Mayor Ebert and his assistant Gene are a parody of the TV film critic duo Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. This was in response to their negative reviews of Emmerich and Devlin's earlier films Stargate (1994) and Independence Day (1996). The film also co-opted their trademark Thumbs up/Thumbs down method of rating films by depicting Mayor Ebert's campaign as "Thumbs Up for New York!" and Gene giving Ebert a thumbs down at the end of the film when he finally decides he has had enough of his abuse and quits. When the real Siskel and Ebert reviewed the film on their show, they gave it two thumbs down and Siskel said the filmmakers spoofing them was "petty" and said "If you're going to go through the trouble of putting us in a monster movie, why don't you at least take advantage of having the monster either eat or squash us". The duo would later name the film as one of their worst films of 1998. And in Ebert's print review in The Chicago Sun Times, he wrote "They let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla." Although he called Michael Lerner's performance as Mayor Ebert "gamely played".

Film

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