The Amazing Colossal Man

Poster tagline: GROWING! GROWING! GROWING! TO A GIANT! TO A MONSTER! WHEN WILL IT STOP? The plot couldn't be more classic for a 50's B-movie: a guy is burned by the heat of an atomic mushroom cloud in close proximity under unfortunate circumstances, his skin is burned to cinders, but he survives and mutates into a creature that grows several meters from day to day to the size of a giant. Despite the fact that it was made by legendary B-movie maker Bert I. Gordon, the visual effects in the first half are surprisingly adequate for the time. In the scenes showing the giant (sorry, the mutated Colonel Manning) is sitting in his new abode, a circus tent, the rear projections are not too bad. It gets worse in the last 10 minutes, when he unleashes his revenge on humanity in Los Angeles. He moves mostly behind buildings, his interaction with the "living" environment consists only in breaking off a palm tree and a casino advertising board, in one shot people clearly shine through his bare skull during the front projection. And by the way, the poor guy lost his mane and is half-naked with those giant undies (the tailors must have sweated), he looked like the Genie from Aladdin, or even better, like the mascot from Mr. Proper. The film is also packed with irresistible unintentionally comic dialogues and catchphrases throughout the film. The development of the shrinking agent, tested on animals, is also very funny. The "shrunken" elephant and camel, perched in rabbit hutches, are adorable. Best scene: Probably the efforts of two scientists to inject the giant with the shrinking agent. The sight of them walking with a 2-foot-long syringe to his foot is a sight worthy of a god. Not to mention what follows: the giant gets hold of the syringe and stabs the poor scientist with it. (06.02.2008)