A lot of people have what are called 'guilty pleasures' - i.e., things they enjoy but feel somewhat ashamed about. Well, Destroy All Monsters is not one of mine - I'm not ashamed of it a bit.

The year is 1999. (See? It's a hoot already.) Mankind has banded together to explore space and promote peace; we have a worldwide multinational defensive organization and a base on the Moon. Of course, the world still has monsters in it… but that's why we have Monster Island (Monsterland in the English dub), where all of the world's giant creatures such as Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra are kept. They are allowed to live out their monstrous lives in peace on the island; if they attempt to leave, noxious gases and magnetic force fields bar their way. Naturally, something goes wrong. The monsters all disappear from the island and suddenly appear at various places on the globe: Godzilla is in New York, Mothra is in Paris, France; etc., and they all start creating horrible destruction. It turns out that a small group of aliens have arrived and have taken mental control of the monsters. Thus it is up to our defense forces, based in Japan, to take care of the situation.

Destroy All Monsters is a blast from beginning to end. Where else can one find giant monsters, pretty alien women in glittery suits, a shootout between cops and (alien) gangsters, rocketships and moon bases, futuristic technology and the sleek coolness of 60's Japan all in one film? One of the reasons we kaiju fans like the older Godzilla movies is because of the cheese factor: so much of it is hokey and laughable, but that just makes it innocent fun. This film makes extensive use of miniature sets (the work of Eiji Tsuburaya) which often look like miniatures, though well-made ones; the sets of the spaceport and Tokyo are especially enjoyable. Also, there are several monsters in this picture, the popular Toho trio mentioned above but also Anguilas, Baragon, Gorosaurus, Ghidra, Manda, Varan, and even little Godzilla Jr., Minilla. That's a lot of monster flesh up on the screen, and it's the most audiences would see until Godzilla: Finals Wars in 2005.

Sadly, though, we in America have always had to make do with a badly dubbed, cropped version of this wonderful film. Though a lot of us had hopes that the A.D.Vision DVD from last year would prove the 'definitive' one, sadly it was not so. Even in 16:9 widescreen, the extreme edges of the film are still cropped (often cutting the edges of words in the process); and instead of the original audio with subtitles, we get the same laughable dub. Sure, it's funny listening to the actors stumble through their sentences trying to match the mouth movements of the actors, but come on - we deserve better than this. The print looks good, though. One other gripe, however: this disc had no chapter stops! With no menu and no way to forward to different chapters, the disc has the feel of being a cheapie - despite the slick packaging and decent film print. At least we are given a bonus CD featuring the film's soundtrack by Akira Ifukube - but I would trade it gladly for one of the features mentioned above.

Destroy All Monsters is just a good, old-fashioned monster movie the way they used to be made. It doesn't take itself too seriously, it just plows straight ahead with action and spectacle. It's too bad that filmmakers these days would rather consider themselves artistes than entertainers. We could use some more good, goofy fun movies like this.