GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE (aka Gamera: The Giant Monster)

Gammera The Invincible Movie Review

An aircraft is shot down by a fighter jet, landing in a frozen tundra and unleashing a prehistoric monster--Gammera The Invincible! It's not long before Gammera makes it to Tokyo and starts destroying everything in sight. This 1965 film was the first in the Gamera series, and for reasons I can't explain, there's an extra M in his name here. This movie is also notable for being the only Gamera movie filmed in black and white, and our lovable turtle monster isn't quite so lovable quite yet--in fact, he's the fire-breathing, people-crushing antagonist here!

Gammera? 

So scientists and experts try to figure out a way to stop the monster, while turtle-loving child Toshio, who Gammera saves at one point, tries to convince them the monster is actually nice and misunderstood--I saw the American version, and though I could find no evidence to prove it, the voice actor for Toshio sounds an awful lot like the woman who did the voice of another misunderstood, lovable beast from the 1960s.

This guy!

The scenes not involving Gammera are typically somewhere between mind-numbing and sleep-inducing, but those featuring our monster are absolutely fantastic--it steals borrows heavily from Godzilla, yes, but when it is pulled off this well, I have no problem with that. The movie also features on of the all time great scenes in movie history--as Gammera is destroying the city, there is a dance hall party going on with a band singing about how great Gammera is--and the song is catchy as hell by the way. The police bust in, demand they all leave, and after a brief pause, the band ignores the police and continues to sing about how great Gammera is until the beast destroys the entire building! The movie also features a fantastic ending. While not my favorite monster movie ever, Gammera The Invincible is a lot of fun, and a must-see for anybody into these type movies.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

Gammera The Invincible Movie Trailer

RINGS

Rings Movie Review

Professor Gabriel Brown (Johnny Galecki, I Know What You Did Last Summer) discovers the VHS tape from The Ring and, just as in that film, if you watch the tape you receive a phone call telling you that in seven days you will die, with the only out being making a copy of the tape and having somebody else watch it. Brown tries to create a network that will keep the cycle going forever, with the video naturally entering the internet age, but the rules begin to change. This third film in the series gives us a more in-depth look at the history of Samara, the girl in the well.

She still doesn't look well

Instead of taking this in a whole new direction, we practically get a remake of the original film, sprinkled with just enough to distance it, and instead of delivering an interesting backstory on Samara, we get a lazy story involving a priest (Vincent D'Onofrio), with predictable results. The story is lazy, the film isn't particularly well shot, and the acting leaves a ton to be desired--even D'Onofrio, who is almost always gold, seems disinterested. The movie tries to recreate the legendary television scene from the first film, and though it is still fairly scary, it pales in comparison. After a climax that will make you yawn more than shriek, we get a final scene that, if you're a fan of the original films, you will see coming a mile away, but is also a scene that is visually pleasing. Unfortunately, there's not much to like about this movie--we can only hope they will let the franchise die now. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 4

Rings Movie Trailer