GILA
(2012/Polyscope/MVD DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Main Program: D
On
the surface, the current 2012 remake based on the 1959 drive-in movie
classic The Giant Gila Monster seemed like a good idea for a
low budget film. They even got the original star of the film Don
Sullivan to do a cameo. But sadly, this new remake, Gila,
fails on every virtual level. The first mistake (and probably the
biggest) mistake the filmmakers made was to make the Gila monster a
horrible, cheesy, below SyFy channel quality digital creature. Bad
move. Unless you have a big Hollywood budget, don't rely on poor CGI
to save your film. Why didn't they just use stop motion animation
and keep the special effects close in tone to the original? As soon
as I took sight of this terrible re-imagining of Gila, I lost all
respect for what was to come.
Obviously
shot on low quality digital video, this has no trademarks in terms of
cinematic technique and no actors good enough to carry the film to
boot. The opening scene could have been a fun campy throwback to 50s
horror with a young couple parked in a bleak, rural locale when big
bad Gila comes and messes up their make-out session. Then we go into
a tired drag race storyline with our main character Chase and Waco
Bob which results in a car crashing and their introduction to the
giant lizard. Yawn.
What
they should have done in my opinion was stay true to the tone of the
drive-in movie - shoot the film in black and white 16mm (or even
cheaper digitally and used filter effects if they couldn't afford
film) and make a re-make that matches the original in terms of looks
and feel. The transfer on the disc is passable for DVD and captured
in 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 standard definition. The audio is typical, lossy
Dolby 2.0 Stereo and nothing special.
Extras
on the disc include a slideshow and A Tribute to The
Giant Gila Monster.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.vimeo.com/jamielockhart
