Village of the Giants
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Movie Reviews of Village of the Giants
Movie Review: Hokey,silly film,but still fun to watch!
Summary: 3 Stars
If you like bad movies with cheap effects and a poorly written script and plus,like to see what Ron Howard did after The Andy Griffith Show(as well as Beau Bridges;among others),then by all means check this out!! If you'd like to see what MST3K did to this,then find someone that may have a copy..Either way,you'll laugh!! Recommended....Movie Review: Very amusing and fun movie , even if corny at times ;)
Summary: 4 Stars
Most people would think that anything with a title like this, made in the 1960's and with the storyline that the movie follows, this would have to be a real horrible movie. Well it isn't something I would say should win an award but I would say for the price and type of movie this is, its really not so bad at all. In fact I actualy enjoy it every time. The premise is simple enough. A young boy played by Ron Howard named Genius invents some substance that he names "Goo" . They don't realize it yet but soon enough after a cat accidently eats the stuff and then grows to the size of an elephant, they realize that this stuff makes anything that ingests it grow to huge proportions. They instantly see dollar signs before their eyes hoping to better man kind with such an invention. A few bullies though have some other ideas and steal the substance and all grow into huge 50 foot giants/giantesses and start to take over the town. Its up to Genius and Tommy Kirk to bring these titans back down to size.
Its full of many jokes that just aren't meant to be funny but come off as hysterical. It has a lot of bad effects. (Like two wooden legs in the middle of the street that are supposed to be one of the giants own legs. Cheap motorcycles that fall apart after they try to tie up one of the legs of the giant, giant animals that can't seem to move from the spot they are in due to the way they did the effect. Also the fact that they seem to be trapped inside a huge stage for most of the movie . How they ever got in though without breaking anything is beyond me. ) and not to mention the really bad acting (Talking really slow to make it seem like they are giants and the corny diologue througout). Then the best is the music. Its just so out there it really makes this movie perfect.
This was supposed to be one of those Teen explotation movies of the 60s and it pulls it off well. We have the teens not wanting to listen to the adults anymore because of their size and such things as playing with sex (one fo the giantesses gives a small boy a dance hugging him to her breasts) and ordering the cops around. It really is an interseting movie for what it is and the hidden messages in it. Really a fun movie though overall. You will laugh at the diolage and special effects but I think thats part of the charm of this movie. Not every movie has to be serious and ILM effects. This was just a fun , carefree, fantasy type of situation movie. It holds no punches and doesn't even take itself seriously so we the viewer of it shoudln't either. Defintely fun and a good movie to watch with friends just for the laughs .
Movie Review: Excellent Camp/Features Vintage Beau Brummels
Summary: 4 Stars
I first saw this great campy film 20 years ago on TV and its got a great mixture of INTENTIONAL camp, the beginnings of a pre-hippy teen rebelliousness (1965), and some great music from Beau Brummels. The key to this film is not to take it seriously...the cast and crew didn't. "Genius" (Ron Howard) invents "GOO", a substance that turns rebel teens into giants who take over a village and the only hope is for Genius to find an antedote. He does just in time and it all works out in the end. But not before we get some giant ducks dancing to BBs live perfomance of "Woman" and other great pre-psychedelic background music. It's a trippy comedy of it's era. You can trash it, but then you miss the point.Also don't miss those ...giant teen girls; when they grow their bikinis pop off. And when they shrink their clothes are not quite as big as you'd think.
Movie Review: To say it is Bert I.'s finest film would be faint praise.
Summary: 5 Stars
This was, at the time of its release, no less than the crowning achievement of man. So it should not dim the glory of Village of the Giants one bit that a mere 4 years later, Armstrong's moonwalk eclipsed this film's importance to humanity. The fact remains that Village of the Giants represents a watershed moment in our history.It is, and you can believe me, because I am a believable guy, the BEST BAD MOVIE OF ALL TIME!
All the things that make Bert I. Gordon movies what they are are present here, in full- and silly- force. In fact, it is as if all Bert's planets aligned at once, and he found his true calling, moving beyond mere Colossal Beasts and Cyclopean things and giant Spiders, to those most photogenic of glandular mishaps: Giant women! Not to say that there isn't a giant tarantula in this film, or a colossal beast in the whiny form of a young Beau Bridges, but Bert's camera clearly favors the elephantine charms of Joy and Tish (as well as the average-sized pulchritude of Toni) over the evermore passe thrills of mere oversized creatures. Like, giant grasshoppers are SO 1957!
Other things contribute to the overall pleasing quality of this film's ineptitude, not the least of which is, despite Bert's recurrent leering, a basically na?ve sensibility: movies had not become too dirty or trashy yet. The bad teens are about as menacing as wheelchair-bound octogenarians- they wear cardigans, for goshsakes. And while there is a definite cheesecake factor at play here, it is in the G-rated manner of the Frankie-and-Annie Beach Party films, not the slimy type in evidence in later Hammer horrors.
Other bad movies are equally as "bad." Al Adamson, Jerry Warren, Colman Francis, Ed Wood's later stuff, even Bert himself a few years later... all of these guys make lousy films. But they're sleazier somehow- not as *fun.*
Fans of the Hideous Sun Demon know well how star Robert Clarke's trousers became soaked with sweat during filming in the hot sun, to the point where it looked as though the Sun Demon couldn't control his bladder. That led to unintentional hilarity for B-lovers.
Now imagine several howlingly funny instances like that for every minute of this film's 80-minute run time. Dialogue, plot, effects, music, direction- everything is side-splittingly ...here. There are more laughs in this movie than in Jim Carrey's entire filmography.
And far from being the bewildering, incoherently awful mess that Plan 9 is, this movie is very straightforward; it just does everything in such an over-the-top and utterly wrong fashion.
Now, in the manner of the copy on those lovably hyperbolic posters from days gone by, I will outline only a fraction of this movie's treasured moments:
See! Beau Bridges try to pick up a chick by telling her his dad is the biggest man in the meat business!
See! Where John Ratzenberger got his inspiration for Cliff Clavan the mother-dominated postman in Beau's wink-wink nudge-nudge performance!
See! Ronnie Howard create a substance which turns normal things into giants, and act surprised when they leave!
See! Tommy Kirk claim the giant ducks for his own, raising his arms as though he just scored the winning touchdown!
See! The infamous ride of a young cowboy on Joy Harmon's bust!
See! Bert I. Gordon's directorial genius, as shots of the tail feathers of ducks being tortured by gaffers are intercut with shots of boogieing girls' rear ends!
See! Song after song after song after song, each one more hypnotically campy and dated than the last!
See! "Giants" moving very s l o w ly, to signify how totally, you know, HUGE they are!
See! Cops not notice the 30-foot tall teens in technicolor clothing standing ten feet away!
See! Tommy break a fake chair over Beau's skinny, knobby, hairy plaster leg, then listen in incredulity as Beau shouts, "O o o o o o oww!" and pouts!
See! Several scenes of interminable length while the bad "teens" shake it before the camera! See Beau make fine use of the ever-popular dance technique known as 'The White Man's Overbite!'
See! Midgets longing to be giants!
See! Much more wonderful, terrible stuff than I could tell you about if this review were five times this long! This really doesn't even begin to touch how comic the dialogue, or performances, or the direction are!
See! Yourself buying this dvd posthaste! Then, buy one for a friend!
See! also: Hideous Sun Demon; Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine; Astounding She-Monster; Jail Bait; Brain From Planet Arous; Phantom Planet; Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman (1958); Magic Sword!
Movie Review: There's just something about this godawful flick!
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, okay, I know some people might be in disbelief that I actually gave this flick 5 stars, but -- despite its godawfulness -- there's just something mesmerizing about it! The story involves a group of teens (yeah right, more like mid-twenties)who find a potion that turns them into giants. It's campy and the "special effects" are laughingly awful, yet the flick is highly entertaining for a number of reasons: First of all, the bass-driven wierd 60's musical score is great; as is the accompanying sensual dancing of the giants (they really don't know what else to do after becoming giants, so they just dance); the cast -- which includes a young Ron Howard -- is great; and last but certainly not least, the cast includes a young redheaded Toni Basil (who went on to become a one-hit wonder with "Hey Mickey"); Basil is so incredibly sexy and gorgeous, it's worth seeing the movie just for her! Watch out for Basil in a bikini in the pool party scene! So, yeah, overall it's a real turkey, but a golden turkey!