The Boston Phoenix
Review from issue: November 5 - 12, 1998

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2 stars and a half

Godzilla

(Columbia TriStar)

The new Godzilla is the ideal '90s movie icon -- smart, streamlined, openly emotional, androgynous, and bigger than the Titanic. Like the original, he's the mutant product of radioactive fallout from nuclear testing in the South Pacific, but he moves in on Manhattan, not Tokyo, in search of sustenance and a place to raise a family. And he's a lot more interesting than his human antagonists -- biologist Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), plucky TV journalist Audrey (Maria Pitillo), reckless cameraman Animal (Hank Azaria), and mysterious French commando Philippe (Jean Reno). The plot and the characters and the acting aren't much, but when it comes to special effects, Emmerich's destructothon will have you singing, "We're off to see the lizard!"
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