Giant Robots

(wallpaperaccess.com)

PACIFIC RIM-2013-Earth is invaded by giant prehistoric like monsters from another dimension. Dubbed "Kaiju", mankind counters by building "Jaegers", Transformer like giant robots controlled by two pilots whose minds link when they operate it. Charlie Hunnam (SONS OF ANARCHY) plays Raleigh Becket whose brother dies in battle with a monster. He winds up working in Alaska but is called back 5 years later when the government shuts down the program. The remaining Jaegers are deployed to Hong Kong where the project former leader Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba; THOR's Heimdall) has a plan to destroy the invaders. Along the way Becket meets Mako (Rinko Kikuchi; BABEL) another pilot tortured by child-hood memories of a Kaiju attack.

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Despite a couple of long stretches of character development and some comic humor that doesn't really work, PACIFIC RIM has some of the best SFX I've ever seen and the battle scenes take it to another level.  Director/co-writer Guillermo del Toro went on to make THE SHAPE OF WATER. Ron Perelman (who starred in the two HELLBOY by del Toro) is in it too. 

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Monstrous Rip-Off

 

 (foundfootagecritic.com)

MONSTER-2008-Two sisters decided to do a documentary on global warming and go to Japan to film it. They don't know Japanese and they certainly don't know anything about filmmaking. Disaster strikes in the form of an underground monster barely seen. It's mostly characters running and yelling. Occasionally, they meet someone who speaks English. 

This is a found footage rip-off of CLOVERFIELD with a little BLAIR WITCH thrown in which figures because it was made by The Asylum. Director Eric Forsberg may have made a sequel.

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Glen Was 60 Feet Tall...

 

 (moriareviews.com)

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST-1958-In this sequel Glen Manning, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, didn't die in the original. Instead, he survived and wound up in Mexico, a deformed, one eyed, deranged monster (now played by Dean Parkin) stealing food trucks and scaring locals. His sister Joyce (Sally Fraser) hears reports and contacts Mr. Swanson (George Becwar), whose truck disappeared and Major Baird (Roger Pace), useless army brass who advises sis to give up her quest. She visits Mexico to see a young boy Miguel who's in shock from an encounter with a monster and meets helpful Sgt. Murillo (Rico Alaniz). Later Baird and Dr. Carmichael (Russ Bender) come to investigate. They find a colossal footprint. ("That is a very big footprint") Baird wants to call in the military but Joyce says they should reason with Glen. After seeing the scarred giant, they decide to capture him. They drug him with some bread but have trouble finding a place to put him in the US. Finally, they tie him up in an airport hangar and we get a flashback to the original. Then he escapes but is recaptured. It's determined that Glen has irreversible brain damage and the army decides to send him to an isolated island but he escapes before they can move him. They trap him in Griffith Park but he terrorizes a bus load of school kids. Joyce's plea makes him put the bus down and commit suicide in the color finale. 

Who else but Bert I. Gordon (who passed away at age 100 in March) would be behind such giant shenanigans? It's low budget for sure with some sub-par sfx but the giant's “new look” is pretty cool.

Sally Fraser was in Mr. BIG's other “giant” movie in 1958, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER. Dean Parkin cut his teeth for this role by playing the “huge” title creature on Gordon's THE CYCLOPS the year before. Russ Bender has the distinction of playing two different characters in each film and getting killed in both!

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Paste Up Ultraman

 

SPACE WARRIORS 2000-1985-A father returns from a trip and gives his son an Ultraman toy. Then an old toy maker and his wife argue over her having sold the Ultraman toy. It turns out "the toy" is actually the real Ultraman and the boy is recruited to help fight evil. Many Ultramen appear in this movie mess basically because all the scenes of U fighting monsters are taken from three previously made movies: "Ultraman Story", "Hanuman vs. 7 Ultramen" (which was a co-production between Japan & Thailand) and "Ultraman Zoffy" which was made in Thailand without approval. When Japan found out, they sued to stop it's release. 

This was put together by Thai honcho Stephen Minasia and American Dick Randall for US TV where it played a few times then disappeared. The inane stock music, silly dubbed voices (the monsters even talk) and stupid jokes are flatter than piss on a plate. Your best bet is to turn off the sound and add your own soundtrack.

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Yet Another Yeti

 (wikipedia)

YETI: GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY-1977-Prof. Wasserman (John Stacy) discovers a giant Yeti in Canada on an expedition funded by big mouth Morgan Hunnicutt (Eddy Faye). Along with his assistant Cliff (Tony Kendall, nee Luciano Stella) and Hunicutt's grand-kids Jane and Herbie, he brings the monster back and revives it. The creature immediately escapes and causes havoc, capturing the kids. They eventually bond with the big hairy dude (Mimmo Crao) over some fish. Canada goes media crazy for The Yeti but when the big galoot is brought before its adoring fans, flash bulbs upset it. It wrecks an elevator Jane is on but saves her and the two hide out in upstate NY. Crowd reaction panic looks are funny. The Yeti seems to be dying but Wasserman saves it. Unfortunately when two of Morgan's thugs kill Wasserman and make it look like Yeti did it the big guy escapes with revenge on its mind. In the end Jane pleas for the poor creature to go away work (hey, the Yeti didn't ask to come to the modern world) and it returns to the frozen north.... presumably to get refrozen? Herbie's dog turns up alive. 

Donald O'Brien (DR. BUTCHER MD) is head of the police in the climax. This Italian production, filmed in Canada was directed by Gianfranco Parolini who also directed the “Kommissar X” series starring Kendall.

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Ultra Men!

 

 (aminoapps.com)

THE 6 ULTRA BROTHERS VS. THE MONSTER ARMY-1974-For some reason the sun has come dangerously close to the Earth causing droughts. Some kids dance around a temple praying for water. When robbers come to steal, one boy Koh tries to stop them and he's shot in the face and killed. While his friends mourn his death the 6 Ultramen and the mother of Ultra try to rectify his death by fusing Koh with the Hindu god Haruman. He's sent back to Earth to get the robbers and to fix the sun's rotation problem. He finds the robbers and crushes the trio then helps save Koh's friend's life. He also visits the god of the sun (?) and the sun moves away from the Earth. 

Unfortunately some scientists at a missile launching base screw up and destroy the whole facility and in the process release some gigantic monsters living under the Earth! Haruman takes them on and does pretty good until the four on one situation (a fifth monster terrorizes a woman and her kid) proves too much and Haruman is imprisoned in an energy sphere. But it's the 6 Ultra Brothers to the rescue. They free Haruman and beat down the bad boys. After 4 of the monsters are vanquished poor Gomora is left and used as a punching bag by the good guys until Haruman slices him in half! 

Wonderful cheesy effects in this epic that was co-produced and filmed in Thailand. It was the subject of much controversy for years. I apologize if I didn't  get  the whole plot correct (the copy I viewed had no subtitles).

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Clone-Zilla

 

AGON THE ATOMIC DRAGON-A giant dyno-lizard terrorizes the coast of Japan, stomping trees, buildings, an atomic reactor and a lighthouse. It's attracted to uranium. A reporter (Shinji Hirota), a government agent (Asao Matsumoto), a scientist (Nobuhiko Shima) and his female assistant (Akemi Sawa) try to stop it. This four part Japanese TV series was shot in black and white but tinted in sepia given it a very odd quality. It's a pretty cheap production but with much more than a passing resemblance to Godzilla. At one point Toho prevented it from being shown but later relented.

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The Claw

 

THE GIANT CLAW-1957-Test pilot Mitch Macafee (Jeff Morrow; THE ISLAND EARTH) sees a UFO but no radar picks it up. Major Bergen(Clark Howatt) accuses him of a practical joke but when a commercial airliner goes missing the major has to eat his words. When Mitch and mathematician Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday; TARANTULA) are on their way back to NY when the sighting of another UFO causes Pete the pilot (Frank Griffin) to crash his plane. Mitch and Sally are ok and are rescued by Pierre (Louis Merrill), a woodsman who later says the “UFO” is Carcagne, a mythological Canadian monster. They all manage not to see a giant claw print. 

It's later revealed the “UFO” is a giant prehistoric bird (a bad marionette) which shows up on some weather balloon film. General Buskirk (Robert Shayne) takes Mitch and Sally to Washington DC to meet General Considine (Morris Ankrum). After a missile attack fails, a Dr. Noymann (Edgar Barrier) figures out that the bird is made up of anti-matter from outer space. Sally proposes that the bird is here to nest and lay eggs. And she's right! 

This Sam Katzman production features one of the most comical giant monsters of all time and it was one of the last movies directed by the indefatigable Fred Sears who unfortunately died in 1957 of a heart attack at age 45.

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They Don't Call Him Mr. Big For Nothing!

 THE CYCLOPS-1957-Susan Winter (Gloria Talbott) is looking for her husband who disappeared in a mysterious valley in Mexico. Along for the ride are the pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake), bacteriologist Ross Bradford (James Craig) and Marty (Lon Chaney), a grumpy guy looking for uranium. They encounter some giant animals (lizard, hawk, rodent) and the husband now a 25 foot giant (Duncan “Dean” Parkin) with a radiation scarred face and one eye. He traps them in a cave and kills Marty. They make for their airplane while the cyclops is fighting a snake. Bradford throws a flaming spear into its eye and they escape. 

Once again writer-director Bert I. Gordon makes a low budget movie about a gigantic man. Supposedly shot in 5 or 6 days Gordon did his best with what he had. Monster Dean Parkin played the scarred Glen Manning in THE WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST the next year, a sequel to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (which Mr. B.I.G.made the same year as this; he also made the giant bug movie THE BEGINNING OF THE END in '57). 

Star Gloria Talbot was the lead in DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL the same year as this. Male lead James Craig was once groomed to be Clark Gable's replacement while the star was in the army. 

Despite having co-starred with Judy Garland in 1944's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, Tom Drake's film career never took off and he wound up mostly doing TV. 

Lon Chaney co-starred in the TV series "The Last of The Mohicans" around this time. He had a standout role in THE DEFIANT ONES the next year. 

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Derek-The Kid From Outer Space

TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE-1959-After two weird astronomers discuss an object in space one of them saw, a dog howls and a flying saucer lands on Earth. After the credits aliens in pajamas like jumpsuits emerge. Their first order of business is to use a ray gun to reduce the dog to a skeleton. The group of young humanoid space beings is led by an arrogant authoritative captain (King Moody). His two standout crew members are the ruthless and pompous Thor (Bryan Grant) and the sensitive caring Derek (David Love). This group has come from their home planet to use Earth as a breeding ground for some monsters called "gargons", a source of food for their race. Derek protests when he reads the dead dog's id tag, deducing that the intelligent inhabitants of Earth don't deserve the fate his unnamed race has in store. He also gets on his soap box saying that their race wasn't always "mechanized slaves". Once there was families and love until "the annihilators" burned everything. The captain overpowers Derek and says he could be tortured and killed when they get home. Just when it looks like they've found grazing land for their gargons it's de-termined Earth's atmosphere is no good. They'll need a new planet. This makes Derek quite happy and he escapes. Thor could have shot him but the captain stops him because Derek is the son of their leader! It also turns out the atmosphere is ok for gargon raising. It was just an initial shock that hit the monster. Though tiny it will grow to gigantic size in time. 

Meanwhile, Derek wanders into town and winds up at the home of Betty Morgan (Dawn Bender) and her Grandpa (Harvey B. Dunn from Ed Wood movies), the owners of the dead dog. They assume he's come to rent the extra room they have and that his spacesuit apparel is some kind of private school uniform! The scowling asshole Thor is dispatched to find Derek. Thus begins the exciting story of an alien invasion! Jolly old Gramps and naive but infatuated Betty practically adopt Derek who says just enough not to let them know he's from out of this world, giving him clothes left behind by brother Bud (who got married and moved away) and letting him stay in their extra room for free until he finds a job! We are also introduced to Betty's boyfriend Joe Rogers (Tom Lock-⁹year aka do it all director Tom Graeff), a newspaper reporter who has to cancel his pool party date with Bets because he has to interview some locals who saw UFOs! Meantime the asshole Thor leaves some skeleton victims around town while looking for Derek. Betty invites him to her friend Alice's pool party but when they get there he tells Betty about her doggie's demise. She insists on seeing where it happened so she and Derek bid Alice adieu. Then Gramps meets Thor and gives away just about everything that's going on. 

Back at the death site Derek explains to Betty what a focusing disintegrator ray does. They decide to visit Prof. Sim-pson so Derek can explain his predicament. After Thor vaporizes Alice he again visits Gramps  who spills the beans a second time. Thor kills the Professor. Betty and Derek go to City Hall where agents with guns are waiting. Derek gets a hold of Gramps again and forces him to drive to the hall. A furious shootout ensues and Gramps has trouble crossing the street. Thor kills two of the agents but is wounded. While Gramps gives Joe (who dis-covered Alice's skeleton in her pool) the lowdown, Thor forces Derek and Betty to drive him to a doctor (Frederic Welsh). Then he forces the doctor to operate on him without anesthesia. Be-fore he passes out Thor tells Derek about the gargons and him being the leader's dad. Derek, Betty and the doc escape but unfortunately the doc's nurse arrives and patches Thor up just before the doc calls to warn her. Thor forces the nurse to drive him to the desert lan-ding area right about the same time Joe and his friend Mac go for a look. Mac goes into the cave where the gorgan is chillin' and becomes dinner. After Thor cracks up the car and is arrested Derek and Betty go looking for Thor's lost ray gun. The two share a kiss then find the ray gun just as a ginormous gargon appears. With the power of the electric company Derek kills the gargon.

Later after a lot of convoluted talk Derek tricks his dad, Thor and Mr. Torture and makes all the invading spaceships crash. 

This is one nutty movie the brainchild of writer/director/co-star Tom Graeff ( he also shot and edited it).

The plot and dialogue are ridiculous but it does hold a certain sense of charm. The giant gargon effect though is one of the worst ever. A lobster superimposed onto the film. For years it was mis-reported that star David Love and director Tom Graeff were the same person but this was an error.To read more about Mr. Graeff check out these sites:

http://gf-productions.com/tomgraeff/

https://www.tomgraeff.org/

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Pulgasari

PULGASARI-1985-In feudal Korea, a cruel governor makes all his subjects give up their iron so he can make weapons. An old metal worker is imprisoned and beaten for not cooperating. His future son in law Inde and his group of bandits fight back but are also imprisoned. Before he dies the old man creates a small statue of a creature and prays to the gods. After his death, his daughter Ami takes the figure home. While sewing she pricks her finger and some blood drops on the creature which immediately comes to life! It likes to eat metal and grows bigger as it does. It saves Inde from getting his head chopped off. Later after Inde’s mom and little bro are killed, he and bandits attack the governor's fortress. They win so the king orders General Fuan to crush them. 

The farmers flee to the hills for their last big encounter but Ami brings Pulgasari to help. The farmers give all their iron to it and it starts growing to Godzilla size. But Fuah has Ami captured and forces Pulgasari into a cage that's set a fire (it seems like an elaborate set up that they put together in no time). Pulgasari seems to die but reappears as a red hot monster that sends the army fleeing in terror. Later the farmers decide to attack first. The general comes up with another plan. Lure the monster into a giant hole (which the army dug again in no time!) and have an old priestess exorcise the monster (because the blacksmith’s spirit is in it). The exorcism features some colorfully dressed women dancers. Pulgasari falls into the hole and is buried under a hail of rocks. Inde is captured and hanged. However you can't keep a good monster down and Pulgasari escapes its rock prison to lead the farmers in an attack on the capital city. Despite making new weapons, Pulgasari destroys the enemy stronghold and crushes the king. Literally! 

With that out of the way, it turns its hunger for iron toward the farmers. “Our savior has become our enemy”. Ami seems to sacrifice her life to destroy the giant but in the end the spirit of the mini Pulgasari enters her body, though she doesn't appear to be alive. Fun giant monster film from Korea.

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Magic From Japan

MAGIC SERPENT-1966-This one starts off with a bang! Ninjas attack a castle and kill the master and everyone else except a small group that rescues the Master’s son. Unfortunately they are attacked by a dragon. Everyone is killed except for the son who is whisked away by a giant serpent. 10 years later, the young son Ichizuchi-Maru (HirokiMatsukata), is under the tutelage of an old man. While out in the forest, ninjas attack and one cuts off his head but he lives on and after interrogating one ninja his head rejoins his body. Then he meets Sunate (Tomoko Ogawa), a woman looking for her father.

 While this is happening the old man is visited by his former pupil, Orochi-Maru (Ryutaru Otomo) who killed Maru’s father. Although the old man is much more powerful than his pupil the pupil tricks his former teacher with a scroll that turns into a snake and kills him. We also learn during their conversation that the pupil can turn into a dragon. Maru and Sunate find the master dying. He gives Maru a scroll for “ninja invisibility” and clues him in on who killed his dad. Maru vows revenge! He and Sunate part ways. She continues the search for her father after her grandma gives her a pin with a spider on it. This fun fantasy from Japan has a little of everything. Underwater ninjas, a giant lizard, magic, sword fighting, a Kanju battle and a giant spider! And the monsters use Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan roars! It was directed by Tetsuya Yamaouchi.

Monster Muck Up

MONSTROID-1980-An American industrialist (Philip Carey) worries that his cement producing water polluting plant in Columbia SA is losing money because the locals say a giant creature is on a killing spree. A local named Vic is stirring up trouble with his anti-American, anti-big business protests which besides including the monster also concern a witch. An American lady reporter (Andrea Hartford) investigates and interviews people while villagers torment a bull during some kind of festival and a young girl gleefully takes pictures. Meanwhile Pete (Anthony Eisley), the plant manager has a bad break up with his white girlfriend Laura (Coral Kassel) who he throws off for local boo Juanita who has been branded as “la bruja”, a witch. A priest (John Carradine), sermonizes and leads a festival procession and troubleshooter Bill Travis (James Mitchum) arrives to sought things out. After Laura has one last bang with Pete, she becomes monster bait. Later they have sonar equipment set up. Horny Pete is suppose to be monitoring it but he’s too busy bedding Juanita and misses the monster attacking a fishing boat. Meanwhile Travis drills the reporter. Pete’s kids get a blurry photo of the creature’s eye and this convinces everyone the monster is real. At night while the priest leads some loco locals to burn the witch, crazy Vic causes an explosion that cripples the plant and kills him. Pete, Travis and Juanita set a trap for the monster and Travis gets waterlogged saving the day but blows up the monster. However the kids’ dog makes a startling surprise in the end.  

The monster makes Reptilicus look good. Credits say based on a true story but there’s no such village in Colombia and most of the story was shot in Mexico.

This low budget production (begun in 1971!) went through many script, cast and title changes (Carradine doesn't interact with any of the other “stars” and scenes with Philip Carey are just him talking on a phone) before being released in it's present form. Director Ken Hartford also made the past up job THE LUCIFIER COMPLEX. It's also been said (by Anthony Eisley in an interview with Tom Weaver) film “doctor” Herbert Strock directed most of the movie with credited director Hartford having very little to do with it.

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Crawling

THE CRAWLING EYE-1958-In Trollenberg, American Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) meets The Pilgrim sisters Ann (Janet Munro) and Sara (Jennifer Jayne) when Ann seems to have some psychic connection with the nearby mountains where several villagers have disappeared (one was found decapitated). Alan visits Dr. Crevet (Warren Mitchell) experimenting with cosmic rays who tells him about a mysterious radioactive cloud. After Ann predicts the death of a climber, Alan leads a small group (including a reporter played by Lawrence Payne, later in VAMPIRE CIRCUS) up the mountains to investigate. Another climber who kills two other climbers seems to be possessed. Eventually the small village is terrorized by monsters that resemble giant brains with one eye and tentacles. An air force bomber arrives just in time to destroy the invaders.

An English production, THE CRAWLING EYE has a great script by Jimmy Sangster (who wrote HORROR OF DRACULA and THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year) and good acting but director Quentin Lawrence has too much talk and not enough crawl for me. It's based on a BBC TV production and was known as THE TROLLENBERG TERROR in the UK.

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X From Japan (not porno)

THE X FROM OUTER SPACE-In Japan, a four person crew: Capt. Sano (Shinya Wazaki), Dr. Shioda (Kensuki Sonoi), Signal officier Miyamoto (Shinichi Yanagawa) and biologist Lisa (Peggy Neal), takeoff for Mars after several other expeditions have disappeared. The ground crew led by Dr. Kato (Eiji Okada) blame UFOs. After the group does encounter a alien craft, the doc falls ill and they have to stop at a moon base where they meet Michiko (Itoko Harada) and Shioda's replacement Dr. Stein (Mike Daneen). They almost crash but return to Earth safely with some spoors that turn into a giant monster (Guilala).The rubbery creature is one of the worst “Kaiju” ever! Sano, Miyamoto, Lisa and Michiko go to the moon in an effort to create a substance that will destroy the out of control, outer space being. This dumb sci-fi space opera , directed and written by Kazui Hihonmatsu, is full of talk, running around and has sugary happy ending.

In his only giant monster movie star Eiji Okada was better known for as the star of Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR and Hiroshi Teshigahara's WOMAN IN THE DUNES. He's also in THE UGLY AMERICAN (with Marlon Brando) and the excellent but often overlooked THE FACE OF ANOTHER.

In 2008 a comedy “sequel” THE MONSTER X STRIKES BACK was produced.

Thanks for reading and Happy 4th of July!

'50's Corman

IT CONQUERED THE WORLD-1956-AIP low budget S.F. classic from Roger Corman! When a government satellite disappears and then crash lands in the town of Beachwood California, a disgraced scientist Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) claims that a visitor from Venus has landed and is preparing to take over the world. He tries to convince his friend Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) that this is a good thing ("That superior intelligence happens to be a personal friend of mine"). One way it hopes to accomplish a takeover is by sending out weird pulsating flying creatures that turn humans into emotionless zombies who herd the local populace into the desert for "protective custody" (we never see this however). Beverley Garland plays Claire, Anderson's hard nose wife who tries desperately to convince him of his folly despite being in love with him. Sally Fraser is Paul's cheery wife Joan who Paul is forced to shoot after she's taken over.

The script by AIP vet Lou Rusoff (DAY THE WORLD ENDED) provides a lot of great dialogue (Graves' speech at the climax is particularly memorable). The rubbery "inverted ice cream cone" monster/invader (created and operated by Paul Blaisdell) is usually a target of much ridicule and his demise (involving a blowtorch) is wacky but it hardly takes away from the enjoyment of the story which is really put over by the acting ans script. Also added is a small army patrol led by Dick Miller and his comical phony Hispanic sidekick (Jonathan Haze), Russ Bender as a general and usual screenwriter Charles B. Griffith as a scientist.

This is the only sci-fi/horror film Roger Corman made in 1956 but the next year he made the ultra cool NOT OF THIS EARTH! (which also features Garland)

One last note: Frank Zappa talks about IT CONQUERED THE WORLD at the beginning of the song "Cheepnis" on the album/CD "Roxy and Elsewhere".

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Poor Paul!

AXE GIANT-THE WRATH OF PAUL BUNYAN-2013-This crazy horror tale has five young adult slacker assholes in a first offenders type boot camp run by a Sgt. Slaughter wannabe police sargeant named Hoke (Thomas Downey, also in HILLSIDE CANNIBALS) and a psychiarist (Kristina Kopf). Unfortunately the gang arrives just in time to be terrorized by an axe toting giant. Joe Estevez shows up as a crazy old guy who explains how in 1894 that some loggers (lead by Dan Haggerty) killed and ate Babe, the blue ox pet of Paul Bunyan. He killed all the loggers and then the townspeople threw him in a mine but he escaped and grew very big. Now he's angry because one of the group disturbed Babe's grave. A sheriff (Tim Lovelace) who's daughter is in the group shows up toward the end to help out but a group of redneck militia men save the day.

There's several be-headings and one woman is cut in half but the gory CGI SFX are pretty bad and the story, acting and direction are laughable most of the time. Could this have actually been a takeoff? Only director Gary Jones (MOSQUITO and CROCODILE 2) knows for sure.

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JJ Strikes Again

JUNGLE JIM IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND-A scientist Dr. Linda Roberts (Angela Greene; Tess Trueheart in the short lived DICK TRACEY TV show) goes to find Jim (Johnny Weissmuller). Unfortunately her raft is attacked by a hippo and her small crew is killed. She survives and wanders the jungle and is lucky enough to be rescued by Jim when a panther attacks. He kills it with his trusty knife (it's a stuffed animal). Dr. Roberts is looking for "The Land of The Giant People". Jim takes her to see "The Old One", a ancient blind white haired guy who talks like Master Po. On their way a hippo attacks again and Jim kills it (a silly looking model). Later he helps out a man who is legally dealing in ivory. His ward (Jean Willes) causes trouble. Somehow she and a phony doctor convince a commissioner to use two captured "giant people" to find their hidden land. They look like wolf people and aren't very gigantic. Jim is shot with truth serum and reveals where the giants hang out. Then he's framed for murder. Good of course triumphs in the end and Tamba the monkey gets its name in the credits!

Director Lew Landers started directing (under his real name Louis Friedlander) in the early 30's and made THE RAVEN with Karloff & Lugosi in 1935. Among his over 100 credits (!) he made THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU (with Karloff & Lorre), THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (with Lugosi) and THE MASK OF DIJON (with Erich Von Stroheim).  Like many "work-aholic" directors he later went into TV. He died in 1962. I'd like to see his last movie TERRIFIED. 

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Korean Giant Monster

REPTILIAN-1999-An archaeological expedition led by the pompously deranged Dr. Campbell (Richard Livingston)) is looking for Yonggary, a legendary dinosaur 50 times the size of T-Rex. Just when he and his assistant Holly (Donna Philipson) are on the verge of discovery the long thought to be dead Dr. Hughes (Harrison Young) shows up to say  they have to call off the dig. Campbell convinces Holly that Hughes is crazy but later on she quits the expedition and goes to a bar. She encounters Hughes again and he semi-convinces her he might be right. 

The two go back to the dig just in time to see Campbell unveil the skeleton of the ancient Yonggary. It's promptly revitalized by some aliens in a spaceship (it's of alien origin to begin with) and stomps Campbell to death. Then proceeds to wreck the town. When missiles and bombs fail, a group of soldiers with jet packs and laser guns fight it. They discover that the aliens use a diamond embedded in the monster's head to control it. Once the diamond is destroyed Yonggary becomes a good guy so the aliens (who look like metallic Ridley Scott aliens and talk like Darth Vader) send another prehistoric monster to fight the new hero. An all out monster battle ensues! 

The goofy dialogue sounds just like it would have been used to dub an Asian movie even though it's not dubbed! Despite this there is some funny intentional humor. The SFX could have been better but it's still more enjoyable than any shit on The SyFy channel. Despite being filmed in English and starring American actors this was produced in Korea by director Hyung-rae Shim. It was inspired by the 1967  Godzilla inspired Korean Kaiju/giant monster film YONGGARY. 

An "updated" version with new scenes was released in 2001.

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Found Monster Footage

CLOVERFIELD-2008-A monster attacks New York. A group of friends at a farewell party try to survive. The story is told through the eye of a hand held camera one of them is using. The monster is huge and drops smaller creepy alien types with big teeth. Although it's a chaotic mess, the director Matt Reeves does a good job of getting the whole story across. The group dwindles as they try to stay alive and find their friends but it seems to me if they had made their way to The 59th Bridge they could gave escaped to Queens! The jiggly POV shots are ok but it doesn't really look like some amateur film. And can anyone explain why the camera battery lasted so long? Director Reeves previously directed episodes of the TV show FELICITY and later made LET ME IN. At the time of this writing he was working on a Planet of The Apes sequel. JJ Abrams was one of the producers. (and like his TV series LOST, where the monster came from or what happens to it and the world are left unexplained) The big surprise for me was it was only 85 minutes!

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PS: I was just informed that a huge video campaign (including fictional websites like in LOST) were used before and during CLOVERFIELD's release. Using hints from that there are ways to piece together where the monster came from. Apparently I'm the only person who didn't know about this!