Filmsy - Movie Reviews Blog

Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

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Lupin III Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

Though it may very well be stating the obvious, I think it’s best to preface this review by telling you all that the only people who are going to take ANY interest in this film are fans of the Lupin III animated series and it’s subsequent string of animated movies. Your Average Joe with no concept of the Lupin III universe or characters isn’t going to find any entertainment value from this movie, and honestly, even the biggest Lupin III fan isn’t going to enjoy this movie, either.

The plot is no different than any of Lupin’s animated outings, and even features a “First Encounter”-style approach where all the cast meets for the first time. Essentially, Lupin III is the world’s greatest thief, descended from the infamous French thief, Arsene Lupin. To a man who can steal anything he wants, the world is Lupin’s oyster. However, all that changes one day when he meets the gorgeous cat-burglar, Mine Fujiko. Being the sex-offender that he is, Lupin immediately takes to her, despite her manipulative personality, and they become partners in crime.

Now enter Daisuke Jigen, world-renowned marksman and lone survivor of Lupin II’s vast criminal empire. He seeks to join forces with Lupin III so that he might rebuild the “Lupin Empire” but finds this Lupin to be arrogant and uncooperative. But despite that, they quickly become friends, and along with Fujiko, plot the world’s greatest jewel-heist.

And next we meet the short-fused Inspector Zenigata, whom joined by two bumbling assistants, has dedicated his life to tracking down and apprehending Lupin III. But Zenigata isn’t the only one after the main character; the Mafia’s Maccerrone Family (pronounced “Macaroni”) wants to bump Lupin off to ensure that he never has the opportunity to rebuild the Lupin Empire. And if all this wasn’t complicated enough, there are bounty hunters on the trio’s tail and a race to see which party can get a priceless, ancient statue with strange psychokinetic powers first.

This film was made way back in the early 1970’s at the height of Lupin’s popularity in Japan. So like much of the Lupin animation produced in the same time-period, this whole thing is going to seem very dated. But, unlike Lupin’s animated adventures from the 70’s, lacks that nostalgic charm and instead presents us with everything from the 70’s we’d wish to forget.

The plot also does some unwelcome tinkering with the origins of each character; something just about any Lupin fan is sure to take offense to. Despite that, the actors cast to play each character fit the bill well-enough. Lupin is of French descent, so hiring a Japanese actor to portray him irked me at first, but they quickly address the fact and reveal that his mother was Japanese. Jigen is supposed to be of American origin (having been on the run from the Chicago mob in the original cartoons and comics), but since he has a completely different origin in this movie, I’d say his appearance works just fine save for having a goatee instead of a beard. Fujiko transitioned from cartoon to reality quite accurately, save for her most recognizable feature (her mountainous chest) being left behind. Zenigata suffers the most, however. He’s been stripped of his trench-coat and hat and given a business suit, instead. The oafish assistants he’s been saddled with are neither funny nor a part of the source material and will inspire nothing but frustration from the audience.

The atmosphere of the movie is EXTREMELY silly, so don’t be expecting some dark, violent Lupin epic. The director makes it obvious his intent is to create a live action cartoon; emphasis on “cartoon”. Characters get flattened into pancakes against walls, chase each other through corridors ala Scooby Doo, get coated in black soot after bombs explode in there faces, and more than once, Lupin directly addresses the audience.

These gags are very hit-or-miss. Some times they are ingeniously funny, like when Lupin shows how he kills a bounty hunter in slow-motion, or when Jigen opens up his jacket to reveal a psychotic arsenal of guns. However, most of them are much too childish and don’t fit in with the other very raunchy, and occasionally very violent, gags that appear through-out the film.

I recommend this movie to the hardcore Lupin III fans only, and even then I suggest you view it for its historical significance to the franchise and not as a particularly good live action adaptation of the comics or cartoons.

Grade: D+

War of the Gargantuas

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War of the Gargantuas

Just as a note, I watched this film in widescreen format with the original Japanese dialogue.

I honestly didn’t even know a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the Earth existed until I watched Godzilla against Mechagodzilla and they showed a clip of the movie during a montage. As a follow-up to Frankenstein Conquers the Earth (which I liked) it was pretty good.

Sanda and Gaira, the two Gargantuas, weren’t the most exciting Kaiju in the world, though. The thing that made Frankenstein interesting in the original was his human-like ability to perform strategy and his incredible healing factor that had him instantly recover from the most brutal attacks (think “Deadpool”, the Marvel Comics character). Sanda and Gaira lacked the strategy and brain-power and were given a watered-down version of Frankenstein’s healing factor. So they were just like Frankenstein…only not as good.

Still, the movie has its moments. Gaira ranks as one of the most evil kaiju I’ve ever seen in a Showa movie. Unlike most bad guys who just topple over buildings and step on people, Gaira actually EATS humans. He goes into cities and villages, plucks them out of their homes and chows down. Brutal. Particularly the scene where he reaches into a skyscraper, pulls out a woman, gobbles her up and then spits out her clothing. Damn.

There’s also a really well-done scene involving Gaira, where two sailors are taking their fishing boat out to sea when one of them looks over the side and sees Gaira beneath the waves looking back at them. It was done REALLY well and might be the closest the Showa series ever got to “scary”.

As a follow-up to Frankenstein Conquers the Earth it answers a few questions but raises many others. Sanda was grown from Frankenstein’s severed hand (seen cut off at the research lab in the last movie), but for some reason after he grew himself back completely he looked more like a chimpanzee than Frankenstein. Gaira was grown from cells of Sanda’s that got carried out to sea and mixed with plankton to create a sea-monster Frankenstein. And we still never learn the where-abouts of Frankenstein-himself, who disappeared at the end of the last movie.

As far as the “War” goes, Sanda is basically the good guy and Gaira is his evil twin. They start out like brothers but once Sanda discovers Gaira eating humans for lunch they throw down. The War-itself is pretty weak. Neither of the Gargantuas has any special powers so it looked more like two guys in furry costumes wrestling for 10 minutes. The ending is pretty spontaneous and forced. They carry their fight out to sea and then get caught in an undersea volcanic eruption (convenient!) and get buried in magma.

Aside from the ending, the movie is pretty good. Not as good as Frankenstein Conquers the Earth, but not a bad film either.

Grade: C

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

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Ghidorah the 3 headed monster

Just as a note, I watched this film in widescreen format with the original Japanese dialogue.

I was absolutely impressed with this film. I didn’t think they could out-do themselves after Godzilla vs. Mothra, but less than a year later they come out with this masterpiece.

First, let me get the human plot out of the way. To be honest, it may very well be the BEST human drama to ever appear in a Godzilla film (outside the Raymond Burr plot in the Americanized original). It was refreshingly creative. Too often the films rely on mad scientists, reporters and government agencies to drive the human plot, but this was something completely new. A Princess from a fictional country goes crazy and believes she is a prophet from the planet Venus (and may very well be), so she travels around warning people of the coming of monsters and Ghidorah’s imminent destruction of Earth. All the while assassins are after her because the king of her country (her father, no less) wants her dead. And while THIS is going on a police officer dedicates himself to tracking her down and protecting her from her pursuers while his sister, a news reporter, follows in order to get an exclusive on her prophecies. This carried the movie wonderfully. It never got boring or outrageously stupid, and makes this one of the best Godzilla movies for repeated viewings.

Now for the kaiju segments. There are a lot of fan favorites in this movie. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and the new-comer, King Ghidorah. It’s easily the best Showa era kaiju team-up outside Destroy All Monsters.

Godzilla’s suit went through a little change, no more big brown eyebrows. Also, his atomic breath has thankfully been changed from a smoke-machine to exclusively animation. There’s a funny scene where Ghidorah zaps Godzilla in the ass and he starts to rub his behind in pain. Hey, compared to the Irish Jig in the next film, this was comedy gold.

Rodan looked fine to me. Some people complain about the length of his neck, but it didn’t really bother me. I thought it was an improvement on his suit in the previous Rodan movie. My only issue was the size of his head, but that’s been a problem with all the Rodan costumes I’ve seen (save for the Heisei and Millenium incarnations); it’s way too small. Rodan proved to be a decent fighting partner for Godzilla, though they got off to a rough start. I still prefer to think of Anguirus as Godzilla’s “#1 Guy”, though.

Mothra was a Larva again. Just one this time, as her sister apparently died between this and the last movie. Mothra is again the goody-two-shoes savior of Earth that the tiny Princesses call upon whenever the world is in monster peril. The effects shots with them were done just as flawlessly as in the last movie. In fact, it was interesting to see them kind of working on relations between Infant Island and Japan, appearing on talk shows and being regarded as celebrities rather than sideshow freaks to be captured and exploited.

King Ghidorah is inarguably the star of the show. A nice origin set up for him. I liked the whole Space Demon-thing, a nice change-up from the tired “Dinosaur gets frozen in ice and mutated” device used with Godzilla, Anguirus and Rodan (Rodan wasn’t frozen in ICE but it was the same concept). His first appearance is magnificent. The combination of animation and explosions set him up perfectly. In fact, it was SO cool they recycled it a couple times in future installments. I have to say, visually, Ghidorah is the most impressive of all the kaiju. The wire-work involved in making his heads, tails and wings all function separately at the same time must’ve been quite an undertaking. But the end result is spectacular. As far as the Showa series goes, King Ghidorah is the most worthy of being called “Godzilla’s Arch-Nemesis”. Not just because he’s fought him the most times, but because it always takes a team-up for Godzilla to beat him. Ghidorah is stronger and has all sorts of advantages over him. Personally, Ghidroah’s my second favorite kaiju (Anguirus being numero uno).

Then there’s the fight scene. It starts out with the three heroic kaiju having a “conference”, complete with dialogue translation by the Princesses (apparently all kaiju speak the same language). Mothra gets on top of a hill and acts as the “Chairman” whilst Godzilla and Rodan bicker below about the pros and cons of helping the humans. It’s absolutely hilarious, and though campy and silly, it’s done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, not to be taken too seriously. I loved it.

In the end they all teamed-up to take down Ghidorah. I liked Rodan’s hurricane attack, much more effective than I remember it being. He also got the best blow against Ghidorah. During their aerial chase scene Rodan turns completely around at a moment’s notice and just SLAMS into Ghidorah. Next thing you see is Rodan laying on the ground next to the quickly recovering Ghidorah and you could tell he was thinking “Crap, I shouldn’t have done that”. The final part of the battle where they all work together to defeat Ghidorah is the finest example of a kaiju team-up. Mothra gets on Rodan’s back and flies to a vantage point to shoot stun webbing at Ghidorah while Godzilla holds him in place from behind.

I also have to congratulate this movie for maintaining perfect continuity. Rodan digs himself out of the volcano he got trapped inside of in his last movie, Godzilla’s under water (big surprise), Mothra’s back at Infant Island but in larva form as seen at the end of Godzilla vs. Mothra and her sister has apparently died, hence there’s only one of her.

On a personal note, this ranks in my Top 5 Godzilla Movies, and gets a B+ from me. One of the best films in the franchise.

Grade: B+

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

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Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Just as a note, I watched this film in widescreen with the original Japanese dialogue.

A new Godzilla is terrorizing Japan and nobody knows what to do. Wait, yes they do; build a giant robot doppelganger! But this time they build their Mechagodzilla from the bones of the original Godzilla, killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Godzilla and Mechagodzilla throw down a couple times until somebody wins. Yes, that is the extent of the plot.

I would have to say that this is my least favorite installment of the Millenium series. It had a good concept, and Kiryu is definitely the coolest looking Mechgodzilla to date, but the movie had some serious flaws.

For one thing, the humans were just so unlikable it was hard to sit through their scenes (which were many). The female lead (who’s name escapes me…in fact, ALL the human’s names escape me because I didn’t care about them in any way whatsoever) was supposed to appear hardened and soulless but instead came off appearing like she had no acting talent and they just cast her off the street. The silly old scientist and his constant advances toward the female lead were just embarrassing. As I’ve said before, the whole “Government hires a scientist to create a weapon to destroy Godzilla” plot has been done to DEATH. And then there’s the little girl. Annoying.

But it wasn’t just the human drama that hurt this movie. The guy who played Godzilla in this film truly sucked. It’s like he was sleeping inside the suit or something. Mechagodzilla’s going all-out and missile-bombing the crap out of Godzilla…and he’s just standing there, motionless like a statue. Makes me wonder if someone was even in there. The fight scenes are just so unsatisfying thanks to the poor acting on Godzilla’s part (never thought I’d type THAT sentence).

However, the movie wasn’t ALL bad. As I said before, Kiryu looked impressive, and regardless of what others think, *I* liked the Jetpack. For once Mechagodzilla’s flying didn’t look silly. I also appreciated the origin of this Mechagodzilla, as it’s far more interesting than what they’ve written in previous films featuring the character. Add to that the use of footage from previous Toho kaiju flicks (Mothra and War of the Gargantuas) was pretty cool. Oddly, though, the DVD has the Toho Mothra icon included on the back (Godzilla DVDs recently have been including these icons to indicate which of Toho’s kaiju appear in the film) but no icon for Sanda and Gaira. They appear for just as long and in exactly the same fashion as Mothra, why don’t they get icons? They gave an icon to Gabara, for Heaven’s sake! Where’s the love for the Gargantuas? Actually, it doesn’t really bug me at all.

Another thing that ACTUALLY bugged me, though, was the dropping of a plotline that all reasoning would indicate to be an important piece of the film: Kiryu goes berserk and starts rampaging Tokyo after hearing Godzilla’s roar. After all, it was made from the bones of the original Godzilla and thus has its memories. After its batteries run out they do a little reprogramming and this is no longer an issue. Seemed more like filler to me. They’re pulling a Matrix Revolutions!

To be fair, they address this plotline more deeply in the sequel, Tokyo SOS, but after seeing this film I can’t say I’d blame anyone if they weren’t motivated to sit through the second installment.

All in all, it wasn’t a good movie. The human drama was bad and so were the kaiju battles (though some of Kiryu’s CGed moves looked okay). Add to that a very anticlimactic ending and this movie just fails to please.

It gets a D+, and that’s probably being generous.

Grade: D+

Uzumaki

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Uzumaki

For anyone who has ever read a story by H.P. Lovecraft, or ever been interested in surreal, gothic, mind-bending horror, this movie is for you.

The plot is very reminiscent of “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, one of Lovecraft’s most famous tales (and poorly adapted into the Brian Yuzna film, Dagon). Essentially, a small fishing village deep in the rural outskirts of Japan has been experiencing some very bizarre phenomenon. One by one, the townspeople become obsessed with spiral patterns of any kind. A young girl and her boyfriend become particularly concerned, as the boyfriend’s father seems to be at the epicenter of this phenomenon and has become violently obsessed with it. Eventually, as the epidemic reaches its climax, townspeople begin to suffer spiral-related deaths (like being ground up in the tire of a moving car), or even change into grotesque, giant snail-monsters.

The movie is VERY strange, both in story and appearance. Being inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, the audience is treated to some of the most surreal and gruesome deaths you’ll ever see on film. I won’t spoil it for you, but one of them involves a washing machine, broken glass and a camcorder.

This movie isn’t for everyone, I suppose. Some fans prefer their horror movies to “make sense”, and Uzumaki is decidedly abstract. And yet others will never give the movie a try because it is in Japanese and they don’t like subtitles. And in addition to that, there are those out there who hate H.P. Lovecraft’s style of story-telling and will thus be turned off of the movie at the mere utterance of his name.

But overall, this is the kind of bizarre, surreal horror movie that is best watched at 3 in the morning, when you’re all alone in the a dark house, deprived of sleep and despite all common sense, you become paranoid and creeped-out by every little noise.

I give it an A-. The best H.P. Lovecraft-inspired horror movie since John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness.

Grade: A-