What made Guide Mike Durrett chuckle the most?

As a small boy, four short decades ago, my Saturdays were booked. My dorky, impressionable body was plastered unfailingly into the front row center darkness of a tiny neighborhood movie theatre. Week after week, I watched whatever images flashed onto the screen. I consumed it all, the wonderful and the lame.

By the age of nine, I had learned much about the cinema, two realities the hard way: the absolute worst garbage genres were gladiator/biblical "epics" and rampaging Oriental behemoths. With the rare exceptions of "Ben Hur" and "The Ten Commandments," ancient times were wastes of perfectly good Milk Duds. I never saw a satisfying giant lizard flick, until now ...

Moses vs. Godzilla
What we have here is a story apparently cut from the Bible for space limitations. (Audiences won't sit still for a really long Good Book.)

This six-minute coming attraction parody (in streaming video) exactly captures the motion picture marketing sensibilities of the late '50's-early '60s, down to the titles' font style, including the sinful overkill boastings and delivery of the narrator. The actors' disembodied voices, an appreciated touch, nicely recall primitive audio dubbing.

The plot? After facing down a pseudo Yul Brynner-yapping Rameses and the obligatory Harryhausenesque gee-whiz cheez-whiz effects, Moses sizes up his biggest foe, the radioactive lizard o' large. Add a cameo appearance from a cool daddy Burning Bush and you'll be praying this one never ends.

---

See it at MediaTrip. Need RealPlayer or Media Player?

Previous Big Laughs of the Week
More Multimedia

Look for new Big Laughs every Saturday.