Godzilla (1998)

reviewed by
Jeremiah Rickert


Godzilla:
A Review
by Jeremiah Rickert

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitilla, and Hank Azaria Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Oh boy, it's the edge of summer, and those two guys who ruled the summer box office two years ago are back with their uber-flick, Godzilla. With a gigantic budget and big-name stars...well, a gigantic budget anyway, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the team behind Stargate, Independence Day, and now Godzilla, are going for the summer-flick hat-trick, and if hype alone can sell a picture, they will have it.

The plot was definitely there, just enough to move the movie along, although at times it seemed really slow. With a running time of about 2 and a half hours, yet still barely enough plot, you have to wonder if the next Devlin/Emmerich release will be all special affects and no story at all...why bother with that pesky story element anyway? There were a number of jump-cuts, whenever the characters reached a decision about something, the film suddenly jumped forward to just before it was about to be implemented, making the transitions between grand action scenes as short as possible, which means that the largest chunk of the movie is action action action. Some of the editing didn't quite seem up to snuff. The cuts were jerky at times and you'd cut away from an action shot before it was totally finished. The editing team was a pretty good one too, Peter Amudson (Daylight, Dragonheart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and SFX work on Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back) and David Siegel (who I believe was nominated for an emmy for work on Law and Order). Despite the pedigree of the team, I still thought the final product was not as good as it could have been.

The plot, by the way, is about the foul and large creature that is produced due to French nuclear testing in the French Polynesian Islands. (That's right, we've run out of enemies, so now it's time for the French.) The French are the first to learn about the creature's existance, when they investigate a large fishing vessel that was attacked and sunk. They are worried that their testing has caused whatever this thing is, and they need to try to hush up the attack in order to protect their reputation.

After -something- with huge footprints tromps across Jamaica, our hero, Nick Tatopoulis (Matthew Broderick) is pulled away from his exciting job of measureing radioactive worms at Chernobyl by the U.S. Dept. of State, who takes him to the island to examine the large prints. He is added to a team of scientists, drafted by the govt. to try to get a bead on what they are dealing with and how to deal with it. Hollywood must think that all scientists are beatniks, hippies, slobs, and wierdos, because that is what we have in our group in this film. (as played by Vicki Lewis, Malcom Danare, and Broderick.) The creature leaves a trail that seems to be leading to New York City, where the creature is sure to wreak a lot of havoc.

Of course, he does hit new york, bigtime, causing a big ruckus, panic, and a special effects extravaganza! In the city, we are introduced to the supporting players (well, they all kinda support old 'Zilla, but who's counting) news anchor Charles Caiman, who gets the award for the most horrible pun, played by Harry Shearer (Simpsons, Spinal Tap) his assistant and former college flame of Tatopoulos, Audrey Timmonds, played by Maria Pitillo (Dear God, TV's House Rules), and her friend's husband and network camera man Victor "animal" Palotti, played by Hank Azaria (Gross Pointe Blanke, Birdcage, Heat). Also running around spying on the Americans is French agent Phillipe Roche, portrayed by french actor Jean Reno (The Professional, Mission Impossible)

The French government still wants it covered up, the army wants it dead, and Godzilla just wants to build a nest, even if it means (and it does) destroying most of Manhattan in the process.

The special effects are of course excellent. They are consistently good throughout the film, and for the high price-tag they well should be. The creature itself manages to be CGI without looking too much like CGI, a welcome change from the recent Lost In Space, which featured a CGI creature that looked like a cartoonist had sketched it on the film with a colored pencil. The sound was pretty darned good as well, with lots of good breathing, tail swooshes, and crunching buildings to entertain the ears and the eyes. Emmerich's direction was satisfactory, and there was actually one nice bit of foreshadowing, however obvious it may have been, when the camera follows a dirt road that the footprints are leading down, and then fades into a shot of a city street.

The acting is satisfactory as well, but even the "names" in the cast don't do anything spectacular. Broderick is wooden and distant, even when he's trying to show feelings for his lost love, Audrey. Apparently even the oft-heard Love Theme From Godzilla cannot stir his emotional fires. The army is, as usual, portrayed as bunch of buffoons, who can't and don't think. They seem to choose the hard way to do things, even though every 10yr old in the audience is saying over and over "why can't they just send a laser guided bomb after him from a high altitude." The rainy helicopter chases were actually kinda fun, though, even if a bit far fetched. Of course, the idea of a giant lizard is far-fetched as well. The French mercinaries are played for laughs as well, frowning at stinky coffee and being saddened that they couldn't find a croissant. The laughs I got out of the film were from things not meant to be funny. When Nick is staring into the face of Godzilla, and the love theme was playing, I accidentally said "phone home" in an ET voice and sent the surrounding three rows into laughter. The casting of Audrey again pokes one of my biggest movie nerves, and that is the female leads looking 15 or 16, but actually being 28. Her acting was fine, it's just it's hard for me to visualise maturity when the character looks 16.

Some of the other items played for laughs are the chubby Mayor Ebert and his sidekick and assistant Gene, who try to play out the political ramifications of Godzilla, with all the appropriate thumbs up and down. It got old really really really quickly.

Overall, expect a typical summer flick, action, explosions, lack of plot, cheesy characters, cheap humor, this one fits the formula to a tee. And of course, following the lead of Lost Word, they pumped it into as many theaters opening weekend as possible (a record amount) so by the time the word of mouth got out, a great number of people had already plunked down their $6-$10 to see it. Nice plan, and I expect a lot of films are going to follow the same formula. So for what it was, it delivers, as a piece of art...a film, it's kinda bleah. I will give them one point for class, though, they managed to avoid a lot of bodies being ripped...blood, guts, and I didn't hear one wet squish.

Of the $3.50 I paid for it, it was worth about $1.75

Copyright (c) 1998

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Jeremiah "Spassvogel" Rickert 6'7" 320 lbs of Dr. Pepper and Pez Candy.


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