Godzilla

Rating:
Summary: Godzilla lands with a thud
Review: Heavily publicized as the event film of the year, "Godzilla" was expected to thunder into theaters in May 1998. It arrived with more of a thud. While it did not lose money, it was no monster hit. The finished product failed to met the high expectations of the audience.

In 1994 a movie was released which was directed by Roland Emmerich and produced by his brother Ute and by Dean Devlin. It was called "Stargate". This sleek, high tech science fantasy became a surprise worldwide hit. Devlin and the Emmerich brothers parlayed that success into getting financial backing for "Independence Day". This second success made a fortune for them and for 20th Century-Fox.

These first two hits may have stretched the imagination of the group too far, since their third joint effort was this $125 million dollar remake of "Godzilla", cheap but effective Japanese film, which was a metaphor for the horrors of nuclear war.

Sometimes, there is a certain charm to the Emmerichs and Devlin's efforts. They seem full of boyish naiveté and energy. They employ an army of special effects wizards who happily use all their cameras and digital equipment like brilliant abstract painters gone mad.

Unfortunately, all these visual and audio tricks never overcome weak plots that seem to have been written on the backs of cocktail napkins. As the sensory elements increase in each successive film, the story line gets increasingly lifeless. In "Godzilla", a gigantic reptile that is the result of nuclear weapons testing, decides Manhattan is the perfect island on which to hatch a couple of hundred little monsters. Godzilla must be stopped before it is destroys the world's most expensive piece of real estate in the name of Motherhood.

The plot is so poorly conceived that no one can decide what sex Godzilla is. While it's revealed early on that the beast is pregnant, it is constantly referred to as 'he' in every scene in which it wreaks havoc. Later it is referred to as asexual. Towards the end we are told that its offspring are born already pregnant themselves. Is this pseudo science, or is it a comment on the sexual confusion of our times? I think the answer is that it's bad writing.

There are some very good performers, such Matthew Broderick, in the movie. They prove that, when the pay is good, even seasoned professionals can be enticed to be bad actors. Perhaps the cast budget should have been trimmed, so that more money could have been spent on settling the issue of Godzilla's gender.

My favorite scene takes place in the remains of Madison Square Garden, which Godzilla has trashed while laying his or her eggs. Huge chunks of concrete and twisted metal are everywhere. The famous scoreboard has fallen to the floor. So that we might see all the giant eggs, one of the characters throws a switch on this tiny electric junction box. Every light in the building comes on. Not a bulb has been broken, Not a single wire has been cut. Ah! The miracle of movie magic!

The scene just described is typical of "Godzilla" and other films that are too reliant on arsenals of digital special effects. Visual and audio overkill numbs the senses. The makers seem to burn out as well. They create an environment which causes them to become obsessed with manipulation. Scenes contradict other scenes. Since the special effects are added on later, actors have too many invisible events going on around them. As a result, when performers are supposed to look amazed or terrified, they appear to be dazed and confused. Instead of feeling empathy, the audience is nearer to laughter.

Rating:
Summary: Why 4 and not a perfect 5
Review: The movie is great and it is really good to see another point of view for godzilla (American) instead of the traditional Japanese. I am a big Godzilla fan andI think that this is a most for any fan. As for the others who are not femiliar with the title, I think that this movie will give them a nice experience especially cause it is suitable for most of the family members. Action, good story, superb acting, perfect SFX, and ofcourse Godzilla. Finally, the DVD got 4 because it should be loaded with extras or at least double DVD set. and that is why and only why it got 4.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC Action/ Suspense but BAD subtitle & extra features
Review: I own the Australian DVD Zone 4 version. I must say I am surprised at the low average rating of this movie, that is only 3 stars. While the movie relies heavily on special effects, that doesen't make it bad at all. I thought it was very exiting. Many times I was worried that our lead actors will get killed. While it's not tottally orginal, it reminds me a lot of the Jurrasic Park trilogy, I thought it was a classic state of the art suspensefull action packed / CGI movie.
The only bad thing about the DVD is the lack of extra features. While I noticed the US version has none at all, the OZ version has a great menu. The chapter access had all the scenes running at once. And the captions were HORRIBLE I might add. It was inaccurate and missed out on the complete dialogue many times. The worst and lazy effort of cations/SUBTITLES I've seen.
Maybe for extra features it could've features a longer featurette/behind the scenes, it was only 6 minutes here. And the photos (not even full screen) were pretty useless I thought = "Godzilla takes NY" and "Before & After shots". But you can't have everything at least we Aussies have at least a 133 minute audio commentary by the special effects crew.

Rating:
Summary: aka "The Big Apple Vs. A Giant Computer-Generated Iguana"
Review: From Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the duo that brought you "Independence Day" and "Stargate", comes the ultimate movie for people who hate Godzilla movies!

Being that I am a person who happens to love all of the Japanese Godzilla films with an undying passion, I found this American imposter to be nothing more than an insult to the good King's name and all the talented masterminds that have helped to make him the legend he has become over the years, namely Eiji Tsuburaya, Ishiro Honda, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Akira Ifukube and, yes, Jun Fukuda.

If you're reading this review and don't recognize the five names I've just mentioned, do yourself a favor, stop right now, drive down to your local video retailer and pick up a copy of this Americanized piece-of-[junk]-of-a-movie falsely titled "Godzilla", I know you'll just love it! After all, it's the superficial, imaginationless, CGI-crazed people like you that have turned the name Godzilla into such a joke in this country! You know what, you can just keep your "Shreks" and your "Matrixes", because my fellow TRUE G fans and I know what real movie-making is all about, and we know that it takes more than just big budget effects to make a film a MASTERPIECE! It takes IMAGINATION, TALENT and HEART, which have sadly all but died out in the American motion picture industry of today!

There is enough room in the world for one, and only one, King of the Monsters, and he is not some giant computer-generated iguana! His name...is GODZILLA!!

Rating:
Summary: Bar four songs, this album is utter trash
Review: I bought this the day it was released (on cassette), and before getting to the "Deeper Underground" track, I felt gypped. Needless to say, besides the aforementioned song, there's nothing else on side 1 that's even worth listening to. OK, on to side 2... I hated the Foo Fighters' song, and I absolutely wholeheartedly DESPISE anything by Green Day, so my loathing of "Brain Stew" was a given. However, I immediately fell in love with Silverchair's "Untitled" (a beautiful, sombre song), and Fuzzbubble's "Out There" was great(the sci-fi theme was very cool). Another song I really liked was Joey Deluxe's "Undercover" (too bad he doesn't have any albums of his own out; I'd buy some more of his music anytime). Bar those four songs, this album is trash.

Rating:
Summary: How could they do this to Godzilla?!
Review: This film is probably the best example of where movies are heading nowadays: big special effects, little or no plot. The acting was terrible, as was the script. It was meant to be funny and clever, I suppose, and it achieves the funny part, though it falls short of clever.
As for the special effects, yeah, they were good, but they completely butchered Godzilla. So the Godzilla in the original movie was a guy in a suit, but I can just imagine what the directors of that one could have done with some CGI! In the new version, Godilla is just an overgrown T-Rex. How does an iguana go from being a lizard to a bipedal, bird hipped dinosaur anyway, even through extreme mutation? It's just cheesy. Also, the baby zilla remind me WAY too much of velociraptors.
Even if this film was meant to be a parody, as some have argued, it shouldn't have been. They should have let some TALENTED directors recreate this story for all it's glory.

Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as Independence Day and Stargate, but ...
Review: one could think of a lot of better uses for the $100 million they dropped on this throway film. I give it a 2 only because Matthew Broderick is in it. I really should have given it a one.

After seeing Stargate, I thought these shmucks would've have been run out of town. But no, give them even more money so they can make even more drech. Spare yourselves the disappointment. See something else. Anything else.

Rating:
Summary: the machine rages on
Review: For me, the only thing that would make this album worth buying is the awesome Rage Against the Machine song that comes along with it. Great video for this song too.

american eyes, american eyes
view the world from american eyes
bury the past, rob us blind
and leave nothing behind

Rating:
Summary: New Face-Paced CGI Action with an old friend.
Review: Well, call me crazy, but I always like this movie for some reason. Maybe it's the cool new CGI Godzilla, or its the crazy Apache helicopter chase scenes through the concrete jungle which causes more damage than the creature itself does. Like taking the top off of the Chrysler Building with 2 Sidewinder missiles that miss the beast as it ducks away from them.

Being made in 1997(8), I found one line in the film quite ironic. I think it was the boss at the news office that said that the initial Godzilla attack on NYC was the worst attack since the WTC bombing (of 1993!). Little would they know, now would they?

Now as for the DVD features, the sound is very loud. Lots of bass even on my little 80W SRS stereo. The aforementioned helicopter chase scene is really engaging. The picture quality is top notch also. Setting your DVD player and TV to 16:9 mode, you get a really clear picture. (Anamorphic mode).

Well anyway, I've only looked through the trailers, I haven't checked out the couple other special features yet.

Rating:
Summary: IT ROCKS!!!
Review: For those of you who like Rock,this is a definite buy.
These songs have the coolest beats ive heard in a long time and like every second of the CD!!