"Godzilla & Other Giant Monsters" Archives
- Beneath Loch Ness (2002)
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Considering that the Loch Ness monster is one of the most recognized enigmas in the world, it is relatively unrepresented in the world of cult movies. Sure, Larry Buchanan made The Loch Ness Horror (1981) and there are a few others, but let’s face it, we’ve been waiting years for a really good movie about Loch Ness and the prehistoric creature that may or may not lay beneath its surface. Thanks to Beneath Loch Ness, we’re still waiting.
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- Destroy All Monsters (1968)
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Welcome to the far flung future of 1999, Toho style. You know, the closer we get to the year 2000, the more of those classic “futuristic” movies actually end up taking place in the past. Like the Lost in Space TV series and Terminator 2, both of which predicted events that would occur in 1997.
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- Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996)
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Daiei did a great job of updating Gamera with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. It delivered some amazing traditional rubber-suit giant monster action, coupled with state-of-the-art special effects, knocking even the later Godzilla films off the top of the hill for realistic destruction. How could they possibly follow it up? By making a better movie.
Gamera: [...]Read More...
- Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999)
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Bringing to a close the trilogy of 1990’s Gamera films is Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, and we are pleased to say that it is the finest giant monster movie made since the original Godzilla/Gamera cycle ended in the mid-seventies. Gamera 3 features terrific special effects integrated into an engrossing story that ties together all [...]
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- Gamera vs. Guillon (1969)
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It is a well-known fact that in the real world, everyone has an evil twin. So it isn’t surprising that movies often feature evil twins. Remember the Cosmos Twins from Godzilla vs. Mothra (1963) and other Godzilla movies? Well, if they had evil twins (who would have to be evil twins themselves… think about it), [...]
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- Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)
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Look out world, Gamera, the giant fire-breathing turtle and perpetual whipping boy of those wits over at Mystery Science Theater 3000, is back and looking to recapture his good name. Of course, the previous Gamera movies, all made between 1965 and 1980, were at best cheesy fun, and were at worst totally unwatchable. While Daiei created Gamera to compete with Godzilla, Gamera never rose above the level of a cheap rip-off of the Big G. Our favorite early Gamera movie has to be the Gamera vs. Guillon (1969), simply because it was so surreally bad.
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- Gappa, the Triphibian Monsters (1967)
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Gappa, the Triphibian Monsters is Nikkatsu Studio’s one and only entry into the giant monster genre. Made in 1967, the movie is a pretty shameless amalgam of Gorgo (1961) and King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), only without the energy and fun.
The movie opens as a bunch reporters and scientists arrive in the south seas pleasure [...]Read More...
- Garuda (2004)
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In a process that began in the ’90s and accelerated over the past few years, continental Asian cinema began to transcend its borders. Hong Kong is the most notable example, but countries like Korea and India have broken into the Western film and video market as well. Previously Japan was the sole source of respected [...]
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- Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
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If there’s a moral to Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster, it’s that weird stuff happens, and you just have to roll with it.
In the tone-setting first scene, a bunch of Japanese UFO nuts are standing around waiting for the “saucer people” to give them a sign. When no sign comes, the disappointed believers begin blaming it [...]Read More...
- Giant Claw, The (1957)
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Making a giant monster movie is a lot like dating someone you meet in an Internet chat room. Just as there’s no way of knowing that sexy “Clarissa” (who knocked your socks off with her quick online wit and lightning-fast typing fingers) isn’t really a six-foot lumbering dairy farmer named Lyle until you meet [...]
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- Giant Monster Gamera (1965)
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When it comes to giant monsters, one name comes to mind: Godzilla. And when only one name comes to mind, you can be sure other people will try to piggy-back on that success with rip-offs of their own — like Daiei studio’s entry into the giant monster genre, Gamera.
As rip-offs of Godzilla go, Gamera has [...]Read More...
- Godzilla (1954)
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On April 2nd, 1997 Godzilla fans everywhere lost an idol: Tomoyuki Tanaka died. Tanaka was the producer of all of Godzilla’s screen exploits. Along with special effects creator Eiji Tsuburaya and director Ishiro Honda, he was primarily responsible for the creation of the enduring screen icon we call Godzilla. With his passing, all three of [...]
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- Godzilla (1984)
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For a film that was meant to revive the Godzilla series in both Japan and the U.S., Godzilla (1984) (aka Godzilla 1985 in America) is a disappointment. Toho tried a lot of new ideas that just didn’t pan out, and then repeated some old mistakes which could have easily been avoided. Although it didn’t spell [...]
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- Godzilla (1998)
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Our preliminary checklist for Godzilla ‘98:
Rising from the depths… (check)
Thirty stories tall… (yup, pretty darn tall)
…it’s GODZILLA! (uh… is it?)
That seems to be the question, and it’s a hotly contested one, not only by fans of the classic Godzilla, but also by the media and the movie makers themselves. Before we get into a weighty [...]Read More...
- Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
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Is it possible to become accustomed to attacks by Godzilla? The human characters in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (the latest installment in the famous Toho series), take a siege by Godzilla as something barely worth mentioning, and that helps to make this the Godzilla movie with the least compelling non-monster scenes yet. Anyone who saw Godzilla vs Megalon can tell you — that’s really saying something.
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- Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
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Though the original Godzilla was obviously a triumph, Godzilla Raids Again is a misstep, especially from the perspective of kaiju fans today. Perhaps because Ishiro Honda had other commitments producer Tomiyura Tanaka gave the task of making the first Godzilla sequel to another director, Motoyoshi Oda. The resulting film introduced the popular “Godzilla vs. Another Monster” formula that would serve the series so well. Unfortunately, nearly everything about the film feels rushed – except for the dramatic pacing, which suffers from the opposite problem.
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- Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966)
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The sea monster in the title of Godzilla vs the Sea Monster brings new meaning to the words “jumbo shrimp.” Ebirah, whose name is derived from the Japanese word for shrimp, is just that — a monstrous, towering, man-eating shrimp. As you might imagine, he (she?) isn’t a very compelling monster, especially when pitted against [...]
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- Godzilla’s Revenge (1969)
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In our last review we mentioned that people in the 1960’s were taking a lot of drugs, and that some movies with rather, ah, hallucinatory qualities resulted. Further evidence of this is 1969’s Godzilla’s Revenge, in which all of the monster action takes place in the dreams of (who else?) a young Japanese boy.
When most [...]Read More...
- Gorgo (1961)
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When you think about it, Japan and Britain have a lot in common. They are both islands, they both make a really big deal about tea, and neither one can seem to resist the urge to occupy China. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the first major Godzilla rip-off outside of Japan came from Britain, in the form of Gorgo.
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- Host, The (2006)
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I won’t be surprised if Korea soon celebrates Joon-ho Bong as a national treasure. Not only is he a gifted filmmaker but he has restored the nation’s honor by creating the most acerbic satire in kaiju history. After all, if you don’t have a decent monster to your name you’re really nobody on the Asian international scene. The Host puts Thailand and Garuda back at the bottom of the heap – and nobody wants to be at the bottom of a heap of giant monsters.
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- King Kong (1976)
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When watching King Kong (1976), it’s tough to not think of Godzilla (1998). Both were modern remakes of beloved monster classics. Both had lame scripts and a suspicious lack of big name stars despite big budget pedigrees. Most crucially, both used different special effects techniques than their predecessors to bring the monster to life.
Where the [...]Read More...
- King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
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King Kong vs Godzilla marks an important turning point in the Godzilla series. It isn’t the first time Godzilla fought another monster (that would be 1955’s Godzilla Raids Again), but it is a dramatic departure from the the serious tone and melodrama of the previous two films. Instead, King Kong vs Godzilla plays like a [...]
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- Negadon: The Monster from Mars (2005)
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Giant monster enthusiasts don’t get their fancies tickled too often. Unlike those moviegoers with a penchant for zombie movies or alien invasion flicks, it’s not as if every year brings the kaiju aficionado a satisfying entry in the sub-genre of his choice. Each city-shaking film that does arrive is greeted with open arms and ready wallets—those of us with Godzilla fever just want to see some buildings knocked down and a good romper-stomper bout of mammoth fisticuffs before the credits roll.
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- Son of Blob (1972)
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In case you didn’t know, Major Nelson dropped tabs. Yes, that’s right. No matter how clean-cut Larry Hagman seemed in I Dream of Jeannie, he was doing LSD, or so claims a new book about the series entitled Dreaming of Jeannie. And if you don’t want to accept that assertion without proof, we offer up [...]
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