Reviews

Here is weird but cool 70s Japanese show.

This story follows robot detective K and his friends detective Shiba, and detective Shinjo. Shiba is kinda've a jerk to K, he is almost always insulting K and making him sad. But he eventually starts to treat K nicer.

Shinjo is a dedicated person willing to fight even the strongest robots in the show. Even though he fails every time, it's cool seeing him try, he even has a couple of stand out scenes where he actually does a good job at fighting.

Shiba has 2 daughters, Yumi and Nami. There's nothing much to them but it's cool seeing Shiba having a life outside of investigating.

I feel like the first few episodes are the most interesting, probably because it's before they started reusing episode plots later down the line but I'll get into that later. The evil crime organization BAD has been terrorizing the populated areas of Japan. The robot designs and abilities are on-par to what Kamen rider was putting out at the time.

This show follows the monster of the week format very strictly, and barely does anything different.

There is three robots in the show where on of their abilities is separating their limbs and reconnecting them, and it acts like it's never been done before.

The fights scenes are pretty good though, the fight choreography and unique locations lends the fight scenes more substance and realism.

There are some side characters that sometimes assist the trio but there is not much to them either.

Even though I really enjoyed this show, it's still hard to recommend this to newer viewers of tokusatsu.

But if you're interested, go right ahead!

You'll like this show a lot!

8/10.

This is an underrated giant robot show with entertaining characters and great giant robot battles.

This series follows a little boy named Saburo which he joins the red mufflers for revenge of the death his family who was killed by one of the giant robots made by the evil artificial intelligence Brain.

And along side Saburo he has a giant mech named Daitetsujin 17 fight off the many mechs and schemes the Brain party has in store for them.

The first 16 episodes are surprisingly dark and fast paced. Many scenes focus on violent battles with the Brain party soldiers and the red mufflers.

But the 17th episode introduces Gontetsu, which is the comedy relief. After that the show gets way more lighthearted. That's why I think the first half of the show is better than the second half.

Also Gontetsu is a decent comedy relief character.

His early episodes can be a little sloppy but he gets better as the show goes on.

Saburo has a lot of character development here.

When 17 says that he is Saburo's friend, Saburo is cheering and celebrating that he finally has a friend.

Now. The giant robot battles.

The giant robot battles are the best thing about the show. Each robot has a unique look and abilities. Each robot has a fair share of miniature destruction in each of their episodes.

I also think this show has some really good characters, the side characters are okay but the main characters are entertaining to watch.

Overall pretty good show!

9/10.

Don't let this 63 episode length concern you, this series is fantastic and really enjoyable to watch.

This series follows a group called the pollution control or later renamed to the monster squad. It consists of a cast of entertaining characters. One of those characters is named George (i watched this with its English dub btw) which he can transform into the golden protector of earth SPECTREMAN.

He defends the earth from alien invaders, monsters made by man's pollution, and the monsters made by Dr. Gori and his servant Karas.

This show is very kid themed, some episodes focus on the well being of kids or sometimes the monsters wouldn't even be spotted without a young child witnessing it.

The kaiju action is so well done, to fun and original monster designs, to the hundreds of miniatures just waiting to be destroyed. The kaiju and kaijin fight scenes are some of the best of early 70s Tokusatsu. This is a perfect mix of Kamen Rider and Ultraman, mixing giant and human size action in no other way it has been done before at the time.

The pacing in around the first 20 episodes are really inconsistent. Sometimes it can be an action packed adventure or a dry miserably paced episode where the monster shows up in the last 3 minutes and the characters just sit around and watch Spectreman beat the monster to death.

The first 20 episodes also show a lack of budget, when they run out of money for the miniatures they just make them fight in quarries or dirt roads with a couple of miniatures laying around. But this isn't much of a problem because the fight choreography is still really well done. Episode 30 is when the series takes a huge improvement in everything.

There is a weird sense of sexism in the show. The female lead keeps getting replaced and they are written pretty blankly. It's like they were just there to be the girl of the team.

But this show is still so good!

This is one of the best Toku shows I've ever seen.

It's amazing.

10 OUT OF 10!

This is an often overlooked Tokusatsu TV series that is super fun to watch.

This show was planted right in the middle in the 70s henshin boom, where the protagonists can transform into a being of justice.

This show has a unique take on giant monster battles, instead of using suits or puppetry it uses stop motion animation. A method that is barely used in tokusatsu. Even though that they did stop motion because of the budget it's still very fun to watch.

The characters are a little dry though, the three Mitsurugi siblings are usually too busy to desplay anything of a personality.

There is also some side characters that sometimes assist the Mitsurugi siblings but they aren't anything interesting either.

But the acting is great though, there isn't a single time in the show where the acting is bad and that's really impressive.

The giant monster battles and stop motion are done really well, some of the stop can be a little janky sometimes but that isn't much of a problem.

The human size battles are good fun too.

If you like action and fast pacing, Demon Hunter Mitsurugi has plenty of it.

It's a short show too it only has 12 episodes, you can finish it in a couple of days if you want to.

Very good show! 8 out of ten!

Ah yes, another dinosaur movie.

This film takes influences from One Million B. C. And the original 1933 King Kong.

I don't think this film is as bad as people say it is.

It has mildly okay suitmation, even though the Ceratosaurus's walk like penguins just waddling around. The giant ground sloth looks scary and threatening, the puppetry on the giant lizard creature looks decent, and the prop work for the brontosaurus's look really good. But I do think the close up puppet of the Ceratosaurus looks not that great. But other than that the effects are pretty good for the time.

The characters performances are great but I do think that most of the main cast are a little unlikable, but Virginia Grey is genuinely trying here and she gives off the best performance.

Even though this film had a low budget and could only show what they could get. But there really needed to be more dinosaur action, you can't just have a little in the beginning and barely in the end.

But I liked this film a lot, I recommend it with a huge bucket of popcorn!

Very okay and fine movie, 6 out of 10!

It's the seventies, Japan's tokusatsu boom made it across seas. At Shaw Shaw productions the Shaw siblings want to make a hero derivative of Ultraman and Kamen Rider. Which were very popular at the time. So they brought us the Super Inframan!

The costume designer, was a regular in multiple special effect company's. Working with Toei, P productions, and assisted Eji Tsuburaya.

This film has a really Saturday morning cartoon vibe. It's pretty cheesy but not too cheesy to not be serious.

The design for inframan is a stroke of mad genius.

Just nice and simple, it also looks like a bunch of other toku hero's mixed together. The bells that rang to me when I saw inframam for the first were that of, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super sentai, and Faiyaman.

Inframan can fight 1 to 10 kaiju/Kaijin. What a stacked monster roster.

The set pieces and special effects are novel and fun, the fight choreography and editing are so good and tight mixed with energetic Hong Kong action.

Inframan is doing backflips on CLOUDS how could you not love this.

The characters are a little flat but it's overshadowed by nonstop action and it redeems itself so good.

I recommend this so much, the dialogue in the English dub is ridiculously charming and cheesy.

Of what Inframan has originally is great! But sometimes it flat out steals.

You can hear ripped sound effects and music from different toku media. It steals from, Ultra Q, Ultraman, Ultraseven, Mirrorman, and the Hanuman and the seven Ultraman movie.

That's the reason why the music keeps stoping abruptly, it's from a different movie.

But this film is so good.

Fun for the whole family!

9/10.

This is not a good example of independent filmmaking.

This film is about a bunch archeologists in their teenage years trying to find ancient artifacts, and sometimes a crappy paper mache bigfoot shows up.

This film's pacing is so boring and slow. Scenes are just filled with teenagers walking or talking, and shots just go on for a little too long. The cast is forgettable and I don't even think that we got to know the characters names.

The Bigfoot only kills one person and the crappy Bigfoot is only in three scenes, and those three scenes are the only entertaining parts of the movie. It's good mildly amusing schlock.

The camera is locked down and it barely excites visually. The lighting is so bad that you can barely see the crappy Bigfoot. The climax is anti climactic, and it's just a very bad movie.

The last three minutes are slightly enjoyable, it's bad but the Bigfoot is set on fire. Now that's some good schlock!

Even though Teenagers battle the thing has its charms with the bad acting and schlocky moments.

But it's ruined by its horrible pacing and a forgettable graceless script.

It's barely feature length, and that's the nicest thing I can say about it. It's mercifully short clocking in at about 58 minutes.

Not even an interest or curiosity. STAY FAR AWAY!

This film is a classic for a reason, it was super influential and the first feature length dinosaur film. The special effects are outstanding for the time and the wide variety of dinosaurs was something never attempted before. So much effort was put into this film especially the person who did the effects, Willis O Brien. Dozens upon dozens of stop motion models were made for this film.

The miniatures and background paintings are good too. But background paintings on this level of good already existed with another film called the Ghost of Slumber Mountain.

The silent performances are pretty good but it can be a little hard to make out what the characters are doing sometimes.

But here is what drags the film down a little bit.

The characters are a little dry here. Except for Dr. Challenger, but everyone else is pretty paper thin.

I also think the ending could've been better, the climax is good, but the resolution leaves little bit more to desire.

For a movie like this I do think it's a little too long, but it kept me entertained throughout.

Fantastic movie.

This film kinda reminds me of another killer plant movie called The Day Of The Triffids, which came out a year earlier. I feel like the only difference between the two monsters is that one of them is an alien, and the other is an experiment gone wrong.

Cameron Mitchell was actually pretty good in this, you can his character dealing with the frustration and grief of arguing with his wife. Even when his wife dies he still misses her even though how badly she treated him. The performance that Cameron delivers adds on to his character.

But everyone else isn't even close to how good Cameron was. Sadly I don't have much to say about the other characters.

The film's biggest problem is the pacing, the first time we see the monster is in the last twenty minutes, and this film's runtime is around an hour and thirty minutes. It feels like the monster was a last minute addition. To me it kinda feels like a monster movie interrupting a mediocre murder mystery film. But those last twenty minutes are the highlight of the film, the plant monster is just trying to eat everyone! It's so fun!

This is a decent movie, kinda dull in some parts but the effects are Decent for the time.

Cameron Mitchell is pretty good in it, and the biggest note worthy thing about this film is that it's pretty gory for the time. But it's still not to bad.

This movie was way better than I thought it would be! But it's not everyone's cup of tea.

This was Ray Harry Hausen's first feature film that he did completely done by himself, and it would not be his last. He is mostly known for this film, and I understand why.

The acting is great, the performances are realistic and believable. They really gave the characters a little personality.

The stop motion is of course amazing and the rear projection is amazing for the time and also the miniatures are good too. I really like the dinosaur design, it's a unique mixture of different dinosaurs and reptiles.

Ray Harryhausen went on to be in even bigger things and he is inspiring generations to come.

Really good movie!

I don't know what to say about this film. But it's still a decent entry in the Gamera series.

The special effects are good as always in a Gamera movie, but the giant fight scenes are in slow motion. It looks like they shot it on the moon. But it's still very entertaining. I love it when Gamera starts slamming Viras against the ground repeatedly, it's hilarious. It's also very funny when Viras throws Gamera into the rocks on the beach.

A weird thing about this film no one points out are the tonal shifts. The movie starts playing the happy and jolly Gamera theme and it's just the two boys running around on the beach, and then later it shows people getting their heads cut off and it still plays the Gamera theme. It's sometimes disturbing too, there is also a scene where Gamera gets stabbed in the stomach with Viras's pointy head. It can be a little gruesome for the sensitive viewers.

The acting is pretty good, and the child characters are not as bad as people say they are.

But the characters are a little dry which downgrades the movie a little bit.

Also the movie spends eleven minutes looking at stock footage from different Gamera movies, they could've shortened it down or not have it in the movie entirely.

But this movie is not as bad as IMDB says it is. I enjoyed it!

A classic in creature features. The best giant spider movie in my opinion!

The characters are unique and the acting is good!

I think this is one of John Agar's better roles, he is able to display a smart man. This proves even if your acting career is a little ruff, with the right script, it can do wonders.

The effects are pretty good for the time as well, the final scene where the air force fights the giant Tarantula is the best part of the film.

But in the beginning of the movie is a little slow. It's a common problem with many 50s sci-fi movies. But when the tarantula finally shows up it's a very thrilling time.

Show this movie to someone that doesn't like old monster movies, it will change their perspective on old sci-fi films.

This was a solid third entry in the Gamera series.

I think this is my favorite Showa era Gamera movie.

It's a pretty good time!

But I kinda feel this was a step down in writing and characters from the last entry. The characters are okay but there is nothing much about them.

But with the effects and tokusatsu elements are amazing, I think it's the best in the Showa series.

It's the only fight in the Showa series that doesn't look like it's in an anti-gravity chamber.

But the comedy relief characters are decent, the little boy isn't that annoying, and overall every is at least decent. It's an enjoyable film!

Overall, fine movie!

This is one of my favorite comedy movies now!

It's so funny and I love it!

The acting is bad on purpose and it's hilarious, and the comedy is good, but I think it can be a little to much at times.

The scene where the tomatoes fight with the police in an unknown named city is good fun, and it's the only thing the film producers actually tried with and I think they did a decent job. The miniature buildings that we only see for a couple of seconds are actually decent.

The effects are the only competent in the movie and they did a decent job. It's not the good but it's good for a movie of it's budget.

Sorry that this isn't a long review and it doesn't go much into the movie, but I can't take this film seriously.

Overall, hilarious.

This was the beginning of a long and beloved franchise, and the start for legendary actor Steve Mqueen.

This film is a little slow in the beginning, it's not fast paced like other 50s monster movies. I also think the ending could've been done better.

But the special effects are above average for a movie of its budget.

The highlight of the film is the teenagers, they did a good job giving them personality's. But the supporting cast is very middling, some of them are just fine and some of them are just pretty wooden.

I also think that they should've shown the blob eating people more, it's just a closeup of the blob eating someone or it's offscreen.

But this movie is really charming and I like it!

Highly recommend it!

This was a really low budget 1977 dinosaur science fiction dinosaur movie that somehow got a cult following.

There are only two good things about this film, the cinematography, and the stop motion dinosaurs.

The stop motion dinosaurs are absolutely fantastic! They really did a good job, but it's not as good as Ray Harryhausen.

The one thing that this film loves to do is flatten and patten out the runtime, just endless scenes of people running around in the hot dessert and once in awhile a dinosaur shows up.

The acting in this film is just horrible, but good thing all of the more annoying characters just die in the beginning or the middle point.

This is not a good movie, only watch the stop motion dinosaur parts.

This is one of Vincent Price's more vulnerable rolls.

We get to see and feel what the torture he is going through with the unsolvable situation he is in.

The acting especially from Vincent is of course amazing, I think this movie gos really deep into the character's life and see what was like for him before the apocalypse.

The scenes of the once populated city now in ruins with the sleeping vampire zombies is unsettling and eerie.

But sadly this film is not perfect.

The flash back scenes are a little too long and I think it could've been shorter.

I also think the ending could've been more exciting, there is a scene where Vincent price grazes the side of a building. It was a super cool surprise.

But overall, fantastic movie, highly recommend it!

This is what I like to call a Desert of a movie, very little interesting happens here.

This is an English dub of an Italian and Colombian co production, and it's the only version I could find.

Also for a rated R movie it's not that violent, the closest thing to something rated R is that it has one really unconvincing gore effect, and that's not even that bad.

The characters are flat, all of them are just one dimensional bots. But the line delivering is not bad and the acting is decent.

It also has a decent script.... I guess.

The two things that absolutely save this movie are the beginning and the end, they are effectively creepy and intense. In the beginning of the film where a bunch of investigators go into the cargo ship and gets attacked by one of the Aliens. It's scariest moment in the film and it's unsettling.

The highlight of the film is the ending, it has really good puppetry for a film of this budget and the cheap sets are pretty cool. But it just can't hold my attention for the second act, it's such a boring time.

I only recommend this one to people who are interested in the 2nd American Sci-Fi boom.

This was the first Tokusatsu movie that Sampote Sams did with Tsuburaya productions. This would later be the start of a long and weird legal battle between the two. Basically when Sampote Sams made Hanuman and the seven Ultraman movie, he thought he owned the entire franchise, and also Kamen Rider for some reason.

Out of all his Tokusatsu movies, i think this one is the best. It has decent miniature work, decent acting, simple characters, and okay cinematography. But there is still quite a bit of issues with it.

The sound design for the Tokusatsu fights are terrible, there is no boom when the characters fall down. Also when the two dinosaur creatures show up you can't tell who is roaring and the roaring NEVER STOPS, they just don't shut up.

The character are also pretty paper thin and simple, there is nothing to them. In the first 40 minutes there is a Temple Giant statue, and whenever it is on screen it plays this heroic music and the timing for it is really hit or miss. It also plays the same theme when the Dad and the Kid are taken to the hospital, but I think it's funny and out of context.

For some reason when the two giant martians show up in the city, it's sped up really fast and it looks like the fight scenes in Godzilla raids again. That's a bad thing.

I do not recommend watching this with the English dub. It's the worst American dub I've ever seen, and some lines are not even translated.

It might sound like I don't enjoy this movie, but the last thirty minutes are really fun. Excellent visual effects and better miniatures than the beginning.

I can tell that they put most of the budget into the climax, it's actually good.

I think this is an underrated Tokusatsu movie, i liked it.

This is Ray Harryhausen's first work and it's really good for someone's first stop motion short.

Stop motion is very smooth, and the short is surprisingly in color! The triceratops model looks perfect, and the miniatures and background paintings look astounding.

But of course this film is not perfect, the camera movement when the Tyrannosaurus rex attacks the triceratops is very shaky and jerky, it might give some people a headache.

I also think the Tyrannosaurus rex model looks to skinny and slim.

Also the Brontosaurus model looks a little scratchy, not in a realistic way, but the paint is chipping off.

But this was Ray Harryhausen's first work, of course he is not gonna get it perfect on the first try. I think he did better than most other people making their first stop motion short, it's pretty impressive.

Another creative work by Harryhausen!

This was South Korea's second attempt to make a monster movie, and this is the best one in my opinion.

This film can be boring even with the monster action, Yongary just moves so slowly. That's one hundred percent a problem they had with the costume.

Half decent acting from the cast, the characters a pretty paper thin, but you don't see them that much anymore when Yongary shows up twenty three minutes in.

The special effects in this movie are actually pretty solid, the scene where Yongary attacks Seoul is the highlight of the film, the visual effects are on par with Godzilla at the time. Yongary has an ability where he can shoot lasers out of the horn on the tip of his nose, it's a really good effect. The miniature work is not as good as Godzilla's at the time, they look more like Ultraman miniatures.

I only recommend this one to people like me who really love Kaiju movies.

This film is mostly known for being one of the first films with dinosaurs. Sadly there is nothing more to talk about. All the dinosaurs appear in the first ten minutes and then there is no more Dino action.

The silent acting is not that great even for the time, and i don't really care for the main character.

The dinosaur scenes and the fight scenes between the two tribes are the only memorable things from the film.

Also during the middle point it's really slow and miserable.

The most interesting part about the film is when the giant Tyrannosaurus rex puppet attacks a tribe, it only has a few seconds of screen time but it's the highlight of the film.

Overall, pretty boring but really influential.

This film gained a cult following for a reason.

Amateur acting, bad design for a monster, and bad effects. But you can tell at least they tried.

Independent film making was a lot more common back then, and films like Night of the Living dead are great examples of independent filmmaking.

But this movie is not a big example.

This film borrowed stock footage from a lot of older movies. These movies are One Million B. C. ,The Lost Continent, and Invasion U. S. A.

But from all the problems this movie has, it's really enjoyable.

The goofy nature of this film is funny and great, it's good schlocky fun!

Highly recommend to watch this one with friends for the best experience!

This is a work by Pete Peterson, an under appreciated stop motion legend that was trained by cinema effects legend Willis O Brien.

He did a dang good job!

The stop motion effects are beautiful and the slimy and realistic puppet for close ups.

Good acting, good effects, and a well worth it climax.

The characters are a little thin and acting from a little of the supporting cast is weak.

The pacing during the middle point can be a little annoying.

Right when I'm starting to get bored, it pulls me right back in. When the film's score plays it makes you jump out of your seat in excitement. I'm also surprised that they got so many people for the Mexico City scene.

Pretty good movie, not perfect, but really enjoyable. It deserves a higher rating.

This movie is one of the best "so bad it's good films" in my opinion.

Bad effects, bad acting, weird line delivery because this was shot silently and dubbed in earlier. Bad dinosaur models, simple and bad puppetry, and some of the worst dinosaur action I've ever scene.

This film was made by the polonia brothers, an independent film group known for their low budget film making, and watching one of their more modern movies and this is almost a night and day comparison.

But one of the only good things about this film is the way they bring the dinosaurs to life. They use puppetry, POV shots, and stop motion. The stop motion is actually quite decent.

Unless you're a b-movie fan like me, stay far away.

Unless you want to have a bad movie night with your friends, that's understandable.