Antidote (aka Alone) (2013) – I really don’t understand people. This is a somber independent movie about two people alone in a world decimated by a global plague (remember, people used to make movies like that for entertainment), and it currently has a 3.5/10 rating on IMDb. User comments include such criticisms as “not enough action,” “pointless,” “sheer boredom,” etc. In other words, they’re mostly criticizing it for not being some other movie.
Yes, it is low-key and slow. Because a post-end-of-the-world drama doesn’t necessarily come with ravening zombie hordes and headshots. This is two people, connected by a third who is now dead (his brother and his widow), finding a safe place in a rural winter. The plague can attack through any break in the skin, and the once-touted cure actually prolongs the misery on most people until they’re insane and rage-filled. So when one of them exhibits symptoms and the other has a couple of syringes hidden away… Is the chance of a recovery worth the chance of an excruciating descent into madness?
Michael Bay did not direct this movie, and if you put it on when you’re tired you may fall asleep. But you may also find this small story, set in the middle of a global occurrence, to be rewarding.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) – Of everything in this movie, I appreciate most the score by Bear McCreary which contained echoes of Yuji Koseki’s original Mothra chant and Akira Ifukube’s original themes for King Ghidorah and the Big G himself.
Beyond that… the people who complain about the pointless human drama? Have they ever SEEN a Godzilla movie before? Sure, it’s a standard little “broken home family” arc, but it’s still superior to the normal level of human drama in most Japanese-made kaiju movies, which mostly involves people standing around the monsters’ feet and saying, “Yup, nothing we do has any effect, just like last time.”
Sure, the belabored idea of “titans” as some sort of Gaea response to human depredation is hokey, but I repeat: IT’S A GODZILLA MOVIE. You don’t come to one of these to get a solid grounding in responsive biospheres, any more than you watch an X-Men movie to learn about genetics.
Skinwalker Ranch (2013) – My immersion into all things paranormal took place before Skinwalker Ranch was a thing, so I have no feeling of how the events presented in this found-footage movie track with what’s actually been reported. But what might be a detriment to other viewers was a plus to me, as I know how often the disparate paranormal phenomena actually appear in tandem, so I have no problem with poltergeist activity, cryptids, UFOs and ghosts all making their presences known during this investigation. A little too much musical score, though, guys; if it’s strong enough to notice it, it’s strong enough to burst the illusion of cinema verite.
The ranch owner Hoyt, whose son disappeared in a ball of light on his birthday, is played by Jon Gries; a certain generation probably knows him best as Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite (2004), buy my cohort would definitely know him best as Lazlo Hollyfeld from Real Genius (1985). (And oh hey, a small part for Michael Flynn — the first time I’ve seen him in anything which wasn’t specifically for the LDS market!)
So can I infer that you enjoyed Godzilla KOTM for what it was?
Ezzackly. It was a good kaiju movie.
Better (in your eyes) than Shin Godzilla?
Good lord, yes. SHIN GODZILLA was a clusterdump; its target audience was all those people for whom the high point of THE PHANTOM MENACE was trade disputes and parliamentary procedure.