Gorgo

Bill Travers and William Sylvester (the latter having played Heywood Floyd in 2001 and also starring in *UGH* Devil Doll) are a group of fishermen/pirates who scour the ocean floor for gold and such. Well, one day, a volcano erupts while they are searching "some old rustbucket", and the next day, when they are repairing the boat, a prehistoric dinosaur (well, what other age did they come from?) attacks the island and is captured by the crew. Rather than donating it to the Irish government, they do the *cough* right thing and take it to London to sell to a circus for half of the profit to a Mr. Dorkin, one of the most tastelessly dressed men in the business. But then the monster escapes, right? No siree. Another dinosaur appears, except this one is MANY times taller. In other words, Dear old mum checks in to see how our babysitter friends are doing with her kid, and she won't be happy . . .

Despite some rather boring moments, this one, like Phantom Planet or Jack Frost, isn't too bad without the help of MST3K. It helps that the guy who directed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is the director. The one thing that bothers me: where's the female character? Maybe it could've been more interesting with a female point of view. But this is a kid's film, and I guess they could care less. But the one kid in this movie, although like Kenny from Gamera in that he likes the monster, is not annoyingly cute; he's much more a dramatic character than a comedy relief. And one more thing that strikes me funny: Joseph O'Connor, who is a veteran of British film, three years later starred in a film called "The Gorgon"!

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!

This film is came out seven years after the debut of the "Big G" and it is quite a surprise. This is a great story, and the ending is definitely a twist on what usually happens in most giant monster films. This film could definitely be seen as a parable on the consequences of greed. This film is definitely a cult classic.

Gorgo is the third of the monster on the loose movies to be directed by Eugene Lourie. It came two years after The Giant Behemoth and was the only monster movie to be directed by him to be made in colour.

This is an excellent movie with great special effects. This is the British version of Godzilla and the monsters look impressive, despite them being men in monster suits. The acting in this is quite good and there is an excellent music score too. This was made towards the end of the craze for giant monster movies.

This movie is a must for monster movie fans and I enjoyed it very much.

This is British monster movie action at its best. Enjoy!

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

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.