Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (DVD)

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While Japanese teens participate in a marathon to win a sailboat, a man and his friends who crapped out end up onboard a yacht that the brother then commandeers. You see, his brother had disappeared in the South Pacific, and he's determined to find him. Aboard the sailboat is a man who tried to steal it before them, and together they head for the exotic islands. Naturally, a storm overtakes them, and a giant claw comes out of the sea and crushes their boat. They end up on the island of Letchi, where they realize that a terrorist organization named Red Bamboo has established a base that is developing nuclear weapons and also a hard-water product that keeps the gigantic lobster, Ebirah, at bay. But they've enslaved the natives of nearby Infant Island, and when Daiyo, one of the females, escapes, she joins forces with the castaways. The film follows their attempts to free the brother and save the island from the clutches of the evil Red Bamboozlers. As for the battle scenes, the major battle involves Godzilla and Ebirah waist-deep in the sea, flinging rocks back and forth and eventually wrestling to the bottom of the ocean. Godzilla has scenes where he makes sport of planes and stomps out a military installation (so, are these Red Bamboo planes, or army planes, in which case why didn't the army put a stop to Red Bamboo???), and he also torches a gigantic buzzard (don't ask how or where that one came from) with his fiery breath. And while it's fun to watch these monsters, the miniature boats and houses that the filmmakers use are such obvious models that you never lose sight of the fact that Godzilla is really stomping out a Matchbox village.

Lovers of the original "Godzilla" might find this too tongue-in-cheek, but "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster" reflects an era when the Cold War still sent a chill down people's spines and the tie-dye generation gave us parody as a panacea. Hell, we needed laughs, and these films provided them. And they're kid-friendly. This is rated PG for "monster violence," but even the little ones can tell that the buildings the big one is squashing are miniatures.

Video:
Though the film has been mastered in High Definition and it's really very good, there is still some graininess—but not enough to annoy. The box says it's presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, but it fills the screen a little more than the average 2.35:1 film. Typical of the period, the colors are pop-art vibrant.

Audio:
The sound, however, is no great shakes, with Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 filtered through the main and center speakers only. If you want resonant screeches and that supersonic "radioactive" noise that always accompanies these Japanese monsters, you'll need to do a bit of screeching yourself.

Extras:
What extras? Come on, you've got three monsters, and you can see exactly how they did the special effects. What more do you want?

Bottom Line:
It's hokey, but that's all part of the fun. As with the Sinbad films and the genre monster flicks, "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster" will appeal to a certain type of movie fan. And you know who you are.

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