Search - Drive-In Discs, Vol. 2: The Wasp Woman/The Giant Gila Monster on DVD

Great concept, good (but not great) execution

Michael Rogers | Webster, New York United States | 03/18/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have both discs in this series and they are quite enjoyable.The Wasp Woman benefits from a strong lead performance by Susan Cabot and The Giant Gila Monsterf benefits from... being unintentionally hilarious.It's great to see the selection of Drive in clips for advertising and intermision and they are very well transferred (even better than the films).The "distorto" sound is cute.Here's where this series needs to improve:More new (old) drive in clips, some are recycled from the previosu release.Better transfers of the features. Although "Wasp Woman" shows a nice improvement over the other transfers of "Gila Monster", "Giant Leeches" and "Screaming Skull"Encode it so it's all one program. When you select The "Night At The Drive In" all the segments are on "seperate tracks". In other words, when one segment ends, the player has to search out the next segment (causing a pause in sound, most noticible when you have the distorto sound on).Encode it so the DVD player can show the time. At present, there is no time code and that bugs me.Keep the content same era oriented. In this case, the movies are from 1960, the cartoons seem to be from the 30's or early 40's. Most of the ads seems to be late 50's, early 60's and the intermission film has to be early 70's (it shows pictures of the moon landing, which took place in 69). Make volumes that have 50's films and exclusivly 50's clips, then others that have 60's and 70's films and clips. establish a verisimilitude that will help you believe you are time tripping to a drive in at the time period of the movie.That also goes for the "distorto sound". Sometimes we hear comments from people inside the "virtual car" we are in. The comments seem too ironic and modern in tone. They don't talk like people from the era the movies are in. It's fun in an MST3K sort of way though.This is a good series that has the potential to be something great. A really special way to see these B movie charms.While they are thinking of "concept discs" over at Elite. They might also consider making a TV chiller theater style series. With vintage hosts and ads. This is the way I discovered many of these films in the 70's and it would be cool if someday a DVD presentation could reflect that."

What Can I Say . . .

E. Barrios | N.Y.C. | 07/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Of the two films on this DVD, I'd say the winner is "The Wasp Woman." Okay, so the film is low budget and the acting is questionable, but the face mask used to make the wasp woman was very creepy. Maybe I have a thing about bugs. There's something about those eyes and antennae which had me shiver just a bit.

Too bad most people can't enjoy a good old-fashioned horror movie without CGI or modern special effects. The Wasp Woman represents those bygone days when you could see two for the price of one at the local drive-in. I can't say what a phenomenal movie it was but if you're into the old black and white classics, I'd say give this one a shot.

As for the Gila Monster, don't even bother. This was really, really bad all the way. It's not even worth going into and wasting electronic ink to give a review. Take my word for it boys and girls: stay away!

Thanks."