All Monsters Attack/Review

• 

When I finally get my act together enough to raise a People's Army and over-throw the State, there will be a vast collection of new rules and regulations that I will have put in place.
 For example I will lower the tax on beer and cider, you know, poor people drinks, while raising it on whiskey and champagne as I figure those bastards can afford it.
 Also every house in Gray's Britain shall have a chav shaped punching bag, made out of real chavs, as being a natural resource is their only discernible talent, for those moments when you just feel the need to kick the crap out of something.
 But right at the top of this new list will have to be the rule that if you don't like Godzilla movies you're getting sent to work in the acid mines. 
Godzilla movies are just plain awesome.
 What's there not to like? 
The Japanese, through some form of nuclear testing or earth-quake or some such gubbins, find that Godzilla has woken again and is hell bent on trashing the place.
 Cue some guy (or three depending on the movie) spending the best part of an hour dressed in a giant rubber monster suit stomping on a model of Tokyo. 
Now that's Oscar award worthy right there.
The Artist it ain't,but then again that didn't have big fucking lizard in it.



‎

Having said that All Monsters Attack is a very different take on the classic tale.
 Sure, it has Godzilla in it, as well as a fair few other big beasties, and there are a decent amount of Monster Rumbles going on but all of these things take place inside a young boy's mind.
 Ichiro is a lonely kid with a bully problem, his mother and father are hardly ever home due to work commitments and his only friends are the toymaker Shinpei Inami and a young girl named Sachiko.
 Everyday after school Ichiro is hassled by the local bullies led by a child named Sancho, who he has nicknamed Gabara.
 To escape his life Ichiro dreams of Monster Island where he can watch Godzilla fight and during one of these dreams he is befriended (wait for it) by Godzilla' son Minya who, it turns out, has a bully problem of his own (no, seriously). 
Throw into this mix some bank-robbers who Ichiro accidentally stumbles across hiding out in an abandoned factory and you have one hell of a weird ass movie.
 Can Ichiro escape the criminals?
 Can he defeat the local bullies and regain his pride? 
Can he help Godzilla's son stand up to Gabara? Should you care?

 Well, yes you should.


Godzilla movies are quite an easy thing to write.
 Big Monster squash little city: The End.
 But with All Monsters Attack writer Shinichi Sekizawa and director Ishiro Honda have the out and out balls to try something different and surprisingly it works. The tale of a young boy coming to terms with his problems by channeling Godzilla is a stroke of genius and gives a fresh look to a series of films that can be pretty one dimensional.
 Sure that dimension is a pretty solid one (Big Monster squash little city, The End) but it is nice to see that they were willing to try something a little different this time round. 
It's not my favorite Godzilla film, that's probably still the first one if I'm to be honest, but it ain't the one with Ferris Bueller in it either and that should be reason enough to seek out a copy of this little gem.
 Besides, the thing only clocks in at about an hour so what have you got to loose? After all, we can always find a space in the acid mines for you.


Neil Gray is a writer from the UK. The story goes that he was invented in a laboratory experiment that went horribly wrong and has spent years devouring every movie form and film genre that was foolish enough to pass his way until he is now nothing more than a hideous monstrosity, more celluloid than man.