Godzilla - 5 Rampaging Movies 1999 Horror Movie Review

“Godzilla,” for those who don’t know, is actually the Anglicized version of “Gojira,” the original name for that man in the rubber monster suit that breathes fire, stomps on toy housing developments, and melts all the model tanks that Tokyo can throw in its way.  “Gojira” itself (the word) is a coinage from the words “gorilla” and “kujira,” the Japanese word for “whale,” making Godzilla one whale of a gorilla.  From 1954, when Godzilla, King of the Monsters first appeared, to Terror of Mechagodzilla, the 20th-anniversary film of 1974, there were 15 of these unforgettable fantasies of cornice-crushing building busters.  The first 10, and the 20th-anniversary film, were all directed by Inoshiro Honda, the original and best of the Godzilla directors, who in his later years worked in one capacity or another on Akira Kurosawa’s last five films (Kurosawa delivered the eulogy at Honda’s funeral).  Here we have five of the best of Honda’s rampaging reptile flicks collected together, three of them with your choice of cropped-screen or the glory that is Tohoscope, the last with no choice but cropped, and the first with that cut-screen option or the correctly letterboxed 1.66:1 aspect ratio.  All discs have your choice of Dolby Digital Mono (or Stereo) or Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.  And there’s a nifty 25-minute documentary on monster movies to be found only on the first disc, Godzilla, King of the Monsters. —Jim Gay