Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/335216
JUNE 25 - JULY 1, 2014 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I really wasn't looking forward to writing my review of Godzilla (123 minutes). You see, the words I am tempted to use in describing it just aren't very family- friendly. It was, for lack of a more profane word, bad. Insultingly bad. I have certainly seen worse (and will almost certainly see worse as the Summer blockbuster season really kicks into high gear), but a whole lot of people seem to inexplicably like this picture. If I were a conspiracy theorist I might be tempted to attribute all those positive online reviews to paid stooges of the production studio, but I'm sure that never happens. Except for all the times that it totally does happen. The film opens with scenes from the Bikini Atoll bomb tests, the still shots adjusted to imply that the 1954 test nukes were targeted at Godzilla. Well, that's a lame idea. Anyway, fast forward to 1999. Scientists Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) are helicoptered into a collapsed Philippine strip mine containing a giant skeleton and two pods. One of the pods is empty, and radiation levels are through the roof. This is somehow connected to the giant hole in the mine leading out to sea. In nearby Japan, a nuclear facility is showing seismic spikes and the plant technicians are a little worried. Plant supervisor and American know-it-all Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) sends his wife (Juliette Binoche) and a team of red shirt wearing extras into the nuclear core. Something goes horribly wrong, and the area surrounding the plant is quarantined. I cross my fingers and pray for Joe to utter something along the lines of "I'm not even supposed to be here today." But I guess Kevin Smith was too busy prepping his next Comic-Con panel to provide script doctor services. Fifteen years later, in what is basically a completely different movie, that guy from Kickass who is playing Quicksilver in the next Avengers (Aaron Taylor Johnson) smirks his way on-screen as the son of Joe Brody. He's an explosive ordnance disposal (E.O.D.) officer, and he's really in love with himself. I like the actor okay, but, wow, is he playing an unlikable character. He's married to a nurse named Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) whose purposelessness just about makes my head explode. At one point she decides to stay in a city the National Guard is trying to evacuate, not because she has a higher calling as a medical professional dedicated to saving lives, but because her husband told her he was coming to save her. Let that sink in a bit, because having decided to stay behind she doesn't do a whole lot of nursing, but rather confines herself to looking up at the sky while running around the streets in between shots of the monsters fighting. Meanwhile, the guy that promised to come save her is nearly dropped off a monorail in Hawaii, dropped off a trestle bridge but manages to be the sole survivor, is dropped into the middle of a monster fight despite what must be multiple broken bones and several concussions from the aforementioned bridge incident, and finally bear hugs a nuclear bomb. I would nominate him for a Darwin Award but he manages to survive that too. It must have been divine intervention, because that's the only thing to explain both his survival AND the convenient Electromagnetic Pulse of Mysteriously Fluctuating Effect that is a key plot point of the film. Oh well, at least there's giant monsters fighting to entertain the audience. Not that the fights are all that entertaining. Watching Godzilla almost die a hundred times while fighting M.U.T.O.'s (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) isn't nearly as fun as it would have been without the constant cutting to the human "stars" trying to figure out the math that will allow nuclear explosions off a major American city while avoiding the irradiation of the entire West Coast. Domo Arigato Misuta M.U.T.A.T.O. Godzilla (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Bodies of Evidence Lusty lawyers strip to their briefs in Reckless by DEAN ROBBINS With Reckless, CBS tries to create a sexy summer series — and succeeds (Sunday, 9 p.m.). Jamie (Anna Wood), a gorgeous Yankee lawyer in Charleston, S.C., is introduced stiletto heels first, the camera practically drooling as it pans up to her tight miniskirt. You might think that's offensive, and maybe it is. But Jamie's hunky male rival, assistant district attorney Roy (Cam Gigandet), gets equal treatment as a piece of meat, parading around shirtless in low-hanging jeans. These two have a lot of important cases to work on, such as the one that requires them to watch a tape of an orgy — several times, to make sure they understand it thoroughly — while struggling to keep their paws off each other. It's amusing that, amid such softcore goings-on, Reckless bothers to add a sprinkling of redeeming social value. The soundtrack turns to mush whenever Roy gets a call from his adorable daughters, or when Jamie defends an innocent man in court. We're asked to feel moral outrage over corruption in local law enforcement, with the evidence contained in the aforementioned orgy tape. I am, indeed, morally outraged. But I think I need to see the tape one or two more times to make sure that I myself understand it thoroughly. True Blood Sunday, 9 pm (HBO) In its last season, True Blood is determined to go out in spectacular fashion. This week, the Louisiana town of Bon Temps reels in the aftermath of an apocalyptic vampire attack. And it's not just the people who are reeling. The vampires themselves, infected with a virus, despair over their lack of self-control — i.e., their inhumanity. A group of them hole up in a bar, mouths bloody, with humans chained in the basement as future food. In an unforgettable scene, freaked-out prisoners Holly (Lauren Bowles) and Arlene (Carrie Preston) recognize a local fourth-grade teacher among their vampire captors. They desperately appeal to her conscience, which has somehow survived amid the bloodlust. What happens next is shocking, and I don't want to give anything away. All I'll say is: Rarely has inhumanity seemed so human. The Musketeers Sunday, 9 pm (BBC America) I admit that, as a kid, I played Three Musketeers with a silky cape and toy sword. But those things have been packed in the basement for a long time, and none of the Musketeer movies or TV shows of recent years have made me want to get them back out. So imagine my surprise at The Musketeers, which delivers swashbuckling thrills as if it were the easiest thing in the world. As we know from NBC's leaden pirate drama Crossbones, it isn't. In 17th century Paris, three of the king's bodyguards (Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera and Howard Charles) take on rookie D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino), who must learn — be still, my heart — their various codes of honor. The production pokes fun at Musketeer mythology, but it doesn't let irony get in the way of a ripping good story. Brace yourself for clanging swordfights, forbidden romance, galloping horses, dank dungeons, pointy goatees, black-hearted villains and, of course, enough puffy-sleeve shirts to fill Notre-Dame Cathedral. I can't tell you how much willpower it's taking not to get my silky cape and toy sword out of the basement.