JLRVancouver This is the final collaboration of Toho's iconic kaiju team of Ishiro Honda (director), Eiji Tsuburaya (effects), and Akira Ifukube (music), but is far from their best work. The film follows three men (two scientists and a reporter) rescued by Capt. McKenzie (Joseph Cotton) in his highly advanced submarine "The Alpha" only to find out that their saviour is 200 years old and lives in the titular deep-sea utopia 11000 fathoms beneath the eponymous coordinate (where the equator crosses the international date line). On the trip to Latitude Zero, the Alpha survives an attack by a heavily armed submarine, The Black Shark, which is, commanded by Captain Kuroiga (Hikaru Kuroki) in the service of evil Dr. Malic (Cesar Romero) who is also 200 years old. After touring the idyllic abyssal city, the three rescuees end up accompanying McKenzie on a mission to rescue an atomic physicist kidnapped by Malic. Adventure ensues as the heroes penetrate Malic's secret island fortress and battle his army of giant man-bats, monster rats, and a surgically-engineered griffin, with the clock ticking as Malic prepares to practice his fiendish vivisection skills on the helpless scientist and his pretty daughter. As forgiving (and loving) as I am of Toho's tokusatsu movies, this one is generally ridiculous. The story makes no sense (unless the cryptic final scene means that the whole thing is some alternate reality) and there is little to explain who these fantastically advanced icosagenarians are or how the titular underwater city came into being. LZ 'technology' ranges from the reasonable (the Alpha), to the unlikely (the elevation belts and flamethrower/gas/laser gloves), to the preposterous (the hot tub 'bath of immunity' that makes you bulletproof). Malic's specialty seems to be bioengineering, but the giant rats and the lion look more like evil stuffed toys than actual animals and the 'man-bats' are ludicrous (note how the connection between their 'hand' and their wing changes depending on what the creature is doing). Even the most tired kaiju gimmick, the ability to suddenly increase in size, makes an appearance as Malic uses his "amplification serum" to make the griffin of suitable proportions to threaten a submarine. On the plus side, the underwater scenes are quite good (notably the opening bathyscaph segment), as are some of the images in the underwater city (such as the docking of the Alpha). The cast has lots of familiar faces from both American and Japanese cinema but the star power doesn't help. Cesar Romero essentially plays his iconic Joker character with a less maniacal laugh, Cotton's smug McKenzie is tiresome, Linda Haynes is terrible as the usually underdressed 'surprise, I'm a doctor' eye-candy, and Patricia Medina plays Malic's moll Lucretia, the typical sidekick who serves no purpose other than to have things explained. I don't know what I would have thought of this film when it came out and I was eleven (and probably representative of the target audience) - maybe I would have been impressed, but I doubt that it would hold the attention of a 'modern' eleven-year old. As far as adult viewers go: fans of this kind of schlock or those, like me, focused on their tokusatsu life-lists will find it worth watching, others, likely not.

Brian Washington This is one of the finest of the non-Godzilla epics by Ishiro Honda and Toho. It definitely has all the elements that make for a great film great story, great action and an interesting twist at the end. What really stands out is the fact that Honda pretty much took a near impossible situation in working with several American actors who didn't speak Japanese and was able to do a decent job in directing them. However, the thing that really was interesting about this film was the fact that this film marks what probably is the first and only time that Akira Takarada and the late, great Akihiko Hirata are heard speaking English with their own voices after years of being dubbed. This film is definitely one of the finest to come from Toho.

MARIO GAUCI This is a bigger budgeted film than usual for genre director Honda (with more evidently elaborate sets) – though the special effects still have that distinctive cheesiness to them (witness the giant bats and rodents on display). It also utilizes a surprising number of American actors: Joseph Cotten playing the visionary scientist looks ill-at-ease and frail (but, then, his character is supposed to be 204 years old!), an innocuous Richard Jaeckel is the photographer hero while, as chief villains, we get Cesar Romero and Patricia Medina (both essentially campy). As I've often said, I grew up watching English-language films dubbed in Italian…but hearing Hollywood actors in Japanese is another thing entirely! LATITUDE ZERO feels like a juvenile version of a typical Jules Verne adventure, and is fairly entertaining on that level; indeed, it's preferable to Honda's low-brow variations on the monsters-on-the-rampage formula because of the inherent quaint charm of the set-up in this case. The plot involves the kidnapping of a famous scientist by Romero – he was intended to establish himself in the underwater, technologically advanced city devised by Cotten (to which the world's foremost minds are being recruited). We're treated to plenty of silly battles between the rival subs, but the most amusing scenes are certainly the raid on Romero's cave – in fact, Cotten doing somersaults and fending off men in rubber suits (via flames and laser emitted from his glove!) must surely count as the nadir of his acting career; the other elder in the cast, Romero, is more in his element – after all, he had been The Joker in the BATMAN TV series and movie of the 1960s! Cotten has a scantily-clad blonde physician on his team, and is assisted by a hulking Asian; Romero, on the other hand, is flanked by an Oriental femme fatale – who, however, ends up getting a raw deal for her efforts (the girl's brain is eventually transplanted into a hybrid of lion and condor…which is among the phoniest-looking creatures you ever saw!). Apparently, a 2-disc set of this one from Media Blasters streets on this very day!!

OllieSuave-007 I bought this movie only to make my Toho movie collection more complete. A very different Toho film, where we have actors Joseph Cotton and Akira Takarada as the leads, journeying into another world and another dimension below the sea, where everybody seemed to be living in peace. But, the peace is threaten by a mad scientist, played by Cesar Romero. Monsters appear in this film, in the form of gigantic rats and lions.This movie is somewhat dull and not as exciting as earlier Toho sci-fi movies of the 60s. The monster scenes and human characters were dull. To the casual sci-fi viewer, this movie would probably be an OK viewing pleasure. But to the faithful Toho sci-fi fans, this movie does not quite cut it. It does have some action in it, but it is just a far departure from the usual Toho. Grade D+