Grr grr and growl, it’s Burl, with a review
of the Godzilla picture they made in the 1990s! Yes, it’s simply called Godzilla, and when it was announced that
this would be the next movie from the fellow who brought us Independence Day, the world’s response
was “Ha ha, of course it is!”
Now, this one took a different approach
from the 2014 Godzilla and its more
recent sequel! In those pictures, the G man seems to be part of a cabal of
god-like Ancient Ones who ruled the world until they decided they would rather
live underground, like Titans! There’s a bit of that in the old Toho pictures
too! In this 1998 version however, he’s just a big lizard, grown size large
because of nuclear testing conducted by the French! Ha ha!
Our unlikely hero is a fellow who’s been
studying worms for three years, called Nick Tatopolis, played by the open-faced
actor, Matthew Broderick! Ha ha, great sport is made of his supposedly
complicated Greek name, which I suppose is in tribute to the monster designer,
Patrick Tatopolous, who works regularly for this director! Another dubious
tribute the script attempts is to hire Michael Lerner, well known from Class Reunion and Strange Invaders, to play callow Mayor
Ebert! I suppose Roger Ebert must have given this guy a bad review for
something, so he chose this non-clever revenge, over-extending the gag to
include a scene in which his very Siskel-like assistant rates the mayor a
thumbs down!
There are a few other characters, some of
them played by voice actors from The
Simpsons, which is a pretty 90s thing to do! Ha ha! Broderick, wearing a
beret for some reason, is carrying a pretty unconvincing torch for a lady who
would like to be a reporter, played by Maria Pitillo from Wise Guys; and some non-Godzilla drama results from her
stealing Broderick’s secret research materials!
None of the bad guy types - not Mayor
Ebert, not the nasty anchorman - get squished by Godzilla, or even get
particularly close to him! I assumed both would feel the weight of Godzilla’s
bottom, but I was wrong! I guess I have to give it to the picture - it
surprised me! Ha ha, I’ll bet they thought about squashing both characters, but
just couldn’t fit it those scenes around all the stuff they borrowed from Jurassic Park!
I try to be a positive sort of fellow, so
here are a few things I liked about the movie, ha ha! There’s a good deal of
carnage, so the picture keeps its end of that bargain; and the trick effects
have not dated as much as we might expect! Also, and I’m an easy touch with
these things, they did manage to create some empathy for the lizard, and some
pathos when he dies! I’m usually on the monster’s side in these things, and so
it was here!
On the other hand, the characters were a bunch
of nundinckers, not a one of them with much to offer the discerning viewer!
Broderick is a likeable enough fellow I suppose, and Jean Reno is the only
interesting fellow on view here, and that just barely! The whole thing shuts
down for a while to do the raptor scenes from the Jurassic Park movies, and spends so long with the baby dinosaurs in
Madison Square Garden that I was reminded of Gremlins 2!
It achieves no surprises except in how narratively
unambitious it is! Ha ha, maybe I’m just bitter, because this came out the same
day as a movie I made, and it made a lot more money than mine! Well, that was
no surprise! I give Godzilla one cup
of poor American coffee!
No comments:
Post a Comment