Godzilla 2000 (1999)

Godzilla saves Tokyo from a flying saucer that transforms into the beast Orga.

Director:

Takao Okawara

Writers:

Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Wataru Mimura

Stars:

Takehiro Murata, Hiroshi Abe, Naomi Nishida

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Takehiro Murata	...	Prof. Yuji Shinoda
Hiroshi Abe	...	Mitsuo Katagiri
Naomi Nishida	...	Yuki Ichinose
Mayu Suzuki	...	Io Shinoda
Shirô Sano	...	Prof. Shiro Miyasaka
Takeshi Ôbayashi
Shirô Namiki
Sakae Kimura
Bengaru
Ken'ichi Nagira
Ken'ichi Ishii
Yoshimasa Kondô
Kôichi Ueda	...	Military Man
Yoshiyuki Omori
Masahiko Nishimura

Storyline

Godzilla returns in a brand-new movie that ignores all preceding movies except for the original with a brand new look and a powered up atomic ray. This time he battles a mysterious UFO that later transforms into a mysterious kaiju dubbed Orga. They meet up for the final showdown in the city of Shinjuku.

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Plot Keywords:

godzilla | explosion | alien | rooftop | military | 

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Taglines:

Godzilla returns - destroying the city of Nemuro in Japan.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for monster violence and mild language

Details

Official Sites:

Toho Co.

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

18 August 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Godzilla 2000

Filming Locations:

Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,407,720, 20 August 2000

Gross USA:

$10,037,390

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$12,924,063

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS (8 channels)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Masaaki Tezuka, director of Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002) and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) hated this movie and greatly disliked its creators, claiming that they're not real Godzilla fans.

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Goofs

When the two men are in the lab at CCI, when they are discovering Regenerator G-1, first they view the Godzilla skin sample under a compound light microscope. Then they move directly to an electron microscope, where they poke one individual skin cell and watch it regenerate on the monitor. There are two kinds of Electron microscope, transmission and scanning. Both require the specimens to be dead (and specially prepared with a coat of metal) in order to be viewed. It is impossible for the men to have seen a Gozilla cell alive and regenerating using the electron microscope.

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Quotes

Yuki Ichinose: Don't you think this is a little too close?
Yuji Shinoda: I need to get as close as possible. If you don't like it, go home and watch it on TV.

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Crazy Credits

Over the closing shot of Godzilla blowing up Shinjuku, a green "THE END" is superimposed, with a red question mark that appears over between the two words. (Theatrical US version only)

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Alternate Versions

In the American theatrical versions, a green "The End" with a red question mark in the middle is super-imposed over the closing shot of Godzilla blowing up Shinjuku with his Radioactive Heat Beam right before the closing credits. Michael Schlesinger, the producer of the US version, did the scene in tribute to sci-fi films from the good old days, but since he was on vacation, Tri-Star used the "goofy" font, as opposed to the black blocky letters Schlesinger wanted. Either way, Toho Company Ltd. didn't like it, so Toho and Schlesinger agreed to remove the title card from all subsequent versions (on VHS/DVD and TV prints).

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Connections

Followed by Shin Godzilla (2016)

User Reviews

Tokyo really gets it in this one!

I was pleasantly surprised by this new and improved version of Godzilla. I loved the Big Guy's movies when I was a kid and I (somewhat sheepishly) went to this one on opening night with my brother-in-law, also a childhood monster movie fan. We were both impressed with the story, the more-than-decent FX (for these kinds of movies, that is), and the human characters. I couldn't help but notice a few little visual details that were obviously inspired by the horrendous American version of 1998, which rather surprised me. Maybe the Japanese were grateful to the American filmmakers for reawakening interest in Godzilla, despite the American's utter ineptitude in reinventing the story. The Godzilla in this flick is back-to-basics MEAN, and goes on an extremely destructive rampage through Tokyo, which is totally what I want to see when I go to this kind of thing (the American Godzilla was the wimpiest giant lizard the cinema has ever seen). Best of all though, Godzilla STILL manages to fight and defeat a deadly-to-humankind alien monster in the film's second half, affording his adoring fans a glimpse of his other,*softer* side. This is a good Monster Mash. 7/10