Pick and Pass of the Week: Gojira and Nine

World Cup Fever has swept in, taking control of my Netflix viewing time. These two films were viewed before that and I've been waiting to review Gojira, a hidden gem, and 9, a gem with poop all over it.

Gojira - Known in America as Godzilla, this, the Japanese original, has been so trounced through the muck by all the sequels that the original has been almost forgotten all together. Which is what surprised me the most about the film: it's really good. Besides that, it's a landmark film that has spawned countless rip-offs. It's basically the first disaster movie; the disaster being a giant reptile that comes from the sea and starts attacking Japan. There's the classic tropes of the two young lovers, the girl of which is the daughter of a scientist/professor, they have big meetings with government people, yadda yadda. But even with being the cliche before it was a cliche, the film still does it so well. The professor isn't over the top, and people actually have well written dialogue. The film meanders slightly from part to part, not focusing on any person for too long, but you still get a sense of the characters.
And then there is the monster itself. It's a guy in a suit. It's obvious. But unlike the sequels and rip offs, they don't ham it up. Godzilla just comes and does his deeds, then moves on.
In a way, this was the model for every franchise to come. A great first film, not too cheesy or over the top. Then they make tons of sequels that just exploit the one main idea. This is an interesting film, it's entertaining, and anyone curious about how it all got started should see it. Disaster and monster films ever since have been borrowing one thing or another from it.

9 - This film came out on 9/9/09. How clever, right? If only the writing had such cleverness. Honestly. This film was like a poop wrapped in the most beautiful wrapping. The animation was amazing, but the story made no sense, the dialogue was just barely purposeful, and the characters were one dimensional. The film is about nine little dolls (with numbers on their backs) that can talk and act like little people in a post apocalyptic world where humans have been killed by the robots they created. The main doll is named 9, since he has a 9 on his back. He wakes up from what looks like a dollmaker's shop, then ventures out into the ravaged city. Soon he stumbles upon another doll named 5 or 2 I forget, maybe both. The villains are weird mechanical things that I guess like to eat dolls, or throw their weight around. It's unclear. Then 5 takes 9 to the dolls hide out, where 1 leads them by fear. Maybe it was a good thing, but it seemed bad, that the story just jumps right in. 9 wakes up and already he has no problem interacting, and then he starts causing bad stuff to happen, like 2 getting taken by a mechanical thing. And people just kind of go along with it.
The whole movie just bumbles along, and I mean bumbles, but not in a comedic way. It takes a talented writer to make a story both absurdly simple and yet hard to understand at the same time. And that's how the movie is. They bumble into some building(which is huge to them because they're little dolls), then awaken some monster machine that you have no idea what is about. I thought for the rest of the time after they'd woken it up, that it was one of their doll friends controlling it, since the machine had "sucked up" the doll's soul or whatever. But no, it was just going about sucking up souls. Why? It's a bad guy, and these dolls are good guys?
And how does a horribly written sci-fi animated film reveal anything?....Through newsreel. Nine bumbles his way to figuring that out and they bumble their way to defeating the thing that took the souls. (Spolier Alert) Then, since it took the souls, and had them in the little device that was so important, you'd think that they could just put the souls back into the dolls....nope, the weird funeral set up that maybe you thought would be a "put the souls back" ceremony, actually was a funeral. A funeral for dolls.
Everything was stupid about this film from start to finish. That's why I'm putting it as my PASS of the YEAR. Do not waste your time, no even for curiosity's sake.

A Sci-Fi, two Musicals and an awesome Dramedy

The Ghost in the Shell - This was science fiction at it's best, even though it's through the dialogue of the Japanese. The story and world are really interesting, but the dialogue is so funny. But that's the culture, every country's dialogue is going to be unique. I'm sure American films are funny to the Japanese. But what's unique about theirs is the tone that goes in different directions, as if they're kind of talking about something important, but you don't know, it could just be incidental.
But besides that, what they do with the science is pretty unique. It has elements of androids, and AI, as well as elements of body modification technology, where people can enhance their brains or hands to get more function or new functions out of them. I don't know how original it all is compared to other films or stories, but the basics have been around for decades, they're just adding a different spin on them. But this definitely pre-dated The Matrix and some other AI films. However, it almost borrows too much from Blade Runner, in it's philosophy and tone. There is a cyborg cop chasing after what they think is a hacker, but it turns out it is also a cyborg. The tone is dark and the world is slightly askew, but still totally functions. And there are the deep questions they ask about being real and yadda yadda. This film isn't quite a noir, but it's close enough, that at times you feel like it could just be the Japanese Blade Runner. Except in this film, she is definitely a droid.

Doctor Dolittle -  I didn't know what to think of this film. It's kind of a classic, but then also partially forgotten, and yet partially ignored. And that follows it's history all the way back to when it was released, being a bomb and almost bankrupting Fox. And the movie shows why it could bankrupt a major company. It's just so...it's not bad, mostly, but then it's not great. I hate when movies get reviewed like that, but this film bounced around from good to bad. It definetly wasn't horrible. Rex Harrison is up to his douchey ways, acting better than everyone like in My Fair Lady, except this time he's defending the animals. So the whole time he's showing the absurdity of human nature and the crudeness of men towards themselves and animals.
The film was almost a kind of social commentary, but it never has the wit or smarts to pull that off. Instead, it's a step above a kids movie, but nothing any adults are going to want to see.
Rex Harrison: Fail.

Nine - The musical based on the play based on the film 8 1/2. I am not a big fan of the original film, so that didn't help when seeing this. The original film is about a pretentious Italian director going through a mid-life crisis while trying to make his next film, all while every woman in his life is causing drama. That's basically this film, except with music and also the director is way more pretentious. All the problems he's facing are either ones he's created or could be solved by taking a vacation and putting the film on hold. Why does he need to do this film now? He has no script, yet people are building sets and making costumes, and the actress is being flown in...just come clean douche face and put the film on hiatus. It happens all the time. But no, he has to whine and ask questions about his life that no one cares about, except him and his dead mother.
The original film at least used the women effectively. They were real Italian women dragging him down and were actually involved in his life. Here the women are: a Prostitute from memories of his childhood, an American Reporter that wants to jump on his spaghetti, and that he almost has an affair with, the Actress of his film who has no real story or plot or character, the Costume Lady who again has no story or plot but is just there for him to talk to, his Dead Mother who keeps showing up in his mind, his Wife who should leave him, and his Crazy Face Mistress who tries to kill herself. So all in all, this guy has only two problems: Don't get entangled in crazy face's suicide, and start loving your wife!
Besides the absence of likable characters (except the wife, played by the cutey Marion Cotillard), a plot that you didn't care about and songs about nothing...that basically leaves nothing. The film was nothing. It was like a cloud of smoke, and in it you kind of thought things were going on because there was big time stars and Daniel Day Lewis was acting up a storm. It didn't feel like a film at all. It was like a huge spectacle, or like an old TV special where they would gather a bunch of stars and do a big one time show with numbers and stuff and there was no story, it was just a grab-bag of excitement to see. This definitely was a grab-bag, and just like a grab-bag, it's filled with stuff you think is kind of cool, until you get home and take it all out and realize you don't want any of it after all.

Broadcast News - And now onto something you will enjoy. This is my pick of the week. I stumbled upon this gem and loved it. It's one of James Brooks best, maybe his very best, and like all his usual films, it mixes comedy and drama in a tight mesh. It follows the lives of TV news reporters, who live a hectic, crazy life, which leads to them having no life outside of the newsroom. And naturally, since they have no outside lives, their lives get intertwined with each other.
The film was a little clunky at first, as James Brooks' films can be. Spanglish was pretty clunky, though it was well meaning. But after the first half hour, it's near perfect. The characters each have an arc, and it works remarkably, because it's not to on the nose and but they've all grown and changed by the end of the film. This movie is Film 101 material.