Pretty Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Best movie ever!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Larry Cohen's "Q" makes no pretense about what kind of movie it is. The purpose is to be over-the-top. It looks like the sort of movie that they had a lot of fun making. What really caught me eye was the cast. While Michael Moriarty isn't known for anything in particular, we have Candy Clark (Debbie in "American Graffiti"), David Carradine (Bill in "Kill Bill"), Richard Roundtree (Shaft in "Shaft"), Mary Louise Weller (Mandy in "Animal House") and Malachy McCourt* (the brother of "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt). On top of that, the scene in the bar shows an Arlo Guthrie** poster in the background. What a collection for a movie about a winged Aztec serpent god terrorizing New York!*A few hours after watching this, I watched "The Brink's Job", which it turned out also featured Malachy McCourt in a supporting role. I never expected to see him in two movies the same day.**As it turns out, Arlo grew up in a property owned by Fred Trump. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about what a creep the elder Trump was.

Resurrected Aztec God embodied in the form of a giant winged serpent, stalks the cityscapes of Chicago, preying on rooftop dwellers and those who stumble on its lair. Perennial loser and small-time hood Michael Moriarty is menaced and intimidated into committing an armed robbery that goes wrong. Evading capture he hides out and inadvertently discovers the resting place of the prehistoric reptile, at the apex of the Chrysler building. When his ex-accomplices corner him to get even for the botched burglary, he lures them to the serpent's lair and lets Q do the rest.Genre director Larry Cohen has conjured a tight little pot-boiler with an entertaining mix of mysticism, crime-thriller, horror and comedy that employs some impressive stop-motion animation and clever photographic angles to depict the Pteradactyl-like Quetzacotal – abbreviated to Q. Aside from Moriarty's empowered weakling, Carradine is on-song as a tough detective who struggles to suspend disbelief long enough to investigate the link between ritual disembowelments and the spate of rooftop rippings that are bringing the city to its knees. Candy Clark ably supports the two leads as Moriarty's long-suffering girlfriend."Q" doesn't try to take itself too seriously, and its frantic pace and narrative, punctuated by the random, opportunistic rooftop snatchings keeps up the momentum and thrills. It plays like a cop thriller, cleverly blending the "monster movie" theme with conventional police drama, but spiced up particularly by Moriarty's manic impression of the petty loser baying for his seven minutes of stardom at any cost. The presence he brings to the character and in turn its association with the picture, is the dimension that elevates this B-grade monster-crime thriller into a minor classic. Perhaps the most satisfying aspect is that it contrives the way for a sequel that's never seen the light of day, and in doing so, preserved this film's distinction. Great movie.

Q, or to give it it's full title- The 8 Exciting Excapades Of Mr Q, The Big Thing, Also Known As Quaker Coat Al, King Of The Mormans, As He Chases Shaft, Kwai Chang, And Michael Moriarty- is basically just a remake of Jaws, but set in space. It has all the same scenes from that movie- a child being mauled to death as he takes his moon buggy for a brief spin; a dead man's head floating by the spaceship's port hole, Shaft having his legs bitten off as Q eats through the bottom of the ship. Heck, it even 'borrows' some of the famous lines- 'We're gonna need a bigger rocket', 'we're gonna need a bigger ship', 'Monster! (instead of shark!)', and 'Hi'. It is suffice it to say that the famous George Lucas theme tune of the approaching evil is rogued too. While the Jaws music goes like this- Duh duh. Duh duh. Du du du du duh da du du, duh da du du' and so on, the music in Q goes like this- 'Duh duh. Duh duh. Du du du du duh da du du, duh da du du'. If that ain't a slice of the old Rip Off Magee, then I don't know what is boy! Anyways, I'm sure if you've seen Jaws (or it's other remake, King Qwong) you'll know the basic storyboard. Humans have been living on the moon for a few weeks now, but for some reason they are all trapped in the 80s, or possibly the 60s. Drilling for precious moon oil has awoken an ancient beast known as Qod (basically God with a Q) and he ain't happy! He ain't happy, but he ain't not hungry! Q is a giant dragon type feature, roughly the size of a large squirrel, and he can fly. He can't breath fire, but he ain't not hungry! He feasts on space tramps and rocks and takes off towards the main city- Earth Part Two. Soon it is a race against time for the spacemen to work together and bring down this awesome foe. I like the graphics in this film- they are some of the best I have ever scene, and I like the fact that they filmed on the moon, with Neil Armstrong's permission. There is plenty of gore and killings, and the excitements are kept high on the scale- about 340lbs worth, give or take. What the film really needed was a big monster fight- they should have dug up another alien and had a smackdown rumble fest where they both smelled what the other had cookin'. This is a lovely piece of filming, Michael Douglas should be proud.Best Scene: Patrick Moore's cameo. He is discussing the possibility of life on other planets at the start of the show, then it cuts to him going to his dressing room. Later when his director goes to pick him up for his next shoot, and spins his chair round he is dead and Q has crawled out of his eye! You know which one.

"Q: The Winged Serpent" is cheesy fun at it's finest. The plot: Oh No! Quetzlcoatl, A Winged Serpent is terrorizing New York City! Only one man can take him down: An Ex-Scat player named Jimmy Quinn (Moriarty). For 1982, the stop motion effects are decent. Moriarty is excellent as usual. He puts a lot of heart and soul into Jimmy. You want him to be safe from "Q". There's a scene where Jimmy plays a impromptu piano solo that's funny and brilliant at the same time. Only Larry Cohen can make this movie... and get away with it.Watch Q tonight! For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com