The giant radioactively-produced lizard of many Japanese B-flicks gets the Hollywood treatment. With Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno.

SEX/NUDITY 1 - Some male buttocks are exposed while wearing wrestling garb. Some sexual innuendo and talk of sexual vs. asexual reproduction and hermaphrodism.

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - Godzilla is very scary looking - something between a T-rex and a dragon. He is enormous (estimated at about 20 stories tall) and very threatening, with big sharp teeth and claws, and a huge tail which he waves to lethal effect. There's a lot of property damage as Godzilla runs through New York City: A street crumbles as Godzilla comes right up through it; people are stepped on by his giant paws, or crushed by crumbling buildings (not shown in close-ups). Many weapons are fired at the giant lizard, but cause more property damage than anything else. Godzilla blows fire and people are zapped (not shown in detail). In one scene he gobbles a truck (the driver drops out of it). Helicopters are wrecked, underground subway tunnels are destroyed, a ship and a few small boats are sunk, and a submarine is blown up. A tidal wave crashes through a pier. Godzilla gives birth and the junior Godzillas end up chasing and killing several people (the deaths are off camera, but we do hear screaming and sounds of death and destruction). Some of the lizards are blown up while inside a building. Godzilla is wounded by a missile leaving bloody wounds.

LANGUAGE 3 - One scatological reference, a couple of anatomical terms, many mild obscenities and insults.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Radioactive tests, unknown life forms, the media, the French.

MESSAGE - The abuse of technology may create horrors humanity is ill-equipped to handle.