Space Amoeba
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Movie Reviews of Space Amoeba
Movie Review: What's going on???
Summary: 5 Stars
Does anybody out there know what's up with the releases of Space Ameoba & Atragon? Why the release of both (great films) are still delayed after being delayed once be for. Either way apparently both films are available but you have to wait 2 to 5 weeks (if your lucky) to recieve them from amazon.Movie Review: Postponed again
Summary: 5 Stars
The release date has been moved from January 17, to February 14. Not too far off..Movie Review: You'll always be Yog to me...
Summary: 4 Stars
You may have been originally released as Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Kessen! Nankai no daikaijû (1970), but you'll always be Yog: Monster from Space (1971) to me...directed by the legendary Ishirô Honda (Godzilla, Rodan! The Flying Monster, The Mysterians), with original music by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla, Rodan! The Flying Monster), the film features a host of familiar faces to those who love on these Japanese Toho monster features including Akira Kubo (Gorath, Matango, Destroy All Monsters), Atsuko Takahashi (Destroy All Monsters), Kenji Sahara (Matango, Atragon, Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster), and Yoshio Tsuchiya (Baran: Monster from the East, Matango, Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero). Also appearing is Noritake Saito (Godzilla vs. Gigan), Chotaro Togin (Destroy All Monsters), Tetsu Nakamura (Mothra), Yukiko Kobayashi (Destroy All Monsters), and Wataru Omae (Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster).
The movie begins with an unmanned rocket blasting off into space, one that's carrying a space probe intended to scope out Jupiter. On it's way to the Jovian gas giant, the probe encounters some sparkly space dust, which gloms on to the craft, takes control, and turns it back towards Earth. During its re-entry, a photographer named Taro Kudo (Kubo), traveling on a plane, witnesses the craft crash into the ocean, but no one believes him. He then gets an offer from a development company to photograph an island where they plan to build a paradise resort, and he agrees only because the island happens to be in the same area he saw the probe crash (great idea there, building a luxury resort on Monster Island). Along for the ride are a really annoying company woman named Ayako (Takahashi), a scientist named Dr. Kyoichi Mida (Tsuchiya), and a mysterious individual named Makoto Obata (Sahara). Prior to their arrival, a company man on the island has an encounter with a gianormous squid (be sure to send us a postcard from inside the beast's belly), and the natives go crazy go nuts (they believe the arrival of the outsiders has angered their god, resulting in the giant monsters getting all frisky). The group arrives on the island and soon enough sees first hand the wackiness caused by the space dust, which is actually some sort of amoeba-like alien life form, and its penchant for embiggening the local animal population. There's the giant squid, followed by a humongous crab, and last, but not least, a monstrous snapping turtle. Turns out not only is the alien goo a sentient being, but one that desires to dominate the world, and has been super sizing various beast in order to make it happen. The various monsters thrash the island, copulating with many a thatched hut in the process, the small group fights back with the help of the natives (initiating what has to be the biggest cookout I've ever seen), but given the enormity of the beasts, all hope seems lost. All bow down before your new alien embiggened crustacean masters!
While this may not be one of my favorite Japanese monster features, it's still kinda fun (I have a hard time believing Honda was behind this one). I suppose the main issue I have with the film is the fact that while there are various monsters running around, they don't really engage each other in any battles (at least not until the end), or have any real personality, as the aliens control them all, and there is no `hero' type creature (like Godzilla) to save the day, providing some real rompin' stompin' action. The creatures do work over the native village pretty well, but how many thatched huts can you see smashed before it gets old (I think maybe a limited budget confined the action to the island, avoiding the cost of tons of miniatures)? Had the beast actually made it to civilization, then we would have had something, but it never happens. Here's a really funny bit...initially we're told the development of a paradise resort on this island was supposed to be some sort of top secret project, but when the group arrives on the island, there's a good sized sign posted, the kind developers use to advertise what they're building on a specific piece of land, which is really a great way to keep a secret (actually, the hotel was supposed to be some sort of submarine habitat, I think...the story began falling apart at the seams as more ultimately useless plot details were revealed). I suppose it didn't really matter, as the island was fairly remote, but then how stupid is that, to put up a sign virtual no one will see? Arggh...another really funny bit was when one of the main characters early on actually proposed the whole `monster' aspect a hoax, despite the fact that not only was the company hut completely demolished (along with the man inside), but there was a humongous path of plant destruction from where the giant squid walked across land to get to the hut, and then traveled back to return to the water (who knew squids could walk?). I liked most of the characters in the story well enough (the two company men stationed on the island were pretty idiotic), but I did find the female lead about the most irritating I've seen in a long time. If she's not screaming indiscriminately, she's offering forth the most idiotic statements and just making herself a pest in general. The only reason the others didn't feed this useless bit of excess baggage to the monsters immediately was because she did rate relatively high on the `cute' scale. Her character really served no purpose in the film other than to provide keep it from being a sausage fest (an all male film). As far as Dr. Kyoichi Mida, the scientist hired by the development company to examine the native animal life, he makes some of the most intuitive deductions this side of a Sherlock Holmes movie. Seriously...from out of nowhere he comes up with the theory that the giant monsters are a result of manipulation by some alien life form...yes, it happened to be true, but I have not a clue in hell how he came up with this given how little he actually had to go on...as far as the monsters go, I thought they looked pretty cool, showing a whole lot of detail. The squid was a bit funky, but the crab was spectacular, with the snapping turtle falling somewhere in between. Eventually a couple of these creature do tangle (near the end), as you really can't have a giant monster movie like this featuring three beast and not have them fight at some point. It may seem like I have a lot of misgivings about this film (I do), but I still had a lot of fun between the unintentional stupidity of some of the characters and the monsters themselves. There's any number of better Japanese monster, or "kaiju", films out there, but if you've curious, this one's worth a look.
Media Blasters provides an excellent looking anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) picture on this DVD, along with a newly created Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound audio track, along with a Dolby Digital mono track. As far as extras, Media Blasters goes that extra mile yet again providing a commentary track with producer Fumio Tanaka, a short documentary titled `Meet the Marine Animals behind the Monster!', a special announcement bit, an original trailer, English subtitles, and previews for other Media Blasters DVD releases like Dogora (1964), The Mysterians (1957), Varan the Unbelievable (1962), and Atragon (1963).
Cookieman108
By the way, does anyone happen to know which monster was Yog?
Movie Review: For it's 40th Anniversary, I've been wanting to do this review for a while.
Summary: 4 Stars
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Now, if you read my Salt review (written the same day,) you will know I love cliche's and cheese. This...is not the reason why I like this film. First, it's exotic, it's rare when a Toho monster movie both takes place on an exotic island AND is original. At least past 1967. This lands the last non-Godzilla monster movie Ishiro Honda directed, and the last non-Godzilla monster movie before Godzilla himself got a talking from husband-of-future-senator-of-Connecticut Vincent Kennedy McMahon. (For all non-wrestling fans: YOOOUUUUUU'RRRREEE Of course, that would be temporary, but we all know we missed him.
And it wasn't so much that he was fired as much as he was unable to perform and was laid off. During the 1972 alone, all these lost projects came up: Godzilla vs. Hitodah, Godzilla vs. Hedorah 2 (the first Godzilla movie to have a number in it at the time,) Godzilla vs. Redmoon, The Return of King Ghidorah, and Godzilla vs. The Space Monsters: Earth Defense directive. Following such, during the late 70's, these films were lost: Godzilla vs. The Devil, Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla (early script,) Godzilla vs. The Gargantuas, Godzilla vs. The Asuka Fortress, and King of the Monsters: Rebirth of Godzilla which was going to be a remake of the original.
And that's just one of the many decades where Godzilla was unable to perform. What was my rambling to point again? There was no point, I was being random and a \/\/hore trying to fill up space. Now, onto other cases, the movie. Yes, it is very exotic, in more ways than just the setting. But let's talk about the setting. The ancient and isolated jungle and beautiful seas create the mood for a strange acid flick featuring low-budget monsters. Yes, this film was low budget, even after Toho made legends such as Godzilla, Seven Samurai, Rodan, Mothra, The H-Man, and tons of other greats that you know about. You can tell that Gezora sometimes has his eyes glowing, in the script it was originally intended that his eyes would ALWAYS GLOW.
But that's not the movies problem. The monsters are also awesome. Ganime is a rip-off of Ebirah, Kamoebas is a rip-off of Gamera, and Gezora is AWESOME!!! He is the most trippy slimy piece of I have ever seen! He looks incredible! Someone who works for the Academy would say he looks stupid NO. He is awesome in both cheese and just sheer originality. Sure, he's a squid, BUT HE'S A CRAZY @$$ SQUID. Like how Gamera is a Crazy @$$ Turtle. Of course, every Toho movie comes with it's own moral of the story awesomeness, and this one doesn't let down. (Wow, awesomeness actually agrees with the spell check.) It tells us to always remember your roots, and never let what has crawled into your body take over you. Remember that people, you were naked when you were born.
The monster action is actually a little lacking, but probably because of the body structure of our three superstars. It's an odd acid classic, anybody thinking a stupid squid on the cover means it's awful is missing out on some amazing stuff. I desperately want to see another Toho monster movie, so I urge people to go see the new Godzilla movie coming out the year we die. (I think that's self explanatory.) I rate it...3.75/5
Movie Review: Not the AIP version, but a good release nonetheless
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a Tokyo Shock release of a Japanese monster film called Kessen! Nankai no Daikaiju Gezora, Ganime, Kameba; better known to American monster movie fans over age 40 as Yog-Monster From Space. It made the drive-in circuit and then was given a lot of airplay on tv back in the 1970's. As most people reading this are likely familiar with the movie via those monster shows of days gone by, this is less a review of the movie itself than a comparison of the dvd and the AIP version which the reader is likely to expect. I will say to those who have never seen it that it is more fun than its reputation would have you think, and if you like Japanese monster films then you will probably find something to enjoy here.
The dvd contains two versions of the movie, the Japanese original (subtitles available) and the international English release. The international dubbing is done by the Hong Kong studio that fans of 70's Godzilla movies are familiar with. As opposed to many of those movies, the dubbing in this one isn't too bad, but isn't of the quality of the AIP release. Being familiar with the AIP version (I had one of the rare public domain pre-records for years), I can tell you that AIP took a lot of liberties with dialogue, but their version was less dry and more lively than the versions herein. Gone are a lot of Obata's jokes (...you ought to open up a church with Ombo!) and professor Miya's melodramatic ramblings (...we're at the mercy of something no one has ever seen!). Curiously, the facial expressions of the actors seem more appropriate to the AIP dialogue than the Japanese original in many scenes. Also, the native music in the AIP version is reduced to a drum track, which a viewing of the dvd reveals to be the native music from King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Even though this release isn't the AIP version, it's still a worthwhile purchase on it's own merits, and unless you're willing to hunt down the previously mentioned VHS, it's all there is.