Village of the Giants

A group of teenagers become giant sized.

Before this film, we had other "giant movies", such as The Incredible Shrinking Man, but a recent YouTube viewing of Village Of The Giants has made me wonder if "Village" is the best of the lot. It has a sense of B-Grade fun that is hard to capture on film...without looking too stupid that is. The dance scene alone, with the little boy grabbing the giant girl, makes the film a winner. And note the music for the dance scene.

Story elements, character names (Genius) and Ron Howard were all shifted into a Land Of The Giants (1968,ABC) episode called...Genius At Work.

Attention Hollywood: Don't remake this film today, "Village" is a product of the 1960s, it is about the 1960s mentality and 1960s music!

The film is a wonderfully casted and wonderfully scored knockout!

What do you get when you mix the children of famous Hollywood actors (Beau Bridges, Tisha Stirling and Tim Rooney), a couple of former child stars (Tommy Kirk and Johnny Crawford), a then current child star (Ron "Ronny" Howard) and a future one hit wonder (Toni "Micky" Basil) with a hack director (Burt I. Gordon). You get one of the biggest camp classics in the history of film. This film attempted to mix the then popular beach party flicks with the fading giant human pics. Gordon must have really been desperate for a hit because he figured that if he couldn't get Lloyd Bridges, Ann Southern and Mickey Rooney he could at least get their children to play in one of his quickie drive-in movie features. It's fun if you like camp, but as far as a great film, I'll stick with the films this mess rips off.

After the grooviest opening credits ever filmed, complete with dancing, VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS begins... with dancing! Mud dancing in fact! Within seconds, junior scientist, "Genius" (Ron Howard) invents a formula that turns the family cat into an elephantine feline! Aided by his big sister and her boyfriend, Mike (Tommy Kirk), other animals are soon enlarged. More dancing breaks out! Whew! Giant ducks cut a rug!

Oh no!

Local bad boy, Fred (Beau Bridges) and his cadre of dancing delinquents decide to abscond with the formula for their own purposes. Hilarity ensues.

VILLAGE is another Bert I. Gordon production, loosely based of FOOD OF THE GODS by H.G. Wells. A lighthearted film, best enjoyed after one's cranium has been emptied of its content...

This film opens with a group of presumably drugged out teens emerging from their rather badly wrecked automobile, only to dance around it maniacally and flop in the mud. Before long, one of them gets the idea to "go into town and make a little noise" or some such rot, and the fun begins when they run into giant ducks in the local dance parlor. These giants are the product of a goo accidentally created by a Opie-era "Ronny" Howard, who goes by the 'nickname' genius.

Amazingly, a sniveling Beau Bridges is the gangleader and they find the goo and dare each other to eat it, then halfheartedly try to run the town. See the spineless Tommy Kirk bust a rigged chair on a giant fake leg!!

See Beau Bridges and the fairly hot Toni Basil and another hot girl traipse around in curtain-like toga-sarongs! See director Bert I. Gordon make even more of an ass out of himself than ever and feel his ire as Mike and the bots tear him to shreds as usual! Laugh along as Tom Servo wrestles with his aversion to the movie "Willow", which he fantasizes was budding in young Ronny Howard's mind even then! And through it all, thrill to the exhilarating surf tones of the fabulous Beau Brummels! At least it's in technicolor.

Turn off the brain for this campy craziness. Ron Howard, in his Opie days, invents "goo," which, when ingested, causes super growth. Beau Bridges leads a bunch of bad teens, Tommy Kirk (of Disney comedy fame) is the leader of some good teens, and you are the befuddled audience trying to believe what is transpiring on the screen.

Natch: the idiotic bad teens get a hold of the goo, and turn into colossal idiotic bad teens who take over a small town somewhere. Apparently, the presence of 30 foot hostile giants does not interest anyone outside of the town, so the townsfolk are left to fend for themselves. Of course, nobody in the town except the good teens bother to do anything about it.

Once the giants appear, the action is limited, probably due to a lack of budget for special effects. The growth sequence is about all they really focused on, where they --oh, never mind. It's the highlight of the film, though, trust me. Progressively cheaper and cheaper effects parade their way through the story after that. My favorite is the scene where they try to "tie up" a giant Beau Bridges. You see two plastic poles (supposed to be his legs) being roped by the good teens. They then try to fasten the ropes with hot rods orbiting the "surprised" victim. Every once in a while, they show Beau making spasmodic and confused expressions in slow motion. By the way, whenever they show a character in slow-mo, you know it's one of the giants.

The movie knows it's idiotic, and makes no effort to conceal it. Good for a laugh at how absurd it is.