Tentacles / Reptilicus [Blu-ray] [US Import]

This is the kind of double feature I love; good ol' schlocky late 50s / early 60s monster flicks with silly plots, sillier monsters and acting that should have earned the cast life prison sentences. Nonetheless, I do love these movies, and Reptilicus is a long-time favorite. That said, I'll deal with Tentacles first.

Tentacles is an interesting flick with a popular premise; a gigantic octopus gets tired of being sushi and decides to turn the tables on his oppressors. Of course, by the time everyone figures out what's happening, half of the town population is missing. Tentacles has a very solid cast, but they aren't given much to work with. The plot is predictable and formulaic, the pace is just slightly faster than the continental drift, and the dialog is typical of the era. Without wanting to give any spoilers, I will say that this flick has an unusual final battle, one that almost rescues the rest of the movie. Almost, but not quite. It's a decent way to waste an hour and a half, but only if you're really, really bored.

Reptilicus has been a personal favorite since I was in grade school. ( I won't admit how old I am, but my first car was a brontosaurus.) He's not quite a snake, not quite a worm, certainly not a dragon, but he has terrible table manners and really plays hell with local property values. The Dutch locations are interesting and somewhat unique among monster flicks, and the American lead actor is worth a number of good laughs if only because his acting is so terrible. If you can set aside your incredulity for a while and aren't expecting too much, this is a fun little creature feature. Better than its mate on the play bill, but only marginally.

That said, we come to the Blu-Ray transfer itself. For Tentacles, it's just fine. Color is good, sound is good and it holds together well. However, the Reptilicus transfer is a disgrace. The picture bounces, vibrates and pixelates and the sound is out of sync with the movements of the actors. It looks like something you might expect from somebody making a VHS recording of a television broadcast.

I love Blu-Ray, and I love this kind of movie. If the production had been decent, this would have been a very satisfying double feature. Unfortunately, the production was slipshod and the quality control non-existent.

Tentacles is available on a DVD double feature with Empire of the Ants ( a surprisingly effective little thriller), and Reptilicus can be found as a stand-alone. If Tentacles is the movie you want, this isn't a bad price for a Blu-Ray. However, if like me, you want a quality copy of Reptilicus, stick to the DVD. You'll be a lot happier.

If you had a fear of the water because of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, you got over it quickly while sitting through Tentacles. The film opens with two completely unrelated deaths that have the police baffled. Ned Turner, played by the legendary John Huston, is a reporter who is doing a lot more detecting than the police officers involved. As it turns out, Mr. Whitehead, President of Trojan Construction (played the legendary Henry Fonda), is constructing some new tunnels in the nearby sea bed. This construction is using a lot of technology that “Buck Rogers wouldn’t understand”. When confronted that his business may be responsible, he pleads innocent to Ned Turner. Thus begins the mystery of who and what is responsible for these strange deaths.

Thankfully, as the audience, we are privy to the “what”. A large Octopus is wrecking havoc under the sea, as well as the marina. Enter the Hooper character from Jaws, Will Gleason, played by Bo Hopkins. Gleason is a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who got his life right by becoming one of the world’s leading oceanographers. There is no reason why you should know that. After all, it really has nothing to do with this story, but then much of this film doesn’t. This is the main reason why you’ve probably never heard of Tentacles.

The film is packed with extemporaneous details, backstories, characters and subplots that really have no pay-off. Each one of the characters mentioned above could have had their own movie. They are connected with a few scenes, but they never really get together to stop the giant Octopus. Fonda plays the bad guy, sort of. Hopkins is a bit of an Earthy hippie scientist who loses the most loved ones in the film, yet you feel nothing for him. Houston disappears from the third act completely.

A film such as Tentacles is really only good for two things. First, the trailer should be played at intermission during a horror marathon for those too tired to get up. They will get a good laugh and be rejuvenated for the next film. Secondly, the poster should be hung up in TGI Fridays, because it is a true conversation piece that Fonda and Huston were in such a horrible film together.

From American International Pictures comes Reptilicus, Denmark’s answer to Godzilla!

While mining near the Arctic Circle for copper, a large piece of reptile flesh is discovered in the ground. The piece is frozen and taken back to Copenhagen for study, while United States Military sends in their best general to keep a watchful eye on the scientists. What should happen next is a fun giant monster movie. What we get is Reptilicus.

Many of the cliches from this time and genre are present in Reptilicus. Sadly, they never get used. This is odd because director Sidney W. Pink, just two years prior, gave the world The Angry Red Planet, which is a hallmark in both the Sci-Fi and giant monster genres. Many of the female characters are simply here as eye candy and really nothing else. The old scientists have numerous daughters for the young scientists and military men, but they never do anything with them. The ladies of Reptilicus don’t even get into any danger.

What there is in Reptilicus is a huge scenic tour of Copenhagen, which really does distract from the plot as we wait and wait for Reptilicus to emerge. Where Reptilicus falters is in the creature’s defense. Reptilicus evolves from a severed limb. It grows a head, arms, and even wings all from a piece of tail. This is all explained early on in a press conference with the most idiotic and simplistic explanation, which is what is supposed to happen in a film like this. Where the dilemma stems from is how to take care of Reptilicus. They can’t blow it up or it will only spread and grow more Reptilici. Burning it has no effect. As clever as this was for the creature, the writers backed themselves into a corner leaving the plot to meander into boredom.

You’ll watch Reptilicus for the fun of the atomic age movie monster. What you will get is a dull lizard movie with noticeable dubbing and a collection of people who truly deserve to die. You’ll appreciate the same extras running by the camera smiling, but this gaff is not nearly enough to make Reptilicus watchable.

I have no idea what that other dude is talking about, this Blu-Ray is fine. I haven't watched Tentacles (and probably won't, as I bought this specifically to own Reptilicus) but Reptilicus has great detail, fine film grain, and for once a theatrical widescreen presentation. The reviewer that claims this looks like "it looks like something you might expect from somebody making a VHS recording of a television broadcast" must have gotten a defective copy or otherwise doesn't know what he's talking about; we watched this on a state of the art 79" TV and it looked amazing. Granted, with Reptilicus being an amazingly bad AIP film, some of the special effects were not filmed in a way that will look good in high def and a few shots were simply filmed a bit out of focus but to claim this is somehow inferior to the previous DVD is absolutely insane. The bottom line is simply this: there's no question this is a great HD transfer of Reptilicus.

I had already reviewed "Reptilicus" for the DVD release, so here's my original review of the MOVIE ITSELF:

This movie is absolutely terrible.

I love this movie so very much.

PLOT: A drilling team in Denmark hits a weird substance and, when they investigate, find out they've drilled into a frozen tail of a prehistoric reptile. While studying it, a scientist accidently lets it thaw, where it grows into REPTILICUS! A giant dragon that spits acid slime and is demolishing Copenhagen!

As you can tell, its your basic Godzilla knock-off formula. But don't take that to mean Reptilicus is anything resembling an ordinary giant lizard movie.

Where do I even begin? How about Reptilicus himself (herself?)... in most Godzilla/King Kong rip-offs, your monster in question is usually played by some guy in a ratty monster suit, or maybe is a stop-motion animated creature, right? Reptilicus is very clearly a hand puppet or (when you can see all of him) a marionette. Yup, visible strings and all, an honest-to-God marionette. He lookes kinda like an Ancient Chinese style dragon, with really tiny arms, so there's no way he can swipe buildings with his hand like other movie monsters, they just kinda bump him sideways into the models. Effects being what they are, he also doesn't really interact with the military fighting him. You just see shots of the military, then shots of Reptilicus, back to shots of the military, etc. They're never on the screen at the same time.

In one scene, Reptilicus eats a guy, and since its a hand puppet they have a photo of the actor overlaid on the screen, but then they ANIMATE the photo so he wiggles back and forth while he's floating into Reptilicus' mouth. It (sadly) only happens once, but its freakin' incredible!

Reptilicus isn't just dangerous becuase he's big, though, he also spits acid slime! These scenes are great, because instead of throwing goop on the military, they just overlay an ANIMATION of green slime on the film and add a "BLORT!" sound effect! I swear I'm not making that up, it happens a half dozen times and each time is priceless!

Now that the monster is out of the way, lets talk about the other stuff. This film was supposed to be Denmarks big breakthrough into the film industry, so officials and citizens of the country were very generous and accomidating to the filmmakers.

For instance: The actors were all Danish and didn't speak English, so they learned their English lines phonetically. That didn't turn out so good so they were all dubbed over, BUT since the voice actors had to try to match the actors lips, so the dubbing sounds like a terrible Godzilla movie even though the lips actually match up.

Another example: Literally thousands of Copenhagen citizens were used as extras. They all volunteered, and eager to be in a movie, dressed very well. You will see more people fleeing (again, THOUSANDS) than you will in any Godzilla flick, all running from a dragon hand puppet.

Yet another example: The Danish government was happy to volunteer its military equipment for the movie. You'll get to see real tanks, cannons, flamethrowers and even a battleship setting off actual depthcharges... all to kill a crappy dragon marionette.

There's more to see (including a completely gratuitous "come visit Denmark" travelogue scene inserted without warning randomly in the film), none of it boring, all of it fast moving, all of it hilarious in its sincerity. A classic of so bad its good films, Reptilicus needs to be seen at least once, and easily holds up to repeat viewings. It easily deserves a spot in your DVD collection, probably right next to Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster, R.O.T.O.R. and Super Inframan.

A copy of this title was provided for review purposes.

After the success of JAWS low budget studios rushed into production any movie they could think of that would involve some animal that went on the rampage or was bigger than life to take on mankind. American International Pictures (AIP) made the decision to go with an octopus, filmed the movie in Italy to save on money and released TENTACLES to drive-ins across the country.

The plot is simple. On a coastal town a giant octopus goes on the rampage after a mega-corporation begins using high frequency drilling equipment underwater nearby. It doesn’t matter that this doesn’t explain why the octopus is this big, it’s enough to know that it makes him/her hungry for human beings, draining their bone marrow once it catches someone.

The sheriff (Claude Akins) doesn’t know for sure what to do. The town’s main news reporter (John Huston) has an inkling of what is going on. The head of the corporation (Henry Fonda) isn’t happy that his company is responsible for something like this. Huston’s sister (Shelly Winters) is worried about her son when an attack happens. And the oceanographer that Huston has contacted (Bo Hopkins) takes a personal interest in killing this octopus when his wife is killed by it. As you can see, this film had a star studded cast made up of fading or low budget names.

The movie isn’t all that bad with the exception that there is far too much talk and not enough action involved. Worse yet is that most of the talk is unnecessary and could have been handled much easier with filmed sequences instead. Then again the budget spent on the octopus is enough to include a giant eye to look through windows, a few large tentacles and several shots involving a small octopus with obvious models being crawled over.

In the end it’s not a bad film and actually quite fun for a drive-in style flick. That was always one of the joys for movies like this. So if you have a TV projector then by all means nail a sheet to the garage and pop this one in to be played.

The second feature on this Shout/Scream Factory double bill is REPTILLICUS and it makes TENTACLES seem like Oscar material. If the dialogue sequences in the earlier movie seemed long these seem to take forever. To make matters worse, they’re done by some truly poor actors who bring no life to the discussions whatsoever.

Copper miners drilling find that they’ve tapped into some tissues where they’ve been drilling. Sending these off to scientists in Copenhagen it turns out that the tissue isn’t dead yet. As deep as it was it was frozen but when a scientists accidentally leaves the freezer door open it thaws and begins to regenerate itself. Soon the tail has grown into a full dinosaur sized creature that seems intent on eating anyone who gets in its way.

The U.S. Army and Navy are called in to stop this monster but to no effect. And when they realize that if they blow it up each of the pieces will simply regenerate into another one they’re troubled as to how to deal with this creature. Rest assured that a way will be found.

The movie has all sorts of problems. Certain segments of the movie have a flutter problem but I have little doubt as much as possible was done to contain this. The acting from all members is terrible. The dialogue is terrible. A character played for laughs might entertain young children but no one else. And the effects with the monster are so bad as to make them funnier than the previously mentioned character. The monster looks like what it is, a puppet of sort controlled by strings that at times are readily apparent.

This is one of those movies that you probably saw at age 5 or 6 that seemed amazing back in the sixties or perhaps the seventies but that now will make you cringe at the thought that it may have scared you back then. On the other hand it could make for a fun evening of people sitting there watching it tossing out lines of dialogue or jokes ala MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. For me that would be the only way to make this movie worth watching. A must have for collectors and fans only.

Don't care what anyone thinks -- I love Tentacles and lookin' forward to the Blu-ray. Just because someone doesn't like the movie doesn't mean everyone has to hate it. Enough said!!