So I just finished watching the 1998 "Godzilla" remake with The Little Astronomer. After seeing (and enjoying) "Cloverfield", it seemed the thing to do.
When it came out 10 years ago, I saw it in the theater. I thought it was great! Fun, silly, great effects, didn’t take itself seriously… yet it was almost universally panned. Everyone in the world seemed to hate it but me. So when I popped the disk into the player, I figured maybe this was another case of an old movie I liked that wouldn’t hold up.
I was wrong. I mean, I was right in the first place. This movie is great.
Here’s the deal: a lot of people hated it because they wanted a rubber-suit Godzilla movie. Too bad. Others hated it because they wanted an updated version more true to the actual original Japanese movie (which I need to see; the only version I saw of it was the terribly edited one with Raymond Burr jammed into it, who stuck out like a bug on a plate). Too bad. Some people thought it was too silly. Too bad.
It’s a monster movie, folks. The people who made it knew that, so they threw in lots of funny stuff, letting the viewer know the movie isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously. Completely unrealistic premise, ridiculous events, outrageously overdone chase scenes. But that’s the point! It’s a monster movie. It’s supposed to be fun. Three people from "The Simpsons" were in it, for Pete’s sake!
I think it was a lot of fun. TLA liked it too. The effects held up surprisingly well, too, which is a plus. Not perfect, but not bad. Also, having just seen "Cloverfield", it’s fun to compare them. There are plenty of parallels: both take place in NYC, there is an important scene with the Brooklyn Bridge in both, subways are critical, and so on.
All in all, I say if you want a popcorn movie (or in our case, hamburgers and fries and then bowls of chocolate fudge ice cream), this is a pretty good pick.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Yeah, Phil, I’m going to have to agree. For the longest time I’ve hated that movie for every single reason you have given it, but I mainly judged it because I felt it was mostly just a Jurassic Park rip. It’s a good movie by itself — but the Jurassic Park vibe doesn’t cut it.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I agree, I hate it when movies are panned just because they’re not works of art. Some movies are just good, silly fun, and you’ll enjoy them if you treat them that way.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I only caught on a few years after its release on TV and it was nowhere as bad as I was lead to believe.
I also did not realise that Jean Reno was in it, otherwise I would have gone to see it immediately.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
You’re right about it not being true to the original Godzilla movies (any of them, really) and simply isn’t in the same class as the Japanese movies. This is mainly the reason why so many people didn’t like it. Frankly, I agree with you, it’s fun to watch. I don’t mind watching it when it comes my way.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
BA still likes Godzilla
OK, lemme check…
Hmmm…
Yeah, that’s Sign O’ The Apocalypse #3
Huh. Maybe doomsday in 2012 is right on track after all.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
You haven’t seen the original yet?! Such a great piece of film. The endings emotional impact is partly lost in the Burr edit. Also, before you watch the film, Google all you can about an incident regarding a Japanese fishing boat called “Lucky Dragon #5″ and then the overtones regarding the atomic bomb will make even more sense while you watch the ship disaster in the opening sequence. If memory serves, a fishing boat by that name was lost in a nuclear test. The ink was not dry on the headlines yet when this movie opened in Japan.
Its considered fair game to poo poo the Burr version, but except for the blurring of the love triangle subplot, and the poorly matched shots switching back and forth, the American cut stays fairly true to the tone and spirit of the original. Not a great work like the original, but a good movie none the less.
If you want to see a total abomination, screen the American version of the sequel, called “Gigantis, the Fire Monster.” This version should be under glass in a bad movie museum.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I totally agree with Phil, aka. Mr BA. Godzilla 1998 is a great film because its a perfect popcorn movie. I fully admit it: I’m afraid to tell anyone in public I enjoy this film and have a DVD copy of it in my film library. Best thing, about the DVD is that its like 5 bucks at the discount bin at Wally-world and comes with audio commentary (yeah, i’m a film extra DVD geek)
I liked the alternative design of Godzilla, although I love the originals too.
I thought the movie score was perfect.
Reno and Broderick were good.
For the year 1998, the CGI looked great and still competes with the stuff they churn out now.
Sound mix is awesome (if you have a good sound system that is)
I also have an affinity for any movie having rain throughout it.
I also enjoyed the fact the film doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s a great film to pop in on a Saturday afternoon to kill a few hours.
Final chase by throughout Manhattan is nice and tense.
And yes, there’s a bunch of flaws in logic (the most famous being the demis of the Brooklyn Bridge at the end), but really, who cares, it’s a movie and not a lesson in real life.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Hmmmm. Reading this is nspiring me to get started on my 50 Movie Pack Sci Fi Classics. I think I’ll start with Gamera the Invincible. BTW I saw the US version of Godzilla on TV and thought it was ok.
Didn’t little BA get scared? I told my 11 year old daughter I went to Cloverfield and she was amazed that I would go see such a scary movie, and then proceeded to ask me twenty questions on why I like “gross horror movies.” She gets scared watching Alice In Wonderland, though!
February 10th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Nope. Can’t agree. There’s silly, there’s campy, and then there’s dumb.
I mean, it’s not a terribly, horribly bad movie or anything. It’s not “Virus” or “Hollow Man” or “Mission to Mars” or anything like that. And I definitely didn’t go in expecting a deep and insightful look at, well, at anything. But that was a dumb, dumb, dumb movie.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:14 am
I don’t know, my first exposure to a gozilla movie was through MST3K, so I never really could take them seriously.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Good Gracious! If you are going to post about a Godzilla film, at least establish a baseline of Godzilla knowledge! This would be at minimum having seen both the original “Gojira” and the most recent “Godzilla: Final Wars”, the latter having a hilarious riff on the US Godzilla creature (Tuna Head). And any self respecting monster movie fan that hasn’t seen the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera] Gamera trilogy of the 1990s[/url]is to be pitied. Cloverfield!? Oh please! I can only hope that the popularity of this wanna-be monster film leads to a rebirth of at TOHO, since so many people seem to be unaware of the amazing legacy of last two decades of “kaiju” movies. Time spent watching the US Godzilla film is only excusable if you have seen the entire TOHO catalog. Otherwise, it is a criminal waste of time.
February 10th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Oh my God!! I always have thought that I was a bit nuts for liking it, but everyone else not liking it. Now that I know that someone else other than me likes it, I will have peace of mind
February 10th, 2008 at 12:48 am
The merits of the Michael Bay Godzilla aside, I loved Toho Studio’s take on the American version of the king of all monsters. If you get a chance to rent Godzilla: Final Wars the original Godzilla and the American Godzilla (named Zilla in the credits) actually face off in Sydney, Australia leading the vilainous alien controlling Earth’s monsters to remark “I knew that tuna-eating lizard was useless!” The scene still gets the whole room silent to see the two incarnations battle it out.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:11 am
To be honest, I’ve always liked the movie too, and I used to watch all those old Godzilla movies when I was a child. The only thing that I thought was dumb was that the military seemed to be doing more damage than the monster.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:11 am
BTW, I’d be happy to loan you my DVDs of any of the Godzilla or Gamera films. I strongly recommend the second of 1990s Gamera trilogy, “Attack of Legion”. While I share your “It doesn’t suck” opinion of the US Godzilla film, there really is no reason to watch it if you aren’t familiar with the entire Godzilla/ Gamera legacy.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Kerry: I was gonna mention Final War! HOLY CRAP WAS THAT AWESOME.
BA, if you liked the 98 Godzilla at all, you have to see Final War. GINO has a little cameo.
(Along with basically every other monster in the history of Godzilla films, plus a couple of other random Toho shout-outs, like the Gotengo.)
February 10th, 2008 at 3:35 am
I didn’t think Godzilla was too bad, I really liked the Jamiroquai title song “Underground”. My biggest gripe with the film is a general one for American movies of this kind: the glorification of the military. I have nothing against the military per se, but it shouldn’t be the crown jewel of a nation.
The UK has a kick-ass army, everybody knows it here, and yet it isn’t glorified nearly as much as in the US. When some people (read: Europeans) compare the US to the Roman Empire (or worse: fascism) it is because of this veneration for the military.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:53 am
The two best lines in the whole movie have to do with coffee. What could be better than that?
February 10th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Phil, I understand exactly what you mean.
I loved Jar-Jar Binks the first time I saw /The Phantom Menace./ I didn’t enjoy the movie anywhere near as much the second time around, because all my mates (who Know About These Things) told me how lame Jar-Jar was.
Give a poor Gungan a break…
February 10th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Two words: man-crush. Better: man-crush[b]es.[/b]
Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno? C’mon, they’re hilarious. And I know how cute I found Maria Pitillo was in her role.
The little critters that hatched from the eggs at the end reminded me a bit too much of the Jurassic Park raptors, but that hardly spoiled the shallow fun the movie was.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:30 am
The real problem with the movie is that it was called “Godzilla.” That sets a lot of expecations in people’s minds, and those expectations were just not met.
Imagine that someone told you that they just saw Charlize Theron in the parking lot, so you run off to see her and find out that it was really just someone NAMED Charlize Theron. That’s what the US Godzilla movie was like.
They should have just called it “Big Dumb Lizard Monster Movie” and it would have been fine.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Well, I actually enjoyed the movie in its initial run, but I was sympathetic to Andrew and Xander in this exchange from the final season of Buffy:
Kennedy: I don’t care if it’s Godzilla. I wanna get in this thing.
Andrew: Godzilla is mostly Tokyo-based, so he’s probably a no-show.
Amanda: Besides, Matthew Broderick can kill Godzilla. How tough is he?
Andrew: [in a whiny voice] Xander!
Xander Harris: Matthew Broderick did not kill Godzilla. He killed a big, dumb lizard that was *not* the real Godzilla.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:50 am
HJones – Micheal Bay had nothing to do with 1998s Godzilla. It was directed by Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independance Day, the upcoming 10,000 BC)
Now that I have had my movie nerd moment I must say that I am solidly in the minority here. I can’t stand this movie. I saw it in the theatre and was quite stoked about it. I came out after thinking “What a wasted opportunity!”. I even gave it another go once it was released on video, knowing that even the best movie can rub people the wrong way depending on their mood. Same result. This movie blows. My reasons?
1) I have the same reaction to Mathew Broderick that Kramer had to the sound of Mary Hart’s voice. Never liked him as an actor and found him horribly unbelievable as the protagonist. I’m not saying that the hero of these movies has to be a granite-jawwed superman. On the contrary, I found James Spader’s performance as the bookish and occasionally bewildered main character in Stargate to be spot on.
2) While I may not like Mathew Broderick, I at least know he can act. The blonde chick who played his ex, on the other hand, has got to be the WORST actress I have seen in a major motion picture in my lifetime. The character she played was annoying enough (whiny, selfish, dumb as a brick) but with an actress of that limited ability in the role it took me totally out of the picture whenever she was on screen. Nice piece of eye candy, to be sure, but wannabe actresses (and even established ones) who are knockouts are a dime a gross in Hollywood. I find it very hard to believe that NO ONE else could be found to play this part. Think I am being harsh? Name something she has been in since. (Off the top of your head please, no IMDB cheating)
3) Love Jean Reno. Wonderful actor. Having him spout moronic jokes like “No crousant?” is just a waste. “Oh, I get it! His character is French. Hahahaha.” Pu-leeze. That is just lazy writing. Same goes for most of the other humour in the movie. They took the easy way out far too often. “Oh look! The mayor of New York is named Ebert and he even looks like Roger Ebert. Stop it! My sides are splitting!” The hero lures Gozilla out into the streets with lots of fish (after a lame fish joke) and attracts the creatures attention with a disposable camera flash and where does all this lead? (I, as you may guess from point 1, was hoping for Broderick’s character in Godzilla’s belly) A bad breath joke with a side of hero covered in slime for no good measure. Blech!
4) I know that supsension of disbefief is vital in any sci-fi/fantasy movie. It is one of the reasons that I do love them so. Amongst my circle of friends I am usually the one who comes to the defence of movies (the good ones anyway) when I hear the phrase “Oh, that would never happen in real life.” There is a line though between accepting the out of the ordinary and jumping up and calling “Bull’s hit!” In quite a few places this movie not only crossed that line, but threw up on it. (Simpson’s reference for Phil). I can buy that radiation made an iguana huge. I can buy that it happened in a matter of years rather than taking the many, many centuries that it normally would, if at all possible. I can buy that said iguana feels the need to swim to the other side of the planet, undetected even, to nest rather than staying in it’s normal island habitat. I can buy that it needs, for some reason, to nest in the most populous and fun-to-destroy city on Earth. What I cannot buy is that this creature can disappear by burrowing under said city like a mole and not cause enormous damage to the foundations of countless buildings and streets. Buildings would be falling like dominos and streets (the ones that were not infernos from the ruptured natural gas lines) would be sunken pits many meters deep. How does something the size of Godzilla fit into MSG with enough room to lay hundreds of eggs with astonishing accuracy and care? You ever try moving around inside a two person pup-tent? How about without touching any of the walls? Speaking of which, how about running full speed and zig-zagging through a series of corridors that are barely more than shoulder width? Godzilla managed to do it between the buildings with remarkable ease and only caused a slight amount of tail damage with each turn.
5) We have seen the man-sized-dino-thing chasing humans done before and done better. Having them ALL hatch just when the protagonists arrive, and having the babies go gunning after the humans within seconds of emerging was just too contrived. Again lazy writing.
All that being said, there are some things I liked. Phil mentioned the three actors from the Simpsons. Hank Azaria’s character was the only human that I actually enjoyed and Harry Shearer is always a delight. I thought the effects were VERY well done. The only time I could stomach the movie was when Godzilla was on screen doing his destructive best. The scene where it is running and bounds over the highway and into the river was a true “Holy Sh!t” moment for me. It’s first appearance was very cool as well ( I even bought into the “Oh, you’ve caught a pretty big fish” joke) complete with smashing THROUGH that building. Excellent stuff there.
Just my thoughts. Sorry to be a party poop.
Ruprect
February 10th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Yeah, that 1998 Godzilla…
Big dumb movie = big dumb fun. It’s fine as long as you can switch your brain off. I enjoyed it when I saw it at the time.
I’m sure it contains Bad Biology, too, but I’m not sure I care to re-watch the movie just to check that out.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Well, I’ll admit that it was a one-time, never-effing-again thing for me, but I have to say no movie that I’ve seen in the past ten years annoyed me more than that one. I’m good with camp, I’m good with satire, I’m good with silly premises, I’m good with fantasy. This one never made up it’s mind where it wanted to be (including serious), tried to copy every last done-before gimmick it could, showed no vestige of writing talent, and virtually no effort to present any character that the viewer could identify with. It was every bad trait of Hollywood stuffed together.
My prime response to this film was that they could have deleted .4 seconds of special effects and hired an entire team of writers with that money. Special effects are great, but like the new first three Star Wars movies, they do not carry the movie. When you’re rooting for the monsters to eat the love interest, it’s a bad movie.
Now, I think “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” was probably worse, especially to anyone that ever read The Destroyer series, but Godzilla 98 was bad.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:19 am
The American movie was a good monster movie, but as a Godzilla film it fails to capture the whole essence of the nuclear horror the original has. He doesn’t even do as much property damage as Godzilla does in his films.
And yes, see the unedited version of the original film. It is quite a different film from the Burr Version.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I was prepared to like Godzilla 1998 – I was ready for a CGI Godzilla! It was just so awfully stupid of a film that I couldn’t like it. I felt bad for having spent money on it.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:35 am
People hate that movie so much… But I sure as heck don’t! And I’m done feeling ashamed for it!
The american Godzilla movie was GREAT!!! and funny. It’s a nice flick for your living room. I mean, the part where the french just start chewing gum like idiots, that’s priceless.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Oh BA, I usually agree with you taste in movies and such. But this one? Were you, well, drunk when you saw it? Just asking.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Are you people kidding? The Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla is the only version worth watching. All that old Japanese crap is so lame and so bad, they’re only worth watching of MST3000. Those movies were cheesy even back before we had any choice and were forced to watched them in lieu of anything else on tv. As Japanese monsters go, Ultraman and Jonny Socko and his Flying Robot were amazingly better than the Godzilla movies.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:04 am
The chap who made this seems to think poorly of the 1998 version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVZLAbu6qIw
Watch it, it’s a hoot!
February 10th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Ugh. Godzilla (1998) was a total rip-off of Jurassic Park. Adult Godzilla was the T-Rex in LA (it even looked like the exact same CGI model), and the Offspring Godzillas were the raptors (again, borrowed model). Meh.
And don’t get me started about Matthew Brodderick and Maria Pitillo. They irritated me throughout the entire movie.
And K, the sheer cheesiness of the Japanese versions _is_ the draw. They’re so bad, they roll over the scale into absolute genius. The scene in Godzilla vs Mothra where the scientists are worried about cannibalistic headhunters “but don’t worry, we’ve got cigarettes!” And the twin singers. OMG.
Heck, Optimus Prime vs Godzilla in Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny had more character and was far more convincing than Godzilla (1998).
February 10th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Matthew: Thanks for the link. It WAS a hoot,,,
GAry7
February 10th, 2008 at 9:13 am
haha, It was my favorite movie at the time. I’m an ‘89 model. Watched it probably over 20 times at least
February 10th, 2008 at 9:35 am
I really liked Godzilla, too. I never understood what was supposed to be so bad about it.
February 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I don’t know if anyone else remembers this, that was the same year The Truman Show came out. And maybe I’m being a bit of a conspiracy theorist here, but I always felt that the critics pounced mercilessly on Godzilla ‘98 because they really, really, REALLY wanted everyone to go see the The Truman Show instead. Not to say Godzilla ‘98 isn’t without flaws, but neither was Independence Day, and I seem to remember quite a few critics who were able to lighten up enough to give that one a somewhat favorable review.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Is anyone else pondering Gollyzilla right about now? This was Pinky and the Brain’s take on the Godzilla phenomenon. It featured, among other things, a 100 ft. Pinky in a rubber monster suit, characters whose lips don’t match the words being spoken and a 100 ft. Raymond Burr fighting the monster in Tokyo.
And one more thing: narf.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Personally, I would like to see a “Barney Vs. Godzilla” movie. In the end Barney would win over Godzilla by showing him how to be kind to all the other monsters he fights. They would all gather to sing, “I love you, you love me, We’re a happy family, with a great big hug…..”
February 10th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Matthew J. Barlowon 10 Feb 2008 at 8:04 am:
> The chap who made this seems to think poorly of the 1998 version.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVZLAbu6qIw
Yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about. Awesome link.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Bonehead FX,
You ARE being a conspiracy wingnut. The Truman Show was released weeks after Godzilla and came highly recommended by the critics because it is an all around great movie. The reason that they pounced mercilessly on Godzilla was because it is a rancid turd of a picture.
Ruprect
February 10th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I thought Godzilla was a 500 foot turkey.
I may yet change my mind, though. When the high definition video disc format war is over, I may see it at home.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The channel guide on my digital cable described Godzilla ‘98 as “A bloated special effects vehicle.”
February 10th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Where is the Bad astronomer and what have you done to him?
February 10th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
@michelle – There’s no law saying that the BA blog has to be All Astronomy, All The Time. It’s Phil’s blog. He can post whatever he wants.
If you only want the astronomy-related posts, feel free to skip the rest.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Damn! The Troll beat me to it! I was going to say “what’s this got to do with astronomy?”.
It is one the rules of the website that someone has to say this isn’t it?
Next time I’ll post quicker!
February 10th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I agree with Phil it is not a bad movie. It was the first movie I bought on DVD back in 2000. Of course, I like monster movie have growing up watching them in Pittsburhgon the old Chiller Theater TV program. The more of a B movie they are the better. They are not to be taken seriously. The original is on DVD with the Raymond Burr verison.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
“people hated it because they wanted a rubber-suit Godzilla movie. ”
No, we hated it because it was boring, had no character development, a stupid plot full of holes, the silly parts were stupid-cult-silly (not cute-silly, sly-silly, or funny-silly), drug on half an hour too long and just wasn’t any fun.
The original is most of those things and, ironically, is you look it up, the Japanese didn’t use the word “Godzilla”.
(Oof! we have a psycho troll above! Somebody needs medication or a reevaluation of their position on this planet)
February 10th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
My grandson has this movie. He loves it. He’s 7. He plays while he’s watching it, so I bet I’s seen parts of this movie about 15 times. At first, it was so bad, I was glad that I was able to walk away.
But this movie grows on you.
“I am a patriot and I am ashamed of what we have done.”
“Chewing gum makes you look more American”
“Oh, I get it. It’s a footprint!”
“Are you locked on?”
“I thought you were locked on!”
Tell me, does it get any better than that?
This movie’s great! The monster’s about to step on the video cameramen and, in a moment of lucid calm, he inserts the tape into the camera with a gentile nudge.
I love it!
February 10th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
That Michelle is not the nice Michelle, BTW….
February 10th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Folks, please please please ignore the trolls. I will deletes their messages anyway. If you have to take action, then please send me a note so that I can take care of it.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I have to say, as a hardcore Godzilla nerd, that the movie wasn’t so terribly awful. It just wasn’t all that great, not because of what it didn’t honor from the Godzilla franchise, but because of the movies it ripped off.
I think calling it Godzilla was probably the wrong thing to do, yes.
I can watch it today if it pops up on TV, but I never pop in the DVD.
I should say I grew up in Kentucky where Godzilla movies were scarce until I was old enough to buy video tapes, at which point I got Godzilla Vs. Megalon, which is when I realised that Godzilla movies sucked. But that’s why they were endearing, because of their goofiness.
I liked Cloverfield, but I think the monster looked dumb. That was really my only complaint.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
The 1980 “Virus” is the best misanthropic film ever made. And
Edward James Olmos is in it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_%281980_film%29
Most of humanity is wiped out by a virus, and the rest is pummeled by automatically launched nuclear missiles. My gods it was glorious! If only they had an asteroid then hit the Earth, I would nominate it as the #1.
Misery, death and radiation! All that and Chuck Conners! Woot!
February 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
I hate Godzilla ‘98. I wanted to like it, but it is the most directionless film I’ve seen in ages. Is it a comedy? Is it serious? Is it an homoage? A farce? Both? It seems like the film’s creators had no idea how they wanted to play it, and I as a viewer I didn’t know how to take it.
To be sure, there were some good moments, but they pale in comparison to the rest of the film. I liked some of the ones mentioned already, and disliked many of the same ones pointed out already, by the way. I’m surprised nobody ripped on the biggest ‘dumb moment’ in the film as far as the US military is concerned: when the helicopters are being chased throught the maze–err, I maen through the streets–why didn’t any of them just go UP? Helloooo, you’re in helicopters. Go up! Way up, out of jumping/climbing range. Sheesh!
On the other hand, for a plus side, one shot I thought was cool was when lightning struck the antenna on the WTC… turns out that wasn’t even an sfx shot, but footage they happened to get while filming a real storm in NYC! Reality trumps fantasy once again!
And no, I wasn’t disappointed because I expected it to be like the Japanese Godzilla series. I’d already outgrown many of those anyway, except for the first two, and the mid 1980’s ‘return’ to Godzilla’s unstoppable ‘force of nature’ ways. I don’t like the ‘heroic’ Godzilla of the late 60’s & 70’s anymore, and the 90’s version got a little silly.
I have to echo some of the comments posted already:
—See the original 1954 Japanese version, Gojira. A serious film that’s a metaphor for the fear and uncertainty Japan had over nuclear warfare, at a time when Japan was still recovering from being the first country to have nukes dropped on it in wartime.
—See the 1990’s Gamera trilogy. A complete reboot of the awful 1960’s & 70’s camp, this is actually decent sci-fi, as far as sci-fi involving giant mosters goes. They show characters actually doing science-y things, like formulating ideas, testing them out, cooperating to achieve common goals… amazing! They even take into account political & economic repercussions of a major disaster (which is what a giant monster would be). And in one great line early in the first film, partly humorous yet at the same time partly serious, a government official reminds people that due to existing laws, the Japanese military can’t launch an attack without provocation, “even in a situation as ridiculous as this!”
The sfx in the Gamera trilogy get better with each film, and blow away anything in the Godzilla series prior to 2000, as well as the American Godzilla ‘98. Really, Phil and everyone else interested in kaiju eiga (giant monster films)… see this trilogy! The American dvd release has both the Japanese language version and the American dub. (The dubbing is rather good, too, and utilizes a cast of dozens, instead of the usual small handful of voice actors voicing multiple chatracters.)
—The 1980 Virus is also a pretty good film, as Quiet Desperation pointed out. Not great, but good. In part, because it takes a non-Hollywood view of the (near) end of humanity. In other words, it’s believable in its unconventional, matter-of-fact portayal of the collapse of civilization, and the struggles of the last few survivors to, well, survive.
Oh, finally, Maria Patillo had a very brief scene in the film True Romance. But then again, just about everyone had a brief scene in that film. If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean by that. Great movie for its genre (action/drama, I guess), but see the unrated director’s cut if you see it at all.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I liked Godzilla too. There’s definitely a place in this world for zany monster movies. But my taste may be suspect — I liked Live Free or Die Hard, too.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Count me among those who own and enjoy the DVD. No, it wasn’t true to the original storyline, but I think that’s standard Hollywood policy. (Seen any good “comic book movies” lately? I rest my case.) On a sightseeing helicopter trip around Oahu in 2000, my wife and I were flown over the still-visible footprints they made for the movie. Cool!
Oh, and the Jurassic Park T Rex terrorized San Diego, not LA. Please, get your dino-movie trivia right.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Godzilla (1998) was like Celine Dion singing AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” Her interpretation totally misses the point of the song. The primary problem with this movie is that it isn’t a Godzilla movie. It is like all of those old TV shows now movies. The movies have nothing to do with the originals. This was Godzilla in Name Only. (GINO).
If you can get past that, it may be an entertaining movie. (It wasn’t for me.) I think someone got it right, the makers of this movie weren’t sure what kind of movie they were making. It was a movie by committee. It was all over the place. Sometimes a monster movie, sometimes a comedy, sometimes a sci-fi movie, but never a cohesive movie. The TOHO movies afterward were all responses which said “Here is the movie you could have made.” “Godzilla: Final Wars” was the best! It is a BA must see!
February 11th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Count me with CR above. I wanted to like it, but I, too, simply couldn’t get past the buffoonish “helicopters stay within chomping range” part of the film. I suppose that’s a weakness of most giant monster movies, but it really bothered me for some reason in this film. That, and the hundreds-of-feet-tall monster dodging around corners to avoid bullets and shells.
And then there was that fish icon used on the computer display on the trap they set for the beast. Oh fish icon, how I hate thee.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I thought Godzilla ‘98 it was a fun movie, and despite not having established a baseline of Godzilla knowledge I write this comment anyway. It’s just another ‘movie of mass destruction’ and that’s all it has to be. I definitely didn’t go to see fine acting and a rock-solid plot. I wanted to see a giant monster destroy everything. Same reason I went to see Cloverfield.
One thing I hate when I see a movie that could also be titled “It Ate Everything” is the nitpickers. They wouldn’t fly that low. The debris would have killed them. She wouldn’t have survived being impaled. Nobody ever used the bathroom. Whatever… as long as you realize that never once did you question a GIANT INDESTRUCTIBLE MONSTER emerging from the sea and rampaging through New York City. Sheesh.
February 11th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I have to agree. Taken on its own merits (and flaws), Godzilla was a fun movie. No, it wasn’t Gojira, nor was it Jurassic Park. Compared to the others, it might be an uncomfortable combination of the two. However, on its own, it was great in a pre-9/11 disaster flick sort of way.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:04 am
The problem with the 1998 movie is that it’s not Godzilla at all. It’s more The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms than anything else. The true Godzilla is a Force of Nature, a metaphor on the irresponsible use of atomic energy. There’s lip service paid to the latter, but Devlin & Emmerich never really get it. Ditch the radioactive breath in favor of realism? Who are they kidding?
Of course, apart from the original film, Toho rarely got it right, either. Godzilla: Final Wars is just as much a nonsensical mess as the GINO flick. And they’re both about the same amount of fun if you don’t think about them too hard.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I have to agree wholeheartedly with the BA here. I loved that movie! Of course the science was idiotic; but we knew that already. Any film about a 400-foot-tall land animal is going to be idiotic. The movie was fun, it was fast-paced, it had a lot of action, good dialogue, sympathetic characters, and…
…any movie where a giant reptile eats a helicopter can’t be all bad.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:57 am
John Sarosi — hail, fellow Pittsburgher! I illicitly stayed up as many nights as I could get away with to watch Chilly Billy.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
CR writes:
[[when the helicopters are being chased throught the maze–err, I maen through the streets–why didn’t any of them just go UP? Helloooo, you’re in helicopters. Go up! Way up, out of jumping/climbing range. Sheesh!]]
Measure it in two dimensions — x and z. The first thing you want to do is maximize your radial distance from the problem. Going up would include an element of going “sideways;” you could lose r. You could try going up on a slope, but again, your first concern is to increase r as much as possible, and if both the monster and the helicopter are going linearly along x, you don’t want to move in y or z.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:08 am
The problem I had with this remake was that they spent way too much time with the little “velociraptor” ‘zillas than dealing with the big guy himself. For that reason, I felt a little cheated by it. It’s still fun to watch, but it’s not what it could have been. Had they just named it “Spawn of Godzilla” I would be more squarely behind the effort.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Ambivalent!
I think it I would have enjoyed the movie more if they left out the entire egg sequence (way too similar to Jurassic Park) and, if memory serves me correctly, the fact that they killed the (or a) Godzilla with a torpedo or two. Godzilla mocks your silly torpedoes!
Someone above mentioned Johnny Socko. Check out the 90s re-imagined anime series Giant Robo. Great production values and lots of retro-styled technology. When the titular Giant Robo takes a step, streets crack, windows shatter, and city councilmen cry. Great stuff!
Lastly, *ahem*
Gamera is really neat, Gamera is full of meat, we all love you Gam-er-raaaaaaa!
February 11th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thanks, Jason the Orz, for the MST3K Gamera song! I can’t believe I forgot to mention that!
Just to clarify: I wouldn’t have liked Godzilla ‘98 even it it had been called something else… it’s not that the Toho Godzilla history got in the way of my enjoyment, it’s that it just wasn’t a cohesive film, and that detracted from the enjoyment I might have had.
Of COURSE I can suspend disbelief when watching any kaiju film; it’s required. (I also like Space: 1999, as some of you already know, so the ‘disbelief suspension’ thing is well-ingrained in my psyche!
)
February 11th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Sigh….
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men.
Godzilla!
February 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Maybe I’ll have to give this movie another chance, but I remember thinking the Godzilla didn’t look that much like a Godzilla, and the movie looked like it was trying to rip off Jurassic Park, especially the nest scene that reminded me of the JP’s raptors.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:14 am
Holy crap! You liked it too?!?! I went in with such low expectations (I mean, I HATED Independence Day and Stargate) that I guess nothing could have gone that low. As a result, I had a good time. Mind you, I’m not going to say it’s worth it’s weight in popcorn, but it wasn’t as bad as everyone thought. Phil, you’re not alone in your opinion on Godzilla.