Review: THE MONSTER X STRIKES BACK (2008)

We're nearing the end of THE BIG LIST -- almost ninety films to watch before Godzilla opens in a few weeks.

Today's is The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit (2008).



I'll go first:

Despite the name and the reused footage, this isn't really a sequel to the 1967 film on our list, The X from Outer Space.  It's definitely a satire, though; sending up a lot of things. 

For monster movies, the parodies are fairly obvious.  The music definitely imitates the styles of old school Akira Ifukube.  The intrepid reporter who has to get the scoop.  Even the annoying kid who is somehow in a meeting of the world's political and military leaders (I laughed hard when they kicked him out). 

There are political overtones, too.  With a subtitle like Attack the G8 Summit, you'd expect there to be.  But the digs don't go too deep.  The French president is a womanizer in the mode of Sarkozy.  The American president wants to fight the monster because of his ratings.  The British PM only cares about supporting his buddy, the American president.  The Japanese PM waffles and suffers a bout of diarrhea.   

I may as well talk about the actors here.  The reporter is fine.  Just about everyone else sucks hard.  Especially if they speak English.  The American president sounds Canadian and can barely get his lines out sometimes.  The UK PM has no British accent (I'm guessing Japanese audiences wouldn't notice that?) and, in fact, sounds American.  Beyond that, they can't act.  Oh, I already said that.   

The main plot involves Guilala coming to Earth and tearing things up near the G8 conference.  (Most of this includes footage from the 1967 film.)  The leaders stay and fight while a Japanese reporter tries to get the people of a nearby village to help by calling forth their god, Take-Majin. 

Meanwhile, the world's leaders try their dumbest (damnedest) to kill Guilala, including putting mind-control headphones on him ... 

 

That causes Guilala to really rampage, so the reporter and the village folk step up to the street, so to speak, and dance their hearts out for Take-Majin. 

 

You've gotta love a protective idol that carries a fire extinguisher and an umbrella. 

After some questionable choreography, Take-Majin appears just in time to stop a nuclear weapon that had been fired by Kim Jong Il.  How does he stop it?  By boofing it. 

 

Then he and Guilala fight.  The fight is often goofy, but then Take-Majin beheads Guilala in a swift and brutal move.  And the world leaders have a soak in the hot tub. 

Monster X Strikes Back ... I guess it's kind of like Airplane II; often funny but not quite good.  2.5 out of five atomic breath blasts.

My eleven-year-old son's turn:

Well this one isn't that awesome. This movie is made from film of the first one, so that makes it bad. But the thing that stops the Monster is a lord or something, but his normal attacks don't do much. 

So, rating wise, i'll say 2.1 out of 5 Atomic Copies of Lameness!!! 

Next up, Cloverfield.

(GIFs from monstersandmaniacs)