number.6@mindspring.com
Rating System: Bomb * Fair ** Good *** Very Good **** Excelent
It seems that the trend in Hollywood nowadays is to remake (or as they call it "update") old films and television shows. Just last month we had the movie version of LOST IN SPACE. Later this summer we will see ZORRO, don his mask once again, and the British secret agents, John Steed and Emma Peel, try to save the world in the big screen treatment of the AVENGERS. Then for some ridiculous reason, there are plans to "update" PSYCHO. Last reports were that Hitch was still spinning in his grave. Now after months of hype that only a 50 million-dollar advertising budget can buy, and a "let's not dare show the monster until the movie opens" campaign, the men behind STARGATE and INDEPENDENCE DAY, bring us the latest in this trend. GODZILLA, stomps its way into more than 7000 theaters starting this week with a new look and a new attitude. The giant, radioactive, reptile with atomic bad breath, was first brought to the screen in 1954, in Toho Studios' GOJIRA. Then scenes with Raymond Burr playing a reporter were inserted, the film was re-cut and released in the U.S. as, GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, in 1956. A legend was born. What followed was a series of fun, campy, and sometimes out right silly, B movies featuring the creature battling everything from Smog Monsters to Godzilla robots controlled by aliens.
But be warned! This is not your father's or grandfather's Godzilla.
Director Roland Emmerich, producer Dean Devlin, and the man responsible for Zilla's new look, Patrick Tatopoulos, have brought Godzilla into the ‘90s with a complete make-over. He is now streamlined, buff, and looks entirely different. The 1990's version of Godzilla has him, as suggested in the movie, a mutated, lizard-like creature, not a resurrected dinosaur. Gone is the stiff, plodding monster with the "I'll take on anybody or anything" attitude. Now we have a Zilla that is fast, agile, smart, and knows when to fight and when to haul tail. Upon viewing, it is clear that the film's budget, of 100 million dollars plus, was spent on its special effects, and they are nothing less than spectacular. No man in a rubber suit, cardboard buildings or toy tanks, here. This Godzilla doesn't just march along stepping on buildings. He RUNS through the streets, crashing into them, or just goes straight through them! Then his longer, slimmed down tail does the rest of the damage. One of the problems with this kind of expensive, special effects generated, title character, is that cost prevents you from having him on the screen for the whole movie (in this case, 140 minutes).You need interesting characters, and a halfway good script to fill up the rest of the time and hopefully add something to the story. Unfortunately, this is where GODZILLA loses some of its firepower. The story is not very plausible in places, the majority of the characters are less than compelling, the film lacks any real emotion, and it even stoops so low as to present two characters that are caricatures of movie critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel (who panned INDEPENDENCE DAY). Come on Roland and Dean (who wrote the screenplay), isn't that just a little bit petty? Matthew Broerick does a competent job as Nick Tatopoulos (the last name of Godzilla's designer, see above), a mild-mannered, nuclear biologist that is called upon to help figure out what has destroyed and left claw-marks in several ships in the waters near Polynesia, and has left a trail of HUGE footprints across Panama. After analyzing blood samples, Broerick immediately suspects that a new species of giant lizard may have been created as a result of atomic testing. But it is never really made clear why it is on its way to the Big Apple. Broderick is proven right when the new and improved Godzilla comes ashore in New York City at the Fulton Fish Market, in one of the most dramatic "giant monster rises from the depths" sequences since the giant squid attack on San Francisco in Ray Harryhausen's IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. Fittingly, a clip from this film is playing on a television in one of the latter scenes. The movie then goes back to its "giant monster running amok" roots, with the military trying to figure out how to destroy it, the political powers in charge worrying how a monster tearing up the city is going to affect their chances for re-election, and the scientist (Broderick) telling them they are all missing the big picture. Then Broderick's long, lost, college sweetheart, who left him to try and make it big as a reporter, is introduced as an "undiscovered" talent working at a local television station as a lowly researcher. Played by Maria Pitillo, Audrey Timmonds, is one of the most unappealing female leads to come along in a while. Throughout the film, you find yourself wishing Godzilla would stomp her or use her as an appetizer. But in Pitillo's defense, she wasn't given very much to work with. She unwittingly uses her connection with Broderick's character to gain access to inside information for the story that will hopefully make her a star. Hank Azaria (mainly used for comic relief and a plot device) plays the husband of one of Pitillo's friends. A television cameraman, nicknamed "Animal", Azaria also hopes that the lizard's arrival will make his career. The film's only good character is Philippe Roache. Posing as an insurance adjuster, Roache is a member of the French Secret Service. It is suggested that France's atomic testing created Godzilla, and he is there to "clean up the mess". Played brilliantly by Jean Reno, he is searching New York for Godzilla, and a good cup of coffee. Reno is one of the film's saving graces; the other being the special effects. It is discovered that Godzilla can reproduce asexually and has plans to use New York City as a nursery. Broderick then loses his credibility and his spot on the team when the information that Patillo has stolen from him is broadcast. His "nesting" theory is thrown out the window and all efforts are concentrated on killing Godzilla. Meanwhile, Reno "kidnaps" Broderick, and tells him that he believes there is a nest and convinces Broderick to help him and his men hunt it down. Foolishly, Patillo and Azaria follow them in an attempt to make amends. After the nest is found, the film mutates into an almost blatant rip-off of JURASSIC PARK's raptor sequences, with a little bit of GREMLINS 2 thrown in for good measure. Then it is as if saner heads prevailed and the movie gets back on track. Zilla appears and is PISSED OFF at the way our heroes have treated his offspring. They steal a cab and Godzilla gives chase in a final sequence that is exciting, yet somewhat unbelievable at times. The ending is clever in places, and cliched in others. After all the dust from all the destroyed buildings has settled, GODZILLA is a disappointment. You have no empathy for the characters, and there is nothing story- wise to chew on when the BIG GUY is not on the screen. Nearly all the jokes misfire and some characters are there for no apparent reason. Sadly, all the attention was paid to the FX. It is almost like the old B-grade, gore movies of the eighties, where poorly drawn characters were placed within a very weak story, all created just to highlight a new special effect. It is a shame that the Godzilla story was not "updated". But despite these flaws, the movie is fun and that is what a summer movie is suppose to be. The younger generation will revel in its roller coaster, high tech presentation of the monster and its rampages, while older fans, who look for just a little bit more, will shake their heads in slight disappointment. But they will enjoy seeing that even after 44 years, one of its icons is still alive and kicking.
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Doug Savant, and Godzilla. Rated PG13: some intense scenes, but could have been rated PG. I give it *** , but the final star is given just on the strength of the special effects.
That was the view from the Middle Seat Center
John Collins
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