An alien broccoli (star/co-writer Carmine Capo-bianco, in a Fruit-of-the-Loom costume) wins a game show prize to assume the portly form of an irresistible Elvis dressalike and visit Prospect, Connecticut, “the horniest town in the galaxy,” to get it on with Earth women.
This well-meaning but ultimately rather dull sf flick features Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten as Galaxina, a beautiful androidette capable of human feelings.
In a Star Wars opening, space tyrant Kila (Richard Moll) wipes out a planetful of rebels and seizes their magic crystal.
Grotesque lizard man isn't really a bad guy, but after his spaceship crashes on Earth, jerkwater humans try to kill him and he naturally fights back.
Astronauts sent to rescue a stranded spaceship find themselves with a new mission: find the hidden alien leader in a mysterious pyramid (which contains a gauntlet of weird death traps) before they all get killed by vicious aliens.
Amusement-hungry masters of the planet Xenon teleport seven of the galaxy's most brutal warriors to an unsuspecting Earth to fight barbarian blood matches over a ball.
This fun monster flick was Japanese Daiei Studio's answer to Godzilla. Gamera, a monstrous prehistoric turtle with huge tusks, is released from his arctic tomb by an ill-timed atomic explosion. Able to breathe fire and fly (presumably a side-effect of that pesky ol’ radiation), the Shelled Wonder zooms around destroying things and generally causing panic. The first and …
The monstrous turtle returns to Earth after being freed from his outer-space prison by a passing meteor, and battles with 130-foot lizard Barugon, who comes equipped with a rainbow melting ray and a freeze gas shooting tongue. This strange beast hatched from an egg smuggled to Japan from New Guinea, and has been raising hell ever since. Tokyo and Osaka get melted and/or frozen in the proces…
Japanese animation, or “anime” as it's known in its home country, has become remarkably well represented in U.S. video stores these days. A lot of people who have never heard the word “anime” are surprised to find that they grew up on it; in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, Japanese-produced series like Speed Racer, Kimba the White Lion, Battle of t…
Now fully the good guy, giant flying turtle Gamera slugs it out with a bloodthirsty batlike critter named Gaos, who has been gobbling up folks. Gaos is also able to generate ultra-powerful sound waves from his throat in the form of a cutting beam, which neatly slices a few vehicles in half. With Gamera recovering from injuries sustained from his first clash with Gaos, heroic scientists come up wit…
Sexy, leotard-clad aliens take two boys on a ride to a distant planet. They have fun playing with hi-tech equipment, until they find out the aliens really want to eat their brains! They call on the monster Gamera, who is Friend to All Children, to come rescue them, but the alien headquarters is guarded by the evil, cleaver-headed monster Guiron. Meanwhile, little sister tries to tell disbelieving …
Gamera the flying turtle visits Sea World to battle a cheap, shoddy-looking monster and hand out some cheap morality. The alien Zigrans come to Earth to wrest the planet from the hands of the polluting humans who have nearly destroyed it. The alien monster Zigra nearly kills the staunch turtle, but some of his human friends revive him that he may defend Earth once more. Not nearly as much fun as p…
Cold War sci-fi in which two journalists in Eastern Europe stumble into the obscure socialist state of Gudavia, where no-goodnik doctor uses gamma rays to turn kids into fanatical geniuses or adults into brainless zombies.
Journalists and scientists visiting a tropical island find a giant egg.
Forgotten sci-fi film about a mad scientist and his Japanese cohorts who develop small explosive pills that are more powerful than nuclear bombs.
This fun all-star monster fight is a more-or-less direct sequel to Godzilla Vs. Mothra. When a three-headed monster from outer space threatens the world, hapless humans are forced to appeal to the (comparatively) friendly Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla. Mothra's tiny priestesses are back (guests on a TV talk-show, no less!). Ghidrah (who would appear in sever…
A cowboy duo kidnaps the inventor of a ray gun in order to hijack mail planes, but they're stopped by G-Man Tim McCoy and friends.
Hilarious ‘50s giant-monster flick, featuring a buzzard-like bird, which not only arrives from outer space to hatch an egg, but is also surrounded by an anti-matter shield that makes it radar invisible, and prevents conventional weapons from doing any damage.
Through the magic of rear-projection film techniques, a giant lizard (yes, a gila monster) terrorizes the plucky teens of a small southwestern town.
A notoriously bad film from the ‘70s with some of the worst special effects of all time.
Televised gladiatorial bouts are designed to subdue man's violent tendencies in a futuristic society until a computer makes a fatal error.
Two young people experience the world after it has been destroyed by nuclear war.
When this Larry Cohen-directed opus hit the screens, many TV stations refused to run the original trailer, fearing its nature too offensive.
A monstrous prehistoric reptile emerges from the depths to terrorize Tokyo after being awakened by atomic testing. Godzilla is finally foiled by means of a heroic scientist's “oxygen destroyer,” though as we all know, he would survive to menace Japan again and again. Scenes featuring Raymond Burr were added in the 1956 American version (directed by Terry Morse), …
A latter-day sequel released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters.
Aliens from Nebula Spacehunter M conduct their nefarious schemes from the cover of Godzilla Tower in the World Children's Land amusement park. When they're discovered by an unemployed cartoonist and his friends, they summon the giant three-headed dragon Ghidrah (last seen taking a beating in Destroy All Monsters) and giant cyborg monster from space Gigan to destroy Eart…
Warner Bros. had a problem securing rights to Godzilla's name, and opted to release this theatrically using a monster pseudonym (“Gigantis”), doing some heavy editing while they're at it. In this first Godzilla sequel of the original series, a second Godzilla appears to cause trouble, while another monster – the spiny Angilas – also appears t…
In this sequel to Godzilla 1985, Doctor Suriga-ma's secret plant formula could free the industrialized world from oil dependency. He also runs his pet Godzilla experiment from the same laboratory. When terrorist thieves attempt to steal the plant formula, a petri dish mixup unleashes Biollante, a titanic rose-monster. Yes, that was rose-monster. As if a gigantic rosebush wasn't enoug…
Ten things you probably don't know about Godzilla: …
Godzilla is once again a good guy in this ‘70s outing, considered by many to be one of the worst in the series. This time, the villainous “Seatopians” unleash two giant monsters to conquer the world: Megalon, a giant cockroach with drills for arms, and Gigan, a flying metal creature with a buzz-saw in its stomach. Fortunately, cyborg hero Jet Jaguar (sort of a low-rent …
Novel Godzilla adventure with the big guy and Rodan in outer space! Suspicious denizens of Planet X (who wear some truly suspicious goggles) require the help of Godzilla and Rodan to rid themselves of “Monster Zero,” who's been menacing their world. Earth agrees to “lend” the Xians the monsters (they're transported through space in gia…
A gigantic egg washes ashore in Japan via a hurricane. Despite warnings from a pair of tiny girls (the fairy priestesses of Mothra from the earlier movies), a wealthy industrialist plans to build an amusement park around it. Before too long, however, Godzilla shows up, hungry to do some city-stompin’. The fairies convince Mothra to come to Tokyo's aid. Though the huge f…
Godzilla appears once again to ravage the Japanese countryside. Nothing new about that – until he beats up on his ol’ pal Angilas. Then, a second Godzilla shows up to battle the first! The first monster's skin is torn away to reveal a robot version of Godzilla, which is under the control of evil apes from the black hole nebula (swiping an idea from the then-popular Plan…
A young man and his friends steal aboard a sailboat, hoping to use it to find his brother, who was lost at sea. The “owner” of the boat turns out to be a thief, who happened to be hiding out on board. They all end up on an island guarded by a gigantic monster crustacean. The island is also the secret headquarters of a group of criminals bent on world domination. In a desperate gamble…
Godzilla battles a creature borne of pollution, an ever-growing sludge blob named Hedora. Godzilla fans expecting another apocalyptic science-fiction adventure of mythical proportions may be disappointed. Avante-garde director Yoshimitu Banno tried to take this Godzilla film further into surrealism, with mixed results. Some scenes are illustrated with animated children's drawings. Japanese …
Not really a monster movie at all, but actually a strange juvenile drama. A young boy who is having problems with school, family, and local bullies, dreams of going to Monster Island to learn from Minya, son of the boy's hero, Godzilla, who is having similar problems. Using the lessons in real life, the boy captures some bandits and beats up the tough kid who's been bothering him &#x…
Sinbad (the Dangerously Diabolikal John Phillip Law) travels to Lemuria, a legendary pre-Atlantean continent that allegedly connected Africa to Australia. The Black Prince Koura (Tom Baker of Dr. Who fame) will stop at nothing to beat Sinbad to the Fountain of Destiny and to claim the beautiful slave girl Margiana (Hammer queen Caroline Munro) as his own. …
One of the few Japanese sci-fi flicks you'll see with a display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Title refers to a collapsed star on a collision course with Earth. Top scientists of 1979 cooperate internationally to construct huge nuclear jet engines in the Antarctic to literally shove Earth out of Gorath's path. Imaginative details (a la Immanuel Velikovsky) sh…
An undersea explosion off the coast of Ireland brings to the surface a prehistoric sea monster, which is captured and brought to a London circus. All seems well, until scientists learn that Gorgo is but an infant. Its irate (and much larger) mother appears looking for her baby, creating havoc in her wake. Though London had been used as a setting for monster rampages before (di…
Sequel to Grampa's Monster Movies, this one carries some of the more fantastic of sci-fi creatures from beyond.
“Grand, simply grand.” The aliens visiting Jeff Daniels’ midwestern inn are among the most terrifying ever put on film.
Ah, they just don't make ‘em like this anymore! It's danger and romance and slime-monsters galore as a spaceship assigned to intercept an oncoming asteroid inadvertently brings aboard malevolent alien creatures that proceed to menace the whole crew. The one-eyed “Green Slime” are among the, uh, shortest monsters in cinema history. They look more grumpy than vicio…
An appealing comedy/horror tale with a far sharper satiric edge than you'd expect from a movie about fuzzy gnomes who turn into murderous goblins. Produced by Spielberg, who seemed to be riding some kind of wave at the time. A fumbling gadget salesman named Rand Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) is looking for something really special to get his son Billy for Christmas. He finds it …
This sequel to Gremlins is superior to the original, which was quite good.
Spy thriller brings to life L.P.
Guy and Raina, two intergalactic vagabonds, travel to the prison-planet Geo in search of a youth drug.
Wimp college student is transformed into a chitinous superhero thanks to his discovery of an organic alien battle suit, the “Guyver,” and helps CIA agent Mark Hamill keep the device from falling into the claws of Zoanoids, evil mutants guiding the evolution of mankind.
Director Steve Wang gets more bucks, an R rating, and just an overall more gutsy feel to this sequel also based on the popular Japanese comic books and anime.