Gamera is kind of like the Bucks Fizz to Godzilla's kaiju Abba: clearly modelled on the bigger franchise, and reasonably successful for a while, but fundamentally a bit naff. That's Gamera on the cover of the Sci Fi Classics box set: he's a giant fire-breathing turtle thing with tusks and rocket propulsion (he retracts all limbs and flame jets out of them, allowing him to fly like a spinning disc. It looks as ridiculous as it sounds)
Attack of the Monsters (aka "Gamera vs Guiron") is the fifth of Gamera's twelve (to date) celluloid adventures. It's also the first of two Gamera films in the set. The other is the very first film, so of course the set has this film first and that film second. It's almost like the people who compile these ultra-cheap box sets don't take much pride in their work.
As usual for the series, Attack of the Monsters revolves around Gamera's efforts to protect a couple of "cute" (read: very irritating) children from danger. In this case, the danger is brain eating aliens and a sword-headed monster named Guiron. The joke's on the aliens though, because the brats in this film surely don't have a brain cell between them, which will make them mighty poor eating.
During the course of the film, Gamera fights Guiron a couple of times, repairs a spaceship with his superheated breath, and indulges in a little gymnastics ... in other words, the usual utterly insane stuff.
Worth a look if the idea of a giant turtle doing calisthenics amuses you as much as it does me, or if you're a kaiju fan in general. Otherwise, skip it.
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