SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

KaijuKing What can I say? I thought this film was funny! Some of the humor may get lost in translation, and kaiju fans looking for epic scenes of city destruction will be disappointed. The locations are limited and the scope is small. I do not mean these as criticisms, just facts.The acting from the Western stars is decidedly awful, but endearing in a hilarious way. The various schemes the leaders devise are quite comical and struck a humorous cord. There is enough tributes and homages to daikaiju eiga for fans to appreciate.

brad kittleson I'm one of those who saw "The X From Ouer Space" often on TV's Saturday matinée movie back in the 70's. I loved it then, and was eager to see if Guilala could still deliver the goods to my less imaginative, more cynical adult self.Yes and no. This movie is played as a comedy (what else COULD they do with the giant chicken/lizard with a kitchen sink on top of its head). The comedy reminds me of "Saturday Night Live".. some clever political satire mixed in with infantile humor (try imagining Will Ferrell is playing Take-Majin, he's a perfect fit). There's even silly drug humor when Guilala gets stoned. The comedy isn't uproariously funny at any point, and does dip into absurdity a few times, but it generally works.The movies special effects seem intentionally cheap, capturing perfectly the old school look and feel of the giant monster movies. sadly most of the monster action takes place in the first minute of Guilalas arrival. I was really looking forward to watching my old sentimental favorite monster get to fight another monster. The fight between Guilala and Take-Majin was the biggest disappointment for me. As i said earlier, it was like watching Will Ferrell in a gold leotard running around having nuclear missiles shot up his back end and exploding in his colon. If I'm drunk enough, its priceless comedy.As you can likely guess, poor old monster X/Guilala gets his in the end once more, and he really doesn't put up much of a fight. But I loved seeing him again (I know, why?? I guess you need to have seen the first movie when you were 8 years old to understand). There were some things I really wanted to see that I was denied: 1- Guilala never used that silly looking crab claw on the tip of his tail in either movie. I want to see that weapon deployed! 2- He also never used the odd faucet device on top of his head. I long ago figured it was his "energy sensing tube" so I'll stick with that theory.3- I'd hoped they were going to dig up some original cast members. the human story in the original was the funniest one in any of the old giant monster flicks.Overall, if you liked the original, you already know you must see this one and will love seeing Guilala back in action. If you didn't like or haven't seen "The X From Outer Space", you will likely find a few chuckles out of this one, but little else. 7 stars the former viewer, 5 for the latter.

dbborroughs Send up/spoof of the Giant Monster movies of the 1960's is married to a political satire about the G8. A reporter and photographer are covering the G8 when Monster X (using what appears to be new footage and old footage from the dreadful 1960's film called monster X) comes from the sky and begins to attack Japan. the world leaders decide that instead of fleeing that they will stay and fight. 10 minute sketch stretched to almost 100 minutes is a film sunk by obvious jokes, poor performances (anyone speaking English is beyond bad) and a sense of dullness. I didn't like this at all, partly because it pales when compared to a film like Big Man Japan but mostly because its not very good...any good. This is one of those times when I'm glad I didn't pay 12 bucks to see a movie in a theater.

Max_cinefilo89 Before Grindhouse was released and completely ignored by American audiences, Quentin Tarantino had talked of his plans to make a few more B-movie revisits with Robert Rodriguez and other directors, expanding the concept to all possible genres. It's sad that such a project will not materialize, because The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit is definitely a movie QT would enjoy, and it director the kind of guy he would love to work with: an energetic, grown-up child who loves every single frame of the films he makes, no matter how much crap he has to take from the critics (which is why he's called "the Japanese Ed Wood"). Monster X, which was shown Out of Competition at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, is a quintessential B-movie: geeky, cheap and aware of its silliness. In plain English: a lot of fun.The film acts as a sort of low-budget Godzilla reboot, with the big reptile replaced by an alien of sorts named Girara. The seemingly invincible creature awakes suddenly from a very long sleep, and starts destroying everything in sight. Too bad this happens at the exact same time as a G8 summit in Kyoto: given the disastrous situation, the participating nations (USA, Germany, France, Italy, etc) do their best to stop the monster, only to fail each time. Perhaps the key to sorting out this mess is hidden in a freaky temple in the woods, where people worship a being with a strange fascination for his, uh, private area.The G8 subplot would indicate some sort of political intent behind the movie, but that's just a load of rubbish: any kind of satire requires subtlety, and when the French President tries to seduce a woman with the phrase "I'm the Eiffel Tower and I want to penetrate your Arch of Triumph!", you know that's the last thing you'll ever find in the blatantly trashy script (by the way, since when do Brits speak with an American accent?). The "plot" is just an excuse for two silly-looking freaks to beat the hell out of each other, in scenes that could have been shot by a toddler in anyone's back yard or in an average workshop. It's that shameless "bag of dirt" quality that makes Monster X a guilty pleasure like few others. It's a movie made by geeks for geeks, and by not aspiring to any higher artistic consideration it actually manages to bring back the eight-year old hidden inside all of us, much like Peter Jackson's aptly titled Bad Taste, while more "noble" attempts to achieve the same effect have a tendency to fall flat on their backs.So yes, it's incredibly, incontrovertibly silly, cheap, whatever you want to call it. But it's also one of the most enjoyable "bad" movies that one can find. Plus, it has the additional treat of Japanese auteur Takeshi Kitano voicing the "good" monster: how much more can one ask for?