I Kill Giants (2017) - Dane debuts with balderdash B.O. disaster

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A girl wielding a huge weapon in front of a massive giant makes up this dramatic poster for Anders Walter's I Kill Giants

A small girl in a US coastal town rejects normal school life in favor of her hobby; hunting and killing in the forest along the ocean. - But does this curious interest cover over something else?

 

I Kill Giants is written by Joe Kelly (Monsuno (2011-12)), adapting his same-titled 2009 graphic novel co-created with Ken Nimura (Henshin (2015)), and directed by debuting Anders Walter (Helium (2013, short)).

A Monster Calls (2016) reminiscent story with an eternally supercilious, self-governing protagonist with a well-meaning, worried school councilor (Zoe Saldaña (Amsterdam (2022)) gives a dull sad-face performance), dumb brothers and a powerless bigger sister. An overly sweet new British schoolmate girl seems invented solely to get us closer to our little miss nonsense, who is given many a scene to elaborate her wacky nonsense universe. It is all gravely dull.

Humor, real suspense or dramatic development is missing in I Kill Giants. SPOILER The ending unsurprisingly shows that the fantastical elements are all self-invented in order for the girl to cope with her mother's cancer illness. She dies. The girl did not get to see her mother through her last time on earth due to her nonsense hunts in the wild. Nevertheless she thanks an imaginary giant in the film's last scene, wrapping up a story and film that is distant from actual reality and prone to hokum.

 

Related post:

 

Anders Walter: The day after ... The Oscars 2014

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Estimated 15.1 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 369k $

= Box office disaster (returned 0.02 times its cost)

[I Kill Giants premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. 13 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place from September 2016 - ? in Belgium, Ireland and New York. The film was released day-and-date (online and in a few theaters) in North America with the gross numbers remaining secret (but likely being tiny). The film's reported gross comes from 7 markets, which, along with Denmark, where it sold just under 2,000 tickets, comes to 369k $. The three biggest markets were Russia with 165k $ (44.1 %), the UAE with 85k $ (23 %) and Portugal with 40k $ (10.8 %). The-Numbers.com allege that the film additionally made more than 1.7 mil. $ on domestic home video sales. Walter returned with Når Befrielsen Kommer (2023). Madison Wolfe (Keanu (2016)) returned in Trafficked (2017); Saldaña in a voice performance, a short and a music video prior to her theatrical return in Avengers: Infinity War (2018); and Imogen Poots (The Father (2020) in Age Out (2018). I Kill Giants is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Kill Giants?

Eegah/Eegah! The Name Written in Blood (1962) - Wehling, Hall, Sr. and son's landmark turkey

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This lurid, sensationalistic poster for Arch Hall, Sr.'s Eegah promises much much more than the film delivers

A girl in a car in the desert lives through a giant caveman jumping out of the darkness. She and her father are later kidnapped by the very same mysterious stranger, known as Eegah.

Already from the incredibly ugly, often unreadable title credits it is clear that Eegah is an unusual mess. The film has flaws aplenty (the sound, angles, editing, music and acting are continually botched), - in fact the mistakes are so astoundingly numerous that the film hardly has a single shot that is acceptably well done.
To this must be added the comical ineptness of the script (by Bob Wehling (Wild Guitar (1962)), based on director-producer-co-star Arch Hall, Sr.'s (The Corpse Grinders (1971)) original story), which is ridiculous to its core: SPOILER The girl and her father in it are not worried about being trapped in a cave and having to drink sulfurous water (!) there, but actually have a jolly good time shaving the old man and then the caveman, whom the girl also continually worries about at great lengths, despite his obvious intent to rape her. - Yes, these are just some of the weird developments in Eegah.
Hall, Sr. directed his son Arch Hall, Jr. (The Sadist (1963)) here as the dimwitted doo-woop rock'n'roll singer, and Hall, Jr. not only looks a bit bizarre, (take a look below in the nifty B/W promotional material), he also lip-syncs really bad.
Eegah is one of those legendary movie turkeys that any true bad movie buff just has to see.

Watch a telling 2-minute scene from the film here

Cost: Reportedly 15k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Eegah premiered 17 April (in Biloxi, Mississippi!) and runs 90 minutes. It was shot in California. Its gross is unknown, and the only other country than USA that it was released in seems to have been Mexico. - But Hall, Sr. and Hall, Jr. continued to make movies, indicating that the modest budget was returned, maybe with a profit. The film since grew in notoriety and fame with screenings on the TV-shows Mystery Science Theater 3000, Movie Macabre and Exploitica and many different video releases. It has fallen into public domain and is available for download and streaming free and legally right here. The film now rests at #47 on IMDb's user-generated Bottom 100, between Final Justice (1985) and Die Hard Dracula (1998). 4,763 IMDb users have given Eegah a 2.2/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Eegah?

Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1993, TV movie) - Hannah ensures giant good times in Guest's tongue-in-cheek B-movie remake

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+ Best Arizona Movie of the Year + Most Under-appreciated Title of the Year

A scantily clad Daryl Hannah holds a car as if it was a sandwich on this funny, throwback-styled poster for Christopher Guest's Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman

Nancy is the daughter of the Arizona town millionaire and is married to a stud, who cheats and only wishes to tap into her family wealth. One day Nancy sees a UFO, and nobody believes her, but then she starts to grow...

The larger part of this HBO TV-movie is a well-written (by Joseph Dougherty (Pretty Little Liars (2010-17))) melodrama with pretty funny actors like Daniel Baldwin (Ashley's Ashes (2010)), William Windom (Airwolf (1985, TV-series)) and Christi Conaway (Underworld (1996)). The Arizona vibe also brings something very special to table.
Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman may sound like a parody or a spoof of such 50s 'sci-fi' films as Tarantula (1955), but it really isn't. It is a remake of Nathan Hertz's same-titled 1958 hit movie. The new film is a tongue-in-cheek homage in love with its basis material and B-movie residence, which makes a real difference.
Daryl Hannah (Sense8 (2015-18)) is a camera's best friend, and the kitsch barometer is high throughout this little treat, also due to her game performance. SPOILER The ending sends a fine sting to the therapy-obsessed America.
50 Ft. Woman is directed by filmmaker, Christopher Guest (Almost Heroes (1998)). It is, shortly put, a good time for anyone who can appreciate a 50 ft. woman.

 

Related post:

 

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

In lieu of a trailer, not available at the moment at Youtube, here is a video of Guest's visit to Conan's talkshow in 1997

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman premiered 11 December (HBO, North America) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in California. It was released theatrically in the UK, France, Germany, Spain at at Portugal's Fantasporto Film Festival, but its theatrical performances are not made known online. Guest returned with Waiting for Guffman (1996). Hannah returned in Grumpy Old Men (1993). 2,573 IMDb users have given Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman a 3.8/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman?