Japan's cheap and cheerful master monster gets a mega-million-dollar Hollywood makeover, in a blast of adventure that's mostly rattling good fun.

Almost inevitably a bit too long, the film sags more in the middle than Godzilla hit by a nuclear missile.

But there's a dash of wit in its screenplay, and Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno are amiably personable, if slightly offbeat, leads, even if Maria Pitillo makes a major bid for the Golden Raspberry as worst leading actress of the year.

There's sideline amusement in the relationship between mayor Michael Lerner and aide Lorry Goldman. 'I don't know what's going on,' complains Goldman. 'You never know what's going on,' snarls Lerner, who's up for re-election as New York City crumbles around him.

The film's full of illogicalities - how could a car drive out of Godzilla's jaws? How could Godzilla get down the subway to lay eggs when it's as big as the Empire State Building, and why doesn't it choose somewhere safer, like the bottom of the ocean?

But it's also packed with excitement and nail-biting chases, plus a traditional climax in which Godzilla - an iguana mutated by nuclear tests - cocks a snook at King Kong by flailing at one of the aircraft attacking it on Brooklyn Bridge.