Latitudine zero

Another memory from my childhood! I was about 7 or 8 years old when I saw this film and it really freaked me at this time! Recently, I watched "Ido zero daisakusen" again and it had great nostalgia-values!! Giant rats, bat-like creatures... this flick directed by Godzilla´s spiritual father Ishiro Honda has everything a great Japanese monster movie needs! Plus the great performances of Richard Jaeckel, who made some extraordinary alien-experiences in "The Green Slime" as well as Cesare Romero, unforgettable as sneering bad guy Joker in the 1960s Batman-series! The biggest surprise however was the appearance of Joseph Cotten, an actor that also starred in the Orson Welles-classic "Citizen Kane" or Carol Reed´s "The 3rd Man"... so he´s next to Russ Tamblyn or Raymond Burr a further US-actor who can add a Japanese Sci-fi movie to his filmography. "Atragon II" may be a little bit cheesy compared to nowaday´s standard (Which Asian monster flick from those days is not?!?), but all the multimillion Dollar CGI-F/X can´t deal with the great naive charm this film delivers! A cult classic!!!

Scientists are descending in bathyspere when an underwater volcano erupts. They are saved by a submarine commander on his futuristic sub the Alpha who takes them to a mystical and wonderful place named Latitude Zero, where the adventure is this action packed Japanese film begins.

This is one of the finest of the non-Godzilla epics by Ishiro Honda and Toho. It definitely has all the elements that make for a great film great story, great action and an interesting twist at the end. What really stands out is the fact that Honda pretty much took a near impossible situation in working with several American actors who didn't speak Japanese and was able to do a decent job in directing them. However, the thing that really was interesting about this film was the fact that this film marks what probably is the first and only time that Akira Takarada and the late, great Akihiko Hirata are heard speaking English with their own voices after years of being dubbed. This film is definitely one of the finest to come from Toho.

This movie could have been a classic 60s sci fi if it wasn't for the ridiculous creature costumes. The miniatures of the submarines and the underwater city are really good, but the costumes for the creatures look they won them at a carnival fair. The movie is also really slow at points, like when they walk through the underwater land for five minutes! Other than that though the movie is decent, the acting is okay and the plot is interesting. I would say only watch this if you have no other Japanese sci fi movie to watch.

Interesting note: "Suitamation" acting Legend Harou Nakajima play the Winged Lion in this Film, Nakajima was Godzilla for the first 20 years of Godzilla Movies, He also portrayed such Giant Monster legends as, Rodan, Varan, Mougera (The Mysterians) and the front section of Mothra.

That's what I love so much about this film, what other Movie can have the same actors that portrayed Godzilla & the Joker in the same scene!

I agree with the above Review, I have been a Daikaijuologist my whole life, and have seen just about every suitamation film Toho ever made, the suit work and miniatures in Latitude Zero have no rival & this is INDEED one of Toho's most underrated works.