Monster of the Day #1501

Yep, make anything big enough and it’s a monster. We’ll see how it plays, though. Of course, these sort of things can be plenty dangerous at regular size. I’m pretty sure that gun wouldn’t bring it down in time to do any good.

Speaking of supersized, Amazon coincidentally had on sale yesterday a longer cut of Jackson’s Kong. A longer cut. How about shorter cuts of things like this or Avator. Take less than an hour to get to the island. Cut out the embarrassing and unloved dinosaur stampede scene. Cut down the generally perceived as unpleasant killer bug sequence. Make it an hour and a half, and market that, and see how that does. In any case, I’m hoping the new film is far close to two hours than two and a half.

  • KeithB

    FYI, and off topic, but I just saw that Kolchak:Night Stalker is being run on MeTV on Sunday nights.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Given the stories I’ve read about Cape Buffalo, I shudder to think how much firepower you’d need to stop one THIS size if it decided it needed to turn you into a rug.

  • Wade Harrell

    Finally watched the newer trailer for this and I’m intrigued. The presence of a giant buffalo makes me wonder what Kong would be like with giant-sized prehistoric mammals rather than dinosaurs. It would make more sense scientifically, and so many of them are very bizarre and under-utilized as movie monsters!

    I liked the bug sequence from Jackson’s Kong, but it does go on too long and the worm things were too obviously CGI (it all was of course but creatures who’s anatomies don’t conform to the laws of physics are always a distraction).

    I did appreciate the use of giant wetas (the cricket like creatures). They are pretty big in real life (6″ or so) and are native to New Zealand and the surrounding islands, and of course Jackson’s special effects company is named after them, so a nice Easter egg for for bug nerds like me.

  • bgbear_rnh

    That’s a lotta bull.

  • Gamera977

    Giant mammals… like giant BUNNIES!?! ;)

    I thought the giant bug scene was one that should probably been left on the cutting room floor. But I too loved that they were wetas… some people in the theater must have wondered what I was giggling at when I noticed what they were.

  • Gamera977

    ‘Paul Bunyan must be around here somewhere.’

    ‘The ox isn’t blue.’

    ‘Well, he is big, and that’s close enough for me.’

  • bgbear_rnh

    or killer shrews!

  • Wade Harrell

    No need to go Night of the Lepus when there’s saber-toothed tigers, woolly rhinos, giant ground sloths, “bulldog bears” and all kinds of elephant variations, from the familiar mammoths and mastadons to versions with shovel-like tusks. So much potential! These animals were very big to begin with, but of course they’d have to be scaled up for this movie.

    Since the lost bug scenes from the original Kong are the stuff of film legend, there was no way Jackson wasn’t going to have that scene. Unfortunately, as with the rest of the movie, he took it too far.

  • Wade Harrell

    I love that movie! Despite the ridiculous creature effects, it’s never boring and has maybe the best closing line in movie history. Also it’s short! You could probably watch it three times in the same time it takes to watch Jackson’s Kong and enjoy it more.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, all joking aside I’d love to see the stuff you listed on the screen. Dinosaurs get all the attention but there were a lot of cool prehistoric mammals that would be awesome in a movie. Hell, just a well done (not Sci-Fi Channel) saber-tooth would be really friggin’ cool.

  • Rock Baker

    I have a feeling (the producer side of my brain here) that maybe movies these days are so long because they’re trying to justify the massive budgets that now seem mandatory. Of course, you can make a good movie on a limited budget, but that sort of thinking now seems so alien to Hollywood studios. I’m wondering if it’s not all part of a tax write-off like funding expensive plays that never make back their investment cost.

  • Flangepart

    RE: Capes…”He looks at you like you owe him money.”- Robert Ruark.
    THIS guys looks like George Soroes owes him money!

  • Flangepart

    Heh heh…”Eh…what’s up docs?” LEPUS had two Starfleet surgeons on the payroll, and they couldn’t save that puppy.
    I can imagine the conversation betwixt takes…
    “Crap, those rabbits looks like Shatner’s toupee.”
    “Tell me about it.”

  • Flangepart

    Spring time, for Hitler, and Germany…

  • Wade Harrell

    Ha! I was defending Killer Shrews, I’d need a few drinks in me to defend LEPUS…

  • Eric Hinkle

    I’d love to see Pleistocene megafauna be used in a monster movie. How about the entelodont? That thing was a rhino-sized hog. Imagine 2000 pounds of razorback boar deciding you look like dinner.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I remember an old joke about McDonald’s: “Over one million served, and they haven’t even used up the first cow.” If it was this size I can see why.

  • Night of the Lepus is one of (if not the) best Giant Monster Movie to come out of the Seventies. Which is just the simple truth, as that particular bar is very, very low.

  • Wade Harrell

    I had to look up entelodont, but hell yeah! Needs to be in a movie right now!

  • Wade Harrell

    I don’t know, I’m pretty fond of Empire of the Ants….

  • Empire isn’t a particular favorite of mine, but it’s not without its charms I’d just place Night as the better film.

    I’d also place Food of the Gods up there, too, so clearly I have no taste… :-)