The Milpitas Monster (1976) Reviews

• Monster movie years in the making!

  smunzel2010-05-16

  This is a feature movie but not of Hollywood quality. Here are some trivia about the movie: The Milpitas Monster took three years to produce. The kids grew during all that time. The director, Bob Burrill, was an art and photography teacher at Samuel Ayer high, he went on to write a book about the history of Milpitas and illustrated another history of the nearby town of Alviso. He was a student of famous photographer Ruth Bernhard and filmed a documentary of her shown on PBS. Some of his shorter projects can be viewed on YouTube on the moooose69 channel. The persons in the film were often recruited from those families who contributed money, materials, and volunteer hours into making it. The heroine, daughter of the Ayer High principal, and the young hero did marry in real life and raised a family. A claw from the monster's hand was on display at the Great Mall, a shopping mall in Milpitas, until the President of the local historical society had it removed because she did not consider it to be part of the city's history. The only professional, paid actor in the film was the drunk. The film was shot in 16mm. The attorney hired to copyright the film failed to do so, but the trusting producers never checked up on him. It took over 25 years for the error to be discovered. The film has been pirated around the world with new covers. The film is still shown in the South San Francisco Bay area as a fund-raiser for various charities, including an annual showing on Halloween to benefit the Niles Railroad Museum in Fremont, CA.

• Best movie I've ever seen!!!

  Roballoo2001-07-13

  Of course both of the previous reviews are absolutely correct on this film. It is pretty bad. But let me fill you in on some details - you might appreciate it a bit more then. Or at least have more compassion. This movie was created by High School students in the city of Milpitas (where's Milpitas? It's in Silicon Valley, California - next door to San Jose and and a little over an hour from San Francisco). it started off as a fake movie poster for an art class assignment and grew from there. The high school photo teacher got involved and kinda spearheaded it - turning it into a feature length film. Eventually the whole high school and then the community got involved. You have to understand that although the movie came out in 1976 the actual filming as I understand it was done in 1974. This is waaaaay before the digital age of what we have today. So while the special effects are very crude for today's standards and they were pretty crude even back then, they are pretty good for a 1974 era community made movie. There's a great scene in the film where there is an overhead shot of city hall - showing endless open fields surrounding it. Not so today! Shopping centers and industrial complexes now surround the building. At a benefit showing a few years ago - in a packed local theater, the audience spntaneously clapped and cheered when this scene came on. The Washington D.C. Special Contact with the "odorolla" is none other than Bob Wilkins (I think I got his name right) who was a local host of a late night monster/sci-fi show called "Creature features" and also hosted a kids Sci-Fi show called Captain Cosmic. Yeah - the movie's gots its flaws - but I think it's good for a low key evening of fun. Heck - it even has a good environmental message! Not to mention the fact that it came out on video in the 80's on "Le Bad films." Also, I also know a police officer and the then mayer who are featured in the film playing themselves. Now how many people can say they personally know people who have starred in a feature length movie? But then again - maybe to really appreciate the film you just have to have lived in the city of Milpitas in the 70's. PS - they tried to make a sequel a few years ago - but it failed to capture the community's interest like the first time. I also still have my Milpitas Monster coloring book - wonder what it will fetch on Ebay?

• The Drunk guy was cool

  jed-estes2006-08-07

  The movie it's self is cheaply made and the editing is horrid. The whole mess sounds as if it was dubbed and badly i might add. From reading other review I believe that this movie was a local project and that would explain why it looks so bad. But that would also explain the heart that you can feel from the film. Even though it sucks and is muddled you can tell the project meant something to the people involved and that is why I will give the film a 6. I hate watching it but the effort is a all that matters. If Hollywood films would put forth half the love into their films we might not have crap like Miami Vice or Halloween H-2-O ruining the cineplex experience and driving the box office takes down. In Conjunction with this I will say that the drunk guy who runs around through the movie is hilarious and the only saving grace of the films story. he is worth two stars all by himself So keep on destructing Milpitas Monster.

• A laudable amateur effort from high school students and faculty

  EyeAskance2003-08-02

  Pollution yields a towering beast which proceeds to de-populate the community of Milpitas, California. The simple general consensus is understandable...this is a badly shot, rough-hewn monster movie. Now...consider that it was made as a high school project involving complete amateurs in every aspect of its penniless construction, and the results begin to look pretty darned good. There's a world of movies made by "professional" low-budget filmmakers that are far less watchable than this. Overall, the quotidian mainstream movie viewer will probably have a tough time with THE MILPITAS MONSTER, but it would seem highly unlikely for these individuals to ever merge with it in the first place. For those among us with an interest in the more novel curiosities of cinema, this should manage to entertain, and occasionally even impress, when allowed to be recognized and appreciated on its own realistic terms. A+ for effort.

• Well, they sure don't make 'em like this anymore...

  Vigilante-4072001-01-28

  And that's not necessarily a good or bad thing. Let's face it: The Milpitas Monster is a cheapie...in fact it's the kind of movie that Frank Zappa immortalized in the song "Cheepnis", only a couple of decades removed. This movie rode the tips of the coat tails of the brief monster movie revival of the seventies (Octaman, The Crater Lake Monster, APE) that occurred right before the advent of Star Wars and the plunge of science fiction into the mainstream. But it has its points. I actually like some of the stop-motion animation in this one, primitive though it may be. There are a lot of interesting camera angles that one wouldn't normally see on such a film, and the lighting is for the most part adequate (the movie, especially during most of the special effects sequences, is kept rather dark). I even enjoyed the story up until the introduction of the stupid "odorolla" tracking device, and the particularly stupid way that was used to lure the monster to its death. I don't mind a "bad" script, but I hate a stupid one. The Milpitas Monster is worth a look if you are a fan of the giant monster genre, or if you just like cheap movies in general. A film that has Paul Frees do the narration can't be all bad.