Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

O2D This movie is pretty much what I was expecting, middle-aged men and women pretending to be teens and lame special effects.It starts with a car crash and about ten people pile out of the car and dance to imaginary music.You can tell from that opening scene that this is no master piece.Then they see a sign for a town and decide to walk there and then just force themselves on the locals and decide they are going to stay there.Meanwhile, Ron Howard has accidentally invented a potion that can turn living things into giants.His brother immediately decides it belongs to him and he's going to sell it(pay no attention to the fact that they don't have parents).They make some giant ducks and the ducks show up at a party and no one is shocked or scared, they just dance with the ducks.Then magically, the new kids know where Ron and his brother live and where they have hidden the new potion.As dumb as it all is, the worst part is all the terrible music.It's not background music, they are always dancing to it.The good points are that I never saw the end coming and the movie isn't boring.Four stars.

mark.waltz Thanks to young Ronnie Howard's formula, a small village gets filled with giant critters including dancing ducks, carnivores cats, friendly Fido's the size of a one story building and a pet tarantula too big for its mason jar. Still cute little Opie Taylor at the time, Howard was sort of the Andy Hardy of his time, and oh what trouble he causes in this deliciously bad science fiction "musical"? Yes indeed, there are Dancing Ducks. These friendly little quackers get ahold of some of Ronnie special formula ("the goo") and pretty soon are on a spit roasting for one of the biggest picnics this small-town community has ever seen. It's truly in bad "taste" that sees the dancing duck enliven a little party where the teenage population is down, not realizing that their intrusion will have them as a roast. It seems like the tongue was in the cheek of the people who wrote this, and if the duck isn't enough, the scary spider, the crazy cat and the friendly Pooch will certainly have you amused And when some of the Teen swallows some of Howard's formula, it really goes over the top, especially when the growing young ladies loose theirs. Oh, and speaking of Andy Hardy, one of the teen actors is played by Tim Rooney, son of the original Andy Hardy who would be jealous of the idea that Opie Taylor gets here.In addition to leading young man Tommy Kirk is a very young Beau Bridges. This hits its nadir in a sequence where giant teenagers (that alone is scary in itself) begin a dance while another one (Johnny Crawford), not made into a giant, hangs onto the sequined bra of one of the blonde bimbo beatnik type chicks who invaded the tiny community. If the opening scene of these juvenile delinquents rolling around in rain soaked mud doesn't have you rolling your eyes, this sequence (where the hapless young boob hanging on for dear life) definitely will. The presence of the few adults who don't even do a double take after seeing all the giant teens. After the film settles down into its juvenile plot, it becomes rather dull, with really wretched attempts at acting. The blonde crazy women seem like the types who would later flock to Charles Manson's country camps. At times, the really bad special effects make those on "The Amazing Colossal Man" and "The Attack of the 50' Woman" seem worthy of Oscars in comparison. If remade today, this needs to focus on the idiotic teenagers who text walking down the street, and make them crash into buildings because they are not paying attention to where they are going.

MARIO GAUCI A boy scientist (a young Ron Howard) accidentally happens upon an enlarging formula that first affects animals and, then, an unruly set of teenagers (led by Beau Bridges). Despite its promising satirical take on both the generational gap (a remnant of the previous decade) and anti-establishment attitudes (then coming into force), this emerges as just about the most inconsequential adaptation ever made of a fantasy classic – the source being H.G. Wells' "The Food of the Gods"…which the director returned to, relatively more soberly, 11 years later for his film of that name. The sighting here of huge go-go dancing ducks, barely acknowledged by assorted 'hipsters' (including leading man Tommy Kirk) similarly letting rip at a nightclub – to the strains of The Beau Brummels and Jack Nitzsche – is not easily forgotten and unfortunately synonymous of the film's innate silliness. Incidentally, Gordon seems to have had something of a fixation on giant-sized menaces throughout his career, since he frequently dealt with this subject matter…and, for obvious reasons, was himself affectionately referred to as "Mr. B.I.G."!

bkoganbing Village of the Giants based very loosely on H.G. Wells Food of the Gods is one of those classic cult films that gets worse and more enjoyable on repeated viewings. Later on Bert Gordon actually did make a straight version of the science fiction classic that was quite a bit better. But I'm sure a pile of money was made on this one at many drive-ins across the country.Sad to say that films like these are what happens to a lot of teen idols. Of the cast in this film only Beau Bridges and Ron Howard went on to careers of real substance. I'm willing to bet that both look back on this film and cringe.I think what Walt Disney did to Tommy Kirk was a disgrace, but typical of Hollywood in the pre-Stonewall days. Tommy might have had a substantial career had the gay 'scandal' never happened, who knows. Or this might have been where he would have wound up any way, maybe later on. There are too many variables to consider. I would point out that Johnny Crawford didn't fare any better than Tommy in his post Rifleman career and he had no scandal attached to him at this point.What this is about is six out of town teenagers, drunk and stupid, wind up in a small town where they take some 'goo' that child scientist Ronny Howard invents and grow to be some 15 to 20 feet tall. Led by Beau Bridges, they start running things until the town kids headed by Tommy Kirk and Johnny Crawford fight back and Ron Howard finds an antidote. Best shot of the film, Johnny Crawford hanging on for dear life to giant Joy Harmon's cleavage. Must have sent them rolling in the aisles back in the day.