Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria
Have I Seen it Before: It is the beginning of the summer in 1998. The Promenade Palace theater is having its grand opening. I very particularly remember a large inflatable Godzilla on the roof. I also remember all of its screens were committed to the showing of this movie. So, naturally, I was there for it. It was one of those summers where I saw everything I could. In retrospect, betting big on this film was probably a losing gambit for the theater to enter the world. As I type this, the theater is now abandoned. Now I’m depressed. Thanks, Godzilla.
Did I Like It: This film was resoundingly rejected upon its release, and time has not been any kinder to it. The special effects are poor (even for the era), and the story is the laziest version of the loose thematic trilogy that Devlin and Emmerich started with <Stargate (1994)> and continued with Independence Day (1996), which feature a nebbish scientist being the key to the secret wonders of some slimy alien thing that will spend most of its time blowing up famous buildings.
The filmmakers would tend to blame a rushed production schedule forcing them into the Memorial Day weekend, but I don’t buy it. There is not one instant of this film that isn’t crassly calculated to lurch its way through an opening weekend. Each set has just enough room for product placement for everything from KFC and Taco Bell to Bacardi. Even Mac and Me (1988)* had some whimsy about it. It has very little to do with the Godzilla series, aside for the licensing of the name from the Toho company, and would have been more aptly titled The Iguana Who Ate Manhattan and Some Fish. Even it’s poster tagline, “Size Does Matter” feels like a junior executive excreted it than any kind of creative decision.
And then there’s Mayor Ebert (Michael Lerner). I’m not sure what the point of a set of characters based on Siskel and Ebert is supposed to be. It’s a running gag in every scene where the film is groaning to try to sell the seriousness of its peril. It also isn’t that funny. It also doesn’t make any sense to put these caricatures in New York City, when the two critics were Chicago institutions.
Was it intended to buy some goodwill with the critics themselves? Well, it didn’t. I looked it up and they both hated the film. And aside from some fond memories of a movie theater that’s never coming back, I kinda hate it, too.
*A film I remember both fondly and likely incorrectly from my childhood, if for no other reason than it has my name in it.