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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Pretty Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Larry Cohen's "Q" makes no pretense about what kind of movie it is. The purpose is to be over-the-top. It looks like the sort of movie that they had a lot of fun making. What really caught me eye was the cast. While Michael Moriarty isn't known for anything in particular, we have Candy Clark (Debbie in "American Graffiti"), David Carradine (Bill in "Kill Bill"), Richard Roundtree (Shaft in "Shaft"), Mary Louise Weller (Mandy in "Animal House") and Malachy McCourt* (the brother of "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt). On top of that, the scene in the bar shows an Arlo Guthrie** poster in the background. What a collection for a movie about a winged Aztec serpent god terrorizing New York!*A few hours after watching this, I watched "The Brink's Job", which it turned out also featured Malachy McCourt in a supporting role. I never expected to see him in two movies the same day.**As it turns out, Arlo grew up in a property owned by Fred Trump. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about what a creep the elder Trump was.

Like Jaws, you barely see the monster. Unlike Jaws, the characters are uninteresting. There are boobs in the beginning, then the entertainment value drops sharply. Skip to the last 20 minutes, when you actually see the monster in a King Kong-esque skyscraper showdown.

A great script, great direction and a great cast along with a title monster that is in fact a Z-grade special effect. It's fun to watch Michael Moriarity's insane performance as a low-life criminal with a lot of self esteem issues. He also happens to stumble across a prehistoric winged serpent living atop the Chrysler building and attempts to blackmail NYC before offering up the news. Cops Richard Rountree and David Carridine are on the case and Candy Clark plays Moriarity's girlfriend. Malachy McCourt plays the NYC police commissioner as a walking & talking Irish stereotype. Larry Cohen's direction is first rate. There's lots of gore, lots of shrieking music by Robert Ragland and LOTS of aerial shots from the monster's perspective. It's all presented by the inimitable Samuel Z. Arkoff.

'Q'uite possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I am not just referring to the fifty cent FX or the cornball acting – I can excuse those as it is supposed to be a B-movie, after all. And it actually started with promise: 'Q: The Winged Serpent' gets right to the point, well of plot A, that is, by showing several "attacks" on the New Yorkers by a large claymation serpent. Then it turns into the B-Movie who yearns to be so much more! Unfortunately, however, both plot B (Michael Moriarty's – who I actually enjoyed in 'The Stuff', but here he's an absolute clown –good-guy thief) and plot C (the sacrifice kings) really scream late 70's and early 80's TV cop drama (and speaking of cops – wow, NYC cops are the coolest! They drink beer on the job, shoot/kill and leave the bodies to the maid service and even wear sunglasses inside.) The movie could've benefited if it just stuck with the movie it was meant to be: a 'Monster attacks NYC' B-movie. It worked years later for 'Cloverfield.' (Spoiler alert – if it's supposed to be a "God" to be worshiped, how come: A. It's vulnerable and B. needs to have offspring?)