Pretty Good

An Exercise In Nonsense

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Make no mistake, you'll find no great cinema here. The acting, dialog and special effects are very B-grade. Yet I find it compellingly fun to watch.Perhaps it is the non-stop drinking that occurs throughout the film that makes me want to join in. Such drab, dour characters sipping martinis in such a drab, dour location fascinates me. One would think scientists would want to be a little more alert in a dangerous situation but apparently they prefer to be well-lubricated. There is one scene that makes me think of "synchronized swigging" and always makes me smile.The stunning Swedish beauty who should be prancing merrily in heels walks about all droopy and slack-shouldered. Almost as though totally bored with the whole idea that they may all be devoured by ravenous beasts before the break of dawn.The grim scientist who appears blinded to all but his work only brightens when he holds a tiny shrew in his hand - not with a look of curiosity and fascination, but with a lip-smacking leer suggesting he is ready to gobble it up in one bite.I pull this out at least once a year with a full supply of my own favorite mind-altering beverage to join in the fun. It makes me wonder if I need to look into AA.

This is an awful horror film. It is, well, laughable. I guess if it doesn't scare you then it's sure to get a few laughs out of you - it certainly did me.The film started out irking me due to the fact that the "Captain" was unworried about his first mate out in a hurricane alone. This fact alone was enough for me to dislike the film right off the bat! Any real captain would have either went back out to weather the storm with his first mate or tried to see if the first mate could stay in the home and have dinner as well.As the film progressed I was somewhat bored and somewhat entertained at the nonsense on the screen. Towards the climax of the film and ending I got a few laughs out of the movie. The welded barrels was enough to get me giggling.If everyone in this film was eaten by the shews it would have been alright by me - that is how awful this film is. But I did get some giggles out of it so I will have to rate this film a big "4".4/10

Now, wasn't '59 a gas year for movies? We stumbled on to 'The Killer Shrews' Saturday evening (when else?), and I came away with these impressions before my viewing mate said "Enough": The interior set design was bad-drunk good, with the wonderfully grimy walls, windows that look out onto nothing but gates and teeth, and that killer bar in the corner under the mirror, where I imagine the sane folk gathered while the hurricane of terror just swirrlled around them..this was either a career maker or breaker for the fellow playing ever- compliant Mario, the bartend..Gordon McLendon ("the Old Scotsman") was a heavy in radio broadcasting, and sonorously ran 'beautiful music' (an extinct format that sounded like elevator music) KABL in San Francisco..the real lift this odd little offering brought me was in seeing a portrayal of a black man--the 'mate Griswold--without any buffoonery, racial stereotyping or condescension, relating to his boss (Thone) as one neighbor to another. (This changes to "Help me, Massa" screams as he's turned into dinner by the shrew/dogs.) I can recall but too other such examples from the non-p.c. era: the escapee in "My Sweet Charlie" and the 'hero' in "Night of the Living Dead". If going to Heaven means doing what I want,..I want to go to Heaven so I can bend men's minds into believing that 'Killer Shrews' swept the Oscars for that year.

The Killer Shrews is infamously remembered as one of the worst movies of all time. That being said, I find it fun and enjoyable. The effects are so bad, that it's fun. You can't watch this movie without smiling. The dogs in rugs, though a pathetic approach to "Giant Killer Shrews" still come off as sincere, and provide eerie feeling to the whole film. The up close puppets are well made, and are quite fun to see. The plot centers on a group of people, stranded on an island infested with killer shrews during a hurricane. That's pretty much all there is to it. There isn't much of a plot, but it is still an enjoyable film. And now, about 50 years after the original release, a sequel is being filmed foe release in 2013. It's only a step away, and I can't wait!