Customer Reviews

Monster X Strikes Back

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I like this one better than most online reviewers do. Mind you: on fire it's not going to set the world, and the humor is sophomoric, at best. But MONSTER X STRIKES BACK is amusing in its goofy fashion, and what else would you expect from the director of THE CALAMARI WRESTLER?

I, too, would like to have seen more monster action with Guilala, who was last seen in 1967's THE X FROM OUTER SPACE. (LONG overdue for a USA DVD release, though I have the Japanese DVD, which is fine) The costume and FX are so similar to the '67 film that you have to believe it was by design. Guilala's foe, Take-Majin, parodies both Dai Majin and Ultraman-type characters, and is voiced by "Beat" Takashi Kitano (ZATOICHI). Though the jokes are sometimes amusing, better actors and writing would have been helpful...again, the lousy acting may have been on purpose.

Old-time kaiju fans will note the presence of Yosuke Natsuki (DOGORA) and Susumu Kurobe (ULTRAMAN) as military officials. And, yes, that is Toshiya Wazaki as Dr. Sano. Wazaki portrayed CAPTAIN Sano, Commander of AAB-Gamma, in THE X FROM OUTER SPACE.

Not a total fiasco, but a coulda-woulda-shoulda sort of movie. Fans of classic kaiju eiga should find it reasonably diverting. As always for Tokyo Shock, video quality is fine...TS has released many worthwhile discs of these Japanese titles, and I hope they release more.

If you love giant monster movies this is probably not for you.
The acting is so bad it's painful to watch, I'm suprised the actors
could keep a straight face during the goings on.
When I saw this I was hoping for a remake along the lines of what
was done with the Gamera franchise but no such luck.

I have heard several fans of Japanese giant monster movies panning this movie. I've heard that it is stupid or silly. The fact is that the movie is all that. It is a fine parody of all the goofier parts of paticularly 60's and 70's kaiju films. Serious fans who take these movies a little too seriously don't want to admit that some of the jokes are dead on. There are plenty of silly moments from all of kaiju history to pull from. Then there is the very un-pc political and ethnic humor to add into the mix. Yes, most of the jokes are easy and not very deep, but if you are willing to pur your pretense on hold you just might get a few laughs out of this movie.

This a a political parody about international relations specifically "The Group of Eight (G8, and formerly the G6 or Group of Six) is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of eight nations of the northern hemisphere: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; in addition, the European Union is represented within the G8, but cannot host or chair.[1] "G8" can refer to the member states or to the annual summit meeting of the G8 heads of government." (see G8 on Wikipedia for more detail. The Kaiju Guilala was used as a plot device as was his foe, Take-Majin, who parodies both Dai Majin and Ultraman-type characters. Apologies to the fans of 1967's THE X FROM OUTER SPACE but Guilala made Gappa look scary. He was the perfect choice for this film.

I think the one outstanding problem with this version is with so many characters speaking their native languages some of the parody gets lost in the translation. That said , if all else fails ,the nuclear suppository should convince you not to take it seriously. If you do , you have no sense of humor or clue as to the point the film was attempting to make regarding international politics and globalization.

I love japanese monster flicks, and when I heard about another Guilala movie i couldn't wait to see this. Boy, I could have waited for this one!!
A very failed attempt at satire and parody, "Monster X Strikes Back" could have been a real gem if it had been done right. Not the case here!
During a summit meeting in Japan, a Chinese rocket crashes and the resulting explosion creates the monster Guilala, who promptly goes on the typical rampage. The beginning of his " rampage" is mostly stock footage from the original Guilala movie, (X From Outer Space, here in the States), and the new footage is mostly in the second half and basically consists of the monster standing in an open valley and a "rampage' through some power lines. The "new" Guilala does look just like the old except for its red claws, and still makes basically the same sound as the original with some screechy sounds added in.
Film follows the failed attempts of different world emissaries in combatting the monster. The actors portraying these leaders are all terrible, even though they do speak in their proper languages.
This could have been better if they had focused more on thre monster action, but instead it is a talky, drawn out and very UN funny fiasco.
There is a surprise revelation of one of the characters, and a Majin type character at the end which may or may not be a nod to Daiei's highly impressive Daimajin character, which this one does not rival at all, plus it TALKS> The final "battle" between Guilala and this "Take-majin" is unimpressive.
It may have been intentional that the movie seems so bad, but it doesn't work as a "good" bad movie, it is just a BAD bad movie!!
Stick with "The X From Outer Space"!!!!

Most people probably don't know of the monster Guilalla.Let's face it he's not as reconizable as Godzilla or even Gamera.But for this japanese giant monster fan,i know him all to well.Guilalla first appeared in the 1967 film the x from outer space.It was Shochiku studios who put the film out to capitalize on the japanese monster boom of the 1960's.40 years later he's back in a political satire and a funny homage to the films that inspired it.You would enjoy this movie more if your a fan of the genre,however even if you saw one Godzilla flick you can still get the joke.MEDIA BLASTERS put out a good presentation of the dvd,but you have to be tolerable of subtitles there is no english dub.I enjoyed it,but then again rubber suit monsters can't do no wrong in my eyes.

While meant to be a spoof of kaiju films, using a monster (Guilala aka Monster-X) once described as "endearingly goofy", this film sometimes decides to take itself seriously and it messes up the experience and gives the impression that the Japanese are willing to poke fun at everything but themselves. Learn to ignore those scenes and the rest of the film is pretty funny.

Kaiju folks will want this, but considering the amount of inside jokes i wouldn't want this film to be one of the first kaiju films I'd show someone just getting into them.

This was meant as a satire and supposed to be intentionally funny. I thought it was stupid and as insult to the great Kaiju movies back in the heyday. The story has a monster known as Guilala attacking cities in Asia. The world is saved by some a monster called Take-Majin, a spoof on the Giant Majin maybe..
If this was a serious movie it could have been outstanding, but it was meant as a comedy and to me it was just goofy. Id rather watch the X from Outer Space or Giant Majin than to sit through this movie again with its failing attempts at humor. The characters were dumb, the monsters fighting was lousy. After watching this I think its time to put giant monster movies from Asia to pasture. Guilala could be a cool creature given a serious attempt and a good budget. It is a cool design and would love to have him battle other Kaiju (not necessarily Godzilla)in a serious film.
Unfunny, not very entertaining. I love monster movies and Kaiju films & between this movie and Gamera the Brave I have lost interest. I will take the 60s films over all this modern garbage anyday

it might be good but no English dub, needs to be in English. alot of these japanese films need to be transferred in English.