Q - The Winged Serpent : Revisit

I LOVE how ugly this film is. Cohen just cuts out any fat. He wasn't looking to give you stylistic craft or wow you with epic grandeur. Cohen knew exactly the kind of film he was making. I am just captivated with 70s and 80s New York City, and Cohen was very similar to Ferrera to me in capturing it in all different ways. Cohen's style, how his films are edited, and the zig-zag scene to scene transitions are going to be jarring for some folks.

I envision lots of potshots and heckling at the claymation stop motion effects. When claymation police victims are chomped or captured and thrown to their doom from the Chrysler Building while firing off their machine guns at Quetzalcoatl, it's obvious, and I JUST DO NOT CARE. But that's because Harryhausen is a legend to me, and we got some cool animation effects artists (among others) inspired by him.

There are some gem scenes that really hit a homerun with me that others might be like: yeah, so what? Like when Jimmy Quinn lets the cops have it about how a conviction-seeking police officer planted cocaine on him, getting him sent to the slammer the first time (he cops to the second arrest, though!). Or when Shepard is on his way to "charming" the information about where to locate Quetzalcoatl from Jimmy in a diner until Powell arrives to shut him up. Oh, and Shepard ripping apart his report about ritualistic killings tied to Quetzalcoatl when his superior poo-pooed it, insisting he separate them...even though they were very much related. Or even the construction worker balking about one of the guys eating his tuna fish sandwich before he's attacked by the bird.

But, who am I kidding, I give the film 4 of 5 stars just for Jimmy scatting in a bar while hoping to impress the bartender, banging it out on a piano, where his on-again/off-again girlfriend (Candy Clark; I wish this actress really got more than these little parts in the 80s. She makes the most of every role it seems. Even "Blue Thunder" or "Cat's Eye", she has to take a little and make much) realizes he's killed another chance. That Moriarity / Cohen team was special. There is even that moment where Moriarity is having an anxiety attack while Clark once again seems to console him. I wouldn't love this near as much if not just to see him bumbling his way through crises of his own making. But Clark admits she stays with him often because life has been harsh to him. Lots of those moments in a film that, on its surface, just looks like a silly monster movie.

There is so much I'm always like: fuck, do I add this to the review and that? Like at the very beginning, you get an idea of tone when this woman in her office is once again opining to her friend on the phone or whispering off to herself in frustration while putting a smile on like a trooper as the window washer continues to swipe the same spot over and over...until Q takes that head off.

Or Jimmy getting pressed into helping heist a jewelry store when he's supposed to be the driver of the car, totally losing the suitcase with $70,000 worth when hit by a cab. This subplot is what gets him to the Chrysler Building where he discovers the bodies and the egg. Later he happens to lure two thugs looking for the cache to their doom in that building. I guess I just loved how Cohen gets us back to that damn building. If you are afraid of heights, the helicopter shots above the city and the scenes in the Chrysler Building might make you faint.