Godzilla (1998)
Seen on 21 May 1998 with Andrea for $18 at the Sony Lincoln Square and on 22 May with Tony for $8.75 at the Cineplex Odeon Chelsea.
There is a good news and bad news about *Godzilla*. The good news is that *Godzilla* does not destroy anything above 60th Street, so my rent-stabilized apartment was never in danger. The bad news is that the only good thing about Godzilla is the lizard itself; the acting, story, and script is flawed. So why did I see it twice? Well, that's a Seinfelding saga not worth repeating.
Actually, seeing it twice made me notice some subtle humorous touches I didn't notice the first time, but was it worth spending in excess of $25 for it? Well, no, but I have done enough sneak-ins and seen enough Godzilla (and Mothra!) free on cable to see the karmic justice in this.
Directed by Roland Emmerich (of *Independence Day* fame) and from the makers of Tylenol, *Godzilla* has been promoted since I saw the preview at *Men In Black*, and the audience went wild. A lot of secrecy surrounded the new look of the monster, and with good reason. It's not as "human" as the original Toho version, and it's face is amorphous. As Andrea put it, "They do the feet the best."
An interview with the director reveals that until *ID4*, a lot of filming was done in New York, and the monster was added later with computer graphics. So the result is some fairly realistic scenes of authentic destruction of New York. In fact, the monster destroys the area a block away from my office, which was spared. Damn. Also, seeing Godzilla diving over the West Side Highway and into the Hudson River was pretty neat.
There are also some neat homages to other movies here. The opening scene of the sinking of the Japanese fishing boat is right out of the Japanese monster movies that inspired this movie. The Mayor's first scene is reminiscent of the umbrella scene in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent and the finale at Madison Square Garden reminds me of the final scene of the Birds..
That's about it for praise. As Dave points out, a big flaw in these special effects blockbusters is that there is too much talk. Also, the acting budget is scuttled, so we get a shrill, vapid Maria Patillo (as Audrey) instead of a Helen Hunt or a Minnie Driver. It's like two different movies there for a while. Effects-laden monster suspense one minute, B-grade comedy straight-to-video the next. Matthew Broderick as the atomic scientist hero is not an asset either. However, he does fulfill the traditional role of the little boy Godzilla loves.
Everyone seems rather two dimensional and bumbling. There's the stuttering military man O'Neill (Doug Savant), the New Yawk cameraman "Animal" (Hank Azaria) who embodies every stereotype (including an annoying wife who lovingly calls him a "dumb wop."), Harry Shearer as the sexist pig newscaster, Michael Lerner plays Mayor Ebert--complete with Gene, the campaign manager he abuses (that seemed bizarre--I guess the director hates Siskel *and* Ebert).. The only character that is truly humorous and not annoying is Jean Reno as the French secret service man who feels his country's responsibility in creating Godzilla inadvertently by doing nuclear tests in Polynesia. It's a shame that the joke of his assistant spies being named Jean-Claude, Jean-Paul, and Jean-Philippe is hidden until the final credits. Oh, and who keeps a top-secret videotape in a tent TOP SECRET written with big red letters on it?
There are some inconsistencies as well. It's pouring rain half the time, but that effect is turned on and off like a faucet. It's supposed to be raining, yet there's a pushcart vendor flipping burgers on the grill? The It's pouring rain when people first see Godzilla but when there's a chase scene minutes later, the rain stops. It starts again when the chase is over. A movie that costs this much should be able to afford some continuity. The city is really ravaged, but there is electricity flowing freely. No gas main explosions or watermain leaks either, which we have in New York *without* a visit from Godzilla. It's PG-13, and while some people are killed off camera, there are no injuries and no hospital or medical scenes. Godzilla puts a hole in the Pan Am Building in the middle of a workday, and there is no mention of casualties? It's PG-13 all the way.
The love story and the "news story" angles are silly and two-dimensional. The original Toho productions usually kept the human stories fairly message oriented about the environment. The film's opening sequence does this; it's too bad that the rest of the film didn't do that.
The original music by David Arnold is good in the opening sequence, but not as good throughout, and the hokey Japanese trumpets of the Japanese version is sorely missed.
Add a star if you loved *Godzilla* movies as a kid, or if you are a kid.
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews