Reptilicus (1961)

"If Reptilicus is hit, you'll never find all the pieces underwater. He'll regenerate, Mark!", 15 April 2017

Part of the frozen tail of an unknown creature is discovered and sent to a lab for study. By mistake, the tail is allowed to thaw and it begins to regenerate the rest of the creature. During a freak thunderstorm, the regeneration process is sped up and the creature, now called Reptilicus, escapes and wrecks havoc on Copenhagen. The military has its hands tied in dealing with the creature - if they blow it up, they risk creating a new Reptilicus for each of the many pieces.

I hadn't seen Reptilicus in at least 20 years, but thanks to the new MST3K, I rewatched it last night. What a fun/bad movie! The fun parts are watching a Danish take on the rampaging monster made famous by Godzilla. The scientists are appropriately serious and speak in a lot of sci-fi mumbo-jumbo. The women in the cast are just there with nothing much to do. And there seems to always be a clever reporter or two on hand. But the best of the cast is without a doubt General Mark Garyson. He's so over-the-top, it's very often laugh-out-loud funny. He spits lines like nails and chews scenery with the best of them. Whoever did the dubbing should have won award. Great stuff! The constant change in sweat patterns, jacket and helmet on/off, and his style of close talking are a real hoot.

Reptilicus is no Godzilla (or even Gorgo, for that matter) and is super-cheesy and cheap. The shots of the monster never really fit with the rest of the film. And that green slime is ridiculous looking. It was so obviously added in post production and has a definite cartoon look to it. Finally, the monster's neck looks so flimsy there is no way it could ever knock over a balsa structure, let alone a brick building.

Despite any weakness, the movie is still a fun watch. As a piece of entertainment, it works fairly well. Given the good and the bad, I call this one about average. A 5/10 from me.

5/10