Dr. Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick) is a biologist from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who's studying the effects of nuclear radiation on earthworms near Chernobyl. When a several-hundred-foot-tall mutated lizard is discovered sinking Japanese ships for fish, Nick is pulled from his worm project & placed on a new one. A hysterical survivor of one of the wrecks names the monster "Godzilla." The oversized-reptile makes his way to New York City, where he decides to reek havoc & cause some major destruction. Nick's ex-girlfriend, now a reporter wanna-be, Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo), feels she's found her big story to get onto the news. When Nick discovers that Mr. Zilla me be ready to lay some eggs (or may have already), she airs the top secret info on the news & Nick gets kicked off the case. Soon after, Philippe Roache (Jean Reno), a French secret service agent who's working undercover as an insurance company representative, kidnaps Nick & they team up to find Godzilla's nest. When Audrey feels remorse for ruining Nick, she takes along her cameraman, Victor "Animal" Palotti (Hank Azaria), to help her find the nest & prove that Nick's assumption was right. Meanwhile, the army battles Godzilla & tries to stop him from destroying the city.

This particular film has received a lot of bad, mediocre reviews & I found out why. Although I don't think the movie was a total loss, it has been a major disappointment. Hyped up to no end, Godzilla was expected to be more than it was. So what was, you ask? A rip off. No, I'm not saying I wasted my $4.25 matinee price, I'm saying that you will see nothing new. You will sit there & say, "hey! wasn't that in Jurassic Park? Wasn't that in..." The acting was so wrong. By the end of the film, you wish that Godzilla would eat Maria Pitillo's character (Audrey), & all the other poor actors. But like the movie, the casting wasn't a total loss. Jean Reno did a good job as the French secret service agent & Hank Azaria did a fine job as Audrey's personal cameraman. I still have mixed feelings about Matthew Broderick, though. I like Broderick as an actor, but i don't think this was his role. Aside from each character being completely under-developed & at times, campy, they just all fell short of being credible characters. How do the French fit into all of this? I like Jean Reno from his role in Mission Impossible, though. I also thought Hank Azaria added some good humor without being annoying, too. Godzilla, himself, was done very well. The special effects were astonishing! Although Godzilla has been working out at Bally's over the years, he has made a greater impact as a big, mean-looking sucker, who, believe it or not, isn't interested in eating humans at all, but fish! So he isn't exactly a blood-thirsty, man-eating beast, but a fish-eating city-wrecker. Now don't read the rest of this commentary paragraph if you don't want to know the end, cause I'm going to comment on it: At the end, the baby Godzillas hatch in Madison Square Garden & chase our heroes around the wrecked building. Let me paint a picture: take a velociraptor from Jurassic Park & make it a foot or 2 taller & make it look like a mini Godzilla. It makes the same noise, & acts just like a velociraptor. But we've seen this before?! Of course, I liked that part of JP, & it was neat having, instead of 3 raptors, 200 mini Godzillas running around the Garden chasing the characters. But here is where even less credibility comes into play: 200 minizillas & they get away. In fact, they even run right through a huge crowd of these baby killers. But i must commend them on a really cool idea: since Godzilla eats only fish, why do the babies chase these guys? Well, when they found the eggs in Madison Square Garden, there were millions of fish there for when the eggs hatched, so the characters reeked of fish. So the babies naturally mistook them for a meal. Bummer. But there are so many, "Oh, C'mon!!" scenes on instances where the characters get away with their lives unrealistically. Including driving out of Godzilla's mouth after he catches them, running through a crowd of over 100 Godzilla babies and not being scratched, & just barely making out of the Garden before it blows up. Those are just a few.

As far as the content goes... violence, violence, & more... violence. Take Jurassic Park, multiply it by 10. You have Godzilla. It's basically the end of JP2: The Lost World where the T-Rex runs through the city, amplified. There's tons of building destruction, car destruction, boats, planes, you name it-- it's destroyed! Say goodbye to the Chrysler building! As far as language goes, there's no "f" words, no "s" words, & no "S.O.B.'s" BUT, there are 21 uses of blasphemy as exclamations! So if you feel convicted by too much blasphemy, don't do see this film. Plus there are many frightening scenes, people dying, etc... Blood/Gore? So little, I'm still in shock! The only real instances of blood are when Godzilla is hit with missiles, & even then there isn't really much at all- just wounds. The only other single instance is in the beginning where Matthew Broderick's character, Nick, picks some weird fleshly material off the side of a gutted freighter. But there are numerous implied deaths that are off-screen. They're what I've always called, "The Jurassic Park" deaths. Numerous minigodzillas pounce on some Frenchman & kill them off-screen... just like in Jurassic Park. But no blood is shown at all. There is also no sex or nudity at all. & Only about 3 lines of innuendo.

You may be wondering if there was anything good about the film? it's fun. if you want an action movie you don't need to think about or you don't mind unoriginality, this movie's fine. But at least rent it or catch a matinee or a dollar show to see some amazing special effects!