Godzilla (1998) -Matthew Broderick

Almost everyone has a bad movie they really like; this is mine. I find it helps to watch it in Spanish (or any other language you don't speak). It also helps if you don't think of it as a Godzilla film, but rather a run-of-the-mill giant monster flick.

I used to have nightmares that Godzilla would chase me to my high school. I would hide in classrooms (the place was deserted) but Godzilla would look through the windows and eventually find me, at which point I would run and hide again. So the last third of the film - Godzilla chasing the jeep - brings back those memories in a half-funny half-freaky way. I enjoy giant monster films where you see much of the action from a street-level perspective, and this film provides plenty of those moments.

Plus, Maggie Petillo is adorable.

The only real legacy of this atrocity of a movie is that the '98 "Zilla has a cameo in Godzilla; Final Wars. The REAL Godzilla takes all of about 10 seconds to beat the shit out of the impostor!

I really hate this movie and I hate even more that I paid money to see it in the theater knowing it would be a bad movie, but not suspecting it would be so joyless, souless, devoid of all Human value and an affront to both the Human Race and Kaiju

.

I kinda want to see this, if only for Jean Reno's Giant Stereotype Frenchman character (he complains about coffee!) Also Hank Azaria plays a dude called Animal, and Michael Lerner is "Mayor Ebert", so you can pretend this is about the drummer from the Muppets trying to save a town from Godzilla while the mayor is off discussing Last Year At Marienbad with some french secret service guy.

The film is garbage, but I think it holds up better than most of the 90s Godzilla films, which says a lot.

I would have liked to have seen the entire movie centered around Jean Reno's character, instead of Matthew Broderick. Agree on the entire end sequence being like The Lost World 2. I still like the flick. Mostly for Jean Reno having fun with his role.

I saw this film purely because I was both a Godzilla fan AND a Jean Reno fan. Jean Reno I got, but Godzilla was missing...

Still, what did you expect from the same bloke that brought us Independence Day?

I think it works okay up through Godzilla's first appearance and rampage. The helicopter chase and the sub chase are cool action bits, and there's something almost lyrical about Godzilla's death on the bridge. But the baby Godzilla's? The indestructible cab? Mayor Ebert? Anything with Broderick and Patillo's relationship? Geez.

Although, it should be said, the original Godzilla films were known for having really long stretches with lots of human stuff and no monsters at all, so this version isn't too far off in that regard. But, while I didn't necessarily want man-in-suit, they could have had Godzilla at least look something like the original.

I saw this film before i had seen any of the Original Godzillia films (my only exposure being the cartoon), so I kind of liked it.

After having watched a couple of the classics I soon changed my mind. I put this one in the same bracket as Jackson's King Kong - a remake that never worked.

Wow, people will literally find the bright side in anything. It's such a joyless, soulless, rote piece of filmmaking. It's not even retardedly bombastic like Independence Day, it's just kind of meek and uninteresting. Really Emmerich, who had displayed no particular affinity for humanity and a genuine passion for blowing shit up, should have been the perfect director for a film like this. But aside from some aenemic destruction in the middle there's really nothing in the film which is all that interesting.

For me, the pre-release hype and teasers overshadow the actual film.

Somehow, they made a really boring movie about a giant monster smashing up New York. I suppose it doesn't help that the entire film takes place during a rainstorm, at night which makes it even more drab and uninteresting.

Was that decision just to cover up shoddy CGI?

The opening credits are actually really good. Then the movie started . . .

How many miles of linen bandages would it take to rap up Godzilla?

This ^. GINO was one of the first major theatrical disappointments for me. I'm such a fan of the Japanese versions.

What would I expect from the director of ID4? Something fun (if mindless). Atleast the estranged relationships in that flick had some dynamic you were rooting for. Not in this one. Broderick's ex should have been dropped kicked into GINO's mouth. Who cares if she's somewhat cute? She's annoying, selfish, and a terribly-written character.

Plus, GINO's a pussy in this flick. Hiding for too much of the running time. Give me CLOVERFIELD or a Harryhausen classic (as far as American kaiju go) instead.

And how did Blue Oyster Cult's tune NOT make the soundtrack? WTF.

But, yeah, I own it on DVD. Oops.

This movie is the perfect example of what happens when the director and producer happen to dislike the source material. If you are not a fan of the material you can never do it justice. If Matt Stone and Trey Parker ever make their giant monster movie, even as a comedy it will have more heart and soul than this one did.

Edit for spelling

This is the best thing to come from the movie.

I was 11 when this came out and I remember being so pumped for it. I think I could say it was the first time I felt majorly disappointed leaving the theater. I think I even tried to convince myself that I did like but there was nothing I could find to like in this fucking bore.

Also, Maria Pitillo is a fucking black hole of charisma. I don't think I've ever seen anyone suck the energy out of a room quite like she did.

I picked it up on sale for like 5 bucks. That was worth it for the few FX scenes I enjoyed.

This came out at the height of my adolescent obsession with kaiju and ended up being a Phantom Menace-esque debacle - excitement for the film's mere existence initially caused me to gloss over the bad but eventually gave way to full blown disappointment and anger. I think immediately after seeing it I was trying to rationalize the stuff that disappointed me and find reasons to like the movie, and even then I wasn't as concerned with the quality of the filmmaking so much as the fact that the monster just didn't look, sound, or behave like Godzilla, but it didn't take long to give up and just admit it's an all around bad or at least very mediocre film on pretty much every level, with the exception of a few cool moments.

Darkmite, it's appropriate you mention Harryhausen considering this movie is really more like a remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms than any Godzilla movie. It's slightly better if you look at it that way but still not actually good.

However I too own it on DVD. In my defense it's only because it came in box set with other Godzilla movies I actually wanted.

In retrospect, this movie was perfect practice for The Phantom Menace. So I guess the experience wasn't all bad.

Yup.
Yeah, got my 2nd copy that way. Gave it to my kaiju-loving nephews (a genre I single-handedly got them into). I'm a bad man.

I remember banner ads on movie sites for Phantom Menace that made fun of Godzilla's SIZE MATTERS tagline by having PLOT MATTERS on them.

Huh huh huh.

Good call. I forgot all about that!

Shit. Do I really need to bring up how much comparatively better The Phantom Menace is to fucking Godzilla? Really?

I remember they kept the creatures look secret the whole production. Then a couple days before release I walked into Walmart, and there he was, setting on a shelf. Spoiled beyond belief:

I know its not great, but this is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. My big sister from the local colleges big brother big sister program took me and i had a great time. i was thankfully too young at the time to catch on to what the rather crass marketing campaign was getting at . i was thinking, "yes, the relative size of a rampaging atomic lizard probably does matter"

there is some clever cgi that still holds up fairly well, along with a handful of moments that are genuinely suspenseful and just plain good action filmaking.

*The fishing trawller getting pulled down to the ocean floor
*the foot print reveal
* "gorjira.. gorjira..." --the haunted look in his eyes is frightening
*the chrysler building getting ruined
*assorted shots of mayhem

there is plenty to dislike as well, of course, but i guess nostalgia and the memories of the rainy trip to the mall overwhelm the negatives when it comes to my own personal experience. (and, i am not someone who was totally ignorant of godzilla, i'd seen the origional and a few others, and also seen 'godzilla vs the seamonster' about 9000 times --my parents had purchased it for me on vhs, my current holy grail is to find the mst3k episode that has the film in it)

It never stops raining in that fucking movie. Why not just set the flick in Seattle?

Bah! Seattle doesn't have nearly as much rain as its reputation may have you believe!

Plus, there aren't enough skyscrapers to destroy in Seattle. Godzilla would get depressed from a lack of purpose.

But in the end, which one was relatively a bigger disappointment?

Godzilla. Easily.

Well, I meant for people who consider all 3 movies in the OT to be great.

Which excludes you, Greg! Hehehe.

I never actually felt this supposed disappointment of 98's Godzilla. I had no attachment to the man-in-suit movies and didn't get caught up in the hype. Never saw it in theaters. Saw it on VHS when it finally came out and barely remembered a thing about it.

Phantom Menace was the bigger disappointment for me. I actually liked Godzilla when it came out, and I remember being really disappointed with episode I. I like the original trilogy a lot, but at heart I'm more of a Star Trek guy.

I don't see the point in arguing which is a bigger disappointment, seeing as it will differ with taste and they both blow.

Yeah, I agree with that. TPM had such high expectations that I knew going in wouldn't be fulfilled, so I was able to cherry pick segments that I did enjoy. Godzilla '98 couldn't even live up to the meager standards of Godzilla movies.

One thing I can say in favor of the film, it did continue the tradition of having a great score in a Godzilla film. David Arnold did a fantastic job.

I don't even most of the film itself. That speaks to how bad and unforgettable the movie is. What I remember more are, as has already been mentioned, the adds leading uo to the films release: "His leg is the size of a NYC bus", "his eye is the size of a park bench", etc.

Weird this gets brought up and then voila!- this news breaks-
Legendary Pictures is thinking of rebooting Godzilla!

I submitted this as a scoop, too

I think I still have a Godzilla cupholder from Taco Bell rolling around in the trunk of my car.

Anybody remember the Puff Daddy song "Come With Me" that he did with Jimmy Page for this film?

I remeber seeing a lot of those signs, but one in particular where "foot" was replaced with "dick", so it read in huge letters "his DICK is as big as this sign".

Just the fact that someone climbed onto the billboard and wrote it in such huge letters was hilarious, and pretty much the only positive memory I have of this movie.

This movie is a floating turd.

As I wrote before, I did not get the whole point of the "size matters" campaign the first time around. Now though, while i get what they are talking about, i still do not understand how it makese sense as an advertising campaign. what do penises have to do with godzilla?

Yes, I'm pretty sure the fandom is going to be jerking off to the idea of a Chris Nolan Godzilla until the talks with Toho fall through.

I still think the teaser with the curator at the history museum talking about how the T-rex is one of the largest creatures to roam the earth only to have Godzilla's foot crush the skeleton is one of the best teasers ever.

Here.

Too bad the movie never lived up to that. Such a waste of potential. Fortunately, Cloverfield was everything I wanted from an American Godzilla movie.

I can't think of this film without thinking of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvA26p6wMYc

EDIT: Sorry Bradito, did not see your post up there.

Yep. It's terrible, just like the movie. That was when P. Diddydally was at the peak of his "what's old is new again!" method of throwing around mad loot and "sampling" entire songs. Poor "Kashmir".

A friend of mine actually bought the soundtrack. There's also a remix of Green Day's "Brain Stew" with added Godzilla roars. Just what that song was always missing!

I always see this around for 5 bucks. One day I'll give in and take the plunge. I hate being an effects whore sometimes.

Page lets Puff have the 'Kashmir' riff for this piece of shit but doesn't let Schooly D and Abel Ferrara use it for BAD LIEUTENANT's 'Signifying Rapper'? You're a cock, Jimmy Page.