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Clockwise: Gorgo, Mothra, Konga, Reptilicus
Host Steve Biodrowski is joined by Steve Ryfle, Ted Newsom, and Mark Thomas McGee for a fond look back at box office behemoths GORGO, MOTHRA, KONGA, and REPTILICUS.
It was 50 years ago today! Er, well, 51 years ago. This Cinefantastique Roundtable Retrospective Podcast was originally recorded last year, as part of [...]

Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Just in time for Christmas, the Cinefantastique Laserblast crew – that would be Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski – offer up their recommendations for  DVDs and Blu-ray discs that would make perfect stocking stuffers for the horror, fantasy, and science fiction fan in your life. Suggestions range from the 1932 [...]

EARTH DEFENSE FORCE — alien invasion — giant monsters, too?

The late Ishiro Honda has long been considered Japan’s premier fantasy film director, and certainly worthy of a book-length study, which is what author Peter H. Brothers’ Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda provides.

[ July 31, 2010; 2:00 pm; ] Godzilla fans in New Hampshire get a rare chance to see a 35mm print of SON OF GODZILLA on the big screen – as part of the Colonial Theatre’s Fouth Spooktacular, a semi-annual event co-presented by SATURDAY FRIGHT SPECIAL, a local cable-access show. The presentation includes vintage monster movie previews, cartoons, and give-aways. Horror comic [...]

[ May 7, 2010 to May 13, 2010. ] Godzilla fans in San Francisco have a rare opportunity to view their favorite radioactive reptile on the big screen, courtesy of this week-long celebration of kaiju eiga (that’s “monster movies” to you Occidentals out there). The event kicks off on Friday, May 7, with “TokyoScope Talk – War of the Giant Monsters,” a discussion among Otaku [...]

Josh Marshall of the political blog Talking Points Memo compares the current throw-down between RNC Chairman Michael Steele and former Bush’s Brain Karl Rove to a kaiju slug-fest.

BIG MAN JAPAN is built around a funny concept, vaguely akin to HANCOCK: its title character is a superhero who is a bit of a loser. Of course, being a Japanese superhero, he periodically grows to enormous size (courtesy of electricity applied to his nipples) and confronts monsters attacking urban areas around the country, often with [...]

The Stench vs. The Pudge: A Stink Monster (Takayuki Haranishi, left) makes acquaintance with ambivalent hero Dai Nipponjin (Hitoshi Matsumoto, right) in BIG MAN JAPAN
Welcome back to kaiju world: big, honkin’ monster attacks Japan, big, honkin’ hero comes around to kick butt. Only in this case, the hero, Dai Nipponjin (literally “Great Japanese”), is a [...]

[ May 15, 2009; ] On May 15, this 2007 mockumentary spoof of Japanese giant monster movies launches its U.S. release with one-week runs at the Nuart Theatre in West Los Angles and at The Cinema Vilalge in New York City. Subsequent engagements will take place in Berkeley, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Chicago. The trailer looks pretty funny, and Variety [...]

As part of our weekend tribute to the late special effects director Sadamasa Arikawa, here is the Japanese trailer for GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER (1966). This is a film that had some of the shabbiest effects of any monster movie (the badly beaten Godzilla suit is much in need of repair) and yet it [...]

As part of our weekend tribute to the late special effects director Sadamasa Arikawa, here is the Japanese trailer for SON OF GODZILLA (1967) – a cute and cuddly kiddie flick in which the formerly terrifying radioactive reptile is revealed to be an old softie at heart, a caring parent who looks after junior, protects [...]

As part of our weekend tribute to the late special effects director Sadamasa Arikawa, here is the U.S. theatrical trailer for DESTROY ALL MONSTERS – the memorable Toho production in which Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and all of Earth’s other monsters team up for a non-stop destruction derby involving invading aliens trying to take over the [...]