The Giant Gila Monster
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Movie Reviews of The Giant Gila Monster
Movie Review: The Giant Cheese-Log...
Summary: 3 Stars
Don Sullivan (Teenage Zombies) is a small town mechanic and hotrod enthusiast in this scaly classic. Hoping to become the next Elvis, Sullivan's character begins crooning at any opportunity! His friends only serve as enablers for his heinous catterwalling! He really gets going when he serenades his little sister, while playing the infamous "banjo-lele". Meanwhile, a gargantuan gila monster is on a rampage of destruction. No model car or toy train is safe during the holocaust! Can our wacky teens defeat this tongue-flicking horror? Is their barn-dance doomed to cancelation? Will Don Sullivan ever stop singing? Watch as these and other mysteries are solved. Recommended for immature audiences (to which I happily belong)...Movie Review: The Best Sci-Fi flick or is it?
Summary: 3 Stars
When a giant gila monster gets on the loose in Texas you expect chaos to happen. Instead the monster makes many brief appearences throuout the movie and kills someone in nearly every one, and yet only the sheriff makes a big deal out of it while every one else just listens to annoying rock music that is more frightening then the gila monster even when it destroys a suprising good train miniture. The special effects are actually quite good. But is it the best sci-fi film ever? Or is it just a dud that`s famous as a b-movie? Watch THE GIANT GILA MONSTER and decide for yourself.Movie Review: Only the 50s Could Have Produced This One
Summary: 2 Stars
The term 'campy' was probably intended to describe cheesy monster movies of the 50s like THE GIANT GILA MONSTER. Horror films preceding this decade and following it have tried to scare audiences in a serious way, usually with middling success. In the 50s however, the possibility of a nuclear holocaust convinced more than a few directors that a new and untrod direction in cinematic fear was needed. This direction was to dump some truly ridiculous monsters on the screen, usually with dancing rock and rollers, and go for the cheap laughs. Such a direction was undoubtedly facilitated by an equally cheap budget that did not allow for convincing special effects or a talented cast or gifted script writers. Director Ray Kellog is typical of his contemporaries in that he presents a menace to mankind in which the monster's lethality is confined to a limited target population, either country bumpkin types or jitterbugging teens. The 'monster' was either a giant reptile, as the Gila monster in this movie, or smaller and recognizable variants of known animals like the predatory shrews of THE KILLER SHREWS (also directed by Kellogg). It is difficult to assume that Kellogg really believed that a sequence of shots with a lizard slithering around and through some toy mockups would scare anyone over the age of ten. Far more likely is the belief that he wanted to use the non-existent fear factor as a blanket by which he could raise some threads and peek at an assortment of 50s style themes and fads. It cannot be a coincidence that the scourge of rock and roll, which was thought by the stiff collar crowd to be the undermining of our youth, was loudly trumpted in nearly every third scene. Don Sullivan, who plays the ukelele plunking hero, sings some truly awful songs that are meant to be a jibe at rock and roll but emerge more as an abortive aspirant to star in Hee Haw. TGGM contains the usual range of cinematic cliches from the hayseed but earnest sheriff to the goofy teens (played by actors at least ten years olders than their parts) to a monster that leaves the audience truly gasping at its inept level of non-lethality. As often was the case in this genre only the youthful protagonist could figure how to to slay the dragon. The ending reminded me of that which often closed television juvenile shows of the era--the remaining cast gathered in a circle to hold hands and laugh, possibly to reassure us that the dragon has been banished, but more likely to indicate that they could hardly believe that anyone would pay the price of a ticket to see this one.Movie Review: So BAD it's...just bad!!!
Summary: 2 Stars
As we all know, some bad movies (PLAN NINE being the example always trotted out) are so bad that they are actually fun. Their crudity, or cluelessness or sheer incompetence make them worthwhile. THE GIANT GILA MONSTER almost makes it to this status, but alas, falls short due to some indefinable quality that takes it from camp to just plain boring.Perhaps the main problem is that we just don't see enough of the monster. In this small Texas town, the kids seem to have more interest in listenin' to that good ole rock 'n' roll! And the rock songs are simply wretched...and too many. More monster...less music!! That's what this movie needs.
The special effects, such as they are, are below average for this time period, but not far enough below (a la ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN) to make them a laugh riot. They're just obvious. And I'm sorry, but a Gila Monster isn't a terribly threatening beast. It's not quite as silly as a KILLER SHREW, though, so again, the movie fails to reach true camp status.
Students of what bad early rock 'n' roll could be, as conceived by Hollywood B-listers might get some amusement from this film...but if you like the old '50s monster movies, this ain't the one to hunt down.
Movie Review: Bad movie, but a lot of fun to watch
Summary: 2 Stars
This is one of those movies that is bad but fun to watch anyway. A couple of teenagers and then the local garage owner disappear and it turns out the culprit is a giant lizard that somehow exists for weeks with no one noticing. No explanation is ever given as to where the lizard came from or why or how no one saw something that was big enough to derail a train with its head.
There is too much time spent on the main character and his problems and little spent on creating any actual tension with the lizard. The effects are what you would expect, a regular sized lizard walking aimlessly around a miniature set with weird music playing to let you know to be terrified. There are also two interludes where our hero sings. He isn't talented, even though the movie tries to tell you he is. The songs are terrible, have nothing to do with the movie and you will be praying for them to end.
The way the lizard is killed in the end is ludicrous, our hero is vindicated and everyone lives happily ever after blissfully ignorant of why their lives were interrupted for a few days by a mutated gila monster.