The Blob (1958)

Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.

Starring: Steve McQueen

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: It crawls.... It creeps.... It eats you alive!

Plot: An alien life form consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.





My Rating: 8/10
Would I watch it again? Yeah

Gosh this was neat! You've got killer Jello, a 28-year-old McQueen playing a 17-year-old, great "gee-whiz" dialogue, about every goofy facial expression McQueen could muster, a movie theater filled with those hip 1950s kids and an open-ended finale that leaves room for a sequel that never happened. Ahhhhh...those were the days.

This really is a fun film and I was blown away by the stunning print on the Criterion DVD. Nice. It's got a ton of 50s era monster movie cliches but it puts them together so so well all in one nifty package. Probably the biggest reason to see it is for McQueen. It's bizarre watching this knowing he's just two years away from making THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), the film that put him on the map. What makes it fun watching him here is not that he brings anything astonishing to the role but that IT'S STEVE MCQUEEN doing a fun, goofy movie just before he hit the big time in Coolsville.