally leering at her disgusting and beneath contempt. Many believed that Kate had been a victim of sexual abuse. And that Wayne had been the perpetrator. But "What Kate Did" hinted that Wayne may not have abused Kate. In this scene, Kate talks to an unconscious fellow castaway, James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), whose body she believes had been temporarily possessed by her late father:

"Can you hear me? Sawyer? Wayne? [Sawyer stirs] I'm probably crazy and this doesn't matter, but maybe you're in there somehow. But you asked me a question. You asked me why I -- why I did it. It wasn't because you drove my father away, or the way you looked at me, or because you beat her. It's because I hated that you were a part of me -- that I would never be good. That I would never have anything good. And every time that I look at Sawyer -- every time I feel something for him -- I see you, Wayne. It makes me sick.".

Judging from her comments, it seems quite apparent that Wayne had never sexually abused her. Kate did accuse him of leering at her, which was conveyed in a flashback at the beginning of the episode. However, there are fans who still insist that Wayne may have abused her. They are entitled to their opinions. Frankly, I have doubts that Kate had ever been abused. But if she had . . . Wayne Janssen would not be on the top of my list of suspects.

When "What Kate Did" first aired during the 2005-2006 television season, I had also viewed an episode of "HOUSE" called (2.13) "Skin Deep". I noticed how Dr. Gregory House (portrayed by Hugh Laurie) had correctly guessed that a 15 year-old female patient, who happened to be a model, had sex with her father. How did House come to this conclusion? He had noticed the close relationship between the model and her father. He noticed how the former seemed overtly concerned with pleasing said father. This scene had also revived about memories from the 1995 movie, "DOLORES CLAIRBORNE". Based on Stephen King' 1992 novel, it told the story about a Maine woman who had murdered her husband in order to stop him from continuing his sexual abuse of their daughter. What I found interesting was that the daughter had over-idealized her abusive father. And he (in flashbacks) had over-idealized his mother, who I believe may have sexually abused him.

Both that particular episode of "HOUSE" and "DOLORES CLAIRBORNE" led me to suspect that if Kate had actually been sexually molested, I would have suspected her stepfather, Sergeant Sam Austen, of being the perpetrator. After all, Kate had expressed nothing but contempt for Wayne. Yet, she had a tendency to idealize Sergeant Austen. And in an odd way, she had this same tendency to idealize other men who probably reminded her of the Army sergeant - Tom Brennan, her husband Kevin Callis, and leader of the island castaways, Dr. Jack Shephard.

Below is a link to a web page that lists traits of those (especially adult women) who may have suffered sexual abuse as a child - Beyond Victim. Included on the web page is a small list of the following traits of victims of sexual abuse:

*You feel powerless in important relationships and are terrified of honest confrontations. Yet you try to control and manipulate other people.

*If you were sexually abused by your father, you also may have felt unconsciously empowered by him; you are his special girl and you can do and be whatever you choose (as long as you don't replace daddy with a new man in your life with whom you can be truly intimate). Your troubled relationships with men present a sharp contrast to other areas of your life.

*You over-idealize your father and fail to see his destructive side while seeing the negative side of your mother and ignoring her positive attributes. Consequently, you over-value and perceive men while devaluing and discounting women. Or . . . if you had been sexually abused by a woman parental figure, you may over-idealize your mother and see your father as totally bad. This was revealed in a single flashback scene from "DOLORES CLAIRBORNE".

I am not claiming that Kate had definitely been a victim of sexual abuse. Nearly seventeen years have passed since "What Kate Did" first aired and the producers of "LOST" have never supported the theory that she had. I do find it interesting that Kate's feelings toward Sam Austen had followed a pattern similar to those harbored by sexual abuse victims, toward their perpetrators - as described above. Yet, the series has never out-and-out conveyed that she had experienced any sexual abuse of any kind.

Despite Kate's soliloquy in "What Kate Did" and the lack of any evidence of her experiencing abuse, I find myself wondering why a certain number of fans still continue to believe that her father, Wayne Janssen had abused her. Perhaps they cannot accept that Kate's cold-blooded murder of Wayne had never been justified. And they could not deal with this, considering she had been the series' leading female character. Who knows?

"THE FIRM" (1993) Review

"THE FIRM" (1993) Review

To this day, I am surprised that film critics and historians have not looked back on the 1990s as the "Age of Grisham". I am referring to attorney-novelist, John Grisham, who wrote many bestsellers - especially his legal thrillers that were released between 1989 and 2000. In fact, the decade also saw several adaptations of Grisham's bestsellers - including 1993's"THE FIRM". 

Based upon Grisham's 1991 novel, "THE FIRM" told the story of a recent Harvard Law graduate named Mitchell "Mitch" McDeere, who is seduced with perks that include a new house and car by Bendini, Lambert & Locke to join its small and prestigious law firm in Memphis. He is there to specialize in accounting and tax law. After he and his wife, Abigail "Abby" move to Memphis, Mitch acquires a mentor named Avery Tolar, one of the firm's senior partners, to teach him the firm's professional culture, which includes complete loyalty, strict confidentiality, and a willingness to charge exceptional fees for their services. However, the recent deaths of two BL&L attorneys in the Cayman Islands and an encounter with a pair of F.B.I. agents named Wayne Tarrance and Thomas Ritchie lead Mitch to seek advice from his convict brother Ray and the latter's friend, a Little Rock private detective named Eddie Lomax. Unfortunately, Lomax's murder at the hands of the firm's thugs, his one-night stand with a strange woman during his trip to the Caymans with Avery, and the FBI's revelation that BL&L is a front for laundering money for a Chicago mob family makes Mitch feel that he has no choice but to cooperate with the FBI - even if it meant being disbarred.

To this day, I regret that I had never seen "THE FIRM" at a movie theater. Come to think of it, I have only seen one Grisham movie adaptation in the theaters - 1994's "THE CLIENT". Do not get me wrong. I enjoyed "THE CLIENT". But if I had to choose between that and "THE FIRM" to see at a movie theater, I would choose the latter. "THE FIRM" is a first-rate legal thriller that was released during the summer of 1993. Which I found unusual, considering it is not the type of movie that is usually released during that particular season. Perhaps that was the reason why I had ignored it when it was first released. Dummy me.

What can I say about "THE FIRM"? It is a well written mixture of legal, romantic and criminal drama, along with some well-paced tension. The movie even featured action scenes that kept me on my toes. Foremost of all, "THE FIRM" is about the corruption . . . or attempted corruption of one Mitchell McDeere. He must have seen like the perfect candidate in the eyes of Bendini, Lambert & Locke's senior partners. Mitch was among the top five graduates in his class. He pretty much made his ambition clear during his job interview near the film's beginning. And I noticed during his and wife Abby's initial trip to Memphis, he literally seemed thrilled by the attention given to him by the firm's employees . . . along with the high salary they were willing to pay him. Knowing that he came from a working-class background, it seemed obvious that one of the senior partners, Oliver Lambert, knew how to manipulate Mitch by utilizing a "We're more of a family" speech during this trip. And after he had revealed his first encounter with the FBI, during seminar trip to Washington D.C., the firm went out of its way to ensure that Mitch would be fully corrupted and trapped by setting him up with a prostitute during his trip to the Cayman Islands with his mentor, Avery Tolar.

But you know . . . the firm could not have corrupted Mitch on its own. Its partners had helped . . . from Mitch himself. There is nothing wrong with ambition. But it seemed obvious that Mitch was so hindered by his insecurity over his working-class background that he made it almost easy for the firm to corrupt him. I noticed during his and Abby's initial trip to Memphis, Mitch became so caught up in the idea of being part of the Bendini, Lambert & Locke "family" (which included a new house and car) that he tuned out Abby's observations about the rigid nature of the firm's employment standards. Even worse, Mitch's class insecurities led to that fight with Abby before his trip to the Caymans and into the arms of that prostitute. The firm may have arranged his encounter with her, but Mitch made the choice to cheat on Abby that night. His encounter with F.B.I. Director F. Denton Voyles in Washington D.C. finally opened Mitch's eyes to the true and corrupt nature of the firm . . . along with his own precarious situation. 

Although the F.B.I. led Mitch to finally see the light, I must admit that I found their idea of what constituted justice rather alarming. In the agency's fervent attempt to bring down Bendini, Lambert & Locke, Director Voyles and Agent Tarrance had no qualms about coercing Mitch into cooperating with them. They offered him two choices - steal and expose the firm's files . . . or eventually face prosecution with the firm's other attorneys and partners. I other words, the F.B.I. gave Mitch the options of disbarment or prison. And both would spell the end of his brief career as an attorney. The Little Rock private detective, Eddie Lomax, had been right to warn Mitch that the F.B.I. could not care less about him, despite the fact that Mitch knew nothing about the firm's criminal ties. I am sorry, but this is not my idea of justice.

"THE FIRM" had made changes to John Grisham's original plot. In the movie, Mitch received a Mercedes-Benz, instead of a BMW for joining the firm. In the novel, Avery Tolar was Avery Tolleson and in the latter, he was not portrayed with any sympathy . . . just another villain like the other partners. Mitch had confessed to Abby about his one night of infidelity in the movie. No such thing happened in the novel. There were other differences between the movie and the novel. But the biggest one proved to be the ending. Many Grisham fans have expressed displeasure at the decision of director Sydney Pollack and screenwriters David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel to change Mitch and Abby's fates. The novel ended with Mitch scamming $10 million from the firm and finally turning over their files to the F.B.I. This act led him, Abby and his brother Ray to make their escape to the Caribbean, continuously sailing from one end of the Caribbean to the other in fear for their lives. Pollack and the screenwriters decided to change this by having Mitch come up with a way to get the firm's attorneys prosecuted (thanks to a disgruntled client) by exposing its systematic overbilling scheme. This would bring down the firm, force the Morolto Brothers to find another firm willing to accept them as clients in time to avoid charges for non-lodgment of tax returns. Due to Mitch's new scheme, he is able to retain his law license, maintain his life in Boston and save his marriage. 

How do I feel about the ending? I loved it. I much preferred it over Grisham's ending. I found it original and very clever. Bendini, Lambert & Locke still ended up destroyed, thanks to Mitch's exposure of its overbilling scheme. I also enjoyed the fact that Mitch not only managed to get $750,000 from the F.B.I. for Ray to enjoy, but also force the agency to work in bringing down the firm. When Mitch had his final confrontations with both the Morolto brothers inside their hotel room and Agent Tarrance, I could not help but express my pleasure of this turnout with a wide smile.

There were other aspects of the "THE FIRM"'s plot that I really enjoyed. The movie also proved to be a real thriller. This was especially apparent in scenes that featured Mitch's attempts to evade the firm's murderous goons; along with Abby and the late Eddie Lomax's secretary, Tammy Hemphill's attempts to distract the pleasure seeking Avery and copy the firm's more important files in the Caymans. But the movie also featured some outstanding dramatic scenes. The ones that usually came to mind are F.B.I. Director Voyles' revelation of the firm's true nature; Mitch and Avery's meeting with one of the latter's clients in the Caymans; Mitch reveals the firm's true nature to Abby; Eddie Lomax's confrontation with two of the firm's goons; Mitch and Abby's confrontation over his brief affair in the Caymans; Mitch's meeting with with Morolto brothers (which I found very satisfying) and the McDeeres' reconciliation near the movie's end. 

But it is not just the plot and especially its ending that gave me pleasure. I thought John Seale's photography for the movie was top notch. I was especially impressed by his photography in Memphis, Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; and the Cayman Islands. I also thought Fredric and Wiliams Steinkamp's editing was impressive, as well. I was especially impressed with their work in one minor and one major sequence - Mitch's revelation about the firm's true nature to Abby and Mitch being chased all over downtown Memphis by the firm's goons. But if there is one technical aspect about the"THE FIRM" that really impressed me, it was Dave Grusin's score. I thought it was outstanding. It is one of the few scores that seemed to blend perfectly with a movie's plot and setting. Grusin earned an Academy Award nomination for his work, but lost to John Williams' score for "SCHINDLER'S LIST". A part of me wishes that Grusin and Williams had shared that Best Original Score Oscar . . . or Grusin had walked away with the award.

"THE FIRM" also had the good luck to possess a superb cast. All of the performers went far and beyond to give first-class performances. Some of the supporting performances that I found memorable came from Tobin Bell and Dean Norris, who portrayed two of the firm's hitmen; Terry Kinney as Lamar Quinn, one of the firm's younger attorneys; Barbara Garrick as Lamar's wife, Kay; Jerry Hardin as Royce McKnight, one of the firm's senior partners; Sullivan Walker, who portrayed a Cayman scuba diving businessman and one of Mitch's allies; talent agent/promoter Jerry Weintraub as questionable businessman Sonny Capps; Karina Lombard, who portrayed the young prostitute that seduces Mitch; Lou Walker as Mitch's disgruntled client Frank Mulholland; and Margo Martindale as Mitch's secretary Nina Huff.

The movie also featured some really memorable performances from the likes of Hal Holbrook, who gave a subtle performance as the firm's soft-spoken senior partner, Oliver Lambert; Ed Harris, who I thought was entertaining as the rambunctious F.B.I. Agent Wayne Tarrance; Steven Hill, who struck me as rather intimidating as the F.B.I. Director F. Denton Voyles; a very entertaining Gary Busey as Little Rock private detective Eddie Lomax; David Strathairn, who skillfully projected a mixture of charm and borderline despair in his portrayal of Ray McDeere, Mitch's convict brother; and Wilford Brimley, whose portrayal of Bill Devasher, the firm's leading thug, struck me as a very interesting mixture of homespun wisdom and insidious thuggery. Of course, there was Holly Hunter, who gave a very charismatic and Oscar nominated performance as Tammy Hemphill, Eddie's secretary and Mitch's ally. 

However, for me, the heart and soul of "THE FIRM" were its three leads - Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Gene Hackman. Well, the movie's real lead was Cruise, who gave a mesmerizing performance as Mitch McDeere, the young attorney, who found himself at the center of a struggle between the F.B.I. and Bendini, Lambert & Locke. I almost found myself saying that Cruise's performance was an early sign of his long-lasting fame as an actor . . . until I remembered that he had already been successful for a decade by the time he starred in "THE FIRM". For an actor that was barely thirty at the time, he more than held his own with a group of older and very talented actors. He also did a great job in carrying the movie on his shoulders. I must be honest . . . I have not seen Jeanne Tripplehorn in many movies. In fact, I have only seen her in less than four. But I was very impressed by her quiet, yet strong and elegant performance as Abby McDeere, Mitch's well-born wife who was the first to sense something odd about the firm. What I especially liked about Tripplehorn's performance is that she was not merely reduced to be Cruise's side ornament. She portrayed Abby as a fully realized character with her own character arc. If I had to give an award for the best performance in "THE FIRM", I would hand it over to Gene Hackman, who portrayed Mitch's alcoholic mentor and one of the firm's senior partners, Avery Tolar. I am surprised that Hackman was never given an Oscar nomination for his performance, for he truly deserved it. I thought he was excellent as the sardonic Avery, who used wit and an easy-going manner to hide a world-weary demeanor and corruption that had more or less crushed his spirit. It was a very fascinating performance to watch.

One would notice that I have yet to say one thing negative about "THE FIRM". Well, I do have one complaint. Ironically, that complaint centered around the film's performances. Wait . . . did I not just praise nearly all of the performances to the sky? Yes, I did. And the cast was fantastic. But . . . there were moments in the film in which most of the major cast members have this penchant of making mind-blowing comments with an offhand casualness that struck me as forced. False. And if most of the cast were making this mistake, I have only one person to blame . . . director Sydney Pollack. I really wish he had not clung to this forced casual style of acting. I usually find it in a Steven Spielberg movie and quite frankly, I do not like it. I have never liked it in any of the Spielberg movies I have seen . . . and I did not like it in this film.

Aside from that one complaint, I found "THE FIRM" very satisfying. Who am I kidding? I love "THE FIRM". It is my favorite adaptation of a Grisham novel. It is also one of my favorite movies from the 1990s and after two decades, it has managed to hold up very well. And one has to thank John Grisham's excellent novel; David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel's adaptation; and a superb cast led by the always talented Tom Cruise.

"THE FIRM" (1993) Photo Gallery

Below are images from "THE FIRM", the 1993 adaptation of John Grisham's 1991 novel. Directed by Sydney Pollack, the movie starred Tom Cruise: 


"THE FIRM" (1993) Photo Gallery

"GODZILLA" (2014) Photo Gallery

Below are images from "GODZILLA", the recent adaptation of the famous Japanese monster icon. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the movie stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen and Bryan Cranston: 


"GODZILLA" (2014) Photo Gallery