Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Ladies and gentlemen: in this corner we have Godzilla, the Scourge of Tokyo, a mutant monster (courtesy of American nuclear weaponry) that has been periodically stomping Japan's largest megalopolis flat since 1954, and has now returned circa 1999 for a little eve-of-a-new-millennium fire-breathing, car-crushing, skyscraper-leveling party in the urban house. In the other corner, we have Mechagodzilla, a spiffy-looking biomechanical monster (made from steel, plastic, circuitry, and…oh yeah…DNA from the original Godzilla's bones--with nary a whiff of speculation about where the second Godzilla came from), on which the military-industrial-scientific complex pin their collective hopes. Yes, there's a subplot involving a loner female pilot (Yumiko Shaku) struggling with guilt over the death of a colleague, and there's a widower scientist (Shin Takuma) with a cute as a button daughter, and yes the scientist and pilot find--to quote the title of a Walker Percy novel--Love in the Ruins. But the real focus here, of course, is on the butt-kicking bouts between the two title characters…and those are reasonably entertaining. The DVD-only release allows viewers to have it both ways: in Japanese w/English subtitles for a straightforward monster action flick, or with horrendous English dubbing for the laughs (the scenes in which the scientist's daughter hangs out with her grade school friends--all clearly voiced by twentysomethings--are unintentionally funny). A strong optional purchase. (R. Pitman)