War of the Colossal Beast (1958)

Really Surprised!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Good ole Bert I Gordon helms this huge slice of Velveeta, a straight- faced sequel to his "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" clone, The Amazing Colossal Man. Colonel Manning didn't die as thought, roaming the countryside of Guavos, Mexico, lifting food trucks off roads, his face and brain damaged. His sister in Los Angeles urges the military and doctors to help him. Government brass want nothing to do with him, and psyche tests show Manning is a head case of enormous size. A hanger holds him for a while but eventually Manning frees himself, nearly tossing a bus of kids at the soldiers oddly blinding him with spotlights... because that is what you do to a giant hoisting up a bus full of students! Despite being a man of great size, power lines are his downfall. Growling, with some rather poor makeup imitating revealed skull, this Manning speaks only his sister's name and nothing else. The giant effects opposite regular size folks and landscapes reveal all too well the limits Gordon's budget had. Being loose in LA, the film is too low budget to capitalize on any recognizable locations, ending at night with neighborhood onlookers marveling. For Gordon fans, this will be fun, but others, not so much. Lots of talking minds debating what to do about Manning as his sis appeals to in her brother's favor.

...that's where the Amazing Colossal Man came out to play. Well, that's how the song lyrics would go if they were written for this movie, Bert I. Gordon's sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man. It's cheaply made with excessive footage from the first movie used as flashbacks to pad the runtime. Even with this it barely clocks in at an hour. It takes awhile before we even see the Colossal Man and, even then, he doesn't do much. If your movie's one selling point is a giant bald guy throwing cars around and junk, you'd better deliver. The sad fact is it's a remarkably dull movie where very little happens. I don't mind a low budget and lots of cheese as long as it's a fun movie. This isn't much fun, sadly. Cool "partially exposed skull" makeup on the giant, though.

War of the Colossal Beast is the sequel to the Amazing Colossal Man and is directed by Bert I. Gordon. Those of you unfamiliar with the first movie just have to know the Col. Glenn Manning was turned into the Colossal Man via that 50's favorite, radioactivity, and was shot off Boulder Dam and presumed deceased at the conclusion of that picture. This picture picks up with Manning being found in Mexico, still a giant but now horribly disfigured and apparently insane. The Army captures him and brings him to Los Angeles on the somewhat shaky presumption that nothing could possibly go wrong with bringing a violently insane 60 foot man to a major population center. Well, of course Manning breaks free and proceeds to terrorize Griffith Park. His loving sister confronts him and snaps him back to sanity. At that point he decides to electrocute himself on some convenient high tension wires. The End.This American International (the hallmark of quality!) picture is actually pretty good given the genre and its (low) budget. I feel it is superior to The Amazing Colossal Man. The special effects are at once both cheesy and surprisingly effective. There's also plenty of footage from the original picture shown in flashback moments and some stock footage thrown in for good measure. The film moves along at a nice clip and the acting is acceptable, if at times a tad overwrought. A nice touch in the grand electrocution finale is the switch over to glorious color, so the viewer can fully enjoy the disintegration of Col. Manning. My "B" Movie Meter: 8.5*

First, I'm embarrassed to say that I've never seen "The Amazing Colossal Man", although I basically know what the plot is. So, in "War of the Colossal Beast", he returns with his face deformed and speech slurred. Of course, you gotta feel sorry for the big guy, seeing what he goes through.As can be expected, there's a major plot hole (how does a giant walk through LA without getting seen?), but we should just sit back and enjoy the complete silliness of the movie. It's a true representation of why director Bert I. Gordon is known as BIG.I hope that I one day get to see the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" version.