We're pretty sure it wasn't Kubrick

Godzilla's back and he's on a mission to do some squishin. A father daughter team who are members of the Godzilla Prediction Network (the Shinodas), along with a journalist (Yuki), try to prevent the government in its attempts to kill Godzilla, who ultimately must defend humanity against an alien invader.

    What do you want from a movie called Godzilla 2000? Godzilla smashing stuff and fucking up other monsters? Funny dubbing and dialogue? You got it. Nonetheless, this film is not as good as it could have been. Godzilla's romps through Tokyo are a bit boring, maybe because there is no indication that anybody is in real danger. It's sort of like the GI Joe cartoon or the A-team; there's lots of explosions and destruction, but nobody ever gets hurt. I suppose this is so we can think of Godzilla as a good guy, but its 2000--these days nobody's going to hold stomping on a few hundred people against you.

    The Godzilla Prediction Network is a nice wrinkle. The father daughter team are likable and the whole idea is just plain cool. It's like those people who follow tornadoes, but much more exciting.

    It occurred to me while watching the film that the much derided "guy in a suit" approach to special effects actually works pretty well most of the time. It works better than much of the CGI in this film, as well as most of the CGI in big budget Hollywood films. But we've been told so often that CGI effects look real and the "guy in a suit" effects look fake that most people seem to believe it in spite of what is before their very eyes.

   The highlight of the film is, as it should be, the final battle between Godzilla and the alien, Orga. Many buildings are destroyed, much ass is kicked and Godzilla uses his radioactive breath (which is my favorite) to great effect. It makes you wish there were more monster battles in this film and glad that there will be 3 in the next one.

DVD

The commentary is by the team who Americanized the film by cleaning up the dialog, finding voice actors and so forth. The whole process is fairly interesting and they have enough to talk about to fill the commentary without getting too boring or repetitive.

Ruthless Ratings:

• Overall: 6
• Direction: 5
• Acting: 5
• Story: 5
• DVD Extras: 6
• Re-watchability: 6