Rating: * * * out of * * * * (On the Good Bad Movie Scale)
Rated: PG for some language and menacing action/violence.
Starring: Takehiro Murata, Naomi Nishida, Mayu Suzuki, Hiroshi Abe, Shirô Sano.
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Directed by: Takao Okawara
When you walk into the movie theatre to see "Godzilla 2000" please do not expect to see "American Beauty" or "Gone with the Wind", and do not expect to see a re-hash of the 1998 Hollywood bomb "Godzilla". Nope this is the real thing, Godzilla in all his man-in-rubber-suit, bad mouth doesn't movie at the same rate as voice does dubbing, over the top acting, bad dialogue, cheesy effects and big time entertainment. That is what a Godzilla movie is made of, and "Godzilla 2000" is just that!
In a continuation of the typical Godzilla story, Yuji Shinodo (Takehiro Murata) and his daughter Io (Mayu Suzuki) of the Godzilla Prediction Network are once again on the run for Godzilla, trying to find him, watch and study him. With the help of a stubborn reporter Yuki Ichinose (Naomi Nishida) who is mostly along to take pictures, they must stop a madman Mitsuo Katagiri (Hiroshi Abe) from trying to kill Godzilla for destroying the city over all these years. Since they really do not understand who Godzilla is, they take the usual approach: Don't understand it, Kill it. The GPN team must try to stop him from doing this, while a strange rock is found underwater and ends up being an alien spaceship from millions of years ago, to which is bent on destroying Japan. Now it is time for Godzilla to do his job, and destroy this monster before its too late.
Surprisingly enough "Godzilla 2000" is a huge entertainment piece, that I really had fun with. I laughed at the cheesy part of the film, and believe me it's all there. You cannot help but like these kind of movies. They are the so bad it's good type movie, with the overacting, odd dialogue and bad dubbing. One thing that I wasn't expecting was the special effects, which were surprisingly good for this type of low-budget movie which is set to become a camp classic. First up the acting is horrible, but its pretty bad, typical for this kind of movie, but the lead stars keep it afloat and give us something to chuckle at.
Godzilla himself is so cool looking, and even at one point I could see the hole in the head on the roof of his mouth where a light bulb was to light up his eyes. He strides around the city destroying everything in site. Burning, crashing, stepping on, hitting, whatever he can do he definitely does it. So of course one cannot help but compare this movie to the 1998 big Hollywood Bomb "Godzilla". Even though the 98 version wasn't a horrible movie, it was far from being good. You just can't americanize a Godzilla movie, it's just not possible. There's no bad dubbing, or special effects, everything is in place and it really just doesn't fit in.
So on one of those MST3K type of scales "Godzilla 2000" is a great film to watch with a group of friends, or when your in the mood to watch just an entertaining movie. So go ahead to your local movie theatre, pay the cheap matinee price and see "Godzilla 2000" believe me, it will be one of the funnest times you've had at the movies this year. Great fun.
Reviewed by Brandon Herring 8-18-00
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