Gammera the Invincible

Gamera the Invincible (1966)

** (out of 4)

The stupid American government drops an atomic bomb at the North Pole and soon the gigantic turtle named Gamera is set free. He flies across the world before landing in Tokyo to destroy the city. I'm not a huge fan of these Japanese monster films but this one works….a little. Some of the special effects are nice including one scene where Gamera destroys a chemical plant but there's some laughable moments as well. I watched the English dubbed version, which gets a few more laughs due to the silly track.

Due to the inability of America and the Soviet Union to get along, nuclear disaster strikes, unleashing the titular turtle! GAM(M)ERA THE INVINCIBLE is yet another Japanese monster film with new, westernized footage wedged in to appeal to American audiences. Admittedly, some of the inserted material is pretty good, especially the TV panel show, humorously discussing the giant turtle phenomenon. Very funny!

Of course, some of the original story is equally absurd, including a young boy with a "disturbing" turtle obsession. As for the Great Shelled One himself, he's awesome! This is where the titanic terrapin first proves that he's both "the friend of all children" and "the potential doom of all mankind". Can the brilliant Plan Z stop him?

BEST SCENES: #1- Gammera's assault on the nuclear power plant! #2- His fiery escape from certain death! #3- The -rather cramped- UN meeting, apparently held in someone's garage! #4- The band playing the Gammera theme song, in spite of impending annihilation! #5- The Tokyo demolition scene! Oh yeah! #6- The full implementation of Plan Z!

Gammera shows why he's a suitable rival of that OTHER giant reptile from that OTHER studio!...

It is very easy to sum up this movie, Godzilla turns into a turtle.The end.I was slightly familiar with Gammera but was a little surprised his origin is almost a shot for shot re-make of the first Godzilla movie.There is basically no plot.Some kid doesn't want Gammera to get hurt.Is that the plot?Weak.There are a couple good things about this movie.The best is that they totally rip-offed the Batman TV show theme song and just changed the one word to "Gammera".It's lame that they stole it but you will be singing it before you get to the end.The other good thing is that there is a Japanese Colonel Sanders(I think he was in a few Godzilla movies but I've seen so many bad movies that they all just run together).I almost forgot, Dick O'Neill is in this movie.Who is he?Go to his IMDb page and you will know who he is.He's that guy that was in everything and you never knew his name.Not bad for a monster movie, give it a shot.

Gammera is almost as fun as the famous Godzilla - it's not quite as good as Godzilla but it is a blast to watch. Silly looking special effects that will get you to smile, over-the-top story, the dialogue is sometimes hilarious but that is what makes a film like this one so much fun. And the theme song is so laughable... "Gammera! Gammera!"The film is watchable if you are into the "big monster" type of flicks.

If you liked Gammera the Invincible or Godzilla then you might like to make this movie a double feature with another fun Japanese film called Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (1967)... it's on the same wave-length as the other two films.

5/10

The original 1965 Japanese film "Gamera" http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0059080/ was essentially an updating of the darker, less kid-oriented Gojira (Godzilla)for 1960s sensibilities. Gamera, of course, is a giant, flying, flame-throwing turtle who literally consumes energy - not quite as big as some versions of Godzilla, but generally similar in most ways.

This version of the original film was edited and recut by the notorious Sandy Frank. And just like the Americanized version of Godzilla ("Godzilla King of the Monsters"), "Gammera the Invincible" gets more than just the spelling wrong. The American scenes are not nearly as ludicrous and annoying as those added to the great Gojira, but don't really add much to the story either because there is little follow up on them.

The film starts off promising, there are a few scenes worth of character development, and there are enough personalities to create some tension outside of the main plot. Once Gamera appears, however, the film begins to descend into a fairly run-of-the mill kaiju film.

The acting is good enough- even the American add-ons are OK. The directing is pretty good for this period and genre, and the special effects are not bad at all for their time (all miniatures). Some of the sets and backdrops are actually very good.

The biggest problem here, of course, is that there is little to nothing original about this film. Gamera, however, develops a much more unique personality in his later films - most of which are worth watching if you are a kaiju fan.