Cool sounding title, groan inducing movie. Well, it all depends. This is one of those 'so bad it's good' flicks that will have you rolling on the floor with it's goofy dialog and cardboard special effects. I got the biggest kick out of the monster's projectile green bolts of slime vomit, but you never do get to see it's effects on wherever it lands. It must have been too horrible to contemplate. But even that was outdone by the couple of times Reptilicus grabbed a mouthful of humans; one of the cheesiest special effects you're likely to ever see. In fact, calling it a special effect is a great exaggeration. But the best was when General Mark Grayson (Carl Ottosen) explained his strategy to defeat the creature to the men under his command - 'clobber him with our heavy stuff!'. Nothing I like better than precise military language. You have to give the Danes credit for this one and only monster movie ever to make it out of Denmark, because this truly stands apart in the annals of science fiction. It was probably inadvertent but ultimately a very cool thing to do, when the film makers had the hokey looking janitor Petersen (Dirch Passer) gag over a pastry he was eating when he looked at a microscope slide of what was in it. Very clever of them to have a Danish guy eating a Danish!

And it ain't Hamlet...

Take a silly looking monster, toss in some green slime which looks like lime jello, then add in a scenic tour of old Copenhagen and you have the ingredients gor a genuinely absurd Sci Science fiction dud. The basic premise has the discovery of a dinosaur tail which begins to regrow after being defrosted. This leads to one scientist becoming a tooth pick and another having a heart attack after a screaming attack towards the military shooting at the giant beast

When a missle blows the lizards foot off, the stage is set for a sequel which fortunately never came. To add to all this is an Octoberfest celebration which includes a musical number! Wretched special effects add another element of disappointment while a lack of humor prevents it from camp and becoming a cult classic.

Reptilicus is the effort of one European country, Denmark specifically, to try and cash in on the market the Japanese were finding so lucrative in monster films. But no one does cheesy monster like the Japanese.

Still you have to give some credit for originality. Some folks drilling for oil in Lapland strike some fleshy remains of something. Turns out it's a tail from a prehistoric creature as yet unknown. The Danish scientist studying it names it Reptilicus, but it ain't like any reptile we know.

For one thing they're coldblooded creatures and should NEVER have any living tissue survive. But more important the tail the oil drillers uncover starts growing on its own. Like a starfish regenerating. A natural born ability to clone itself.

Now how something like this didn't survive is beyond me. So what do we do with old Reptilicus. Can't shoot him or blow him up or he'll scatter in a million pieces. His scales are like armor and is impervious to all kinds of ammunition. Can't blow up Copenhagen with an atomic bomb, what to do?

Here's a hint, if you've seen The Blob you know what the military and the scientists do with him.

For cheesy special effects, Reptilicus rates right up there with the best Japanese stuff. It does have some nice location photography of Copenhagen in the early sixties.

And it's fun in a goofy way.