Destroy all Monsters

 

 

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I first bought Destroy All Monster when ADV released their "50th Anniversary Edition" (the one with only the International English dub, no chapters, no menu, no special features, nothing except a bonus CD soundtrack [the only thing good about the release]). So when I heard about this release I decided to get it and replace my old DVD version. Like my other reviews this one will cover the DVD itself, not the movie; there are many other fine customer reviews out there that talk about the film itself.

First the quality of the movie itself: The picture quality is pretty good, considering how old the film is. I didn't really notice any scratches/blemishes or other problems. The brightness and contrast seemed fine, as did the colour saturation. The Audio is really good. I say that because unlike my old version, this actually has the original Japanese language track, with optional English subtitles. It also has both English dubs: Toho's International English dub (the one my old DVD had) and AIP's American English dub (which in my opinion is the superior dub, it's a shame the DVD's for Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla didn't include these dubs on their releases but that's a debate for another time). It also has an audio commentary by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski which is on par with their other commentaries on DVD's (Mothra vs. Godzilla, Gojira). My only real complaint (and a minor one at that) is that they didn't subtitle the opening credits but simply put text with an English translation at the end of the film. Personally I liked the subtitles on the Japanese opening credits like Classic Media did for they're releases, but that's just me.

The special features are really what made me give it the rating I did. While on the plus side this release actually has special features unlike the other release, they're really a mixed bag. Some of the features (the Japanese trailers) are as good as the film, though for some strange reason they don't bother to put subtitles on them while other promotional material (trailers from other countries like France) are such poor quality that it's almost hard to make out what's being shown on screen and the audio is so low you can barely hear it. It kind of made me wonder why they even bothered putting on the DVD in the first place. Like I've said on my reviews for the Classic Media Godzilla releases, I'm still convinced the attitude of the distributors is, "You've got the Japanese version! What more do you want?!" since all the focus seems to go into making the Japanese version really good while ignoring everything else, or at least putting supplements on as an afterthought. While ordinarily this might make me give this DVD a lower rating this is still much better than the treatment this film got before. This is probably the best we're going to get. It's not perfect but it's still pretty good, I definitely recommend this release for any Godzilla fan.

A movie historian may tell you that this movie has some sort of significance. They may be right from a production, or musical score point of view.
From the point of view of the consumer, however, this movie makes no sense. Somehow, all the worlds monsters are trapped on one island and aren't killing each other like they did in all the other movies. They are kept in place with defenses that they could easily defeat, yet, for some reason they don't even try.
Then, out of nowhere, aliens show up. You can tell they are aliens cause they are wearing sparkly silver outfits with capes and head gear that looks like a swimming cap.
They take over "monsterland" and take remote control of some of the large monsters and use them to destroy the model... I mean major cities of the world. New York, Paris, London etc... all get the monster make over. Tokyo is spared this time, for now... dah dah dahhhhh!!!!
Naturally, Japan calls its moon astro-nots back from the moon to take their space ship underground to investigate the aliens. Oh, wait, they don't know they have an alien swim team invading yet... oh well.
Anyway, they take the space ship underground, the natural habitat for any space ship designed to travel to the moon and back, and which, for no reason, can split in half and both halves can fly independently.
So a bunch of models... I mean cities are destroyed, then some guy finds a metal ball in a rock, or something, and it turns out this is one of many balls controlling the monsters. They then find several balls in strange locations. My favorite is the coconut one. Ya, they found a ball inside a coconut.
So the good guys try to shoot the aliens, and, surprise! The bullets or lasers, or whatever their guns are supposed to shoot, do nothing to the alien swim team.
Then I tuned out as the spaceship went places and did things and the alien swim team tried to conquer earth and Tokyo finally got clobbered.
Then five monsters gang up on one space monster and kill it fast and easy. Then they give it to the aliens and beat them.
Then we see all the monsters who weren't really in the movie back in "monsterland" for about five seconds standing around doing nothing and then THE END.
So much to make fun of here. So very, very much to make fun of. I know its an old movie. I know it was about $500 000 for the budget, but man, what a cheese ball of a movie!
I throughly enjoyed it! The kitch, the "acting", the men in rubber suits, the son of Godzilla looking like a stoner... split my sides with laughter! Rodan looked like a giant, drugged up chicken! Also, when did Mothra revert to a caterpillar?
Ok, I'll stop now. If you are a fan of Toho (Godzilla) you will enjoy this film. Despite my review, I did enjoy the film. It was fun to watch the models... I mean cities get destroyed and all...
THE END

When I was a kid growing up just outside of Toronto there was a Buffalo TV station that would run after school movies. Every week had a different theme. A couple times a year they would have monster week. Every male student in my class would run home to catch these movies. This was pre home video player so it was the only chance you would get to catch theses films. My all time favorite was this film. It has almost all the Toho monsters in it and the last half hour is full out monster rumble. Don't get me wrong these are not great movies. I mean I love them but I know most people dont. That being said if you like this type of movie you will love this one.
The Blu ray is good. The picture is about a 7 out of 10. The audio is about the same. I looked for this movie for years on VHS and then finally got it on DVD. But this Blu ray rocks. I am glad I didn't have to wait for the formate to be around for ten years before it came out.

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