The Giant Gila Monster

Rating:
Summary: aka "Elvis Vs. The Super-Imposed Mildly Menacing Lizard"
Review: I can sum up this movie in one word, "wierd". I first saw "The Giant Gila Monster" late at night as part of a local t.v. station's Godzilla Monster Week (no, the giant lizard in this film is of no relation to the King of the Monsters). I remember being disappointed after having stayed up late only to find that they were showing a monster movie that had absolutely nothing to do with Godzilla, but after having watched the movie I thought it was actually pretty good. Of course I was only about 5 years old at the time, and for me, 11:00 p.m. really was pretty late at night.

Anyway, I just purchased a copy of this movie last week, and watched it (actually half watched - I kept falling asleep) this afternoon. I knew that it probably wouldn't be as good as I thought it was nearly 20 years ago, but I didn't think it would be quite as lame as it is.

Granted it's a 50's B sci-fi flick, so you know it's going to be extremely wild, cheesy and campy - after all, that's what makes those movies so great. Even though this film does have its "wild" scenes, and it definitely is cheesy all the way through, and it is extremely campy - there's just something that keeps this one from being one of the classics of its kind. It's probably the fact that aside from the giant lizard's attacks (if you want to call them attacks), the rest of the movie is just plain boring.

It starts out rather promising, with a giant reptile monster claw coming down violently upon a car with a couple teenagers inside, sending the car hurling over the side of a hill. Then the title comes up - "The Giant Gila Monster" - followed by the opening credits and some creepy background music. It's all downhill from that point on, though. The rest of the film centers around a small Texas town in the late 50's that seems to be populated by a bunch of rednecks, a semi-intelligent sheriff, a bunch of dancing teenagers, and our hero - an Elvis wannabe who lives at home with his "slightly cooler than June Cleaver" mom, his crippled daughter, and his "at times" annoying foreign girlfriend. Oh yeah, occasionally he gets to take breaks from his "hectic" life to play some extremely cheesy folk tunes on a toy banjo! By the way, I happen to like "real" folk music, but these songs just made me want to vomit!

Anyway, now on to the real star of the movie - the giant terrifying Gila Monster!! Yawn. The only thing that seems to be menacing about this overgrown lizard is his enormous size. The only way he actually brings destruction are the times when he happens to be crossing the road and cars smash in to him, or the time when he walks under a rail road bridge and ends up causing the train to wreck simply because he's too big to fit under the bridge! Out of the about 10 "attacks" the lizard makes throughout the film, only 2 were actually done on purpose! Certainly there was little for these backward citizens to actually fear from this abnormally large reptile. One thing that certainly surprised me when watching this movie is that the fact that real life gila monsters are venomous was not even mentioned in the film. Some monster!

All right, now that I've talked your ear off about this movie, decide if you really want to watch it or not, and then wait for it to come on late night t.v. I certainly wouldn't want anyone else to make the mistake I did of purchasing it. I wouldn't even suggest renting it, there are certainly better ways of spending a couple bucks.

Rating:
Summary: aka "Elvis Vs. The Super-Imposed Mildly Menacing Lizard"
Review: I can sum up this movie in one word, "wierd". I first saw "The Giant Gila Monster" late at night as part of a local t.v. station's Godzilla Monster Week (no, the giant lizard in this film is of no relation to the King of the Monsters). I remember being disappointed after having stayed up late only to find that they were showing a monster movie that had absolutely nothing to do with Godzilla, but after having watched the movie I thought it was actually pretty good. Of course I was only about 5 years old at the time, and for me, 11:00 p.m. really was pretty late at night.

Anyway, I just purchased a copy of this movie last week, and watched it (actually half watched - I kept falling asleep) this afternoon. I knew that it probably wouldn't be as good as I thought it was nearly 20 years ago, but I didn't think it would be quite as lame as it is.

Granted it's a 50's B sci-fi flick, so you know it's going to be extremely wild, cheesy and campy - after all, that's what makes those movies so great. Even though this film does have its "wild" scenes, and it definitely is cheesy all the way through, and it is extremely campy - there's just something that keeps this one from being one of the classics of its kind. It's probably the fact that aside from the giant lizard's attacks (if you want to call them attacks), the rest of the movie is just plain boring.

It starts out rather promising, with a giant reptile monster claw coming down violently upon a car with a couple teenagers inside, sending the car hurling over the side of a hill. Then the title comes up - "The Giant Gila Monster" - followed by the opening credits and some creepy background music. It's all downhill from that point on, though. The rest of the film centers around a small Texas town in the late 50's that seems to be populated by a bunch of rednecks, a semi-intelligent sheriff, a bunch of dancing teenagers, and our hero - an Elvis wannabe who lives at home with his "slightly cooler than June Cleaver" mom, his crippled daughter, and his "at times" annoying foreign girlfriend. Oh yeah, occasionally he gets to take breaks from his "hectic" life to play some extremely cheesy folk tunes on a toy banjo! By the way, I happen to like "real" folk music, but these songs just made me want to vomit!

Anyway, now on to the real star of the movie - the giant terrifying Gila Monster!! Yawn. The only thing that seems to be menacing about this overgrown lizard is his enormous size. The only way he actually brings destruction are the times when he happens to be crossing the road and cars smash in to him, or the time when he walks under a rail road bridge and ends up causing the train to wreck simply because he's too big to fit under the bridge! Out of the about 10 "attacks" the lizard makes throughout the film, only 2 were actually done on purpose! Certainly there was little for these backward citizens to actually fear from this abnormally large reptile. One thing that certainly surprised me when watching this movie is that the fact that real life gila monsters are venomous was not even mentioned in the film. Some monster!

All right, now that I've talked your ear off about this movie, decide if you really want to watch it or not, and then wait for it to come on late night t.v. I certainly wouldn't want anyone else to make the mistake I did of purchasing it. I wouldn't even suggest renting it, there are certainly better ways of spending a couple bucks.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixture of Humor and Corniness!
Review: I first discovered the film, "The Giant Gila Monster" while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. While the commentary given by the characters on the show really made this film funny, watching the film by itself also lent some humor.

The story centers around a small town that is ravaged by a giant gila monster that emerged from the desert. While the gila monster wreaks havoc on the town and the town's people, the audience is also treated to the singing of Don Sullivan, who plays the lead. While it was funny at first, by the end of the movie you'll want to scream if you have to hear the song, "Laugh Children Laugh" one more time!

All in all, I did like this movie. It's interesting to see the archaic special effects that were probably cutting edge back in 1959 and compare them to the out-of-this-world effects used now. For those of you who love those old, drive-in movies that are purely for entertainment this is the one for you!

Rating:
Summary: A Mixture of Humor and Corniness!
Review: I first discovered the film, "The Giant Gila Monster" while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. While the commentary given by the characters on the show really made this film funny, watching the film by itself also lent some humor.

The story centers around a small town that is ravaged by a giant gila monster that emerged from the desert. While the gila monster wreaks havoc on the town and the town's people, the audience is also treated to the singing of Don Sullivan, who plays the lead. While it was funny at first, by the end of the movie you'll want to scream if you have to hear the song, "Laugh Children Laugh" one more time!

All in all, I did like this movie. It's interesting to see the archaic special effects that were probably cutting edge back in 1959 and compare them to the out-of-this-world effects used now. For those of you who love those old, drive-in movies that are purely for entertainment this is the one for you!

Rating:
Summary: good old classic movie
Review: I injoyed this movie all though i thought it should have been longer. It had a good plot and they made the lizard look huge. The actors were good and the plot was classic. If you like sci-fi movies like I do you should watch this one.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD FOR ITS TIME, AND NOW TOO!
Review: I know this offering doesn't have all the computer enhaced SE that we are all use to now.

This film is rich in sci-fi lure. It has all the markings of the day, hot rods, poor boy tring to make a living, to take care of his mother and polio stricken sister,(this is done with real taist by the way)an understanding cop, hard employor type,a forbiben love interest, every thing that a teen felt, from brilcream, to missunderstood lizard. altho the script is a litle weak, the story line is strong, and at the end..well watch and see for yourself.

It is a fun film.

Rating:
Summary: Sci-fi at it's best, nothing but campy entertainment.
Review: I remembered this movie and really enjoyed the special effects from days gone by. Movies like this usually used miniatures and then moved the "creatures" around. I enjoyed the plot, the charactors, although the French girlfriend was a little hard to believe. My family & I watch it often.

Rating:
Summary: Flathead Fever!
Review: My fellow Motorheads will get a kick out of this movie simply for the period hot rods; a half-dozen T-buckets powered by the long gone Flathead Ford V-8! I often wonder what happened to those old rides, hopefully some were perserved.

As for the movie itself, well it's bad but doesn't take itself too seriously. Too much 1950's stuff is crammed into the movie for a two hour horror flick. Hot rods, rock and roll, teen angst, rich vrs poor, and of course the rich girl dating the poor boy. All this and a giant Gila monster! They could have had about three decent movies (budget allowing of course) out of this low budget gem that tries to do too much with way too little.

Viewed as a fun piece of nostaglia it is certainly worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: The Nasty Lizard of Gila Bend.
Review: One of the challenges of regularly viewing cheesy monster movies is knowing the difference between "so bad, it's good," and just plain bad. This movie is laughable, but is it intentionally so? A normal-sized Gila monster crawls over miniature detailed sets, spreading death along a dry riverbed and the nearby highway. It crushes toy cars and slithers over twigs pretending to be logs. After knocking down a Lincoln-log railroad bridge, the creeping terror attacks a Lionel train. By the way, did anyone notice that the diesel engine kept changing looks, not to mention directions? Continuity issues aside, the movie lacks credible special effects. There are no mixed shots showing live (i.e., non-toy) backgrounds contrasting size with the alleged giant lizard. Instead, there are sporadic close-ups of a huge clawed-foot attacking the camera lens. The teenagers are the community's early warning system that danger is afoot, but the authorities are skeptical. Do you ever remember an old monster movie where the cops believed the kids the first time? The director loves the "knee-up" school of acting. Masculine legs are up on every desk, workbench, and fender in sight. Good old boys while pondering sideways skid marks can think better this way, I guess. Shug Fisher is around for laughs, but comic relief is a moot point in this movie. Before Festus, Ken Curtis tried his hand at producing. This flick and "Attack of the Killer Shrews" are the result. The B&W photography, the sound quality, and other production values are typically low budget. Sensible viewers beware! ;-)

Rating:
Summary: Only the 50s Could Have Produced This One
Review: 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.