Queen “B” Josie Cotton Goes to the Drive-In “My whole life I’ve been fixated on science-fiction,” announces singer Josie Cotton, speaking by phone from her home in Silver Lake, California. It’s an unexpected admission from a pop singer best known for reviving the sweet sound of ‘60s girl groups on her 1982 Elektra LP Convertible… Continue reading Josie Cotton
Tag: Monsters
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Before James Dean or Wolverine, Godzilla was the original antihero of film. In 1954, with atomic testing in full swing, a monster craze was birthed by the Honda-Tsuburaya team at Toho films, a Japanese studio which envisioned a world out of balance where giant dinosaurs carried out an ancient battle on city-destroying rampages. Inspired by the… Continue reading Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
A dinosaur wrangler (John Schneider) and a gullible former park employee (Lindsay Lohan) return to the wrecked Jurassic World amusement empire because they aren’t smart enough to listen to a wise character actor who was probably paid millions for just one day on the set. They’re joined by a computer nerd (Sammy Petrillo) and a quirky veterinarian… Continue reading Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
The Mummy
Universal Pictures’ “Dark Universe” is an attempt to create a cohesive, shared cinematic universe made up of classic monsters brought to the screen by directors such as James Whale and F.W. Murnau in the 1930s. It begins with The Mummy in the guise of a tattooed Egyptian princess who looks to have stepped out of… Continue reading The Mummy
Kong: Skull Island
Everything Peter Jackson got so wrong has been corrected in this remade/reimagined/reinvented homage to the 1933 original film. Kong is never referred to as an anatomically correct “gorilla” (though he is called a monkey for comic relief); it’s firmly established he is a “god,” an elemental, a member of the ancients who once ruled the… Continue reading Kong: Skull Island
Godzilla
There is but one given in any Godzilla movie, and that is: the monster is the star, and the people are victims. In this 2014 version, Godzilla provides the money shot, but the people are inconsequential. Besides the original Japanese Gojira from 1954, this one is by far my favorite because instead of the expected… Continue reading Godzilla