RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

soulexpress This was the fourth installment of the massively popular Gamera films out of Japan. It was also the first one that's unabashedly made for kids. And before you ask: no, MST3K never riffed on it.The unashamedly silly plot goes as follows: alien beings in a spaceship that looks like bumblebees plan to kill everyone on Earth so they can populate the planet themselves. Cue Gamera, the giant prehistoric flying turtle with fangs, fiery breath, and jet propulsion in his feet. Before the aliens can get near the Earth, Gamera kicks ass on them. The would-be invaders retreat but dispatch a second bumblebee ship. This time, the aliens trap Gamera on the bottom of the ocean with some kind of electronic net thingy. But Gamera frees himself, prompting the aliens to affix a mind- control device to the turtle. He eventually loses the device and trashes the spaceship, only to do battle with Viras, the aliens' lord and master. If the storyline sounds familiar, it was recycled the following year for GAMERA VS. GUIRON, a/k/a DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.When director Kinji Yuasa realized he only had about an hour of footage, he padded the film out with scenes from the previous three movies. Never mind that the first two were in black and white. The same thing happens when the aliens order Gamera to destroy Tokyo. Since the turtle had done so in the first film (when he was still a bad monster), director Yuasa merely inserted the footage here. So approximately one-third of this 90-minute film is in black and white.There's also a sub-plot involving two mischievous Boy Scouts (or whatever the Japanese call them) who steal a mini-sub and end up racing with Gamera on the ocean's floor. They also get caught in the electronic net thingy when the aliens catch their turtle foe. Later on, they abduct the boys and take them aboard the Starship Bumblebee as leverage against the child-loving Gamera—not to mention the Japanese miiltary. That's right, folks. These two boys are apparently worth the annihilation of the rest of humanity!It's ludicrous, but who cares? Certainly not the kids in the audience, who just wanted to see Gamera locked in mortal combat with his latest goofy-looking monster foe. In that regard, the film delivers. And unlike the next chapter, neither kid is obsessed with traffic accidents.

Rainey Dawn Destroy All Planets or Gamera vs. Outer Space Monster Viras.Oh boy the last film of the Mill Creek Sci-Fi Classic 50-Pack and it had to be another Gamera film - yippy, yippy! And this one is either truly awful or I'm just in a terrible mood - maybe a bit of both. A couple of the other Gamera films were kinda okay to watch but I did not like what I saw with this particular film - It just didn't have what the other films had to keep me interested.All of the Gamera films are crappy but this one is the worst of the batch I think. Oh well, not all of them can be good. That is what happens to franchises - they all tend to go down hill.1/10

Woodyanders The Gamera series takes a pretty substantial nosedive in quality with this regrettably cheap and plodding fourth entry. The plot is sound -- the big fire-breathing flying prehistoric turtle falls under the nefarious spell of evil space invaders and it's up to two mischievous boy scouts to free Gamera so he can successfully thwart the extraterrestrial menace -- but alas undermined by a conspicuously low budget (there's copious stock footage from previous Gamera films), a meandering narrative, too much goofy humor (the silly antics of the two boys wears really thin after a while), tacky and none too convincing (not so) special effects, slack direction by Noriaka Yuasa, and an often sluggish pace. That said, the theme song is quite catchy and rousing, the scenes of Gamera stomping on cities and destroying dams hit the thrilling mondo destructo spot something sweet, and Gamera's lively and exciting protracted climactic battle with an enormous one-eyed squid creature is loads of wacky fun to watch. Watchable, but overall nothing special.

Wyrmis No one goes into the old Gamera movies expecting brilliance. In fact, most watch them fairly openly to delve into the schlock, whether as a guilty pleasure or to enjoy mocking it. I am somewhere in the middle of these two. I have a massive high tolerance for "badness", especially when it is done in the spirit of earnest fun, but there was a couple of times where I just wanted to shut this one off.The first reason was the flashbacks to which many viewers allude. Not only is there a roughly fifteen minute scene composed of much too large chunks of "fight" scenes from earlier movies, but there are at least two "major" scenes that are taken from the first and second movie and then played off as freshly happening. It is so poorly done, that the scenes from the first one are left in black and white, despite the rest of this movie being in color! The second reason was the utter illogic of this one, in places. A genius kid is one thing, if almost always annoying at times, but this one went above and beyond. Not only is the kid allowed to tamper with various things with almost no repercussion, but him and his friend are given far too much freedom in the middle half of the movie. It is almost like this is a kid's happy dream, as opposed to an abduction by a vindictive life force.And the climatic decision...egads! All in all, I stuck with it, and finally just started laughing out loud at it machinations. The final scene has some really good moments, as well, including some really well staged smashes and jabs. I give it a solid five stars, I enjoyed it once my brain switched over into its mode of handling things.