King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) was the meeting of the silver screen monsters. Who would win the championship title of "KIng of the World"? Will Godzilla squash King Kong or will he job to the old master? Can King Kong win fair and square or will he throw in the towel? Godzilla is back from it's last film. The people of earth are shaking in fear because no matter what they do to it, the mean mutated radioactive breathing lizard keeps coming back for more (and flattening Tokyo). Some unlucky people have landed on Skull Island and have awoken the slumbering King Kong. King Kong was at peace with himself (and the painted up natives) until he felt the presence of Godzilla and wants to squash the lizard. A hopped up Godzilla awaits the challenge and the two titans duke it out, the world awaits word on who's will be the winner.

I totally marked out for the movie when I was a kid. I was disappointed when I saw King Kong, he looked so paper mache and nothing like the original. The fights the two had looked like a pro wrestling match. They even put in the posing, sneak attacks, cheating, use of foreign objects and what not. I wished they would release a digitally remastered version of this film in the original language. Now that would be cool!!

Highly recommended.

Fmovies: King Kong vs Godzilla picks up from the events of Godzilla Raids Again (1955). We see our big lizard friend broken free of his icy tomb and head off towards Tokyo once more.

But at the same time King Kong just happens to be headed there as well and a conflict between the two seems inevitable, but how much of Japan will be left afterwards?

Now on paper this should have been a grand epic, the two biggest movie monsters facing off. It should have been a true spectacle like Batman vs Superman (2016) should have been, but much like that this fails rather impressively.

The plot is hilarious, unintentionally hilarious. It's so bad and so unbelievable it forces the entire movie into the comedy genre, underlined further by the comedic fight scenes.

The image of King Kong and the balloons will stick with me forever!

With Godzilla flapping his arms around randomly like a bird and King Kong bouncing from walking like a gorrilla to upright as if consistency didn't exist in the 60's the whole thing is the very definition of silly.

Don't get me wrong the film has its moments but this US/Japan collaboration fails on too many fronts and has a serious identity problem.

Not the worst movie of the franchise but perhaps the silliest.

The Good:

The basic conept

The Bad:

Far too comedic in places

Stupidly well groomed native folk

Plot is bafflingly stupid

No consistency with the creatures sizes

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

VS movies are destined to underwhelm

Unbreakable wires will also allow balloons to carry unrealistic weights

This was a big leap for Kong and Godzilla: first, this movie was both their first in colour. Next, Godzilla was about 50 ft. taller than Kong, which meant Kong would've had to get bigger. 3rd, was getting the copyright for Kong to verse Godzilla. This movie was close to going in the Godzilla Garbage, just like 'Godzilla vs. Frankenstein'. But it ended up being made, and with big success at the time. The story tells of Godzilla attacking Tokyo once more, destroying everything in his path. One man, who owns his a television channel, is sick of Godzilla, and sends some men out to find a beast to take him on. The men return with King Kong, and all hell breaks lose. A great Friday Flick with some friends. It is an ultimate ******* star performance. So, if you like the 'King Kong' and 'Godzilla' series, then I recommend this movie to YOU!

King Kong vs. Godzilla fmovies. I have the American Version and I really like it. The basic premise of the movie is given away in the title. King Kong versus Godzilla is truly the battle of the ages, between the two most famous monsters. They make the 'Alien' look like a wimp. Akihiko Hirata as Dr. Shigezawa is great in his role even though quite limited. He, as usual, is intelligent and cerebral and his statement, " or the monster will kill us all" pretty much sums up the problem they are facing. His presence adds continuity to the film since he was the real hero of the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The main female actress is unbearably helpless and is by no means a 'Fay Wray'. The Kong suit is ridiculously poor but who cares. I guess Kong is supposed to be the good guy in this flick if either can be considered good. I loved the scene where Dr. Johnson, paleontologist(?), holds up the text book to compare Godzilla to a T-Rex and a stegosaurus. The book just has to be a part of the kids Golden Book series and I loved the when he likened Godzilla's brain to a marble. With 'K'and'G' stepping on everything in sight, I always wonder why it never seems to hurt their feet. The native girl that does the lead dancing on the island is the prettiest Japanese woman I have ever seen and in my view should have been the key actress. I watch this film more than any Godzilla movie in my vast collection. Sit back with a big bowl of popcorn and enjoy.

Before Freddy VS Jason, before Aliens VS Predator, even before the clash of the titans that is Puppet Master VS Demonic Toys (but after Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, obviously), there was King Kong VS Godzilla.

Before I proceed with this review, I should point out that the version I have seen is the American one, which is dubbed and had several scenes added featuring a United Nations news broadcast. The original Japanese release was apparently much more satirical in tone, whereas the American version removes all the comedy. It is still enjoyable as a giant monster movie, though.

This movie originally began life as a stop-motion feature entitled KIng Kong VS Frankenstein, and was conceived by Willis O'Brien as a sequel to the 1933 Kong, gradually turning into a Godzilla movie after Toho studios got involved. Although there are some brief stop-motion sequences, it is by and large a typical kaiju ega movie (in other words, it's men in rubber suits). While fans of O'Brien's still-impressive stop-motion work on the original King Kong may be irked by the idea of the big ape being played by a Japanese guy in a suit, I personally think Kong looks pretty cool (it's certainly more impressive than the suit Toho used for their second Kong film, King Kong Escapes).

There are some inconsistencies, most notably the fact that King Kong and Godzilla were radically different sizes in their respective films, but Toho got around this by the simple expedient of ignoring it. We've got two great big monsters beating each other up, so who cares about details? Also, in the original King Kong, the big ape had no special powers beyond being very strong, whereas Godzilla has radioactive breath; Toho addressed this seeming imbalance by having Kong derive strength from electricity, whereas Godzilla is weakened by touching power lines. One point that bugs me a little is the fact that, although this is the third Godzilla film, and the second to feature King Kong, there seems to be no connection to the previous movies. When the two monsters appear, the human characters act as though they have no prior knowledge of them, which seems odd when you take into account Godzilla had twice previously tried to destroy Tokyo, and King Kong did make kind of a mess of New York. King Kong VS Frankenstein was intended as a sequel to the original, but this idea was obviously dropped from the movie it became.

The climactic fight between the two monsters is great fun, sort of a giant sized version of a WWE match, only with more believable physiques and personalities. Kong shoving a tree down Godzilla's throat and the big green guy responding by walloping Kong with his tail are highly entertaining moments; obviously not as spectacular as the scenes of Kong fighting the dinosaurs in either the 1933 original or Peter Jackson's remake, but that's not the point. King Kong VS Godzilla is an enjoyable example of this type of movie; if you're new to the kaiju ega genre, it's an excellent starting point. It's just a shame King Kong VS Frankenstein never got made. Maybe if we all ask Peter Jackson nicely....

Any insults and accusations hurled against this beloved movie will fall on deaf ears with me. Admittedly, I am somewhat biased in favor of this entertaining monster romp because it was a regular television staple all during my childhood while I was growing up. It's one of the most enjoyable giant monster movies Toho Studios ever made, and it's certainly one of the best Godzilla films of all. It can be silly, it can be jokey, and it's also a hell of a lot of fun.

I have seen both the U.S. Version and the Japanese Version, and I'll have to confess that while this review will be based on the proper Asian edition, I also have a nostalgic fondness for the American Cut, which actually benefits from some added jokes ("When you and the monster meet, be sure to tell him all about your corn problems!") and the exciting Universal stock music which compliments much of the action.

Godzilla was still a bad guy at this point in time, and I'm among the group who considers his costume here my personal favorite (it was very much like the Aurora model kit, or maybe it was the other way around). It's not very original to bash the obvious awful King Kong suit, so I'll say that while it's definitely kind of ragged, I actually think it's appealing in its unusual weirdness. Kong is more or less painted as the heroic one of these two, and I have to tell you that I absolutely love that native song of worship which is chanted at him by the island dwellers who dance and pray on his home turf. I appreciate it even more when it's used as the title credits music in the Toho version.

The story is silly and simple, but it works. Godzilla is back in town after awakening from the iceberg he froze in at the conclusion of GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN, and so a frustrated pharmaceutical advertiser decides to send a couple of his zany cronies to King Kong's Island to capture and bring back his own monster to give Godzilla some competition. Humor is very well used here, and it works well alongside the usual rampages and city stompings.

The touted "battle of the giants" has been unfairly maligned as looking too much like a "wrestling match," but I don't see how else these creatures are supposed to tangle with one another unless they opted to stare each other down for ten minutes. Not much fun there, I'm afraid! Their climactic fight is well worth the wait and fulfills all expectations. *** out of ****