Cinefantastique Online

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If you want to draw eyeballs to an online magazine, you have to fill it with stuff that is new, new, new, but on of the defining aspects of Cinefantastique was its love for classics, expressed in frequent cover stories and retrospective articles. We like to keep that tradition alive at Cinefantastique Online, especially on [...]

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS is probably the last well-regarded entry in the original Godzilla series. By this time, all serious threat of the monsters had disappeared; recognizing this, director Ishiro Honda (who had helmed the original GODIZLLA in 1954 and many of the subsequent sequels) opted for a fast-paced action-adventure roller-coaster thrill ride that was seldom [...]

This film is from the goofy era when Godzilla was mutating from a radioactive menace into a lovable hero. The tone is definitely geared for younger viewers, and it’s impossible to take the proceedings seriously. And yet, SON OF GODZILLA is actually quite entertaining on its own juvenile level, filled with strong performances, exotic locations [...]

This is one of the silliest but also one of the more amusing Godzilla movies. The goofiness of the enterprise somehow becomes part of the entertainment value, resulting in a likable, fun-filled, fast-paced movie that is totally incredible but quite watchable.
The story begins (in the original Japanese cut) with a family worried about a missing [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: In this archive question and answer session, culled from personal appearances made at a Godzlla film festival in 2000, the late special effects expert discusses his work on Toho’s biggest monster, from the frightening original to the comic “Son of” Sequel.
Sadamasa Arikawa served under the legendary special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, the man [...]

In Monsters Takes Tips from Vintage Villains, USA Today points out that MONSTERS VS. ALIENS directors Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman drew inspiration from number cult science fiction films. The most important of these many influences was the 1968 kaiju monster fest DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, starring Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and many other monsters: “We [...]

Sci Fi Japan points us to Crackle, a new online “multi-platform next-generation video entertainment network” that is loaded with movies, television episodes, and original videos. Because Crackle is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment Company, the have a load of titles from Columbia-TriStar, which owns the distribution rights to Toho’s giant monster movies. The current feature movie [...]

For kaiju(i.e. Japanese Giant Monster movies) fans, this double-bill of two of the best non-Godzilla movies represents a must-have. Featuring both the original Japanese and the revised American versions, this double-disc DVD presents these kaiju classics with the respect they have never before received on U.S. shores.
While Rodan went on to become Godzilla’s sidekick in [...]

A new, cute Gamera faces off against the man-eatin Jidas.
Finally released on DVD, this 2006 film one breaks continuity and abandons the adult tone of the well received 1990s GAMERA trilogy directed by Shusuke Kaneko (GAMERA, GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, GAMERA VS. LEGION, GAMERA 3: REVENGE OF IRYS), in favor of returning to the childish tone of [...]

With Blu-ray having won the High-Def war against HD-DVD, more and more familiar titles are re-emerging on video store shelves, this time in the new format. Although the number of science fiction, fantasy, and horror films released on disc is low this week, the few that are available offer worthwhile examples of this phenomenon.
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Serenity [...]

The Sportsman’s Daily has a reasonably amusing satirical post about the closing ceremonies of the Olympics being ruined by Mothra:
After pulling off spectacular opening and closing ceremonies during the 2008 Summer Olympics, the city of Beijing was met with unexpected disaster immediately after the Olympic torch was extinguished. Movie monster Mothra attacked the city on [...]

This week’s home video offerings include a a big-budget disappointment, the further adventures of Japan’s most famous mon-star, the early adventures of a long-running soap opera, and the bloody adventures of a couple of psycho killers. The high-profile release is THE GOLDEN COMPASS, New Line’s failed attempt to create another blockbuster fantasy franchise in the [...]

Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects director responsible for the classic Toho monster movies, is a figure of major importance in the history of Japanese fantasy films. Inspired by the stop-motion special effects of Willis O’Brien (e.g. 1933’s KING KONG), Tsuburaya yearned to create his own movie monster, and he finally got his chance when producer [...]