While Q won't give anyone nightmares, there's a throwback charm to it that honors Japanese monster movies more authentically than an expensive Hollywood production ever could.

Cohen's obviously having fun with the cheesy clay animation, and Michael Moriarty delivers an inspired, whacked-out performance as a small-time operater who tries to turn the monster into his own private bonanza, but the rest... is disengaged and sloppy.

We have no hesitation in awarding Oscars all round.

The kind of grubby, berserk movie that roared in the ruins of the Loop movie palaces of its time, then the fleapit neighborhood dollar houses that then dotted the city.