Movie Name: Godzilla 1985
Rank: 3 godzillas

Review:
Unlike the original "Godzilla, King of the Monsters", this "Americanized" version of "Gojira 1984" resists the temptation to completely rewrite the backplot to make the movie more accessible to American audiences. Instead, a number of "meanwhile, back in the United States..." - type scenes are added to "explain" what is going on. Raymond Burr returns in the American version, but not as effectively as in the original. Unfortunately, the other American characters added for the American version are embarrasingly bad. One interesting plot change which did occur: In the Japanese version, a Russian captain dies while heroically attempting to stop the launch of a nuclear missile toward Tokyo [unfortunately, he fails]. In the American version, however, the scene was re-edited to appear as though the the captain was actually attempting to launch the missile, and dies after successfully launching it! Not only did they change the dialogue and move some of the scenes around, they even a new scene showing a hand reaching out and pushing the launch button! Oh well -- this was at the height of the Cold War...


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Movie Name: Gojira 1984 (original Japanese version)
Rank: 3 1/2 godzillas

Review:
This movie, the first of the new series, went a long way toward capturing the feel of the original film. The cinematography is also quite improved from previous movies. For the first time since the original film, it is almost possible to suspend disbelief and actually believe that Godzilla really is hundreds of feet tall. The plot also captures the cold war mentality as it addresses the question of how the world's superpowers would react to a huge radioactive behemoth rising from Tokyo Bay.



CREDITS

Gojira (1984)
Released in U.S. as Godzilla 1985 (1985)

CAST
Prime Minister Mitamura..........Keiju Kobayashi
Goro Maki.............................Ken Tanaka
Naoko Okumura...................Yasuko Sawaguchi
Hiroshi Okumura......................Shin Takuma
Prof. Hayashida...................Yosuke Natsuki
Prof. Minami.....................Hiroshi Koizumi

CREW
Director.........................Kohji Hashimoto
Screenplay......................Shuichi Nagahara
Original Story...................Tomoyuki Tanaka
Special Effects.................Teruyoshi Nakano
Music..............................Reijiro Koroku

Running Time: 103 min.

U.S. VERSION:

Released by New World Pictures

CAST
Steve Martin.....Raymond Burr
General Goodhue.....Warren Kemmerling
Colonel Raschen.....James Hess
Major McDonough.....Travis Swords

CREW
Director.....R.J. Kizer
Producer.....Anthony Randel
Screenplay.....Lisa Tomei
Editor.....Michael Spence
Additional Music.....Chris Young
Sound Editor.....Bob Bigert

Alternate Title: The Return of Godzilla
Running Time: 91 min.