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Michael Moriarty, David Carradine

OK, who's Q, anyway? "Q" is short for Quetzacoatl, an enormous winged serpent and Aztec deity who's called back to life after a series of ritual human sacrifices in Manhattan. It takes a lot to keep a... read more read more... critter like Q satisfied, so he flies around and lops the heads off sunbathers, window washers and swimmers as handily as popping grapes off the vine. The police are confounded by the murders, decapitated bodies (blood rains from the skies on NYC denizens) and Q-sightings. The solution comes in the unlikely form of Jimmy (Michael Moriarty), a petty thief. After a heist goes bad, he hides from his cronies in the uppermost spires of the Chrysler Building and stumbles on the giant bird's nest and egg. He leads the NYPD up to the lair for a big showdown with Q, but it's not quite as easy as anybody thought, of course. Director/screenwriter Larry Cohen was one of the more inventive, original voices of Seventies B-movies, with credits that include God Told Me To, Black Caesar, It's Alive!, Hell Up in Harlem and The Stuff. With Q, Cohen put together an interesting, entertaining mix of Fifties sci-fi homage (complete with great stop-motion special effects for the terrifying beast), action movie, and crime drama. It also touches on the metaphysical question of how exactly one goes about killing off a god. It'd be difficult to think of a more compelling performance from Moriarty; as the piano-playing, scat-singing small-time crook Jimmy, he's repellent and sleazy. However, he's struck on something that will give him 15 minutes to bask in the spotlight ("I'm the most important man in New York!", he gloats) and give him a chance to redeem himself and save thousands of lives. Moriarty brings a depth to the character that makes him absorbing, if not quite sympathetic, and gets to come across with the choice line, "Stick it up your…brain! Your small little brain!". With plenty of humor, suspense, a gallon or two of gore, and great performances from Moriarty and David Carradine and Richard Roundtree as his cop nemeses, this is great, original, entertaining sci-fi fare. --Jerry Renshaw

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52% liked it

1,532 ratings

R, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Larry Cohen

Release Date: November 19, 1982

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DVD Release Date: July 28, 1998

Stats: 104 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (104)

  • adammahler1
    December 20, 2011
    adammahler1
    About an hour in, Morarty goes off the rails and Cohen gives up on plotting and good dialogue. But until then, it's one of the most unique genre movies ever, taking a totally different angle of storytelling, in the plot, in the kind of dialogue that carries us from scene to scene... read more, in the shots of parts of New York City that create the whole, in the super high and low angles and aerial shots that are all different than we've seen before and all perfect for pulling the characterizations and the monster threat together.

    The other half of what makes Q unique is the adventurous, voracious performance of Michael Moriarty. If Ratzo Rizzo was over-thought-out acting which Hoffman's second thoughts would have turned down a notch, here we get urban lowlife Jimmy Quinn and the opposite mistake. It's a method-like performance that is totally feeling driven, and might reach too much into Morarity's own reserves as an eccentric gone crazy. For a while, Quinn ( -- starts with "Q" -- ) is a amazing creation, and since he's more ordinary guy than crook, he has our empathy, and we like when he becomes a bit of a kook -- it's the common man's way of being Danny Kaye. But Quinn gets more selfish and annoying and resentful of how life has treated him, and empathy distills into pity, which is half chore. I started empathizing with the monster, who was too majestic to get shot down like Edward G. Robinson and had the whole city against him, even Jimmy Quinn.
  • Beefy
    September 2, 2007
    Beefy
    Not at all what I expected. The dragon portion of the film was the least interesting. Michael Moriarity's trippy, eccentric performance is the real reason to watch the film.
  • garyX
    July 22, 2007
    garyX
    Amusingly ridiculous monster b-movie in which a giant dragon goes round lopping off heads in New York City, and yet the NYPD finds it inexplicably difficult to find. The effects are ropey and the whole thing is just daft, but it's tongue-in-cheek enough to be able to carry it off... read more. Just...
  • threefolddado
    July 7, 2008
    threefolddado
    Nice 80s horror.
  • MrTalbotOO7
    March 9, 2007
    MrTalbotOO7
    Excellent '80s monster movie with a classic performance by Michael Moriarity at the head of a perfect B movie cast. Larry Cohen, one of my favorite Masters of Horror, has made some great flicks (It's Alive is probably my favorite), and this is one of his best. Its a rare American... read more giant monster movie from the '80s, and the Quetzelcoatl is an awesome beast. Add to that some great gore and minor boobage, plus some sly humor at its own expense, and you have a classic film in a genre that is represented far too little these days.
  • theimmortallurker
    February 17, 2007
    theimmortallurker
    Another gem, Michael Moriarty's performance is incredible, unlike anything you may have seen him do before. Larry Cohen does an excellent job of directing this entertaining little film on a very limited budget. I especially loved the Director's commentary, always interesting to h... read moreear how the movie was achieved with few funds and little time.
  • flynnparadox
    September 14, 2006
    flynnparadox
    Bizarre combination of gritty, realistic New York street movie and giant-monster-attacks film with really good, believable performances.

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