Critic Reviews
Godzilla (1998) Rank 3 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (178) reviews
Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating
Reviews by Score:
San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)
San Francisco Examiner (Barbara Shulgasser)
C.J. Hill
Performances are quite good all round. Jean Reno (Leon) although underused, is excellent. There are some unexepected digs at the expense of the Americans, courtesy of chewing gum and coffee (you'll see) and Broderick gives some occasional, fine, comic ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at C.J. Hill
Walter Frith
Inspired by the revolutionary special effects of 1993's 'Jurassic Park', 'Godzilla', plain and simple, is a popcorn movie that is beyond the high brow realm of major criticism and is one of those movie's that despite the rigid criticism it will receive ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Walter Frith
Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)
The ballyhoo surrounding Rialto’s release of the 1954 film that started the entire kaiju, or giant monster, film genre (for better or worse, depending on your tolerance for men in bulky rubber monster suits doing the hully gully on tiny plaster Tokyos) ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)
A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)
artechock (Thorsten Krueger)
Home Theater Info (Doug MacLean)
Matt's Movie Reviews (Matt Easterbrook)
Film Values/Family Values (H. Arthur Taussig)
An Alienshore Review (Rick Pali)
The Digital Bits
Wolfpack Productions (Sujit 'Chief' Chawla)
Godzilla is reborn for the 90's, full of special effects, characters you don't care about, and lots and lots of eggs. The set-up is very short. It seems the French were conducting nuclear tests where they think no one lives, and Godzilla is created as a ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Wolfpack Productions (Sujit 'Chief' Chawla)
The Common Guy (Paul Hall)
Christian Spotlight on the Movies
Film Blather (Eugene Novikov)
DVD Review e-zine
Joe Chamberlain
Nuclear testing in the South Pacific has genetically altered the native lizards in the area and created what may be a new species. And a very large species at that. Godzilla has lived under the sea in the area for years but is now running out of food, ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Joe Chamberlain
Philadelphia Inquirer
Godzilla is the Loch Ness monster of the Pacific, a Sleeping Ugly. In this essential 1954 creature feature that's as potent as King Kong, the sea reptile has been dormant since Jurassic times. He is awakened not by a kiss but by the blast of an ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer
Deep Focus (Bryant Frazer)
Godzilla '98 is big and it's noisy, and while it's not particularly good, it is just good enough. Yes, the storyline is stupefyingly unimaginative. No, there are no characters to speak of. For that matter, there are no performances to speak of. Meaning ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Deep Focus (Bryant Frazer)
Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
It will probably come as a surprise to most American viewers to learn that the original Japanese version of Godzilla is regularly included in the top 5 on Japanese lists of their best native films. Most of us are only familiar with the sliced and ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
Movie Reviews UK
"Its foot is as long as this bus." So reads an ad for Godzilla currently adorning our public transport. You can't help but smile. It captures the precise mood -- cinema as media event. Exactly the type of exploitative irony you'd expect to roll by in ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Movie Reviews UK
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (--)
DVDActive (David Beamish)
A disappointment for me, this film used to be enjoyable but now I find it less so. I still hold out for Godzilla 2 though which one day could grace our screens. The DVD is not a great example of a Superbit DVD and to be honest, I would recommend staying ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at DVDActive (David Beamish)
UpcomingDiscs.com (David Annandale)
French nuclear testing (?!) in the Pacific leads to the mutation of iguanas (!?), and giant one makes its way to New York to nest. Scientist Matthew Broderick hooks up with old-flame TV journalist Maria Pitillo and French secret service guy Jean ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at UpcomingDiscs.com (David Annandale)
MovieWeb (Evan "Mushy" Jacobs)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)
Size does matter. As the world knows all too well, that's the advertising line forGodzilla, the summer's most hyped potential blockbuster. But it's also a perfect three-word review of the film. As special-effects epics go,Godzillais ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)
DVD Talk (Chuck Arrington)
Let me start by saying I am a Japanese Godzilla fan! Suitmation is the way Godzilla was done and it's the way he's still being done and quite successfully at that! Devlin/Emmerich's Godzilla is not at all Godzilla in any sense of the word. If anything ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at DVD Talk (Chuck Arrington)
Bob Bloom
Godzilla takes the "star" of 22 Japanese films, most of which were targeted for children, and turns him loose in the city that never sleeps and probably never will again.Godzilla, like Emmerich and Devlin's Independence Day, is the perfect summer ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Bob Bloom
B-Movie Film Vault (Jordan Garren)
Film Quips Online (John R. McEwen)
Despite a long dead spot in the middle, this movie is reasonably entertaining. In addition to Broderick, Azaria also adds much needed humor, and there is plenty of high-tech warfare with the beast. If you like your movies big, loud, and shallow, you'll ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Film Quips Online (John R. McEwen)
Ben Hoffman
In some spectacular special effects, made possible in part by new computer graphics software and technology, the film is as real as one could imagine. For those displaced New Yorkers like me, it really looked as if the Chrysler Building and Brooklyn ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Ben Hoffman
Anchorage Press (Bostin Christopher)
The Aisle Seat (Mike McGranaghan)
Entertainment Insiders (Stephen Wong)
Teen Movie Critic (Vivian Rose)
filethirteen.com
Sci-Fi Movie Page (James O'Ehley)
A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)
DVD Authority.com ("Fusion3600")
Needcoffee.com
In Film Australia
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
DVD Net (Steve Koukoulas)
Montreal Film Journal (Kevin N. Laforest)
Oregon Herald (Jamie Peck)
Dallas Observer (Luke Y. Thompson)
DVD Verdict (David Ryan)
Dr. Daniel's Movie Emergency
DVD MovieGuide
Rick Ferguson
I can probably come up with a dozen reasons why GODZILLA doesn't work. We could start with the script, which redefines the term "lightweight." Then we could move to the performances: Matthew Broderick's nutty professor routine never quite works, Hank ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Rick Ferguson
Film Scouts (Jeremy M. Posner)
Harvey's Movie Review (Harvey O'Brien)
The New York Times - Family Movie Guide (Peter M. Nichols)
Scifilm (Chadwick H. "Chadzilla" Saxelid)
Movie Geek Central
Los Angeles Times (Kevin Thomas)
B Movie Reviews (John J. Brassil)
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Just like its Japanese godfather, the 1998 model leaves American men shaking in their suits and combat boots, their high-tech weapons no match against the mutant lizard's primeval power. "We need bigger guns," a stunned soldier stammers. But while ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Philadelphia City Paper (Sam Adams)
Light Views, Reviews & Previews (John Larsen)
The Flying Inkpot (Jack Choo)
Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents
Mutant Reviewers From Hell
Cinema Laser (Derek M. Germano)
Movie ram-blings (Ram Samudrala)
Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)
Films on Disc (Stuart J. Kobak)
Movie Magazine International
Film Freak Central
Cinemaphile.org (David Keyes)
DVD Savant (Glenn Erickson)
Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)
MediaCircus (Anthony Leong)
Salon (Gary Kamiya)
Cineclub-Filmkritik
Kino (Alessandro Bencivenni)
filmfacts (Andreas Edler)
Parent Previews
The first Godzilla movie made in the 1950's was best loved for how bad it was. You would think Hollywood would learn that this kind of film should never be remade... but what a great looking box.
Rod ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Parent Previews
Joshua Birk
Let's put it like this. When this movie came out, critics panned it for being plotless. Pointless. Lack of decent dialog. Yada. Yada. Did these guys watch any of the original movies? I adored them. In case you missed the basis, here's the plot of every ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Joshua Birk
David N. Butterworth
Or do you do what this dynamic duo did: take a legendary screen monster, tart him up for the nineties, and let him take a sizable bite out of the Big Apple?"Godzilla" is the latest product of Devlin and Emmerich's blockbuster machine. Not the most ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at David N. Butterworth
David Sunga
Ingredients: Try to imagine JURASSIC PARK, except replace the gawky Jeff Goldblum character with nebbish biologist Matthew Broderick, and then make sure there are no kids as main characters. Let dinosaurs run wild in New York City; add mutated giant ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at David Sunga
Alex Fung
After months of speculation, the secret is finally out. The team behind GODZILLA have gone to extreme lengths to keep the revamped look of the new monster under wraps for the past ten months, even obligating cast and crew to sign strict confidential ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Alex Fung
Scott Renshaw
I don't know why Emmerich and Devlin found this snarky fit of retaliatory pique necessary. Certainly the negative reviews of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert didn't hurt the box office take of "ID4," which somehow overcame two thumbs down to gross $300 ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Scott Renshaw
Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
No matter how old I become, whenever there's a Godzilla movie playing I will always be an eight-year-old fan rooting for Japan's biggest movie star. So when the news came that the original, uncut Japanese version of the original 1954 Godzilla was ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
Homer Yen
Tatopoulos does make a scary discovery, learning that Godzilla has come to NYC to nest. A new species is being born, and if they don't act fast, New Yorkers will become food for the scores of reptilian offspring that are close to hatching. Time is ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Homer Yen
Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)
Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Even though his earlier incarnations were laughably fake, the Godzilla of the original Japanese movie had personality. In fact, audiences took such a liking to him, that most of his later films switched him to the role of the good guy, where instead of ...read the complete Godzilla movie review at Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
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