Ah, yes, to be transported back into time, maybe as far as 1959. Pick any weekend afternoon when for some reason you aren't outside playing, doing chores or homework. Maybe it is raining outside, or you have the measles.
On channels around the world, sponsored by manufacturers of products so shoddy in nature the only advertising on TV they could afford was usually either very late-night or weekend Bad-B-Movie-Time.
One of the movies you probably would have seen: The Giant Behemoth.
As a kid, I was utterly intrigued by the likes of these monsters; Gamera, the Beast from 20k Fathoms, Them, Godzilla, and a whole host of others. Most of these movies would have displays of atomic blasts in the first 10-15 minutes, if only to underscore the dangers of radiation. Kids would recount on the school playgrounds how many times Tokyo was obliterated, complete with sound effects and movie quotes.
Much as I'd like to say this one isn't that bad, I can't. It's worse. The "special effects" appear to be (and probably are) a bath tub, some inanimate puppets, and in one scene, plastic cars on a plastic toy ferry that tips over in the bath tub. The acting runs the gamut between pretty good and incredibly bad.
Even so, it was my choice for a different weekend of rain. As I was leaving the library last Sunday, the DVD cover caught my eye, transporting me. As bad as it was, it was fun to watch and be taken back to less-sullied days, when (to a kid's eye, anyway) the world was a much simpler place...
No comments:
Post a Comment