GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

What’s worse than a coronavirus pandemic?

How about a a world devastated by giant, powerful monsters! My friend Glenn Morton gave me this Blu-ray edition of Godzilla: King of the Monsters after he realized he had inadvertently bought TWO copies (I’ve done that myself numerous times).

In this latest installment of Godzilla, a group of eco-terrorists seek to free the monsters (aka, Titans) to destroy our polluting and unworthy civilization. Once the monsters have done their deadly work, the eco-terrorists believe they can rebuild a clean, sustaining culture.

Meanwhile, another group called Monarch determines the Titans have been infiltrated by a creature not-of-Earth: Monster Zero. Monster Zero has three heads and flies. The other monsters like Rodan and Mothra fall under Monster Zero’s sway. Monarch is convinced on Godzilla can save us.

As you might suspect, there are plenty of battle scenes. Cities get crushed. I could have done without the lame family of dysfunction subplot. But, if you’re looking for action and excitement and thrills, Godzilla: King of the Monsters delivers. Are you a Godzilla fan? GRADE: B

34 thoughts on “GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

  1. Cap'n Bob Napier

    I’m not a fan of Japanese monster flicks in general but I enjoyed a few of them when I was a kid! But not Godzilla! Too phony for my liking!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Bob, you’re right about that guy in the Godzilla suit stomping on cardboard cities back in the 1960s. But, things have gotten much more sophisticated in the era of CGI. The newer Godzilla movies look impressive!

      Reply
  2. Steve Oerkfitz

    Not a fan. I saw this on cable and was not impressed. Yes it looks better than the man in a rubber suit ones but I just find the whole thing a bit silly. I would have loved it at ten but not now. I would have given it a D.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, I set the bar low when I’m watching monster movies. I’m guessing the audience the film makers were aiming at is a lot younger than you and me.

      Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I had forgotten Raymond Burr got edited into the original U.S. version of GODZILLA! You have an impressive memory!

      Reply
      1. Todd Mason

        I dunno. The Burr edit for the Anglophone market is so dull it’s difficult to forget, if it gets on one’s nerves, as it did mine. And constantly repeated on THE CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE on the Kaiser Broadcasting stations in Boston and Philadelphia in the ’70s.

        The second film, which wasn’t so clumsily tampered with, managed to make it the US as rather good at suggesting tragedy and despair, and the use of the rubber suit is rather deft as I remember it over the decades.

        By the time they were in color and became wrestler movies, it was not at all my cup of tea. My sister loved them when she was very young. I was grumpy about its when she would compare them to the sf magazines I was beginning to read regularly at the time. (I was 13, she was 6.)

  3. Jerry House

    Poor Godzilla (“Zilly” is what his friends all him)…His bipolar disorder gives him mood swings, going from destroying Tokyo to saving Tokyo back and forth. Has he ever considered medication?

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jerry, GOZILLA’s medication is made in China and now it’s unavailable (like Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine). That’s why he’s rampaging all over the planet in this movie!

      Reply
  4. neeru

    Planning to watch the first one along with my little one. Hadn’t enjoyed it much when I saw it when it was first released. Lets see what happens this time.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Neeru, I’m sure your little one will enjoy the action. There’s also a subplot about a dysfunctional family that I found lame.

      Reply
  5. Michael Padgett

    I saw maybe twenty minutes of this on HBO and that’s all I could take. Too bad the great Kyle Chandler (aka Coach Taylor) can’t find better roles than this.

    Reply
  6. Patti Abbott

    I remember Phil and Josh watching these monster movies about forty years ago. Never watched one myself. They seemed to have fun.

    Reply
  7. Jeff Meyerson

    The only one I remember that scared me as a kid was RODAN. Very unusually for that time (or ever, now that I think of it), my father took me and my brother to see this when it first opened. (I was 8 or 9,) The opening mine scenes scared me. I just discovered that a young George Takei did some of the voiceover dubbing on this.

    Reply
      1. Jerry House

        Jeff, when I was a kid our local drive-in movie opened and RODAN was the first movie they showed. I was too young to attend. Those who did attend turned all the speakers up high and I was awakened by Rodan’s screams coming through the night air. We lived a couple of miles from the drive-in so I was kimpressed by the loudness of the speakers.

      2. george Post author

        Jerry, all the Godzilla and Friends (RODAN, MOTHRA, etc.) movies I’ve seen over the years have been very LOUD!

  8. maggie mason

    Not for me. I do remember watching sat afternoon monster movies, like the attack of the 50 ft woman and the crawling (or prowling eye) as well as dracula, wolfman, etc. Those I liked. Interesting note: the local tv channel that played them had elvira like hostesses – Moonalisa and Cosmosina. One of them was Regis Philbin’s wife. Regis was on air here in the 50’s. not sure if he got his start here or not, but it was very early in his career

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Maggie, I really like Regis Philbin’s wife, Joy. She used to appear on Philbin’s morning show occasionally and really zing Regis!

      Reply
    2. Todd Mason

      I believe Philbin got his tv start in LA (though his first regular talk show gig was in San Diego), and then Westinghouse picked him up to be the replacement for Steve Allen when Allen left his Westinghouse-owned-station and otherwise syndicated early ’60s STEVE ALLEN SHOW…that was the series called THAT REGIS PHILBIN SHOW!, but while Allen’s version could reasonably well hold its own against Carson (and the lesser challenge of Les Crane on ABC), Philbin’s show did not. By ’67, Philbin was the Ed McMahon to Joey Bishop on the ABC late night JOEY BISHOP SHOW, but while BISHOP outlasted the undercapitalized United Network’s Bill Dana-hosted THE LAS VEGAS SHOW, it never shook TONIGHT much, and when CBS slotted Merv Griffin as their entry in ’69, Philbin was allowed to host and run out Bishop’s contract after cancellation was announced, and THE DICK CAVETT SHOW began. Just kept plugging along from there…getting to be kind of unavoidable after 2001 for a while.

      Reply
      1. Todd Mason

        NEW YORK TIMES Sept. 23, 1964

        “The Steve Allen Show” will be discontinued Oct. 23. The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, producer of the syndicated television series,, said the decision was by mutual agreement.

        Westinghouse sald Mr. Allen had been released from his contract so he could concentrate on “I’ve Got a Secret, “Columbia Broadcasting System show on which the performer took over as host” this week. Last March Westinghouse announced that Mr. Allen’s contract had been extended for a considerable period beyond next July.

        The company said Mr. Allen had had to reconsider his initial intention to continue his own 90‐minute show, televised five evenigs each week, while appearing on “I’ve Got a Secret.” His own show is produced in Hollywood and “Secret” here. The schedule of flying regularly to New York imposed a heavy burden, the announcement said.

        The Allen show began two years ago and at one time was carried by 47 stations. There was a report yesterday that the number had fallen below 40. The show is televised here over Channel 11 [WOR, these decades WWOR]

        ****
        Dr. Frank Stanton, president of the Columbia Broadcasting System, said last night that C.B.S. had authorized a study to determine whether television and radio could affect the outcome of an election by projecting the possible winner from early returns. He made the statement on a National Educational Television network program “Of People and Politics,” which was presented here over Channel 13. [WNDT, these decades WNET]

        Dr. Stanton told Richard D. Heffner, the interviewer, that there was no evidence now to support or disprove charges that broadcast projections could affect voting. He added: “We’ve authorized a rather elaborate field study this November in this election to try or get some hard facts on this particular point. We’re going to do a lot of research in terms of finding out what exposure people [in the .West] have had to early results from the East, how they voted, how they intended to vote, and to what extent the techniques of interviewing and following the people at the election period are valid.

        I think that three to six months after the election we aught to come‐up with. some pretty hard information on this. And so far.as I know, it’s the first definitive study that’s ever been done.”

        A spokesman for C.B.S. declined to say what organization had been engaged to make the study.

      2. Todd Mason

        That, and the further surge in his visibility with WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE (probably not coincidentally after 9/11) were most of what made him ineluctable for a while.

  9. Beth Fedyn

    I’m not a huge Godzilla fan.
    Joe and I went to see the most recent one in the theater and I kinda like the one with Matthew Broderick (the baby monsters look like little velociraptors).

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Rick, my friend Glenn gifted me this Blu-ray set. I turned back into a kid again while watching GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS!

      Reply
  10. Scott Cupp

    George – I got this for Christmas and watched it not long ago. I had fun with it. Godzilla, Ghidora and Kong were fun. The others were superfluous. I will watch it again and be looking for King Kong versus Godzilla whenever they release it.

    Reply

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