It would be nice if more remakes found some way to justify themselves beyond “because of the money” – it would be nice, in fact, if more movies generally did the same – and this goes doubly for films that are basically flawless. Which is a phrase I feel super uncomfortable in applying to 1980’s […]

Through no fault of its own, Space Amoeba – initially released in English as Yog, Monster from Space, and given the brisk Japanese title Gezora · Ganime · Kameba: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas – has the feeling of a great, epoch-marking film. It was the first Toho daikaiju eiga released in […]

The consensus of Godzilla fandom is that All Monsters Attack (originally released in English as Godzilla’s Revenge, an even less accurate title for this movie in which only a small number of monsters attack, but in which there is virtually no revenge) is made of pure evil. And this is not a difficult opinion to […]

The operating thesis of The Canyons is that movies are awful, the people who make them are awful, and the culture that permits their continued existence is awful. It is perhaps a keen example of form reflecting content, therefore, that The Canyons is itself pretty goddamn awful; and given who director Paul Schrader is, it’s […]

Since 47 Ronin opened, mystifyingly, on Christmas Day, it has earned for itself the right to be treated with the warmth and charity of the holiday season. Thus: this movie has, for serious, kind of amazing sound mixing. It is raging and violent during the battle scenes, it’s hushed and soothing in the scenes of […]