You have to be a die hard monster movie fan to enjoy this movie, but I'm guessing if you are you'll like it a lot. I certainly did. That's not to imply that GODZILLA & OTHER MOVIE MONSTERS is particularly well done. It's crude and the footage from myriad monster movies is grainy, scratchy, and faded, but the sheer volume material, going all the way back to beginning of movies, is a pleasure in itself. Some of the clips here I'd never seen before, and I've spent a lifetime in front of the tube enjoying these kinds of films. Not a lot of scholarly research is evident, but again so what. And to correct what another reviewer wrote, this movie does not claim that BEGINNING OF THE END was the first giant insect movie --- although it shows clips from the giant grasshopper flick first, it goes on to cite THEM as the original monster bug movie --- and then treats us to an entertaining montage of giant scorpions, ants, spiders etc. to the tune of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee"! All in all this movie is a treat for un-discriminating B movie monster fans.
5 Reviews
Interesting analysis into the origin of godzilla.
injuka12033 August 2003
Intriguing theoretical explanation on the roots of godzilla - tracing it to the economical and historical climate of the era. I don't know if it's accurate, but it is indeed thought provoking and provides a new take on the old serpent. - Worth a look.
Oh the nostalgia.
The_Depressed_Star_Wars_fan28 December 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I was a huge monster movie fan as a kid, and I used to watch this documentary all the time. Watching it again still bring back memories, but is it good? Well one down side to this documentary is that a lot of movies that are important to the Godzilla and movie monsters in general get either ignored or not acknowledged enough, like the original THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, THEM!, etc. It even make some pretty bad mistakes, like claiming that GODZILLA 1985: THE LEGEND IS REBORN was a color remake of the original Godzilla film when in fact it was just a direct sequel to the original that ignored all the Godzilla movies in between. Another strange thing is that the VHS cover claims that the ridicules Godzilla rap is a "HIT Song" which we all know is not true. Well despite it's flaws I find this documentary to be strangely enjoyable. I guess it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. Whether or not you will like it is up for you to decide.
Very amateurish and poorly researched
wankerness26 August 2005
This documentary seems like it was done under the table. Essentially it tries to be a history of giant monster movies focusing on Godzilla, but it leaves tons of gaps. For example, it claims that "The Beginning of the End" was the first giant bug and totally ignores "Them." It pretends to be the end-all documentary on Godzilla, but seems unaware of the existence of half of those movies (it says Godzilla Vs Megalon came after the Smog Monster, and was the last Godzilla movie before 1985).
It features tons of footage from other movies, and while this is fun to watch sometimes, it is also often used when talking about history (for example, it mentions pearl harbor and then shows us about 5 minutes of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora without saying it's from a movie at all, much less that movie) or science (there are tons of clips from movies like "The Quest for Fire" when discussing cavemen that are also provided with no explanation or credit and go on way longer than necessary. Many of the clips from movies just go on too long...if it had been edited professionally it would have probably been about half as long. The most grievous offense in the padding department is the "Godzilla Rap." Some absolutely hideous "rap" song about Godzilla was made for this DVD evidently, and they play THE ENTIRE THING (it's 2 or 3 minutes long) at the beginning, middle, AND end of the documentary even though it feels way too long and completely out of place the first time it's shown. It should have remained in the special features where it belongs.
There is some interest for casual genre fans, however, in that it contains footage of several movies that may never make it to English DVD (Siegfried, One Million BC, Valley of the Dragons, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Atragon, King Kong Escapes, Goliath Vs the Dragon, etc). The narration and documentary accompanying these clips is severely lacking, however, and if this had just been a compilation of the source material he got these from it would have been far more entertaining. Very amateurish and if you actually know anything about the genre it will frustrate you with the numerous inaccuracies, as well as the "theories" on the creation of Godzilla which manage to be incredibly obvious while being inaccurate.
It features tons of footage from other movies, and while this is fun to watch sometimes, it is also often used when talking about history (for example, it mentions pearl harbor and then shows us about 5 minutes of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora without saying it's from a movie at all, much less that movie) or science (there are tons of clips from movies like "The Quest for Fire" when discussing cavemen that are also provided with no explanation or credit and go on way longer than necessary. Many of the clips from movies just go on too long...if it had been edited professionally it would have probably been about half as long. The most grievous offense in the padding department is the "Godzilla Rap." Some absolutely hideous "rap" song about Godzilla was made for this DVD evidently, and they play THE ENTIRE THING (it's 2 or 3 minutes long) at the beginning, middle, AND end of the documentary even though it feels way too long and completely out of place the first time it's shown. It should have remained in the special features where it belongs.
There is some interest for casual genre fans, however, in that it contains footage of several movies that may never make it to English DVD (Siegfried, One Million BC, Valley of the Dragons, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Atragon, King Kong Escapes, Goliath Vs the Dragon, etc). The narration and documentary accompanying these clips is severely lacking, however, and if this had just been a compilation of the source material he got these from it would have been far more entertaining. Very amateurish and if you actually know anything about the genre it will frustrate you with the numerous inaccuracies, as well as the "theories" on the creation of Godzilla which manage to be incredibly obvious while being inaccurate.
Has Little to do With Godzilla
PhillipJarodNelson6 February 2010
This documentary was absolutely terrible. Despite the fact that it's narrated by an adult male, it sounds like the narration was written by a fifth-grader as some sort of report for class. Some of the information presented is sort of accurate but not accurate enough, the lines of narration are painfully separated out with long gaps of nothing in between, and ridiculous amount of the film shows irrelevant video clips. Much of the narration strays away from Godzilla but even when speaking directly about Godzilla the imagery on the screen is often completely unrelated.
Had all the long pauses between lines of narration and all the irrelevant video been removed, the film would have been somewhat more watchable, but also would have been like ten minutes long instead of 88 minutes.
Had all the long pauses between lines of narration and all the irrelevant video been removed, the film would have been somewhat more watchable, but also would have been like ten minutes long instead of 88 minutes.
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