The Blob (1958)

This slick and mostly harmless monster movie from the 1950s is one of those cult classics that live on in infamy (for good or bad). Despite falling victim to oversimplification, some corny dialogue, and effects that look horribly dated, The Blob ages surprisingly well.

Right off the bat, you should know that cinematic greatness should not be expected from this film. Designed for little more than cheap thrills and laughs, The Blob is a popcorn flick in the truest sense of the word. Yes, it has its fair share of shortcomings, but if you focus on them too much, you will miss out on half the fun. Leave your inhibitions at the door and just take The Blob at face value. It won’t be your greatest movie going experience ever, but it will be far from your worst.

Everyone knows the story of The Blob- a mysterious glob of goop falls to earth and begins oozing over and eating everything in its path, growing larger with each victim. The inhabitants of a small town struggle to find a way to stop it and, in the end, discover a simple yet effective way to dispatch the gelatinous foe. It’s pretty cut and dry and straight to the point. It’s an easy plot to follow and one that has been mimicked and replicated countless times over the years (instead of The Blob, insert any unexpected terrifying foe and add an equally simple solution to the problem and you have an instant popcorn monster flick with moderate success). Everything else that comes with The Blob is purely frosting on the cake, but it’s good frosting for sure.

For a movie made in 1958, I was impressed by some of the special effects. Some of the initial scenes with the Blob attaching itself to an old man’s hand and moving itself across the floor were actually pretty good. It’s hard to make a hunk of what looks like strawberry jelly look very menacing, but the Blob’s bland appearance actually does serve to spook you a few times quite well. Perhaps it’s the faceless killer aspect of the Blob’s nature, or perhaps it is because you never know how quickly the thing will strike and what its strike range truly is.

Truth be told, I always thought the Blob was green. Needless to say, I was quite surprised to learn that it is in fact red. I don’t know if they intentionally did this to mask any potential gore inside the Blob (as its red appearance would block out or blend in with any blood swirling inside from its last victim) or not, but it was a good choice. The red really helps the Blob stand out. The smaller the Blob is, the better it looks. Later on I the film we see rear projected, miniature scale or animated versions of the Blob. None of these look all that fantastic and show how some movie effects just haven’t aged well.

But for a 50 year old movie, The Blob gets the job done pretty well. Film fans will get a kick out of Steve McQueen unrealistically playing a teenager. His character has gotten himself in enough trouble in town that nobody believes him when he starts warning people about some kind of monster that’s going around eating people. Naturally, this rough around the edges guy pairs up with a sweet innocent girl, who is forced to go behind her parents’ back in order to help McQueen out.

The ending of the film is somewhat amusing as well. The words “The End” morph into a large question mark, implying that the Blob could very well return to ravage society. It’s a very 50s kind of thing to do- it was the era of growing fear as the Cold War between the US and the USSR began intensifying and the question mark serves to set the film up for a sequel if it did well enough.

While The Blob isn’t anything too remarkable, it is a fun and easy movie to watch. There’s a lot of history surrounding this movie (it did help re-popularize monster movies) so it’s more interesting to watch from a historical perspective than anything else. The Blob is a pretty good display of how movies changed at the time and serves to remind us how much they have changed since then.

RATING: 2.75 out of 5

The Great Escape (1963)

With no female characters and only a few women appearing as extras during the film’s nearly three hour runtime, The Great Escape would do well to avoid any diversity-in-film competitions. The good news is that this is one heck of a film. Action, danger and emotion are all running on high, creating one of the best World War II films of all time.

Not only does this film present one of the most awe-inspiring stories of heroism, determination and brotherhood that I’ve ever seen, it does so in an honest fashion. As the film opens, the titles tell you that while the events of the film are indeed true, the characters portrayed on screen are composites of several people who actually lived this tale out.

There’s not much setup and zero fluff. We get right to the point- Nazi Germany has constructed the perfect POW camp, in which they plan to house their most troublesome prisoners. Allied soldiers from several different countries are brought to the camp and they immediately begin formulating plans to escape. The first few attempts, on the first day no less, are halted very quickly. The Nazi’s know the usual tricks and aren’t fooling around here.

The men soon band together and use their individual skills to benefit the camp as a whole. After evaluating the camp’s defenses, which are many and discouragingly thorough, they decide their only option is to dig a series of tunnels several hundred yards from the middle of the camp to the edge of a nearby forest. There are setbacks and there are breakthroughs, success and failures. Nothing works out in the typical Hollywood perfect manner and many of the outcomes of the escape plan are atypical for a Hollywood feature, but remain true to the real life story.

While not an all-star cast per se, The Great Escape is filled reel to reel by top performances from a very well-rounded an eclectic cast. Richard Attenborough plays a British Squadron Leader and mastermind of the whole operation. James Garner plays an American airman who excels at stealing and bartering for little items that help the escape effort. James Coburn plays an Aussie airman with unsurpassed ingenuity, building all the necessary tools from scratch. Charles Bronson plays a Polish soldier in charge of the perilous digging operation. Donald Pleasence plays a British airman with a keen eye for forging the documents that will allow the escapees to cross the border into Allied territory.

The men are focused on keeping the operation completely under the radar, making it appear as if there was no escape plan underway. The problem is that the Nazi’s will be immediately tipped off to a major plan if it seems as if there is no major escape plan in the works. Enter Steve McQueen, the King of Cool. He plays an American POW providing the Nazis with more than a handful of by-the-numbers escape attempts. When he is caught, he spends weeks at a time in solitary confinement to break him down. He never breaks and keeps trying to escape, in the hopes of both providing the diggers ample cover for their own plan and to bring back information about what the terrain and populous is like outside of the prison camp.

A brutally honest film, The Great Escape shows the bond forged between total stranger united by one cause- getting out of Nazi Germany. The film strays slightly (but never falls) into rah-rah macho foolishness- McQueen takes off on a very impressive motorcycle chase sequence that is one of the few creative liberties taken. Otherwise, the film shows how men can be stubborn, strong and weak in the jaws of adversity. While usually lumped into the category of “guy movies,” The Great Escape is something that a large percent of moviegoers can connect to and appreciate.

The stunt work is handled very well, considering the film’s age, and there is very little in the way of special effects. The acting is top notch and the messages of brotherhood and loyalty run strong without going overboard and feeling pro-war propaganda-ish. There is actually very little about war in this so-called “war film.” It’s simply a survival tale.

What more can I say about this film? It’s riveting, it’s heartbreaking, it’s charming and, most astounding, it’s true. Watch this if you get the chance. You won’t regret it.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5