Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

William Samuel For those of you who don't know, Gamera is a giant radioactive turtle/spaceship created by Daiei Motion Picture Company to cash in on the giant monster craze. Appearing in seven low budget films during the sixties and seventies, Gamera was to Godzilla what the Monkees were to the Beatles; a poor imitation, but entertaining nonetheless. Of course in this case the entertainment value came from how hilariously bad the films were. Imagine one of the campiest Godzilla movies, oh say Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster or vs. Gigan. Now imagine that is has a fraction of the budget, the monster costumes are twice as cheesy, and it makes half as much sense. That describes most entries in the series.This, the second Gamera film, picks up right where the first left off, with stock footage from the ending of the previous film. This time Gamera gets to play the hero by fighting Barugon, a weird lizard/dog monster that has a crippling weakness to water, releases a freezing mist from its tongue, and fires devastating rainbows from its back. And no, I am not making this up. Fans of Toho Corporation's movies may notice that Barugon looks suspiciously like Baragon, a Toho monster who first appeared only a year before.And the similarities to Toho's films don't end there. In a subplot that rips of both King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla, there's a group of criminals who scheme to recover a massive opal from an island in the South Pacific, not realizing that it's actually a monster egg. And in the interest of padding the runtime, the filmmakers also included a series of needlessly complex plans for defeating Barugon whose explanations make no sense. One of them involves getting the monster to attack his own reflection, and is code named Operation Rear View Mirror. Plus, just for kicks, they've thrown in some poorly staged fights between some of the human characters. In the end, the Barugon is of course defeated, the boy gets the girl, and everyone lives happily ever after despite the fact that another giant monster is still on the loose.This entire production is slipshod, filled with plot holes, and just doesn't make much sense. And in the process of adapting it for American audiences, the distributors added a bunch of unnecessary narration, and a typically lousy dubbing job which includes parts where the actor's mouth just keeps moving while he says very little, lots of awkward pauses, and grand pronouncements like "I have to go now" and "Ah, I see." There's also a line about how "When an animal has been hurt by its mistake, it will never make the same mistake again." Apparently whoever wrote this line has never met a dog.What I'm trying to say here is that Gamera vs. Barugon is not a good movie, but neither is it a horrible movie. In the end, it's saved by its own cheesiness. It doesn't quite achieve the so-bad-it's-good status of War of the Gargantuas or Plan 9 from Outer Space, but it is often amusing and contains many laughs, even if they are unintentional. And there's also the whole weirdness factor going for it; I mean come on, a monster does shoot destructive rainbows. So the original print isn't all that bad, and will probably please small children. And in the hands of Joel Robinson and his robot pals, Gamera vs. Barugon made one of Mystery Science Theater 3000's best episodes. By all means, watch this version, and even if you wind up stuck with the original, it could be worse.

FairlyAnonymous This is one Gamera movie that actually isn't all that bad. Out of all of the old/original Gamera movies this one is definitely one of the best if not the best. IMDb's average rating is 3.3 which I find shocking because that is lower than the original Gamera's rating and Guiron's rating as well.Gamera vs. Barugon has absolutely nothing to do with Gamera. Heck if I remember correctly Gamera wasn't originally even going to be in this movie. Gamera is only in action for a total of twelve minutes or so split up between two scenes. Barugon however is actually fairly cool looking if it weren't for the fact that he has a tongue that breathes ice... yeah it's kind of weird... and he shoots rainbows from his back. OK well at least he isn't as bad as Guiron or Gamera.The movie actually does have a plot that doesn't involve an annoying kid, and is about a guy who is looking for giant opal with some of his friends (one of which tries to kill him several times, and is insanely greedy). The greedy guy takes the opal, and it eventually turns out to be an egg for an ancient evil.The budget in this movie is obviously a bit higher because the actors know how to act, the dubbing is actually good, the dialog isn't bad, and the explosions and effects are pretty nice. This is an actual good Gamera movie even without MST3K... though watching it with MST3K is highly recommended seeing as how they do a real good job making fun of this movie.

DrGlitterhouse If you're a fan of Gamera from '90s trilogy, Gamera vs. Barugon may be the original Gamera movie for you.The movie begins with Gamera's being freed from the rocket he was trapped in at the end of Gamera, the Gigantic Monster and returning to Earth to wreak havoc on a dam. He then disappears for a good 45 minutes while the movie follows a trio of treasure hunters to a tropical island on their quest to retrieve an opal the brother of one of the hunters hid in a cave during the Second World War. Not to give away too much, but the procurement of this opal leads to the emergence of Barugon, in the middle of Japan, who Gamera (eventually) fights in typical Gamera fashion.Three things immediately stand out about the second entry in the Gamera series:• There are no kids in this movie. As in its predecessor, Gamera is apparently motivated purely by a quest for energy sources. • Gamera is barely in the movie. He opens the movie, returns to fight Barugon, then comes back after another long absence to fight Barugon again. The bulk of the movie deals with the birth of Barugon and the Japanese's attempts to defeat him. (Maybe this was the genesis of the military's conflict in Gamera: The Revenge of Iris over which monster to attack first.) • Finally, the movie is in color, and Daiei seems eager to exploit that fact. The opening titles are played out over shapeless colors, and one of Barugon's weapons is a rainbow beam emanating from his back.The movie contains some silly moments (most notably the theft of the diamond), but the human conflicts and relationships are played surprisingly straight and adult, at least in comparison to those in a typical Godzilla movie; everyone doesn't necessarily agree on strategy, and it's probably safe to say the two leads don't view each other as siblings. The biggest problem with the movie is its odd pacing, but without a delusional kid and several characters who do virtually nothing running around, Gamera vs. Barugon is a decided improvement over the original.

OllieSuave-007 This is the first Gamera movie I have watched. I remembered when I was a kid I rented a VHS copy of this film. Being a kid, I was pretty weary of certain scenes in this kaiju film, like the main villain's evil tactics. This is the first Gamera movie to feature him doing battle with another monster, named Barugon. While Gamera started out as a villainous monster, Barugon proved to be an even more menacing creature, threatening to destroy everything in its path. As a kid, I enjoyed the film, and when I wanted to rent it again, the VHS copy wasn't available anymore, so I was pretty bummed out. But, years later, this film was shown on TV and, to my delight, I have decided I have got to watch it again and remembered I was entertained by it. The plot about dueling explorers trying to get their hands on an opal from an island while the natives warn them about dire consequences that follow if they take away the gem is pretty intriguing. The special effects were serviceable but the monster battles were decent and Barugon's tongue and rainbow weapons were a pretty cool effect. The Barugon suit looked like it was made out of cardboard and the monster itself wasn't portrayed as menacing enough - I would have liked to see a little more city destruction scenes. The second half of the movie just consists of the military attempting to destroy Barugon - pretty basic, but a little thrilling nonetheless. Overall, it's a pretty good Gamera movie that ends up being the best in the first series. It is also the only one in the original series not to feature a kid as the main character. The rest of the Gamera films were very much aimed for youngsters and are too childish and corny for my enjoyment. If you would like to see Gamera in action, check out this movie, skip the rest in the series, and catch the newer ones made in the 1990s. Grade B-