'Godzilla': It's Not Exactly About the Story

Godzilla: Small head, but butt, long tail.

OK, so my friend Teresa Sakasegawa talked me into "Godzilla" this evening and I'm a little embarrassed. I liked it. Not so much for its Academy Award screenwriting potential, but for its humor, its over the top special effects, its absolute shiny brass in wasting some excellent actors in pursuit of a gigantic monster fight.

Teresa, who's half Japanese, said she wanted to satisfy "the Japanese geek" who lives inside her. I think we got that itch scratched.

This is my first "Godzilla," though I've seen pieces of half a dozen. It was, I would imagine, the slickest production and the one with the most people in it whose names you'd recognize: Bryan Cranston (you know him), Sally Hawkins (one of the best actresses working), Juliette Binoche ("Chocolate," among other things), David Stratharian (another very busy, talented guy), and Ken Watanabe (a Japanese actor you'd recognize). All the major execs in the production are Japanese. The movie begins in Japan and moves through Hawaii and San Francisco, two heavily Japanese areas. So the heritage is maintained.

In any case, this one's lots of noise, buildings falling like sand castles, blood, gore, bullets and missles, growling monsters with closeups and everything I always wanted in a movie. No story to get in the way, either.

Go see it and time Juliette Binoche's appearance on screen. I didn't think to do that, but I'll bet it exceeds two minutes.