SO, GODZILLA... --

When I was a kid I loved Saturday TV not just for the cartoons but for the Japanese monster movies too. I'd park my little 10 year old ass in front of the TV and watch whatever monster movies were being broadcast that day, usually Godzilla but sometimes others. I didn't care, I loved em' all.

But even as a kid I knew these were cheap movies. A whole Godzilla movie in 1974 would cost, like $40K to produce the whole movie!

These same movies being made today have incredible budgets. The one I saw today -- Godzilla: King of Monsters -- cost $170M to make. There is absolutely no difference in the depth of the script, it's just a thin narrative on which to hang the effects but those effects cost the GNP of a small European nation now.

It's the exact same mindless fun it was when I was a kid but I never would've dreamed those cheesy old movies with guys in rubber suits would ever become such enormous blockbusters.

Of course, the same could be said for what has become of comicbook movies in general. Man, how production values have soared.

A $170M Godzilla movie -- what's not to love?