framptonhollis 31 Days of Spookoween: DAY SIXFilm #6: Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965)Review: Gamera always has and always will have a special place in my heart. Before today, I had only seen one other film in the Gamera cannon, and yet it feels as if I have a limitless stream of fond memories dealing with this goofy turtle monster...The poster for this film, the first in a long line of corny Japanese monster movies revolving around a cheesy, lovable turtle named Gamera, hangs gleefully in my room, smiling back at me whenever I enter its darkened walls. And today I finally watched the damn thing. And it was definitely pretty bad for the most part, BUT it was too entertaining to dismiss.While not exactly so bad it's good, the movie serves as a fun watch that both fails and succeeds at whatever it tries to do. The effects are often rather silly, but they're also charming in the same way many of these classic monster movies are. You can tell this movie isn't trying to be all too serious, although it does in brief moments, and instead is just trying to provide the viewer with a fun, thrilling experience; and, for the most part, it is rather successful. So, if you're a fan of classic Godzilla-type monster flicks and are prepared to turn your brain off for a little while and enjoy some light, cheesy fun, watch "Gamera: The Giant Monster" as soon as possible and be prepared to go on a fantastic, exciting, and sometimes unintentionally hilarious ride!

Scott LeBrun This production from Toho rival Daiei definitely does not compare to "Gojira", the high water mark among of all these Japanese monster movies; it doesn't have the same level of gravitas or panache. But that also doesn't mean that it's bad at all; it is pretty entertaining. Director Noriaki Yuasa creates some reasonably exciting action scenes. The acting from the main actors is good, but I watched the version where there are some hilariously awful thespians playing American bit parts. Tadashi Yamauchi composes a good music score, and the atmospheric black & white cinematography by Nobuo Munekawa likewise impresses. Best of all is Gamera itself, an interesting addition to the Japanese creature canon. It's well designed and performed in the best "man in a costume" tradition.Representatives from a college are visiting an Eskimo community to dig up information on the legend of an enormous turtle named Gamera when the Arctic is disrupted by an A bomb test. This creates a great big crack in the ice from which Gamera emerges. And it's a bad ass: a fire breathing, jet propelled thing that lays waste to much of its surroundings. Individuals such as scientist Dr. Hidaka (Eiji Funakoshi), his assistant Kyoke Yamamoto (Harumi Kiritachi), and photographer Aoyagi (Junichiro Yamashiko) are among those who are witness to the events, and it's up to the dedicated Hidaka and his associates to devise the best way possible of dealing with this out of control menace.Gamera is truly a force to be reckoned with here, as traditional weapons don't work against it; it seems to derive only sustenance from firepower. Finally, experts decide that a plan Z will be used. What this will involve should intrigue the viewer to some degree. Anyway, one hopes that this will work because it doesn't look like there will be any deus ex machina to help our heroes out. The main debit from this viewers' perspective is that annoying kid Toshio (Yoshiro Uchida) who keeps putting himself in danger because he's a turtle addict and is convinced that the big guy doesn't mean any harm. But overall this is still an amusing bit of escapism that is somewhat adult; the sequels, however, were decidedly more kid-friendly.This is good entertainment for fans of this genre.Seven out of 10.

FairlyAnonymous Ah classic Gamera. Well this is the first Gamera movie in a relatively large series. Generally the first movie is the best movie in the series, but not so with Gamera. Actually the latest ones are the best, while this one is one of the worst.The plot revolves around a turtle that can shoot flames from its shell to fly around like a flying saucer... seriously. It's that bad. I really could get into a very large post about all the things wrong with this movie, the first of them being the annoying main character/kid who is entirely stupid and is trying to protect Gamera from the military, while Gamera kills innocent people. The kid says "Gamera saved my life" but Gamera never did! The kid was standing on a tower, Gamera smashed the top of the tower where the kid was standing, and as the kid was about to fall, Gamera catches him, and then drops him. Doesn't sound like a friendly turtle.Either way this movie is pretty awful and the ending is the funniest thing in movie history. I honestly saw it coming, but it was still funny.

Hessian499 Gamera is one of those classic Japanese horror films that contains awful acting, worse English dubbing, and sometimes laughable special effects, but is still great fun to watch. A skirmish between American and Soviet jets over the arctic results in one of the Soviet bombers crashing and its nuclear bomb load detonating, which causes Gamera to be melted out of the ice and wreck havoc on the world (particularly Japan). As usual, a little kid who is sympathetic to the monster is thrown in, and probably as a result Gamera is not killed at the end (though I have to admit, if it really could have worked, the way they dispatched Gamera at the film's conclusion was rather ingenious). Probably the funniest scene is at a dance for teenagers in Tokyo, where a band is singing the Gamera theme song and eventually the monster himself makes an appearance! All in all, this is not a film that takes itself too seriously, and if the viewer takes the same attitude it is a whole lot of fun to watch. Gamera rules!