I've seen one or two of Gamera's movies, and was wondering if anyone was into Gamera. I recently saw a 9 disc box set of his movies at K-Mart going for 9.99. Might pick it up on Monday.
If anyone likes Gamera, which are his better flicks?
My favorite Gamera movie is GAMERA VS. GUIRON (1969) a.k.a. ATTACK OF THE MONSTERS. It's absolutely surreal with brain eating alien women, Guiron with a giant knife head that he uses to dice up his enemies, etc.
Bizarre great fun!
The three newest Gamera films are worth seeking out, especially the first of that trio: "Gamera Guardian of the Universe."
http://badmovies.org/movies/gameragotu/
Out of the old movies, I would say that "Gamera vs. Guiron" is my favorite, with "Gamera vs. Gaos" behind it.
http://badmovies.org/movies/gamvsguiron/
http://badmovies.org/movies/gamvsgaos/
Most of the old Gamera films had some good cheese factor, but "Gamera vs. Guiron" is the pinnacle.
I like the old ones and new ones alike. One of the things that I enjoy about the Gamera movies more then the Godzilla ones is that Gamera always seemed mortal. Gamera got injured and bled. Godzilla didn't seem to ever show any battle damage. I think all he managed to do was melt down.
I second Andrew. The newer trilogy is spectacular. Personally, for older Gamera flicks, I liked Gamera vs. Guiron and Gamera vs. Monster X (aka Gamera vs. Jiger). I've also heard the newest film, Gamera the Brave, is supposed to be decent, but I still have yet to see it.
I haven't seen any good ol' Gammera pics in a while...but one I fondly recall was DESTROY ALL PLANETS. It popped up on Creature Feature quite often!!!
Your post got me reminicing....I had forgotton how much fun Gammera was...! I found a great clip at youtube...
Karma for bringing back some good ol'memories...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-_LbdVi37J8
"Gamera is really neat, he is filled with turtle meat, we all love him GAMERAAAAAA!"
The old movies are terrible but tons of fun.
However the 3 new ones that they did in the 90's were quite good, actually much better than the Godzilla movies coming out at the same time and since then.
The only way I can handle these babies is with MST3K Treatment. :smile:
Quote from: Torgo on January 02, 2008, 06:06:22 PM
"Gamera is really neat, he is filled with turtle meat, we all love him GAMERAAAAAA!"
The old movies are terrible but tons of fun.
However the 3 new ones that they did in the 90's were quite good, actually much better than the Godzilla movies coming out at the same time and since then.
The store I was at had 9 old flicks in a box set, but I saw an advertisement for another 3 disc set, which, based upon the picture on the cover, would be the three newer flicks. I was thinking about getting the one with 9, cause it's fairly cheap.
We used to have a low budget UHF type station here where I live, which I used to plop down and watch on the weekend. Nothing like starting the afternoon by watching WWF Metal, followed by a Gamera or Godzilla flick, followed by some martial arts flick, then some older syndicated shows like The Monkees. Then they'd repeat the schedule on Sunday, just with different flicks, some direct to video.
$9.99 for 9 old Gamera flicks is an awesome price. I'd buy it in a heartbeat if I didn't already have all or most of them. I think there may have been only nine of them. I know for sure there weren't many more than that if any. My favorite is Gamera vs. Zigra. I'm only missing the last one, which I think was made in the early 80's, and, from what I gather, was put together using footage from the other films. The three newer Gamera movies are pretty good too, especially Gamera Guardian of the Universe, but they aren't as much fun as the old ones.
There are a couple of Gamera movies I run into online so much I wonder if they've lapsed into public domain. Probably not, though, since they've made new Gamera movies so recently.
Surprisingly, Roger Ebert gave one of the Gamera flicks 3 stars. Not that Gamera doesn't deserve it. It's just that it's Roger Ebert.
I love Gamera, he's the Oliver Gruner to Godzilla's Van Damme! Didn't MST3K say he took all the parts Godzilla turned down?
Actually in terms of sheer, fun Kaiju-ness Gamera films cannot be beat. I have a collection of $1 GAmera DVDs I have picked up. I'd actually like this box set. Also, the Gamera films of the late 90's were very well done.
-Ed
Quote from: Ed on January 03, 2008, 11:09:15 PM
I love Gamera, he's the Oliver Gruner to Godzilla's Van Damme! Didn't MST3K say he took all the parts Godzilla turned down?
Actually in terms of sheer, fun Kaiju-ness Gamera films cannot be beat. I have a collection of $1 GAmera DVDs I have picked up. I'd actually like this box set. Also, the Gamera films of the late 90's were very well done.
-Ed
I believe they did say that.
All those movies are fun though.
Am I the only one, whenver the subject of Gamera comes up, who starts singing that "Gamera" song heard in the nightclub in the first movie? :teddyr:
I just picked up a 10 movie set of GODZILLA's that I enjoyed a lot....Gamera's next on my hit list!
RAWR!
So, I picked up this box set yesterday afternoon. It looks like it only has 5 Gamera flicks, with 4 other 'giant monster' flicks.
The five Gamera flicks are:
Gamera vs. Monster X
Gamera vs. Gaos
Destroy All Planets
War of the Monsters
Gamera the Invincible
The other 4 flicks are:
Yongary, Monster From the Deep
Warning From Space
The Giant Gila Monster
Monster From A Prehistoric Planet
So far, I've watched Gamera vs. Monster X.
Quote from: HappyGilmore on January 07, 2008, 12:10:01 PM
So, I picked up this box set yesterday afternoon. It looks like it only has 5 Gamera flicks, with 4 other 'giant monster' flicks.
The five Gamera flicks are:
Gamera vs. Monster X
Gamera vs. Gaos
Destroy All Planets
War of the Monsters
Gamera the Invincible
The other 4 flicks are:
Yongary, Monster From the Deep
Warning From Space
The Giant Gila Monster
Monster From A Prehistoric Planet
So far, I've watched Gamera vs. Monster X.
I've got that same set. Picked it up used for only 5 dollars as a matter of fact.
The only gripe I have with it is that the picture can be quite pixelated at times due to them shoving so much stuff on one side of the disc. They should've made them flipper discs instead.
Quote from: HappyGilmore on January 07, 2008, 12:10:01 PM
So, I picked up this box set yesterday afternoon. It looks like it only has 5 Gamera flicks, with 4 other 'giant monster' flicks.
The five Gamera flicks are:
Gamera vs. Monster X
Gamera vs. Gaos
Destroy All Planets
War of the Monsters
Gamera the Invincible
The other 4 flicks are:
Yongary, Monster From the Deep
Warning From Space
The Giant Gila Monster
Monster From A Prehistoric Planet
So far, I've watched Gamera vs. Monster X.
a great bunch of flicks, nonetheless
I like the flicks. Not a bad buy for like, 9 bucks. Takes me back a few years to high school.
Has there ever been any word on them making any new Gamera movies after the 3 great ones that were released in the 90's? I figured with the critical and financial success of those movies that they would have been cranking them out steadily after the fact.
I heard Cartoon Network had picked up a Gamera cartoon, much like they did with Godzilla, but dropped it because Gamera The Brave, released in '06, supposedly bombed at the Japanese box office. I guess they figured there'd be a lack of interest.
Last I heard, there's no plans in the immediate future for a new flick.
Ah the merits of the two biggest kaiju monsters films...
The Pros: Gammera (I always like using the two "m's") movies of the 60's always had a "fantasy violence" factor in their favor- and some of the oddball monster designs weren't bad (Gaos & Jiger were always my favorites), but Godzilla movies had a lot of staples I always felt no kaiju film should be without- curious storyline, (at least) two dynamically different monsters (Gigan, Biollante, Megaguirus, Ebirah, Rodan), and an attempt to either show something new or at least do a retread better than before (like creating Battra instead of two mothras, or the variation of Godzilla's pre-radioactive days on Lagos Island).
Now the Cons: The Gammera monster fights were as oddball as the monsters. Most Godzilla movies take way too long to get to the monsters... we know what Godzilla is, get on with it!