Punch-Drunk Love (2002) - Sandler breaks out of his routine in Anderson's delightful romcom

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+ Best Romance of the Year

 

A wonderful still image of a kiss with wavy dark, mellow colors underneath makes up this elegant poster for Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love

Barry lives in his own socially cautious world, in which he is saving up a ton of frequent flier miles by purchasing pudding. Then he meets a woman, who knocks him off his feet and gets him to fly for the first time in his life, - to Hawaii.

 

Punch-Drunk Love is written, co-produced and directed by Californian master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight (1996)), whose 4th film it is.

It is strange to enter the anxiety-ridden world of Barry; well-achieved through feministically-diabolical sisters, led by Mary Lynn Rajskub (Hero Mode (2021)), and an untraditional, unharmonic score (by Jon Brion (Lady Bird (2017))). The film also has neat if strangely, purposely 'off' cinematography (by Robert Elswit (Inherent Vice (2014))).

SPOILER A phone sex subplot and Philip Seymour Hoffman (A Late Quartet (2012)) work exceedingly well as elements in Punch-Drunk Love and both are also some of its original parts. Adam Sandler (The Wedding Singer (1998)) and Emily Watson (Chernobyl (2019, miniseries)) are a delightful match. The film is a salute to the first, overwhelming feelings of falling in love.

 

Related posts:

Paul Thomas Anderson: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Phantom Thread (2017) - Anderson's exquisite drama of an English dressmaker and his Alma 

The Master (2012) - Anderson's stunning post-war reflection 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistible porn 'Casino'

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Hard Eight (1996) - Anderson debuts with downbeat crime drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office: 24.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.82 times its cost)

[Punch-Drunk Love premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 95 minutes. The film came about due to Anderson's fandom of Sandler and his wish to make a 90-minute romcom with him. Sandler was paid 7 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from February - March 2001 in Hawaii and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #23 to a 367k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,293 theaters (different weeks), grossing 17.8 mil. $ (72.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.6 mil. $ (6.5 %) and Australia with 840k $ (3.4 %). It was nominated for a Golden Globe and won Anderson the Best Director prize at Cannes (tied with Im Kwon-taek for Painted Fire), among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Anderson returned with Jon Brion: Here We Go (2002, music video), Couch (2003, video) and theatrically with There Will Be Blood (2007). Sandler returned in Mr. Deeds (2002); Watson in Red Dragon (2002). Punch-Drunk Love is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Punch-Drunk Love? 

Pearl Harbor (2001) - Bay's stuffed war melodrama baloney

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A sensual romance between two very photogenic young specimens of the human race and a dramatic war-plane situation attracts attention on this poster for Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor

Two brothers in the US Air Force: SPOILER One crashes, - and everyone expects him dead, - so his younger brother takes over his lady. But big brother returns alive, - Oahu's Pearl Harbor air base gets bombed by the Japanese, - and the younger brother dies in the attack!

 

Pearl Harbor is written by Randall Wallace (Braveheart (1995)) and directed by Michael Bay (Bad Boys (1995)).

Handsome flight sequences stand out in Bay's otherwise horrid and history-distorting film that's both grotesquely overlong and filled with tawdry romance. 

 

Related posts:

 

Michael Bay: 13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Bay portrays controversial recent history in generally thrilling actioner 

Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster!  

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Bad Boys (1995) - Bay's successful buddy cop debut is still fun

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 140 mil. $

Box office: 449.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.20 times its cost)

[Pearl Harbor premiered 21 May (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) and runs 184 minutes. Wallace was paid 2 mil. $ for his script. Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer requested a 208 mil. $ budget from Disney, who turned that down and also demanded the film have a PG-13 rating. Ben Affleck (Reindeer Games (2000)) made approximately 10 mil. $ from his performance, coming from a 250k $ salary and a 7 % back-end participation deal. Kate Beckinsale (Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)) was paid a flat 50k $ fee. Shooting took place from April - September 2000 in Mexico, Indiana, Texas, including in Houston, California, including in Los Angeles, in Nevada, Hawaii, including at the actual Pearl Harbor, and in England. Disney lavished a 5 mil. $ premiere for almost 2,000 patrons at Pearl Harbor. The film opened #1 to a 59 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5), grossing 198.5 mil. $ (44.2 % of the total gross). It was the 6th highest-grossing film of the year. It reportedly later made more than 130 mil. $ on domestic home video sales in its first week of release alone. Bay's gross earnings pay reportedly eventually added up to 25 mil. $. The film has been lambasted for its countless historical inaccuracies. It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning one, for Best Sound Editing. It lost Best Sound to Black Hawk Down, Visual Effects to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Song (There You'll Be by Diane Warren) to If I Didn't Have You by Randy Newman from Monsters, Inc.. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 1.5/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Bay returned with Faith Hill: There You'll Be (2001, music video) and theatrically with Bad Boys II (2003). Affleck returned in Daddy and Them (2001). Pearl Harbor is rotten at 24 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Pearl Harbor? 

Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) - Stars flare up in breezy romcom

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The three stars stand in a fix on top of a cardcastle in a stylized Las Vegas landscape on this poster for Andrew Bergman's Honeymoon in Vegas

Our hero is a private investigator in New York with a mother complex, who wants to keep his marriage-lusting girlfriend; so he invites her with him to Las Vegas, but he soon winds up in a real jam!

 

Honeymoon in Vegas is written and directed by Andrew Bergman (So Fine (1981)).

Sarah Jessica Parker (Failure to Launch (2006)), Nicolas Cage (Valley Girl (1983)) and James Caan (The Godfather (1972)) give charismatic performances that make this light-legged matter an if not exactly bubbly then at least entertaining and occasionally funny and sweet film. With Peter Boyle (Steelyard Blues (1973)) and Pat Morita (The Stoneman (2002)) in laughable satirical Hawaiian parts plus plot unlikelihood and Elvis impersonators galore, - all helping to save Honeymoon in Vegas from ever taking itself seriously.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 35.2 mil. $ - North America only

= Uncertain but likely a flop (projected return of 2.16 times its cost)

[Honeymoon in Vegas was released 28 August (USA) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from August - November 1991 in New York, California, Las Vegas, Nevada and in Hawaii. The film opened #1 to a 7.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then one more in the top 5 (#2), grossing 35.2 mil. $. The international gross numbers are regrettably not public. With a projected international gross of 19 mil. $, the total gross of 54.2 mil. $ gives the film flop status. It was nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Bergman returned with It Could Happen to You (1994). Caan returned in The Program (1993); Cage in Amos & Andrew (1993); and Parker in Hocus Pocus (1993). Honeymoon in Vegas is fresh at 66 % with a 6.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Honeymoon in Vegas? 

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - Stoller and Segel triumph with hilarious, multifaceted romcom

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+ Best Romcom of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Hawaii Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mila Kunis

Jason Segel truly looks like a man who has been dumped on this eye-catching poster for Nicholas Stoller's Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Peter is dumped by his beautiful girlfriend Sarah Marshall and goes to Hawaii to recover, only to find that she is also there, enjoying the surf with her ghastly British musician lover, Aldous Snow.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is written by writer/co-star Jason Segel (Dead Man on Campus (1998)) and directed by great English filmmaker Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors (2014)), whose debut it is. Segel is amazing for having written this film and also playing Pete so wonderfully, with such warmth, detail and unashamed identification. The only thing about Forgetting Sarah Marshall that makes me scratch my head some is Jack McBrayer (Conan (2013-16)), who is cast as one half of a strange honeymooning couple and just rubs me the wrong way.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a post-modern romcom gemstone, funny as hell and full of pain, heart and a really honest treatment of sex, friendship, loneliness and the love that grows in premarital relationships. With puppets! Lots of Hawaii flavor! And wonderful actors like Kristen Bell (CHIPS (2017)), Mila Kunis (That '70s Show (1998-06)), Bill Hader (The Disappearance fo Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)), Liz Cackowski (Community (2009-10)), Jonah Hill (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)) and Paul Rudd (Reno 911! (2006-07)).

Related posts:

Nicholas Stoller: The Muppets (2011) or, Man or Muppet? (co-writer)
Get Him to the Greek (2010) - Brand and Hill light up Stoller's funny music biz satire (writer-director)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
Gulliver's Travels (2010) or, Gulliver's Travesty (co-writer) 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the very funny yoga scene from the movie here, which features Kristen Wiig (Ghostbusters (2016)) as a ridiculous yoga instructor

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 105.1 mil. $
= Big hit
[Forgetting Sarah Marshall premiered 10 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place in O'ahu, including Honolulu, Hawaii, and in California, including Los Angeles, from April - July (2007). A lot of the film's dialog was improvised; according to Stoller, 30-40 % of the dialog in the finished film was improvised. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Forbidden Kingdom, to a 17.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#4; #5) and grossed solid 63.1 mil. $ (60 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 15.1 mil. $ (14.4 %) and Australia with 6.3 mil. $ (6 %). The film was snubbed for nominations for all major awards. It sold more than 1.7 mil. DVDs in North America, grossing in excess of 29.1 mil. $, which, if added into the theatrical gross, doesn't change the film's big hit status. Stoller returned with Get Him to the Greek (2010), a spin-off sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which focuses on Russell Brand's (Rock of Ages (2012)) rock-star character Aldous Snow, who need to get to the Greek Theatre in LA for a show. Segel returned in I Love You, Man (2009). Forgetting Sarah Marshall is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

Film Excess' 4th birthday movie masterpiece: From Here to Eternity (1953) - Zinnemann, Taradash and Jones' Hawaii-set classic

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An expertly balanced, dramatic poster for Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity

Oahu, Hawaii, 1941: A sergeant, who is tough but good at heart, falls for his captain's miserable wife, and they begin a secret romance. Meanwhile a newly arrived private gets put down forcefully, because he refuses to use his boxing skills in a match against anymore.

From Here to Eternity is a marvelously charming film, which simply has it all; it is one of those kind of films that just isn't done anymore. Furthermore, it must be among the best instances of love captured on film as well as one of the sexiest films of all time.
Burt Lancaster (The Leopard/Il Gattopardo (1963)) is young, strong and cuttingly handsome as the romantic sergeant; Deborah Kerr (The Journey (1959)) is beautiful as his torn love. Montgomery Clift (Freud (1962)) is phenomenal as the stubborn and loyal foot soldier; and Frank Sinatra (Tony Rome (1967)) is both funny and touching as the group's Italian-American drunkard. Donna Reed (The Far Horizons (1955), Clift's love interest, is beautiful and lovely, and Ernest Borgnine (Murder, She Wrote (1987), TV-series) is tremendous as the sadistic staff sergeant 'Fatso'.
The film blooms with Hawaiian flavor and runs on conflicts that to some degree come across as relatively small peace-time problems on a paradisaical, Pacific island, - although it is also clear why they are nevertheless considerable for the characters involved in them. SPOILER But all of that changes with the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese towards the film's end, which is staged impressively. 
SPOILER The very end is heartbreaking, adding additional weight to an already beautifully acted, directed and photographed (by Burnett Guffey (Some Kind of A Nut (1969)) and Floyd Crosby (Beach Blanket Bingo (1965))), absolutely unique pearl in cinema history. It was written by Daniel Taradash (Hawaii (1966)), based on the same-titled 1951 novel by James Jones (The Thin Red Line (1962)), and directed by Austrian-Hungarian master filmmaker Fred Zinnemann (Oklahoma! (1955)).

Related reviews:

Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart
Film Excess' 2nd birthday movie masterpiece: The King's Speech (2010) - Hooper's soaring, royal masterpiece about overcoming human frailty
Film Excess' 3rd birthday movie masterpiece: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - The courtroom movie to rule them all

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: 30.5 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[From Here to Eternity premiered 5 August (New York) and runs 118 minutes. Shooting took  place from March - May 1953 on Oahu; on Waikiki Beach, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Halona Cove (for the iconic beach love scene), Diamond Head and the Schofield Barracks, among other places. It was rumored for years that Sinatra got his part as result of mob ties, a legend that gained momentum from the plot string in The Godfather (1972) that culminates with the severed horse's head found in a film producer's bed, said to be inspired by this, although the rumors have been denied by many, including Zinnemann. Kerr and Lancaster reportedly had an affair during filming. The film had to relinquish many things from the novel due to the strict censorship at the time, as well as to get the army's cooperation: Plot points related to homosexuality, venereal disease, prostitution and the army's discipline and image were honed away or changed for the film. It debuted to rave reviews and changed Sinatra into a respected actor as well as singer. It was one of the highest-grossing films of the year and of the decade overall, but the US Army and Navy were ultimately unhappy with it. In France, nearly 6.5 mil. people paid admission to it. It was nominated for 13 Oscars, winning for Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Sinatra), Supporting Actress (Reed), Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound and Editing. It lost two Best Actor nominations (Clift and Lancaster) to William Holden for Stalag 17, Best Actress (Kerr) to Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday, Costumes to Roman Holiday and Score to Bronislau Kaper for Lili. The film also won 2 Golden Globes, a National Board of Review award, a special award at Cannes and a BAFTA nomination. From Here to Eternity is certified fresh at 92 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of From Here to Eternity?

The Descendants (2011) - Payne and Clooney score with a Hawaiian story of heartbreak, loss and family

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3 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Film 
Best Non-adult Actor: Amara Miller 
Best Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael

6 Time Film Excess nominee:


Best Film (won)
Best Screenplay: Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne, Jim Rash (lost to Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin)
Best Director: Alexander Payne (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Actor: George Clooney (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)
Best Non-adult Actor: Amara Miller (won)
Best Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael (won)

+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Dramedy of the Year
+ Best Hawaii Movie of the Year

Star George Clooney and some Hawaiian ambiance on the poster for Alexander Payne's The Descendants

Matt King is a big landowner in Hawaii, whose wife gets into a boating accident that leaves her in a coma. It turns out SPOILER that she was cheating on him. And that she is now dying. With two difficult daughters and an unrelated, hard decision to make, Matt has a lot on his plate.

George Clooney (Up in the Air (2009)) is outstanding as Matt King, his probably best role to date, and he gets impressive co-actors here in Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)) and Amara Miller (A Merry Christmas Miracle (2014)) as his daughters, as well as great performances from veterans Beau Bridges (Night Crossing (1982)) and Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)).
They all come together in master filmmaker, co-writer-director Alexander Payne's (Citizen Ruth (1996)) adaptation of Hawaiian writer Kaui Hart Hemmings' (The Possibilities (2014)) 2007 novel, written with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Way Way Back (2013), both). Their well-written, smart dramedy script won Descendants its only Oscar (out of 5 nominations).
The film's balance is more drama than comedy; it abounds with touching moments, fine, subtle photography by great cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Sideways (2004)), lots of great original Hawaiian music and exciting Hawaiian locations.
The Descendants has more heart and more meanings than Payne's best film before this, Sideways. It is painfully good and full of humanity, formidable in every way, a masterpiece and certainly among the year's best films.
Payne is not out of the bushes with another project yet to follow his great Nebraska (2013). 

Related posts:


Alexander Payne: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   
Nebraska (2013) or, Father and Son
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
About Schmidt (2002) or, Dear Ndugu ...

George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller all give resounding performances in Alexander Payne's The Descendants

Watch the unfortunately not very good official trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 177.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Descendants became a sleeper hit in the US, where it racked up 82.6 mil. $ (47 % of the total gross) in its 156 days long run. It was received with enthusiasm by public and critics alike in many countries, making it onto many top 10 lists of 2011.]

What do you think of The Descendants?
What is your favorite Payne film?

Godzilla (2014) - The best US Godzilla

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+ Best Kaiju Movie of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year (Elizabeth Olsen & Aaron Taylor-Johnson)

Awesome, beautiful poster for Gareth Edwards' Godzilla

Godzilla is back!
After an American hiatus since the 1998 movie by Roland Emmerich, Godzilla, which wasn't terrible, but definitely wasn't great either, and the Japanese Toho's (owners of the franchise) Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), which I haven't seen, the giant, ancient creature is back, - and this time in the best Godzilla movie that I as a Godzilla fan have ever seen, (and yes, I have seen several of the classic Japanese entries.)
Godzilla begins in 1998, where a worried American nuclear scientist in Japan sees his worst fears realized, as an apparent earthquake causes his nuclear plant to come crashing down and kill his wife. Fifteen years later, the same man is still obsessed with the event and what is really going on. He gets arrested in Japan, and his son, - a Navy lieutenant with his own family now, - goes to get him home. But father's ideas turn out to be not so far-fetched at all ...

Beautiful Elizabeth Olsen is a very welcome feature in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla

First of all, Godzilla bolsters a first class cast, led by one of the most handsome screen couples seen in a long time, Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)), who, however, doesn't have much to work with here, and hunky Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass (2010)). - Even in a mediocre monster movie, these two would have made an important difference.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a strong and handsome bomb defuse expert in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla

They get great back-up from Bryan Cranston (Drive (2011)) in the strong role as the desperate father and Juliette Binoche (Three Colours: Blue (1993)) as the mother, though she is only in the movie very shortly.
Ken Watanabe is a scientist that brings a lot of the welcome 'philosophical' material of the original movies into Godzilla, about Godzilla's motivation, goal, and how we should behave towards him. His acting is mostly variations on this look, which does become a bit comical:

Ken Watanabe as flabbergasted scientist in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla

- But it's part of the fun of the movie. Other minor steps that you as an audience had better jump over instead of pause to speculate at include: David Strathairn's Navy admiral, who seems to accept it right away, when his job becomes to chase MUTO's (giant mutated monsters) or rather lure them his way - with nuclear warheads! Another such 'step' is when the first monster breaks out of a huge mine with loads of people around and flees to the ocean, and the official strategy is then to keep that a secret, which I feel would be difficult if not impossible in our age. But this strategy doesn't remain in place for very long, as the MUTO isn't satisfied just scuba-diving oceans and laying low.
These objections are very minor and didn't hurt the overall experience, which was one of wild exhilaration! Read on to know exactly why. Godzilla allows its audience, what Emmerich's Godzilla did not; to root for Godzilla, (which will be most audiences biggest joy at a Godzilla movie, and especially what fans of the franchise are looking for.) We form a kind of alliance with Godzilla in the new movie, and He helps us to defeat the nasty MUTO's before the end of the movie, which I won't spoil, but I'll just say that it's PERFECT.  
Gareth Edwards' Godzilla leaves us uplifted, exhilarated and filled with boyish excitement and faith in the giant creature. - Which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, very appropriately with the release of this new film, which is my personal favorite in the series now. Edwards has impressed a lot of the right people with his low-budget monster adventure Monsters (2010). After the solid story is laid down, the monsters get the right amount of screen-time for themselves, and the MUTO's are very well-made, scary multi-legged mutant-freaks; their sounds are frightening, - they are very fascinating:

Concept image of one of the MUTO's' attack in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla

Godzilla has grown, - he's more than double the size he was in 1954, which makes sense, because our cities have grown. He's HUGE in the new movie, and the coolest thing is that he gets to cast his blue flames (radiation?) out at his enemies. I loved that the people in the universe of the movie also get to see him as their savior and look at him with tremendous respect and fascination, (as we do). Godzilla really becomes God-like in Gareth Edwards' movie, which is just incredible.
Also it was nice to see a huge Hollywood picture actually end, as so many these days seem to think they have an off-putting obligation to promote the next entry at the end of the film. It is also a plus for Godzilla that it doesn't go overboard with Taylor-Johnson's heroic character; he never saves everything and becomes unreal; the movie is never that much his.
Locations include Japan - with references to the Fujiyama-catstrophe, - beautiful Hawaii, Las Vegas, - a fun few minutes of extreme destruction there, - and San Francisco, where the main fights go down. My favorite scene was on the Golden Gate Bridge involving a school bus full of kids desperately trying to get off the bridge, as the military try to attack a monster there. - Really exciting! Another favorite scene was the one where the special troops parachute down San Francisco, emitting red smoke, as Godzilla and the MUTO's prance around the city, - really beautifully achieved!
Online critique that Alexandre Desplat's (The King's Speech (2010)) score is below par for him, - because it isn't as 'sophisticated' as he usually is, - is ridiculous. Desplat's Godzilla-score is bombastic, as it should be, and intelligent, - as so many other decisions about the movie is, - and works perfectly with it. I especially liked the music at Godzilla's triumph at the end, which was just perfect.
Go enjoy this rare monster movie, bring your kids if you have any, and they're big enough to see it (age 6/8 depending on the child), enjoy the roars, because it may very well be years before a movie about giant monsters as good as this is released again. (But I am really hoping for Jurassic World (2015)!)
I didn't see it in 3D and enjoyed is just as much without it, but if you're a 3D fan, go for it.

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 160 mil. $
Box office: 489.4 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla?
Do you agree it is the best Godzilla movie to date?