Zodiac (2007) Review:

While in history there have been plenty of documented sickos and psychos out in the world, the United States seems to do the best job sensationalizing these crazed people. It’s understandable that these individuals have either inspired countless renditions of pop culture icons in cinema and TV, as well as real life incarnations looking to copy their “idols”. Most of these insane weirdos unfortunately were products of their environments which were not conducive to their overall health and in the end were caught at one point or another. There are a number of cases though where the perpetrator was never apprehended. For this film, the focus is on the illusive Zodiac killer in California. By far one of the strangest and hardest to figure out mysteries recorded in criminal history.

The story is about how the Zodiac killer entered the fray and became the topic of conversation for a long period of time, only to disappear and reappear. Originally headed by a group consisting of journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and investigators David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) and Sgt. Jack Mulanax (Elias Koteas), the bunch are tasked with trying to understand who’s behind the heinous crimes. Tagging along is cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) who finds the letters and cryptic letters left behind by the killer to be rather intriguing. The story was apparently lifted from the real life Graysmith himself and adapted by James Vanderbilt, the same person who wrote for notable films later on like The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Murder Mystery (2019) and Scream V (2022).

Directing the feature was David Fincher, who had his start in music videos to all kinds of artists. His moment of breaking ground was in Alien 3 (1992) and then went on to head Se7en (1995) and Fight Club (1999). When it came to the production, Fincher was very focused on reproducing every incident that happened involving the mysterious person at large, as well as gathering as many facts as possible before proceeding with filming. Although there were still some various liberties taken with the execution like Graysmith never working with Avery, from what has been confirmed, much of how things occur is accurate. So for writing, that’s pretty top tier because Fincher basically put together a documentary in the form of a movie. It’s almost at the level of homework James Cameron had to do before going ahead with making the movie of the Titanic (1997).

The only part of the movie that may have some viewers at a bit of a crossroads is the run time. Clocking in at basically a summer blockbuster of two and a half hours, the pacing can feel a little long at times. It is by no means the slog of wait time when watching Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) where nothing happens, but it is also not a movie that many people may feel needed this much time put into a story where no one is captured. As long as the viewer knows that ahead of time, this isn’t a shocker. Again though, Fincher put in the time to gather all this information, so it’s also not surprising it took this long to get the timeline straight. The acting is good too, also featuring appearances from Brian Cox who plays someone who actually interviews the Zodiac over the phone and even Charles Fleischer.

The camerawork handled by Harris Savides was accomplished very professionally too. The shots filmed throughout the movie look like meticulous attention went into them just as much as Fincher researched the topic. Not that it’s hard to do, but not once does the crew give the audience an idea as to who could be the Zodiac. There’s never enough light on the killer’s face or hear the voice for too long a period or clearly enough. Finally, the film score composed by David Shire was on point with the music provided to this feature. Despite the album being only forty minutes long, the tracks definitely convey an uneasy tone for an unknown murderer on the loose. It actually sounds very close to something Ennio Morricone could have composed like his work from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). The continuously running strings make the dissonant sound very foreboding.

The runtime can rear its ugly head every now and then if audiences feel the story’s taking too long. In actuality though, it is a lengthy narrative and the film crew did what they could to make this a proper retelling, facts and all. Acting, camerawork and music all add to that, making a fairly captivating watch.

Points Earned --> 8:10

Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge (1991) Review:

During the anime run of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z series was running in the late 80s to early 90s, the show was very popular among viewers and fans. At the same time, in between every year the studio would release a film special. A tradition that doesn’t just apply to this franchise, but also the predecessor Dragon Ball and even other anime properties. However what made things eye popping is when the animation and finale was finally of the main protagonist Goku going “Super Saiyan”. Something that had only been illustrated in Toriyama’s manga years before. This was the small screen though. Low and behold, when that particular season had concluded another film came out featuring this spectacular transformation on the big screen with this feature.

The story to this feature is about the brother of Frieza (Linda Young), Cooler (Andrew Chandler) happening to hear of his brother’s death once Goku had destroyed him. Meanwhile, Goku (Sean Schemmel), Krillin (Sonny Strait) and Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) are out minding their own business on Earth when Cooler shows up looking to take it upon himself to get rid of Goku. The screenplay was adapted by Takao Koyama who had worked on almost all the other annual features that were released between the seasons of the anime. Most of which were middling to okay at best. Directing this feature was also Mitsuo Hashimoto who also lead the production to a few of the previous features made in between the anime seasons. While the film is a great continuation of the Super Saiyan lore, the continuity as usual is not lined up correctly.

While the film’s release was in 1991, season three in which takes place after did not finish. So the additionally, after season three had ended, Goku did not return back to Earth until some time into season four. It’s almost in the right place but not exactly. What makes it even more surprising is that in the start of season four, the anime introduces Garlic Jr. back as if he never got locked away in the Dead Zone as portrayed in the feature of 1989. Explain that one! The storyline though is captivating as it reveals that Cooler himself witnessed Goku’s father, Bardock dying at the hands of Frieza as well as seeing Goku being sent off to Earth. Seeing the total impact and consequences of certain characters is interesting to watch play out.

When it came to the acting, performances were appreciated as usual from the official funimation crew. Sean Schemmel is the definitive English voice of Goku, as is Stephanie Nadolny as Gohan, and Sonny Strait as Krillin. There’s also appearances from Chris Sabat, Linda Young and Kyle Herbert. Andrew Chandler as Cooler sounded fairly imposing too. Prior to Cooler, Chandler had only voiced a couple other Dragon Ball characters that didn’t stick around too long. However since then, he has remained the voice of these characters. The other thing to be thankful for is the fact the voices selected for the English dub are now set in their place. There’s no longer strange mismatching or odd choice selections for character voices. The action on film is fun to watch as well, the fight sequences are energetic and pack the punch to keep the attention of the viewer.

This also follows with the animation. The animation is also much more polished and scenes move much smoother than the TV episode counterparts. As to why camerawork is necessary, that’s another thing to be debated. Masatoshi Fukui is credited as the cinematographer to this feature but it’s unclear as to why. This was his first Dragon Ball Z film though as his prior work consisted of a credit to The Transformers: The Movie (1986). Lastly for the music, Shunsuke Kikuchi’s original music was apparently used but again ignored when it came to the English dub. It would only later contain Kikuchi’s music in a rerelease. But for the original, various hard rock bands like Drowning Pool, Breaking Point, Finger Eleven and Deftones were placed instead. The concept kind of works but they really don’t belong at all.

While the ability for this feature to correctly fit into the timeline between seasons still doesn’t work, the storyline makes for that with the way it expands connections between protagonist and antagonists. The original release also contains music that mix well with the final product either. However voice acting, and animation also remain strong components to the viewing experience.

Points Earned --> 6:10