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Gila!

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    Christian Bates-Hardy
    Pod Person

  • Gila!



    Released by: Polyscope Media Group
    Released on: April 22nd, 2014
    Director: Jim Wynorski
    Cast: Brian Gross, Christina DeRosa, Kelli Maroney
    Year: 2012
    Purchase from Amazon

    The Movie

    In 2012, veteran exploitation filmmaker Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall, Hard to Die, Sorceress) directed not one, but two giant monster movies, Piranhaconda and Gila! While Piranhaconda was a sequel to the SyFy movie Sharktopus, Gila! is a remake of the classic drive-in feature, 1958's The Giant Gila Monster (riffed by Joel and the 'Bots on Season Four of Mystery Science Theatre 3000). With a retro, rockabilly aesthetic and a campy, lighthearted tone, Gila! is a loving homage to the old-fashioned drive-in monster movies of the 1950s and 60s.

    Gila! begins like any good drive-in creature feature should: with two teenagers making out in a classic car. The teens decide to elope, but before they can say “I do,” the groom-to-be becomes snack food for a giant gila monster. The action then cuts to a drag race between the hero, mechanic and hot rodder Chase Winstead (Brian Gross), and his mean-spirited nemesis Waco Bob (Jesse Janzen). Waco Bob loses the race and he and his busty flame Carla (Christina De Rosa) speed off, while Chase and his girlfriend Lisa (Madeline Voges) head to the local drive-thru restaurant to celebrate. Meanwhile, the local Mayor asks the Sheriff (Terence Knox) to find his missing daughter. More townspeople start disappearing, including some workers attacked by the gila monster while dumping toxic waste, and Deputy Sherriff Wilma (Kelli Maroney in a brief cameo role). With all these people disappearing under mysterious circumstances, the Sheriff asks Chase to help him find the missing people. They discover that a giant gila monster has been gulping down the townsfolk, and it's up to the two men to stop the monster.

    So how does the gila monster look, you might want to know? Unlike the creature from the original film, this gila monster isn't an actual lizard rampaging across model landscapes. No, because this movie was made in 2012, the gila monster is done with some godawful CGI. It's an ridiculously unconvincing creature that might have looked half decent in a video game cutscene during the mid 90s, but looks so bad here it has to be on purpose. Like his mentor Roger Corman, Wynorski likes to work on the cheap- that's part of the charm of his films. The cheapo gila monster gives the movie an intentionally corny look and feel, which is exactly what Wynorski seems to be going for in this film. Most monsters that appeared in 50s drive-in movies were usually just live birds, lizards, bugs and the like, projected larger than their actual size, and they looked pretty bad too. So as a remake of a low-budget, 1950s monster movie, this CGI creature works. It's appearance fits the style and tone of the film, and the crudeness of the computer animation leads to some really funny moments of death and destruction, like when the gila monster collides with a train, causing an eyesore of an explosion that is so terrible you can't help but laugh at it.

    Wynorski does a commendable job of recreating the look and style of a 50s drive-in film on a modest budget. Like the original film, the remake is set in the 1950s. Therefore, all of the characters talk in 50s slang and wear clothing that fits the time period. There's roller skating, hot rodding, and even a subplot about Polio in the film. With the exception of a cameo from rockabilly band MG and the Gas City Three, the soundtrack is all rock and roll from the 50s, and car buffs are sure to appreciate that all of the vehicles in the movie are beautiful, fully-restored classic cars and hot rods from the era. There are some historical anachronisms that pop up occasionally, but Gila! is a low-budget monster movie playing 1950s dress-up, and it doesn't aspire to be much more than that. If that doesn't sound like fun to you, then it probably won't be. No one is going to mistake this for a movie from the 50s, but there's a good attention to detail in the script as well as the film's set design, props, costumes, hairstyles, and so on to help recapture the feeling of that era and the films it produced.

    Audio/Video/Extras

    Despite its entertainment value, Gila! doesn't look so hot on DVD. The film is presented in 16:9 with a lossy MPEG-2 encode. The image quality looks very low resolution, and there lots of compression artifacts all over the picture. The colors are often muddy and oversaturated. This is especially notable on landscapes, the gila monster, and on some close-ups of people's faces. There isn't a lot of fine detail, and in addition to the compression issues, the outlines of people's faces, clothes, and bodies often appear jagged and pixelated. The only real positive is that the picture is never too dark, as most of the film takes place during daylight hours, and despite the poor image quality the bright colors and retro style make the film stand out visually.

    The LPCM Linear 2-channel stereo track on this DVD is also a mixed bag. While the classic fifties rock and roll soundtrack comes in nice and clear, dialogue can be somewhat muted. Everyone is clearly audible throughout the film, but the quality of the audio recording varies from scene to scene.

    The DVD menu can be difficult to navigate depending on which player you use. The first time I watched the film it was on my Sony PS3, and most of the menu was inaccessible. There wasn't a cursor present or any highlighted text to select menu options with. To determine whether this was a player issue or a DVD issue, I tested the disc on my laptop using the pre-installed ASUS DVD software and had the same issue. Finally, I tested the DVD again using VLC Media Player and suddenly the menu could be navigated and special features were easy to access. So depending on the software installed in your player or on your computer, you're likely to have issues with the disc menu.

    If you're able to access the special features on the disc, you'll find an assortment of extras. These include: a slideshow of stills from the movie, a brief note on the original film, credits for the cast and crew, a trailer for the original Giant Gila Monster, the lyrics to “The Mushroom Song” from the original film, a note on “The Golden Age of the Drive-In,” and a trailer for Gila! It's a half decent set of extra, and it's nice that they included the trailer for the original film, but it's unfortunate that the menu is difficult to access.

    The Final Word

    If you're into giant monsters and Rockabilly music, clothing and culture, or you're at all nostalgic about the 1950s, then Gila! is a movie that will really appeal to your old-fashioned tastes in style and entertainment.
























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