Very disappointing...

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Like Jaws, you barely see the monster. Unlike Jaws, the characters are uninteresting. There are boobs in the beginning, then the entertainment value drops sharply. Skip to the last 20 minutes, when you actually see the monster in a King Kong-esque skyscraper showdown.

A great script, great direction and a great cast along with a title monster that is in fact a Z-grade special effect. It's fun to watch Michael Moriarity's insane performance as a low-life criminal with a lot of self esteem issues. He also happens to stumble across a prehistoric winged serpent living atop the Chrysler building and attempts to blackmail NYC before offering up the news. Cops Richard Rountree and David Carridine are on the case and Candy Clark plays Moriarity's girlfriend. Malachy McCourt plays the NYC police commissioner as a walking & talking Irish stereotype. Larry Cohen's direction is first rate. There's lots of gore, lots of shrieking music by Robert Ragland and LOTS of aerial shots from the monster's perspective. It's all presented by the inimitable Samuel Z. Arkoff.

New York police are bemused by a spate of reports of a giant flying lizard that has been spotted around the rooftops of New York, which they assume to be bogus until the lizard starts to eat people. An out-of-work, ex-con piano player (Michael Moriarty) is the only person who knows the location of the monster's nest and is determined to turn the knowledge to his advantage, but will his gamble pay off or will he end up as lizard food?The biggest issue with this movie is the implausibility that no one is able to see the monster. With a creature as big as Q, they really should be able to see where he flies to nest. As the plot says, some people even doubt he is real. Look up! He is huge! Even New York City's smog is not so bad that you cannot see the skyline. (The claim is that he flies in line with the sun so as to hide, but that makes no sense whatsoever.)Besides that, it is a great film. Good story, good characters, good acting, good cast (Moriarty, Richard Roundtree, Candy Clark and David Carradine)... we have a low budget going a long way on the effects (cheesy, maybe, but look at the stuff Sam Arkoff used to produce with American International). Some relatively tame blood and guts, kicking off early with the window-washer scene, which is pretty awesome.Praise has come for Michael Moriarty. Roger Ebert says, "Rex Reed was right, though, about the Method performance by Michael Moriarty. In the middle of this exploitation movie, there's Moriarty, rolling his eyes, improvising dialogue, and acting creepy. He's fun to watch, especially in the scene where he names his terms for leading the cops to the lizard." Moriarty is indeed an unusual actor, but a skilled one: he has won his fair share of awards.The negotiation scene is a bit odd from a legal point of view. Can the city actually grant Quinn complete book rights as well as photo rights from the police? There seems to be little the city could actually do to block another writer -- no one owns the news. And can you copyright a public document?Even after multiple viewings, the film never gets old and you might find different ways of looking at it. The science fiction angle of a giant monster may be the primary plot, but this is also a serial killer film, a murder mystery (or at least a detective story) and an examination of a man's flawed quest for redemption. There is more intelligence in the script than first meets the eye.I have seen this film on VHS, DVD, the big screen and on Blu-Ray. In any format, this film is a winner and the last of the great non-CGI science fiction films. While no collector's edition exists yet (perhaps some day), the must-have version is available from Scream Factory, who have provided a new (as of 2013) commentary from writer-director Larry Cohen. Truly a must-have.

This flick is a distinctive and haunting oddity , concerning about a winged serpent , a dragonlike , which carries out creepy killings , happening in N.Y. City . A pair of detectives (David Carradine , Richard Roundtree) are investigating the strange events . As the giant winged bird hungry for sunbathers and rooftop construction workers . Thanks help a delinquent (Michael Moriarty) who encounters the monster's hidden nest on the Chrisler building , detective Sheperd discovers that several murders committed in violent manner have been executed as bloody sacrifices to Aztec God named Quetzalcóatl , a feathered serpent whose two halves are a serpent and a bird .This is a rough-edged chiller and results to be an entertaining return to monster movies from the 50s . Simple and stop-motion monster special effects by recently deceased David Allen , usual to 'Full moon' and 'Empire' Factory . Good cast as an overacting Michael Moriarty and David Carradine , Richard Roundtree as Police Inspectors ; and nice support casting as Eddie Jones and Candy Clark as crooks'fiancée . The film is well produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff who along with James H. Nicholson financed numerous movies of various genres , including monster movies , during the 50s, 60s , and 70s for their production company called ¨American International Pictures¨ . Atmospheric photography by Fred Murphy who has a successful career as an expert cameraman . The picture was compelling and originally written/realized by Larry Cohen . He's a B series craftsman , such as : terror genre (Stuff , Return to Salem's Lot , It's alive I ,I and Island of the alive) , hard hitting crime films (FX , Ambulance) and Blaxploitation(Black Caesar , Hell up in Harlem , Original gangsters) ; plus , a prestigious screenwriter (Phone booth , The ex , Invasion of privacy) and usually writes all his own scripts . This is a cult movie to be liked for chillers and monster films admirers .