While Japan has led in this genre, and America has done a few good things in it, this is the British take. Which means everyone is totally calm no matter what is happening and no one gets terribly excited. I give it credit in that its monster has a motivation...it wants its baby back. As opposed to your average Japanese Kaiju who just attacks because, you know, Japan. The special effects aren't horrible, and Gorgo is a little more plausible than most of his Japanese kindred- he doesn't have lasers or fire breathe or something equally implausible. It's just big and it stomps things.

I had very fond memories of this film . Seeing it as a child I was struck as to what a wonderfully sadistic spectacular this film is . Images of panicking Londoners fleeing through the streets getting crushed underfoot and buried under falling rubble as a man in a rubber lizard costume crashes through not entirely convincing sets . Last time I saw it was 25 years ago but the instinctive affection I felt for the film stayed with me . Well at least until I saw it again tonight When GORGO does concentrate on the cruel sadistic elements it is somewhat enjoyably mean such as the scene where a group of Londoners stand at the side of the Thames and get burnt alive or the scene where the preacher complete with sandwich boards stands in front of a fleeing crowd to find the end was more nigh than he expected . This is a film that was awarded an X certificate in British cinema the old rating similar to an 18 cert today . The unfortunate thing is that this sharply contrasts with other aspects of the movie like having a cute kid as one of the main characters just like you'd expect in a Walt Disney movie Another thing that lets the film down is the ridiculous amount of stock footage used throughout the movie . Anyone remember these sketches from Benny Hill featuring Cheapo films ? This is what some of the action scenes resemble as Royal Navy warships suddenly turn in to world war two American destroyers and back again . Likewise RAF aircraft turning in to American ones . The editing here is a disaster and don't get me started on the scenes featuring back projection Some people have stated this is a British version of GODZILLA and in many ways it is . The difference is that GODZILLA had a unique geo-nationalist subtext involving Hiroshima and Nagasaki where as GORGO has a far more mundane one of greed . A circus owner wants to take Gorgo to London to make money . At least it has a subtext you might say and you'd be right but be honest how many times have you seen bad things happening to greedy people in this type of story ? It was a staple diet of DOCTOR WHO from 1963-89 When I came to this page I was shocked that GORGO only had an average rating of 5.3 . I knew it was a mere B movie but my own memories of it was that it was great fun . After seeing it again I can understand the underwhelming reaction it has got from a number of people . It's cheap , badly paced and seems unable to make its mind up as to how family friendly it wants to be

This movie is nothing but a copy of Godzilla. Well, not the monster, but the idea itself, about giant monster destroying the cities. It is interesting that this is an UK film, it is very rare for British filmmakers to make movies about giant monsters, let alone giant lizards destroying everything in their path. But, they have a perverted tendency to destroy their capital city London in their SF films. But, hell... why not. Let's give it a shot. But this movie, alas, did poorly. Gorgo is actually a nickname for a Gorgosaurus, captured by a fishermen near Irish coast and brought to a circus. Later, they realized that this Gorgo is only a baby... one big baby, which means... an even bigger mama will come. And of course, she won't be gentle in her attempt to find the cub. The Gorgo monster looks funny, they used the same "rubber principle" of making the monster, but some special effects were solid. In conclusion, you wouldn't like this film a lot... you can use it as an insomnia cure.

Ocean volcanic eruption brings many deep sea fishes to the surface. Divers researching the ocean finds not only the fishes, but a reptilian monster from the deep. They succeed in capturing the monster, and brings it back to London, but a closer study shows that it's only an infant, and a lot bigger adult is expected to exist somewhere. The adult shows up, to search for its missing offspring, and London is under attack by a 200 ft tall monster.This might be a British version of Godzilla, but it's the first time a monster is portrayed as a family. The production is very good for a movie of this sorts, and has aged well. It was even more sensational back in the '60s when the movie was made.It's a classic monster movie that has its place in movie history, and still a good entertainment to watch.