Shameless Self Expression

Al Pacino and John Goodman are police detectives investigating a series of kinky murders of men with a linking theme of a singles ad placed by the victims. Pacino decides to pose as a single man on the lookout for love, placing an ad in the paper and hoping to nab the killer. Foolishly, Pacino ends up falling for one of the women who responds to his ad (Ellen Barkin). Could she be the killer? Pacino starts to suspect so. Meanwhile, Pacino still hasn’t quite gotten over the fact that his ex-wife left him for a colleague (Richard Jenkins). John Spencer plays the police lieutenant, William Hickey plays Pacino’s elderly father, and Michael Rooker and Samuel L. Jackson have cameos. ***** SPOILER-HEAVY REVIEW ***** From here on out, I will be discussing the film’s central mystery, and giving some very strong hints, most likely. Best save the review for after you’ve seen it. You’ve been duly warned. Sometimes all it takes to stop a film from being truly great instead of me...

Ape-like aliens attempt to conquer the Earth through the use of a robot replica of Godzilla. The real Godzilla is called upon to protect Japan, along with ancient monster guardian King Seesar (Also known as Kingseesar or King Caesar). I was slightly underwhelmed by this initial showing for Mechagodzilla from 1974 when I first saw it about 15-20 years ago. Seeing it again in 2019, I must say I like it slightly less than I already did. It’s watchable, but director Jun Fukuda ( “Godzilla vs. Ebirah” , “Son of Godzilla” , “Godzilla vs. Gigan” ) and co-writer Hiroyasai Yamamura (something called “Tokyo Blackout” ) do the monsters/robots a massive disservice, and therefore, in my opinion, myself a disservice as well. If you don’t want monsters in your “Godzilla” film this is the movie for you. You’re kind of an idiot, though because it’s a “Godzilla” movie. The titular Mechagodzilla is barely in the film, Godzilla and Anguirus barely more than that, and King Caesar (who looks lik...

An underwater civilisation known as Seatopia has been affected by the nuclear testing of Japanese surface-dwelling society, and the toga-wearing Seatopians are pretty well pissed off by it at this stage. Their measure of revenge against the above-ground Japanese folk is to send out the giant titular monster to punish them. Japan’s only hopes appear to be Godzilla and the latest creation of inventor Katsuhiko Sasaki: A robot called Jet Jaguar. To even things out, the Seatopians also enlist the evil aid of previous Godzilla foe Gigan. One of the more enjoyable 70s Godzilla films, this 1974 film from director Jun Fukuda ( “Godzilla vs. Ebirah” , “Son of Godzilla” ) and co-writer Shinichi Sekizawa ( “Mothra” , “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” , “Godzilla vs. Gigan” ) is good campy fun, if a bit short. I mean, this is a film that is less than 80 minutes long but needs to find room for humans, toga-wearing humanoid villains (!!), cameo-playing evil aliens, Godzilla, Jet Jaguar, Anguirus...

Godzilla’s heart is basically a nuclear reactor and now it’s set to meltdown, which could mean absolute catastrophic disaster for planet Earth. The folks at G-Force have of course been monitoring the situation, and believe that Godzilla has re-surfaced to search for his son, dubbed Godzilla Junior. Eventually it is decided that with Godzilla clearly unstable, the best course of action is to kill it with what was used back in 1954 – The Oxygen Destroyer. Unfortunately, using this technology has unexpected and equally monstrous side effects, creating the titular monster. So yeah…the Earth needs to rely on nuclear energy (i.e. Godzilla) to save the day.  Among the more popular Godzilla movies ever made, this 1995 film from director Takao Okawara ( “Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth” , and the excellent ‘Millennium Era’ film “Godzilla 2000” ) and screenwriter Kazuki Omori (writer-director of the previous “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” ) has a lot going for it. I do have to ...