I hadn't seen the film Q since I was a young girl and Showtime Beyond was smart enough to recently place it in it's 2019 showings, and thank goodness. This was one of those films that was shown "at the dawn of premium cable". What that means is that back int he say they constantly showed a handful of films in heavy rotation and this was one of them. Well, many of Larry Cohen's films were of that ilk. Made on a small budget, story not so bad and while watching it you WISH they had more money but all involved made the best out of what they had.
Let me take you back for a moment, to a time when entertainment was...entertaining and very much "pop" eccentric. Here's is how I would have described the film back then to people (and remember I was young): Shaft and Kwai Chang Caine ran into the wanna-be gangster but small fry boyfriend of the lady who was in American Graffiti. This flying bird was eating everybody including the NY mafia tough guys and had a nest at the place where King Kong was shot down or in that neighborhood. The police couldn't care less because they were thinking it was part of New York junkies and Prostitutes stories trying to get attention. Then, Kwai Chang Caine met with some guy in Washington who was like Mr. X from Watergate who gave him the history of the ancient bird and the New York police department finally hunted it down.
Honestly, that's almost about it. Now watching it some 30-odd years later, I find the movie nostalgic, funny and wishing there'd be a remake. I've seen a few of Larry Cohen's films of late and wish they were remade as well. He was a guy with ideas and $5.00 (jk) and boy, did he do what he could with it. And ...those films...were actually...good. "It's Alive" still scares me to today. "Black Caesar" is an underground favorite as well as "Maniac Cop". "Q" is another one of those films that really had something going for it, even though it had..3 stories going for it which made it somewhat confusing but..ahem..not or New Yowkers, so much. And Cohen knew New York, and made crazy, crazier and scarier and the question of "what lies underneath", mixed in with current issues that was going on and there results thereof, he gave you some pause of "maybe this" and if so, "this is how New Yorkers would respond". And it's entertaining.
Q could easily have been a part of that, Cohen and Company trying to give a metaphor for its time, or just a flying Aztec creature story that wasn't flushed out as well as it should, but that's not the issue. Q is interesting, a piece of film and NY society on film, and even with all it's 'faults' -- very little budget, elementary special effects and overacting to underacting...it's an entertaining film.
Let me take you back for a moment, to a time when entertainment was...entertaining and very much "pop" eccentric. Here's is how I would have described the film back then to people (and remember I was young): Shaft and Kwai Chang Caine ran into the wanna-be gangster but small fry boyfriend of the lady who was in American Graffiti. This flying bird was eating everybody including the NY mafia tough guys and had a nest at the place where King Kong was shot down or in that neighborhood. The police couldn't care less because they were thinking it was part of New York junkies and Prostitutes stories trying to get attention. Then, Kwai Chang Caine met with some guy in Washington who was like Mr. X from Watergate who gave him the history of the ancient bird and the New York police department finally hunted it down.
Honestly, that's almost about it. Now watching it some 30-odd years later, I find the movie nostalgic, funny and wishing there'd be a remake. I've seen a few of Larry Cohen's films of late and wish they were remade as well. He was a guy with ideas and $5.00 (jk) and boy, did he do what he could with it. And ...those films...were actually...good. "It's Alive" still scares me to today. "Black Caesar" is an underground favorite as well as "Maniac Cop". "Q" is another one of those films that really had something going for it, even though it had..3 stories going for it which made it somewhat confusing but..ahem..not or New Yowkers, so much. And Cohen knew New York, and made crazy, crazier and scarier and the question of "what lies underneath", mixed in with current issues that was going on and there results thereof, he gave you some pause of "maybe this" and if so, "this is how New Yorkers would respond". And it's entertaining.
Q could easily have been a part of that, Cohen and Company trying to give a metaphor for its time, or just a flying Aztec creature story that wasn't flushed out as well as it should, but that's not the issue. Q is interesting, a piece of film and NY society on film, and even with all it's 'faults' -- very little budget, elementary special effects and overacting to underacting...it's an entertaining film.