594, 1000 Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975

[tenia]

To be fair, he usually knows better, but there are a few very specific things that seem completely foreign to him (the 24/25fps justification for Dekalog and the lack of rolling shutter on TV screens visible in an episode for instance). But it's a completely different thing indeed to twist things to the point you're basically saying "new restorations are pointless". Sure optical effects shots would be even more jarring, but still : it'd yield a better result anyway, and it's not as if there aren't tons of movies lavishly restored to prove how benefic it is.
Such an assessment is something I'd expect from a blog whose PQ review usually is 2 lines long.

[MichaelB]

I remember a time when he really blew up at me on Blu-ray.com, wagging his finger so hard that I'm surprised he could still type with it afterwards.

My crime? I'd posted what I thought was a completely uncontroversial comment to the effect that Arrow's then-new 2K original-neg cinematographer-supervised restoration of The Long Good Friday gives the lie to countless reviewers who claimed that older versions were "the best we're going to get" because of the film's "low budget". Svet, bizarrely, interpreted this as an attack on Blu-ray.com specifically, even though this was a commonplace observation amongst many reviewers - in fact, it's the kind of knee-jerk assumption I myself might have made back in the day. I didn't even look up the Blu-ray.com review (which wasn't by Svet) before making my comment, as it clearly wasn't necessary.

But what I remember most vividly was the sheer vehemence of his response (he sounded properly angry, instead of the usual faux-bonhomie): apparently I was "being really embarrassing and unprofessional" in "trying to shame Blu-ray.com". I was obviously doing nothing of the kind, and so many people leaped to my defence (and none to his) that he ended up deleting the entire exchange (including my original comment), but I remember being fascinated by how I'd entirely inadvertently tweaked such a clearly exposed nerve.

[tenia]

Answered in the dedicated thread.

[ComradeMisato]

Full review on DVDBeaver.

No surprises to speak of.

[FrauBlucher]

TCM has done me a big favor by showing these on Friday nights in October. Watching several over the past few weeks made realize I don’t really need to own the boxset. As much as these entertained me as a kid, now not so much. Although if the box had the Japanese ending of King Kong vs. Godzilla I would’ve been tempted as I’ve never seen it. But now I will get to save some money.

[Big Ben]

TCM has done me a big favor by showing these on Friday nights in October. Watching several over the past few weeks made realize I don’t really need to own the boxset. As much as these entertained me as a kid, now not so much. Although if the box had the Japanese ending of King Kong vs. Godzilla I would’ve been tempted as I’ve never seen it. But now I will get to save some money.

There isn't one. The ending plots are exactly the same in both the United States and Japan. It's an urban legend.

[movielocke]

TCM has done me a big favor by showing these on Friday nights in October. Watching several over the past few weeks made realize I don’t really need to own the boxset. As much as these entertained me as a kid, now not so much. Although if the box had the Japanese ending of King Kong vs. Godzilla I would’ve been tempted as I’ve never seen it. But now I will get to save some money.

The Ben Mankiewicz intros seem to be getting increasingly deranged, as if one staff writer assigned the intros was forced to binge the entire series in a day and a half and at this point in the series was a dozen Red Bull’s in and at a “fuck it. whatever” phase of writing them

[Godzamera]

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comm ... _transfer/

[Big Ben]

I'd argue that the DVD is worse because of the cropping.

[Orlac]

TCM has done me a big favor by showing these on Friday nights in October. Watching several over the past few weeks made realize I don’t really need to own the boxset. As much as these entertained me as a kid, now not so much. Although if the box had the Japanese ending of King Kong vs. Godzilla I would’ve been tempted as I’ve never seen it. But now I will get to save some money.

There isn't one. The ending plots are exactly the same in both the United States and Japan. It's an urban legend.

It's just about the only thing they didn't change. We're talking about a re-edit where a guy holds up a tape recorder while the dub says "I'll get a light check."

[FrauBlucher]

There isn't one. The ending plots are exactly the same in both the United States and Japan. It's an urban legend.

Really? When the movie ends in Japan King Kong is seen swimming away?

[Orlac]

There isn't one. The ending plots are exactly the same in both the United States and Japan. It's an urban legend.

Really? When the movie ends in Japan King Kong is seen swimming away?

Yep, Kong is the hero of the film, Godzilla the villain. At the time, Kong was the bigger monster star too. Most of the film's budget was spent on the rights to Kong - as opposed to building Kong, who here looks distinctly joke-shopish.

[Big Ben]

Really? When the movie ends in Japan King Kong is seen swimming away?

Yes it's been an urban legend for a long time and was started in Famous Monsters of Film Land. Word of mouth has kept the myth around for over fifty years to the point that even my old man is aware of it and has erroneously repeated it. But it's a really, really common misconception due to the fact that the original Japanese version wasn't available to American audiences to dispel the myth. There are some minor edits though.

In the Japanese version, as Kong and Godzilla are fighting underwater, a very small earthquake occurs. In the American version, producer John Beck used stock footage of a violent earthquake from the film The Mysterians to make the climactic earthquake seem far more violent and destructive.

The dialogue is slightly different. In the Japanese version onlookers are wondering if Godzilla might be dead or not as they watch Kong swim home and speculate that it is possible he survived. In the American version, onlookers simply say, "Godzilla has disappeared without a trace" and newly shot scenes of reporter Eric Carter have him watching Kong swim home on a viewscreen and wishing him luck on his long journey home.

As the film ends and the screen fades to black, "Owari" ("The end") appears on screen. Godzilla's roar followed by Kong's is on the Japanese soundtrack. This was akin to the monsters' taking a bow or saying goodbye to the audience as at this point the film is over. In the American version, only Kong's roar is present on the soundtrack.

[Orlac]

I'd like it if the new KKvG has alternative endings, so depending on which screenining you go to, one of them clearly wins!

[movielocke]

Wow, Godzilla vs Gigan is incredibly terrible on its own (lack of merits) but also terrible even relative to the other films in the series, at one point, they put two Barbie dolls in a medium shot in one of the fake buildings being destroyed as though that were the same as human extras. Glad TCM aired it, because I was quite curious about the films not on the channel.

[FrauBlucher]

The Godzilla movies that came out in the 70s were pretty awful.

[Orlac]

I love them, they are totally bonkers.

[Orlac]

Wow, Godzilla vs Gigan is incredibly terrible on its own (lack of merits) but also terrible even relative to the other films in the series, at one point, they put two Barbie dolls in a medium shot in one of the fake buildings being destroyed as though that were the same as human extras. Glad TCM aired it, because I was quite curious about the films not on the channel.

I think the dolls are meant to be statues or mannequins. The films were noticeably avoiding human extras deaths by that point - the brutal Godzilla vs Hedorah excepted.

[Big Ben]

Wow, Godzilla vs Gigan is incredibly terrible on its own (lack of merits) but also terrible even relative to the other films in the series, at one point, they put two Barbie dolls in a medium shot in one of the fake buildings being destroyed as though that were the same as human extras. Glad TCM aired it, because I was quite curious about the films not on the channel.

May I ask how many Godzilla films have you seen? This is pretty standard and well, if you're not going to buy into the low budget aloofness (And I mean no offense in this statement) you best save your money. I wonder sometimes how much of Godzilla's success was because of genuine interest and how much was driven by it simply existing as a know money making quantity (Ex: Endless Slasher sequels) that people would simply go out to because it was a way to spend an afternoon. Don't get me wrong I love this type of stuff but I would be incredibly dishonest if I were to try and argue that all Godzilla films were quality films.

The Godzilla movies that came out in the 70s were pretty awful.

Godzilla vs Megalon for instance was shot in three weeks and I think it really shows.

[Godzamera]

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comm ... _the_same/

[Godzamera]

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comm ... romonster/

[swo17]

Code: Select all

[url=internet link]Explanation of point you are trying to make[/url]

[movielocke]

Wow, Godzilla vs Gigan is incredibly terrible on its own (lack of merits) but also terrible even relative to the other films in the series, at one point, they put two Barbie dolls in a medium shot in one of the fake buildings being destroyed as though that were the same as human extras. Glad TCM aired it, because I was quite curious about the films not on the channel.

May I ask how many Godzilla films have you seen? This is pretty standard and well, if you're not going to buy into the low budget aloofness (And I mean no offense in this statement) you best save your money. I wonder sometimes how much of Godzilla's success was because of genuine interest and how much was driven by it simply existing as a know money making quantity (Ex: Endless Slasher sequels) that people would simply go out to because it was a way to spend an afternoon. Don't get me wrong I love this type of stuff but I would be incredibly dishonest if I were to try and argue that all Godzilla films were quality films.

The Godzilla movies that came out in the 70s were pretty awful.

Godzilla vs Megalon for instance was shot in three weeks and I think it really shows.

Between my Blu-ray of the first one, the channel and now TCM, I’ve seen all of them except King Kong vs Godzilla, which local library has, so I’ll probably catch it soon. They vary a ton in quality, but I was fully on board with the profoundly demented qualities of Hedorah (for example) but merely rolled my eyes at Megalon’s low budget ineptitudes.

But Gigan stuck out like a sore thumb as the worst film—However my dislike of Gigan could well be watching it after the mechagodzilla films, whereas megalon was on the heels of the cheesy “home alone” Godzilla movie, so at least it was return to form and not fifty percent recycled footage (and Gigan certainly recycles a lot of the Ghidorah footage as well, gotta reuse that hilarious lightning to the crotch shot!)

[Orlac]

Megalon was my first Godzilla film, and it helped going in that I was aware it had a bad rep.

[barryconvex]

The Godzilla movies that came out in the 70s were pretty awful.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (The Smog Monster) from 1971 is probably the best sequel in the whole series and the only film after the original that actually aspires to be something more than camp. I don't care what anybody says, a woman wearing a skin tight white bodysuit with a giant clam emblazoned on the crotch counts as high art any day of the week.