Sadly Over-hyped

Don't Believe the Hype

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Inexpensive does not have to mean bad, but it does mean being resourceful and clever. You want those qualities? Look elsewhere. W Lee Wilder makes the first modern Yeti movie and, there are a few good scenes. One of the expedition hears a strange noise at night and goes outside to investigate with a flashlight, and just misses seeing the creature. Fear and intensity make an appearance, and are then squandered by endlessly dull stock type shots of the expedition trudging through the snow. The lead guides "woman" is captured and he hijacks the expedition to find her. They find the Yeti, he tries to kill them, instead he accidentally kills his own mate and child, knocking himself out in the process. Forgetting the woman they came to rescue, they ship the creature to America in a Frigidaire. A customs official holds them up to investigate, and the thing escapes. They should have waited 40 years and had him come across the border as an undocumented worker! Of course the Police have to track him down, as he is killing folks in LA. To me the creature looks like a man wearing clothes who stuck some substance resembling fur on them. He is the worst 'Monster' I can recall, resembling not so much a poodle, but a mangy dog wearing levi's. Of course they kill him. So much opportunity to make a good movie gone to waste. Music was good, dialog weak and script pretty cornball. Has its moments, but they are few.

American botanical expedition in the Himalayas stumbles across a Yeti den, capture one and transport it back to Los Angeles, where it escapes while customs officials are debating whether it is animal or human.From the relatives of Billy Wilder comes this crazy horror flick, and I must say the film and sound quality of this movie are impeccable. The yeti has a simple but effective costume. And all in all this movie is far better than anyone should expect from its age, budget, crew and cast.The film also raises an interesting question: what does it mean to be human? The government has to decide if the yeti is human or not. While it is clearly not human in the same physical sense we are, is that what makes us human? The film suggests that a creature with a "calculating mind" could be human... an interesting definition.

Expedition to the Himalayas finds the yeti and brings him back to Los Angeles where he runs amok. Really awful monster on the loose film suffers from a variety of sins, not the least of which is a monster that kind of looks like a man on ski pants with a woolly shirt and mask. Its a mess. In the right frame of mind and with some wise cracking friends this can be a really fun film, but the idea that anyone is going to sit and watch this is likely to curl your toes. Assuming you don't turn it off because its bad odds are you're going to fall asleep because its rather dull. This was the first discount video tape I ever bought and it was also the first film I ever fell asleep to while I was watching it. This is for bad movie or yeti movie fans only

W. Lee Wilder may not have had his brother's level of talent, but he did have enough to come up with interesting premises (in this case, what seems to be the first movie about the abominable snowman) and the occasional interesting shot or composition. What he didn't seem to have, at least in this movie, was a sense of pacing, or a sense of what to include and omit, or (apparently) even a budget, given the incredibly annoying overuse of several completely unconvincing frames of his "creature" emerging from the darkness and then retreating back into it(seemingly by reversing the film). Seriously,they must have used this 3 second sequence 20 times or more, and it barely worked the first time. This is very symptomatic of the movie's poverty of invention. The screenplay itself has plot holes you could drive a Himalayan expedition through. Most of the "action" in the first half of the movie consists of either silent climbing sequences, or master shots of people sleeping and talking inside their tents. And then after the creature is captured and shipped to Los Angeles, it escapes, and the whole thing turns into a police procedural/storm drain chase that would make the writers of "The Indestructible Man" giggle uncontrollably in derision. (At least IM had Lon Chaney Jr, and a flame thrower and a bazooka). The actors don't have anything to work with here. Basically, every main character is either unlikable or dumber that dirt. The yeti itself is totally unconvincing - the costume appears to be a shaggy rug wrapped around a tall, slender actor. Don't waste your time with this one. It's not good enough to watch as a movie, and it's not bad enough to be any fun.