Daikaijû kettô: Gamera tai Barugon

I have to agree with the first comment and say that this is the best of pre-1995 the Gamera's. I've seen five of them, Guiron and Zigra both being indescribably bad (even when I watched them as a 13 year old I thought so). This one is honestly pretty good, a step-up from the stone age-looking Gamera, which was made in 1965 but looked like it was made in 1954! First off, there isn't too much flashback footage and when it is used, it's actually well-edited and has some pretty cool narration and atmospheric music. There's a random dam attack scene which I still cant figure out why it's there, and then the real story starts with the protagonists finding a jewel that eventually turns into the secondary monster.

Gamera plays a pretty minor second-fiddle this time around, with Barugon, an admittedly more interesting monster, hogging most of the screentime destroying things. I really liked the plotting with the greedy guy accidentally waking the monster with his heat-lamp, and then getting eaten when he ruins the army's plan by trying to steal a giant diamond.

This has the best music and best scenes of destruction of any of the Gamera movies and most of Jun Fukuda's Godzilla films. While it's still Daiei, which most of the time is sub-Toho in every respect, this film shows that around 1966 Daiei actually managed to surpass Toho every now and then effects-wise. Good directing too: the tone is surprisingly mature this time around and it's got a really dark and humorless undercurrent to the whole thing.

My favorite Gamera movie, followed by the... so unintentionally hilarious, it makes me crack up thinking about it... Gamera vs. Gaos.

This was the first color sequel to the original black and white GAMERA, and it's pretty good though you have to be patient in waiting to see much of our favorite fire-breathing, flying turtle. A new monster named Barugon (not to be confused with the similarly-named creature from the Toho series of Japanese giant monster movies) is born and has the ability to freeze people and cities. The monster suits in this series were never quite up to the ones in the Godzilla films, but the effects in general are not too bad. The real fun in this one is savoring the villainous exploits of one of the main human characters... a sneaky creep named Onodera. He steals the show as one of a group of men on an expedition to New Guinea to retrieve a glowing opal believed to be worth millions. There's a fight sequence between this guy and another man who can barely walk late in the movie that's better (and much funnier) than the monsters' battle! **1/2 out of ****

This probably is the most adult oriented of all the Gamera films mainly because it is the only film in the original series not to feature a child as the main human character. However, I also think that it is the one of the weaker films in the series. The human characters aren't really that interesting and this is one of the flaws of the Gamera series. At least with the Godzilla series (or for that matter Toho kaiju films altogether) the human characters, especially in the earlier films, are fully dimensional whereas in the Gamera films they are treated as more of an afterthought. This film is not really one of the brighter moments in the whole Gamera series.

This used to be my least favorite of the original Gamera series but I watched it recently (minus the Joel and bots comments, since I have the old MST3K episode on tape) and I was really surprised with the special effects. The opening scene where Gamera (the narrator butchers his name too) attacks the damn was well done. There are a lot of cool miniatures and as it has been mentioned several times already- this movie is 'kenny' free.

Sadly, there really isn't a lot going on in this film. I do like the overall weirdness of it all: a giant flying turtle battling against a creature who attacks people with his tongue and a rainbow! Hey, it was the 60s ... what can I say? Sady Franks either had a brainstorming session or they were high when they made these movies.

There's actually a coherent plot to this movie and I suppose Gamera changes from a baddie to a good guy in this one. They just really stretch everything so thin and there aren't enough monster fight scenes to make me happy. I'm being really generous with rating this ...

Four men launch an expedition to the jungles of New Guinea to retrieve a valuable opal hidden in a cave during WWII. The jewel is brought to Japan, but turns out to be the egg of an ancient monster called Barugon, that hatches after being exposed to infra-red rays. The creature grows to enormous size and stomps cities; the authorities try different plans to try and defeat the beast, but fail. Gamera, the giant flying turtle, is attracted by Barugon's destructive rainbow energy beam and picks a fight.

Of the Gamera films I have seen thus far (the first four in the series), this is the best, which isn't saying much, I know. Gamera vs. Barugon benefits from being in colour (unlike the original movie), and isn't aimed at kiddies like subsequent efforts (meaning that there is no annoying child to befriend the turtle). The film opens with some enjoyable jungle adventure (superstitious tribesmen, dangerous swamps and deadly scorpions), the monsters are hilariously bad - clearly men in badly designed rubber suits with supporting wires visible throughout - and there's just enough general mayhem and silliness to make the whole thing bearable, especially if really dumb monster movies are your thing.

Not only does Barugon have his ridiculous rainbow beam, but he's also armed with a chameleon-like tongue that sprays a sub-zero vapour to freeze his enemy in their tracks, which makes for a lot of fun (the movie's villain, treacherous treasure hunter Onodera, played by Kôji Fujiyama, meets his fate via the tongue!). Gamera is frozen early on, meaning that he isn't seen for much of the movie, and only shows his scaly face again for the finalé, once he has thawed out, but there's plenty of implausible but entertaining nonsense in the meantime, as the army try to lure Barugon into a lake with a big diamond and reflect the deadly rainbow beams back at the lizard using a giant mirror. Neither ploy defeats Barugon, leaving it up to Gamera to save the day.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for the bit where Gamera socks Barugon in the face, resulting in the spillage of gallons of purple blood!