1957 science fiction monster movieRating: 13/20
Plot: Following an expedition to Venus (which as all you astronomers know is 20 million miles away from earth), astronauts crash land off the coast of Sicily. Some fishermen and an annoying little boy come to the rescue, but all but one of the astronauts perish. That lone survivor manages to escape with only a scratch on his arm. Later, the annoying little boy discovers a giant (plastic?) tube of green slime. He does the smart thing--opens it, plays with it, and sells it to an old man with lots of cages. Havoc ensues when the Venus creature begins to rapidly grow and threaten to destroy Rome. Oh, snap!
Hokey dialogue, very obvious blue/green screen effects, an incomprehensible disregard for science (and common sense), and a plot parallel to King Kong in far too many ways. . .all overshadowed by the awesome stop-motion effects of Harryhausen as the giant lizard thing busts through walls and bridges and wrestles with people and elephants. Sure, I'll continue preaching that special effects can not make a bad movie good. I can live being Mr. Double-Standard. I'll take these stop-animation effects over CGI and other modern tricks any day! My biggest gripe: My hope that the monster would fight Chuck Norris near the end of the movie left me slightly disappointed. Was that a faux-Wilhelm in there? Fun, fun movie.
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