The monster Reptilicus (I forget if and how often the monster is referred to as this in the movie, but let's run with it and say it is for the sake of the world's entertainment) is a wonder to behold. In what was Denmark's one and only monster movie, how the monster becomes what it is is one thing - it's practically formed through scientist neglect as a guy sleeps on the job and he (or it, not sure if it's a she) un-thaws in a much smaller form of basically a reptile-loaf. Then it reveals to the scientists the next day a small crater-sized wound that is healing itself. And then, you know, one thing leads to another and then BOOM there's a giant reptile-snake thing that looks like a deformed 3 year-old's attempt at a monster creation in the Jim Henson shop, crawling around eating poor unsuspecting people (or at least one guy) through the magical power of horrible special effects (seriously, there's a moment where the monster eats a human that's clearly there through the power of badly placed matte-lines).
The monster is so gloriously stupid that it's only a wonder that it took so long for the Mystery Science Theater guys to get around to it upon the revival 18 years after the end of the show. This movie is prime-cut MST3K action, full of wooden actors - and some, like the inimitable Dirch Passer as Peterson (like a less subtle but less intentionally funny Kramer from Seinfeld) who are completely goofy, with the director Sidney Pink trying for real laughs like when he puts his hand in an eel tank - and that monster of the title. You almost can't believe when you first see what Reptilicus looks like and that he/she/it is going to be what we're getting; no amount of commentary can make one not laugh at it, and it's one of the pleasures of bad movies to see it there on the TV screen.
Did I mention this is a monster movie from Denmark? Some may not notice if one is only paying attention to the redubbed voice-work from AIP, though this creates an odd feeling as Pink had his actors and actresses speaking *in* English, so it has that effect of knowing the actors aren't speaking with their voices, but they don't have that Japanese or Italian style of dubbing where they try to match their mouths. This coupled with the usual lot of types of stock characters, whether it's the stern-faced scientists or the stern-faced military-men (oh those maps they look at where they don't seem to be pointing at anything) and the women who have the same serious but smiling expressions (yeah sounds like a contradiction, just watch), makes for a sit that is hilarious but also occasionally quite boring. Oh, the dialog certainly helps to bring some laughs, but it's telling that the new MST3K characters have to do a lot of work, particularly in the second half, to make it watchable at all.
I mention the second half, which is actually where the majority of the action takes place (most of the first half is set-up, with the scientists unearthing this reptilicus at some construction site that, as the MST3K guys says, is like a place out of the end of the Wicker Man, and then how it forms and remolds and grows in the lab). The problem is mostly one of pacing; there's a first attach by Reptilicus that is a lot of fun, and then it goes into the water after it burns to heal. Then the military tries to strike it with some stock-footage navy ships, and this only reveals it that when it's broken apart it grows *new* Reptilicuses (or Reptilicii, I don't know the plural of a made up monster). And then this new Reptilicus attacks a city, with crowds of Danish folk running all amok (many of them smiling, naturally, since they know they're in a cheesy monster movie as opposed to *real life*), and yet this last part feels so connected to the section set in the ocean that it drags. A lot.
Sure, criticizing this movie seems like a moot thing to do, but I thought it might be worth pointing out; part of this is that one or two of the jokes by the crew don't hit every time, so one is left watching this dopey nonsense. But at the least Pink's movie is a glorious bit of nonsense, all summed up by the creature with its (sometimes) green slime or fire or whatever coming out of its matte-lines near the mouth, and some of the 'acting' is so stone-faced it's impossible not to chuckle when they go about plodding through the exposition. It makes for a grand return to form for cheesy/worst movies, though among the worst this isn't so bad.
The monster is so gloriously stupid that it's only a wonder that it took so long for the Mystery Science Theater guys to get around to it upon the revival 18 years after the end of the show. This movie is prime-cut MST3K action, full of wooden actors - and some, like the inimitable Dirch Passer as Peterson (like a less subtle but less intentionally funny Kramer from Seinfeld) who are completely goofy, with the director Sidney Pink trying for real laughs like when he puts his hand in an eel tank - and that monster of the title. You almost can't believe when you first see what Reptilicus looks like and that he/she/it is going to be what we're getting; no amount of commentary can make one not laugh at it, and it's one of the pleasures of bad movies to see it there on the TV screen.
Did I mention this is a monster movie from Denmark? Some may not notice if one is only paying attention to the redubbed voice-work from AIP, though this creates an odd feeling as Pink had his actors and actresses speaking *in* English, so it has that effect of knowing the actors aren't speaking with their voices, but they don't have that Japanese or Italian style of dubbing where they try to match their mouths. This coupled with the usual lot of types of stock characters, whether it's the stern-faced scientists or the stern-faced military-men (oh those maps they look at where they don't seem to be pointing at anything) and the women who have the same serious but smiling expressions (yeah sounds like a contradiction, just watch), makes for a sit that is hilarious but also occasionally quite boring. Oh, the dialog certainly helps to bring some laughs, but it's telling that the new MST3K characters have to do a lot of work, particularly in the second half, to make it watchable at all.
I mention the second half, which is actually where the majority of the action takes place (most of the first half is set-up, with the scientists unearthing this reptilicus at some construction site that, as the MST3K guys says, is like a place out of the end of the Wicker Man, and then how it forms and remolds and grows in the lab). The problem is mostly one of pacing; there's a first attach by Reptilicus that is a lot of fun, and then it goes into the water after it burns to heal. Then the military tries to strike it with some stock-footage navy ships, and this only reveals it that when it's broken apart it grows *new* Reptilicuses (or Reptilicii, I don't know the plural of a made up monster). And then this new Reptilicus attacks a city, with crowds of Danish folk running all amok (many of them smiling, naturally, since they know they're in a cheesy monster movie as opposed to *real life*), and yet this last part feels so connected to the section set in the ocean that it drags. A lot.
Sure, criticizing this movie seems like a moot thing to do, but I thought it might be worth pointing out; part of this is that one or two of the jokes by the crew don't hit every time, so one is left watching this dopey nonsense. But at the least Pink's movie is a glorious bit of nonsense, all summed up by the creature with its (sometimes) green slime or fire or whatever coming out of its matte-lines near the mouth, and some of the 'acting' is so stone-faced it's impossible not to chuckle when they go about plodding through the exposition. It makes for a grand return to form for cheesy/worst movies, though among the worst this isn't so bad.