Director: Larry Cohen
Writer(s): Cohen
Starring: Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, Richard Roundtree, and Candy Clark
In what seems to be a recurring theme, I had a lot of good
memories from watching Larry Cohen’s Q for the first time when I was in my
mid-teen years. A lot of that might have
had to do with the simple notion that I had seen it after being vastly
underwhelmed by both God Told Me To, and The Stuff, two additional cult
movies directed by Cohen, in which he completely squandered unique
premises. I guess the fact he didn’t
screw this one up was an endearing quality to me.
There’s a lot going on here, but to boil it down to the
basics: Michael Moriarty plays Jimmy Quinn, a man who’s part time piano player,
and part time thief. To earn some money,
he agrees to be the getaway driver for a diamond heist, but as always, things
do not go as planned. During his escape,
(in which he is hit by a taxicab and loses all of the money) he ends up in the Chrysler Building, where he eventually stumbles
on a shocking sight: A large egg in a
large nest at the top of the skyscraper.
Meanwhile, two cops (played by Richard Roundtree and David
Carradine) are investigating a series of bizarre murders; in some, the victims
are beheaded, yet in others, they appear to have been skinned alive. Could the monster in the nest have anything
to do with any of this, and if so, how?
Q starts off with a full head of steam, getting right down
to it with three murders (and a set of titties!) within the first five
minutes. Unfortunately, there’s not
nearly enough story here to sustain the momentum, and it eventually comes
crashing back down to Earth long before it’s over. That’s a sad thing, because this is a movie
with a lot of potential; if Cohen had more time, or perhaps more money, to
develop it, it’s interesting to think about all the improvements that could have
been made.
More interesting than the movie itself is the story behind
it. Basically, Cohen was hired to direct
a movie called I, The Jury but didn’t get along with the producers, so he was
fired just a couple of days in. Not
wanting to waste the month that he had paid for to stay in a New York hotel, he quickly wrote this movie,
rounded up a cast, and shot it on the cheap.
In an ultimate twist of fate, both Q and I, The Jury ended up
opening on the exact same day, with Q pulling in more money on a fraction of
the budget.
It’s certainly admirable what Cohen accomplished essentially
off-the-cuff (he re-wrote entire scenes the night before shooting them, in some
cases), but its rushed nature is also pretty evident. The plot feels like it goes from point A to
point B on a whim, with very little logic, even for the standards of a B-movie
like this, and it only gets worse and worse as it drags along. The creature effects start off charmingly
dated, as Cohen barely shows it for the whole first half. Then, inexplicably, he overuses the creature
for the finale, with disastrous results; for the first time in the movie, we
can see just how shoddy the special effects really are. If he would have kept the creature visuals to
a minimum, I think it really could have helped create a much better atmosphere;
it might have even allowed some tension to sneak in.
I also really hated Moriarty’s character, and although his
performance has been given plenty of praise, I didn’t like that, either. I thought it was wildly uneven, and his
annoying “tough guy” slur really grated on my nerves. Cohen’s script didn’t do him many favors
either, casting him as a one-dimensional smart-ass; thus, just about everything
that comes out of his mouth is dry and sarcastic. Peppering in some lines like this here and
there while toning it down a bit would have given him more depth; as he is
written, he comes off as little more than an annoying know-it-all. I know, I know, that’s what Cohen seems to
have been going for, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
The other performances are befitting of such a film, with
David Carradine’s effort (playing a cop known only as “Shepard”) reminding me a
lot of Larry Sanders, Garry Shandling’s long-running late night character, with
his laid-back, “don’t care” attitude; this contrast with Richard Roundtree’s
“sharp as nails” Powell creates a decent, if too familiar, “good cop bad cop”
routine. Candy Clark, as Quinn’s love
interest, alternates between entertaining cheesiness and almost genuine authenticity;
it’s clear she’s giving it her all, though, so her character remains endearing.
Q is a good B-film that manages to be entertaining
overall, but it unfortunately never seems to set its sights too high. As hinted at earlier, part of the problem is
no doubt the time and budgetary constraints, but unlike its titular monster, Q the movie is never really allowed to spread its wings and be anything more
than fascinating schlock.
RECAP: Q starts off with a bang, then gradually loses
steam the rest of the way. The movie is
filled with one-note characters, with the worst offender being Michael
Moriarty’s Jimmy Quinn; many publications have praised his performance, but I
thought he was wildly uneven. Monster
effects are effective in the beginning because it is barely shown; once he
becomes the focal point of several shots at the end, we see just how terribly
dated the effects really are. It’s
entertaining, and considering the time and budgetary constraints involved, it’s
impressive that it was even finished; but by the end, there’s the unshakable
feeling that just about everyone involved was capable of so much more.
RATING: 6/10
TRAILER
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