THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)

THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (1957)

Tagline: A Seventy Foot Giant Is Terrorizing Las Vegas...

(Sci-Fi, Suspense, Don't Sign Up For That Experimental Military Thing) [PG]

Note: This movie wasn't given an MPAA rating, but I am pretty sure it would have been rated PG or even G.

In this one Lt. Col. Glenn Manning is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He ends up exposed to a plutonium bomb explosion at Camp Desert Rock. He gets pretty much burnt to crisp but surprisingly and inexplicably heals and starts growing. He ends up growing so much that it’s pretty much blowing people’s minds. Attempts by the military to keep him hidden are easily thwarted by his finance, and now she pretty much feels like she can talk him into waiting for a cure. At around 50 ft high, he’s also starting to lose his mind, but seems like he might have already been a jerk before the explosion.

I am now kinda looking for some plutonium so I can become huge and do a talk show tour. Maybe join the Phoenix Suns. Only – I need the kind of plutonium that doesn’t turn you into a full blown jerk. This movie trying to compare itself to KING KONG is an insult to KING KONG. Unless KING KONG has been turned into a giant bald guy wearing what is essentially just a giant diaper, and I don’t know about it.

Overall I gotta say this one is pretty rough. I do remember seeing it on World Beyond on KPHO when I was a kid and thinking highly of it, but really this whole movie boils down to 1 iconic scene. The scene even gets a tribute in MONSTERS VS ALIENS. The rest of the movie is not only fairly drab and slow moving, the entire title seems like a swing and a miss. The action sequences are few and far between and the dialog just doesn’t hold up even compared to films of its type and era. Meaning there are B movies that are better than this B movie, it’s almost a C movie. Having said that this thing doesn’t come without a few effects that are almost so bad they are comical.

Unfortunately it’s not a movie you would consider just bad enough to be good. It is bad enough to be bad though. I should also warn you that if you plan on seeing it, be prepared for a really abrupt ending that leaves you with the feeling that they just ran out of budget. Someone must have mentioned this because a year later they made a sequel that when a long way to try to explain the ending of this one. Do I recommend buying it…no…not even for $1.00. BUT is it mildly interesting…yes. So you can dig it up on a streaming service for free. 

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