Tag: indigenous

Godzilla x Kong
The New Empire

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 29 March 2024
2 Comments on Godzilla x Kong
The New Empire
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Director – Adam Wingard – 2024 – US – Cert. 12a – 115m

*****

Godzilla must leave the surface world to team up with Kong in the subterranean Hollow Earth below to defeat a powerful enemy – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 29th

The latest movie in the Toho / Warner Bros. Godzilla / Kong Monsterverse is globetrotting in scope, with scenes of monsters wreaking havoc in Rome and Rio; its central conceit is that Godzilla roams the surface of the Earth fighting off other monsters which humanity would be unable to see off alone, while Kong, reconceived as a similar size to Godzilla, lives in the subterranean paradise of Hollow Earth.

With one beast on the outer rim of the planet and the other in a world beneath its surface, there is no possibility one will run into the other, which fight would be devastating for mankind. To make sure the two monsters remain isolated from one another, the huge Monarch organisation monitors both constantly.

Yet a terrible force is on the ascendant in Hollow Earth, one that neither Kong nor Godzilla would be able to contain let alone defeat on their own. And so, to save humanity, they must join forces and fight it.… Read the rest

Tags action, Adam Wingard, adventure, Alex Ferns, apes, Australia, Bryan Tyree Henry, cave lair, centre of the earth, CG animation, character animation, class, classroom, Coliseum, crack team, Cthulhu, culture, Daintree rainforest, Dan Stevens, dental treatment, dentist, despot, elasmosaurus, explorers, Fala Chen, fathers and sons, giant ape, globetrotting, Godzilla, helicopters, Hollow Earth, indigenous, island natives, isolation, Ivi, Japan, Kaiju, Kaylee Hottle, King Kong, Kong, man-eating plants, mayhem, military, monsters, Monsterverse, mothers and daughters, Mothra, naps, nuclear, nuclear plant, observation, podcaster, printer readouts, Queensland, radiation, Rebecca Hall, research facility, Rio de Janeiro; paradise, Rome, sea serpent, sedate, Skar King, Skull Island, special effects, subterranean, Suko, telepathy, three slashes, Titan, Toho, toothache, US, Warner Bros., waterhole

Features Live Action Movies

The Wicker Man:
The Final Cut

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 27 September 2013
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The Final Cut
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Director – Robin Hardy – 1973 – UK – Cert. 15 – 94m

*****

A Christian police sergeant investigating a missing child on a remote Scottish island meets a terrible fate – out as a Collector’s Edition UHD / Blu-ray /DVD from Monday, September 25th following its release in UK cinemas in a 4K restoration from Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

(Originally reviewed for cinema release in a 2K restoration on Friday, September 27th, 2013)

Originally released forty years ago in the UK in a cut down version its director disliked, The Wicker Man now reaches our cinema screens in a longer, restored version which he says fulfils his original vision. Its plot is deceptively simple. A Christian police sergeant flies to a remote Scottish island in response to a letter about a missing child. But when he arrives on Summerisle, no-one seems to have heard of that child. It gradually emerges that the policeman has stumbled into an intricate web of lies and deceit wherein a terrible fate awaits him….

Using material from a recently discovered, longer US release print – rechristened The Final Cut by Hardy who assembled this cut in 1979 – it’s a provocative work on a number of levels.… Read the rest

Tags angel, Britt Ekland, cavort, celebration, charismatic leader, child, child sex abuse, Christ, Christian, Christian faith, Christianity, Christopher Lee, community, country matters, daughter, deceit, dogma, drinking song, Edward Woodward, engaged, estate, evening meal, faith, filth, folk song, grounds, indigenous, island, islanders, isolated, landlord, law, lies, life, Lord, mainland, May Day, maypole, missing, missing child, missionaries, naked, outsider, Pagan, phallic symbol, police, police sergeant, profession, pub, religious cult, remote, resurrection, ritual, Robin Hardy, scandal, scapegoat, schoolchildren, Scottish, seasons, sergeant, sex before marriage, sexual mores, socio-cultural model, Sodom, song, Teeside, traditional, UK, Victorian, visitor

Features Live Action Movies

The Forgiven

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 1 September 2022
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Director – John Michael McDonagh – 2021 – UK/Ireland – Cert. 18 – 117m

****

A wealthy alcoholic driving to a rich school friend’s party in the Sahar desert accidentally kills a local and sparks a cross-cultural incident that will have profound consequences for him – out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 2nd

Wealthy married couple David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) travel to Tangier in what he calls “ah – l’Afrique” to attend a rich friend’s party at his isolated home in the middle of the Sahara. This involves driving some 400 miles through poorly mapped desert terrain. David is a high-functioning alcoholic (“I’ve always thought the high-functioning should cancel out the alcoholic”, he says) who indulges himself from a bottle before he starts to drive and the couple argue a great deal. Perhaps their relationship is nearing its end.

En route, they get lost, but in the middle of the night eventually find the turn off. They stop, bicker, then start up again and immediately hit local teenager Driss (Omar Ghazaoui) who has stepped out in front of the stationary car to sell them a fossil. Burying his ID, they bundle his dead body into the car hoping that their host will know what to do.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies Music

Burst City
(Bakuretsu Toshi
Burst City,
爆裂都市
BURST CITY)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 12 June 2022
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(Bakuretsu Toshi
Burst City,
爆裂都市
BURST CITY)
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Director – Sogo Ishii – 1982 – Japan – Cert. 18 – 115m

Film ****

Cultural significance *****

Arguably the lynchpin film that brought Japanese cinema back from the brink of extinction in the early 1980s and paved the way for much of what was to follow – on Blu-ray from Monday, November 20th 2020

Looked at today through Western eyes, the opening with its breakneck, speeded up race through (presumably) Tokyo cutting between nighttime and daytime POV shots, with motorbike noises, anticipates the more demented pixillated chase scenes of Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989), shots of bikers recall the anti-establishment feel of Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) and patterns caused by moving lights burning into film emulsion recall Norman McClaren and Len Lye’s early animation experiments drawing and painting direct onto film. Then it seems to turn into Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) by way of a gangster film elements (two men in a car wearing a suit and a leather jacket respectively) who avoid a near collision with two punks on a motorcycle and sidecar.

How many of these precedents Ishii had in mind (or even had seen) when he made this is impossible to say.… Read the rest

Tags 16mm, abandoned factory, aesthetic, amateur, anti-establishment, bands, battle, bike, bike noise, bikers, bondage, box office, breakneck, burning into film emulsion, car, Cell Number 8, chase, cinema, cops, daytime, direct onto film, drawing, drawing and painting direct onto film, early animation experiments, engine noise, fight, film industry, frantic, Gakuryu Ishii, gangster, Hollywood aesthetic, hyperkinetic, inaccessible, independent, indigenous, James Cameron, Japan, Japanese punk, Japanese punk bands, Japanese punk rock, Japanese punk rock bands, Japanese rock, Japanese rock bands, Jasper Sharp, Jishu Eiga, leather jacket, Len Lye, lynchpin, Midnight Eye, motorbike, motorbike noise, motorcycle and sidecar, moving lights, music, near collision, nighttime, Nihon University, no pay, noise, Norman McClaren, nudity, outlandish, painting, Pink Cinema, Pinku Eiga, pixillation, porn, POV, pubic hair, punk bands, Punk Rock, punk rock bands, punks, race, restless, rock, rock bands, Shinya Tsukamoto, Sogo Ishii, song, speeded up, suit, Super 8, The Rockers, The Roosters, The Stalin, The Terminator, Tokyo, Tom Mes, UK, UK punk, UK punk rock, unpaid, whore