Godzilla (1998)

Writer/Director/Producer Roland Emmerich has had so much success at the box office, he could really do anything he wanted. I guess what he wanted to do was remake the classic monster movie. This one, like all summer blockbusters before it, is a real "leave your brain at home" kind of megamovie. It doesn't really have much plot. Just lotsa monsters and lotsa destruction. What more can one ask from a summer hit?

If you must have plot or romance, you got Matthew Broderick playing a watered-down Jeff Goldblum type of scientist. Broderick doesn't ramble on incessantly or anything. He just hangs out and has fun. His character isn't even a lizard expert, just a guy who studies radioactive worms, so he doesn't have a lot of egghead theories or anything. He's just the guy who come in with the right plan of action which is, of course, ignored. His love interest is played by the rather watery Maria Pitillo (who was on TV with Broderick's once cinematic alter-ego Jon Cryer on Fox's "Partners"). Pitillo is so lilly-livered that she can get on one's nerves. At least we didn't have to sit through another strong willed woman character, although there is a smattering of that with Vicki Lewis (TV's "NewsRadio") as a female working with Broderick. For comic relief we get Harry Shearer, who plays a jerk that isn't really all that funny and Hank Azaria who has as all the fun he can get out of his role. Also along for the ride are Jean Reno, as a French agent and Kevin Dunn and Doug Savant as Army guys.

One of the funniest things about the film is how un-serious it is. There's nothing here but brain candy. Emmerich has fun gently spoofing the genre by putting Asians into some extra types roles here. He also presents a healthy and gentle spoof of Siskel and Ebert by casting Michael Lerner as the Mayor of New York and giving him a bald-headed aide named "Gene" with whom he argues all the time. It's cute. Also funny: Emmerich includes a segment where "Barney" the purple dinosaur is on a TV in the background while Godzilla walks by.

But, of course, "Godzilla" is really about Special Effects and, I'm sad to say, they are only fair here. The creature looks great throughout but the havoc he reeks can be a little to obviously computer generated. There is plenty of destruction though so, I guess, it only occassionally looks fake. There are a few obvious spots, here and there, where blue screen effects are noticeable too. The scene where the old man runs down the wharf while Godzilla tears it up, for example, is obviously phony.

But "Godzilla" is just for fun and if you don't think about it, it is just that. There's even a poignant moment at the end where Broderick expresses exactly what we feel about the conclusion of the film without ever uttering a single word. It's quite effective. This is as good a summer flick as one can hope to get with monsters and radioactivity and scientists and New York, anyway.

Note: Also with Bodhi Elfman.

Screenplay by Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who also produces.

Music by David Arnold. Pop soundtrack features Wallflowers, Puff Daddy (sampling Led Zeppelin very heavily), Jamiorquai, Rage Against the Machine, Ben Folds Five, Days of the New, Michael Penn, Fuel, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Silverchair, Fuzzbubble, and Joy DeLuxe.

One Executive Producer is Ute Emmerich.

Creature Effects by Patrick Tatapoulos, the same last name Broderick's character has.

The film also references Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" and Elvis.

Filmed in NYC, Hawaii, Jersey City (New Jersey) and at the studio in Culver City, California.

The budget was $160 million.

Review written in 1998

Report Card

Script: C+

Acting: B+

Cinematography\Lighting: B+

Special Effects\Make Up: B-

Music: A-

Final Grade: B