The sci-fi genre has received a lot of attention recently with shows like Pluribus, Severance, Murderbot, and many more. However, one notable entry into the genre that deserves more attention isn’t particularly new. In 2009, sci-fi fans were introduced to the fascinating superhero comedy Misfits, which follows a group of teens in trouble with the law as they accidentally gain supernatural powers, placing them in danger. Not only is it an original take on the traditional superhero origin, but with five seasons, Misfits will keep you entertained for a while, especially as it only gets better.

With a talented cast, many of whom were only beginning their careers, Misfits becomes a coming-of-age story as the characters grow from misbehaving teens into more balanced, though still flawed, adults. Even as the cast changes, the show remains engaging with its dark and cynical exploration of superpowers. In this way, Misfits was ahead of its time. These days, there are many gritty superhero shows that question the traditional story, from The Boys to Umbrella Academy to Doom Patrol, but at the time, Misfits was a unique concept. This deconstruction of the superhero narrative highlights the characters’ flaws as well as their powers, creating a more complex and rewarding story that viewers can easily invest in.

What Is ‘Misfits’ About?

While there are many twists along the way, Misfits follows a group of superpowered teens as they figure out who they are. The story begins with Alisha (Antonia Thomas), Simon (Iwan Rheon), Kelly (Lauren Socha), Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), and Nathan (Robert Sheehan), five young individuals doing community service, when a supernatural thunderstorm hits. This gives them unexpected superpowers, or most of them. Nathan struggles to figure out what he can do, while Alisha realizes she can arouse people with a touch, Simon turns invisible, Kelly develops telepathy, and Curtis can rewind time. Yet, they are not the only ones affected; their probation officer, Tony (Danny Sapani), receives superstrength, but it also amplifies his rage, sending him into a frenzy directed at the children. After killing him in self-defense, they must hide the truth of what happened, including their powers, which is easier said than done, especially once Tony’s fiancée and fellow probation officer, Sally (Alex Reid), comes into their lives.

However, with five seasons, that is only the beginning of their journey. The threats they face grow, going from angry probation officers to religious cults and power-switching villains. This allows the story to develop in unexpected ways, and it certainly takes advantage of that. Misfits often takes bizarre twists, incorporating concepts like time travel and resurrection, which are always good for a surprise. However, the show also features grounded elements by showing realistic character struggles, such as difficult family situations, exploring sexuality, and a lack of self-confidence. The result is an exciting series that is impossible to stop.

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10 Sci-Fi Shows That Are Almost As Good as ‘Stranger Things’

Not quite the Upside Down, but close enough.

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‘Misfits’ Isn’t Your Average Superhero Show

Image via Channel 4

While superheroes have become widely popular, Misfits doesn’t follow all the classic hallmarks of that genre. The series is a less optimistic version of the story as the characters struggle more than ever after they get their abilities. With a grim and violent tone, Misfits doesn’t follow your typical heroes, and that is especially clear in the abilities they receive. The group doesn’t get random powers, but ones that highlight their flaws and insecurities. Take Simon, for example, who often feels ignored and isolated even before he can turn invisible, which only amplifies those feelings. Similarly, Curtis’ power of rewinding time is tied to his feelings of regret. This unconventional method of assigning power highlights the character’s personal struggles and makes their abilities darkly ironic.

As a show centering around the young and superpowered, Misfits is in the vein of Gen V or Marvel’s Runaways, but it was years ahead of its time. When the show premiered in 2009, superheroes were not yet at the peak of their popularity, and a show that highlights the flaws in the hero system was not what people were looking for. However, today, these are some of the most intriguing additions to the genre. Misfits picks apart the traditional superhero story with its dark commentary. Featuring themes of trauma and redemption, the series gets deeper than you might expect, yet it maintains the wit fans love, making it a perfect binge that never loses its touch.

Misfits is streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

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Release Date

2009 – 2013-00-00

Showrunner

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Howard Overman

Directors

Howard Overman, Tom Green, Jonathan van Tulleken, Tom Harper, Wayne Yip

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Writers

Howard Overman, Jon Brown, Mike O’Leary

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Franchise(s)

Misfits

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Roommates, the baddies are outside for Coachella this weekend, and the link-ups are heating up timelines. Jhené Aiko and Sexyy Red have fans going wild after they popped out together following their performances in the desert. Now, folks online are wondering if a collab might be on the way.

RELATED: 38, Where? Fans Praise Jhené Aiko For Gettin’ Finer With Age As She Celebrates Her Birthday (PHOTOS)

Jhené AIko & Sexyy Red Have Fans Gagging Over Their Coachella Link-Up

Fans are calling Sexyy Red and Jhené Aiko the duo they never knew they needed after their Coachella link-up. Both of the girlies hit the stage in the desert and later posed for photos together. Red even dropped clips from their time together on X (formerly Twitter). Folks online loved seeing them side by side and joked that they’re twinning since they share the same name, but it’s spelled differently.

Fans Are Livin’ For Jhené x Janae

After The Shade Room dropped the clips of Jhené and Red, the comment section was flooded with heart-eye and fire emojis. Some fans joked that the video basically shows their two personalities in one.

Instagram user @d.denisee__ wrote, “Janae and Jhené 😂😂😂❤️ my two personalities.” 

Instagram user @siannemadi_ wrote, “Ouuuuu I love thisssss 😛😍” 

While Instagram user @chocc__littt wrote, “Love a Pisces and Aries duo.” 

Then Instagram user @kaizarimfalme wrote, “Y’all keep talking bout this y’all two personalities personified but they basically the same personality, Jhene just a singer. 😂” 

Another Instagram user, @pancho_villatoro, wrote, “On the clock vs off the clock.” 

Instagram user @alishaxolivia wrote, “I love this. Sexy vibes with everyone ❤️” 

Then another Instagram user @registered_foodiee wrote, “random but here for it!” 

While another Instagram user @ninaboo_51 wrote, “So when’s the collab 😍😍😍😍” 

Finally, Instagram user @joyprivatelife_ wrote, “wait this is cute af 🥹” 

Lizzo Pulls Up To Coachella For Surprise Performance With Sexyy Red

Sexyy Red popping out with Jhené Aiko wasn’t the only surprise at Coachella. She shocked fans when she brought out Lizzo for a special performance during her set. Lizzo came through, playing her flute and twerking for the crowd. The vibes hit a 1,000 as Red teased a new record while they were onstage. Peep the video below.

They weren’t playing on stage! 🔥 ✍🏾#TSRStaffAS https://t.co/KRZTU99NjJ

— TheShadeRoom (@TheShadeRoom) April 11, 2026

RELATED: Aht! Aht! Michael Jackson’s Estate Reportedly Reacts After Sexyy Red Samples ‘Beat It’ With SPICY NSFW Lyrics (VIDEO)

Some late-’90s thrillers are too weird to stay dead forever. Turbulence is absolutely one of them. The movie bombed when it hit theaters back in 1997, but it has exactly the kind of over-the-top premise and wild villain energy that streaming viewers love rediscovering. That’s especially true when the villain is Ray Liotta in full maniac mode.

And funnily enough, the movie has climbed its way to the top of the streaming charts across the country. In fact, if you note the streaming charts now, you’ll note that it was sitting just behind the top title on the service. That’s a pretty amazing second life for a movie that made only about $11.5 million worldwide in theaters.

The full main cast of Turbulence includes Lauren Holly as Teri Halloran, the flight attendant forced to take control of the plane; Liotta as Ryan Weaver, the chained serial killer who turns the flight into a nightmare; Brendan Gleeson as Stubbs, the armed robber being transported alongside him; Hector Elizondo as Aldo Hines; Rachel Ticotin as Martha; Jeffrey DeMunn as FBI agent Frank Sinclair; John Finn as the air traffic controller helping from the ground; and Ben Cross as pilot Captain Matthew Reynolds.

Is ‘Turbulence’ Worth Watching?

Image via MGM

Well, in a so-bad-it’s-good way, sure. Roger Ebert‘s review stated that Turbulence is the kind of thriller that never stops moving, even though almost none of it makes sense. The movie throws a killer, a storm, a nearly empty 747, and a long list of disasters into one story, then keeps piling on more chaos without worrying much about logic. The result is not tense so much as completely ridiculous.

“There are more questions. Like, if a 747 sheers off the roof of a high-rise restaurant, wouldn’t that cause it to crash? Like, if a 747 plows through an outdoor billboard, wouldn’t that cause it to crash? Like, if it sweeps all the cars off the roof of a parking garage, wouldn’t that cause it to crash? Like, if it gets a truck caught in its landing gear, what would happen then? (‘It’s a Ford!’ a sharp-eyed observer says, in a line that–for once–I don’t think represents product placement.) Oh, yes, there are many moments I will long remember from Turbulence. But one stands out. After Lauren Holly outsmarts and outfights the berserk killer and pilots the plane through a Level 6 storm, the FBI guy still doubts she can land it. ‘She’s only a stewardess,’ he says. To which the female air traffic controller standing next to him snaps, ‘She’s a . . . flight attendant!’”

Turbulence is streaming now.

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Release Date

January 9, 1997

Runtime

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100 minutes

Director

Robert Butler

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Writers

Jonathan Brett

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Producers

David Valdes, Keith Samples

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One situation involving a paycheck has folks doing a serious double-take. And now, Rene Nichole Coleman is at the center of a case that’s raising plenty of eyebrows. Because baby… this wasn’t just a little mix-up. This is the kind of payday that’ll have everybody checking their direct deposit real quick.

RELATED: Dirty Business? Tennessee Nurse Learns Fate After Smearing Dirty Diaper On Coworker’s Face (VIDEO)

Coleman Arrested After $1,650/Hour Payroll Mix-Up

According to reports, authorities arrested Rene Nichole Coleman, 50, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, months after a judge reportedly found probable cause to charge her with felony theft involving more than $5,000 but less than $25,000. The case stems from an alleged payroll error at her former job. And apparently, officials say she was mistakenly paid an eye-popping $1,650 per hour for a 12-hour shift. Investigators claim Coleman, who normally earned $16.50 an hour, ended up receiving an overpayment totaling $19,388.

Company Demands Money Back As Dispute Escalates

Once the company realized the mistake, the CEO reportedly attempted to recover the funds, but things took a turn when Coleman allegedly refused to return the money. Reports state that the employer then brings the situation to law enforcement, providing financial documents and emails to support the claim that the overpayment was made in error. Authorities say the situation escalated after attempts to resolve the issue directly failed.

Missed Meeting Leads To Arrest And Court Date

According to investigators, Coleman initially agreed to speak with authorities about the situation but never showed up for the meeting. Authorities later issued a bench warrant, took her into custody on Monday, and booked her into the Craighead County Detention Center. Furthermore, a judge set her bond at $15,000, and she is expected to appear in court again on May 18 as the case continues to unfold.

RELATED: Check, Please! Restaurant Calls Out Family Over Alleged $600 Armpit Hair Scam To Avoid Hefty Bill (VIDEO)

By Robert Scucci
| Published 10 seconds ago

Before John Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers and solidified the “classic lineup,” quit the band in 1992, was replaced by Dave Navarro for One Hot Minute, rejoined in 1998, quit again in 2009, was replaced by Josh Klinghoffer, and returned yet again in 2019, the band’s sound had already been molded by another guitar genius: Hillel Slovak. Netflix’s latest rockumentary, The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel, looks back at those early days when Anthony Kiedis and Michael “Flea” Balzary were just kids from broken homes, and how their best friend and spiritual brother Hillel offered them a lifeline through art, music, and, most tragically, drugs.

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers tells a heartbreaking story about the band’s early, turbulent years as kids running amok through Los Angeles in the 1980s, shaped by their environment and an unbreakable friendship. Through beautifully composed segments featuring archival photos brought to life with striking animation, the documentary feels kaleidoscopic at times, like a drug-induced fever dream, and brutally sobering at others. We hear from band members past and present as they reflect on their soul brother Hillel Slovak and how instrumental he was in shaping them into the musicians they became.

While a healthy amount of time is spent on the thrill of starting a punk-funk hybrid band in 1980s Los Angeles, Slovak’s life, impact, and lasting legacy takes center stage, doing the impossible by making an ending fans already know still land like a gut punch that makes you want to call up an old friend and check in.

From Triumph To Tragedy

While I’m fighting every urge to wax poetic about the band whose frontman once sang “Say what? You got a pumpkin in yo pants,” I can’t understate the emotional weight of The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It’s a look at the band’s early days, when both Flea and Kiedis felt completely lost as teenagers. They abused drugs, got into all sorts of trouble, and, thanks to unstable home lives, were mostly unsupervised and searching for something to hold onto.

They went from lost to found when they met Hillel Slovak in high school, not yet realizing how chaotic their lives would become as they bonded over art, music, and their freewheeling youth, something that they thought would last forever.

Flea spends a healthy amount of time talking about how he might never have picked up a bass if Hillel hadn’t needed someone to play for one of his earlier projects, Anthym. Around this time, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were conceptualized, though scheduling conflicts created tension between Flea, Kiedis, then-drummer Jack Irons, and Slovak, who was committed to his other band, What Is This?

Their debut album featured Jack Sherman on guitar, but things didn’t click. By the time they were preparing to record their 1985 sophomore effort, Freaky Styley, Slovak had returned to the fold, and everything started to take shape on an almost cosmic level. That momentum carried into 1986’s The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, but by then, things were already starting to spiral.

Drugs had taken hold of both Kiedis and Slovak. Flea managed to stay relatively grounded, but the band dynamic was constantly on the verge of collapse just as they were finding their footing. Kiedis got sober, for the first time of many in the band’s documented history, but Slovak couldn’t escape his heroin addiction, which ultimately claimed his life in 1988.

Known as a constant source of positivity and inspiration, it almost feels like Slovak gave his light to the people who mattered most while his inner darkness slowly closed in.

The documentary closes on a somber but reflective note. John Frusciante speaks about Slovak’s legacy and how it shaped his own early playing with the band. Flea and Kiedis get visibly emotional as they remember their best friend, taken far too soon, even after all these years. A true artist and a deeply sensitive soul, Hillel Slovak was one of those rare musicians who radiated authenticity without ever trying. With his life cut short just as the band was beginning to take off, there’s no telling how differently things might have turned out if he had overcome his demons.

It’s A Great Watch, Even If You’re Not A Fan

Listen, whenever I talk about how much I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the first thing people bring up is how Anthony Kiedis openly discusses some pretty troubling behavior in his 2004 memoir, Scar Tissue. And yes, that book has aged terribly, and yes, Kiedis probably has some explaining to do when he arrives at the pearly gates. But that’s not what The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is about.

This documentary is focused on the life and legacy of Hillel Slovak.

For casual fans, that might seem like an odd choice, especially since most of the band’s classic albums feature Frusciante’s guitar work. But it’s worth remembering that Frusciante was only 18 when he joined the band, and Slovak was already his biggest influence. Slovak ran so Frusciante could sprint.

What makes the documentary especially compelling is how it uses archival material to tell its story. As someone who nerds out over old band photos and music history, I was genuinely surprised by how many images from those early days I’d never seen before. They capture the band at their youngest and most naive and explosive, and then those same images are brought to life through trippy, psychedelic animation that makes them jump off the screen and straight into your living room.

It’s a visually visceral way to show youth running wild, and the early days of a band that would eventually take over the world at a time when they were still figuring out where their next meal was coming from.

It’s heavy, heartfelt, and feels like it could be the first chapter of something larger. Maybe I’m reading too much into the title, but I’d love to see a follow-up documentary that picks up around the Mother’s Milk era, when Frusciante’s first stint with the band propelled them into superstardom. Until that happens, this is more than enough to keep me at bay.

In the meantime, I’ll be spending the weekend slapping the bass and revisiting those early records, because if nothing else, this documentary is a reminder of where it all started for a band that shaped my own early musical identity in more ways than I could ever reasonably articulate.

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel SCORE

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel is a Netflix Original and is available to stream with an active subscription.

Tennis champ Coco Gauff responded to online criticism after the athlete’s sizzling photoshoot highlighting her natural hair.

“So, I deleted TikTok and Twitter for a month,” Gauff, 22, began in a Thursday, April 9, TikTok video. “[When I returned, I saw] thousands of people talking about the way that I look and not in a positive way.”

Gauff shared photos from a Miu Miu campaign via Instagram earlier this month.

“Big bag day means my @miumiu Vivant can carry just about anything I need 🤎,” she wrote via Instagram on April 2, sharing photos of herself posing on a tennis court.

In the snaps, Gauff wore a red polo and navy skirt from the famed brand, which she accessorized with a leather tote bag. For glam, she wore minimal makeup and tied her tresses in an updo.

“It was literally me and my social person. We shot that ‘shoot’ in my parents backyard,” Gauff explained on Thursday. “The creative concept … was to show how [the bag] can be used in everyday scenarios.”

For the campaign, Gauff also served as her own stylist.

“I did my hair and my makeup [and] that’s exactly how my hair and my makeup looked for dinner [after the shoot],” she stated. “We took the photos and, like I said, the concept was using the bag everyday, so I did my everyday hair and makeup because that’s what was said to do. I personally don’t like to slick back my hair super sleek because it does damage my hair.”

@cocogauff

❤️

♬ original sound – Coco Gauff

Gauff acknowledged that she has “4C hair,” commonly defined as a type of curl that is very tight and springy. Attempts to slick back or straighten tight curls can damage a person’s natural hair.

“I do play tennis, so most of the time when I’m wearing it in a bun, I choose to allow my natural hair to be at present in its 4C self,” she stated. “I don’t want it to be super slicked back because that’s just not good for my hair. That’s how I do my hair.”

Gauff further stressed that she didn’t want to “apologize for the way [her] hair looked” because both she and her friends liked the styling in the moment and when the photos were released.

“There are other girls who have the exact same hair as me and I just wanted them to see [and] feel represented that your hair is literally fine the way it is,” the tennis phenom said. “My hair was good enough for a high-fashion fashionable brand Miu Miu to promote one of their newest launches. If my 4c hair is good enough for that, then yours is good enough to do whatever you need it to do. I’m not going to apologize for that.”

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Gauff’s look was also championed by several of her famous friends.

“You’re amazing. sending you LOVE,” Kerry Washington wrote in the comments section, while Angel Reese added, “You are gorgeous QUEEN! Love you, my girl.”

Chloe Kim also replied, writing, “You are so so beautiful I can’t believe anyone’s saying otherwise?!”

There are plenty of Ridley Scott movies people love to argue about, and Exodus: Gods and Kings is definitely on that list. The biblical epic made money worldwide, but it never really escaped the “what if this had worked better?” conversation. Now it’s getting another shot with viewers thanks to free streaming.

FlixPatrol’s Tubi chart for April 5 places the film inside the platform’s U.S. top 10, and it’s pretty clear to see that the movie is showing up well as one of the service’s bigger library performers right now. The movie grossed about $268 million worldwide against a reported $140 million budget.

The full main cast of Exodus: Gods and Kings includes Christian Bale as Moses, the Egyptian-raised leader who becomes the liberator of the Hebrews; Joel Edgerton as Rhamses; John Turturro as Seti I; Aaron Paul as Joshua; Ben Mendelsohn as Hegep; Sigourney Weaver as Tuya; María Valverde as Zipporah; Ben Kingsley as Nun; Indira Varma as the High Priestess; Hiam Abbass as Bithia; and Isaac Andrews as Malak.

Is ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ Actually Any Good?

Well, not really. Collider’s review stated that Exodus: Gods and Kings fails in the most important way: it never tells the story in a compelling way. The film has all the basic pieces of the Moses story — betrayal, destiny, freedom, and conflict — but it handles them in the dullest way possible. Scott seems far more interested in giant effects and destruction than in the people or ideas at the center of the story.

“Does it really matter how high the waves were when God parted the Red Sea? Does watching eight hundred chariots fall off the side of a mountain qualify as anything more than an unintentionally comic tribute to Ramses’ stunningly incompetent leadership? I understand that some people go to the movies for mindless entertainment, but this story comes with weight, and Scott doesn’t want to do the heavy lifting. He wants an excuse to make Gladiator again where the wise, handsome general gets revenge by rallying slaves to his cause. Religion and history are meaningless in Exodus: Gods and Kings as is everything else that doesn’t involve the swinging of a sword, the clash of a chariot, the burning of a city, or the parting of a sea.”

Exodus: Gods and Kings is streaming now.

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Release Date

December 12, 2014

Runtime

150minutes

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Since almost as far back as cinema goes, people have liked watching big creatures stomp around on screen. The Lost World (1925) was a definitive early dinosaur movie, and even if they’re not monsters necessarily, they kind of serve the same purpose in an action/adventure or horror kind of movie. Then there was King Kong (1933), and he’s endured in ways that are obvious, because that story is timeless, movie apes of any size are cool and fun, and because King Kong is always the sort of thing you can remake or rework and show off whatever special effects are cutting-edge at the time of production.

But are those movies kaiju films? Some might say King Kong is, and certainly, King Kong has had some crossovers with – and battles against – the most legendary of all the big screen kaiju, but for this ranking, we’re going to go with a narrow definition of “kaiju movie.” Any giant monster movie from Japan, or influenced by the Japanese monster movies that started getting popular in the 1950s onwards, counts as a kaiju movie. Oh, and the monster has to be huge; like, as in multiple storeys high. This is the one thing that keeps The Host (2006) from appearing here (though that is an excellent monster movie and the creature there is plenty big for the story being told… just not as comparable “kaiju-sized” as the other monsters featured in the movies below).

5

‘Godzilla vs. Destoroyah’ (1995)

Image via Toho

Yes, Godzilla is going to show up a few times here, and the first movie in that series being mentioned is one of its saddest, and one that might’ve felt, in 1995, like the end of the series as a whole. It’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, which concludes the Heisei era of Godzilla movies, which began in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla. There were five movies between that one and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, and the sense of continuity from film to film is surprisingly strong, and there is a definite arc for Godzilla and the way humanity sees/treats him. He also gets an adoptive son in the final three movies of the Heisei era, Godzilla Junior, and he’s not as irritating/silly as Godzilla’s adopted son from the Showa era, Minilla.

You get attached to both Godzilla Senior and Junior, which makes them going up against Destoroyah all the more traumatic, since he’s one of the most powerful monsters in the history of the Godzilla series. Oh, and in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla (Senior) is also melting down, basically being like a nuclear reactor with legs, so that makes the stakes feel unbearably high, and some of the more intense scenes feel genuinely somber. That might make it sound like a downer, but Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is still pretty thrilling and exciting, and easily one of the best Godzilla films. It’s genuinely great science fiction, and represented new heights, at least on an emotional front, for the franchise (and maybe even kaiju movies more generally).

4

‘Pacific Rim’ (2013)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

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Though it might have been logical to restrict “kaiju movies” to ones made in Japan, Pacific Rim was just too good to leave out. Also, the giant monsters that are a threat in this movie are officially labeled as kaiju, in-universe, so it makes sense for Pacific Rim to be a kaiju movie in more than one way. Further, though it wasn’t a Japanese production, and Guillermo del Toro is not a Japanese filmmaker, Pacific Rim is spiritually in line with a good deal of Japanese entertainment, and not just classic kaiju movies. See, to fight the kaiju, humanity has constructed giant pilotable robots, and they function like mechs, and there are, of course, plenty of shows and movies (particularly of the animated kind) about mechs from Japan, so that checks out further.

Pacific Rim is a good-hearted movie, and it just wants you to have fun. The humans are mostly all good people, and the ones who aren’t so great learn the errors of their ways and stuff, so the movie’s ultimately rather idealistic. Plus, the monsters are unambiguously monstrous and need to be stopped via a punch or two or three-hundred to the face(s) with a big metallic fist. Or an oil tanker. Deploy a sword, why not? Pacific Rim is big, goofy, silly, and quintessentially crowd-pleasing. Well, it should’ve been. It didn’t set the box office ablaze necessarily, but it had enough of a fanbase to get a sequel in 2018, and that sequel was, unfortunately, a waste of time. It seemed to kill momentum for further movies. Oh, well. At least we’ll always have the rather perfect original film.

3

‘Godzilla Minus One’ (2023)

At the time of writing, Godzilla Minus One is the most recent Japanese film in the Godzilla series, and already feels worthy of being considered one of the very best. It had that kind of well-deserved impressive reputation almost straight away, just because it’s very no-nonsense and broadly approachable in a way few kaiju movies have ever been. Well, to be fair, some of the broader kaiju movies have been rather silly and hard to get invested in on any sort of dramatic front, but that’s not an issue with Godzilla Minus One. You understand the stakes here straight away, and feel the desperation of everyone in Japan, while recovering from the end of World War II, having to go right into dealing with the emergence of Godzilla.

The first movie also took place not long after the end of World War II, but not as close as the period Godzilla Minus One ended up being set in. It goes a long way toward making the scenes without anything by way of monsters feel particularly engrossing, as in Godzilla Minus One is a good character-driven drama alongside being an exciting giant monster movie with all the thrills and action that often come with such a genre. It’s the best of both worlds, or if there are multiple worlds/genres here, then it’s the best of all the worlds. If you’re new to Godzilla, or are only familiar with the American movies and want to get a handle on the Japanese side of the series, the best place to start is either at the start, or with Godzilla Minus One. It really is that good and essential.

2

‘Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris’ (1999)

Image via Toho

The 1990s was a wonderful time for Gamera, since that’s the only decade in the monster’s history when he didn’t just stand alongside Godzilla, but might well have even trumped him for a bit, after having existed in Godzilla’s shadow for about three decades prior. The trilogy from 1995 to 1999 was responsible for that, with these movies doing what the Heisei era did for Godzilla, but with more consistency and what felt like purposeful planning from movie to movie. Each one builds on the other immensely, so you can’t really watch and appreciate Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris without first watching Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) and Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996).

So, consider those two movies honorably mentioned. They get the ball rolling with a newer take on Gamera that makes the giant turtle-like kaiju a good deal more interesting, and even one you can take seriously, at least by giant monster movie standards. Gamera feels like a real force of nature in Gamera 3, in particular, and it almost does for Gamera what Godzilla vs. Destoroyah achieved for Godzilla. There is a ton of spectacle and charm in this movie, and with the two Gamera movies that preceded it, making the trilogy a no-brainer of a recommendation for anyone who’s even just a little fond of Godzilla and keen to see some more kaiju movies that don’t involve the King of the Monsters himself.

1

‘Godzilla’ (1954)

Image via Toho

Finishing with the start of things might seem backwards, but Godzilla (1954) deserves to be held in particularly high regard, and thereby saved until the end here, crowned as the best of all the kaiju movies. With the greatest handful of movies in this long-running series, you can, like, pick six, assign them all a number from 1 to 6, then roll a die, and pick whichever one’s the luckiest. There are maybe half-a-dozen Godzilla movies that could’ve gone here. But for now, it’s the original, which was so instrumental in the development of the whole kaiju genre, as it’s now understood. It also came out during an incredible year for Japanese cinema, so it’s honestly important and historically/culturally significant beyond the realm of the giant monster movie.

1954’s Godzilla stands out for how grim and horror-focused it is, with Godzilla being equal parts tragic and terrifying. Later Godzilla movies like Shin Godzilla sometimes had him being more tragic, and then you’ve also got movies like Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, where he’s not really tragic, and is instead more just terrifying. This original film, though, gets the balance right, and while there is some spectacle here, the heaviness is what really sticks with you, and it’s something you can still feel 70+ years later, even with the knowledge that it kick-started a series where, eventually, the titular monster did some absolutely crazy things (flying kick in Godzilla vs. Megalon, anyone?).

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Godzilla

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Release Date

November 3, 1954

Runtime

96 minutes

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Director

Ishirō Honda

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Writers

Ishirō Honda, Shigeru Kayama, Takeo Murata, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Tsuburaya

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  Akira Takarada

  Hideto Ogata

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  Momoko Kôchi

  Emiko Yamane

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