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Village of the Giants (1965) More at IMDbPro »

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27 comments in total

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent Camp/Features Vintage Beau Brummels, 30 October 2002
Author: Adam Bernstein (mendips_1999@yahoo.com) from Northwest, USA

I first saw this great campy film 20 years ago on TV and its got a great mixture of INTENTIONAL camp, the beginnings of a pre-hippy teen rebelliousness (1965), and some great music from Beau Brummels. The key to this film is not to take it seriously...the cast and crew didn't. "Genius" (Ron Howard) invents "GOO", a substance that turns rebel teens into giants who take over a village and the only hope is for Genius to find an antedote. He does just in time and it all works out in the end. But not before we get some giant ducks dancing to BBs live perfomance of "Woman" and other great pre-psychedelic background music. It's a trippy comedy of it's era. You can trash it, but then you miss the point. Also don't miss those sexy giant teen girls; when they grow their bikinis pop off.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Very funny movie, but is it really a "village?", 8 January 2001

Author: Mr. Pulse from Syracuse, NY

Bert I. Gordon's "Village of the Giants" is a humorously poor version of the "big thing make boom" movies in which a small group (Maybe 6, hardly a full village) of teens take a formula that makes them grow really big, talk really slow, and move like they are dying one breath at a time. It's all rather silly, and quite funny if you're up for this kind of movie. Of course, it's not funny in the way Gordon intended. Was it ever?

Tommy Kirk, also of the classic "Mars Needs Women" is fooling around with his lady friend in the start of the film, when Ronny Howard (Still with a full head o' hair, and answering to the modest name "Genius") creates a formula that makes things grow. When the no-good drifter teens get their hands on it, they cause some real trouble, and it's up to Tommy and Ronny to stop the chaosy.

The best scene is the first in which the teens appear before the town. They show up at an outdoor barbecue, and everyone is afraid, but really, not so afraid that they run away or anything, they just kind of look up and gasp a lot. So then the giants are making threats, and Tommy, in a fit of rage and large hair, picks up a chair (That just happened to be sitting around outside in a park) and breaks it over the giants legs (They pretend, use your imagination). He goes "Ow!" and then backfists Tommy who gets whalloped. Very nicely done.

The whole film takes place in a vacuum. No one seems to be much surprised or worried by the giants ducks that show up out of nowhere in the Whiskey A Go-Go and start dancing. They just kind of go along with it. Nor is anyone interested in calling the government in when the teens take over the town. They just sort of go with it. And really when these giants move as slow as they do, why would anyone be afraid of them? You can always outrun them, or if they try something, take two steps to the left. Bert I. Gordon, if you'll pardon the expression, just wasn't thinking "big" enough in this movie to really deal with the consequences of his ideas. The end is so banal and rather anti-climactic, especially for what is essentially a monster movie.

All in all, "Village of the Giants" is low on logic, but high on some good laughs, most at its expense.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Giant cats, giant teens.. giant laughs.., 7 October 2000

Author: purrna from Long Island, NY

Interesting movie that I first saw on TNT a few years ago. The writing and effects do leave a lot to be desired but this was actually a fun movie to watch if you don't try and take it too seriously. Lots of laughs at some of the gags and moments that this movie takes. And the music.. oh brother. ha ha.

While some of the giant animals like the dog, cat and ducks look really bad and you can tell that its like a split screen zoom up close effect thing they are going for , those type of scenes and moments could have really worked using todays technology. The ideas for this movie were there and with a good script I really believe this would have been one of the best fantasy/sci fi/comedy spoof type movies made. (Potentially) But unfortunately what we do get is giant cats that exit through the door never to be seen again, giant dogs that can't enter the room at all, giant wooden legs in the middle of a road as cheap built motorcycles circle around. And Ron Howard in a role I'm sure he would rather soon forget he did.

The plot itself was silly. 4 trouble making teens enter a town only to steal some growth formula invented by before mentioned Ron Howards character. Lots of giant kids run loose and tell everyone they are in charge now. But all they seem to do is sit around a lot in a huge auditorium and eat. Lots of sexual innuendo (including a breast ride on one of the giant female teens as she tries to dance with someone) and bad jokes like midgits at the end showing up hoping for some of the formula.

Funny movie but if it was written well and even remade to todays effects could be a great movie all together.

2 1/2 stars in my book. Has a lot of potential and you have to take into effect when it was made.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
The Silly Side Of A Land Of Giants, 2 July 2006
Author: StuOz (stujraw@yahoo.com)

Fun! Fun! Fun! Great Casting! Great Music! Before this film, we had other "Giant Movies", such as The Incredible Shrinking Man, but a recent YouTube viewing of Village Of The Giants has made me wonder if "Village" is the best of the lot. It has a sense of B-Grade fun that is hard to capture on film...without looking too stupid that is. The dance scene alone, with the little boy grabbing the giant girl, makes the film a winner. And note the music for the dance scene...brainwashing music!

Story elements and character names (Genius) and Ron Howard were all shifted into a Land Of The Giants (1968,ABC) episode called...Genius At Work. However, LOTG played it out in a straight faced way that was demanded by producer Irwin Allen. You could say that LOTG is the best straight Giants show ever and "Village" is the best silly/sexy Giants show ever. Both have a place.

Interestingly, probably like other corners of the world, in 1970s Australia, this film was replayed on network TV every year (at midday), but now it is gone from TV, thank god for the DVD release! Attention Hollywood: Don't remake this film today, "Village" is a product of the 1960s, it is about the 1960s mentality and 1960s music, it would not fit in this century.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Where All Good Teen Idols Go, 15 November 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Village of the Giants based very loosely on H.G. Wells Food of the Gods is one of those classic cult films that gets worse and more enjoyable on repeated viewings. Later on Bert Gordon actually did make a straight version of the science fiction classic that was quite a bit better. But I'm sure a pile of money was made on this one at many drive-ins across the country.

Sad to say that films like these are what happens to a lot of teen idols. Of the cast in this film only Beau Bridges and Ron Howard went on to careers of real substance. I'm willing to bet that both look back on this film and cringe.

I think what Walt Disney did to Tommy Kirk was a disgrace, but typical of Hollywood in the pre-Stonewall days. Tommy might have had a substantial career had the gay 'scandal' never happened, who knows. Or this might have been where he would have wound up any way, maybe later on. There are too many variables to consider. I would point out that Johnny Crawford didn't fare any better than Tommy in his post Rifleman career and he had no scandal attached to him at this point.

What this is about is six out of town teenagers, drunk and stupid, wind up in a small town where they take some 'goo' that child scientist Ronny Howard invents and grow to be some 15 to 20 feet tall. Led by Beau Bridges, they start running things until the town kids headed by Tommy Kirk and Johnny Crawford fight back and Ron Howard finds an antidote.

Best shot of the film, Johnny Crawford hanging on for dear life to giant Joy Harmon's cleavage. Must have sent them rolling in the aisles back in the day.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Beach Party Meets The Amazing Colossal Man meets Wild in the Streets, 8 November 2002
Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California

What do you get when you mix the children of famous Hollywood actors (Beau Bridges, Tisha Stirling and Tim Rooney), a couple of former child stars (Tommy Kirk and Johnny Crawford), a then current child star (Ron "Ronny" Howard) and a future one hit wonder (Toni "Micky" Basil) with a hack director (Burt I. Gordon). You get one of the biggest camp classics in the history of film. This film attempted to mix the then popular beach party flicks with the fading giant human pics. Gordon must have really been desperate for a hit because he figured that if he couldn't get Lloyd Bridges, Ann Southern and Mickey Rooney he could at least get their children to play in one of his quickie drive-in movie features. It's fun if you like camp, but as far as a great film, I'll stick with the films this mess rips off.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
A sniveling, constipated Beau Bridges! Yay!, 29 September 2001
Author: Leigh Buckley Fountain from Richmond, VA

This film opens with a group of presumably drugged out teens emerging from their rather badly wrecked automobile, only to dance around it maniacally and flop in the mud. Before long, one of them gets the idea to "go into town and make a little noise" or some such rot, and the fun begins when they run into giant ducks in the local dance parlor. These giants are the product of a goo accidentally created by a Opie-era "Ronny" Howard, who goes by the 'nickname' genius.

Amazingly, a sniveling Beau Bridges is the gangleader and they find the goo and dare each other to eat it, then halfheartedly try to run the town. See the spineless Tommy Kirk bust a rigged chair on a giant fake leg!!

See Beau Bridges and the fairly hot Toni Basil and another hot girl traipse around in curtain-like toga-sarongs! See director Bert I. Gordon make even more of an ass out of himself than ever and feel his ire as Mike and the bots tear him to shreds as usual! Laugh along as Tom Servo wrestles with his aversion to the movie "Willow", which he fantasizes was budding in young Ronny Howard's mind even then! And through it all, thrill to the exhilarating surf tones of the fabulous Beau Brummels! At least it's in technicolor.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Colossally silly, 7 October 2006

Author: MartianCreature from Redondo Beach, CA

Turn off the brain for this campy craziness. Ron Howard, in his Opie days, invents "goo," which, when ingested, causes super growth. Beau Bridges leads a bunch of bad teens, Tommy Kirk (of Disney comedy fame) is the leader of some good teens, and you are the befuddled audience trying to believe what is transpiring on the screen.

Natch: the idiotic bad teens get a hold of the goo, and turn into colossal idiotic bad teens who take over a small town somewhere. Apparently, the presence of 30 foot hostile giants does not interest anyone outside of the town, so the townsfolk are left to fend for themselves. Of course, nobody in the town except the good teens bother to do anything about it.

Once the giants appear, the action is limited, probably due to a lack of budget for special effects. The growth sequence is about all they really focused on, where they --oh, never mind. It's the highlight of the film, though, trust me. Progressively cheaper and cheaper effects parade their way through the story after that. My favorite is the scene where they try to "tie up" a giant Beau Bridges. You see two plastic poles (supposed to be his legs) being roped by the good teens. They then try to fasten the ropes with hot rods orbiting the "surprised" victim. Every once in a while, they show Beau making spasmodic and confused expressions in slow motion. By the way, whenever they show a character in slow-mo, you know it's one of the giants.

The movie knows it's idiotic, and makes no effort to conceal it. Good for a laugh at how absurd it is.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a bad movie,but not a good one., 10 October 2000
Author: <aesgaard41 from Hendersonville, Tennessee

This isn't a bad movie,but it isn't a good one.Basicly,six kids become giants,take over a town and change back,that's it.Young Beau Bridges and half a dozen Sixties teenage heartthrobs fill the movie along with Ron "Opie" Howard and his father,Rance,as the deputy sheriff.Busty Joy Harmon should have become a break-out star from this movie,but instead vanished into obscurity.There's a wonderful close-up of the front of her sweater ripping open Incredible Hulk-style as she transforms. She says,"I was big enough before." There's also a scene where she picks up a guy to hold him between her breasts;this scene appears on the cover art of some of the video covers.These scenes are the best reason for guys to see this movie,but girls won't appreciate it.I'd rent "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman" instead. I do like the movie for the scenes I described,but I really would like to find the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" version in order to hear all the jokes they made.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Poorly directed, poor acting, low budget, but fun., 8 December 2004

Author: Chuck Straub from Mansfield, CT USA

If you want to watch a well made movie, this isn't it. 'Village of the Giants' seems to be a B movie that was intended to attract young kids and the teen audience of the early 1960s. What you will find here is a poorly directed, low budget, movie with bad acting, cheap special effects, and a plot that goes no where. You'll see a lot of bikini clad teenagers, go go dancing to some mild, early rock and roll music played by the Beau Brummels. The camera does show a lot of cleavage shots and wiggling butts that surely was and is one of the movies main attractions. This movie was most likely considered a little racy for it's day. Quite a bit of this movie brings up the anti authority, good teen versus bad teen issue. This is all very mild by today's standards. Actually this makes it humorous in today's world and it can be mildly entertaining if not taken too seriously. It is nice to see Ron Howard as a child actor in this movie playing the part of 'Genius'. You'll also find a couple of ex Mickey Mouse Club members in the cast. 'Village of the Giants' could be considered one of those 'it's so bad it's good' movies. You have to view this as a fun, but stupid movie and by no means look at it with a critical eye. Under the harsh light of criticism,'Village of the Giants' will disintegrate into the smallest piece of dust.

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