GODZILLA Movie Thread

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Eric Paddon
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#31 Post by Eric Paddon »

Ebirah was originally supposed to be Toho's vehicle for a King Kong movie. Indeed, Godzilla's behavior throughout the film is more "Kong" like than in any other in the series. But RKO refused to let Toho do a Kong movie with that script so in the end the script for what became "King Kong Escapes" was developed and Toho turned Ebirah into a Godzilla vehicle.

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#32 Post by mkaroly »

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) - 5.5/10. The film isn't the greatest by any stretch, but it was a bit more entertaining and fun than EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP. As I watched this film I thought about how the moments on Monster Island (excepting the alien invasion) reminded me of the setting of the story of JURASSIC PARK. It made me think of the collective (if not, at times, specific), lasting influence of these films on "monster" movies today. There are a couple of really great moments in the film: I really enjoyed the tension on the alien moon base when the heroes were trying to disable the control device while the weapon they were using was on the verge of blowing them all up. The fight with Gidorah was very entertaining and pretty brutal. Lol...Gidorah got beaten down something fierce! I liked that the monsters knew who their real enemy was once the mind control went off - it ties in nicely with the ending of GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER as well as INVASION OF ASTRO MONSTER. On the negative side, this is the second movie in which the monsters are manipulated by aliens through mind control (I assume they will go back to this plot device in later films); the plot was kind of all over the place, and there are so many holes in the story that I didn't even bother trying to think about them. It is very nitpicky, but I never cared for how easily a ship as big as the SY-3 could just take off and land and go anywhere on a mission at any time. As with all the other films in the Godzilla series, this one has its own unique charm to it that, despite its faults, one can appreciate on its own terms.

Eric Paddon
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#33 Post by Eric Paddon »

"Destroy All Monsters" is really the end of an era in these films because now you have to get set for the big budget cutbacks of the 70s.

Did you watch the Japanese version subtitled or one of the dubs? The Blu-Ray which I am told is OOP gives you the option of having *both* English dubs of the film, and the AIP dub which has among others Hal Linden voicing the lead is the better one.

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#34 Post by mkaroly »

I watched the Japanese subtitled movie; the DVD I have (not Blu-Ray) is from Tokyo Shock. It has one English dub track in 2.0; not sure who voices anything on that version.

Eric Paddon
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#35 Post by Eric Paddon »

If it has just one English track then that's likely the Toho "International Dub" with more amateurish sounding voices. Those were the dubs Toho would do locally in Japan with expatriate Americans/Europeans or anyone else they could get off the street rather than professional voice actors that were used at Titra Sound in the US for the AIP dubs.

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AndyDursin
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#36 Post by AndyDursin »

Start saving your pennies. On the Blu-Ray.com board, someone discovered the digital streaming versions of all the Classic Media Toho titles and the OOP Sony ones are not only available but now distributed quite clearly by.....Criterion.

I doubt they would release those movies individually, but a (pun intended) gargantuan box set like their Zataoichi release? I could easily see that happening as Godzilla fans would pay a small fortune for those in HD! Here's hoping...

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#37 Post by mkaroly »

Eric Paddon wrote: Wed Nov 01, 2017 6:46 pm If it has just one English track then that's likely the Toho "International Dub" with more amateurish sounding voices. Those were the dubs Toho would do locally in Japan with expatriate Americans/Europeans or anyone else they could get off the street rather than professional voice actors that were used at Titra Sound in the US for the AIP dubs.
Watching some of the Godzilla films in the English dubbed versions make watching Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lilly? more funny to me...lol...

Re: Andy's post above...NICE!!! I didn't spend all that much money on the DVDs that I have of Godzilla films now (with the exception of Godzilla Vs. Biollante which was close to $50.00 on Blu-Ray), so it would be cool to have good HD versions of the Toho Classic Media and OOP Sony titles.

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AndyDursin
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#38 Post by AndyDursin »

Individual releases of these from Criterion's standpoint would look kind of, well, weird. But putting them into a big expensive boxset? I can see that. And these fans will pay for it.

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#39 Post by mkaroly »

ALL MONSTERS ATTACK (1969) - 5/10. If viewed as a kid's film I think it makes all the difference in the world, especially since the film seems very purposefully to have been made with kids in mind. I can see where people would vehemently dislike this film; Minilla/Minya is obnoxiously annoying. The film uses some recycled fight scenes from previous films, and its story occurs in the imagination of a child. Godzilla went from being a threatening monster to a loveable action figure (as seen at the beginning of the film). Despite all that, the film has a charm to it in the way that Ichiro overcomes the bullies in his life by having to deal with real-life robbers who kidnap him. I thought of HOME ALONE at times when Ichiro battled the robbers, and I thought the actor who played Ichiro did a solid job in his performance. If I am rating this through the lenses of a non-kid perspective of Godzilla, it is not good at all.

GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH (1971) - 3/10. There is a moment toward the end of the film where Godzilla, holding Hedorah, waits for humanity to turn on the electrodes to dry him out. The system overheats and the humans confess that they are unable to fix it again. In response Godzilla sighs and uses his radioactive breath to activate the electrodes and finally defeat Hedorah. I laughed really hard - it was the highlight of the movie for me. I love that Godzilla has dimensional personality - I also found his self-propulsion bit funny! Unfortunately the rest of the movie was hard to watch - the animation, the cards of different constellations, the "psychedelica" vibe...it didn't work for me. The message is cool, and I will give the filmmakers credit for making Hedorah disgusting and gross. I did not watch the English dub on the Kraken Releasing Blu-Ray; maybe one of these days I will to see if it improves my experience watching the film. Overall though I just thought the film was too "all over the map" and could have benefitted from less psychedelic inspired moments. The main credits were very reminiscent of Bond films too...

Eric Paddon
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#40 Post by Eric Paddon »

THe Kraken is the weaker Toho International dub. The original AIP dub which has disappeared had the wacky English language version of the title song ("Save The Earth!") Someone uploaded the audio of it to YT (because there had been a VHS release in the 80s) and I ended up synching it back to the movie to recapture the experience I first had seeing this crazy film on Channel 9 WOR around the late 70s.

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#41 Post by mkaroly »

GODZILLA VS. GIGAN (1972) - 5/10. This is a step up from the previous film; the human characters in the film and their story was fun to me. I liked the acting...what I was surprised by was the addition of some spurting blood and some really aggressive fighting that led to skin being split open, blood gushing forth, etc. Lol...I was kind of shocked! I am not sure why Gigan, in his encounters with Godzilla, just didn't have his "saw stomach" going the whole time. Maybe it is physically impossible for him...lol...I thought the movie dragged quite a bit while Godzilla was being pummeled by the laser beam. But I enjoyed the film to the extent that I did because I wanted Godzilla to overcome the beating he was receiving and take out his enemies. I found myself mumbling, "C'mon Godzilla...get up!" under my breath a few times. So all-in-all, it's not that bad of a film to me.

GODZILLA VS. MEGALON (1973) - 1.5/10. This is just a lousy film all the way around...what really annoyed me about this production was the copious use of footage from previous films. It was just lazy; I know the other films did this to an extent, but they used footage in this film that they had used in (I think) two previous films already...lazy! In addition, the acting in this film (as well as the plot) are really poor...boring. And the Mu people (nothing like seeing a dude with hairy shoulders and back and a balding head in a toga like thing...lol...ugh!) were a joke. I remember bits of this film from when I was a kid - I thought it was gross that Megalon shot red explosive balls out of his mouth. The film overemphasizes the explosions, as if trying to emphasize the spectacle since the story was so bad. I do continue to enjoy the evolution of the Godzilla suit and how much more animated he has become in the movies up to this point. He is a character I root for, and I thought his pairing with Jet Jaguar made for some fun scenes against Megalon and Gigan. As much as I liked the fight scenes (when they weren't recycled material from earlier films), I just cannot get past how horrible this movie is. I would give it less than a 1/10 but I need to see the rest of the films before grading it that low...lol...cheap and lazy!

GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1974) - I do not have access to this film and so cannot watch it at this time.

Eric Paddon
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#42 Post by Eric Paddon »

mkaroly wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 5:26 pm GODZILLA VS. MEGALON (1973) - 1.5/10. This is just a lousy film all the way around...what really annoyed me about this production was the copious use of footage from previous films. It was just lazy; I know the other films did this to an extent, but they used footage in this film that they had used in (I think) two previous films already...lazy! In addition, the acting in this film (as well as the plot) are really poor...boring. And the Mu people (nothing like seeing a dude with hairy shoulders and back and a balding head in a toga like thing...lol...ugh!) were a joke. I remember bits of this film from when I was a kid - I thought it was gross that Megalon shot red explosive balls out of his mouth. The film overemphasizes the explosions, as if trying to emphasize the spectacle since the story was so bad. I do continue to enjoy the evolution of the Godzilla suit and how much more animated he has become in the movies up to this point. He is a character I root for, and I thought his pairing with Jet Jaguar made for some fun scenes against Megalon and Gigan. As much as I liked the fight scenes (when they weren't recycled material from earlier films), I just cannot get past how horrible this movie is. I would give it less than a 1/10 but I need to see the rest of the films before grading it that low...lol...cheap and lazy!
This one was a really ridiculous one. I have a boot of the MST3K version (the one that had an unauthorized release and had to get pulled) and while I'm not a big fan of that show this film deserved the treatment!

The toga-wearing Caucasian was Robert Dunham, an American expatriate who was actually the star of the Toho comedy space monster film, "Dagora" in 1964. He recalled how he was just told to wear the silly outfit off the rack and how he took a lot of ribbing for it on-set.

A cut down version of this film actually aired on NBC in the late 70s hosted by Belushi!

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#43 Post by mkaroly »

Lol...that outfit gives me nightmares! :lol:

Funny that there was a MST3K episode with that film. After watching it I thought that it would be a great candidate for the show...either that or MST3K would think it would be too easy and not consider it! I never saw that episode but I do agree that this film deserved the treatment!

Eric Paddon
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#44 Post by Eric Paddon »

In addition to "Megalon", "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster" also got the MST3K treatment.

mkaroly
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Re: GODZILLA Movie Thread

#45 Post by mkaroly »

Eric Paddon wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 8:24 pm In addition to "Megalon", "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster" also got the MST3K treatment.
As corny as Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster got, I didn't think it was MST3K corny. Megalon, definitely.

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