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5
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
Over
the years I've become a fan of writer/director/special effects
artist Bert I. Gordon's films. I was resistant for a very long
time because whenever I stumbled across one on TV it always
seemed cheap and lacking. Never well thought out or well produced,
they exuded the feel of a production stretched beyond what could
reasonably be accomplished with the meager means available.
Whether it was a grasshopper crawling over a postcard cityscape
(Beginning Of The End)
or supposedly giant monsters that somehow didn't cast shadows
(virtually every movie he made), Gordon was always at least
a few steps behind the special effects curve. And that was when
he started producing movies in the 1950s! But I learned to love
those pics for their odd charms and simple stories. They were
not great films but they were earnest fun.
For
the first seven or eight years of his film career Gordon kept
pace with larger budgeted movies in the 'giant monster' genre
because there were only so many ways to create the effects.
But as he moved into color photography in the 1960s it became
apparent that his skills were not advancing and sadly, neither
were his stories. By the '70s he was still in the game but he
was rarely getting films made. At the time he made The
Food Of The Gods he had been making different kinds of
movies for a while and must have seen this as a return to glories
past. I guess in a way it was. His scripting is just as juvenile
as in the '50s and the effects were just as cheaply cheesy.
But even though I came to love the movies "Mr. BIG"
made in his early years, this effort just doesn't work for me.
I think it's because I'm willing to give the older films the
leeway to slather on the cheese out of a sense of nostalgia
for a time before I was born. For me, stilted, awkward dialog
is somehow more believable when the actors drive Studebakers
and wear fedoras. The tin-ear dialog that was always a part
of Gordon's monster efforts becomes slightly embarrassing when
spouted by men who also curse. I can understand having a soft
spot for Food Of The Gods if you
saw it as a youngster, but as an adult first-time viewer, it's
just a silly hoot. I counted at least five great laugh-out-loud
moments of classic unintentional humor. Maybe I should count
that as a plus?
Morgan (Marjoe Gortner
- Earthquake,
Female
Space Invaders) is an NFL wide receiver who, with a couple
of fellow players, goes off for a few days of rest before a
big game. Traveling to an isolated Pacific coast island, they
encounter a host of oversized wasps and one of their group is
stung to death. In searching for help Morgan learns that a nearby
farmer and his wife have discovered a gooey substance bubbling
out of the ground that they've been feeding to their livestock.
This "food of the gods" causes animals to grow to
gigantic proportions and after a dangerous encounter with a
big chicken Morgan leaves the island with his dead pal vowing
to come back.
A few days later, Jack Bensington (Ralph Meeker) and his secretary
Lorna (Pamela Franklin) come to the island to meet with farmer
Skinner about the Food. But Skinner never made it home the night
before, after a deadly run in with some giant rats. Bensington
realizes that this Cream of Wheat-like stuff could be incredibly
profitable and tries to secure the rights. Mrs. Skinner (Ida
Lupino) is adamant that they wait for her husband to negotiate
but when Morgan and a buddy return to the island with shotguns
and explosives plans begin to alter. Warning a pregnant couple
stranded by their broken-down Winnebago about the dangers on
the island, the jocks proceed to the farm and set out to destroy
the insects responsible for their friend's death. But after
successfully burning the huge wasp nest the two men realize
that the real problem they face is the growing hoard of hungry
giant rats.
In a series of exciting
scenes Morgan and his friend race around the island trying to
find a clear path to the ferry dock but it soon becomes apparent
they're cut off. The pregnant couple joins Bensington, Lorna
and Mrs. Skinner in the farmhouse and attempt to barricade the
place as the rats attack. From here on out it's all-out war
with the giant rodents as the besieged humans are picked off
one by one. With shotgun shells running low and few options,
how will anyone survive?
Sounds great, doesn't
it? Giant critters swarming all over the place trying to get
a mouthful of juicy human flesh as screaming people attempt
to shoot their way to safety. And, to give Bert I. Gordon his
due, the movie does move very well. Once things start to happen
after the destruction of the wasp nest the pace is very fast.
It often felt as if he thought that if he kept moving the shoddy
effects work would zip by quickly and be more easily accepted.
Unfortunately that doesn't happen. The giant animal attacks
are accomplished with a combination of partial mockups for the
actors to push against and poorly done process shots laying
the images of real creatures across the shots. In other words,
the exact same process used in the 1950s. I knew we were in
trouble when the first of these effects sequences involving
the wasps was so bad that the flying insects looked like greenish
magic marker squiggles. And once they landed on a victim the
fake bug was obviously not moving, forcing the actor to shake
it while pantomiming fear. It's actually kind of funny... albeit
not a promising start for a horror film.
To give the movie
some credit, the giant rat heads that are used to attack the
cast are pretty darned good-looking practical effects. They
rarely match up to the shots of rodents pushing into the farmhouse
model but they are effective on their own. The oversized worms
that attack Mrs. Skinner's hands are very good as well and stand
as the single best effect in the movie. Also, the fast and violent
shotgun-blasting standoff has a few tense moments that manage
to induce some cringing — if only for the way the real rats
are being pelted with blood pellets!
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| MGM
offers Food
Of The Gods
on DVD as part of its Midnite Movies collection. Given
a stand-alone release instead of being paired with another movie,
it seems someone really likes this film. It's presented in anamorphic
1.85 widescreen with the English soundtrack available in mono
or stereo. Spanish and French mono tracks are also included as
well as subtitles in English and Spanish. The image is pristine
(if a tad dark in spots), with nothing marring the sharp picture
at all. Sadly there are no extras, which is a shame as I'm sure
Mr. Gordon could be convinced to talk about this and his other
movies. But you have to love the great artwork gracing the DVD
cover. 9/28/07 |
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