Godzilla --Superbit [1998]

Amazon.co.uk Review

As "gigantic monster reptile attacks New York" movies go, you've got to admit that Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. There's really no other way to approach it--you just have to accept the fact that Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are unapologetic plagiarists, incapable of anything more than mindless spectacle that can play in any cinema in the world without dubbing or subtitles. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s; it's little more than a rehash of the Jurassic Park movies. The derivative script is so trivial that it's unworthy of comment, apart from a few choice laughs and the casting of Michael Lerner as New York's mayor, whose name is Ebert and who closely resembles a certain well-known movie critic. Perhaps that's a clever hint that this movie's essentially critic-proof. It's stupid but it's fun, and for most audiences that's a fitting definition of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.co.uk Review

Zorro, a pop-fiction creation invented by Johnston McCulley in 1918, is given new blood in this fast-moving and engaging version. Director Martin Campbell wisely instils a measure of frivolity into the deftly choreographed action sequences, while letting a serious tone creep in when appropriate. This covers much ground under the banner of romantic-action-adventure and it does so most excellently. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com

Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

What Happened To The Sequel.......2006-03-21

I must be the only person who gave this 5 stars because i must say i genuinly loved this film. Matthew Broderick plays an excellent role in this movie as the scientist who is hell bent on finding out what made Gojira. It has been 12 years since this remake of the original 1954 legendary classic that first introduced us to Godzilla.
For those who are not familiar with the monster in this movie then Godzilla is a lizard mutated by nuclear bomb testing and grew to 100's of stories tall. For some reason Godzilla migrates to new york starting a huge amount of destruction in his path.
This movie can get really silly and unrealistic at times, as if the 100 ft tall lizard wasn't unreal enough but at times we see Godzilla be the same height as the empire state building and then all of a sudden a monster that size disappears.
It is undoubtedly a movie jam packed with action and amazing special effects and if that's all you're looking for in a movie then you will truly love it.

French croissants and American coffee.......2006-02-18

This film is not very original as for the monsters which are a cross between Spielberg’s dinosaurs and Ridley Scott’s aliens. The plot itself is very similar too and yet there are a lot of new elements that make the film interesting. First the cause that produced the monsters is plausible : the French nuclear tests in the South Pacific caused some « lizards » to mutate into giant and intelligent creatures. Then the main place is New York. The film can thus allude to many other situations, King Kong of course, but also all those urban catastrophe films and the Ghostbusters, without forgetting Batman. This enables the director to show how trite and cowardly a New York mayor can be. Finally most of the action takes place in tunnels, underground and this is disquieting for many who are easily afraid by such situations. A little bit of sentimentalese mish mash, plus some French bravado about coffee and croissants, and you may even have a humoristic dimension. And you have to remember you must not trust a Frenchman even if he is an insurance salesman because all French people are somewhere secret agents working for their republic.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne

It's NOT Godzilla! Shame on you, Emmerich & Devlin!.......2006-01-15

This is without of doubt one of the worst films of the 1990's. As a big fan of Godzilla, I was so angry when this film turned out to be an insult to the Japanese films. True, the Japanese Godzilla is a man-in-a-monster suit, but it contains a soul in which this travesty is missing.

Despite being touted as an incredible remake of the first, ever Godzilla movie, Roland Emmerich's & Dean Devlin's $125 million disappointment is just a poor man's version of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953), with scenes ripped-off from JAWS (1975), ALIENS (1986) and JURASSIC PARK (1993) and an ending stolen from KING KONG (1933) - giant creature gets trapped atop of a famous building and killed by airplanes.

The remake also fails to recapture memories of the Japanese films. The Godzilla in this film isn't the monster we all know and love. It's an overgrown iguana that runs away from the military, digs underground, eats fish, breathes hurricane-force winds and gets killed by just six missiles. The REAL Godzilla was a brave and powerful monster!

The film also contains gaping plot holes, dreadful dialogue, one-dimesnsional human characters that you don't care for, and the acting (apart from Jean Reno as the stern French spy) is downright bad. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin didn't care for Godzilla at all. I will never forgive them. Two sequels were planned, but where thankfully never made (HURRAH!).

British G-Fans, I have good news. The first, ever Godzilla movie will be released on DVD from BFI. And it's the uncut and unaltered Japanese version, which remains one of the lost movie masterpieces of the 20th Century. Avoid this 1998 remake at all costs and watch the original Godzilla.

GINO.......2005-03-14

Godzilla In Name Only. These are the best words I can use to describe this movie. Yes, the CGI did look great at the time, yes, the movie was realistic but the Japanese Godzilla is much better. Many people think that, Gojira is unrealistic. What is more unrealistic? An iguana mutated into a 50meter tall monster? or a living dinosaur, which is already 30 meters tall, and is mutated another 20 meters. Both are absurd, I agree but deliver the goods this does not. Way too much time is spent on Godzilla's children instead of Godzilla himself. The story is not bad, the acting is terrible. If you are thinking of getting this movie, I reccomend you buy Gojira 1954 and THEN Godzilla 1998 and you can decide for yourself which movie is best.

Good Special Effects but not enough about Godzilla.......2004-05-02

If you've read my other reviews about Independence Day and Stargate, the same creators of Godzilla, you'll probably know that I enjoyed them both. But here they've not made such a good film. I saw this at the Cinema in 1998 and did enjoy it, don't get me wrong about that, but it didn't seem to have much detail about Godzilla himself. The Special Effects, being done by the same people who did Independence Day, are excellent, but the film seems to be more involved about the cast than the Monster. There are more things about this movie I don't like, like the script, being terrible, but apart from that this film features Good Special Effects, Entertainment and humour throughout. Hopefully the creators will make up for the mistake of Godzilla in their new film The Day After Tomorrow coming out later this year, which I am looking forward to. This film also features some very good extras on it, like The Special Effects Team Commentary

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