Showing posts with label Juliette Binoche. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juliette Binoche. Show all posts
A gigantic egg is discovered in the Philippines and taken to what is supposed to be a nuclear power plant in Japan. When a "meltdown" occurs scientist Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) must close a hatch on his own wife (Juliette Binoche) to keep radiation from leaking. That's pretty much the last dramatic thing -- in the human sense -- that happens in this new/old take on Godzilla, in which the main monsters are not the Big Guy but a pair of creatures known as "MUTO"s [Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism]. It was the emergence of one of these creatures that actually caused the meltdown. It also develops that Godzilla actually did appear back in 1954 (when the first Godzilla film was released), and he's come back to set nature right and get rid of the MUTOs, who are ravaging Las Vegas after causing much destruction on Honolulu. Joe's son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is one of the military men fighting against the monsters. Godzilla got surprisingly good reviews and fan reaction. Unlike the first American Godzilla film with Matthew Broderick, the movie doesn't ignore what's happened in the Japanese films -- Godzilla is a good guy fighting the bad monsters; there are little kids running about; one of the MUTOs attacks an elevated train -- but what the geeky fans of the Japanese movies may love about the series pretty much sinks this reboot. There's not enough of Godzilla, whom others have described as "a guest star in his own movie." The too-metallic MUTOs remind one of the monster in Deadly Mantis, and while Godzilla doesn't look bad, some of his scenes are so underlit that it's hard to see what's happening or be especially impressed. There are a couple of good scenes and shots -- Godzilla swimming under a bridge where the people look like ants; the flood that washes through Honolulu --- but these aren't enough to save the movie. Only slightly better than Pacific Rim, another movie influenced by Japan's monster flicks.
Verdict: Too much pandering to the geeky fans of the Japanese series -- but it appears to have paid off commercially. **.
 |
| Channing Tatum and Ray Liotta |
Young cop Jonathan White (Channing Tatum) was "involved" in two murders in the projects when he was a boy, and now his past has come back to haunt him. A newspaper reporter (Juliette Binoche) is getting notes from someone claiming that these two deaths were covered up and a cop is going to be in trouble. White tries to find out who is sending these letters, but his childhood buddy Vinnie (Tracy Morgan), who knows the truth, assures him that he's told no one. Then the reporter is murdered not long after White goes to talk to her ... This could have made an interesting thriller, but Montiel's meandering approach and mediocre script -- not to mention all the switching back and forth from 1986 to 2002 -- only add up to tedium. Ray Liotta and Al Pacino are wasted in the smaller roles of cops, while Tatum's performance, even when you consider his character is suppressing emotion, is at times borderline zombie; he seems clueless as to how to play the character. Even the most humble "B" movie from the forties is put together with more smooth finesse than this. Tatum was also in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Pacino had a supporting role as himself in Jack and Jill the same year.
Verdict: A poor excuse for a suspense film. *1/2.