Terremoto 81

Earthquake 7.9 (1980)

** (out of 4)

Japanese disaster film that not only rips off Earthquake but also mixes in some The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. The film tells the story of a young scientist who believes an earthquake will hit Tokyo by the end of the month yet no one believes him. Sure enough a massive earthquake hits and levels the city to pure rubble that the city hasn't seen since it was last attacked by Godzilla. I watched the American version of this film, which is cut by nearly thirty-minutes but from what I've read the only thing edited out are dialogue scenes at the start of the film. I must admit that I'm thankful I watched this cut version as the dialogue scenes at the start of the film are just downright dreadful and I can only imagine how much worse they would have been with a half hour more. These early build up scenes are horrid in just about any disaster movie no matter if they're from America, Italy or Japan but the ones here are just downright incredible in their badness. The worst thing is the music score, which starts to thunder and pound whenever something "dramatic" happens. This is so annoying that at times I was hoping a real earthquake would hit my town so that I could stop the movie. The second half of the film is actually a lot better but in a campy fashion. The earthquake sequences are poorly done and features some bad special effects but if you've seen any of the Toho Godzilla films with their cardboard cities being destroyed then you should know what to expect. The effects are just as bad here with the worst (or most laughable) scene coming when an airplane is trying to land but ends up breaking apart. The story of our hero having to take charge of a group of people is just as silly but it makes for a few good laughs including a sequence ripped off from The Poseidon Adventure where we get an underwater swim. Fans of disaster movies might want to check this out just to see what other countries were doing but I seriously doubt too many are going to get any entertainment out of this unless they're fans of camp.