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Everything Else => Entertainment, Games & Computers => Topic started by: cosworth151 on August 11, 2017, 01:30:38 PM

Title: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: cosworth151 on August 11, 2017, 01:30:38 PM
The actor that played Godzilla in the first 12 of his movies has died at the age of 88.

Haruo Nakajima played the world's favorite amphibian with anger issues in the monster's first dozen film outings. It was Nakajima's fourth film. He had previously had a small role in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

In preparation, he went to a zoo to study lizards. They didn't do much, so he based Godzilla's movements on elephants & bears. The original Godzilla suit weighed about 220 pounds.

Nakajima recounted that he got the attention of Godzilla director Ishiro Honda on the set of a WWII film. "There was a scene where an airplane was on fire and an actor had to jump out of it. That was my role," he said. "Mr. Honda saw this scene and thought, 'This guy is full of energy.' They came to see me as someone who had guts, and I think that's why they wanted me for the role of Godzilla."

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/08/542198902/haruo-nakajima-the-original-godzilla-actor-dies
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Jericoke on August 11, 2017, 03:10:06 PM
When I was younger I loved watching Godzilla movies.  Just Godzilla though; I wasn't interested in any other monsters.

When I saw the 90s American one with Matthew Broderick, it sort of tarnished the whole idea of stupid monster movies for me.  With the original Godzilla movies they took the limitations of budgets and special effects to create something special.  As soon as those limits vanished, it felt like what made Godzilla special vanished too.

(The recent Gareth Edwards American Godzilla movie is one of the worst films I've ever seen.)

Anyway, RIP Haruo Nakajima, thank you for providing something special in my life.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Dare on August 12, 2017, 02:50:53 AM
I was more a Hammer horror film fan. You can't go
wrong with Lee and Cushing and their great women
beauties
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: lkjohnson1950 on August 12, 2017, 08:36:48 AM
The great Universal horror films are the standard. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Cheney Jr, those guys rule.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Mollie on August 21, 2017, 10:10:29 AM
Can someone explain to me why there was some sought of backlash on the 1998 Godzilla movie?..well as far as i can remember.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Jericoke on August 21, 2017, 03:10:20 PM
Can someone explain to me why there was some sought of backlash on the 1998 Godzilla movie?..well as far as i can remember.

Numerous elements, but the main one was Godzilla was so far removed from the original design, most people consider it a separate monster.  It would be tantamount to calling a DTM car an F1 car.  They're certainly both race cars, but they're not very similar.

Beyond that, there was the emphasis on spectacle over coherent plot, heavy handed 'social message' that was barely relevant (nukes are bad), the special effects, which were supposed to be the centerpiece of the movie, were barely above average for the time. 
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: cosworth151 on August 21, 2017, 04:19:07 PM
It was made by the same people who had just had a huge hit with Independence Day, so the expectations were sky high. The publicity blitz leading up to the film was massive. That made the mediocre film seem even worse. It was much the same as when the makers of Top Gun came back with the awful Days of Thunder.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Jericoke on August 21, 2017, 04:30:39 PM
It was made by the same people who had just had a huge hit with Independence Day, so the expectations were sky high. The publicity blitz leading up to the film was massive. That made the mediocre film seem even worse. It was much the same as when the makers of Top Gun came back with the awful Days of Thunder.

I liked Days of Thunder.  I can overlook a so so rehash of Top Gun just to enjoy a scene with Fred Thompson, Michael Rooker and Tom Cruise.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Dare on August 22, 2017, 03:59:49 AM
This summer I watched or tried to watch the new Independence Day and
Ghostbusters movie. Both were horrible...who puts up money for stinkers like this.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Jericoke on August 22, 2017, 03:08:31 PM
This summer I watched or tried to watch the new Independence Day and
Ghostbusters movie. Both were horrible...who puts up money for stinkers like this.

I didn't see Independence Day.  I like the new Ghostbusters.  The old one has aged HORRIBLY, if it came out today, it would be lambasted.  Bill Murray's charm can only go so far.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Dare on August 23, 2017, 02:53:13 AM
The new Ghostbusters makes Plan 9 from Outer Space look like
a masterpiece. I tried to watch it but I failed...there's only so much
punishment one can stand. Remakes or sequels rarely succeed.Godfather 2
not included
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: lkjohnson1950 on August 23, 2017, 03:49:02 AM
I'm more with Jeri, the new Ghostbusters was OK. A slow start but a decent finish. Actually the best movie I've seen lately was a silent from 1927, "IT" starring Clara Bow. Not sure if that says more about me or about the state of modern Hollywood.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Jericoke on August 23, 2017, 04:00:22 AM
The new Ghostbusters makes Plan 9 from Outer Space look like
a masterpiece. I tried to watch it but I failed...there's only so much
punishment one can stand. Remakes or sequels rarely succeed.Godfather 2
not included

Godfather Part 2 was always intended to be made though.  It was a revolution in film making, to tell a story that wouldn't fit in one film.  It's not really a 'sequel' in the same sense of other sequels made simply because the previous movie made money, it was the artistic plan from the start.

The trend unfortunately died when Superman II flopped.  Superman and Superman II were filmed as one contiguous story, but then Brando discovered he was only being paid for one movie, and Donner said if Brando goes, he goes and... well, the whole thing fell apart and studios stopped making movies back to back with rare exceptions:  Back the Future 2/3, Matrix 2/3, Pirates of the Caribbean 2/3.  Of course, all those were conceived as after the fact sequels.
Title: Re: Original Godzilla Actor Dies
Post by: Jericoke on August 23, 2017, 04:07:37 AM
I'm more with Jeri, the new Ghostbusters was OK. A slow start but a decent finish. Actually the best movie I've seen lately was a silent from 1927, "IT" starring Clara Bow. Not sure if that says more about me or about the state of modern Hollywood.

War for the Planet of the Apes (the third in the 'new' trilogy) is an amazing movie.  The main characters are the apes, and most of them communicate via sign language, making it very much like  a silent movie. 

It's a fantastic sequel, though the movie is accessible if you haven't seen the previous entries (though John Lithgow is worth watching the first one).  The movie makes a lot of 'bold' artistic decisions, focusing on computer generated main characters (the common 'wisdom' is that a human must be present as the protagonist to ground the story), having much of the story presented without spoken dialogue, not focusing on the villain, so we never really know what's going on.  (So many recent movies want us to know why the bad guy is bad... sometimes it's more important to know why the good guy is good)

What I found most ironic is that the awful Tim Burton/Markie Mark Planet of the Apes movie focused on whether humans had souls; if you don't like War for the planet of the Apes, then you don't have a soul.
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