I reveled in an absolutely blast of a film last night via Netflix and had to share. 'Latitude Zero' is a bonafide sci-fi/action-adventure classic from TOHO Films...the same Japanese company that brought you the 'Big 5' of daikaijũ (monster) movies in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and Rodan.
The film was the last collaboration between director Ishiro Honda and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, the duo responsible for the original 'GODZILLA' and most of TOHO’s other classic monster movies. The story (using the word story very liberally) was written by Ted Sherdeman, writer on the 1954 science-fi/horror gem, 'Them!' and featured a cavalcade of stars in Joseph Cotten, Cesar Romero and TOHO favorite, Akira Takarada. I mean c'mon...the creative team behind 'GODZILLA', a dude from 'Citizen Kane' and The Joker from TV's 'Batman'?! What more could you ask for?
Well, how about super hi-tech submarines w/ lasers, guided torpedoes and holographic projection? Not enough? What if I throw in jet-packs, gloves that shoot sleeping gas/flames/laser beams and a hot tub that makes you impervious to bullets? Still not enough? If you act now, i'll add giant rats, evil man-aardvark-bat-things and a giant griffin w/ a crazy Japanese chick's brain transplanted into it.
You get my point, it's just so crazy it works...or, maybe, just so crazy it's more fun than gloves that shoot sleeping gas/flames/laser beams. Don't believe me? Watch the trailer above...30 seconds into it you don't even care it's in Japanese! The film itself was shot in English, so no messy subtitles or overdubs.
I really can't believe this didn't get the MST3K treatment, it would have been beautiful. Regardless, this cult classic only became available on DVD back in December of 2007...so go nuts, rent and/or buy it today.
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