Village of the Giants (1965)

In some ways 1965's "Village of the Giants" is a godawful flick about a group of "kids" (more like mid-20s) who stumble upon a potion that turns them into giants. Godawful or not, there's just something mesmerizing about this flick! It's ridiculous and the "special effects" are laughable, yet it's full of energy and is thoroughly entertaining in a swingin' 60s kind of way; and entertainment's the name of the game.Highlights include: the weird bass-driven 60's score (borrowed by Tarantino for "Death Proof"); the accompanying sensual dancing of the "teens" (they really don't know what else to do after becoming giants, so they just dance, lol); the cast -- which includes a young Ron Howard, Beau Bridges, Robert Random and Tommy Kirk -- is great; and last but certainly not least, the cast includes not one, not two, but three gorgeous 60's babes -- Joy Harmon, Tisha Sterling and, best of all, a young redheaded Toni Basil (who went on to become a one-hit wonder with "Hey Mickey"). Basil is so jaw-dropping it's worth seeing the movie just for her. For instance, watch out for Basil in the pool party scene. She also has an extended dance sequence late in the film in black leotards.So, yeah, "Village of the Giants" is a real turkey, but it's a golden turkey. " For comparison, it's superior to the contemporaneous "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (which was released 2.5 months earlier) in that it's (1.) in color, (2.) doesn't attempt to be serious melodrama in the manner of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) and (3.) lacks a sneering one-dimensional psychopathic vixen as antagonist. In other words, "Village" treads similar terrain to "Faster" but without the negative elements.The film runs 81 minutes and was shot in Burbank and Hollywood, Ca.GRADE: B (Actually a "C" but "A" for entertainment value; so overall "B" )

Bert I Gordon has made a few movies that I like, my favorite being Empire of the Ants. In most of his films he uses a simple techniques to make something or other look large in addition to making a prop or two. Here he tries to make a movie based on H.G. Wells story Food of the Gods. This time he fails miserably. He would later make another version in 1976 that is titled Food of the Gods and it is probably my second favorite Bert I film. This one is just to goofy and is more of a comedy. There are some nice shots of pretty 60's girls and it is at times a bit risqué for a film of this time period, but overall the story and the tone of the film just do not work.The story has a bunch of rowdy kids dancing in the rain, which with the girls was entertaining at times. However, it was also padding to the extreme. A young boy his sister and boyfriend call genius and is played by Ron Howard develops a formula that increases things in size. A cat grows to super size, leaves and two ducks and a dog. The ducks rock on at the local bar before being roasted and it is not long before the rowdy kids are eating the formula and growing large and implementing their own rules. Though, they really do not do anything all that bad as no one is going to be killed here. It is up to the town's teens to find a way to stop the super rebellious and giant teens! I saw this film on MST3K and it was an all right episode of that show; however, I was expecting it to be funnier than it turned out. I found the host segments involving Frank's firing and unemployment funnier than the movie in this one. Not to say it made for a bad episode. The effects are at times very funny including a pair of made up legs! So this film had a couple of good points, mainly the parts of the film that focused on the girls of the film. Most of the film was padding, the film was like a very small idea and with the rest of it being filler. There are times you cannot hear certain characters, I probably could not make out half of what that sheriff said. At times the scale is completely off or they were reading the world's largest magazines. Just a whole lot of mess going on here, but it is nice to see that Bert I Gordon would revisit Food of the Gods and do a much better job of it than he did here.

What's the first thing to do when you and seven other friends crash your car into a road block and you're stuck in the mud? Well, you DANCE! What's your first reaction when you're attending a rock concert and all of a sudden two gigantically over-sized ducks come waddling in? You start DANCING, of course. What's the very first thing you must accomplish when you and your friends grew up to a length of 30ft. after consuming a gooey unidentified substance? Right again, you must DANCE! I don't think the legendary bad movie director Bert I. Gordon (BIG, for his friends) ever intended to make a loyal adaptation of H.G. Well's novel "Food of the Gods", he merely just wanted to make a light-headed and 60's spirit-capturing musical about the earliest Rock 'n Roll generations. "Village of the Giants" features an intolerably high amount of pointless padding sequences that simply show teenagers – whether 30ft tall or not – singing and dancing to Jack Nitzsche's (admittedly catchy) music and that's it. Thank God the film never at one point attempts to be a real scary and unsettling Sci-Fi movie, because that would have been really pathetic with all the lousy acting performances, tacky effects and the virtually non-existing screenplay. The annoying former child star Ron Howard portrays the nerdy kid-inventor Genius and accidentally discovers a substance that causes living creatures to grow to enormous proportions. A gang of naughty, outer town kids manage to steal a big slice of goo because they're sick and tired of being bossed around by adults. The adults probably just righteously stated they should waste less time on dancing and get a job! The goody-two-shoes teenagers in town fight (and go-go dance) back, though! What a totally demented movie this is. I wonder if Beau Bridges would like to be reminded of his role in this film as the nagging and totally uncharismatic leader of the bad pack. Presumably not… And neither would Toni Basil and Ron Howard. However, it must be interesting to see an X-rated version of this film, since all of the girls are quite beautiful (particularly Joy Harmon) and literally bursting out of garments as they feed on the substance. "Village of the Giants" is never suspenseful or interesting, with the exception of one notably engaging gargantuan tarantula scene, and manages to be quite boring despite the short running time. Jack Nitzsche's theme music was obviously brilliant, because no less than Quentin Tarantino borrowed the song "The Last Race" for his own recent grindhouse movie "Death Proof". Worth a peek in case you're a fan of horribly bad low-budget 60's stuff or in case you have a strange & inexplicable admiration for director/writer Bert I. Gordon, like I have.

Turn off the brain for this campy craziness. Ron Howard, in his Opie days, invents "goo," which, when ingested, causes super growth. Beau Bridges leads a bunch of bad teens, Tommy Kirk (of Disney comedy fame) is the leader of some good teens, and you are the befuddled audience trying to believe what is transpiring on the screen.Natch: the idiotic bad teens get a hold of the goo, and turn into colossal idiotic bad teens who take over a small town somewhere. Apparently, the presence of 30 foot hostile giants does not interest anyone outside of the town, so the townsfolk are left to fend for themselves. Of course, nobody in the town except the good teens bother to do anything about it.Once the giants appear, the action is limited, probably due to a lack of budget for special effects. The growth sequence is about all they really focused on, where they --oh, never mind. It's the highlight of the film, though, trust me. Progressively cheaper and cheaper effects parade their way through the story after that. My favorite is the scene where they try to "tie up" a giant Beau Bridges. You see two plastic poles (supposed to be his legs) being roped by the good teens. They then try to fasten the ropes with hot rods orbiting the "surprised" victim. Every once in a while, they show Beau making spasmodic and confused expressions in slow motion. By the way, whenever they show a character in slow-mo, you know it's one of the giants.The movie knows it's idiotic, and makes no effort to conceal it. Good for a laugh at how absurd it is.