killercharm

This gojira movie is not the best of them. The flick itself ain't all that, but the gojira is pretty cool. He's got a temper as powerful as he is. We are reminded that Godzilla is a god/monster in the Japanese tradition of this monster. He is half monster and half vengeful god, who is here to set Japan into the red after WWII brought the country to zero - minus one. The story is the usual gojira storyline since 1954: Tokyo is under attack by a big bad kaiju - a monster from the sea - and nobody can fight it properly. People are getting smashed and killed helter skelter. A deserter, Koichi, is going to bring this big bad kaiju down and redeem his deserting self.

In this delightful fairy tale three sharp-as-tac orphaned siblings dodge their odious uncle who has been given custody until the oldest turns 18. Until that day the odious uncle, played to a turn by Jim Carrey, tries to off them in colorful ways. He turns up in disguise, thus affording us the chance to see Jim Carrey play different characters. He's a joy to watch. The movie has a great style; the clothes and sets create a world both modern and steam punk, floating between "real" and fairy-tale worlds. Each time the unctuous uncle shows up again the kids see straight through his disguise but, alas, they are the only ones who can. The adults are blind to Uncle Olaf's shenanigans.

A noir flick based on a Hemingway story, the opening scene is magnificent. This is a b&w tale told in noir pacing through the bifurcated windshield of the 1940s. Two killers show up in a small-town diner looking for the Swede. They want to kill him; it's what they do, and they're not quiet about it. This is a story told in flash-back. One highlight is the Swede's downfall, the femme fatale, Ava Gardner at her peak. She no good. All the men around her, as she's only surrounded by men, are rough but she's the devil. She looks like a different species when you first set eyes on her. The room is full of men who roughly look and dress alike and then you see her, on the bed *surprise* looking like an alien being. She's all smooth purring greed, which is lust-adjacent, so. Fact is, everybody in this flick is tough as nails. The best friend cop, the jilted good-girl girlfriend, the insurance investigator, even the lone diner who faced the killers. In this noir world everyone has as an iron will that's a bit twisted.