Ty Watches "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"

Over the weekend my wife and I, and our children as well, watched "Godzilla X Kong". We were all calling it "Godzilla Kisses Kong" halfway through due to the x meaning kisses in x's and o's. My wife was very excited for this movie. These types of movies are right up her alley. She was stoked the moment she remembered it was now streaming. So, as we do most Friday nights, we sat down for our home movie viewing and all four of us watched.

First off, this is not a good movie. The story is nonsensical. After seeing a Godzilla movie that was amazing, "Godzilla Minus 1", "Godzilla X Kong" was not even close to its level. The people in this movie, and there are some pretty good actors, are nonessential. We would have scenes with actors like Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens and Brian Tyree Henry all sharing the screen and I couldn't care less what they had to say. The humans in this monster movie were so uninteresting and, quite frankly, useless in this movie. They are there to move the story along and tell us, the viewer, what we are about to see next with the monsters. They offer nothing else. They are strictly the voice for the voiceless. Again, I like those three actors quite a bit, but they had no real reason to even be in this movie. I remember saying to my wife while watching that I had had enough of the humans. I just wanted to see the monsters doing monster activities.

And that is where this movie thrives. The monsters make this movie worth watching. Godzilla and King Kong are the only reasons to watch this movie, and while it is not a good movie, these two monsters make it one of the most fun movies I have seen in a long time. A movie doesn't have to necessarily be good for me to have a good time. That is more than the case for "Godzilla X Kong". When we get past the scenes with the humans, and we get straight up monster action, I was more than there for all of it. Seeing the humongous King Kong at the opening of the movie ripping a dog monster in half, it was amazing. Seeing the green goo spill onto his body was rad. I felt bad for his toothache as well. That bummed me out. When we met the baby Kong, that was dope. Baby Kong had a bad side, but he ended up doing the right thing. Godzilla was incredible to look at as well. This Godzilla went from blue to purple to pink and it was cool. When Godzilla suplexed King Kong, I scoffed, but then watched it again. And it ruled. To see Godzilla do an old school wrestling move on King Kong, then to do it correctly into a pyramid in Egypt, I don't think it gets any cooler than that. Even a minor monster like Mothra was pretty amazing to see in this movie. When the three of them decide to team up, and do so by screeching and growling, it was akin to when the Avengers came back in "Infinity War". And I'm not being hyperbolic about it at all. I got chills when they teamed up. Oh, and we cannot forget the underground apes that are bad that cause the original King Kong to get a metal arm. That's right, King Kong gets his arm frozen, then has an attached metal arm affixed to his body, which he then uses to crush not only his enemies, but also full on cities. I thought I would hate it, but I loved it. It was super useful and pretty integral to the ending of the movie.

Look, when one sits down to watch "Godzilla X Kong", they need to lower their expectations. This is not a movie that is going to make you sit and reflect. You will not be asking many questions afterward. But you will have a good time. You will enjoy the fight scenes. You will eat all of your movie snacks. My expectations were low, and this movie greatly exceeded every single one of them. I wholeheartedly recommend "Godzilla X Kong". It was an absolute blast. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga"

On a whim the other night my wife asked if I wanted to watch the new Will Ferrell movie on Netflix, “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”.

I was taken aback for a few reasons. I didn’t know he had a new movie for one. I didn’t know both Rachel McAdams and Dan Stevens were in it. I didn’t know that Pierce Brosnan played Ferrell’s father. And I had zero idea it was about a singing contest called Eurovision, which is a singing contest that invites bands and singers from all over the world, and it’s a real thing. I guess, according to some research, Ferrell became obsessed with this singing contest when his wife showed it to them on a trip. I think she’s of Swedish decent, and she thought he’d enjoy it. Well, it turned into an obsession, and he made a whole movie about it. And he sings and dances and acts and produces the whole damn thing.

While “Eurovision Song Contest” is a bit overlong, it is funny and sweet. Ferrell is hilarious as usual. He plays the lead character Lars. Lars is a dreamer ever since he saw ABBA on Eurovision as a young kid after his mother passed away. He got up and danced at the wake afterward at his home, and while all the adults laughed at him, he swore he’d win Eurovision one day. While at said wake, Sigrit, Rachel McAdams, got up and danced and sang with him. She was mute up to that point in her life. From that point we see them as grownups working in a new song for their band Fire Saga. It’s as European as it gets too. The song, the attached video, the costumes, it all screams European, and I loved it. It was silly, but fun. And while Ferrell is his usual funny self, McAdams matches him, and dare I say, surpasses him. She is so funny in this movie. She’s so quiet, yet naive. She loves Lars, but he loves Eurovision more. She sticks by his side no matter what, even if it’s to her detriment. McAdams really goes for it, and she absolutely crushes it. She is the star of this movie by far. I adored her performance. Dan Stevens plays Russian singer Alexander Lemtov. His performance is so over the top, but it’s supposed to be. He’s so full of himself and his music. He’s also hiding who he truly is. He may be the “bad guy”, but he’s really not. He just wants what’s best for his career and Sigrit’s. She has real talent that he sees, and Lars doesn’t. Also, the fight scene between Alexander and Lars near the end is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in awhile. Brosnan is great as the gruff dad. He doesn’t like the career path his son has chosen, and he lets him know it. Even when he eases up on him, he’s still kind of a jerk, as he’s supposed to be.

While the performances are great, I like that Ferrell is into this world, he invites real contestants to perform full on song and dance performances a few times in the movie. He really lets the singers shine, really gives them their moment, and it’s so cool and so much fun. Like I says before, the only thing I’d change is the length. It’s a hair over two hours, and that’s a little too long for a comedy like this. Other than that it’s a great, funny movie. Ferrell is good, but McAdams shines. I’d recommend it simply for her performance. But, it’s pretty great for everything else it does. Check it out if you haven’t, and if you enjoy Ferrell’s sense of humor. It’s uniquely him. I like that, and I think you will too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.