Q - The Winged Serpent (1982)
Larry Cohen's monster movie in which Michael Moriarty plays a petty crook who accidentally discovers the nesting place of a winged deity - allegedly the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl - in the spire of New York's Chrysler Building. Deciding he can make a mint from the city Moriarty attempts to bribe the authorities (much to the annoyance of cops David Carradine and Richard Roundtree) into paying him vast sums to lead them to the nest.
What stands out about this is the excellent aerial photography above the city as Cohen's camera swoops onto unsuspecting sun bathers, multi storey window washers and other unwilling victims of the creature. Q itself is a stop motion creation and not really seen much until the finale but Cohen cleverly hides that fact using his birds eye lens.
As the film's (anti) hero unfortunately Moriarty is a whining annoying little shit who i always want to see ripped in two by Quetzalcoatl (Spoiler: It doesn't happen) but thankfully i can at least root for Roundtree and Carradine as they like the tosser as much as i do.
I can never quite work out if Cohen is satirizing classic giant monster movies or simply getting in on the act. Despite my moans about Moriarty the film is too well played, shot and produced overall to be simply classed as a knock off even if the lovely retro style monster isn't remotely scary. Although i must admit at times i was thinking "Don't New Yorker's ever look up?".
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