(There are Spoilers) Ridicules but entertaining monster movie involving this now you see it now you don't giant octopus who's causing havoc in the East River. Almost all the action in the movie takes place not far from where the World Trade Center used to be in downtown Manhattan.
The killer octopus who was swept down to New York Bay, from its breeding grounds in Nova Scotia, by a major storm has found that New Yorkers are a lot more tasty then what it's been feeding on up north and decided to make New York its home away from home. New York City Harbor Patrol cops Nick Hatfield & Walter McNair,Michael Reily Burke & Fredric Lehne, get involved with the octopus almost by accident by arresting a top New York City Judge,Harry Anichkin, for trafficking in illegal drugs on his sailboat. Da Judge almost gets the two cops busted for false arrest but, being the drug peddler that he is, later in the film ends up being dragged down, with his stash of drugs, to the bottom of the East River by the shadowy octopus.
At first treated as nothing more then a practical joke the octopus makes himself known by eating a number of tourists and destroying a tug boat and it's entire crew in the East River. With the evidence mounting that there's a real danger looming over the city's millennium July 4th celebration the Mayor, Duncan Fraser, is determined to have it go on even if it means the possible deaths of hundreds of New Yorkers by attracting the killer octopus, uninvited of course, to it!
The inept special effects make the killer octopus about as scary as the rubber octopus used in the Ed Wood bad movie classic "Bride of the Monster". In fact the Ed Wood vision was a lot more funnier by having a 72 year old, who's recovering from heroin addiction, Bela Lugosi have it out with it with Bela doing the work of both the octopus, who's mechanical motor conked out during the filming, and himself.
The movie itself didn't end where the octopus was supposed to have its last stand in the waters of New York Harbor but of all place in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel that just happens to be water free! We were given this big build up about the octopus planning to crash the big July 4th celebration that's supposed to have some 20,000 boats of all sizes and shapes in New York Harbor! But about the only boats we saw celebrating, if you can call it that, was a few tug and NYPD harbor patrol boats with their crews totally oblivious of what was going on, the big July 4th celebration, all around them.
The movie seemed to get lost in its storyline when it started to forget that it was about a giant killer octopus not a sequel to the Sylvester Stallone auctioneer "Daylight". Nick who has his hands full saving a bus load of school children stuck in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel suddenly realizes, by probably being reminded off camera, that he's in the wrong movie and gets back to business by blasting the octopus, who seems to appeared out of nowhere, to pieces only after he already put it away, or seemed to have, some 15 minutes earlier!
One of the last movies to have in it on location shots of the now non-existent, due to the 9/11 attacks, World Trade Center which has more screen time then anyone, including the killer octopus, in the film. There's also the oddity of having the WTC moved around in the movie where we get to see it both south, where it actually was situated, and north, where it never was, of New York's City Hall!
The killer octopus who was swept down to New York Bay, from its breeding grounds in Nova Scotia, by a major storm has found that New Yorkers are a lot more tasty then what it's been feeding on up north and decided to make New York its home away from home. New York City Harbor Patrol cops Nick Hatfield & Walter McNair,Michael Reily Burke & Fredric Lehne, get involved with the octopus almost by accident by arresting a top New York City Judge,Harry Anichkin, for trafficking in illegal drugs on his sailboat. Da Judge almost gets the two cops busted for false arrest but, being the drug peddler that he is, later in the film ends up being dragged down, with his stash of drugs, to the bottom of the East River by the shadowy octopus.
At first treated as nothing more then a practical joke the octopus makes himself known by eating a number of tourists and destroying a tug boat and it's entire crew in the East River. With the evidence mounting that there's a real danger looming over the city's millennium July 4th celebration the Mayor, Duncan Fraser, is determined to have it go on even if it means the possible deaths of hundreds of New Yorkers by attracting the killer octopus, uninvited of course, to it!
The inept special effects make the killer octopus about as scary as the rubber octopus used in the Ed Wood bad movie classic "Bride of the Monster". In fact the Ed Wood vision was a lot more funnier by having a 72 year old, who's recovering from heroin addiction, Bela Lugosi have it out with it with Bela doing the work of both the octopus, who's mechanical motor conked out during the filming, and himself.
The movie itself didn't end where the octopus was supposed to have its last stand in the waters of New York Harbor but of all place in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel that just happens to be water free! We were given this big build up about the octopus planning to crash the big July 4th celebration that's supposed to have some 20,000 boats of all sizes and shapes in New York Harbor! But about the only boats we saw celebrating, if you can call it that, was a few tug and NYPD harbor patrol boats with their crews totally oblivious of what was going on, the big July 4th celebration, all around them.
The movie seemed to get lost in its storyline when it started to forget that it was about a giant killer octopus not a sequel to the Sylvester Stallone auctioneer "Daylight". Nick who has his hands full saving a bus load of school children stuck in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel suddenly realizes, by probably being reminded off camera, that he's in the wrong movie and gets back to business by blasting the octopus, who seems to appeared out of nowhere, to pieces only after he already put it away, or seemed to have, some 15 minutes earlier!
One of the last movies to have in it on location shots of the now non-existent, due to the 9/11 attacks, World Trade Center which has more screen time then anyone, including the killer octopus, in the film. There's also the oddity of having the WTC moved around in the movie where we get to see it both south, where it actually was situated, and north, where it never was, of New York's City Hall!