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Gojira -1.0 (2023)
Never thought a Godzilla movie would make me cry
The story is set amidst the physical and emotional wreckage of Japan at the end of WW2 and just after. This realism is blended very well with a fictitious monster. For Japan, the war was not over.
The unforgettable production utilizes some of the original Godzilla music. It is in Japanese with English subtitles.
The story is pro-human. Seeing how people cared for each other in the midst of disaster is what moved me to tears. No snarky or edgy dialog or lame jokes that ruin so many Hollywood scripts in my opinion. Come to think of it, I can't remember a single humorous moment in the movie, though there were moments of joy and comraderie.
It is a story about grass roots self-reliance and cooperation. Although some military men assist them, the Japanese realize that their government won't save them. Scientists and former military men come together, borrow some military equipment form a plan to defeat Godzilla.
It is also a story about cowardice, the crippling shame that comes with it, and how cowardice can actually buy time for one to build one's courage. Remember what they say about backing away from a fight and staying alive so you can live to fight another day.
I am not going to spoil it for you. Go see it.
The Invasion (2007)
Updated story that holds up well. Better than I thought it would be.
The story is modernized with exploding space shuttle debris carrying a contaminant to earth, and suspicious vaccines. Dr. Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) is a professional psychologist with a small son and an ex-husband Tucker (Jeremy Northam) with whom there is a contentious relationship. Veronica Cartwright reprises her appearance in the story as a patient to Dr. Bennell. Ben Driscoll (played by the fabulous Daniel Craig) is a physician and Carol's love interest. Everyone rapidly gets infected and the city is thrown into chaos. Carol is panicked, because her little son Ollie (Jackson Bond) is staying with his father and she is unable to rapidly get to him. When she goes back to the ex-husband's house looking for Ollie, Tucker infects her. I won't spoil it except only to say the resolution is happier than in the 1978 version with Donald Sutherland.
A Murder of Innocence (2018)
I found it moving. Obviously not for everyone.
The movie shows what happens when fear grips and overwhelms a group of people. Irrational thinking and behavior and mental deterioration ensue.
Pastor Anderson and his wife were struggling with the same fear. The inevitable question why do bad things happen to good people arises. The Andersons had their faith tested. They took reasonable precautions for their own safety, and learned to hand their fear over to God.
I think the movie contains a pertinent lesson in a day and age when the media and governments around the world work non-stop to keep the masses whipped up into a hysterical frenzy, fighting each other.
The Morrison Murders: Based on a True Story (1996)
Great movie about the difficulty of acknowledging the truth
It's bad enough dealing with the shock of finding out your parents and brother have been murdered. But Walker Morrison and the extended Morrison family as well as Luke's fiancé Kimberly and the Granger family could not accept the possibility that Luke Morrison was responsible. Walker's wife Patti, however, was more receptive to the evidence that Sheriff Byron Calhoun had accumulated and started to get scared.
Luke and Walker had an altercation because Walker refused to go to Luke's wedding after Luke had refused to take a more extensive polygraph test. Over time, there were other signs in Luke's behavior, such as tearing apart their deceased father's office looking for another will that would have given Luke control over the entire trucking operation, that may have started to give Walker some doubts. Luke blew through his inheritance at an alarming rate. Eventually, Walker and Luke had a falling out and Luke left town with Kimberly.
Walker experienced one flashback into childhood showing all was not well in the Morrison household, with their mother, Flo, having favored the youngest son Bobby, now murdered. Maybe there were reasons Luke might have been a tad resentful? In another flashback, Walker himself was the target of their father Garth's anger, prompting Garth to write Walker out of the family will. Walker and Garth subsequently made amends. Though Garth had expressed an intention to the family lawyer of modifying the will again, he had not filed that will before he was murdered.
A year and a half later, Luke and Kimberly were back in town with an infant son, and Luke called up Walker to try and "patch things up." Sheriff Calhoun finally convinced Walker to wear a wire while talking to Luke so they could all finally get at the truth that had been eating away at the Morrisons and the town.
'Weird Al' Yankovic: First World Problems (2014)
Al remains ahead of his time
This is an amusing portrayal of Karens, only it was done in 2014. And considering what people have been going through in 2020, it certainly does put our daily mundane problems in perspective.
Peace Officer (2015)
Very calm, even-keeled look at police use of force
I am rather biased, as I have grown acquainted with former Sheriff Lawrence, the investigator in this documentary and think he is a terrific person. He has spoken at many police use of force events here in Salt Lake City.
Nevertheless, the balance struck in this film is breathtaking. There is equal air time between the law enforcement agencies (and the DAs who support them) behind officer caused fatalities and the families of those who were traumatized by these shootings. Even the next-door neighbors had bullets rained on their houses in some cases. Nobody is immune from a SWAT team "visit" - one of the families in the film suffered from a case of mistaken identity.
Sheriff Lawrence cites a personal example in the case of his own son-in-law's death, in how the media completely gets the facts wrong. The news reported that his son-in-law Brian inflicted the fatal shot on himself. Sheriff Lawrence made a career out of reconstructing crime scenes from the evidence, and did so in the case of Brian's death. He found out what actually happened in this case and in many others. Brian did not inflict any fatal injury on himself.
One troubling problem the film touches on is the way these agencies handle their own evidence in officer involved shootings. I went into the film with a belief that evidence in such cases should be handled by completely independent investigators. The film itself convinced me completely.
Every citizen and lawmaker should see this film. Sheriff Lawrence's ability to move beyond his grief and do something constructive, and his dogged quest to dig out the facts in these cases are inspiring. I declined from giving the film 10/10 only because we given no resolution in the film, or steps for moving forward. It is up to us to make the happy ending.