Gammera the Invincible
by Noriaki Yuasa, Sandy Howard
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DVD details
Actor: Albert Dekker, Brian Donlevy, Diane Findlay, Dick O'Neill, John BaragreyDirector: Noriaki Yuasa, Sandy Howard
Brand: Alpha Video
Producer: Hidemasa Nagata
Producer: Ken Barnett
Producer: Masaichi Nagata
Producer: Robert Baron
Writer: Nisan Takahashi
Writer: Richard Kraft
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Alpha Video
DVD Reviews of Gammera the Invincible
DVD Review: Gamera Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Gamera is the correct spelling not Gammera but that didn't stop them from making the movie. The movie is just as I expected, good for the fact it is a japanese monster movie. I loved Gamera from when I was a kid, more than Godzilla. The American acting is quit good as times, but the Asian dubbing of he movie is extremley laughable. The case was in ok condition, except for the fact there was a half inch gash in the case, where it looks like someone took the case and carved with a knife down into it. Anyway it was a good deal.DVD Review: WHERE TO BUY THESE FILMS
Summary: 5 Stars
IF YOU WANT ALL THE ORIGINAL SHOWA GAMERA FILMS, THE UNCUT COMPLETE ONES WITH ENGLISH SUBS, THEN GO TO MONSTERS IN MOTION AND SEARCH FOR GAMERA, YOU WONT BE DISSAPOINTED.DVD Review: Tippy, oh, tippy.
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, this film was seen on MST3K. So what? I happen to be a fan of the Gamera and Godzilla movies which is one of the reasons I enjoyed watching Joel and the Bots. Gamera The Invincible was made in 1965, in black and white. While being a Japanese movie it has a lot of inserted scenes for the American, English speaking, viewers. Some of these scenes, such as the television debate between two scientists, are funny because in some ways they reflect true life.
Gamera is a fire eating, flying giant turtle from a time before oxygen was used by life. Of course he wakes up from a million (billion) year old sleep by the explosion of an atomic bomb. Dropped by the evil Russians, of course. Anti-war film, anti-atomic weapons, pro-United Nations, pro-turtles, the film can be seen as a support for or against anything. An oldie buy goodie. The first of eight installments. Only eight? How sad. I think he was just as good as Godzilla.
DVD Review: If you only see one space turtle movie this year...
Summary: 3 Stars
...make sure it's the one with the brain lusting space girls! But that one is kinda intentionally comic, this is played as straight as a movie about a flying space turtle can be. Minunderstood monster is unleashed from his artic grave when a Soviet fighter is shot down and boom, we get a mushroom cloud. The studio debate between the Gamera-believing mythologist and the skeptical science writer is priceless! "He called me an ape!" "No, I called you an ignorant ape!" Reminds me of the evening talk shows on the cable news fronts...my, how far we've come that the satire still stings. The contrarian Senator brings to mind some of our finest in Washington today, head in the sand all the way. Brian Donlevy makes a convincing general. Writers (and George Lucas) take note...this is how child characters should be scripted for minimum annoyance. And Gamera himself, well, he looks like a man in a rubber turtle costume, but it works all the way to the ending. A unique ending, I might add, saving the Earth *and* leaving the door open for sequels. All in a day's work for...Nizo Takahashi! Doesn't have the same ring as Mighty Mouse *sigh*DVD Review: I Am Invincible!
Summary: 3 Stars
A flight of Soviet bombers "accidentally" flies over Alaska. U.S. interceptors shoot one of the planes down, causing a low-yield nuclear explosion. The nuclear explosion wakes a giant prehistoric turtle called Gammera by the local Inuit. Gammera attacks a model ship, flaming it with bad breath for good measure. Fortunately, the crew abandoned ship just in time. What excitement! Did I tell you that this turtle is so cool that it walks on two legs? Clever trick for a turtle.
This movie digresses for a while as Gammera is walking or flying in parts unknown. Various characters, including Brian Donlevy as General Terry Arnold and Albert Dekker as the Secretary of Defense, debate the existence of Gammera. This movie is relatively early in the monster genre because, as any self-respecting scientist of today knows, giant monsters exist and they are nearly all genetically programmed to attack Japan for reasons that scientists have yet to discover. Eventually the scientists and authorities bow to the overwhelming scientific evidence (footprints, sketches by small boys, anonymous phone calls, possibly including one from Kolchak, the Night Stalker) and recognize something must be done about this giant menace!
Gammera rescues a small boy (bless the monster's heart) before going off and frying a bunch of people in a Tokyo apartment building (this is one quirky turtle). To prepare for toasting Tokyo Gammera destroys a geothermal plant and chows down on the flames. I guess Gammera likes hot food. Somewhere around this point in the movie a scientist establishes that (drum roll) Gammera is not like other creatures!
The excitement builds as Gammera lands at a totally cool model airport and then begins to stomp around an excellent model of Tokyo. We catch a bit of a song titled "Gammera" that sounds suspiciously (to me) like the theme from the 1960s television series "Batman." It could be coincidence, or not.
Of course there has to be a plan to deal with Gammera, since all attempts to stop him have failed. Enter Plan Z! Before Plan Z we see model trains and a model laboratory and more models of other stuff, and then we see the Plan Z model. Woo hoo! This stuff is great! Of course, I have to leave the suspense of Plan Z to the viewer to discover.
After the success of "Godzilla," other Japanese studios attempted to capitalize on the monster fad. Modern audiences will find this attempt at giant monster horror more humorous than scary given today's sophisticated special effects. However, the models in the movie are excellent, and the laughs this movie generates for adults is worth a watch. Young children, on the other hand, may find this movie frightening (I know I did way back in the 60s), so just because you may not find the movie frightening, do not assume the little ones won't.
They just don't make movies like this any more. Thank goodness for that!
Description of Gammera the Invincible
Studio: Gotham (dba Alpha) Release Date: 03/29/2007Shot in black and white, this 1965 Japanese monster movie was the Daiei company's answer to Toho's famous Godzilla series. A skirmish between U.S. and unknown "enemy" planes results in an atomic explosion over the Arctic which unthaws and unleashes the giant flying turtle Gamera, who eventually settles into Japan to wreak havoc while seeking out hydro-electric sustenance. However, this fire-eating (and breathing) behemoth displays a compassionate streak when he saves the life of a young boy who nearly falls to his death from a toppled lighthouse. Panicky scientists and military officials vainly try to find ways to destroy Gamera while the boy seeks to bond with his misunderstood reptilian hero. Like many of its celluloid Japanese monster brethren, Giant Monster Gamera has not aged all that well, but the well-staged and photographed assault on Tokyo makes for festive mayhem. Overall the film is good entertainment for young kids as well as the inner children of the adults who grew up on these monster mashes. --Bryan Reesman
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