Village of the Giants

Rating:
Summary: It took a village to raise these damn idiots
Review: Very loose adaption of "Food of the Gods", as if HG Wells had adapted his work for one of those AIP Beach movies. In this one, a group of cardigan wearing bad-teens led by the evil Beau Bridges descend on a California town, not knowing that the town's resident genius (known as "Genius" and played by Ron Howard) has developed something called goo which causes super-growth. A couple of geese try the stuff and grow to a size slightly smaller than a BMW, amusing and amazing the town before ending up as the guests of honor at a BBQ for a town full of kids who can't spell FDA. In a classic scene, the evil Bridges gang steals the goo and, too delinquent to just sell the stuff to the highest bidder, they eat it. Growing to monstrous size (which is anything bigger than their clothes can stand before tearing off - a logical detail actually working for the plot for once), they take over the town and force its citizens to watch them engage in slow motion dancing (how hard did they have to fight for this town). Led by Tommy Kirk, the good teens try to keep the bad teens at bay until Genius can create a "cure" for the goo. At its worst, the flick is bald exploitation, and good clean fun at best. Most critics slam this as an exploitative version of the Wells book - why the connection was ever made is a mystery to me. The problem is that the producers take this stuff much to seriously - if they had Russ Meyer do it (a guy whose pretty honest of his intentions) it would have been a big cult hit.

Rating:
Summary: The Others Just Don't Get It....
Review: What the other reviewers don't get is that the cheesy effects is the whole appeal of the B-Movie- it forces you to use your imagination. Some get it, some don't, oh well. If you're a fan of B-movies in general and giant moves in particular, then you'll love this movie. My only gripe is that it takes too long to get to the part we all want to see- the teenagers becoming giants.