A Batalha dos Monstros

Basically Gamera fights a giant knife with an attitude! Alot of people put the Gamera series down for being cheap, but you know what? They were fun! At least Gamera fought a different monster (mostly outlandish ones at that) every movie. Unlike the Godzilla movies where Mothra, Ghidorah, and MechaGodzilla seem to pop up in every other flick. Anyway this movie follows Gamera VS Viras. It has the same concept. Two kids (one American, one Japanese) are the stars. And there is plenty of stock footage flashbacks too. Then things get bizarre. Gurion (the knife with the attitude) slices up a silver painted Gyoas. Shoots ninja stars at Gamera. Gamera sprays out blue blood. Swings around on parallel bars. And does a "la cucaracha" dance to remove some ninja stars stuck in his arms! He then finishes off Gurion by slamming his knife head into the ground, so Gurion is upside down with his legs kicking! Bizarre stuff. Throw in two Japanese women in funky space suits that drug the kids with tainted powdered donuts so they can eat thier brains and you can see what my one line summary means....

I think I first saw this film when I was about 10 or so - and I took it quite seriously the first time I saw it. That was the dubbed version I saw then. I remember being quite worried about poor Gamera being chopped to pieces by Guiron - boy, Guiron was a nasty piece of work!!! I just recently saw it again - this time subtitled (subtitles provided by the Australian multicultural channel, SBS TV) - and I think the subtitled version probably is better. It was so much fun to see it again after so long! And only now do I realise just how cute all the beasties in the flick are! Especially the Children's Friend himself!

A trio of children (2 boys and a girl), intrigued by news reports of mysterious sound waves sent to Earth from outer space, star gazing spot a flying saucer! They later find it in a wooded area. The two boys decide to investigate while the girl being more wary decides to wait outside. After entering the spaceship however, the two boys suddenly find themselves being whisked off into space. Along the way they spot and greet Gamera who tries to prevent the ship from leaving our galaxy but even he cannot keep up with its incredible speed. After the ship lands, the two boys find themselves on a strange new planet and suddenly spot another version of Gaos in battle with the planet's guardian, a knife-headed monster with a mean streak named Guiron. Gamera all this time has still been on the trail of the boys' spaceship. Meanwhile aliens are watching all of this with possible evil intentions?

This was tremendous fun. The little kid in me loved every minute of it. Sure the child stars are a bit annoying at times (but more so I suspect to adult ears than to a child's) and the effects aren't always up to par but man do the monster battles ever deliver the goods in this one. They are knock-down drag-out affairs especially those featuring Gamera and Guiron and surprisingly graphic in terms of their brutality yet the film never loses sight of making clear just who is evil and who is good. Like the best pro wrestling of yesteryear, it manages to make the hero Gamera incredibly sympathetic while the villain Guiron comes across as little more than a nasty-tempered brute and a bully who needs to be taught a lesson in manners.

'Attack of the Monsters' is quite a movie. Not only does it show off Gamera's great range of talents, but it is also the silliest giant monster movie I've ever seen, and oddly violent for a giant monster that is obviously intended for kids. Gamera: if you can hear me, you rule.

Akio (Nobuhiro Kajima), an idealist kid, dreams of finding a planet with no wars,traffic accidents, or long pants. He and Tom (Christopher Murphy) get whisked away by an empty UFO to the planet Terra, a planet that is exactly like Earth and conveniently shares Earth's orbit and is always on the opposite side of the sun to Earth. On Terra, they watch as a Gyaos turns up, only to get dismembered by Guiron (Terran for: 'Giant-Knife-Head-Monster').

Only two Terrans still live on the planet: Two space-babes with names so nice and pretty that these space-babes are obviously evil (apparently the rest of the population left to find a new planet, but we all know they died in a mass traffic accident). When the Terran women reveal that they must eat the kids brains in order to adapt to life on Earth, the kids are saved by Gamera, friend to children everywhere.

Gamera should have had a toy range based on this movie. He is the most multi-skilled monster in the universe! I can see it all now: Regular Gamera, Jet Propulsion Gamera, Ninja Gamera, Baseball Gamera, Airborne Gamera, Judo Gamera, Dancing Gamera, Gymnast Gamera, Aqua Gamera, and Gamera the Repair Monster. 'Attack of the Monsters' is a very silly movie - silly in the most funny ways. The poor special effects, the very basic dialog, the far out story, and Gamera's range of talents all make for some quality monster movie entertainment. Some of the monster mayhem seems rather brutal, even by regular monster movie standards (really, how many Godzilla films feature bloody dismemberment?), but my only complaint is the lack of Gamera's theme song in the 'Attack of the Monsters' version of the film. I want Gamera's theme song! I want it now!

Gamera rules. 'Attack of the Monsters' may be one of the most poorly produced movies you'll ever see, but it's great fun, and you know it.

"Listening to children is neither psychologically or educationally important" This and other bits of tidbits are what is at stake if you dare to watch this Japanese trash. After scientists discover mysterious irregular waves from outer space, 2 boys hi-jack a spaceship to another star -(Earth is a star by the way) - only to watch hilarious monster fights complete with ninja stars from a walking knife, and become trapped by female aliens who want to eat their brains with dremel tools. And the boys thought that these aliens will prevent wars and traffic accidents. Listen to some bad jack-in-the-box music and enter Gamara, a giant go-go dancing turtle who must have had some bad Mexican food and comes to kids rescue after a few turns on the high bar. Boy are these kids going to get a scolding when they get home. I have watched this both with and without MST3K's help and it is roll on the floor hilarious either way. We should all figure out how to live without wars and accidents or we will repent and get our heads shaved.