-Eye of the Beast-(2007)
-Summary: Our movie takes place in a Canadian Fishing Community, and something is depleting the usually abundant amount of fish. The Fisherman blame the local Indian tribe, whom they say are allowed to overfish without fear of federal restrictions since they're a protected minority. In comes scientist James Van Der Beek to investigate possible reasons, which immediately puts him at odds with the locals, who fear that he's going to end up, GASP, close the lake!!!! But... they can't close the lake... it's almost tourist seaso.... i mean they'll lose their primary source of income without being able to fish.
To add more gasoline to this fiery internal situation is the fact that people are suddenly starting to disappear.
Enter the local deputy-recently-turned-sheriff, (Alexandra Castillo) due to the previous one's untimely passing, who is not only half-indian, (thus always suspect in the eyes of the local fisherman) but as it is revealed later, has some past history with the actual perpetrator of this problem... a Giant Squid. So she brings in more problems to this already strained situation.
Of course, once it is discovered that the perpetrator is in fact a Giant Squid, people will refuse to believe it. It's only finally believed once someone finally manages to bring a severed tentacle they managed to get from the Squid and pretty much throws it down onto a table in the local bar. Then everyone's suddenly all behind this.
Will the locals and indians be able to put aside their differences and band together to try and stop this creature? Will Van Der Beek and Castillo fall in love as is usually dictated by movie law? Will the Squid eat lotsa minor characters leaving only the two main ones to face it down TOGETHER? All this and more if you actually care to watch this movie.
- It really goes without saying that the movie Jaws made quite the impact in the world of film. Nothing proves this point more, in my humble opinion, than by how many times it has been shamelessly aped and ripped off of for the last 30+ years. Countless directors from ALL OVER THE WORLD have tried to outdo Spielberg in the world of "Giant Killer Whatsit" movies. From Whales to Grizzly Bears to Crocodiles to Piranhas to Barracudas to Killer Buffalos to Other Sharks even, and of course... Giant Squids and Octopuses.
So guess what category this movie falls into?
Pretty much a "Paint by Numbers" Giant Killer Animal on the Loose movie. Add to that the fact that our main attraction, the Giant Squid, remains quite absent throughout most of the movie. With a great deal of attacks happening off screen or not shown at all. It isn't until the end that we get to really see said squid in full.
The rest of the Non-Squid-related story is pretty much your typical Killer Animal story. There's the Sheriff and the Scientist, the only two people who know what's really going on while the rest of the cast doesn't believe or want to believe them out of fear of the chance of having to close the Resort/Park/Beaches/Lake/etc. which is a major source of income. The movie though has the interesting twist on the usual "Jaws-like" formula by not having your usual fully designated Quint-like character. Though you COULD say that the entire town is pretty much populated by varying types of Quints, almost in varying degrees of scruffiness too I might add.
Though, in it's defense, I will give this movie SOME credit. It actually relies more on practical effects and props than going straight to the teat of CGI like so many other Giant Killer Whatsit movies in the past decade or so. It was actually kinda nice to see geniune prop-tentacles used. The only real CGI utilized is at the end when the Squid finally appears in full, having somehow managed to pull itself up out of the water to pretty much scream "BOOGA" at the characters, thus giving them enough of an opening to finally end it's threat to the fishing community once and for all.
Not painfully bad or atrocius, just painfully average, routine and not alotta actual effort put into it.
-Score: 2/5
Devious Comments
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Ultraman will always pwn Gamera and Godzilla
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