Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

How do you like your monsters? Straight up, or over-easy?

The original "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" is celebrating a 50th anniversary this year, and it fit the mold of the Fifties' monster revival. Released the same year as "Creature from the Black Lagoon," it was played pretty straight, and in classic black and white.

But "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster" hit the theaters in 1966, the same year as "Our Man Flint" poked fun of the James Bond films, and go-go was really in-in. So it's no surprise that this monster flick mashes the original with great big irreverent feet—and in Tohoscope and Eastmancolor, no less.

It's one campy, kitchen-sink of a movie, too.

There's a little "Frankenstein" in it, with lightning manipulated so that it jolts the sleeping Godzilla into action.

There's a little "King Kong" in it, with Godzilla taking a fancy to an island girl and capturing her, then swatting away fighter jets that swarm him like mosquitos.

There's a little "Mysterious Island" in it, with castaways, an air balloon, and a giant crustacean.

There's a little "7th Voyage of Sinbad" in it, with miniaturized girls (who just happen to control the gigantic Mothra as it makes a cameo appearance).

There's a little bit of "Dr. No" in it, with an evil leader calling the shots at a secret island industrial compound aimed at destroying the world.

There's a little bit of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" in it, with an island of people enslaved by villainous men.

There's a little bit of "Road to Bali" in it, with natives engaged in lavish dances for a god (in this case, Mothra), while the heroes observing it all make light of the situation.

And most of all, there's a bit of the old "Flash Gordon" serials in it, with Godzilla looking not all that much more sophisticated than a similar creature that attacked old Flash while he was trapped in a cave.

What's more, is that while the earlier monster flicks were unintentionally funny and sometimes so bad that they became campy, this one heads straight for the camp right away, and without apologies. When Godzilla does battle, cue the go-go music. And don't bother to hide the fact that the filmmakers are using a ton of miniatures to make this movie. Let the good times roll! Why, there's even a playful scene where Godzilla does battle with Ebirah, the Sea Creature, that pays homage to the popular "Pong" video games of the time. The two creatures fling rocks back and forth, sticking out a claw or paw to immediately bounce it back. It doesn't get any funkier than that.

But the best part of this 50th Anniversary release is that you can choose your level of funkiness. If you want all-out camp, then choose the dubbed version. This was the way we saw the films when they were shown on American television, with the English voices not even close to the characters' personalities. One of the dubbed characters is so high-pitched hilarious that it will either have you in stitches every time the character speaks, or it'll drive you up the wall, like fingernails on a chalkboard. Or Urkel. If you watch the film in Japanese with English subtitles, it's still campy, but nowhere near as outrageous. Still, you get three monsters for the price of two.