I have to confess that my first reaction to Alienoid: The Return to the Future was that I wished I had rewatched the original Alienoid first. This wasn’t exactly a surprise as it was part two of what was in a reality one big movie that had been released into the theaters in two separate […]
Read more "Oegye+in 2bu [Alienoid: The Return to the Future] (2024)"(aka: Taro!; Taro! Momotaro in Trouble) It’s always fun when you stumble across an oddball film you’ve never heard of before, particularly when that film just happens to be a goofy Japanese teen comedy adventure complete with an ancient race of giant creatures. One, I might add, directed by someone who worked on Godzilla films. […]
Read more "Taro! Tokyo makai taisen [Taro! Tokyo Demon War] (1991)"I don’t know… There’s so much to like here. And then there’s the rest of this heavily Kids-centric anime take on the classic Japanese Movie Monster. It sounded so promising: we haven’t had any new Gamera projects for a very long time, except for that all-too-brief Fiftieth Anniversary short film which was so stunning that […]
Read more "Gamera: Rebirth (2023)"Elsewhere, I reviewed the 1985 fan film Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushu [Eight-Headed Giant Serpent’s Counterattack], which was made by a group of young film enthusiasts who called themselves Daicon. That may not sound particularly familiar, but I suspect that those of you who are into anime know them by their later name: Gainax, the […]
Read more "Daicon Film’s Return of Ultraman (1983)"I’ve never paid too much attention to the Kamen (Masked) Rider phenomenon. I was more or less aware that the show existed, but never had any interest in it until Hideaki Anno announced that after the first two films of his trilogy of “Shin” movies — Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman — he would give […]
Read more " Kamen raidâ Zetto Ô [Kamen Rider ZO] (1993)"I don’t know. I think the Japanese were willing to release almost anything on VHS back in the Eighties. Of course, from my point of view, this isn’t a bad thing. Consider the curious case of Ichiro Ômomo: back in 1983, he created a short, 8mm student film, about Mighty Lady, a giant robot-like lady […]
Read more "All About Mighty Lady (1984)"This was the second final Godzilla film. The original Showa era Godzilla series lost steam after twenty-one years and ran aground with a film which was more or less a return to form, The Terror of Mechagodzilla. But the Big G returned nine years later, and spent the next eleven years appearing in a string […]
Read more "Gojira vs. Desutoroiâ [Godzilla vs. Destoroyah] (1995)"It’s always a bit worrisome when a famous director — or for that matter a writer or artist — decides to go back and revisit the works that made him famous. Perhaps it’s an attempt to relive the glory days. Perhaps it is because someone is willing to pay a lot of money for another […]
Read more "The Next Generation: Patlabor (2014)"I loved this one. Wow, I didn’t expect. that. Now there is something here that I need to point out right from the start. After all, I know a lot of you out there don’t get it. They look at a film like this and immediately start complaining about the effects. All I can say […]
Read more "Rat Scratch Fever (2011)"(aka, Giantess Attacks) I thought I would love this film more than I do. After all, I love Kaiju Eiga films — and treasure Kaiju Eiga parodies nearly as much. Okay, I’ll admit it, Giantess Attack is technically not in either category, as it is focused more on the sorts of people-blown-up-to-giant-size films made by […]
Read more "Giantess Attack (2017)"
rivets on the poster 