5 Most Awesome Giant Monster Movies From 'Big Ass Spider!' Director Mike Mendez!

From Bloody Disgusting

Epic Pictures will be releasing Big Ass Spider!, the movie that features a giant arachnid terrorizing Los Angeles, on digital download, DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, January 7.

In Mike Mendez’s (Real Killers, The Gravedancers) creature comedy, “The unlikely heroic duo of a blue-collar exterminator (Greg Grunberg) and Latino security guard (Lombardo Boyar) must save the day when a giant spider escapes from a military lab and rampages the city of Los Angeles.”

To celebrate the release, Bloody Disgusting caught up with Mendez who shared his picks for “5 Most Awesome Giant Monster Movies”!

1. Them

“Giant ants are pretty cool and you get the military versus giant ants. The effects were very innovative for the time. It’s one of the classics. Plus it was the beginning of the atomic age monsters. Also a great cast like James Arness & Fess Parker.”

Ken's Opinion - Major kudos for listing "Them!(1954)" as the number one pick ... but any list without Godzilla (Gojira, 1954) is a thumbs down!

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The Monstrous Movie Quote Of The Day: Dr. Harold Medford (THEM! 1954)

- "That, gentlemen, is why you are here - to consider this problem and, I hope, solve it. Because unless you solve it, unless these queens are located and destroyed before they've established thriving colonies and can produce, heaven alone knows, how many more queen ants, man, as the dominant species of life on earth, will probably be extinct within... "

- Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwen)(Them!)(1954)

"Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze! Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze! " - That makes me laugh every time - Ken

James Whitmore, Star of "Them!" Dies

Photo: James Whitmore, right, with James Arness in "Them!"

"Them!" Star James Whitmore Dies

by Armand Vaquer

Actor James Whitmore died at age 87 of cancer.

The star of one-man shows, including "Give 'Em Hell, Harry" (as in President Harry S Truman) and the science-fiction classic Them!, died at his home in Malibu of lung cancer. He was diagnosed with the disease a week before Thanksgiving.

Whitmore played one of the police officers who found a young girl in deep shock wandering around in the New Mexico desert. They discover that she and her family were camping in the desert when a mutated giant ant attacked their camping trailer.

Whitmore also played President Theodore Roosevelt in the play, "Bully" and was a spokesman for Miracle-Gro plant food for many years.

James Arness, who appeared with Mr. Whitmore in the movies Battleground and Them!, said Mr. Whitmore was "an actor's actor," adding that "it was always a treat to work with him."

The Asphalt Jungle, Them!, Kiss Me Kate, Battle Cry, Oklahoma!, Planet of the Apes, Tora! Tora! Tora! , The Shawshank Redemption and The Majestic were just some of the many movies Whitmore appeared in.