Guess the kaiju! Wrong! Sorry, I'm assuming that you didn't guess Agon of Agon: Atomic Dragon fame. I just discovered the squamate schoolboy myself among the mysterious tides of YouTube. What a strange, fantastic place. Anyway, Agon is the most blatant Godzilla ripoff that I've ever encountered. Begat by nuclear testing? Check. Given to fire-breathing? Check. Demolishes Japanese cities and walks them dry? Check. Incapacitated by cocaine? Che--hold up, son. The lead character in Agon, a professional goofball, suggests a plan to feed a suitcase full of illicit drugs to the monster. I'll be a monkey's cum slave, it works! Mostly. Not really.
If Agon feels like a serial at times, that's because it was shot as a four-part television miniseries scheduled to air in 1964. Toho blocked it from being released until 1968 for...well, obvious reasons. It's not bad. I've certainly imbibed worse "giant monster" movies. This is going to be inappropriately abrupt, but I have to say something about Tobe Hooper. The idea was to discuss Agon: Atomic Dragon and the sudden loss of an accomplished filmmaker, but I have no clue how to do both.
I've mentioned before that the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is my favorite flick-a-dee of all time. I don't care what kind of missteps you take as an auteur (ahem, I'm Dangerous Tonight); if you direct a film as impactful as Chainsaw, I have no beef with you. You afforded yourself the right to do whatever you want. We've lost Marilyn Burns and Gunnar Hansen in recent years. I can only hope that they have already reconvened with Tobe and are shooting an exploitation classic for afterlife audiences.
Please rest in peace, Mr. Hooper. Here is an inappropriate picture.
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