Mum and Dad came up last Friday, and after we'd been up to see Grandma, we came back here and did our family thing. But it was the very first time that my sister wasn't there. She'll get here eventually though, and we'll have fun doing our Christmas thing, albeit a bit late :-)
My boyfriend came and spent the Christmas period with me, and will be back for New Years, which should be fun.
We mostly spent our time over Christmas watching DVDs, which is where the title of this post comes from.
It started with SBS playing "Godzilla - Final Wars" on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (can't remember right now). Both of us have seen it before, but it's a fun little movie to watch if you're into Giant Monster Movies from the Asiatic countries (and sometimes not from there, but more on that in a bit). After that we thought we'd give my box set of Gamera films a go. My boyfriend had given them to me for my birthday this year, so it was nice to be able to sit down and actually watch them.
I have a couple of the old Gamera films from the 1960s on various Sci-Fi disc collections, so I know him as "Gamera - the Children's Guardian". But in the box set, a trilogy that was made in the 1990s, he's become "Gamera - Guardian of the Universe". He's still got the old ties to the children, but he's meaner and bigger and tougher now. And he's got bigger tusks :-)
If you have access to the second of the trilogy on DVD - "Gamera: Attack of Legion", check out the OUTTAKES. The voice-over people had a field day doing those outtakes :-) Some are just very very silly, some are a bit rude, others are incredibly funny. But very well worth watching.
The movies themselves, though, give Gamera a much needed boost in popularity. He's stopped being just a giant flying turtle who goes around rescuing small (and very annoying) children, while his really pathetic theme song plays in the background (and the children sing it). Nowadays he's mean and nasty, and bleeds heaps and heaps of green paint...umm...blood....okay so it's still hokey as shit, but very very fun. You can't help but spend most of the movies going "yay! it's Gamera to the rescue! Go Gamera!"
Alright, so maybe it's just me that does that....*blush*.....
I grew up on the old Godzilla films with my Dad. Dad seemed to like that kind of stuff a lot, so every time Godzilla was on, we'd watch it. I don't know that we watched more than just the original Japanese one, and the US remake a couple of years later though, but I guess it's possible that we might have seen a few of the 1970s releases.
That said, I know that I always got a chill when Godzilla would stomp across the screen, but then I was a kid, and I guess it was kind of like watching JAWS when you're a kid, or Jurassic Park these days. Scary as shit when you're little.
Tonight I watched a bit of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. Things to do when watching this film:
1. Turn on the English subtitles.
2. Turn on the English audio (and read the subtitles while listening - they are so far from being the same, that it's actually very very funny)
3. Watch out for Godzilla's *ahem*.....you know...that thing :-) He has one, and it's rather impressive, and it kind of arrives before he does, if you get my drift, which is how I noticed it in the first place.....
Oh and try not to be drinking any kind of liquid when you are watching the scene where Godzilla comes to the aid of the Japanese troops and literally squishes the Yanks....because liquid squirts out your nose rather impressively when you are laughing and not at all ready for the pissed off Gojira attack :-)
My boyfriend and I are looking at doing a Godzilla/Gojira marathon this New Years weekend/break, so I'm getting my DVDs ready, and making sure that they all work.
Now that I have my friend's "new-fangled" audio-visual stuff here, we at least get to watch it all on a big screen with 6.1 surround sound. And when I remember to put the sub woofer on, Godzilla really stomps!
But while I've got some time to myself, I've been catching up on my other favourite giant monster - KING KONG. I am probably the ONLY person on this planet who hasn't seen the Peter Jackson remake of this film, but I have to admit that I still prefer the old 1933 classic. Another present from my boyfriend. And it's that film that I've been watching today. Apparently it was re-released in 1989 in colour. I'm sort of interested in seeing a colourised version of the original, but then again, I've never been that keen on colourising the old classics, so I'll have to see how I go as to whether I will bother tracking it down or not.
Add to that, I finally got around to watching "Zarkorr!", which is apparently Britain's answer to Godzilla.....yes, well...the monster is cool, but there is too much thinking going on in that film. Too much talk, not enough monster stomping :-)
So it's been an interesting week or so. Makes a change from the Silent films I've been watching recently though.
I've also been busy catching up on my Phantom and Mandrake comic collections. I found a website or six that has indian Phantoms, Mandrakes, and Flash Gordon comics up for free downloads, so I've been collecting them as well. Some of the Phatoms at the very least have been released here in Australia, by Frew Publishing, who do our Phantoms, but I don't think Frew did more than a handful of Mandrakes, and I can't remember any Flash Gordon comics, so it's been good getting these and reading them. And even better, they are in English (mostly). It's especially interesting seeing what bits have been cut from either the Australian releases or the Indian releases of various Phantom stories.
We've also got a cyclone off the north coast, apparently, which explains the constant rain :-)
Anyway, stuff to do (more collecting, dvd watching, and general fun!)
Happy New Year!
1 comment:
The constant rain must be driving you nuts!
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