I just had to veg this saturday. And my sweet boyfriend was happy to join me.

He had the perfect idea:
Slump on the couch and watch Godzilla.

I'd never seen it, and he assured me that it wouldn't tax our brain cells.

It didn't. After Jurassic Park, the monster looked so slow and ponderous it was pretty funny.

Apparently, the original movie was done for a Japanese audience, but they redid it for America. They got Raymond Burr to be the American Journalist that spoke english. They re-shot any part of the movie that had him in it, and left the rest alone. Whenever something was explained in Japanese, they just had Burr say, "What's going on?" and someone would translate what had been said.

An effective, low-budget way to avoid subtitles.

Plus, whenever Burr was supposed to be talking to a main character, they would have a double stand with their back facing the camera.

Also a little contrived. But hey, we weren't expecting Citizen Kane.

It was less tongue-in-cheek than the sequel. Godzilla was really supposed to be scary. They had real people being killed, not just buildings toppling.

It was also interesting that Godzilla was highly radioactive. Even his footprints made the Geiger counter click like castanets.

The significance of post-WWII Japanese scientists being concerned with Radioactivity was pretty obvious.

Godzilla has become a part of our vocabulary. Check it out, we ought to know what we mean when we use it.