{"id":1315,"date":"2017-05-16T13:54:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T13:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/?p=1315"},"modified":"2017-05-16T13:54:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T13:54:47","slug":"ken-and-robin-consume-media-officials-vs-godzilla-and-death-up-a-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/ken-and-robin-consume-media-officials-vs-godzilla-and-death-up-a-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken and Robin Consume Media: Officials vs Godzilla and Death Up a Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>. 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\u2019ll talk about in greater depth on our new podcast segment, Tell Me More.<\/i> <\/p>\n

Recommended<\/h2>\n

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 \u201854 original as taking place in a world where anti-kaiju efforts are hampered by realistically drawn political impediments.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Good<\/h2>\n

All Honourable Men<\/a> (Fiction, Gavin Lyall, 1997) Lyall\u2019s very occasional prose fireworks are not really on display in this fine spy thriller set in the pre-WWI era. Lyall\u2019s 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\u2019s potential; that said, the setting is still top notch. –KH<\/p>\n

Hearts of the West<\/a> (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.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

On Borrowed Time<\/a> (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<\/p>\n

Okay <\/h2>\n

Gangster Squad<\/a> (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 \u201cprogress\u201d 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<\/p>\n

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 \u201841 version, than film lore would lead you to expect, but greatly undercut by Cortez\u2019s portrayal of Spade as a grinning lech.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n

Vampire: A Wild Story in Scraps and Colors <\/a>(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 \u2026 Braun may be the only major vampire novel protagonist to get less emo when he discovers his condition. Ewers\u2019 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<\/p>\n

Not Recommended<\/h2>\n

Broadchurch Season 2<\/a> (Television, UK, Chris Chibnall, 2015) As the trial of Miller\u2019s 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.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ll talk about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-1315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiofree","tag-ken-and-robin-consume-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}