DVD Pick of the Year!?!: MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS

God bless, Roger Corman! When will he win an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Oscars®? Perhaps his body of work does not “reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production,” but his films have provided training ground for a greater number of the best movie-makers than USC, UCLA, NYU and Columbia combined. (Amongst Corman’s honor students*: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, John Sayles, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme and Ron Howard. Well, just ignore Ron Howard.) On top of that, even his lowest-budgeted efforts are more consistently entertaining than anything Alan Rudolph could conjure. (BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS? Even Olympian, gold-medal-hogging swimmer/spokesman Mark spits up this Vonnegut rehash.)

But with Roger aging, I’m paging a young producer — or team — to assume the mantle of his operation or, at least , the spirit of Corman’s financially and dramatically economic presentations. For now, I nominate the inmates who have taken over The Asylum — Paul Bales, David Michael Latt and David Rimawi. Together, this trio has released over 300 films in just over ten years including such charmingly crass and amusingly exploitative titles as DEATH RACERS, THE DA VINCI TREASURE and SNAKES ON A TRAIN. 

On Tuesday, May 19th, 2009, The Asylum proudly unveils its latest slice of genre cheese, MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS. Deborah Gibson (the artist formerly known as Debbie) and Lorenzo Lamas may get top billing, but it is the titular behemoths that have won me over. I defy you to watch the trailer below and not mark your calendar for next week’s release! You can’t tell me you’re not jazzed about seeing MEGA SHARK’s aerial acrobatics. (Speilberg never had the balls to shoot that! Heck, even Joseph Sargent — director of JAWS: THE REVENGE half-assed it.)  MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS may not be Art, but it beats so much of what is made in the name of Art. The Asylum’s lack of pretension is preferable to, say, Lars von Trier’s condescension, yes?

So, for all those who may pigeonhole me as some indie, arthouse snob… chomp on this!

What did I tell you? Who needs a script when you have a concept this high?

See you at Scarecrow Video?

Warren

* Catherine Hardwicke also got her start with Roger Corman. Listen in on my conversation with the TWILIGHT director as she discusses her inauspicious debut with the maverick producer.