So last night I went to Rifftrax Live showing of the beloved 1998 Godzilla with Matthew Broderick. As you can imaging this movie was just ripe with riffing potential. For those who don’t know this was an American big budget adaptation of the beloved Japanese monster. Unfortunately Roland Emmerich did everything wrong. Godzilla looks like a weird hybrid between the alien from Alien and Jay Leno. As the guys point out in the movie every girl acts like Matthew Broderick is Channing Tatum. WTF is up with this. This is Ferris Bueller.
They had a group of French Secret Service agents which are the heroes in the movie. They are there because Godzilla was created by French nuclear tests in Polynesian. Like the French would give a shit. Your in bad trouble if you have to rely on the French. They seem to spend most of the movie whining about how bad American coffee is.
Another thing I forgot is the obvious lampooning of Siskel and Ebert. The mayor Ebert who looks exactly like Roger Ebert and his aide Gene who looks exactly like Gene Siskel. I guess Roland had one too many bad reviews from these guys and felt the need to poke fun at them. I’m guessing that the two gave this movie a thumbs down.
Well most of the movie is in the rain and has a very nimble and agile Godzilla dodging the fire from tanks, helicopter and submarines. In fact all the military accomplishes is destroying buildings including the Chrysler Building and sinking their own submarine. Our hero Matthew and his French buddies along with his ditzy blonde girlfriend and Hank Azaria find Godzilla’s nest in Madison Square Garden. They manage to alert the world to the threat of hundreds of hatched little Godzillas and escape before an airstrike obliterates the arena. Godzilla is really pissed and gives chase as they try to escape in a taxi. They manage to lure Godzilla on the Brooklyn Bridge where he gets entangled and the military can finally hit him.
This is the first time I have seen this movie since it came out in 1998. It does hold some sad memories for me. I saw it at a budget theater and the next day I learned my dad had a stroke. He later died. So it was good to see this movie in a theater again and have some good laughs. So you can still catch the encore presentation this Tuesday for anyone in North America.
There is also a planned showing just before Halloween for the Anaconda.
THE BOOKS THAT TIME FORGOT. 
I’d thought this was a rather good Rifftrax, nice and playful and spirited. I was also surprised by just how long the movie took to get around to anything; considering everybody knows going in the important beats of a Giant Monster Attack movie, why does it spend sooooo much time on whether this woman will give in to Hank Azaria’s sexual harassment for a local news channel’s 6:00 anchor post?
I have a real soft spot for this film because it’s so cheesy. Plus, I like the fact that Ferris Bueller is being chased by such a ridiculous monster.
Enjoyed your review! I can imagine you may have been a little reluctant to watch this film again, given the sad event that happened after you watched it the first time… 😦