A movie review that's a bit different, I reviewed Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion, part of a 1990s vintage kaiju series many consider superior to the Godzilla/ Toho movies. I personally consider it better than its predecessor, at least.
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/06/featured-creature-kaiju-file-3-one.html
Also, a review of Tremors 2, with a little on the lineage of the "killer worm" concept. Something I didn't mention, it was featured in an Outer Limits episode called Invisible Enemy, which would be from a year before the time Dune was published.
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/featured-creature-special-one-that.html
And here's a couple once that weren't so good. First, The Happytime Murders, an attempt at an adult Muppet movie.
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/no-good-very-bad-movies-countdown-6-one.html
And finally Jojo Rabbit. Still not quite sure what to make of it.
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/no-good-very-bad-movies-countdown-7-one.html

David N. Brown
Mesa Arizona

On Fri, 10 Jun 2022 15:27:14 -0700 (PDT), David Brown
<davidnbrown80@gmail.com> wrote:

>A movie review that's a bit different, I reviewed Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion, part of a 1990s vintage kaiju series many consider superior to the Godzilla/ Toho movies. I personally consider it better than its predecessor, at least.
>https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/06/featured-creature-kaiju-file-3-one.html

That's the second film of the 30-years-after-the-original reboot.

I watched them all last December. I don't have any notes on it, but
the reboot series (as might be expected) looked better than the
original. For one thing, the reliance on young boys to drive the plot
was missing (somewhat older girls were used instead).

One thing is clear: now that we have Gamera, there is /no/ need for
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

>Also, a review of Tremors 2, with a little on the lineage of the "killer worm" concept. Something I didn't mention, it was featured in an Outer Limits episode called Invisible Enemy, which would be from a year before the time Dune was published.
>https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/featured-creature-special-one-that.html

I'm afraid how, exactly, a film that came in 1996 was "featured in an
Outer Limits episode ... from a year before the time Dune was
published". Was time travel involved?

>And here's a couple once that weren't so good. First, The Happytime Murders, an attempt at an adult Muppet movie.
>https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/no-good-very-bad-movies-countdown-6-one.html
>And finally Jojo Rabbit. Still not quite sure what to make of it.
>https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/no-good-very-bad-movies-countdown-7-one.html

/Jojo Rabbit/, like /The Book Thief/, is a film about civilans in
Germany from the mid-30s (/The Book Thief/) and apparenlty 1944 at the
lastes (/Jojo Rabbit/) to the end of the war. The first was narrated
by Death, which was not as bright an idea as the filmmakers thought it
was. The latter is about a very young but very fanatical Nazi. Both
find themselves in homes that are hiding a Jew.

/Jojo Rabbit/ worked better for me because it was more frenetic. /The
Book Thief/ reaches a point were the filmmakers apparently couldn't
see any way forward, so they had a "stray bomb" basically kill
everybody in the family sheltering the protagonist but her, which is
kind of a cheat. /Jojo Rabbit/ has the boy explicitly rejecting
Hitler.

There are just-after-the-end postwar films that are similarly ...
puzzling. It's not clear what the intended message, if any, is.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."

On Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 10:50:31 AM UTC-7, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2022 15:27:14 -0700 (PDT), David Brown
> <davidn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >A movie review that's a bit different, I reviewed Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion, part of a 1990s vintage kaiju series many consider superior to the Godzilla/ Toho movies. I personally consider it better than its predecessor, at least.
> >https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/06/featured-creature-kaiju-file-3-one.html
> That's the second film of the 30-years-after-the-original reboot.
>
> I watched them all last December. I don't have any notes on it, but
> the reboot series (as might be expected) looked better than the
> original. For one thing, the reliance on young boys to drive the plot
> was missing (somewhat older girls were used instead).
>
> One thing is clear: now that we have Gamera, there is /no/ need for
> Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
> >Also, a review of Tremors 2, with a little on the lineage of the "killer worm" concept. Something I didn't mention, it was featured in an Outer Limits episode called Invisible Enemy, which would be from a year before the time Dune was published.
> >https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/featured-creature-special-one-that.html
> I'm afraid how, exactly, a film that came in 1996 was "featured in an
> Outer Limits episode ... from a year before the time Dune was
> published". Was time travel involved?
> >And here's a couple once that weren't so good. First, The Happytime Murders, an attempt at an adult Muppet movie.
> >https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/no-good-very-bad-movies-countdown-6-one.html
> >And finally Jojo Rabbit. Still not quite sure what to make of it.
> >https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/05/no-good-very-bad-movies-countdown-7-one.html
> /Jojo Rabbit/, like /The Book Thief/, is a film about civilans in
> Germany from the mid-30s (/The Book Thief/) and apparenlty 1944 at the
> lastes (/Jojo Rabbit/) to the end of the war. The first was narrated
> by Death, which was not as bright an idea as the filmmakers thought it
> was. The latter is about a very young but very fanatical Nazi. Both
> find themselves in homes that are hiding a Jew.
>
> /Jojo Rabbit/ worked better for me because it was more frenetic. /The
> Book Thief/ reaches a point were the filmmakers apparently couldn't
> see any way forward, so they had a "stray bomb" basically kill
> everybody in the family sheltering the protagonist but her, which is
> kind of a cheat. /Jojo Rabbit/ has the boy explicitly rejecting
> Hitler.
>
> There are just-after-the-end postwar films that are similarly ...
> puzzling. It's not clear what the intended message, if any, is.
> --
> "I begin to envy Petronius."
> "I have envied him long since."
Regarding Tremors 2, I meant the concept of a worm or other predator that attacks from underground, otherwise best known from Dune. In the full review, I traced it back to a story titled The Worm by David H. Keller. I have a collection with that story and a dino/ kaiju-related piece that I may get to.

On Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 12:50:31 PM UTC-5, Paul S Person wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2022 15:27:14 -0700 (PDT), David Brown
> <davidn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >A movie review that's a bit different, I reviewed Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion, part of a 1990s vintage kaiju series many consider superior to the Godzilla/ Toho movies. I personally consider it better than its predecessor, at least.
> >https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/06/featured-creature-kaiju-file-3-one.html
> That's the second film of the 30-years-after-the-original reboot.
>
> I watched them all last December. I don't have any notes on it, but
> the reboot series (as might be expected) looked better than the
> original. For one thing, the reliance on young boys to drive the plot
> was missing (somewhat older girls were used instead).
>
Here's an old Gamera story. For those unfamiliar with Tojo monster lore,
suffice it to say that Gamera resembles nothing so much as a Godzilla-sized
snapping turtle, with the ability (which a snapping turtle does not have) to
retract it's extremities fully into its shell, and to fly (which I am glad
that a snapping turtle does not have).

Scene: A radar station of the Distant Early Warning Line. These were formerly
maintained in the far reaches of Canada and Alaska to guard against Soviet
bomber attacks, and in movies were often the scene of the first encounters
between humans and various monsters and aliens. One of the crew on duty is
monitoring the radar screen; other crew are also present.

Radar observer: "Bogey, bearing three five zero, range nine zero, altitude
ten thousand, inbound. It's big."

Other crew get on radio to Norad, one gets binoculars and goes to one of
the windows to scan in the indicated direction.

Radar observer: "Bearing three four five, range five zero, altitude ten
thousand, course one eight zero, speed four seven zero zero knots." (this was
before Doppler radar; speed was estimated from position on successive
plots).

Binocular observer: "I see something... It appears to be a gigantic turtle!"

Radar observer: "But it's traveling faster than the speed of sound!"

Binocular observer: "O.K., so maybe it's a Mach turtle."

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist