It was giant monster night at our house last night, as my oldest son suddenly decided he was in the mood to watch a Godzilla movie. Well, I wasn't going to argue with that! We got out all the Zilla films we own, and wound up watching Destroy All Monsters. Rob, (my 17 year old), Luke, (my 10 year old) and I all settled in for a night of giant monster mayhem! We laughed with and at that one, really enjoying it.
Then Rob further surprised me by telling me he wanted to watch a SECOND Godzilla movie! Even cooler! He chose Godzilla vs. Gigan – a really schlocky Godzilla film from 1972. Gotta love giant monster tag team wrestling! This one was obviously aimed straight for kids. By this point in the series Godzilla was being betrayed as a sort of Japanese superhero, really cartoonish in feel. Watching these two films back to back was especially interesting as there was footage from Destroy All Monsters reused in this movie. Guess you just can't use good monster fight footage often enough, can you?
My favorite moment from the two movies we watched was in Godzilla vs. Gigan. The aliens from the movie are explaining to the heroes what happened to their home planet. It seems a planet identical to Earth developed light years away, with similar climate and conditions. But the inhabitants of that planet didn't take care of it, and allowed it to become polluted thus forcing them to flee their home planet. In a shot of their world they showed a congested city street, with automobiles stuck in bumper to bumper in rush hour traffic. As if this wasn't funny enough, cutting across traffic is a truck with a coca-cola logo on the back! It was so funny!
This got me to thinking about the Godzilla franchise today. A quick check on IMDB showed a total of 29 Godzilla films, 28 if you don't list the American release of the original separately. Of these I've easily seen 20, perhaps more. They all sort of blend together if you haven't watched them recently. Guess I'll have to rewatch the ones I own, and hit up my buddy Troy, local Godzilla fanatic, for the rest.
BTW – I didn't realize until today that Godzilla has his own IMDB actor page ! Why not, I suppose - he also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!!
Gojira (1954)
Godzilla Raids Again (Gigantis the Fire Monster) (1955)
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964)
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)
Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla's Revenge (1969)
Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1971)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
Godzilla 1985 (1984)
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993)
Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994)
Godzilla vs. Destroyer (1995)
Godzilla 2000 (1999)
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Godzilla X Mechagodzilla (2002)
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
