planktonrules

Until I found "Space Monster Wangmagwi", I had no idea that the South Koreans ALSO made 'kaiju'-style films. The kaiju films were Japanese giant monster movies where the monsters were men in monster suits who stomped on cities..such as Godzilla or Rodan. In this case, evil space aliens bring a monster to Earth and drop it there...hoping it will eat everyone and leave the planet for colonization. But is this film as good as the comparable Japanese versions? Well, I'll cut to the chase and say NO!

The main problem is not the monster costume nor the cheap sets. The problem is the acting and writing. Instead of the usual heroic folks, this film often has comedic segments where various dopey people try to survive the onslaught...and most of it seems really out of place. Now, this is NOT to say the special effects are any good...they are terrible for 1967...the year before "2001" debuted. While I am not a big fan of "2001", it's outer space special effects were amazing for the time....and "Space Monster Wangmagwi" looks terrible by comparison to this or the Kaiju movies of Japan or even "Robot Monster" or "Plan 9 From Outer Space"! Silly space suits, awfully dopey space ships and a giant monster who looks more like a walking pile of poo all make this a 3rd-rate sci-fi film...at best.

Fortunately, because the movie is so bad it is also very watchable. After all, a bad movie can also be unintentionally funny...and this one certainly is more a comedy than serious sci-fi because it is so inept. You certainly WON'T mistake it for "Godzilla", "Mothra", "Gamera" nor "Rodan"! So my advice is invite the friends over and watch and laugh at this silly film!

In the 1960s and 70s, Spain was a very popular place to make movies...and quite a few companies from Spain and from the rest of Europe made a lot of movies there. In this case, like many others, you have a mostly Spanish cast and the leading character is a Brit (Kenneth More).

The subject of this film, Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is a story that's been made many different times. The most famous of which is probably the 1959 version...which was okay but not especially memorable. Hopefully this one will be better.

The Professor (More) has found a map showing directions deep into the Earth. He and his companions follow the map in the hopes of finding cool stuff and adventure.

On the negative side, the voice for young Glauben is pretty annoying. Of all the dubbed voices, this one stands out as the worst...and her character is occasionally rather annoing otherwise. In fact, nearly everyone but More is dubbed since the actors are mostly Spanish. Apart from that, it's a pretty ordinary version of the film...and not quite as good as the 1959 version, sadly.

By 1951, Wayne Morris and Preston Foster were past their prime and so it's not surprising they star in this B-movie from Columbia Pictures. The story is VERY familiar and the writing is indifferent.

Hank and Kenny (Preston Foster and Wayne Morris) have been working the oilfields for some time...long enough to finally have enough to buy their own land and drill. But Hank is an alcoholic and every time he gets money, he promises to control his drinking...but inevitably ends up drunk and making VERY bad decisions. Not surprisingly, when he gets drunk yet again he ends up buying what seems like a dead piece of land. However, he, Kenny and Cappy are determined to bring in oil. Oddly, they are assisted by Betsy, the same woman who got Hank drunk and got him to buy the property!

Pretty much everything about this story screams 'stale plot'...and it's a lot like quite a few 1930s B-movies about oil drilling...but with a difference. It's not a good difference, but Kenny and Hank like to punch each other a lot! Overall, a stale time-passer and not a whole lot more.