Gojira ni-sen mireniamu [Godzilla Millennium] [Godzilla 2000] (1999)

(In theaters, August 2000) This has pretty much everything you need in a Japanese monster movie: A lot of monster for one thing, plus the required iffy dubbing, haughty tone, silly lines and tons of Tokyo stomping. Just make sure that you’re with an audience that understands that proper respect for these type of movie means laughing all the way through. Granted, Godzilla 2000 isn’t uninterrupted delight (there’s a boring stretch maybe halfway through), but the fantastically appropriate ending more than redeems the film, along with the tagline “Maybe there’s a little bit of Godzilla in all of us”, as the big G trashes Tokyo once again. For added intellectual stimulation, compare and contrast the chutzpah of this film’s wide-angle shots (along, yes, with the inconsistent special effects) with the constrained feel of the American Godzilla (with its almost perfect effects) for a study in how being audacious and exciting is often better than being perfect.