Godzilla

"Size does matter."

1998 2h 18m EN

😐

5.7

MID

🥫

20%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.5

IMDB

★5.7TMDB · 4,397🥫20%Rotten Tomatoes●32Metacritic★5.5IMDB · 210,191

Science FictionActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos, conclude that the oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan as the US military races to destroy the monster before it reproduces and it's spawn takes over the world.

“Size does matter.”

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Cast

Matthew Broderick
Dr. Niko Tatopoulos
Jean Reno
Philippe Roaché
Maria Pitillo
Audrey Timmonds
Hank Azaria
Victor 'Animal' Palotti
Kevin Dunn
Colonel Hicks
Michael Lerner
Mayor Ebert
Harry Shearer
Charles Caiman
Arabella Field
Lucy Palotti

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Roland Emmerich
Writers: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, P.K. MacCarthy
Languages: English, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$130M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

28 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

331+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Roland Emmerich, shot by Ueli Steiger. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michael Lloyd. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Peter Amundson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno and Maria Pitillo carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Roland Emmerich directs. Ueli Steiger behind the camera. Michael Lloyd scores. Peter Amundson cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$130M budget — tentpole studio territory.
228 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish.
4331+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Roland Emmerich, shot by Ueli Steiger. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Michael Lloyd. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Peter Amundson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno and Maria Pitillo carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Size does matter.".
10IMDB entry: tt0120685 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "new york city", "atomic bomb", "missile", "intelligence".

The technical file

Cinematography: Ueli Steiger
Original score: Michael Lloyd
Editing: Peter Amundson
Production design: Oliver Scholl
Costume design: Joseph A. Porro
Makeup / hair: Katalin Elek
VFX supervisor: Volker Engel
Sound: Scott Martin Gershin
Stunt coordinator: R.A. Rondell
Runtime: 138 min · 2h 18m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.78:1 (16:9)
Status: Released
Budget: $130,000,000
Box office: $379,014,294
Return: 292% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Godzilla (1998)
Rotten Tomatoes: 20% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 32/100
IMDB rating: 5.5/10 · 210,191 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

10 wins & 13 nominations total

European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Roland Emmerich

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb272194542019-08-03
★ 5/10
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS This version of Godzilla is a difficult one to give a simple overall rating. Honestly, if Hollywood had just made this into a generic monster movie, kind of the way they did with Cloverfield, it would have easily been an above average movie, possibly even breaking into 4 star territory. The acting is above average (including the must-have flavor of the month, Jean Reno), the F/X are excellent for 1998 and the plot actually makes sense. Nevertheless, the failure for this movie is that it was made by people not familiar with the franchise and/or what Godzilla means to his fanbase. Godzilla is to the people of Japan what Batman and Superman are to Americans, what Dr. Who and James Bond are to the British and what Shaft and the Black Panther are to the Black Community. The demotion of Godzilla to that of nothing more than an over-sized animal working wholly upon instinct instead of the more humanistic level of intelligence that we in the fandom have come to know and expect was a slap in the face. Furthermore, the final scene where Godzilla is killed (a blasphemy only seen two other times in his 60 year history (Gojira (1954) and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), the later being the planned end to the franchise in its entirety) by only three F/18s and a total of 6 missiles when entire armies have done nothing more than irritate the King of Monsters was beyond belief. For those not familiar with Godzilla's accomplishments and reputation, imagine the outrage that would come from the respective communities if James Bond was taken out by a mall cop or Superman was killed by 3 six-year-old brats with baseball bats. Now you understand why Japanese movie-goers were storming the box-offices DEMANDING a full refund for this insult and why Toho quickly resurrected their dearly departed Kaiju less than one year later for probably one of the best movies in the entire franchise, Godzilla 1999 (Godzilla 2000 here in the United States). All in all, as a monster movie, Godzilla gets 3.75 stars. However, for a Godzilla movie, it gets a 1 star rating. I'll cut the difference and meet them somewhere around the middle with a 2.5 star final score.
John Chard2020-04-13
★ 5/10
The hype was as big as the monster to start with! It felt like this take on Godzilla was advertised for 2 years in advance of the actual release, every time (it seemed) I went to the cinema I was awestruck by little teaser trailers, in fact the one of the old guy fishing and hooking Zilla is a personal favourite...SIZE DOES MATTER! Love it I do. Sadly as most of us now know, the film didn't meet fans and critics expectations at all, but was the film done down by the hype and an expectation of a masterpiece for the genre?. Well it didn't help that is for sure, but taking aside that problem, the film only glimpses at what might have been. It has many great points that seem to have been forgotten, so sadly we are all too aware of the film's failings on the makers behalf. The build up in the film is excellent, the makers mount the tension in steady strokes, doing what all classic monster movie makers do, they have you waiting with gripping expectation of the creature by a series of scenarios and inventive dialogue. The sound is incredible, making it an essential viewing for those who cherish home surround cinema, while some of the shots and destruction of New York are well worth the viewers time. But then? Well they throw the good work away by turning the film's focus away from the big lizard to a story line that was only fitting for the cartoon version of Godzooki. Thus rendering the film as a poor man's Jurassic Park, which quite frankly doesn't sit well. Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno and Hank Azaria all deserved better scripting, hell we all did! It's not the evil stinker some would have you believe, it does have its moments of both good and bad, it is, by definition, very much a film split down the middle. 5/10
CinemaSerf2023-08-28
★ 6/10
I found this to be quite a fun take on the Godzilla fable. Matthew Broderick as "the worm guy" and Jean Reno as the French Secret agent deliver quite watchable performances as they investigate some radioactive shipping incidents and some really big footprints. The special effects are decent enough too and help carry this admittedly over-long little movie. Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin are quite good at churning out these adventure films - never great, but usually they move along nicely and keep you entertained and the last half hour of this is actually quite fun to watch and on a big screen if you get the chance.