Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)



7/10

King Ghidorah, aliens that look like a cross between the guys in Planet of the Vampires and Agent Smith, Godzilla and Rodan being dragged through space in plasma-eggs, Godzilla doing a jig, evil laughs, water shortage, goofy flying saucers, and some nice modelwork.

What the hell do you want more from a movie?

Gamera vs. Barugon 1966



4/10


Rather poor Kaiju, and the title is a bit misleading - they really only properly fight for 5 minutes, tops. I never thought I'd say this, but the movie was not improved by losing the weird kid from the first Gamera movie.

I did enjoy a thief getting tongued by Barugon, but the creature design of Barugon was terrible. His powers (ice breath, rainbow death ray) were fun though. And Gamera looked better in this one.

This film demonstrates that goofy fights between dressed up quadrupeds is nowhere near as much fun as goofy fights between dressed up bipeds.


The best thing about this version, from a technical point of view, was the American dubbing was very good. Shame the rest of the movie wasn't up to that quality.

felt like I should make an appearance in this thread

ok bye

war of the gargantuans is on HuluPlus right now - I've added it to my queue

in japanese?

WATCH IT

is that high def or 720?

no, it's English Translated - one of the Saperstein movies

RB

Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster 1966 (aka Ebirah, Horror of the Deep)



3/5

Goofy kaiju that takes forever to get going (apart from surprisingly nasty Ebirah action, taking out a fishing boat), but once it does, you feel okay about the wait. Godzilla really, REALLY messes up Ebirah, Mothra doesn't do much until right at the end when he saves the day, and there's a funny bit where Godzilla taps the side of his nose when he takes out an annoying giant bird in a spectacular fashion.

Fun.

Masaru Satoh soundtrack... he was one of the best Japanese film composers.

I saw the new Godzilla movie the other day. It's the first Godzilla movie I've ever seen. The best parts of it were the first 30 min or so, until Bryan Cranston's part is done. I know why they didn't show much monster fighting...it's not really that interesting. I never really understood the appeal behind any form of media which depicts 2 uber-powerful things fighting and not really damaging each other (pro-wresting, Terminators, Dragonball Z, Superman vs Zod in Superman II, etc.).

I guess it looks cool and I guess that's what Godzilla fans like? Like in T2 why do the Terminators use guns against each other when they know it won't do any damage, but it looks cool because as an audience of normal humans shooting guns is a cool thing to see. Same with the soliders shooting guns and tanks at these monsters. Same with DBZ and punching. Punching doesn't do anything cuz they're all Super Duper Uber Alpha Mega Saiyans.

But I like how they tried to give it a theme about nuclear weapons and nature and make it impactful rather than just a blatant monster pro-wresting match. Music was amazing as well. Re-watching the intro montage on youtube still gives me goosebumps. And they tried to make it faithful to the originals by setting a lot of it in Japan and having a Japanese actor play a main role (though he didn't really do much, no one did, except for Bryan Cranston). Overall, I enjoyed it but except for maybe the original Godzilla, didn't spark any interest in seeing any other entries in the series.

Son of Godzilla



3.5/5

This is seriously goofy, but you know what? It's an out and out kid's movie, and I rate it and comment it based on that (mostly).

The goofiest part of it was the choice of noises they gave to mini-me Godzilla (appropriately, Minilla). There was mewling, tellytubby noises, donkey braying and so on. But ignoring this, it was colourful, well shot, good music, all the monsters looked decent (and they integrated puppetry quite well into the man-in-a-rubber-suit action), and Godzilla was a boss.

His complete ripping apart of the giant mantises was hugely entertaining, and I think this has the most monster-fighting-per-minute of any of the ones we've watched.

The giant spider was also cool (even though its eyes and furry bits reminded me somewhat of Seymour the Spider in H R Pufnstuf!).

Very enjoyable.

If that's the one with Mini-Godzilla learning how to spit fire and instead blowing smoke rings, I love it.

That's the one!

Son of Godzilla and Gigantor are my two favorite kids themed movie for this genre...

Gamera vs. Gaos 1967



1.5/5

Urg, the Gaos suit was just dreadful, and the movie looked terribly framed, though that might just be I was watching a trimmed version. I did check both an original print and the MST3K version, and they looked exactly the same, so maybe not.

It had a few cute things - the laser cutting jets, a car etc in half; some of the final monster fighting was cool but gory (I'm not sure it counts as gory when the blood looks like blue milk though), and at least this one had some sort of annoying kid in - I missed that in the Gamera movie before this one.

Mostly terrible.

I dont like Gameras arm being sliced off... that was traumatic when I was a kids.

Yonggary, Monster from the Deep 1967



1/5

This was quite dreadful. The acting, framing, plot and dubbing we're awful, and it had a very dull first half. There was also an annoying brat all the way through.

Once the monster appeared it got marginally better, with an awful lot of miniatures being smashed to pieces. The suit was okay, apart from around the eyes, and it breathed fire and shot lasers. The suit looked to me it was in constant danger of catching fire though.

The final death?? Of the monster was odd, it seemed to be emptying its bowels into the river - I think - while having a seizure.

Oh, it also likes dancing to groovy rock n roll.

Destroy all monsters... sadly lacking from your review list buddy. it's right up there with Godzilla vs Monster Zero

its next, I'm very pleased to say.

Destroy All Monsters 1968 ★★★★

While I didn't like the human-centric parts of this movie, the monster elements deliver big time. There is some great destruction of miniatures and infighting between the monsters, and a lot of fun.

So many great little moments in this. Godzilla stomping on Ghidorah's neck was a particular standout.

and I would have killed for a model of the moonlight SY3 when I was a kid!

Destroy All Planets 1968 ★½

A Gamera movie of usual quality - that is, poor. There's major sections not involving the main story, and when it is the main story, it's flahbacks from previous movies. It has some entertainment value for the final battle, with possibly the goofiest nemesis in all of Kaiju, and how gamera survived the main attack at the end I'll never know.

Godzilla’s Revenge 1969

★★★

Well, I've read a lot of complaints about how it's just recycling endless footage of old Godzilla movies, but hell, I enjoyed it. The whole 'it's a dream' aspect was very goofy, and was everything involving Godzilla's offspring (which was most of the movie) but I enjoyed it anyway, even though I'd seen an awful lot of the footage elsewhere.

The kid was annoying and also there was a section where the kid was tied up by crooks where his shorts looked like hotpants(!), but it cracked along at a fair pace, and didn't outstay its welcome.

I did see a not suggesting this was perhaps the worst Godzilla movie, which made me smile...if that's the case, I reckon the worst Godzilla movie is better than the best Gamera movie.

Happy Birthday, Godzilla! 60 years young!