Lost In Translation

Godzilla Vs. Gigan

Jun Fukuda is back  behind the camera for Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972). This film is notable for the funky young cast and 70s wardrobe worn by them in the episode. A new monster, Gigan, is introduced as a cockroach-like alien race tries to take over earth. The film is notable for an upgrade in special effects including the drawing of blood for the first time (however, those wounds seem to clear up pretty quickly).

Malaya

Malaya (1949) is an action adventure film starring Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracy. they are a team the US government backs to smuggler rubber out of Malaya to help the US in the war effort. Malaysians are very much in the background. And while it has a solid historical background, the story itself is pretty farfetched.

Gozilla Vs. Hedorah

Godzilla Vs. Hedorah (1971) directed by Yoshimitsu Banno is very much a product of the times. Hedorah is a monster that is created by pollution on earth combined with a space entity. Godzilla is crucial in its defeat. The film has some psychedelic music sequences that reflect the times with go go dancers and all the fixings.

Stranger On The Third Floor

Stranger On The Third Floor (1940) is a classic film noir from Boris Ingster starring Peter Lorre in a cameo since his contract was due to run out in 2 days. He's a murderous loner who has put two men in jeopardy of taking the rap for him due to circumstantial evidence.

Figures In A Landscape

Paul Theroux's Figures In A Landscape (2018) is his third collection of nonfiction pieces. There are a variety of pieces ranging from celebrity profiles (Elizabeth Taylor, Olive Sacks, and Robin Williams) to essays on travel and literary essays-including introduction to books by the likes of Joseph Conrad, Paul Bowles, Graham Greene, and Georges Simeone. Those were among my favorites but there were plenty of others that gave insight the author who wrote about his family, life, and attitude to biographies. All in all very insightful and entertaining.

All Monsters Attack

Director Ishiro Honda is back with a stronger installment with All Monsters Attack (1969). In this story a young boy Ichiro has a healthy imagination that takes him to Monster Island to learn life lessons such as fighting for himself that he uses in real life to stop kidnappers and face up to a bully. It seems as though there was some footage from the last film re-used here along with some new monster fighting footage. The song at the beginning of the film suggests that the real monsters of today are pollution-pretty advanced for a monster movie.

Best Films of 2019

This year's list with the usual mea culpa of not seeing some of the more hyped films of the year.

    1. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)

    2. Once upon A Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)

    3. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)

    4. Ash Is The Purest White (Jhangke Jia)

    5. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)

    6. Long Days Journey Into Night (Gan Bi)

    7. El Camino (Vince Gilligan)

    8. The Rolling Thunder Review (Martin Scorsese)

    9. The Farewell (Lulu Wang)

    10. The Edge of Democracy (Petra Costa)

Sing Street

Sing Street (2016) is another 80s coming of age film from John Carney who fave us the excellent musical Once. This is about a high school student who stars a band to impress a girl. She says she's a model and he says he needs one for a video-that's the start of the eventual romance. The ending is somewhat familiar to those who have sen Once. All in all, a charming little film that doesn't really push any boundaries.

A Quiet Flame

Philip Kerr's fifth Bernie Gunther mystery, A Quiet Flame (2008) takes place in 1950 after the war in Argentina. It is specifically Argentina, because historically this is where many Nazis fled after the war to a Juan Peron led government that was sympathetic to the Nazis. In fact, Kerr's book retains a number of true life figures such as Adolf Eichman and Joseph Mengele among others. It con tins many flashbacks to a case Gunther was working in 1936 in Berlin that helps him crack the case he's working on in 1950. There's plenty of Raymond Chandler inspired dialogue as ell  romance and lots of action-another entertaining addition ot he series.

Destroy All Monsters

Ishiro Honda returns to the director's seat in Destroy All Monsters (1968). These multi monster films seem to be intent in getting to the big action scenes with several monsters. However, the monsters appear without any backstory. It might have been more interesting if they could introduce the monsters with something of a backstory.