Gamera vs. Monster X (1970):  Giant turtle vs. giant lizard from Hell!  This is a good one.  I find it a bit disturbing that they tried to make this one a kids' film.  There's a lot of gross stuff in it.  All in all, I don't think any of the Gammera films should've been oriented towards children.  It doesn't suit the style of film.  Here, the kid characters drag things down.  They're annoying!  How many times do they have to say "Gammera" for crying out loud?!  And in all but one of the Gammera movies, the main human character is a small Japanese boy with a baseball cap.  Different boy character, but always with a baseball cap.  In this movie, like in the earlier "Destroy All Planets", the Japanese boy is paired with an American boy.  What's new here is that the American boy has a little sister that also tags around.

    The human characters in this movie aren't bad, but they aren't memorable, either.  What makes this movie stand out is the story behind Jiger, aka Monster X, and the confrontation with Gammera.  Jiger (rhymes with tiger) is a giant lizard, presumably from Hell.  At one point in the movie they start calling him Monster X.  Why? Dunno.  Jiger was released from his centuries-old prison when a large, half-buried relic was lifted from the ground.  This relic is mysteriously called the Devil's Whistle.  Mankind discovers that the Devil's Whistle makes a loud noise that drives anyone in contact with it quite mad.  We later discover that the lower frequencies such as those this relic produces, along with radio tranceivers, hurt Jiger.  The giant lizard, however, can produce extremely high frequency radio waves that form a deadly heat energy.  He can release this, along with long barbs, from inside his mouth.  Jiger cannot fly, thank goodness, but he can jump long distances.  All of these powers, along with great size and sheer, brute force make Jiger a nightmare on Earth.

    Gammera and Jiger beat up on each other quite a few times in this movie.  At one point, Jiger injects Gammera with the tip of his tail.  Gammera becomes sick.  Upon investigation, it is found that Jiger infected Gammera with a Jiger egg.  The egg hatched inside Gammera and made him sicker.  That is until the baby Jiger was killed.  Through an extensive process, Gammera was brought back to health.  Gammera fights Jiger one last time and kills him.  The mighty turtle impales Jiger through the brain with the Devil's Whistle.

    What I don't like about this movie is that they had the kids doing almost everything.  Things that real kids couldn't do.  The two boys just hop in a mini-sub and automatically know how to operate it.  They just go into Gammera's body through his mouth as easy as you please, and they get out even easier.  The mini-sub idea, by the way, is a rip-off of the mini-sub scenes in the earlier movie "Destroy All Planets".  The kids kill the baby Jiger, they figure out ways of how to kill the big Jiger and how to cure Gammera.  It's just way too hokey.  And all of the scientists and military people just take a backseat to them.  These kids aren't even supposed to be geniuses; they're just normal kids.  But besides this point, the movie has a really cool premise and interesting monsters.

    I like this movie because I like all kinds of different stuff, but it may not be for everyone.  It was made under the auspices of a children's movie.  I think kids could see this and you could probably show it in schools for the fact that there isn't any sex or language.  But the violence between the monsters and  inflicted upon humans can be disturbing.  The violence isn't anything extremely graphic, thanks to that era's limited special effects.  But here are some things to consider when deciding to show it to your child:

1. In one scene, Jiger's heat energy reduces a bunch of military men to skeletons.  The skeletons are frozen in place for some time.

2. In an early fight, Jiger shoots Gammera with barbs through all four of his limbs.  The barbs come out of both sides.  Gammera has to tear them out before he can return to battle.

3. Jiger sticks Gammera with his tail, at the neck.

4. When Gammera's sick, the kids take the mini-sub into the dying turtle and explore his insides.  It's kind of gross imagery.

5. Gammera sticks the Devil's Whistle into Jiger's brain.  Very wicked.