Q - The Winged Serpent

 You could always count on Larry Cohen to have an interesting take on a story. Take this movie: A straightforward tale of a flying monster snatching people from New York Skyscrapers. And the Aztec Priest ritually killing people to... summon it? control it? And the policemen trying to catch either one of them. And the petty criminal goofball trying to find his way throughout a few messes. See what I mean?

 Cohen's scripts are normally a bit weirder than they need to be. There's also usually a satiric edge and a whole lot of his personality showing through. I saw this movie and a bunch of other Cohen films when I was a kid and I've always had a soft spot for them, even though I thought they were a bit cheesy. Now I'm older I can confirm it's a bit cheesy, and I see some other issues with them as well... but screw that. They're awesome.

 The premise for Q is that the titular winged serpent is haunting the New York skyline, taking and killing victims from high rises. You don't get a clear view of it for a while - just point of view shots (there's a lot of great aerial photography in this movie - a lot of the budget must have gone to helicopter rentals). A flash of beak, a quick shot of a giant chicken leg snatching someone, the beast's animated shadow being cast on buildings or a bridge. The monster duly makes a full appearance for the climax, and it's a beaut: a winged, beaked, claymation wonder on the cheap, making diving runs at the Chrysler tower while a ton of policemen fire from within (with tracer fire, no less!). It is so good.

 Until that point the film goes mostly monsterless. It spends some time on the police investigation - David Carradine as a detective going around and figuring out that the monster is actually the ancient god Quetzalcoatl, and that a separate series of grisly murders might somehow be related. And that'd be enough for a normal movie to roll with, but the majority of the runtime is actually devoted to following a petty criminal (Michael Moriarty) around until he accidentally stumbles onto the monster movie plot.

 Moriarty's bumbling man-child is, for good or ill, the heart and soul of the film: a complete oddball for an oddity of a movie. He's constantly surprising, and his actions often seem to hijack the script for a while. He's introduced agreeing to be the wheelman for a jewelry store robbery, botches a piano playing audition because he scats while he plays, and then botches the robbery when he drops the loot while trying to escape on foot. He's an ex-junkie with loose morals and a huge chip on his shoulder, and the script doesn't shy away from making him a scumbag ('At least you're not hitting me any more,' his girlfriend says at one point); His actions and dialogue are borderline brain-dead at times.

 His prodigious douchebaggery comes to the forefront when he realizes he can leverage some knowledge to blackmail the whole city. You see, while he was running away from the scene of the crime, he stumbled upon the Winged Serpent's nest high up on the crown of the Chrysler Building. So when he's arrested for the robbery, he realizes he can use that information as a get out of jail card, and maybe extort some money on the side.

 Moriarty's character making his demands to a room full of incredulous city officials makes for a great scene (the legendary Richard Roundtree, who plays one of the detectives, is taken out of the room before he can bash his face in.) It's also not the sort of thing you'd ever expect from a movie like this, which is the beauty of the Larry Cohen filmography. Anyhow, once there's an agreement then the movie is free to go into full carnage mode on its final ten minutes or so, with the previously mentioned attack on the flying monster.

 It's not a perfect movie at all, but it's imperfect by design. Moriarty's scenery chewing might be the biggest obstacle to enjoying this; It's a potentially annoying performance, and if it doesn't click for you... well, prepare to be very annoyed. The script's a bit rough bit rough, too - both dull and overstuffed at points. The pacing is irregular as hell. Other than that, I really like it; It has a nervous, restless energy that I find irresistible. And the jokes - all of them delivered deadpan - are decent; I especially like when a cop on a stakeout poses as a mime/juggler, with makeup, a hat for donations and everything; when they need to run and get into a car to chase a subject, he pointedly grabs the hat. "How much did you make?" - the other cop asks - "Not much... the bird must be bad for business."