MovieChat Forums > Tentacoli (1977) Discussion > Underrated film

Underrated film

posted 15 years ago by marcus-173
8 replies | jump to latest

Ok, by underrated I mean it only got a 2.6 here...I was thinking maybe around the 4.5 range?
The acting is really bad, and the (presumably mostly) ADR was really really bad - making even bad acting 10 times less tolerable. And when I say bad acting I mean the director is probably the one that failed the most in actually directing the actors (or not directing them)
But I thought the whole movie was actually shot pretty well, good camera work. And I also thought it was pretty well edited - very creative in parts(thankfully, because it probably covered up a lot more bad acting.)

I felt they handled the shots of the octopus fairly well, sometimes - the "from underneath, octopus grabbing for the boats" shot used numerous times were enjoyable. And Vicky's whole death scene I thought was pretty cool - mostly the sudden intense bubbling of water and then 4 seconds coming towards you and hitting the boat...Any time a movie surprises me and kinda goes outside of "the formula" for a second, I can appreciate it - I really didn't expect that. It was obviously some green screen made to look bigger, but I thoroughly enjoyed that scene. And the score was very interesting, the octopus' theme song (the quick four note pluck) was a very cheesey but fun and pretty unique. And the longer moving one with the nice 70s beats were actually very good. I just read Tarantino used this in Grindhouse? Haven't scene it yet, good choice Quentin.

Anyway, summing up:
Acting: 1.4
Sound Mixing/ADR: 1.3
Cinematography: 6.6
Editing: 7.2
Score/composition: 6.9

So, yah, I can't believe I just wrote this much about "Tentacles" - I really have no life, I'm gonna go cry.

[–] jalle16 15 years ago

I have to agree (kind of) with you. I'm scarded retarded of octopuses and the scenes when they film the octopus from beneath, grabbing the boats is good. And the music is really cool!

But otherwise this movie is really, really bad. John Houston and Shelly Winters characters just dissapears before the end and Henry Fondas "evil boss" has to be the most unnecessary movie character ever. I mean, he doesn't do anything. The scenes with him just kills time.
And you don't see enough of the octopus. And so on, and so on...

And cheer up! I have no life either! I'm also writing on the Tentacoli board.

[–] kohntarkosz 15 years ago

<< Henry Fondas "evil boss" has to be the most unnecessary movie character ever. I mean, he doesn't do anything.>>

True enough. The reason he's there really is to give the movie publicity. Remember, Henry Fonda was a legendary actor, if you could say "Starring Henry Fonda" in the trailer or TV spots, that added a bit to the film's publicity.

I think it's an awright movie. Yeah, it's kinda dull, nothing much happens, but it's got great scuba scenes.

[–] G_man2 15 years ago

its on right now - i dont think its half bad! i disagree that the acting was so terrible.

winters is pretty good.

the scene with the toppled sailboats and the tympani on the soundtrack was chilling. this is definitely not unwatchable!

id give it 5 stars, but in no way more than that. the strength of that rating is due to a little of everything - some of the actors that i liked, the score, that relative lack of cheesiness (compared to what i would have expected in a monster movie), and the camera work (as someone else pointed out).

[–] wallacesawyer 15 years ago

I found it rather decent. Less of actual ripoff than JAWS fans keep saying though.

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[–] Frostrose 15 years ago

I'd rather say it's overrated.

[–] namaGemo 10 years ago

Are you just saying that because this film was a piece of 5hit?

[–] sambogni61 14 years ago

Marcus: The end of your post made me howl with laughter! From painful familiarity, of course. But I agree with your take. This movie has plenty of (unintended) virtues and manages to entertain throughout. Silly, but fun.

[–] tdl797 10 years ago

One of the strangest things about the film is how much arthouse type camerawork is in it. There is a 3 minute unbroken crane/dolly shot, which is actually pretty masterful. It ends on the husband of the woman who I guess has just found out about her boat/missing. So it was very thought out.

The credit shot is a long planned out shot as well. The introduction of John Huston is cool. The child by the sea. A lot of scenes are nicely composed.

It makes me wonder if these types of shots were because of the director or cinematographer and if they did these types of shots in other movies.