Gorgo

Ocean volcanic eruption brings many deep sea fishes to the surface. Divers researching the ocean finds not only the fishes, but a reptilian monster from the deep. They succeed in capturing the monster, and brings it back to London, but a closer study shows that it's only an infant, and a lot bigger adult is expected to exist somewhere. The adult shows up, to search for its missing offspring, and London is under attack by a 200 ft tall monster.

This might be a British version of Godzilla, but it's the first time a monster is portrayed as a family. The production is very good for a movie of this sorts, and has aged well. It was even more sensational back in the '60s when the movie was made.

It's a classic monster movie that has its place in movie history, and still a good entertainment to watch.

GORGO is hardly a perfect film but it does have several things working in its favor which make it more entertaining than many other giant monster films. One is director Eugene Lourie, certainly no stranger to giant monster films directing THE BEAST FROM 20000 FATHOMS, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH as well as GORGO. In terms of Special FX and Ending, only the first film named above is better than GORGO. The FX work(done by Tom Howard) in GORGO is truly well-accomplished and for the time and era was rather ground breaking. The Ending is also truly unique amongst giant monster films which usually all end the same way but this one certainly doesn't.

The problems lie mostly with lack of character development and some serious leaps of logic. Still there are times this film can be quite suspenseful particularly once Mama Gorgo comes on the scene. The huge red-eyed Mama rising out of the water is certainly memorable stuff.

First off, let me say that I am indeed an MST3K fan, but I saw, and have owned this movie, long before i ever even became a MSTie myself. And as for the original himself, Godzilla, i have been a Godzilla fan longer than I have ever even walked (literally). So in that respect, my priorities come Godzilla first, MST3K second.

With that out of the way, this isn't an all that bad Godzilla knock off. For one thing, it isn't dubbed, though the actors are still hard to hear clearly. Second, the monster effects are fairly good. Simple man-in-suit technique that still works today. Third, there is a plot, involving the young Gorgo being taken by British entrepeneurs for exploitation back on their ol' isle. Then daddy/mommy/whatever Gorgo comes to his/her/its baby's rescue. She smashes through some British landmarks in typical Godzilla fashion, with typically poor military resistance. There are human characters thrown in, but they do little more than observe.

Why do i actually like this movie? Because I like Godzilla, and Godzilla knock-offs that don't go the way Gamera did after his second movie: Helping people all the time and being "Friend to all children!" Yes, there is a child that somewhat befriends baby Gorgo, but even the kid knows that baby Gorgo don't give a crap about him when his mommy shows up.

Its not campy, its not deathly serious, its just good old fashioned Godzilla-type city stomping. If you're a Godzilla fan , you'll enjoy it easily. If not, you'll at least sit through it and have some fun nonetheless.

And if you're a biased MST3K fan, unlike myself, you'd hate the Godfather if it was shown in front of MIke and the Bots. Even they admitted it wasn't all that bad of a movie!

The British must have been really jealous of the legendary Japanese monster Godzilla destroying the city of Tokyo, as they insisted on having their very one mega-giant critter destroying the city of London. The result is Gorgo, a charming and easily aggravated sea lizard of Irish descent with adorable bright red eyes. The film opens with a diving expedition witnessing an underwater volcano eruption in the middle of the ocean. The impressive ecological phenomenon brings a lot of fake and inexistent species of rubber fish to the surface, but also awakens the bad-tempered sea monster Gorgo. See, Gorgo is a really cool monstrosity that doesn't waste any time and that's something horror fans will definitely always appreciate. Unlike most monsters in the film industry, Gorgo doesn't start by picking off sole victims somewhere in the middle of the sea; it promptly attacks entire seaside villages at one. That way, there are witnesses aplenty and the few hysterical survivors don't have to waste half of the script trying to convince the authorities about what they saw. Greedy fishermen catch the prehistoric critter and sell him/her/it to a sleazy circus owner in London. But then, and inevitably, it turns out that they only just captured Gorgo Junior, and mommy obviously doesn't like that her baby is downgraded to being a circus freak. "Gorgo" isn't a great or even highly memorable monster classic, but at least it's never boring. The titular monster is pretty cool, the special effects are reasonably astonishing considering the time of release and there are a few admirable attempts to generate sequences of mass hysteria and mayhem. The majority of miniature sets are delightful and let's not forget the various and hilarious use of stock footage! Military battleships and U-boats are firing off artillery into the open water and Gorgo isn't anywhere near the point of impact. The rampage through London itself is not as overwhelming as the aforementioned Godzilla crushing down Tokyo, but it's nice and exhilarating to look at nonetheless. Recommended if you have a soft spot for late 50's/early 60's ecological monster movies.

A retelling of the Godzilla story in a British setting, Gorgo is a lot of fun to watch. As other reviewers have said, two fisherman come across a monster ("Gorgo") off the coast of Ireland and decide to put it on display in London. Trouble begins when Gorgo's mother shows up and wants her child back! The scenes of terrified crowds rushing the streets and attacks by the military are all well filmed (obviously the British military helped out a great deal in producing the movie), and it's neat to see a monster destroy a city besides Tokyo for once. Gorgo is obviously someone in a rubber suit, but the monster itself comes across as totally believable. Takes a while to get moving, but well worth seeing.