Beware! The Blob (1972)

Truly Dreadful Film

Absolutely brilliant

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The Blob from 1958 is back, courtesy of pipe-layer Godfrey Cambridge who collected the killer substance at the North Pole and brought it back home to have it examined (he's the Blob's fourth victim, following a housefly, a kitten and his unsuspecting wife). Actor Larry Hagman, who had previously directed a few episodes from TV shows, makes his feature directorial debut here--it was also his last such effort for the movies (for which we can probably be thankful). One suspects Hagman might have taken on this low-budget, low-brow project just to get his directing resume kick-started, yet he shows absolutely no talent for the job. The Blob looks better dripping down from the roof of a car than it does bobbling up to a farmhouse or sitting dead still in the middle of the road. Hagman tries keeping the scenario light, with joshing segues to overzealous scout master Dick Van Patten and a naked guy on the run after the Blob invaded his bathroom. Still, the cast of familiar character actors looks mighty embarrassed, and there's nothing very clever about the dialogue, the plot or the finale. * from ****

This not a good movie. This is a remake. The original 1958 version is good movie. And the second remake from 1988 is also a very good movie. But this is just disappointing. I have seen some great remakes. And have seen some pooh pooh remakes. And this is just pooh pooh remake. The ending awful. And the acting is awful. Unlike the 1958 version this is not scary at all. The best thing about this movie is that it is a precursor to the 1988 version. Beware a bad movie. It is a wast of time. This is also a wast of money. Do not see it. It is just a pooh pooh remake. There are a lot of remakes that are better then the original. But not this one.

There were plenty of funny and somewhat scary moments in perhaps the first hour of Beware! The Blob like the beginning scenes with Godfrey Cambridge, Marlene Clark, and a cute, white, furry kitten. That between Cindy Williams and Randy Stonehill discussing how good their music is while smoking pot before a cop confronts them and that creature shows up. A hilarious one between Shelley Berman who doesn't consider himself a barber but an artist and his customer, John Houser, whose long hair certainly needs Berman's treatment. And another funny one concerning Tiger Joe Marsh who plays a Turk who's forced to streak naked (a '70s trend) down the streets after that creature invades his bathtub. Oh, and one more with director Larry Hagman, almost unrecognizable with beard, as a bum encountering him. But after that, I lost my patience especially whenever Richard Stahl showed up constantly complaining about some teens played by Robert Walker, Jr. and his girlfriend Gwynne Gilford whenever they usually accidentally caused some beverages either to fall from his car or they smash them up because of some other thing he keeps them from doing. I wouldn't have missed him if he had been killed. This wasn't as enjoyable as two other grade-Z horror films, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and Dracula vs. Frankenstein, I recently saw. So on that note, Beware! The Blob is worth one look and none more than that. P.S. I just found out Tiger Joe Marsh was born and died in my birthtown of Chicago, Ill.

Halfway between playing Major Nelson and J.R. Ewing on television, Larry Hagman found the time to direct this low-budget sequel to the 1958 schlock horror classic that first put Steve McQueen on the map. The tone is somewhere between an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes-like parody (though several years prior to that film)and a straightforward monster-on-the-loose thriller. Although never truly scary, there are a few nice moments, including a climax that essentially recreates the classic movie theater scene from the original but resets it in a crowded bowling alley. Mostly it's fun to try and spot the many well-known actors who appear throughout, including Godfrey Cambridge and Carol Lynley as town locals; comedian Shelley Berman as a hair stylist; Dick Van Patten as a Boy Scout leader; and Burgess Meredith and Hagman himself (nearly unrecognizable) as a pair of hobos. Young Cindy Williams (pre-Laverne & Shirley and American Graffiti) plays a dope-smoking hippie chick, while character actor Richard Stahl gives a great slow-burn comic performance as the bowling alley owner. If you're a fan of the original or just enjoy early-'70s drive-in creature features, you may have some fun taking a look at this.