Films in 1998 (Part 1)
Click HERE for Part 2

GODZILLA
(1998)
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Arabella Field, Michael Lerner, Philippe Bergeron, Vicki Lewis, Doug Savant, Harry Shearer, Malcolm Danare, Nancy Cartwright, Chris Ellis, Lloyd Kino, Stephen Xavier Lee, Roger McIntyre, David Pressman, Bodhi Elfman, Rich Battista, Daniel Pearce, Mark Fite, Bill Hoag, Ed Wheeler, Leonard Termo, Clyde Kusatsu, Masaya Kato, Stoney Westmoreland, Joshua Taylor, Monté Russell, Glenn Morshower, Eric Saiet, Jamison Yang, Nathan Anderson, Leonard Williamson, Franklin Vranicar, Pat Magee, Al Cerullo, Jamie Lawrence, Lynn Harder, Judy Reyes, James Black, Gary W. Cruz, Rob Fukuzaki, Dale Harimoto, Christopher Carruthers, Alex Dodd, Greg Collins, Ken Lerner, Raymond Ramos, Benjamin V. Baird, Joseph Badalucco Jr., Gary Warner, Leif Riddell, Craig Castaldo, Lincoln D. Hiatt, Al Sapienza, Toshi Toda, Joe Badalluco, Jason Edward Jones, Al Leong, Chris Maleki, William O'Leary

This film is a continuation of a successful team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin - a Filipino American producer who has been entrusted with various high budget films! We should support this team on a creative basis and as a successful member of the Asian Pacific American community. As "gigantic monster reptile attacks New York" movies go, you've got to admit that Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. There's really no other way to approach it--you just have to accept the fact that Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are unapologetic plagiarists, incapable of anything more than mindless spectacle that can play in any cinema in the world without dubbing or subtitles.

The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s; it's little more than a rehash of the Jurassic Park movies. The derivative script is so trivial that it's unworthy of comment, apart from a few choice laughs and the casting of Michael Lerner as New York's mayor, whose name is Ebert and who closely resembles a certain well-known movie critic. Perhaps that's a clever hint that this movie's essentially critic-proof.It's stupid but it's fun, and for most audiences that's a fitting definition of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. The widescreen Special Edition DVD includes a wealth of bonus materials--audio commentary by the film's special effects supervisors, a "making of" featurette, the Wallflowers' music video "Heroes," a photo gallery, and a variety of features related to this and all the classic Godzilla films from Japan. --Jeff Shannon

THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS
(1998)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Cast: Yun-Fat Chow, Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker, Kenneth Tsang, Jürgen Prochnow, Til Schweiger, Danny Trejo, Clifton González González, Carlos Gómez, Frank Medrano, Leo Lee, Patrick Kilpatrick, Randall Duk Kim, Alan Chan, Andrew J. Marton, Sydney Coberly, Yau-Gene Chan, Carlos Leon, Nicki Micheaux, Max Daniels, James Wing Woo, Albert Wong, Christopher Doyle, Joe Bucaro III, Robert Apisa, Norm Compton, James Lew, Thomas Rosales Jr., Jimmy Ortega, Al Leong