King Kong vs. Godzilla

1962 [JAPANESE]

Action / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy / Horror / Sci-Fi

11
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 56% · 21 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 56% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 2836 2.8K

island japan helicopter octopus mutant giant monster

Plot summary

The advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, frustrated with the low ratings of their sponsored TV program, seeks a more sensationalist approach. He orders his staff to Faro Island to capture King Kong for exploitation. As Godzilla re-emerges, a media frenzy generates with Pacific looking to capitalize off of the ultimate battle.

Director

Norman Tokar Photo
Norman Tokar

Top cast

Robert Dunham Photo
Robert Dunham as US Navy Pilot
Ren Yamamoto Photo
Ren Yamamoto as Chief of SDF
Yû Fujiki Photo
Yû Fujiki as Kinsaburo Furue
Hideo Shibuya Photo
Hideo Shibuya as Newspaper reporter
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
892.92 MB
1280*542
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
1 hr 37 min
Seeds ...
1.79 GB
1920*812
Japanese 5.1
NR
Subtitles jp  
23.976 fps
1 hr 37 min
Seeds 13

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Calaverasgrande 7 / 10

Slightly above average Kaiju movie

From the beginning scenes you can tell this is a little different. It's almost like a proto-Verhoeven film. It has a satirical edge to it that you dont see in other Godzilla movies. And just overall it's a little zanier and kind of wild compared to previous Godzilla films.It's still Honda directing and still a TOHO film with the same technical crew as most other Kaiju. It was just this one script and a few actors that made this one a tad more enjoyable than many others.I will be blunt though. It's not as amazing as a lot have made it seem. I guess if you saw this once when you were a kid then had to wrok to find it again in the pre-internet era of video rental stores. That would inflate the spectacle of the film a lot.It is better than most Kaiju films. It does have some memorable characters and some moments of the Kaiju fights that are remarkable. But really it's only about 10% better than the average Kaiju film. There are others like Mothra that are much better in a number of ways.It is kind of a turning point for the franchise in a few ways. This starting the change of Godzilla from an evil monster to a kind of antihero. Antimonster maybe?The pitched up his roar a bit. Made the suit less scary looking and had him dance whenever he scores a good move against King Kong.King Kong is a little weird. He looks nothing like the classic Kong. Very crude and rough. Not to my liking at all. But the suit actor did a great job of mimicing ape like movements.The fight choreo is recognizably influenced by pro wrestling. I thought that was a great idea, but there are a couple spots I really didn't like how they went about it, but it worked.Overall it's enjoyable not to be taken seriously fare.
Reviewed by mind-boggled 6 / 10

Review of the Japanese cut

Considering the time, it's okay for what it is. The cast is too big, it would have benefited from focusing more on the two leads instead; and the romance subplot makes the film unnecessarily convoluted, and bogs down the pacing. It also takes too long to focuses on Godzilla and Kong, the split second shots of them get annoying. Probably one of the better Godzilla films, although none of them are actually good movies.6/10 considering the era it was made in and that the film is intentionally light-hearted and comedic. Reasonable entertaining overall, but it does drag a little before it finally gets to the showdown right before the film warps up.
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