All Monsters Attack (1969)

Movie Info

As I get older Minilla, I will have to turn to hard drugs to chase the fantasies of my childhood and Monster Island

With both his parents working, Ichiro Miki (Tomonori Yazaki) spends most of his days alone and imagining what it would be like to visit Monster Island while dealing with bullies led by Sanko Gabara (Junichi Ito).  When two bank robbers (Sachio Sakai and Kazuo Suzuki) hold up in a nearby abandoned factory, Ichiro finds himself caught up in the action and finding that he’ll have to summon the courage of Godzilla and his son Minilla to thwart the robbers and escape safely.

Directed by Ishirō Honda, All Monsters Attack (ゴジラ・ミニラ・ガバラ オール怪獣大進撃 or Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Ōru Kaijū Daishingeki aka Godzilla, Minilla, and Gabara:  All Monsters Attack is a Japanese kaiju Godzilla film.  Following Destroy All Monsters in 1968, All Monsters Attack (the tenth entry in the Godzilla franchise) was released as Godzilla’s Revenge in the United States and billed with Night of the Big Heat.  The Criterion Collection included a remastered version of the film in the Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975 collection (Criterion #1000).

You know I’m evil because I have red hair!

Good or bad, All Monsters Attack is a memorable movie…but mostly not for the good reasons.  As a kid this movie made me laugh and even as a kid I realized that the movie was largely pulling the wool over the eyes of the viewers…Godzilla isn’t in it and no kaiju are.

The reason this is true is that the events on Monster Island take place in the head of Ichiro Miki and are a coping mechanism for both his loneliness, the bullies, and the bank robbers.  Yes, Godzilla and the characters appear but it is Ichiro’s imagination…and largely pulled from clips from other previous films.

With a plot surrounding kids, the movie is kind of doomed in an acting sense.  Tomonori Yazaki isn’t the worst kid actor as Ichiro and generally one doesn’t come to Godzilla for the acting, but the acting is a bit more important in this entry than some of the other entries.  You also add a couple Disney-esque robbers in Sachio Sakai and Kazuo Suzuki and really horrible parenting by Ichiro’s mother and father (Kenji Sahara and Machiko Naka) and wacky inventor neighbor Shinpei played by Hideyo Amamoto.

Minilla taught me how to be a jerk like other kids!!!

Since the movie is largely a clip movie, the visuals don’t always match up.  Godzilla’s design has changed slightly over the years and you can sometimes tell.  The Ichiro “rage” moments are fun in that they do freeze frames and Ichiro goes all “Godzilla” on someone.  The movie does add a new kaiju in Gabara who is the embodiment of Ichiro’s bully Gabara…you can tell Gabara is evil because he has red-hair.  Of course Minilla (who has a creepy voice) is able to overcome him in the end and teaches Ichiro to be stronger (and apparently a jerk by scaring the poor painter).

All Monsters Attack is generally considered one of the worst Godzilla films since there isn’t much new material and the plot is paper thin.  I do like aspects of it because it is kind of bizarre, and it has a lot of Godzilla clichés (including little kids befriending a giant monster).  Personally, I like that the bully Gabara is wearing an Indianapolis 500 shirt the entire movie…as a Hoosier it speaks to me (even if Gabara is a jerk).  All Monsters Attack was followed by Godzilla vs. Hedora in 1971.

Preceded By:

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Followed By:

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)