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Awix (3310 KP) created a video about The Giant Gila Monster (1959) in Movies
May 23, 2019
VincentPrice (13 KP) rated Kong: Skull Island (2017) in Movies
May 26, 2018 (Updated May 26, 2018)
Grinch (194 KP) rated Kong: Skull Island (2017) in Movies
Apr 19, 2017
Awix (3310 KP) rated Daigoro Vs Goliath (1972) in Movies
Aug 4, 2019 (Updated Aug 4, 2019)
Almost indescribably weird Japanese children's film takes all the tropes of the giant monster genre and somehow manages to make them thoroughly whimsical and charming. Up to a point, anyway. Anyone wondering about the sanitation arrangements on Monster Island will enjoy the giant monster toilet which turns up in this film.
The monster suits are awful, the acting mainly consists of the broadest kind of slapstick and people shouting at one another, and even the special effects are decidedly ropey. Yet we must remember this was a children's film and it does have a very peculiar gentle charm to it. If you like Japanese SF movies anyway. Everyone else will probably find it totally unwatchable.
The monster suits are awful, the acting mainly consists of the broadest kind of slapstick and people shouting at one another, and even the special effects are decidedly ropey. Yet we must remember this was a children's film and it does have a very peculiar gentle charm to it. If you like Japanese SF movies anyway. Everyone else will probably find it totally unwatchable.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Giant Claw (1957) in Movies
Mar 14, 2018
Notorious Z-grade monster movie is actually quite entertaining if you treat it as an unintentional comedy. Plot just shows what horrors can result when research into particle physics gets it on with Japanese monster movies, as there is a mind-boggling attempt to give proceedings a veneer of scientific plausibility by saying the giant bird-monster has an anti-matter shield, explaining why they don't just shoot the damn thing down.
The fact that some of the scenes between Morrow and Corday could conceivably be quite effective in a more conventional movie just adds to the general weirdness of the whole Giant Claw experience. Normally I would attempt to describe the impact made by the boggle-eyed monster puppet, but words are just not enough. All you really need to know is that star Jeff Morrow left the first screening of the movie he saw early, afraid he might be recognised, went home and allegedly started drinking. I would say get the drinking out of the way before you watch the movie.
The fact that some of the scenes between Morrow and Corday could conceivably be quite effective in a more conventional movie just adds to the general weirdness of the whole Giant Claw experience. Normally I would attempt to describe the impact made by the boggle-eyed monster puppet, but words are just not enough. All you really need to know is that star Jeff Morrow left the first screening of the movie he saw early, afraid he might be recognised, went home and allegedly started drinking. I would say get the drinking out of the way before you watch the movie.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dogora (1964) in Movies
Jul 20, 2019 (Updated Jul 20, 2019)
Bonkers Japanese sci-fi from the Godzilla team makes most of those movies look like models of restraint and gritty realism. Odd things are afoot in Japan as seemingly random objects - coal, trucks, bank robbers, buildings - start spontaneously floating into the air. 'I never jump to conclusions but I think a giant space monster is probably responsible,' says the lead cop investigating the case. Of course, he is correct, and it's up to the usual team of cops, scientists, and soldiers to save the day.
The really weird thing about Dogora - and this is saying something - is that the giant diamond-eating monster element is not the oddest thing about this film. Most of it looks and feels like a particularly frantic cops-and-robbers thriller with the odd giant floating blob sequence edited in under protest. Still, the script has Shinichi Sekizawa's usual cheerful wit and the special effects are, believe it or not, excellent. Good fun if you like tokusatsu movies; the climax, in which wasp venom is used to try and petrify the monster and a gun battle turns into a dynamite-chucking contest, has to be seen to be believed.
The really weird thing about Dogora - and this is saying something - is that the giant diamond-eating monster element is not the oddest thing about this film. Most of it looks and feels like a particularly frantic cops-and-robbers thriller with the odd giant floating blob sequence edited in under protest. Still, the script has Shinichi Sekizawa's usual cheerful wit and the special effects are, believe it or not, excellent. Good fun if you like tokusatsu movies; the climax, in which wasp venom is used to try and petrify the monster and a gun battle turns into a dynamite-chucking contest, has to be seen to be believed.
Dean (6921 KP) rated Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) in Movies
Apr 9, 2018
John Boyega (2 more)
Great Sfx
Tokyo Show down
Monster Mash
A simple and short action film that pacts a big punch. It doesn't disappoint when it comes to the action watching giant robots and alien creatures have a scrap in a major city. Would have been nice to see a few more robot designs and more alien screen time. If you liked the first one you'll enjoy this.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Gamera: Advent of Legion (1996) in Movies
Mar 15, 2019 (Updated Mar 15, 2019)
Startlingly sophisticated mash-up of the giant monster and alien invasion B-movie genres; second in Shusuke Kaneko's trilogy of Gamera movies. A meteorite brings the gestalt organism Legion to Earth, specifically Japan (of course). Scientists and the army embark on a desperate race to figure out how to stop the various manifestations of the creature, but may have to rely on their unlikely ally: the giant nuclear turtle Gamera.
The bare bones of the plot make it sound fairly absurd, but the combination of a clever, cine-literate script that knows exactly when to play it loose and when to get to the point, and superbly accomplished special effects mean this is one of the highlights of the Japanese monster movie tradition; arguably very influential within the genre, not least for the way it plays with all the classic tropes and manages to rationalise many of them. The design of the antagonist monster could have been a bit less weird, but you can't have everything I suppose. Exceeded in its crazed grandiosity only by the third part of the trilogy, but still outscores that in the script department.
The bare bones of the plot make it sound fairly absurd, but the combination of a clever, cine-literate script that knows exactly when to play it loose and when to get to the point, and superbly accomplished special effects mean this is one of the highlights of the Japanese monster movie tradition; arguably very influential within the genre, not least for the way it plays with all the classic tropes and manages to rationalise many of them. The design of the antagonist monster could have been a bit less weird, but you can't have everything I suppose. Exceeded in its crazed grandiosity only by the third part of the trilogy, but still outscores that in the script department.
Awix (3310 KP) rated It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) in Movies
May 11, 2020
Stop-motion monster movie with Ray Harryhausen's special effects. Odd goings-on in the Pacific lead the authorities to suspect a giant radioactive octopus is on the loose. Sure enough the beast is soon dry-humping the Golden Gate Bridge and menacing downtown San Francisco (at least, those parts within tentacle-reach of the seafront).
The bits with the octopus attacking the city are put together with Harryhausen's usual verve and skill, but - as ever - they are mostly confined to the end of the film; the rest of it is rather like a stolid Navy training film entitled 'How to Deal with Giant Octopi': functional but uninspired, and (apart from a sluggish romantic subplot) almost entirely procedural. Hits all the beats of the atomic sea monster subgenre, but doesn't have the sense of fantasy or fun that the best known films of this kind have. Some good stuff but threatens to drag even at less than 80 minutes in length.
The bits with the octopus attacking the city are put together with Harryhausen's usual verve and skill, but - as ever - they are mostly confined to the end of the film; the rest of it is rather like a stolid Navy training film entitled 'How to Deal with Giant Octopi': functional but uninspired, and (apart from a sluggish romantic subplot) almost entirely procedural. Hits all the beats of the atomic sea monster subgenre, but doesn't have the sense of fantasy or fun that the best known films of this kind have. Some good stuff but threatens to drag even at less than 80 minutes in length.