NYC VS. GIANT MONSTERS (BEAST FROM 20K FATHOMS, GODZILLA, CLOVERFIELD) ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) d. Eugene Lourie
GODZILLA (1998) d. Roland Emmerich
CLOVERFIELD (2008) d. Matt Reeves

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Ever since King Kong tore up the town in 1933, New York City has played host to a number of giant monsters stomping their way down 5th Avenue and giving colossal headaches to insurance companies. Tonight, we’ll be paying homage to a trio of cinematic goliaths, all of which are celebrating significant anniversaries this year.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which premiered in 1953, marked stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen’s first solo venture, and it was an astounding success, one that proved influential not only to its creator, who went onto such classics as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and It Came from Beneath the Sea, but also to an entire subgenre of giant monster mashes to come, inspiring not only big bugs like Them! and Tarantula, but also foreign frights like Japan’s Gojira and other massive kaiju friends and foes.

Speaking of the Big G, 1998 saw its first Americanized iteration from the team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who had just enjoyed a huge success with Independence Day. While the film made a ton of money at the turnstiles, the film was lambasted by both critics and fans and has becomes something of a cautionary tale in the quarter century since its release.

Finally, 15 years ago in 2008, producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves served up an inversion to the classic tropes of giant monster invasion movies with their found-footage sensation Cloverfield, which took viewers out of the scientific laboratories and military boardrooms, and put us on the very shaky and crumbling ground of Manhattan under siege from a gigantic menace lurking just offscreen.

AC is joined by another awesome panel of fans (Darren Callahan, Tim Palace, Daniel Ekholm) to discuss the highs and lows of these three films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGfJ_0cUazI

 
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