FILM REVIEW: Oh. My. Godzilla.

Two mean dudes duking it out.

Despite the silly plot and bad acting you'll want to see Hollywood's latest take on the classic monster film Godzilla for several reasons. For one, it's a rousing good time, and so implausible it's funny. Shot in color but with the feel of black and white, it's rife with references to that original one you remember, the one with all the Japanese people. It's also pretty scary, not while you're watching it but once you leave the theater and let your mind wander: Could such creatures ever exist, spawned perhaps by all our weird science and Cheez Whiz? Who knows, maybe global warming is the least of our problems.

Certainly Godzilla is. In fact he's an angel compared to the other monsters who show up. There are two of them and they're both really mean MUTOs, which stands for something I forget but which easily could be Morally Unacceptable Threatening Organisms. They are also very ugly and slimy and always hungry for anything and everything radioactive. Their diet includes nuclear power plants, bombs, submarines, jet planes and entire cities with power grids. (I'm pretty sure one of them ate the Eiffel Tower.)

But the overriding reason to see this movie is because you get a lot of bang for your buck. In case you missed some past blockbusters, you can fill in a few of the holes with this one. Jurassic Park donated its opening credits flyover while The Impossible was obviously a great role model for the tsunami. Throw in some tilted chaos from Titanic, the sets from War Games and Apollo 13, the reunion of the two lovers from Reds, the Golden Gate Bridge melee from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the monsters fighting in King Kong and that giant ball chasing down Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and you're pretty much up to speed.

Not Shakespeare but definitely fun and worth the price of admission, and really, isn't that all that matters?