TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

mark.waltz ...Or should I say repeat adventures? The first half of thus film flashes back to the first two Gamera films, taking nearly half an hour of running time to explain to the kiddies who didn't see the first two films who this turtle is, and why he must either be destroyed along with every planet in the universe or be put to use and join the legion of bad, scary minsters everywhere. So after an introduction where two Japanese kids guide Camera through the Pacific ocean in their little yellow submarine (deliciously cheesy), we get a revisit between Gamera and various other monsters, one where a Japanese kid who's eaten way too many cookies hitches a ride on Gamera's back. This is all for the villains out to destroy the world in their spaceship that looks like a bunch of freaky eyeballs connected together to set up their motivation. Truly juvenile and badly dubbed, this is one of those films that makes you wonder about Japanese/American relations, "First Pearl Harbor, now this?" At least the viewer has a choice, which is either fast forward or turn off.

TheUnknown837-1 The veering of the Gamera series towards the younger generation began with the fourth film, "Gamera vs. Viras" released a speedy three years after the original hit Japanese theaters in 1965. Even though the previous movie, the gleefully entertaining "Gamera vs. Gyaos" was also geared mostly toward children, it still had an element of terror and dread in it. That is gone here and "Gamera vs. Viras" is an unsuccessfully endeavor. However, that it is hardly due to the fact that it is being directed at little children and those who are still able to find the child deep within themselves (a la moi). The problem with this picture is, despite its wonderful beginning and wonderful ending, most of the middle is just shameless, lazy jigsaw-construction of its predecessors. In other words, it's mostly just stock footage reels.The opening is very promising. A spaceship venturing for a conquest of Earth is interrupted by Gamera, now fully evolved into the friend of all children. Before the vessel is destroyed, it sends a signal back to its home world and a second one is dispatched. Upon the new one's arrival, the aliens use their technology to determine Gamera's weaknesses and take two boy scouts (Toru Takatsuka & Carl Craig) hostage. Now implicating a mind-control device, they use Gamera to destroy civilization. The thin plot becomes thinner before it ultimately leads up to the titular conflict between the giant terrapin and a slimy extra-terrestrial cephalopod.The movie is so wonderful at first. Both Gamera and the two boys are very entertaining. The latter are portrayed as witty, audacious, and thoughtful individuals...despite the occasional prank or two. And a scene involving them inside of a submersible racing Gamera underwater brought a smile to my face. But the movie starts crippling itself at the moment where the aliens start searching Gamera's past. It's stock footage from the previous movies, each reel lasting roughly five minutes. The aliens quote that their process takes fifteen minutes and it literally does. There's hardly any narration or trimming of the stock footage; it's just reused. (Frighteningly enough, for the U.S. version, the stock footage reel was increased to a mind-numbing twenty-five minutes!) When this ends, there is some relief, but then it becomes just more reused footage from the previous movies. Sequence upon sequence. And most jarring of all is when they decide to once again show Gamera attacking Tokyo as he did in the original film "Gamera the Giant Monster." Now if you will recall, that movie was black-and-white. This one is in color. Eyes squinting yet? Colorization was not around at the time this picture was made and yes, they still integrate colorless footage into a color movie! Just a slight bluish tint, that's all. And sadly, this drags on and on seemingly without end and wore me out. All of a sudden, even the whim and charm of Mr. Takatsuka and Mr. Craig, both of whom are very good in the film, seems unimportant.Now the movie does pick up a little when the final battle does arrive. And it's satiatingly lengthy, but even with that, by the time it was all over, "Gamera vs. Viras" had exhausted me and left me feeling a thirst for a lot more. The stock footage it so abundant that if there had been more, it could have been a "Best of Gamera" show instead of a continuation to the series. And as far as I am concerned, a low budget should not be an excuse for ham-handed filmmaking. There are some good things here, including a leading performance by that wonderful actor Kojiro Hongo (who was in the previous two Gamera movies and would later play a small part in Shusuke Kaneko's marvelous "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" almost thirty years later) but there are also a lot of bad things here too.

bkoganbing Like Godzilla before him, the Japanese producers decided to turn the flying turtle Gamera from an enemy to a friendly monster much the same way Vince McMahon does with his wrestlers. In fact Gamera's such a cuddly fellow here that he has a real love for children, a fact that aliens who are on a mission to Destroy All Planets try to use against Gammera and the earth.When Gamera destroyed their ship in a previous film which we saw a flashback of, the aliens decide they must get control of Gamera before they can occupy earth. They implant a thought control device in the big guy and for good measure capture a couple of kids.Their big mistake was capturing a pair of Boy Scouts in Japan for the International Scouting Jamboree. One scout from Japan and one from America become prisoners of the aliens on their ship. And as we all know scouts are taught to be resourceful and are always prepared, though I doubt the scouting manual covers capture by space aliens.Yes this film is as bad as it sounds with the cheesy special effects and lousy dubbing of the Japanese actors. But these Japanese monster films do have a lovable quality about them and they have a devoted group of fans who should be pleased.

Wyrmis No one goes into the old Gamera movies expecting brilliance. In fact, most watch them fairly openly to delve into the schlock, whether as a guilty pleasure or to enjoy mocking it. I am somewhere in the middle of these two. I have a massive high tolerance for "badness", especially when it is done in the spirit of earnest fun, but there was a couple of times where I just wanted to shut this one off.The first reason was the flashbacks to which many viewers allude. Not only is there a roughly fifteen minute scene composed of much too large chunks of "fight" scenes from earlier movies, but there are at least two "major" scenes that are taken from the first and second movie and then played off as freshly happening. It is so poorly done, that the scenes from the first one are left in black and white, despite the rest of this movie being in color! The second reason was the utter illogic of this one, in places. A genius kid is one thing, if almost always annoying at times, but this one went above and beyond. Not only is the kid allowed to tamper with various things with almost no repercussion, but him and his friend are given far too much freedom in the middle half of the movie. It is almost like this is a kid's happy dream, as opposed to an abduction by a vindictive life force.And the climatic decision...egads! All in all, I stuck with it, and finally just started laughing out loud at it machinations. The final scene has some really good moments, as well, including some really well staged smashes and jabs. I give it a solid five stars, I enjoyed it once my brain switched over into its mode of handling things.