Godzilla, Godawful
Godzilla A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1998 By Michael Redman
* (out of ****) In this re-make of the 1954 Japanese monster film, Godzilla is transformed into a "Jurassic Park" copy who swims from the South Pacific to New York for no real reason and trashes the town. Although some of the destruction is entertaining for a while, it gets old fast. The film often makes no sense (a several-hundred foot tall beast hides in subway tunnels), sports second-rate effects (the baby Godzillas seem to be one computer effect multiplied on the screen), lame jokes (Mayor Ebert and his assistant Gene are never funny), horrendous acting (even Matthew Broderick is dull) and an unbelievable love story (why would anyone want to get back together with Maria Pitillo's character?).
There are other elements of the film that fall flat, but going on would just be a waste of good words. Only for die-hard creature feature fans, this might be fun if you could check your brain at the door. I couldn't.
(Michael Redman has written this column for 23 years and has seldom had a more disorienting cinematic experience than seeing both "Fear And Loathing" and "Godzilla" in the same evening.)
[This appeared in the 5/28/98 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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