Popular reviews

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  Review by Joe ★★★ 12

  This is where it all began. As I write this, the Gorgo multimedia franchise spans comic books, video games, a 1978 Hanna-Barbera cartoon (who can forget Gorgo's infamous Italian-American sidekick Gorgonzola?), television commercials, and a staggering 29 big screen sequels, including Gorgo Returns Again, Gorgo vs Triceraphrax, and Gorgo Up In Harlem. Many of the now-iconic elements of the Gorgo mythos are present right here from the beginning, including the monster's big, wagging ears, less prominent than they would become in the later Gorgo films.

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★½ 2

  70

  4K UHD

  A gorgeous monster mash. Full of shoddy blue-screen images and lovely model work. Not even 80 minutes and at least a third of it is comprised of destruction.

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  Review by Kaijuman ★★ 4

  A Walk Amongst Monsters #102

  “This is the twentieth century, there must be some way of handling an overgrown animal!”

  The Brits try their hand at their own Kaiju film, taking more than a little inspiration from Godzilla and King Kong. Funny enough, it’s not nearly as good as either of them. Whoops!

  So I know this has its fans and I respect that, but man oh man am I not one of them. I didn’t like it the first time I watched it, and on this rewatch nothing changed. Still bought the new 4k release though, it came with a cool as hell poster!

  Gorgo as a Kaiju is actually pretty cool. Just a big ole amphibious dinosaur with…

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  Review by Pauline Charlotte ★★★★★

  this movie fucks because it's an irish mother fucking up britain for stealing her baby.

  In the film’s story, the name “Gorgo” is literally an imposition of another, familiar culture’s religion and mythology onto a spiritually venerated creature with an existing indigenous name and associated folklore (“Ogra”). Gorgo also concludes with a remarkably animistic and anti-anthropocentrist message, after the creature’s mother has already laid waste to a Christian city, complete with a sign-clad doomsayer’s pathetic cries of “Repent! Repent while you still can!”

  "- Tell us something, kid. Anyone ever see that thing before?
  - And why should anybody have to see it to know it's there?"

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  Review by Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti" ★★★½

  "Gorgo" is a 1961 monster film directed by Eugène Lourié. It's appearance and mannerisms are abundantly formed to be connectively built like a Japanese Kaiju film, but as it is a product of the United Kingdom, it might fall out of direct terminology to fit the genre on a technicality basis. Still with that being said, general audiences are going to somewhat compartmentalize this film in that energy as it features a large lizard creature attacking Britian via person in rubber costume just the same. Also, as I watched the film, it has a bit of connective child whimsical element, honestly feeling like live action Walt Disney family film from that era, complete with orphan child who wants to be…

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  Review by Max Ahoy ★★★½ 13

  Layer of the Leviathan’s

  Oi, thasa goiant monsta innit? 

  Sooo is it pronounced Gorgo or Orga? I’m still confused.

  Ah yes, the sixties, the decade where the kaiju genre had entered what many fans and scholars consider to be its golden age; translation: when they were the most profitable and were being produced at maximum capacity thanks in no small part to a certain radioactive dino chad. And it’s because of said Big-G that many films from around the world at this time decided to take a crack at creating their own gargantuan behemoths. We’ve already seen what the Dane’s are capable of with Reptilicus so let’s see what the Brits can do with their colossal creation simply named, Gorgo.  

  Just like…

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  Review by Dave Edwards ★★★

  While fun for a stretch or two, Gorgo never manages to break out of the shadow of its legendary influences. The story drags for the most part and the characters, while serviceability brought to life by the cast, fail to leave an impression. That said, the third act finally allows Gorgo to have some fun, as he causes a significant amount of damage to the swinging 60s London landscapes. The application of technicolor is a major highlight of the film, and Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K transfer is absolutely stunning.

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  Review by Jesse ★★★ 1

  Gorgo almost feels like if Hammer Horror took a stab at making a Godzilla film. It’s low budget science fiction that works quite well.

  Concerning a group of men salvaging for treasure when an undersea volcano erupts, awakening a creature called Orga. And like the Capitalists that they are, immediately shove this creature into a circus to make a quick buck. But they soon realize that this isn’t the adult version of the creature and the much larger mother soon comes looking for her child, destroying a large portion of London in the process.

  The destruction scenes work quite well even if the Gorgo suit isn’t up to the best standards. Backlit against a red sky, this thing looks menacing as it trashes its way through London. And all the death and destruction has to be blamed on the treasure seekers. Scum bags.

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  Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★

  lush 60s technicolor film where a green Irish lizard wreaks havoc on London, Godzilla style, after being forcibly removed from his home — happy St Patrick’s Day!

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  Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★

  Cinematic Time Capsule
  1961 Marathon - Film #12

  ”This is the 20th century!
  There must be some way of handling an overgrown animal.”

  The headlines of the entire world are being monopolized by the findings of of this Godzilla-like monster movie, seemingly of prehistoric origin off the coast of Ireland.

  Puzzled movie fans are already speculating that its King Kong stealing plot may have been released from some vast oceanic cavern far beneath the earth’s crust by unprecedented volcanic eruptions which occurred in the area last week.

  Some cinematographic authorities are suggesting that the whole thing is merely an elaborate Irish hoax . Nevertheless the Irish government is sending two of their top film historians to claim the creature feature…

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  Review by 𝕭laze the 𝓐ction 𝕵unkie ★★½ 2

  I understand why this one is generally referred to as a Godzilla rip-off. There are many similarities, and this one is generally sup-par to the classic Godzilla feature in most measures. However it still entertained me as an early close-to-Kaiju flick. It's in fact so close to Toho flicks of its time that about the only thing that makes this one different is its United Kingdom settings and its English and Irish characters. I can't claim this was a great flick, or even all that unique, but it did have all the fun that's delivered with many other similar Toho flicks of its day.

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  Review by SpOoky Lukey Video 👻📼🎃 ★★★★★

  Beyond just a British hybrid-rip-off of Godzilla and King Kong and into prediction of plot points in things like Lost World: Jurassic Park.

  A blazing technicolor spectacle of marvelous miniature work, pioneering puppetry and charming, primitive optical effects.

  A b-movie monster rampager, exalted to an almost arthouse commentary on the exploitative ugliness of humanity.

  A stare into the face of our smallness and weakness in comparison to the staggering and unstoppable power of nature.

  Gorgo is the hero we need.