jamesrupert2014

The film is a dramatisation of the famous trail that followed the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. I didn't know much about the events (other than the names of the more culturally-famous of the accused), so learned a lot from the film (but, like all 'dramatisations', some compression and simplification is inevitable, as is (unfortunately) taking some liberties with the facts (such as the implausible and superfluous addition of a FBI 'honey trap' targeting Yippie leader Jerry Rubin)). The ensemble cast is excellent, but Aaron Sorkin's writing and direction is a bit heavy-handed (using quick jump-cuts to contrast what is being said in court to what 'really happened' isn't particularly sophisticated and the overblown coda, when Tom Hayden reads the names of the dead American service men while drenched in dramatic music, was brutally trite (and inaccurate). I'm glad I watched Netflix's version of the story but now need to hunt down 1987's 'Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8', which is based on the actual court transcripts.

A plucky band of disparate warriors pit their wits and the firepower of their seven spaceships against a brutal galactic tyrant (John Saxon) armed with a planet destroying death-ray. Roger Corman produced this gleeful low-budget 'Star Wars' knock-off, and as usual for the famously frugal film maker, the sum is greater than the parts, largely due to his capacity for spotting (and hiring) new talent. Future legendary auteur James Cameron was behind many of the impressive (for the resources on hand) and imaginative special effects (including Nell, the heroic, vaguely uterine-looking 'corsair' flown by young Shad (Richard Thomas), hesitant leader of the group of space-seven), future Oscar-winning composer James Horner scored the film, and future Oscar-nominee John Sayles wrote the witty, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, script. The characters are amusing, ranging from Sybil Danning's underdressed 'space Valkyrie' (who has the film's most memorable line) to George Peppard's laconic space-cowboy (who manages to revivify the tired cliché) to Robert Vaughn's world-weary professional space-killer (essentially the same part he played in 1960's Earth-bound 'The Magnificent Seven'). There are also lizard-oids, telepathic clones of a mono-entity, and aliens who communicate by emitting thermal energy (allies who are useful for roasting hotdogs on while waiting in the trenches for the war to start). The special effects may induce a sense of sense of déjà vu in genre fans: in typical Corman fashion, they were later recycled in a number of bargain-basement films (such as 1983's lack-luster 'Space Raiders'). All-in-all, goofy, fast-moving, and colourful fun that, if watched in the right frame of mind, is much better than its unimaginative IMDB score would suggest.

All of Earth's monsters (Godzilla et al, now a fairly amiable and well-behaved lot) are sequestered on the titular island where they are watched over by G-Guard Commander (Jiro Dan), assisted first by Torema (Maimi Okuwa), a comely, vengeful alien and later by Misato (Kaori Aso), his cute monster-vet daughter; BUT, there is something hidden on the island that is coveted by the evil Xilien 'Giant Dark Emperor'. To conquer G-Guard and steal the secret, the fiendish glowing space-head dispatches his sexy minions (first Randeth (Kaoru Ukawa), later Zagreth (Naoko Aizawa)) who have the ability to recruit 'space monsters' (Ghidorah et al, not so amiable and well behaved), sometimes obtaining the beasts from (in unique Japanese fashion) a 'giant monster vending machine'. For 256 brief episodes, wicked plots are hatched and stymied, kaiju roar and brawl, giant robots come and go, sneaky space-babes preen and gloat, and an annoying delivery girl keeps showing up in G-Guard headquarters with snacks. All of this is done with a cast of three or four people, a couple of computer 'voices', a very excitable narrator (Yutaka Aoyama), and a host of barely animated plastic toy monsters. The series likely will be of interest only to kids and fanatic kaiju-philes. I am in the latter category, and although the acting, special effects, and script are as cartoonish as expected given the premise and execution, I found the silly show endearingly fun to watch (admittedly in an eye-rolling way). Fans of Toho's canon of tokusatsu will enjoy the inside jokes, the frequent, sometimes obscure, references to the venerable films, and especially the opening music, a sped-up version of Ikufube's famous 'Godzilla March' that rapidly rattles off the names of most of Toho's suit-mation bestiary (whether they are in this series or not). It took me a while to get through all the episodes as they were slowly being fed into the web-world and now I am saddened that there are no more.