The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

War of the Colossal Beast (1958) ** (out of 4)AIP waiting no time in getting this sequel to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN off the ground and into drive-ins. Joyce Manning (Sally Fraser) believes that her brother didn't die at the end of the previous film and after hearing a strange news story from Mexico she heads down there. Sure enough the giant Glenn Manning (Duncan 'Dean' Parkin) is living in the desert and soon the military tries to capture him to see if they can help.WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST is slightly better than the original, although it shares most of the same weaknesses as that film. The biggest problem is that there are way too many scenes that just get dragged out with boring dialogue and this is especially true with the various scenes where we hear the doctors talk about what they can or can't do with the giant. I'd say the film would have been much better off with less talk and more action and especially since the action itself is pretty good.The highlight is without question the monster. This time out they've given him a mutated face, which looks terrific and especially the lack of an eye and the way part of his teeth are showing. The look of the giant is quite effective and it makes you forget that some of the "giant" special effects aren't all that believable. Another thing this sequel has going for it is the fact that the action scenes are quite good. The stuff early on with the giant living in the desert was quite good and there's no question that the finale is full of excitement and especially a twist that happens at the very end.The performances really aren't anything to write home about but director Bert I. Gordon at least manages to make the film run a lot more smoothly and I'd argue that it has a very pace and feel to it. Still, there's no question that it's the look of the monster that makes WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST so much fun and slightly better than the original.

This is the sad case of the Colossal man, Glen Manning, who through no fault of his own was doomed to suffer a horrible fate. In the first movie, he appeared to die as he fell off Hoover Dam. Now, he has resurfaced, with huge facial deformities and damage to his brain. The problem this time is that he doesn't seem to have the ability to communicate with others. His sister goes to bat for him when the military wants nothing more that to destroy him. It's interesting where he fits on the definition of humanness. That's why the sister is working so hard to get him some help, but he doesn't seem to be able to interpret his world. He does show his compassion one more time at the close of this film. The big guy never had a chance.

Crazed and disfigured giant Colonel Glenn Manning (brawny behemoth Dean Parkin sporting pretty grotesque make-up) terrorizes as a small town. Manning gets captured by the army, but manages to escape and embark on a rampage in Los Angeles. Director Bert I. Gordon, working from a compact script by George Worthing Yates, relates the engrossing story at a brisk pace, creates and sustains a pleasingly spooky and mysterious atmosphere for the opening third of the picture, maintains a serious tone throughout, and gives the movie an earnest quality that's both appealing and enjoyable in equal measure. The solid acting from a capable cast helps a lot, with especially stand-out contributions by Sally Fraser as Manning's concerned sister Joyce, Roger Page as the stalwart Major Mark Baird, Russ Bender as the dedicated Dr. Carmichael, and George Becwar as the hot-tempered John Swanson. The special effects ain't so hot, but they do nonetheless possess a certain endearingly hokey charm. The scenes with Manning running amok and wreaking havoc are quite lively and exciting. Moreover, the tormented Manning makes for a genuinely pitiable monster; the unavoidable sad and tragic ending is truly poignant and memorable. A fun flick.

**SPOILERS** After being hit by a number of bazooka shells and falling some 700 feet from the top of the Hoover Dam 60 foot Glenn Manning, Duncan Parkin, somehow survived and ended up, flowing downstream, in Mexico. It's there that Manning, the survivor of a plutonium blast, started raiding grocery trucks to fill his enormous stomach and keep from starving to death.It's when American gun club owner John Swason's, George Becwar, grocery truck was snatched by Manning with his young Mexican driver Miguel, Robert Hernandez, losing his mind in the process that the truth came out that the big guy was still around and causing trouble. It's Manning's sister Joyce, Sally Fraser, who by watching a news report on the incident suspected that her "Big" brother had survived in his battle with the US Army as was now determined to find him. The final evidence that Manning was in fact alive is when Swanson's dismantled truck was found with a giant fingerprint indented in it that matched the so-called deceased Manning that was proof positive that he in fact was alive. The problem now is how to apprehend him and bring Manning back to the US for farther study! In how plutonium rays effects the growth process in both man and animal!Manning is fit to be tied, and is, as he's brought back to the US, after being captured in the wilds of Mexico, in a giant US Army cargo military plane to L.A. Despite all the precautions to keep Manning, who lost an eye and half of his brain in his battle with the US Army, "tied up" he escapes, twice not once, from his confinement as he causes havoc all throughout the L.A district. ***SPOILERS**** In the end Manning just got sick and tired tearing the city apart and seeing that there's no future in him being the biggest guy in the neighborhood he did the only thing left for him to do. With him destined to go through life wearing a giant makeshift diaper, since there's no clothes that can possible fit him, Manning put an end to it all by electrocuting himself, by grabbing a live 50 foot power line, and did it in living color!The most unusual thing about the movie "War of the Colossal Beast" is that its star Duncan Parkin as Glenn Manning was overshadowed by actor Glenn Langan who played Glenn Manning in the previous movie that the film was based on "The Amazing Colossal Man"! In fact it was Langan, in a number of long flashbacks, that had more screen time as far more lines in the film that Parkin did! There's also in the movie George Becwar as gun club and truck owner John Swanson who three years earlier became immortalizes, in bad movie lovers circles, as the overstuffed and arrogant Prof. Valadimir Strowski in the Ed Wood bad movie classic "Bride of the Monster". It was Prof. Strowski who ended up being a victim of what the films star Bela Lugosi, as Dr. Eric Vornoff, called the "product of my genius" the alleged "Monster of Lake Marsh". Which in fact was a rubber motorized octopus with its motor conked out!