Tentacules

I have to wonder how this star-studded train wreck came about; I hope there's a better story than "they were in it for the money." Three legends - Shelley Winters, John Huston, Henra Fonda - in a low-budget, poorly..., well everything movie. The giant octopus is rarely seen, and when it is, it's pretty much obvious that it's a regular octopus filmed at angles and with bubbles thrown in to demonstrate violence in the water. And despite the three stars having above-the-title billing, they really only have supporting roles, and none of them get to Roy Scheider the octopus.

Actually I think I have it all figured out. Trying to cash in on the Jaws craze, they commissioned people to create another sea monster but overreached in hiring stars and blew their whole budget on their salaries. There we go.

Yes, this one is another cheaply produced flick to capitalize on the market created by THE killer shark movie. The "plot" here concerns a giant octopus eating residents of "Ocean Beach." This is one poor excuse for a movie in the end: The special effects are shoddy, performances are embarrassing, especially considering that there are some big names (John Huston??!?) in this, and overall the movie is terrible. However, to the fan of chessy cinema, this one will not disappoint. I enjoyed this one a lot, but again, don't watch this in a serious mood...if viewed with a straight face, this may well be one of the worst movies of all time. Instead, enjoy it for what it is...another cheesy giant monster flick and pass the popcorn. hehehe.

I guess the actors were excited about being sent to Italy, and the downside is that..it was to be in this movie. I guess the producers were thinking they would make some money doing a version of "Jaws" with an octopus instead.

But the casual moviegoer, who has reasonable intelligence, will either be laughing at the whole thing or bored to death. Either way, the movie is not insultingly awful. At least Shelley Winters is under control, for the most part, but John Huston as a reporter is a riot. Danova had all his dialogue dubbed, which seems strange since he speaks English (he did in "Viva Las Vegas" and "Mean Streets", to name two instances). Henry Fonda & Bo Hopkins are also along for the ride.

Well, hysterically bad! Everyone else's comments already hit the nail on the head, so I don't know what is making me laugh harder- this movie or the comments!

I hope everyone involved in making the movie at least had a good time in Italy and Southern California. Hopefully they were laughing, too. Huston was way too much of a genius not to have seen this as what it is- dreadful. Perhaps he thought it was a farce of some kind? I would love to have been a fly on the wall during the after filming drinks Huston, Winters, and Fonda must have shared.

The effects are bad, the dubbing atrocious, I couldn't tell if the weird sounds were music or sound effects, some scenes were lifted almost exactly from Jaws...

I could go on, but I think you've got the idea. If it is rainy outside, and you're bored and ready for a laugh, go ahead and watch.

But don't say you haven't been warned.

This was a total let down. I was expecting something either truly over the top or something so bad that it was good, but director Ovidio Assonitis just sails right down the middle with a Jaws rip-off that is mostly dull, with the odd stupid scene to almost keep you awake.

Our aquatic nemesis this time around comes in the form of a mutated octopus, somehow changed into a man-eating monster by some sort of industrial, experimental tunnel (didn't quite catch that). It starts off by eating a baby and a sailor and the local police, plus nosy reporter John Huston, are baffled by the state of the bodies. You know the drill. Giant sea monster. Shady company covering up its errors (run by Henry Fonda of all people). Marine expert brought in to sort things out. Local authorities trying to stop public learning of monster in order to go ahead with big event (these days they would have been clapping their hands together with glee at all the money they'd save for cancelling).

There. That saved a few paragraphs, now let's look at some other details of the film. For some reason, John Huston lives with his sister Shelly Winters, and Shelly is divorced with a young son and his mate who are both taking part in the forthcoming Regatta. That whole scenario there smacked more of a US disaster film than an Italian rip-off film. Henry Fonda doesn't do much at all and unless I fell asleep, and may very well have done, the whole plot about the company creating the mutated octopus just kind of wafted away like a fart.

There are some laughs to be had, however, and not from that crappy comedian they have entertaining the crowd before the regatta (what was that all about?). First off, there's the big fat guy from Strip Nude For Your Killer going swimming while a guy false scares him twice (complete with dramatic music), only for the octopus to grab hold of him and stick his feet out of the water upside down like it was playing pee-a-boo with Sherry Buchanan. Before eating her too. I also burst out laughing when the authorities finally decide to stop the regatta after its already started by flying around in a helicopter with a tiny sign that says 'danger: go back'. The film cheated at this point by making me think the octopus had eaten every single person in the regatta, which would have been a much better result than the single person it actually at.

Best of all however was Bo Hopkins as the Orca whisperer. Here he gives a dramatic pep-talk to his two pet killer whales before they go into battle against the octopus in a sequence that seemed to last about a week. The speech was pretty funny though. Not enough to save the film.

So, boring then. Strange freeze frames here and there two which made me think the version I was watching was glitching.