Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #16 8/20-8/24

[MekaGojira3k]

[metal_bryan]

I'm not seeing many of these 7 voters coming forward.

[klen7]

It wasn't a good flick, but I wouldn't rate it as downright awful as some other people on this thread have.
Better than almost anything Asylum puts out, (Transmorphers is a much worse film involving robots)... and now that i am thinking about it, the plot probably made more sense than Transformers 2... i can appreciate the special effects work but i likely wont be watching it again.

Also Texmexium is a worse name than Unobtainium...

5/10 Biodroids

[MouthForWar]

[klen7]

[MouthForWar]

[metal_bryan]

[klen7]

The imbd ratings for Gunhed are well above any of the asylum films mentioned, so at least some people had fun with it. At least they took a risk on making a film like this despite not having an established genre.. again its not a good movie but I would prefer studios and directors take risks on something different rather than pumping out sequels, remakes and formulaic generic genre-fare.
maybe you scared away the other 5 or 6 voters with your tales of unbearable pain and doom.

[MouthForWar]

I'm not so sure that Gunhed took any risks. Its another shameless Terminator rip off that was a dime a dozen at the time it was released and its one of the worst (if not THE worst) of the bunch (its certainly the worst one I've seen... and I've sat through movies like Laser Mission, Assassin, Hands of Steel, and Mutant Hunt). I don't see what's so different or risky about it. GUNHED was originally a Godzilla movie, but Toho went with Biollante so they whipped up a quicky rewrite that removed everything relating to Godzilla (and didn't seem to try to fill in the holes that were left by that removal) and the final product is incomprehensible. There's nothing risky about rushing a half hearted and lazily rewritten script into production, other than the risk of making an awful film (which they did).

And it also has less IMDB votes and is more obscure than any Asylum films, so I'm not sure if comparing the ratings average is valid. Gunhed only has 404 votes and most Asylum films have upwards of 1000. The averages aren't comparable. Even if they were, there is no rule that says an Asylum film that isn't as good as Gunhed can't be more entertaining than Gunhed (even though, quite honestly, I think most of the Asylum films I mentioned are are much better than or at least on par with Gunhed. At least a lot of Asylum films bother to have some kind of story structure to them).

Also, since Gunhed had about 4 times the budget and a shooting schedule twice as long as the average Asylum film, I think that makes its failure even less excusable. Gunhed had a HUGE budget, especially for a Japanese film and especially for one made in the 80s.. Toho had Bandai, Kadokawa and several other companies on as co-financers (as opposed to the Godzilla films which Toho made themselves). This made its awful box office performance really hit hard. It is said that Gundhed's massive failure is one of the things that led to Koichi Kawakita's alcoholism (Kawakita considered his full sized robots and to-scale models in Gunhed to be some of his very best work- its certainly the only good thing in the film, that's for sure).

BTW, here is a very interesting interview with Masato Harada. He talks about the ups and downs of making the film. After hearing about how Toho drastically cut down his post-production budget, it really makes more sense just how sloppy this movie turned out.

http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/m ... rada.shtml

Apparently James Cameron was a fan of the film and even invited Harada to Hollywood to discuss the possibility of collaborating on a project

[jellydonut25]

i might watch this tonight...i might not though...i'd like to wind up re-visiting the entire showa godzilla series by the week's end, and i've only got 3 films left...

[metal_bryan]

[MekaGojira3k]

So amidst personal tragedy and my life sucking I trudged through this pile of garbage. I'm pretty impressed by the effects work and set design. Still, everything else is terrible. So it fits in perfectly with the Heisei series.


I love that Zuckuss gets a cameo. That's all I love about the movie though. I'm not even able to finish it in one sitting. I'll watch the last twenty minutes tomorrow. If I don't I may go ahead and hang myself before the night's out.

[metal_bryan]

[Showa Mothra]

So just how bad does Gunhed suck?



BTW, I voted for Half Human as well.

[MouthForWar]

[MouthForWar]

[Showa Mothra]

[planetxleader]

[MouthForWar]

[planetxleader]

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

If I end up watching this, it will be Friday while I am flying on my way to Buffalo...somehow I feel that watching this movie, combined with being in BUFFALO will result in a lot of rage being felt by yours truly.

[Alpha OTS]

[metal_bryan]

[Showa Mothra]