This week's trepidatious journey of wonders over at our Rialto is the great & mighty "Humongous". He's huge. He loves to stand shrouded in silhouette. He's eaten all the dogs on Dog Island. (Is it sill Dog Island then?) The group of folks who become shipwrecked looks pretty tempting come lunchtime. So, in the spirit of good fun, he chases them all around the island.
Or, I believe he chases them all around the island. The sounds & random shapes I see in the darkness sure seem to imply that. It's an interesting metaphor: "in the dark" the kids probably have great trouble seeing him; "in the dark" is where we seem to be regarding some of his motives and his ways; "in the dark" is where 50% of this movie takes place. Never have I seen Hollywood take an idea and so generously lace it into the texture of a work. Every dark frame echoes every dark moment in the action. Their fumbling & flailing mirrors our attempts to see the aforementioned action. "Someone is being chased?" "Yes. Who?" "I don't know." "Aaaahh..." In a nutshell, there it is. The people who are shipwrecked may look like a series of people but in our hearts...they are one. They are Us. Amen.
The plot is as elusive as the visibility in several of these scenes: A rich young lady on Dog Island in 1946 is knocked down, clothes torn off & on the verge of being touched wrong by a drunk party goer. But, the Dogs of Dog Island arrive and tear the jerk up. This makes the woman pregnant, crazy & completely antisocial. Her son is the "Humongous" of the title. Meanwhile, a group of present-day young people are out on a boat having fun. Well, the boat blows up after a series of things happen and they're wrecked. Gradually, something humongous (if you catch my drift) begins killing everyone. The dwindling group of young people struggle to find out what's going on.
Hollywood, you take my breath away.
Now, give it back.
Thank you.
Here's the other interesting thing the movie does: Hollywood knows that people work hard. Hollywood knows that people need sleep. (Am I right? Come on!) But, Hollywood knows how much you love their magical product. I believe "Humongous" employs the latest in technology: It has portions in it where you can fall right asleep, wake up several minutes later and not have missed a thing. Is this incredible or what? I used it 13 times! It's great, especially in the last half hour. Wow! I left the movie rested, entertained & smarter. The only drawback being (I'm sure they're working on this) that sometimes you're not sure what you've seen happen and what you've dreamt and once I slept a little bit into what, I think, was an important scene so...Hooray for the new excitement! And, Haroo for the immanent perfection of it all!
(I highly recommend a good sleep through that last half hour. It feels great.)
(Oh, I have no idea what happened to "Queen Kong". Don't even ask.)
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