Guillermo del Toro's PACIFIC RIM!

For any of you that follow film news religiously, you probably were saddened to hear that Guillermo del Toro will NOT be directing an R-rated "At the Mountains of Madness." This is because Universal (who was recently hemming and hawing over the budget of Ron Howard's proposed "Dark Tower" series) refused to budge on the rating; they feel that they are taking a huge financial chance on a Lovecraft-themed film and didn't want to lose out on the teenage crowd. (And as we all know... today's youth just loves H.P. Lovecraft. That was sarcasm by the way. 90% of kids today have no idea who Lovecraft is... unless they managed to see Cthulhu's appearance on South Park.)

"Universal.... you are forcing my hand. Give me an R-rating or else...."

In any case, Guillermo hopped from his dream project to something infinitely cooler (in my eyes): A little film called "Pacific Rim." Set to start filming at the end of this year (for a Summer 2013 release), the film already has Idris Elba (Heimdall from "THOR") and Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) attached (with Charlie Day interested in a role as well), and features one of the coolest storylines ever. From Slashfilm's latest news article:

Set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace. This project will give the Hellboy filmmaker the opportunity to create two worlds. The first is an alternate version of Earth in the near future, decades after a historic date in November 2012 when the first kaiju, a towering Godzilla-like beast, emerged from a hole in the Pacific Ocean and attacked the city of Osaka, Japan. The second is “The Anteverse,” another universe on the other side of that gaping portal, 5 miles below our ocean’s surface. Since the first attack, the rim has been “spitting out” a variety of gigantic monsters at an increasing rate, which then stride out of the ocean and begin destroying sea-bordering cities, like Tokyo and Los Angeles. In order to combat these monstrous, otherworldly menaces, the military developed the “Jaeger” program, which trains teams of two pilots to jointly operate massive, building-sized mechanized suits of armor and high-tech weaponry.

Yes, you read that correctly folks, a portal to another dimension opens beneath the Pacific and spits out GIANT MONSTERS! To protect ourselves, humanity builds GIANT ROBOTS (mecha to be more precise) to combat these invading kaiju! This is kind of a shocker as giant mech/robot films (and TV shows) are almost primarily an export of Japan. Actually, the only real shock about this is that American film companies haven't jumped on an idea like this before; the only real mecha-moments we've had in our movies hail from the films of James Cameron (e.g. Aliens, Avatar) and the Wachowski brothers (e.g. "Matrix Revolutions").

Once again, "Pacific Rim" begins production later this year (shooting starts in September/November) and for some reasons will be held up until NEXT Summer. I'll be posting more news on this as it happens. In the meantime, enjoy the opening of "Evangelion: Neon Genesis," one of the most well known mecha vs. monster anime shows of all time:

New Review: War of the Gargantuas (1966)

Here is my second contribution to Bearded-Weirdo's "GOIN' APE" Roundtable! Two giant monsters terrorize Japan in Toho's 1966 kaiju classic, War of the Gargantuas. After the events of Frankenstein vs. Baragon (a.k.a. Frankenstein Conquers the World), Japan suffers the wrath of a not-so-Jolly Green Giant in their territorial waters. After a number of boats are sunk, and people devoured, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces roll out and successfully cripple the marauding giant with MAZER CANNONS! But their victory is short-lived because another giant monster arrives to save its injured brother. Will Japan be able to endure the eventual wrestling match between these two gigantic siblings?

Stay tuned for the first ever GUEST REVIEW at the Vault from contributor "Holly Hobgoblin," and another new full-length review for the romantically sub-plotted "Krull," which will be my Valentine's Day gift to all of you constant readers!

Enjoy the weekend and don't miss the Superbowl on Sunday! My team didn't make it, but I plan on rooting for the Colts! Let's go OTHER Manning brother!

Obscure kaiju stars in American commercial + Future Vault updates.

Out of all the Japanese movie monsters, how is it that Guilala ("The X From Outer Space") gets a starring role in an American commercial? I guess his agent wanted a lot less than Godzilla's. Check out this cute, kaiju-filled commercial for TheLadders.com:



In regards to upcoming updates at The Vault:
I haven't had time to dig into my review for "Godmonster of Indian Flats" (blame my girlfriend and her Season One boxed set of "24"), but I should be able to start chipping away at it tomorrow night. Look for that on (hopefully) Monday, along with another edition of Genre Watch!

If I am not too exhausted after all of that, I may even toss up a refurbished old review of "Army of Darkness," OR finally finish up that long-ago mentioned "WANTED ON DVD" page. It will all come down to how much energy I have at the end of the day.

Oh and for those of you who give a damn, I am now on Facebook! And no, I do not, and never will have a MySpace. I swear to the Gods of b-moviedom on that!

G'night b-movie fans; I'll blog ya later!

Legend of Dinosaurs review is a go!

After months of starting and stopping, I have finally completed my full-length review of "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds!" This extremely strange kaiju film features an odd disco / funk / jazz soundtrack, inventive cinematography, and some of the most violent dinosaur-to-human violence I have ever seen in a 70's film. This film isn't particularly popular or well-liked, so naturally I enjoyed it. If you get the chance, check this cinematic "gem" out and give it the love it so richly deserves.

Then, after you do that, go see "The Dark Knight" in theaters! This movie is simply amazing and is worthy of repeat viewings. As it stands, it seems like the world at large has deemed this superhero film as one of the best movies ever made! So go see "The Dark Knight" everyone, and help it oust "Titanic" as the top grossing film of all time! Blog ya later!

New capsule review at the Vault: Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1977)

Well I finally did it! I finally got a new review posted at the Vault, and I have to say that it felt pretty good to add some new content to the site, though I had to really rush to get it done today. (I got so immersed in finishing up the review and getting the rest of the site updated, that I was a teeny bit late for work. Oh well!) So without further ado, here is my capsule review for "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (a.k.a. "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster")! This review is the final component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recy-KILL" roundtable, which was set up by Anubis Von Mojo, the webmaster of THE TOMB OF ANUBIS. The topic of choice for this group effort was "nature strikes back" (and "nature run amok") films, and there's a good variety to choose from, so get reading b-movie fans.

Oh and as a treat, here is a cool vintage trailer for the U.S. release of "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster." So cheesy, but so good:

Stay tuned for that pesky full-length review for "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds." It should be hitting the Vault within another week or two; it all depends on how busy I am! Blog ya later b-movie fans!

The Vault Master is OUT + Download Godzilla Final Wars Soundtrack for FREE!

Hey b-movie fans. I am stepping out the door in an hour or two and will be staying overnight at my girlfriend's house; then tomorrow at 6 AM, we are getting up and heading out to Atlantic City via bus. I won't be back home until Monday morning.

Since I spent the afternoon helping my folks with some yard work, I didn't get any more work completed on my next two reviews. To sort of make up for this, I am supplying you with a very hard to find soundtrack for the (thus far) "final" Godzilla film. My main man, the "Long Island Ripper" from The Inferno Music Crypt, managed to track it down for me and I've been grooving to it for the last few days. (Track 18, entitled "Kazuma's Sacrifice," is my favorite of the bunch!)

CLICK HERE to download the official soundtrack to "Godzilla: Final Wars!" (Note: The only track missing is the song "We're All To Blame" by SUM41 which plays briefly during Godzilla's short fight with Zilla.)

So expect those pesky reviews for "Legend of the Dinoaurs..." and "Puppet Master" to hit The Vault next week, I promise! Heck, I may even try my hand at putting some screenshots of the movies in the reviews and include a few cool downloads, just to make it up to you dear readers and fellow b-movie fans! But alas, I must get ready to go. Enjoy the weekend; catch you on the flipside guys and ghouls!

Capsule review for Dai-Nipponjin now posted!

Hello dear readers and fellow b-movie fans! I'm currently finishing up work on two reviews, so here's a little something to hold you over until I'm done:

CLICK HERE to read my capsule review for "Dai-Nipponjin!"

"Dai-Nipponjin" is an insane comedy/mockumentary about the darker side of being a giant Japanese superhero! Meet Masaru Daisatou: He's in his forties, is heading towards divorce, makes barely enough money to survive, and is Japan's only hope against giant monsters! Whenever his country is threatened by kaiju, Masaru gets ritualistically electrocuted to become Dai-Nipponjin (pictured above). Read more about this film at IMDB.com, and visit the official Dai-Nipponjin website!

Stay tuned for two new full-length reviews for "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds" and "Puppet Master!" I'm currently in the process of writing each and hope them both posted within the next few nights. Have a good night b-movie fans and keep fighting the good fight!

A treat for fans of "Legend of Dinosaurs."

Thanks to Kevin P. from WTF-Film.com, I have a complete copy of the crazy soundtrack to "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds." I've converted the files from 192 kbps to 320 kbps, and upgraded the quality of the mp3 files considerably. I wanted to include the entire soundtrack as a download for my upcoming review of this obscure kaiju film, but 60 MB is a bit too much, even if my bandwidth for the site has been increased. Therefore, I have put the full, "digitally mastered" soundtrack in a .RAR file, and uploaded it to my RapidShare account.

I'll still post a track or two on the review for all of you to sample, but if you don't want to wait, and want all 17 delicious tracks, JUST CLICK HERE. You are entitled to ONE free download from RapidShare if you do not have an account, so you are good to go no matter what. Enjoy this insane music (from composer Masao Yagi) and keep an eye out for my review for "Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds" next week!

Space Amoeba (1970) review at the Vault!

Yup, another new review is up at the site for SPACE AMOEBA (1970)! This is perhaps my longest review yet and, in my opinion, is certainly not one of my best. With this review completed and archived, I will begin work on my next one for "BEWARE! THE BLOB" (1972) which should be up by Sunday the 23rd. I'm pretty bad at meeting deadlines and due dates, but I have a feeling that I'll make it this time. :-D

Well it's been a long day! Time for some sleep!
G'night b-movie fans!