| Gigantis The Fire Monster English Dubbed Version (1955) |
| Rating: 4 Severed Heads |
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| Synopsis: Also known as Godzilla Raids Again, and Godzilla's Counter Attack, Gigantis is actually the second Godzilla movie, taking place between the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters and King Kong vs. Godzilla. So let's try and clear up some things before any confusion sets in. The monster in this film is referred to as Gigantis yet looks just like Godzilla (only with a bad overbite), and is supposed to be another monster different from the one in the first film. However, the next film, King Kong vs. Godzilla, picks up where this film leaves off, so we are left to assume that Gigantis is a new incarnation of Godzilla I guess. Anyway, who cares, on to the review... Kobayashi, a pilot who flys over the ocean looking for schools of fish for a fishing company, goes down on a distant island. When his pal Shoichi lands on the island to rescue him, the two men encounter two large monsters fighting one another (as large monsters often do). Once back on the mainland, they report what they saw and are told what they saw were a Gigantis and an Angilus, two prehistoric monsters that have been brought out of hibernation by atomic testing. The two monsters now converge upon Osaka to battle each other in the middle of the city and make quite a mess of it in the process. Now, once again Japan must rid itself of another giant monster. The film is shot in black and white and tries to retain the somber quality of the first Godzilla film but misses the mark. The film marks the first battle with another monster, as well as the first apperance of Angilus (known here as Angurus) who would come back in several Godzilla films. Takashi Shimura also reprises his role from the first Godzilla film as Dr. Yamane who appears in a hilarious scene where he shows a film of the creation of the universe featuring lots of stock footage from other creature feature films, and another scientist fortells the doom of all mankind at the hands of the two monsters while reading from a children's dinosaur book. Not an easy film to find, the tape used for this review was the dubbed version of Gigantis. There is also a more difficult to find subtitled version that is supposedly better. Even though I havn't seen it, the descriptions of the subtitled version don't seem to offer any more than the dubbed version. Besides, I enjoyed the dubbed version, and we hope you do to! |
| What Has This Movie Taught Us? -Japan is a nation of little people...I mean a little nation of people.... -Trying to please a woman is like swimming the ocean -Monsters fight at 16 frames per second (bad cinematography joke) -Police don't handcuff dangerous criminals when they transport them -Gasoline tanker trucks don't seem to have brakes -Women love handbags |
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| Memorable Moments: 05min- "Conked out", is that an official term? 07min- Heeeeey Yoooooou Guys! 11min- This children's dinosaur book sure is full of prophecies of doom 13min- We've just seen stock footage from the films Valley of the Dragons, The Lost World, Unkown Island and who knows how many others 20min- This military stock footage is worthy of Ed Wood 24min- Didn't he say to remain calm! 55min- This must be what Japanese buisnessmen did before karaoke 56min- I hope Kobayashi gets drunk and walks through one of those paper walls 69min- Gigantis is about to become the main ingrediant in the biggest margarita ever |
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| Don't Quote Us On That: Dr. Tadokoro: (reading from book) "He is a member of the Angurus family of fire monsters and can wipe out the human race." Dr. Todakoro: "Murderers. Original plundering murderers, who killed everything in their way. These creatures ruled the Earth at one time. Then they disappeared suddenly." Dr. Yamane: "But of course our big worry now is that now instead of one monster, there are two. Heaven help us. Our fate is no longer in the lap of science, but in the lap of the gods." Kobayashi: "And now, you die!" |
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