Friday, June 12, 2020

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS 1969 (CRITERION) BLU-RAY

According to most Godzilla fans, this is the best film in the entire series, and rightly so.

Once again Toho was planning on this being the final Godzilla film but we all know how that worked out.

In this slam bang film female invaders from the planet Kilaak invade the Earth with full intent on taking over. They use electronic microchips to control certain humans as well as all of the Earth's monsters who now have been gathered on what is called "Monster Island".

The invaders send various monster to major world cities for complete destruction. Mothra invades Peking, Gorasaurus destroys Paris, Rodan raises hell in Moscow and Godzilla tramples New York while Tokyo remains untouched.

That is soon changed as all of the monsters are brought to Tokyo and go on a spree of utter destruction while the authorities work to stop the invaders. They discover that the invaders cannot stand cold and they finally get the upper hand.

In a last ditch attempt to conquer the world they bring King Ghidorah to Earth to fight the now human controlled monsters. The final showdown takes place on Mount Fuji. It's very cool to see almost the entire Toho monster cast in this film and this is one film that NEVER slows down for one minute.

Easily, this is my favorite Godzilla movie from this era and it was also the swan song of effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya who passed away shortly after the film was completed. The directing chores were again handled by Ishiro Honda and the wonderful music was done by Akira Ifukube.

I have owned three different version on this film on DVD, but this Blu-ray is the crowning achievement. It is, of course, in Japanese with English subtitles which is perfect because the US dubbing always leaves something to be desired.

This film was also the last Godzilla film to make tons of money all over the world and it remained in TV syndication in the US for many years. This is an absolutely MUST SEE film from the Showa-Era. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

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