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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Officials vs Godzilla and Death Up a Tree

May 16th, 2017 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.

Recommended

Shin Godzilla (Film, Japan, Hideaki Anno, & Shinji Higuchi, 2016) Government officials struggle for a response when a gigantic, mutating sea dinosaur attacks Tokyo. Reimagines the ‘54 original as taking place in a world where anti-kaiju efforts are hampered by realistically drawn political impediments.—RDL

Good

All Honourable Men (Fiction, Gavin Lyall, 1997) Lyall’s very occasional prose fireworks are not really on display in this fine spy thriller set in the pre-WWI era. Lyall’s late series character Matthew Ranklin attempts to do the right thing in a hostage standoff on the Berlin-Baghdad Railway. Probably worth reading, but only the locations provide the glimmer of Lyall’s potential; that said, the setting is still top notch. –KH

Hearts of the West (Film, US, Howard Zieff, 1975) Prolix bumpkin with dreams of publication as a Western novelist (Jeff Bridges) becomes a B-movie cowboy actor in 1930s Hollywood. Gently comic entry in the 70s nostalgia wave also stars Blythe Danner, Andy Griffith and Alan Arkin. Declaring influences can be tricky, but if there was a book called Roots of the Big Lebowski this film would definitely rate a section.—RDL

On Borrowed Time (Film, US, Harold S. Bucquet, 1939) After Death (Cedric Hardwicke) takes his parents and then his grandmother, an irrepressible tyke and his adorably irascible grandpa (Lionel Barrymore) trap him in a tree. Sass and sentimentality abound in this folksy comedic fantasy.–RDL

Okay

Gangster Squad (Film, US, Ruben Fleischer, 2013) Fleischer makes a C-grade B-movie with an A-list cast and from pieces of better flicks. He casts the LAPD vs Mickey Cohen as two warring visions of Los Angeles, but aside from Cohen (Sean Penn) loudly insisting he means “progress” Fleischer leaves that theme undeveloped. Even the location shots seem thin, as do the characters; some of the many fight scenes approach vividness and even originality. –KH

The Maltese Falcon (Film, US, Roy Del Ruth, 1931) Sam Spade (Ricardo Cortez) investigates a case involving a legendary statuette and the murder of his detective agency partner. Much more faithful to the novel, and thus the classic ‘41 version, than film lore would lead you to expect, but greatly undercut by Cortez’s portrayal of Spade as a grinning lech.—RDL

Vampire: A Wild Story in Scraps and Colors (Fiction, Hanns Heinz Ewers, 1921; trans. Joe Bandel, 2016) German scholar-adventurer Frank Braun washes up in New York on the outbreak of WW1. He becomes an agent of the Kaiser and embroiled with an exotic Jewish-German adventuress — even as he feels a strange anemia … Braun may be the only major vampire novel protagonist to get less emo when he discovers his condition. Ewers’ prose is lurid and highly colored even for 1921 and yes the blood libel makes an appearance but by and large this weirdly compelling read confounds expectations while not quite fulfilling its promise. –KH

Not Recommended

Broadchurch Season 2 (Television, UK, Chris Chibnall, 2015) As the trial of Miller’s husband for child murder tears the town apart, Hardy (David Tennant) renews his effort to crack the cold case that destroyed his life. Deprecates the investigative aspect of the far superior debut season to trowel on the implausible, overwrought melodrama.—RDL

One Response to “Ken and Robin Consume Media: Officials vs Godzilla and Death Up a Tree”

  1. Kim Maston says:

    Completely concur with RDL’s assessment of of Broadchurch S2. Disappointing. But Broadchurch S3?

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