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Space-wasting “vanity” skyscrapers revealed…

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Finally saw the new Godzilla movie last night – great stuff! Nerdy review:

Likes – Godzilla (big surprise); the comparative size of the monsters (huge) and that they don’t mind stomping the crap out of everything they see or that bothers them. Also kudos to newbie-ish director Gareth Edwards, who after cutting his teeth on the earlier Monsters from 2010 – which you can actually watch online here – was selected to write and direct this movie – well done, sir! I also liked the fact that you are intended to feel sympathy for the Motu even when her babies are getting the ‘Ripley treatment‘ – well I did, anyway 🙂

Puzzled – Ken Watanabe‘s constant ‘thousand yard stare’ even when people are asking him questions (and he’s supposed to be the decades-long chief scientist who knows everything?!?) Maybe he lost his Godzilla Prediction Network card…? 🙂

Major nit – *no classic Godzilla roar*? I realize this is a ‘re-imagining’ (aren’t they all these days) but people, Come ON! And the roar provided is adequate but nowhere near loud or powerful enough? At least they didn’t forget the firebreath (oops, spolier alert!)

Minor nit – not enough monster battle scenes. I realize they did this in part to build tension and not just have a big battle at the start and then nowhere to go with the plot, but at least 5-10 min. more of battle would have been fine, guys. Maybe with the kaiju crushing Oracle’s HQ in downtown SF, or possibly John Woo’s office at Berkeley? now THAT would have rocked!

all in all, a very good film, however, and definitely up there with Cloverfield and other recent monster fare….see it – or be stomped!

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yet the poor children implicated by this – they don’t mention the Bruce Willis/Demi Moore infamy of ‘Rumer’ and ‘Scout’ or Gweneth Paltrow’s ‘Apple’ – these names give emancipation a lease on life! Or as Calvin once put it “you’re going to be mightly lonely in the nursing home…!”

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Worst New Baby Names

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here’s where I’ll be, hoping Thu night!

Cinerama – Coming Soon

in the meantime, 3 comics from another person who can’t wait for the new movie…. (keep scrolling)…..

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pretty much….!

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I have always been fascinated by iconoclastic people – some being celebrities, many politicians or leaders, musicians – the list is somewhat long. In a recent discussion with a friend about the somewhat old movie Westworld (1973), I happened to come across this interview with Yul Brynner. What an interesting and candid guy – compared to most celebrities, he seems fairly genuine, relaxed and happy to simply talk and open whatever the interviewer wants to talk about:

I then found a Biography-style one hour piece on him. Between this and the info on IMDB, it paints a very interesting picture – besides his unique physical appearance and charisma, he was just a guy comfortable with being mysterious, yet a perfectionist and an extremely hard worker that also got to enjoy the results along the way. My favorite is the anecdote they tell about his directing days in the early 50’s at CBS, proving he defnitely had a sense of humor as well as his own self and value to the network at that time:

Of course for me the iconic role was in fact Westworld – I knew about The Magnificent Seven but have never watched it – i’ll definitely be going back to check out some of his older stuff. I saw The Ten Commandments when I was a kid but may have to even go back to that one, too!

A true original, to be sure.

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🙂

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