Honda may not have created the most convincing-looking monster in cinema history, but he managed to give his sci-fi/horror movie a social relevance, particularly in postwar Japan.
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08/20/04
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Gojira (1954)
88
%
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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:15
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: More than straight monster-movie fare, Gojira offers potent, sobering postwar commentary.
Theatrical Release:May 7, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: The testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean triggers the awakening of a dreadful, 400-foot-tall, fire-breathing prehistoric lizard who commences to wreak havoc on the city of Tokyo. The... [More]
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Reviews for Gojira
1 - 16 (sorted by date)
Top CriticThe rampaging reptile is back to remind us that monsters have meaning.
08/20/04
Top CriticMaybe it's 50 years late, but we're finally getting to see Godzilla as it was meant to be seen.
07/22/04
Top CriticThis is a bad movie, but it has earned its place in history, and the enduring popularity of Godzilla and other monsters shows that it struck a chord.
07/02/04
Top CriticIt's less of a monster movie and more of a morality play about the dangers of nuclear experimentation.
06/17/04
Top CriticGodzilla has never looked as good as in Honda's original conception, and few sci-fi creatures have equaled the size or impact of its first footsteps.
06/11/04
Top CriticA great boon to monster movie fans, but will have limited appeal to others.
06/04/04
Top CriticPolitical charge elevates Godzilla far above its reputation for cheesiness, but not so far that it should be mistaken for political satire.
05/27/04
Top CriticMorally compelling aspects of Honda's film lost to Americans are now restored.
05/21/04
Top CriticThere's a surprisingly powerful thrust to this film.
05/14/04
Top CriticIts images of the destruction of the cities is far more powerful than in American films, where the cities are trashed for the pure pleasure of destruction, without any real sense of human loss.
05/14/04
Top CriticAn interesting exercise in nostalgia as well as an informative look at the origins of a sci-fi giant who's stamped through nearly 30 films.
05/13/04
Top CriticA collective metaphor and a collective nightmare, a message film that says more than its message, that captures, with a horrified poetry, the terrors that stomped through the minds of people 50 years ago.
05/07/04
Top CriticGodzilla is now more 'serious,' yet its tone just veers closer to that of solemn American B-horror cheese like Them!
05/06/04
Top CriticAs crass as it is visionary, Godzilla belongs with -- and might well trump -- the art films Hiroshima Mon Amour and Dr. Strangelove as a daring attempt to fashion a terrible poetry from the mind-melting horror of atomic warfare.
05/04/04
Top CriticGodzilla remains one of the most potent mythic structures of the 50s, and you get him here in full foot-stomping glory.
07/24/01
Top Critic1 - 16 (sorted by date)
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