Destroy All Monsters (1968)

aka Kaijû Sôshingeki
Studio: Media Blasters/Toho
Theatrical Release: August 1st, 1968
Blu-Ray Release: November 8th, 2011
Review by Craig Sorensen




In the future (1999), Earth has finally managed to round up all of it’s giant monsters and segregated them to Ogasawara Island (except King Kong, he’s off somewhere getting drunk on magic berries I suppose).  Through a complex system of magnetism and yellow gas the monsters are kept from leaving and stomping all our cities to rubble.  Don’t worry though because they’ve got plenty of dolphins to eat and they generally love being held captive (who doesn’t?).  Everything is going A-OK until some asshole aliens show up, break all the monsters out of Monster Island and brainwash them into destroying our cities.  Now the Earth forces are left with no choice but to DESTROY ALL MONSTERS™.

Look, I really can’t be objective about this film.  I love it too much.  Watching this makes me want to dump a bunch of toys on the floor and eat a grilled cheese sandwich.  It just makes me feel like a little kid.  And little kids don’t really give a shit about film criticism.  The plot is mostly complete nonsense, the special effects border on the silly (even for 1968) and the acting is ridiculous.  I don’t fucking care.  This is Destroy All Monsters.  Abandon all notions of story and taste ye who enter here.

The first Godzilla film is a well made film.  It’s brutal, poetic and has a definite point of view.  Things slide downhill pretty fast in the series after that.  And I’m saying this as a fan.  It gets increasingly difficult to take them seriously.  And I don’t believe that at this point in the series they are meant to be.  This is miles away from the stark anti-war tone of the first film.  This is candy colored popcorn matinee stuff.  And if you go into this wanting to have a good time I don’t know how you could be disappointed.  It’s got everything I want in a movie: monsters beating up on each other, spaceships beating up on UFOs, sexy alien girls, moon bases, underground lairs, laser guns, gun fights, etc., etc., etc...  Just go out and buy it already.

This transfer looks pretty good to me.  The only other copy of this that I have is the old ADV Films DVD from 1999.  I can say that this new Blu-Ray blows that thing away.  I’ll be throwing that DVD out for sure.  The film is presented in it’s original Toho Scope aspect ratio of 2.41:1 and is in full 1080P on a dual layered disc.  There certainly seems to be a jump in detail throughout.  The colors seem a bit muted to me but I've never seen a print.  I always kind of assumed that things would be more brightly colored.  But it didn’t bother me too much.  There are four audio tracks on this thing as well.  Two of these are differing English dubs.  One is the American theatrical dub and I believe that the second is the AIP television dub.  The disc doesn’t tell you which is which.  There is also the original Japanese audio track for purists.  And finally there is an informative commentary track with Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski.  Also included is an image gallery, a promo reel (trailers), and the Ken Films Super8mm digest version of the film.  The Ken Films version is probably one of the best special features that I’ve ever seen on a Blu-Ray.  It’s beat to hell and faded but it’s great to see.  Super8 digest films are a disappearing footnote in film history and it’s nice to see it preserved.