OFF: GODZILLA REVIEW

[Andy Gilham]

> Actually, I won't bore you with a corny attempt to do a Leonard
> Maltin or Siskel and Ebert. But here's my basic overview:
>
> First and foremost: GODZILLA SUCKS!

Now why doesn't that surprise me? :)

> I'm by far not the most P.C. dude out there, but this movie also
> takes a serious stab at the French. I don't mind a little ethnic
> humor if it's done tastefully and perhaps a little affectionately,
> but that wasn't the case here. In this flick it was just sloppy and
> stereotypical.

Which, considering Jean Reno ("Leon") is one of the stars, is staggeringly
insensitive.

>
> The entire middle section of the film has our heroes running around
> Madison Square Garden trying to avoid being gored by a horde of
> nine-foot-tall baby Godzillas (read: Raptors).

It's the big green *gal*, now, isn't it? :))

A propos of not much, one of the things about Godzilla that's easy to forget
from a Western perspective is, we tend to think it's all a bit of a laugh
when Tokyo gets flattened, it's one of those funny Oriental things that's
just lovably kitsch.  But when you've actually had two cities levelled by
atom bombs, and another by incendiary bombs, it has a whole different
resonance; in cultural terms, you can makle a case for saying the Godzilla
films are part of Japan's coming to terms with Hiroshima.  But an American
remake (even if directed by a German, but after _Independence Day_ he seems
more Yank than the Yanks) is bound to lose any such meaning.  In fact, from
what I've read, it seems more like a remake of _The Beast from 20,000
Fathoms_ than of Godzilla.  Ray Bradbury should sue! :)

- Andy

mailto:Andy.Gilham at btinternet.com; http://www.btinternet.com/~andy.gilham