The Being (DVD, 2005)

Okay, where else are you going to see Oscar winners like Martin Landau & Jose Ferrer co-starring with TV comedians like Ruth Buzzi & Murray "Unknown Comic" Langston, former soap star Dorothy Malone as the monster's mother, Kenny Rogers' ex-wife as the waitress heroine & a bunch of small town amateur actors from the low end of the talent (not to mention gene) pool?
Only in this 1984 flick, my friend.
Is it a bad movie? Yes. Is it a fun movie? Yes!
Set in Pottsville, Idaho, the "Potato Capital of the World", it deals with the many murders committed by a shape-shifting mutant named Michael created by the local nuclear waste dump who can turn himself into liquid form to enter through air vents & exit through drains but usually takes the form of a slimy one-eyed, big-headed monster that likes to rip off heads & shove its fist through people's chests, & it's up to burly, black-bearded police detective Mortimer Lutz to try & stop it while the mayor & a smooth-talking government scientist try to engineer a cover-up.
Yes, it's "Jaws" meets "Alien", but lets face it, if they remade it today it would probably cost a hundred million dollars & be crammed to the gills with latest state-of-the-art CGI effects & have nowhere near such a wonderfully eccentric cast & storyline or that seemingly lost forever homemade, let's-make-it-up-as-we-go-along feel, & as you may have guessed, this movie has a bizarre sense of humour all its own.
Producer William Osco stars under at least two assumed names, & well, let's just say that Chuck Norris has nothing to worry about as an actor...but at least he throws himself into doing his own stunts, including getting a quite painful-looking nail through the foot during the final fight scene.
His wife Jackie Kong directs & wrote the script, and even their baby daughter has a central role in the suspenseful Easter egg hunt scene.
The special make-up effects are about as cheesy as you would expect for the budget & time period, & the title creature is wisely kept mostly off-screen or half-hidden in shadows except for close-ups of his spiky-knuckled claw, drooling fang-filled mouth & single madly-moving eye with any flaws hidden behind a copious coating of slime, although one of its other less humanoid forms which resembles a three foot-long brown potato grub with arms is seen sans slime in a film-within-a-film up on the screen at the local drive in all its rubber phoniness as it 'attacks' (is thrown at) a naked screaming blonde.
As for the disc itself, the picture, while not perfect, is clearer than it was on video, & it is in widescreen. Extras are few, but they include the original trailer & a rather nifty behind the scenes photo gallery.
Do I recommend this movie? Yes, especially for those who remember the days when drive-in theaters still covered the land & video stores were desperate for stuff to stock the shelves.