Two dating teens have gone missing without much of a trace, and the father of the son orders sheriff Jeff to do something to find them. Since his a one-man show, he receives help from the teens' friend, the local nice-guy mechanic, Chase Winfield. Soon, enough Chase discovers his friends' car, but there's no sight of the bodies. Not too long there's another accident and then another one. What's causing these crashes might be mystery to the towns' folk, but for us we know that there's a giant Gila monster on the loose. But in a matter of time the sheriff and Chase finally pick up on what's causing the mysterious accidents. <br /><br />Oh my! From the very opening scene, you'll know you're in for one real tacky experience. This is one blundering, bad monster feature that I found hard to hate because it's so lovably, goofy. Like the users have already mentioned, this film wears its heart on its sleeve by being so terribly sweet and clean-cut. The sincerity and that of moral judgment gets shoved down our throats with such brute force that I couldn't stop thinking this film had more on mind then churning out some monster goodness. Well, I hope you can get some good lessons from it. The story is mostly centred around a guys and gals melodrama with our boy Chase who's having a rough time trying to support his crippled kid sister, spending time with his French girlfriend and driving about in his done-up hotrod. Ah, yeah there's a giant monster lizard bringing chaos to unexpected people too. Yep, the monster element feels like it's a wraparound story to Chase's life, which is filled with redundantly, overwrought situations that really had nothing to do with the bigger picture. But, this kid is one talented musician, well I think he likes to think so. Because throughout we get him plugging his music every now and again in the most rib-tickling, cheesy fashion. Boy, now we know what really ticked off the gila monster. After a while, I knew what the lizard was thinking, because my ears were damn sore from this constantly, corny hollowing. His singing really did slow up the already sluggish pacing. When he wasn't busy he would find time to help out the sheriff in his investigation. <br /><br />Now this is one incompetent sheriff who at times is a real pushover, but also he manages to get other people to do his work for him. Most of the time he's standing about asking questions… and that's about it. Damn, is he waiting for some sort of written invitation to get thoroughly involved, because he spends his time waiting about for something to happen then actually trying to prevent it. Here's a case that needs to be solved that the sheriff should give a go; No one seemed overly worried about the disappearance of these people. Why's that? I think they should give Chase the sheriffs' badge because he makes more headway in the investigation and fixes the overall problem. Oh, Chase what would the sheriff do without you. Actually, what would the film do without you, because they always seem to make you the talking point when they get the chance. Whoops, how did I forget the monster, well with Chase's charm you'll forget there's a monster on board. I think the film-makers did too. <br /><br />Though, its hard to call it a monster since it's a ordinary sized lizard 'slowly' knocking over model sets and toy figurines. You can see that FX has come a long way from these primitive origins. Though, the question you gotta ask… Is it any better, compared with the likes of some awful CGI. The (not so) special effects were disastrously, atrocious that I had a blast with it. Even though the lizard and actors never shared the screen, it supposedly stalked its victims amongst the scrubs, in which they had no idea they were being prayed upon. *Hmm* how wouldn't you notice an enormous lizard hiding around dead bushes. Probably one gripe is that the lizard will rather watch and roam about more so then cause mayhem. The never-ending hissing coming from the lizard became increasingly irritating, but not as ear-splitting like that of our hero's inspired tunes. You could see that lizard had enough of his singing when he decides to disrupt the dance, where Chase is having a good time spreading his talent and making some time to dance with his gal. That's right after hearing the sheriff come up with a abysmally lame theory that there's a giant lizard involved. Kudos! The sheriff finally did something of importance, but his explanation of it is far from convincing. When it came to the climax… wow! What a show stopper. <br /><br />The bloated performances are ridiculously campy. Don Sullivan a true role model plays the reliable all round good guy Chase Winstead and Fred Graham plays the useless you can do the work for me sheriff Jeff. There are a couple of amusing roles involving a drunk disc jockey and a comic relief character who has always something smart to say. But hell, it looked like this was dubbed because what they were saying was totally out of sync with their mouth actions. I couldn't help myself from gawking at their mouth since it was terribly bad. And what passionately, amazing dialogue rolled off their tongues… ah, not really. The only thing that I thought was effective was the score that builds upon with some eerie penetration. Though, that in mind there's nothing remotely chilling about all of this. It just too silly to rise above its overload of well-mannered camp, which for some might be truly horrifying.<br /><br />A REAL light-hearted monster piece that's passably, entertaining.