I've been watching a lot of Larry Cohen movies of late and recently learned that this maverick director passed away just a few months ago. He seemed to be one of those energetic characters that the movie industry loves and hates at the same time, a go-getter but not one who does things by the book. That's all well and good until someone gets hurt and on Q, a movie about the great flying god of the Azetics Quetzoquotal setting up shop in New York City there was ample opportunity for that.
I've long wanted to watch Q, but it never seemed to be a movie which played anywhere I was and I kept running across references to the stop-motion animation, a dying art even when this 80's flickw as being made. The flying monster in this one is okay and performs its functions well enough,but like so many movie monsters fails to live up the outstanding imagery of the posters. Boris Vallejo outdid himself on this one.
The story of how the movie got to be made is fascinating as well. Cohen was fired off a project and just to keep his hand in and to stick to the folks who sent him packing he put together a movie in a matter of days, calling favors from across the world. David Carradine , Richard Roundtree and Michael Moriarty give this monster epic heft, and the presence of Candy Clark assures one and all its status in the cult community. Cohen and Moriarty got along so well on this movie that they worked together on several of other projects.
Q ain't a great monster movie by any stretch, but it's a darn entertaining one and has an energy many of the modern much ballyhooed epics fail to match.
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This one's right up there with C.H.U.D.!
ReplyDeleteI do indeed get the same self-conscious "we're making a monster movie here" vibe from these two flicks.
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I always want to like Q more than I do, Rip. I've seen it a few times and love the cheesiness of the monster and the whole concept, but I feel like Cohen gave Moriarty way too much lead to ham it up and take over the movie, and I find him a really unlikable actor to start with.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Cohen's 'God Told Me To' yet? That's an unbelievable film.
I ordered a copy of "God Told Me To" and it should be here in a few days. I've been sopping up Cohen movies lately (the It's Alive trilogy might show up here at the Dojo sooner than later) and that seems to be exactly the kind of movie I'm hungry for this summer. Thanks.
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Quetzalcoatl is hard to spell, so "Q" is enough, I reckon. The only other films with one letter titles that come to mind are, of course, Fritz Lang's classic "M" and the Greek thriller "Z"... and two movies titled "W" (the first starred Twiggy, and the other was about George W. Bush. played by Josh Brolin).
ReplyDeleteThis episode of the Pure Cinema podcast is a retrospective and tribute to Cohen which I really liked it.
ReplyDeletehttps://purecinemapodcast.libsyn.com/a-larry-cohen-tribute
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