GAMERA '96 / Daiei Studios - 1996

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We deliver the goods with tonite's offering, movie two in director Shusuke Kaneko's awesome Gamera trilogy. Alternate title is GAMERA 2: ATTACK OF THE LEGION.

The story starts a year after Gamera's battle with Gyaos, a weird cluster of meteorites crash-lands in Japan, followed by unexplained phenomenon and disasters. It finally becomes clear that Earth has been invaded by a colony of insect-like creatures from another world. These creatures, known as the Legion, begin to savage the countryside before Gamera enters the scene.

Kô Ôtani composed the music, he worked on the entire GAMERA trilogy and GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK.

Letz bring our fuzzy little fiend and button pusher, that 7-eyed freek, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Ralphie has joined us so that we can get this show started. Eegah!! gave us a musical soundclip that celebrates Gamera's victory at the end of the film! So, push the big red 'GO' button there next to the bus stop, now, Ralphie! Here's a cool tune from... GAMERA '96!

The Japanese really began to create some great music in the nineties, most notably in their anime series. COWBOY BEBOP is a good example, my favorite piece is the ending theme from OUTLAW STAR.

After the strange meteors hit, creatures begin coming to the surface. This crowd on the subway are the first ones to encounter the things!

Then, this giant unknown structure appears from under the earth!

Some of the soldiers quote verses from the Bible, predicting the appearance of Gamera!!

This movie's all about the monsters, but, there is this cute girl reporter we get to see from time to time.

All Hell's starting to break out in Japan.

Gamera takes a direct hit from the hideous thing from another world! The giant alien creature design is based on an actual giant crab species that inhabits the oceans surrounding Japan!

Then, it unleashes a barrage of destruction on the city!

The military responds to the location of the problem...

Only to be completely annihilated!! Just look at that freakin' thing!

Gamera recovers from injuries sustained in the battle and takes off to relocate it's nemesis!

The special effects are absolutely stunning and totally amazing, unbelievable!! Speaking of nemesis, the thing here looks like 1983 British Quality Comics' NEMESIS THE WARLOCK!

These shots are plain awesome.

Gamera knows what must be done, so, starts collecting electrical energy from the atmosphere...

The power is concentrated within it's body cavity!

Gamera turns the creature into ash with this intense blast!

Portrait of a winner!

Okay, now the kids join in!..

MOON ZERO TWO - Don Ellis - Julie Driscoll - "Ride A Rocket Texas-Style" (1969)

"Moon Zero Two" is not the best science fiction movie ever made, but I'll tell you one thing, it IS THE funkiest, so what are we supposed to do? Let's Rock!

The title song for "Moon Zero Two" is sung by the amazing Julie Driscoll, a woman with the doe eyed looks of Twiggy, and the lungs of Aretha Franklin! If you can get your hands on a copy of the album "Open" by Brian Auger and the Trinity and Julie Driscoll that's pictured here, do it! "Street Noise" by Jools and the boys is another keeper! They're both double albums of jazzy rock that will never get old! Julie would later change her name to Julie Tippetts and record with her husband, jazz pianist Keith Tippet, and leave the rock roots behind! Brian Auger also has numerous good releases! Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger were also both in an earlier band called The Steampacket whose members included Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart! Julie is still recording today!!

Outer Space can be a very lonely place, that is unless you've got some good entertainment, and it's all happening at the "Lazy B Saloon!" Besides being almost impossible to find unless you've got friends like TedMo, "Moon Zero Two" is damn near a musical! It was a real shame to have to cut the sound clip down to a couple of minutes!

The fact that they had an immigration checkpoint is pretty funny! Wouldn't want any of them illegals on the moon, now would you?

As a matter of fact, there's more than one awkward scene!

The heavy of the film is the 6'7" Bernard Bresslaw as Harry! The big guy passed away in 1993 at the age of 59!

As you can readily see, it wasn't all serious all the time for Bernie! In a series of 10 "Carry On" films with titles like "Carry On Cowboy," "Carry On Screaming!," or "Carry On Girls," that were released between 1966 and 1975, Bernard played an array of different characters, but there was always a running gag that featured him bumping his 6'7" cranium into something!

You've got to admit, the future looks pretty groovy!

The Saloon and the dance numbers are without a doubt, the highlight of the film. The freakin' soundtrack was written by Don Ellis, a jazz trumpeter who first played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra before becoming a world class Avant-Garde musician of the highest degree.

We'll never know what Don would have really accomplished because he passed away in 1978 at the age of 44. This is the cover of his 1967 release, "Electric Bath."

James "Andromeda Strain" Olson is Captain William H. Kemp, and right about here, he gets to throw out the musical jab at the current state of MOR or middle of the road music, when he states that his drink tastes like "Tijuana Brass Polish!"

There is a story about a group of criminals intent on cashing in on a blue sapphire encrusted asteroid!

Pelon' Warren Mitchell has the role of kingpin ringleader J.J. Hubbard! Warren's bigoted character "Alf Garnett" in "Till Death Us Do Part" in 1965, led to the birth of "All in the Family" and was the model for Carroll O'Connor's iconic character Archie Bunker!

This looks like an outfit right out of Freddie Mercury's closet!

Back to the bar one more time!! They do such a great job, I feel compelled to let you know that the the bar dancers were, Sally Graham, Brenda Krippen, Irene Gorst, Jane Cunningham, Michelle Barry, and Sue Baumann! The upside down body you see flying through the scene is the result of an anti-gravity fight scene!

The Captain's navigator is Ori"Every Bastard A King"Levy as Korminski. So really, what do you think about those space suits?

I just really dig how complicated the composition of this shot is!

Adrienne "Devil Girl From Mars," "Zero One," "A Clockwork Orange" Corri is Elizabeth Murphy, and she's looking for her brother, and wants to enlist Captain Kemp to assist her in finding him! Her brother is out on Hell's half-acre of the moon somewhere mining, and hasn't been heard from for some time!

Anybody up for a rousing round of "Moonopoly?"

They finally find Elizabeth Murphy's brother, but he's not feeling very good!

Three guys in different coloured spacesuits ambush the Captain and Elizabeth and for some reason there's a machine equipped with some kind of sickle blades that comes into play, as The Captain and Elizabeth narrowly escape!

First it's really cold, then it gets really hot as the vehicle they use to try and get back to base runs out of fuel, and they almost don't make it!

See, it was the sapphire pirates who killed Elizabeth's brother for reasons way to convoluted for me to go into here!

Justice is served with everybody's favourite ending, KA..FFNN...BOOM!!!! Extra added bonus, Sapphire Blue explosion!!