Synopsis: A giant radioactive monsters called Godzilla appears to wreak destruction on mankind.
Release Date: May 16, 2014
Thoughts: Even after the impressive teaser trailer for Warner Bros. big (like really big) budget reboot of Godzilla I remained a tad skeptical. Sure, the preview was edited in such a fashion that kept the title character a mystery until the final shadowy moments but would the movie just be effects-heavy rehash of the famously goofy Godzilla films of the past? Well, the second trailer has arrived and it stirs a greater excitement in this viewer, suggesting an edge of your seat sci-fi action epic as much about the radioactive beast as it is about the havoc he leaves in his wake. Roaring onto the screen at the start of a busy 2014 summer season, Godzilla is quickly moving to highly anticipated status in my little black book.
Review: You may not know the name Drew Struzan but if you’ve seen a poster for a movie in the last 30+ years you most definitely have seen his work. In a new documentary (available on Netflix) director Erik Sharkey charts the rise of Struzan through his humble origins as a starving artist (literally) to his early work designing album art for musicians and eventually into his legendary period of churning out some of the most iconic poster images in the history of film.
Along with his contemporaries John Alvin and Richard Amsel, Struzan’s poster designs are world famous for their complexities and innate way of telling you an entire story within one single image. Unlike the majority of posters today that are Photoshopped to death with poor construction, Struzan’s hand-painted works are sometimes better than the movies they are advertising. There’s a beauty to these paintings that can’t be mimicked by modern technology which makes the work he does all the more valuable.
Though I don’t usually add extra photos to my reviews, here is a small preview of some of Struzan’s body of work. Can you name the movies these teaser images come from?
While the documentary covers all the bases on where Struzan came from and how he came to do what he does so well, the film is painted with broad strokes that manage to be informative while keeping the viewer at arm’s length. That’s partly, I suppose, because Struzan seems like a straight-forward guy that has had little of your typical Hollywood conflict. Soft-spoken and humble, aside from a lawsuit involving paintings that were stolen by an associate of his there doesn’t seem to be anyone that has a bad thing to say about him.
What’s more, Struzan comes off as a genuinely nice guy, a family man that chose to stay home in his early days with his wife and young son while his colleagues partied like rock stars with their rock star clients. Struzan alludes to a painful childhood raised by parents that “didn’t like me” and locked him out of the house when he returned from his first semester away at college. Not much more is said of this and I’m guessing Starkey didn’t push Struzan on a subject that obviously has some pain attached to it.
With interviews from many of the stars and directors Struzan has provided art for, the documentary is a mostly just a genial piece of pro-Struzan propaganda and I’m totally OK with that. If it comes off feeling like you’re simply paging through one of Struzan’s impressive coffee table books with voice-over narration from the man himself, it doesn’t matter because it still makes for worthwhile viewing. A must watch for any true cinephile.
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Synopsis: A giant radioactive monster called Godzilla appears to wreak destruction on mankind.
Release Date: May 16, 2014
Thoughts: Though he first arrived in 1954 in one of the many campy big rubber monster movies, ever since 1998’s Hollywood-ized version of Godzilla belly flopped at the box office that mean ole monster has been keeping a low profile here in the states, retreating to the deep waters from whence he came with his powerful tail between his legs. Warner Brothers is giving the big guy another go in 2014 and this first teaser is a nicely compact taste of what audiences can expect from a new millennium Godzilla.
With a story by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel) that led to a script Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) put a shine on, and featuring cast members like Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), Bryan Cranston (Argo, Rock of Ages), and Aaron Taylor-Johnson(Savages, Anna Karenina), actors so diverse that you’d think they were in a spoof video on Jimmy Fallon, I’m digging what I’m seeing, finding this to be an effective first glimpse at Godzilla’s next bid for domination.
Synopsis: A documentary on legendary movie-poster artist Drew Struzan.
Release Date: TBA 2013
Thoughts: Though you may not be aware of it, you already are familiar with the work of Drew Struzan. As the artist behind hundreds of now-iconic poster designs from the Indian Jones films to dramatic fair like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, Struzan has fans all over Hollywood – and with good reason. There’s a beauty to his detail and care in his design that remains unmatched in our modern era of photoshopped posters of floating heads. Here’s a guy that made even the most mundane film (coughcoughMastersoftheUniversecoughcough) look like a must-see winner. This documentary should be fun to catch and if it doesn’t play near you make sure to check out your local library for his oversized coffee table books to get a immersive look at his impressive body of work.
