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King Kong vs. Godzilla

King Kong vs. Godzilla

List Price: $9.95
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Who won? The debate continues
Review: When you talk about this movie, the whole conversation necessarily comes down to two words: who won? When you have two major money-making monsters, you can't very well kill either one of them, of course, so you cannot definitively proclaim a victor in this epic battle. There is a slight difference between the American and Japanese versions of the film; while Kong clearly is seen swimming away, the Japanese version (so I read) features a roar from Godzilla at the end, clearly indicating he is not dead or defeated. Some argue that Kong is supposedly our "American" monster, so Americans are led to believe he won, while Japanese audiences are led to believe that their monster won. This is hogwash to me. There is no way King Kong could defeat Godzilla. The first time they meet, Kong quickly turns and runs, scratching his head. In the finale, Godzilla pretty much beats the (...) out of him for several minutes, and Kong even stupidly conks himself head-first onto a big rock and knocks his own lights out. Kong's only offense is to throw rocks and to get his opponent into some type of bear hug. At the end, both monsters plummet into the water--Godzilla does not resurface (but of course he is aquatic), and Kong leaves. I like to believe that Kong is running away from Godzilla, but each viewer has to decide the true outcome on his own.

This movie gets a little weird. First off, forget earlier movies--no one has seen Godzilla, frozen in ice for millions of years, or King Kong before (even though the folks who discover Godzilla immediately identify him by name). Naturally, Godzilla heads directly for Japan. Some scientist has discovered the sleep-inducing powers of the red berries found only on a small island; a caricature of a man who runs a TV station and pharmaceutical company sends a Japanese Laurel and Hardy to find the monster-god of the island. Music and cigarettes win over the natives, but then a giant octopus shows up and threatens to destroy the berry juice that the natives use to supplicate Kong, only to be thrashed by the big ape, after which Kong slurps down a few barrels of juice and passes out like a drunk. He is dragged back toward Japan on a barge, but then escapes. He heads for Godzilla, runs away like a little girl when he first encounters him, then decides to content himself with stomping around on the Japanese mainland for a while. Inevitably, Kong's weakness for the ladies distracts him; he is drugged and then transported by giant balloons to Mt. Fuji to fight in the main event against Godzilla.

The special effects in this movie are sometimes good and sometimes awful. The King Kong costume is just horrible, I feel. Kong looks like Charles Manson after a long night of drinking. Godzilla walks around like a hockey goalie in full pads late in the film, but overall he looks pretty good. Don't ask why, but Godzilla dislikes electricity in this film; Kong, on the other hand, loves it and draws strength from it (a declaration made early on by scientists despite the total lack of anything resembling proof of the fact). The scenes featuring folks running around right in front of the monsters are amateurish--the people are blue and semi-opaque; scenes featuring the girl held in Kong's grasp feature a doll that looks little better than a corn cob with some black hair stuck on top of it. Some of the models used look exactly like models. When it comes to Godzilla movies, though, these things really don't matter to me; in fact, I would be disappointed if there were no ultra-cheap looking special effects. Oddly enough, the giant octopus that makes a cameo appearance seems pretty realistic. The most annoying feature in the film is the series of clips featuring Eric Carter on the United Nations television network. I'm not sure if these scenes are in the Japanese version, but they serve no good purpose in the film.

A lot of people praise the final battle between the monsters, but I frankly found it disappointing. As I mentioned, Kong doesn't bring a lot of offense to the fight, and you can almost hear Godzilla saying "Get up, you loser," when Kong knocks his own lights out. The bit where Kong stuffs a tree down Godzilla's throat is pretty funny, but he gets few points from me outside of that one move. Basically, what we need here is a rematch. Let's get a new incarnation of Godzilla and King Kong back together and put an end to the controversy over who won the first fight. I'll put my money on Godzilla.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An All Time Classic!
Review: This would have to be considered one of the all time greatest
Japanese monster movies. King Kong is captured and brought to the civilized world. Godzilla comes onto the scene with his radioactive fire breath. It is a battle waiting to happen. The
Japanese homeland is torn asunder when the two behemoths do finally meet.The land is burned and smashed in every conceivable
fashion. At times if you really looked hard you could tell that
Godzilla and King Kong were men in suits and hand puppets. That
alone did not detract from the film.You would still have to classify it as a classic. Buy and watch this movie. You will never forget it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Sounds entertaing but not
Review: First off the rumor going around that Kong wins in the american version and godzilla wins at the japanese version is false.In the Japanese version both of them roar at the end thats the only difference.

First off this Godzilla was first color picture Godzilla star in.It wasn't a great flick but it wasn't to bad.Godzilla suit was alright not as good as some of the laters ones but it was alright.Kong LOL man he look so cheap i mean TOHO really miss him up bad.He look so goofy,face was stupid and acted dumb in my point of view.It seems Kong loves Electricity and gets stronger
if he gets struck by it what are the chances of that.

First the movies starts an island when an giant octopus attacks
the girl and boy in a house that was full of berry juice.Then
Kong comes out and defeats it.Meanwhile a pilot notice that godzilla is breaking out of an iceberg and was the news all across tokyo.The idea of the people is to let kong and godzilla
fight it out to simply destroy each other.

First off theres no chance in hell King King aka Donkey Kong
would beat godzilla.All godzilla have to do is use his fire breath and the monkey would got roasted but it seems the movie
did a cheap thing about that.But overall the monster fighting
was pretty good but the movie wasn't so be kinda disappointed
about the TITLE

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad, but not good, but at least enjoyable
Review: "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is the 3rd installment of the Godzilla series, and the first Godzilla film to be shown in color. The film was produced 7 years after "Gojira No Gyakushu" and it is immediately clear that Toho has become rusty on how to make excellent Godzilla films. The elements of a classic such as compelling storyline, good kaiju opponent, and several moments of high drama are all present. The problem with this film is execution. The effects are subpar for the series, which really pulls the viewer out of the movie. Worse still the progression of the storyline seems choppy at best. This jarring progression of events in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" really irritates me, because the concept of an intelligent animal like King Kong squaring off against the brute force of Godzilla is very appealing. I suspect some of these problems are due to editing of this film for American audiences, so I may revise this movie review when I see the Japanese version. The US version is 7 minutes shorter than the Japanese version, and the American version has 10-15 minutes of scenes in English only. No doubt these scenes provided at least some of the continuity lacking from the US version Taken as it is, "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is a fair but uneven Godzilla film that leaves me wanting for more.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Ohhh, Godzilla is roasting King Kong"
Review: I would be embrarass to admit how many times I've seen this flick
(and yes any film with "vs."in the title tells you it's bubblegum)
KK v.s Godzilla Cheap and laughable as it maybe was one of biggest
events of it's'63 release year second only to the Ali-Liston fight
Historics aside This film is exactly what it's suppose to be cheap
cheesey entertainment. Japan is in double crisis not only by Kongs
capture but by the reappearance of Godzilla. Both monsters pretty
much tear up most of the asian city before their final title fight
around the Mt. fuji area. Now for those of you just joining in
there is NO alternate fight version of this movie. King Kong wins
fair and square. I mean think about it, in the film that follows
"Godzilla vs.the Thing" when Godzilla reappears again from under
the beach area isn't he disorientated and kind of "punch drunk"
This was the 1st of the Godzilla films in color in a series that
is still going on as long and as the Bond series.

I gave this dvd version a bad rating not for picture quality but
for overall presentation. I mean if if's the 35th anniversary ed
at least add a trailer or the original poster art perhaps.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Gojira tai Kingukongu! a.k.a. Kingukongu tai Gojira!
Review: "King Kong vs. Godzilla" offers the spectacle of King Kong battling Godzilla. Of course, "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is the American title for this film, which was known as "Godzilla vs. King Kong" in Japan (at least that is what I heard once and it sounds good to me, even if it is not true). The plot finds a Japanese pharmaceutical company taking King Kong back to Japan to advertise their products while some American pilots free Godzilla from the block of ice where he has been frozen. King Kong warms up on an octopus while Godzilla tangles with a nuclear sub, before they butt heads and trash Tokyo before taking their grudge match to Mt. Fuji. Of course I rooted for King Kong, him being the "American" monster and all, but I did feel a tad guilty since Godzilla was the local monster. This film was Godzilla's first appearance in color. Of course, the Toho production was recut for an American audience, leaving out any semblance of character development by the human actors so the audience could just enjoy the battles. This joint Japanese/American production paved the way for later cinematic efforts between the two countries, such as "Tora, Tora, Tora" in the sense that the film about Pearl Harbor came out after this 1962 film. Director Inoshiro Honda directed the original "Godzilla, King of Monsters," as well as "Rodan," "Mothra," "Godzilla vs. Mothra" and other giant rubber monster classics. Clearly, Honda is to this genre what Kurosawa is to samurai films. Actually, the whole affair is pretty silly. Just think of this one as the "Barney" of its day.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Ohhh, Godzilla is roasting King Kong"
Review: I would be embrarass to admit how many times I've seen this flick
(and yes any film with "vs."in the title tells you it's bubblegum)
KK v.s Godzilla Cheap and laughable as it maybe was one of biggest
events of it's'63 release year second only to the Ali-Liston fight
Historics aside This film is exactly what it's suppose to be cheap
cheesey entertainment. Japan is in double crisis not only by Kongs
capture but by the reappearance of Godzilla. Both monsters pretty
much tear up most of the asian city before their final title fight
around the Mt. fuji area. Now for those of you just joining in
there is NO alternate fight version of this movie. King Kong wins
fair and square. I mean think about it, in the film that follows
"Godzilla vs.the Thing" when Godzilla reappears again from under
the beach area isn't he disorientated and kind of "punch drunk"
This was the 1st of the Godzilla films in color in a series that
is still going on as long and as the Bond series.

I gave this dvd version a bad rating not for picture quality but
for overall presentation. I mean if if's the 35th anniversary ed
at least add a trailer or the original poster art perhaps.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bloody Awful!
Review: You've got to be kidding me! I was so excited to get King Kong vs. Godzilla, and when I watched it, it was horrible. First of all, I rented King Kong vs. Godzilla in Japanese for 2 days, and it was bad, but this was absolutley WORSE! Scenes were cut out, King Kong's suit was terrible, Godzilla's suit was a reptilian design and terrible, there were some clay fighting, and Godzilla kept clapping his hands! IT WAS AWFUL!! This film, in my opinion, is the worse film of the 60's, with Godzilla's Revenge being the second worse, and Godzilla vs. Mothra being the third worse. GOSH, this movie was terrible!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Godzilla vs King Kong
Review: The title pretty much says the movie. A battle between a 150 foot tall reptile and a 135 foot tall Gorilla. Seriously though, I could have expected much better battle skill from Godzilla. I mean, Godzilla has an Atomic ray and King Kong just has his strength. But it seems that they gave King Kong the power to get stronger by electricity. Anyway, Godzilla`s Atomic ray could have easily stoped King Kong. Trust me, if Godzilla used his Atomic ray that much, King Kong would be dead. In the end, the monsters roll off a cliff and into the water. After a landslide, King Kong surfaces and swims to his home on Faro island. I really think that King Kong looks ouite bad in this movie. And I would imagine that in the end, Godzilla could just pull that dumb, overgrown gorilla underwater and fry him. But once I laid these commets aside the movie was ouite enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: LIZARD AND MONKEY SHOWDOWN...
Review: I was frustrated by this movie as a kid. I was 8 years old, and even then, I knew that Kong had no real chance against Godzilla. I mean, the big lizard's atomic fire-breath should have made this a very short film! Instead, King Kong (who was killed by mere airplanes in his original feature) slugs it out with a confused, dopey version of our favorite giant reptile. Even as a kid I knew that Godzilla was 400 feet tall and Kong was supposed to be 30 feet at best (I know, I know, I shouldn't aply logic or continuity to this, but it bugs me)! I also had problems with the fact that both creatures died horrible, irreversible deaths in their original movies. AAAAARGG!! Anyway, if you've got kids or can still suspend disbelief, this is a good way to waste an afternoon...


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