GODZILLA

They have made the Godzilla movie a number of times and I must say I was kind of bored throughout the movie.

Godzilla did not appear in the movie until more than an hour later and even then, it's role seemed more supporting than lead. The main cast includes Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody and Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa.

In short, two radiation-feeding moth-like monsters were unearthed from the ground through construction activities and were coming together in an attempt to breed and Godzilla was the only thing that could stopped them. Period.

Alright, the movie started off in 1999 with the discovery of some mysterious pods in Philippines which was followed by a radiation leak and an explosion in Janjira Nuclear Plant where Joe and Sandra were working. Sandra was killed, leaving behind Joe and his son Ford. 15 years later, Ford was an explosive disposal lieutenant living in San Francisco with his wife Elle and son when he received a call that Joe was detained after entering a quarantine zone in Japan.

Ford flew over to bail his father, just to realize that Joe has never given up on finding the truth behind the nuclear plant's radiation leak and accident that killed Sandra. He reluctantly accompanied Joe back to their old house in the quarantine zone and history repeated itself all over again in the form of a giant-sized winged alien-liked monster known as the Muto that hatched after feeding off radiation from a nuclear plant. Apparently, this was only one of two Mutos that were calling to each other and tried to unite together in San Francisco to breed their next generation. Their calls awakened Godzilla, which was nature's answer to restore balance in the ecosystem. The special forces were mobilized to put an end to these creatures but their efforts were futile against the monsters until Godzilla put up a strong hard fight against the two creatures and eventually defeated them. Strangely, I saw red lanterns in several scenes where the Mutos were striking mayhem during the battles and wondered if there was any significance to this.

The storyline was just very thin and the acting non-memorable although I like the following quote from the movie:

"The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way round." by Dr. Ishiro Serizawa.

Joe Brody

Joe and Ford at their old house in Japan

Sandra

Dr Ishiro Serizawa wore this worried expression throughout the movie

the Muto

red lanterns were shown several times

JAN DARA 2: THE FINALE

I waited a year to catch part 2 of this Thai movie, which starred the same set of actors and actresses. The pace was kind of slow and the story panned out over slightly more than two hours.

Disappointingly, Mario Maurer's performance was so lack lustre. You can trust him to play a young Jan Dara but at the point when he was supposed to be in his 30s and beyond, he looked completely out of place and unconvincing as the tyrannous patriarch of the household. Even a moustache could not save the day, I mean the movie. Maybe someday he would be a method actor but not in this movie.

I felt his friend Ken delivered a much more believable performance as his childhood friend and trusted aide.

In those days when the book was published, it created shockwaves with its adult content of polygamy, rape, incest, homosexuality (lesbianism) but I guess in today's times, the topics would hardly titillate our senses. 

JAN DARA - THE BEGINNING

There are 2 parts to the movie, based on a well-known and controversial thai literacy work written back in the conservative 60s, and this is the first.

Mario Mauer was the lead as Jan Dara, Sakarat Ritthumrong as his father, Rhatha Phongam as Boonlueang and Chaiyapol Julien Pupart as his servant buddy Ken. 

I don't even know how to describe this movie but the following link gave an excellent account of the movie:

http://www.moviexclusive.com/detail.php?c=74&desc=J&p=1918&t=jan-dara-the-beginning-2012_1918

There were quite a bit of sex and boobs scenes but I was hardly surprised considering it was promoted for its explicit sexual content. Overall, I am not particularly thrilled by the movie although I do look forward to the second part to complete the story.