Reptilicus: Le Monstre des Mers

Without a doubt the best BAD movie ever made. From beginning to end, "Reptilicus" has it all:

1) Weird Location: Copenhagen 2) Bad Dubbing: Phonetic English over Danish 3) Cheesiest Monster: Rubber snake hand puppet thingy 4) Worst acting: Carl Ottosen as Gen. Mark Grayson, plus the whole cast! 5) Worst stock footage: Obviously unrelated to the movie 6) Worst special effects: Acid vomit + cut-out farmer entree' 7) Worst crowd control: Copenhagenagers running amok!

I know there are CHEAPER monster flicks out there, but "Reptilicus" gets the honorary "OsKar" for totally bad in all major respects. I dare you to watch it and not laugh... a lot.

An original title may be the only saving grace of "Reptilicus", but somehow it works subliminally on one's head... I can't forget the beast's expressions, there are at least two shots in which it has a strange sad grimace, although the origin of this creature is so weird that one can hardly develop sympathy or any other kind of emotion for it, as it often happens with film monsters. The character of the American general is not a very pleasant fellow, but the filmmakers put the weight of 70% of their movie on his shoulder, since the engineer does not do much and the professor is not only too old but also a cardiac patient... Then there is a bit of comic relief, two daughters that add nothing to the plot, a little travelogue of Copenhagen, a musical number, two different scores, and beautiful Miss Germany 1958 playing the leading lady in the American version. No more choices. Strange bad film, but somehow unforgettable. Maybe it has to do with poor Reptilicus. When I see things like this, that needed more than its two-cent budget I wonder why they made it.

This is the movie that we Danes can be proud of!! It is the worst movie ever made but it is so funny that I am about to die. I just got the American Version as a gift for Christmas and it is a bit different than the danish version. In the Danish version Reptilicus doesn't puke green slime at people and it does't eat the little farmer. By the way that was the scene I laughed my lungs up. It looks so god damn funny!!! But it is a pretty good movie to see with your friends and have a good laugh! Note that Reptilicus is destroying the Golden Gate bridge on the cover of the DVD.

If you like cheesy special effects, limited plot, limited acting talent, and garish acidic monster vomit, you'll love this movie! While it is far from the worst monster movie ever made, Reptilicus has very little to recommend it. But if you really, really liked the original Godzilla, then maybe you will like this also.

Reptilicus is truly a bad, but fun movie to watch. From the incredibly awful monster which was photographed in such an unconvincing manner as to look exactly as big as it was (about 2 feet long) to the routine "giant monster on the loose in the city" plot to the inept acting.

However, this movie *does* have some decent moments. The first few minutes in the beginning when the drillers find the fairly gross pieces of meat and blood on the drill from boring into the hide of Reptilicus buried deep underground (with the movie's title literally leaping from the main character's blood stained hands) and the creepy sequence when the creature comes to life in the storm brings a few chills to the undemanding monster movie lover. A skinned cow's head also adds a bit of gore to the movie. Also, the dubbing is fairly good and not too noticeable. The dialog itself however, is comically bad.

Of course, the movie has an abundance of unintentional laughs and the monster itself is the main focus here. Reptilicus is probably the *worst* looking giant monster ever created. Looking like a bargain basement toy snake with an oversized head and fangs with some useless little feet and wings glued on it and some red glop slathered in it's mouth, it wobbles and swings its head as if a single fishing line from above controls all of it's movements. The detail in the crummy model houses and buildings it destroys is below an HO scale train set. Reptilicus occasionally vomits some crudely animated day-glow green "acid slime" at people but you never see it's affects on anyone. At one point, Reptilicus destroys a farm and eats some guy in a plaid shirt which is actually a very poorly animated cartoon figure!

Now here's a few tidbits not well known about this movie:

It was originally shot in Copenhagen in the native Danish language. There was about an additional 10 minutes of dialog that was cut in the US English dubbed release. Reptilicus did *not* spit acid goo, as this was added in the US release. There were no slow motion shots of the monster in the original version. Most importantly, Reptilicus actually *flew* in a few scenes! Very much like the Japanese original "Godzilla" movie, this movie was substantially altered for US release.

However, the original version is just as "bad" as the US version.

This movie was just released in August 2001 as a budget priced R1 dvd with a very nice, full frame transfer which includes a trailer for the movie.