Just the Ticket

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. Today, Ticketholders,  Goj -Year- ra  coverage of the Millennium Era ends not with a bang, but with a cheap, nauseating whimper of insincere flattery and poorly butchered pandering, topped with sixty-nine slices of expired cheese offscreen, and served under orange lighting in a mercury-plated toilet upholstered with glossy leather. While the toilet is flushing. And exploding. In 2004, for the fiftieth anniversary of Gojira ,  Toho and director Ryuhei Kitamura (who would go on to direct The Midnight Meat Train , but also directed a film called Sky High —not the one about the superhero school with Kurt Russell , but if it was, the visuals in this movie would surprise me even less than they already don't) brought us Godzilla: Final Wars . It's essentially a remake of Destroy All Monsters and Invasion Of Astro-Monster with an extra, derivative word salad of absurdity to the human plot thrown on top, based on a script by...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. I had planned to watch and review this movie in August as a continuation of a theme from previous years ( Yojimbo in 2025 and its American adaptation Last Man Standing in 2024 ), but chose to push into September in favor of finishing out the Kiryu Saga ( Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. ) instead. Before we get to  Sanjuro , though, I have great news: as you are reading this, I have made my last payment toward resolving my gambling debts (which I confessed to in Isekai " Quartet " #2 and touched on the backlash and burnout of in my  MCU Back From Burnout  post). I also have an employee who's worth a damn now, and I recently stumbled upon a poem from my childhood that I wrote and have been seeking out for many years that will make its way into the calendar this month. It's not just bad things that come in threes, Ticketholders! Retooled into a Yojimbo sequel from a planned screenplay...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. I'm not mad; just disappointed. Last week, I praised Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla for its world-building, strong female lead, thematically rich writing, and compelling action sequences. This week, I feel like I've been anesthetized by radioactive bug pollen. And that was before we lost Dolly Parton and Tim Curry in the span of less than two days. Rest in peace and power, legends! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of shit upon my chest that needs to be sent to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism.... After  Toho  sent four scripts that he rejected, director and co-writer  Masaaki Tezuka  drafted a new script overnight (presumably refined later with GMK co-writer  Masahiro Yokotani ), and we got the only direct sequel of the Millennium Era, with 2003's Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (known in Japan by the GMK -esque title, Godzilla×Mothra×Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. ). Besides Tezuka an...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. August is looking like a high-traffic month, as we're just past the halfway point and  Just the Ticket  is already over ten thousand views, making it the fourth month in a row to do so. And speaking of things happening four times in a row, today's  Goj -Year- ra  entry is the fourth continuity reboot of the Millennium Era. For the third and last time (for now) that we will have to deal with the confusion of which Mechagodzilla film we're talking about, 2002 saw the return of director Masaaki Tezuka , screenwriter Wataru Mimura , composer Michiru Ōshima , and the Millennium Godzilla suit (though I think this or the Megaguirus appearance was a new casting from the same mold, and is once more worn and performed by  Tsutomu Kitagawa ) for Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (stylized with the "×" symbol as seen on the banner and poster). As stated above, it is the fourth instance of the Millennium Era rebooting...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. As of this writing, I am exhausted and stressed out from work, and really wish people would stop being pyromaniac assholes because my job isn't the only reason I can't breathe or sleep or gather the energy to produce and promote content in a timely fashion lately. Regardless of how I feel, though, you all are still turning out the views, no paid SEO service required. So thank you. Let's get into this week's  Goj -Year- ra project review. Released theatrically in 2001 but set in 2004 (given that everyone says the events of Gojira took place fifty years ago), the mouthful of a title that is  Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack  (Miss GMK , if you're nasty) was directed and co-written by Shusuke Kaneko (on the heels of directing the Heisei Era Gamera Trilogy, and he would go on to direct the live-action Death Note films) in partnership with Keiichi Hasegawa (the Ultraman  franchise...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster. Today, the  Goj -Year- ra  project ends the first week of August with the second film, and second continuity reboot, of the Millennium Era, which the fandom often ranks with Some Monsters Almost Attack , Godzilla Raids Again , Godzilla '98 , and Ebirah, Horror Of the Deep as among the franchise's worst entries. I'm not quite so severe on it, but in contrast to Godzilla 2000 (which I reviewed last week), it gave me a strong first impression and spun into a rapid decline from there, for numerous reasons I will get into later. Godzilla vs Megaguirus (released in 2000 under a Japanese title that translates as Godzilla×Megaguirus: The G Extermination Strategy , so I guess the multiplication symbol is a Millennium Era "versus" thing?) was the directorial debut of Masaaki Tezuka ( Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. , a.k.a. "the Kiryu Saga") and written by the team of  Hiroshi Kash...