As a friend of mine pointed out, if someone gives Corman $60K to make a film, he'll manage to make it look like it had a budget of a million. Alas, if he gets a million to make a movie...it'll still look as if it had a budget of a million. Of course, this also means that Corman movies have a certain look and rough charm that lets the viewer identify anything he's done within a minute of starting to watch it, even if they start in the middle.
AOTCM...well, it has its charms. As with all Corman films, there's a germ of an intriguing idea driving the screenplay, and there's mystery, intrigue,suspense,claustrophobia, and some hard working actors trying to sell the ludicrous dialog. They actually manage to get through some typically over-packed expository stuff in the beginning without bogging things down, and the screenplay cleverly lets us get to see the characters for a few minutes before introducing them by name. So "Attack" actually starts out pretty well.
Alas, about 15-20 minutes in (I count it as the spot where the geologist decides to shimmy down into a newly created pit), the brains of the movie sort of leak out its nose and ears and things get turgid and pretty silly after that. Major plot holes start developing and are never plugged up, there's a couple of plot twists that don't really lead anywhere, at least two of the characters seem suicidally dumb, and the movie just stops dead at the end as if it were a Roadrunner cartoon.
Still, I liked it for what it was and had a pretty good time. I was pleased to see Russell Johnson in the mix (his character actually has a wistful moment with the heroine which comes off pretty well), and the idea of telepathic crabs luring their victims to their doom with the voices of the crabs' previous victims has a certain zing to it.
Strictly sci fi movie fodder, like most of Corman's output, but if you like his style, you'll like this.
AOTCM...well, it has its charms. As with all Corman films, there's a germ of an intriguing idea driving the screenplay, and there's mystery, intrigue,suspense,claustrophobia, and some hard working actors trying to sell the ludicrous dialog. They actually manage to get through some typically over-packed expository stuff in the beginning without bogging things down, and the screenplay cleverly lets us get to see the characters for a few minutes before introducing them by name. So "Attack" actually starts out pretty well.
Alas, about 15-20 minutes in (I count it as the spot where the geologist decides to shimmy down into a newly created pit), the brains of the movie sort of leak out its nose and ears and things get turgid and pretty silly after that. Major plot holes start developing and are never plugged up, there's a couple of plot twists that don't really lead anywhere, at least two of the characters seem suicidally dumb, and the movie just stops dead at the end as if it were a Roadrunner cartoon.
Still, I liked it for what it was and had a pretty good time. I was pleased to see Russell Johnson in the mix (his character actually has a wistful moment with the heroine which comes off pretty well), and the idea of telepathic crabs luring their victims to their doom with the voices of the crabs' previous victims has a certain zing to it.
Strictly sci fi movie fodder, like most of Corman's output, but if you like his style, you'll like this.