The Best Giant Movies (2020): Movie Monsters

By Steve Hutchison

Steve Hutchison reviews 60 of his favorite giant movies. Each article includes a synopsis, a review, and a rating. The movies are ranked. How many have you seen?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Hutchison
• Release date: Feb 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781778870798

Steve Hutchison

Artist, developer and entrepreneur in film, video games and communications Steve Hutchison co-founded Shade.ca Art and Code in 1999, then Terror.ca and its French equivalent Terreur.ca in 2000. With his background as an artist and integrator, Steve worked on such games as Capcom's Street Fighter, PopCap's Bejeweled, Tetris, Bandai/Namco's Pac-Man and Mattel's Skip-Bo & Phase 10 as a localization manager, 2-D artist and usability expert. Having acquired skills in gamification, he invented a unique horror movie review system that is filterable, searchable and sortable by moods, genres, subgenres and antagonists. Horror movie fans love it, and so do horror authors and filmmakers, as it is a great source of inspiration. In March 2013, Steve launched Tales of Terror, with the same goals in mind but with a much finer technology and a complex engine, something that wasn’t possible initially. He has since published countless horror-themed books.

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Tales of Terror’s

Movie Monsters 2020

The Best Giant Movies

INTRODUCTION

Steve Hutchison reviews 60 of his favorite giant movies. Each article includes a synopsis, a review, and a rating. The movies are ranked. How many have you seen?

#1

Ghostbusters

1984

Three unemployed supernatural investigators start a ghost hunting business.

8/8

Here’s a perfect mix of comedy, horror and fantasy that will get straight to your heart and guts. In a way, it is also a light superhero story. Because it is perfectly suitable for a child as much as the general audience, Ghostbusters is eerie, makes you jump, shiver, but features virtually no gore. There are monsters, though, and plenty of them. The effects are amazing and one of a kind.

The score and soundtrack play a big role in delivering a fun supernatural aura that penetrates the screen. While some of the creature effects are a little cheap, most of the ghost effects blend well with the picture. This one isn’t all about visuals. The characters and the story are compelling and the dialogue is catchy.

The actors are perfect in their roles and their performances are close to flawless. Ghostbuster isn’t shy on effects, making use of animatronics, rubber suits and an abundance of color keying. Get ready to be entertained all the way through; sucked in a surreal New York that gets increasingly sinister as subplots converge.

#2

Jurassic Park

1993

The owners of a theme park hosting cloned dinosaurs lose control of their security system.

8/8

Terminator 2 set the bar so high in terms of 3D and compositing effects that nothing comparable came out until Spielberg’s next blockbuster: Jurassic Park. Like Jaws, it’s a lively and watered down horror movie that focuses much more on its ensemble cast then the antagonists; in this case angry and hungry Dinosaurs. Jurassic Park is suitable for most age groups and means to entertain any audience.

It’s a nearly perfect movie that is only flawed because it is experimental and ground-breaking. It features effects previously unattempted and destined to age well. The dinos aren’t abundantly shown and barely lit in order to scare. The violence is limited but present. While it contains extensive scenes of suspenseful action, it mostly takes its time with a layered script that never lets you down.

The jungle backdrops are as peaceful as they are alienating once all hell breaks loose. The performances are loud, fun, lively, but are sometimes surpassed by chroma keying effects they can’t ad-lib with. Here’s a safe scare for children with semi-fantastic but plausible animals. Mixed with a smart science-fiction plot and a unique gimmick, they make this one of the best genre crossovers ever.

#3

Ghostbusters

2016

Four women found a ghost hunting company.

7/8

The events in this remake take place 27 years after Ghostbusters 2, in what we presume is an alternate New York City. Instead of four males, we get four female Ghostbusters. The humor, much like the characters, is sometimes so dumb it is embarrassing. Mind you, this is the film’s biggest flaw. Everything, here, is bigger and more colorful than what we are used to and it feels great!

All actors deserve a round of applause for keeping up with a script that is both dialogue and action heavy. We constantly alternate between humor, slapstick comedy, light horror and action. In the middle of all this are a bunch of cameos present to please the faithful fans. Like its predecessors, the film is accessible to all audiences, given they can take a couple of jump scares and fart jokes.

The first half