Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

[Warren H.]

Watching this today, I realized that Devlin/Emmerich remade this, not Godzilla, when they did their "Godzilla 98" piece of crap.  It's all there: the scientist working with radioactivity, the monster sinking a fishing boat, the monster going to Manhattan because that's where its kind used to breed, the monster smashing up a harbor, the blood on the ground after the first military assault.  At one point, the monster picks up a car and shakes it back and forth, a scene which was remade almost shot-for-shot in Godzilla '98.  At another point, the monster flees from the army to . . . the Hudson river!  (Just like the iguana in Godzilla 98).  The Beast from 20,000 fathoms even LOOKED like the monster in Godzilla 98 (I refuse to refer to it as Godzilla).  I think Devlin/Emmerich started out making a remake of Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and just decided to slap the Godzilla name on it to make more money.  Sheesh, they trash the Godzilla name and don't even do it ripping off Godzilla.

[Apostic]

Of course, to start a flame war, one might suggest that Ishirô Honda ripped it off, too.

But, well, nobody should want a flame war where the Big G is involved....

asbestos regards,

Apostic

[Squishy]

Like I've been saying! The sole major difference between the plots of "Beast" and "Deanzilla" is that the creature's offspring replace prehistoric microbes as the general threat to all mankind.

The ultimate rip-off: In "Beast" there is a preposterous scene where a cop empties his gun at the approaching monster, THEN TAKES HIS EYES OFF IT to reload. The monster eats him. In "Deanzilla," there is a preposterous scene where a cameraman empties his tape filming the approaching monster, THEN TAKES HIS EYES OFF IT to reload. The monster steps on him (but misses).

Another clue should be the clip from "It Came From Beneath The Sea" playing on a TV during "Deanzilla." Well, that and the fact that "Independence Day" is a bad rehash of "Earth vs The Flying Saucers." These guys love Ray Harryhausen's stuff--and it sure beats writing original material! (Their other, non-Harryhausenesque films include "Stargate" and "Moon 44"--need I say more?)

One more like this, and Harryhausen should have grounds for a lawsuit. Might I suggest Dean Devlin's "The Aluminum Voyage of Sindbad?" It'll be 100% recycled material!

Apostic: point taken--but the only thing "Beast" and "Godzilla" (real version) (and "The Giant Behemoth") have in common are city-destroying giant reptilian monsters born of nuclear bomb activity. "Pet Semetary" and "The Sixth Sense" both have scary spirits with mutilated faces lurking about; "Time After Time" and "Back To The Future" both have time machines--but one is not a ripoff of another. 'Deanzilla" steals plot aspects and whole scenes from "Beast" with little or no change. (And, quite frankly, the script of "Godzilla"--again, real version--is better than that of "Beast.")

[Andrew K]

What really bugs me is that the people who sneer at Harryhausen and Honda's films, as well as other fifties SF movies as being "old" and "cheezy" are the same people who gobble up Emmerich-Devlin's wretched tripe. The user comments on the IMDB often infuriate me, but the one which had my blood REALLY boiling was one for Rolandzila by a user who was either very young, very stupid, or just kidding. He or she said something on the level of "why do people here like those Japanese Godzilla movie so much? Those were MST3K movies. This one had great effects. I don't if I'm going to see that new Godzilla movie [Godzilla 2000-AK] because it looks too much like the old ones. "That attitudes makes me grind my teeth till they chip. Just read the IMDB comments for the film, and you'll find it.

[Scott]

Yea, that is incredible AndrewK. Godzilla films are so fantastic, but that one with Mathew Broderick was the worst ever. I will refuse to watch that film ever again and I do not and will not NEVER, EVER consider that film to have anything to do with GODZILLA.

That one a couple years ago with the CGI creature was more like JURASSIC PARK.  People can really miss the point of what makes a good movie.

[Warren H.]

I grew up watching men in rubber suits, or stop-motion monsters, pounding the tar out of each other and  I loved it.  I didn't care how cheap they looked.  Kids these days, though, act like it's just awful if a movie doesn't have CGI (or an score featuring "today's hottest artists" or that damn effect where the camera spins around the actors for no reason or etc. etc.).  As far as I'm concerned, CGI looks more fake than a man in a suit ever will.

[Apostic]

[T]he only thing "Beast" and "Godzilla" (real version) (and "The Giant Behemoth") have in common are city-destroying giant reptilian monsters born of nuclear bomb activity."

When somone once suggested that Gojira was derivative of Beast, I was offended.  I couldn't see it either.  (Heresy!)

But according to various sources, Gojira procucer Tomoyuki Tanaka got the idea for his movie from two things.  One was Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.  The other was the what happened to the crew of the fishing boat Fukuryu Maru when it got too close to a nuclear test detonation.   (It has also been suggested that the producer was influenced by King Kong (1933), but that's more aparent in the later movies he produced, when the Big G started going toe-to-toe with other big cirtters.  How much the filmmakers of Beast were influenced by Kong and The Lost World (1925) is another matter....)

Saying that Gojira borrowed from Beast should not imply shame.  Gojira, icon of elemental destruction, turned a pertty good profit on what it borrowed.  

But back to the matter at hand.  Rather than try to convince anyone of other similarities beyond the big radioactive monster premise, I'll recommend the following test.  Watch both Beast and Gojira back to back.

And if there's similarity to Behemoth or Reptilicus or DeanZilla or whatever, then it's not like Gojira was the only movie that borrowed from Beast.  Or from Gojira, which initially borrowed from Beast.

again, asbestos regards,

Apostc

[Andrew K]

Maybe he was also inspired by It Came From Beneath the Sea, since the movie was originally supposed to be a giant octopus.

[Apostic]

"Maybe he was also inspired by It Came From Beneath the Sea, since the movie was originally supposed to be a giant octopus"

I was thiinking that, too.  Would've made it's inclusion in DeanZilla awfully ironic.  But then I checked it out on the IMDB.  It Came came (no stutter) about a year after Gojira.

Heh, maybe It Came was borrowing from Gojira.  

Nah.

regards,

Apostic

[Andrew K]

Thanks for the correction.

[Flangepart]

Deanzilla was on T.V. a couple weeks ago...still can't bring myself to watch it. The Real Godzilla, As Mike Dante said, Never runs from a fight! He'll take youe best shot, then light you up and keep comming!  Deanzilla....eeyeuck. Just a big T-rex. And that ain't Kaiju!

[Squishy]

Just to express my love of the rubber-suit kaiju, I would love to put together a home movie of myself wrecking crap in the backyard while wearing a kaiju-suit that resembles the big G, but the plates on the back would be all large, loosely-anchored zipper tongues. The film would be called "Godzippa." Stop throwing @!#$ at me, dammit.

[Apostic]

Or a kiaju sized Teletubby.

Godzillala.

regards,

Apostic (who pleads insanity)

[Squishy]

"Ha ha ha! Po!"
--Godzillala (not to be confused with Guilala, AKA "The X From Outer Space"), as it crushes Tokyo beneath its enormous jammie-feet.

"Again!"
--Baby Sinclair, preparing a lawsuit.

"Gwaaaaaa gwaa!"
--Minya, the original Teletubby kaiju.

(My thanks to Andrew for altering my obscenity in an earlier post. Bad call on my part.)