Godzilla

In the latest summer spectacle-cum-marketing assault from Independence Day creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, a mutant reptile comes to New York City on a rampage, much to the consternation of the city's blustering, corpulent, bespectacled Mayor Ebert (he of a "Thumbs Up for New York" re-election campaign) and his ineffectual, balding assistant named Gene. (I'm not sure why Emmerich and Devlin found this fit of retaliatory pique necessary, especially when the two thumbs down of American's best-known critics didn't prevent "ID4" from making $300 million.) Using Aliens and Jurassic Park as its models rather than the adventures of its rubber-suited predecessor, Godzilla takes only half an hour before the scaly behemoth hits the Big Apple and turns midtown Manhattan into a Jurassic parking lot. This sequence is followed by enough sheer variety of action--helicopter chases, submarine encounters, etc.--to insure a consistent level of interest. When the film rests on human shoulders, however, you could sprain your eyeballs from rolling them. Devlin and Emmerich continue their uncanny knack for inane back-story (including a mayo-on-white-bread relationship dynamic between Matthew Broderick and Maria Pitillo), hopelessly feeble dialogue, and characters so caricatured that Al Hirschfeld should have drawn them. Still, people will want to the special effects (even though they've seen better), and the low price makes this a strong optional purchase. (S. Renshaw)[Blu-ray Review—Nov. 24, 2009—Sony, 139 min., PG-13, $24.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1998's Godzilla sports a nice transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras are almost identical to those on the standard DVD release, including audio commentary by VFX Supervisor Volker Engel and Associate VFX Supervisor Karen Goulekas, the “All Time Best of Godzilla Fight Scenes” (10 min.), a behind-the-scenes featurette (7 min.), and the “Heroes” music video performed by The Wallflowers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is an “Ultimate Godzilla Multi-Player Trivia Game,” the “movieIQ” feature that allows viewers to access real-time information on the cast, music, trivia, and more through the BD-Live function, and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: although this remake of the classic monster flick looks wonderful on Blu-ray, it's still a disappointing film.]