Monday, January 7, 2013

Tremors



Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Ron Underwood

Starring: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross

From: Universal

Here is yet another movie I saw and loved in my childhood, and turns out that I still enjoy it as an adult. I saw it various times on VHS, a few times on TV and probably at least once on DVD; I was able to view it again after borrowing the DVD set Attack Pack from someone I know; it has that movie and the three direct to video sequels; I've never seen any of them but in the future I may check them out as I imagine the percentage of fans of this haven't seen any of the sequels is high. Maybe one of them is even worth watching and doesn't ruin the memories of the original. Not to be cynical but most direct to video sequels are like that.

You probably know this by now, but the movie is set in the tiny middle of nowhere town of Perfection, Nevada, isolated from the rest of civilization. Val and Earl (Bacon and Ward) are two working-class stiffs who do odd-jobs around the town, including pumping septic tanks. Understandably they are anxious to move to a bigger city; the day they leave, several things happen, including the one road out of there being closed and the phone line being dead; so they have to turn back and stay in the area. What's causing all this... a disgusting worm creature known as grabboids who live underground and get their prey from vibrations aboveground. Several of them are out there and the residents are on their own to deal with those critters, and do so in various ways, including obvious NRA members Burt Gummer (Gross) and his wife Heather (Reba McEntire) using big big guns to kill one.

Like I said, this is still awesome. It is more consistently funny throughout than I had remembered. It's a real horror/sci-fi/comedy. It has quite the colorful cast of characters. The leads are a great duo as they are always entertaining; but, all the side characters are also fun, from store owner Walter Chang (the “that guy” known as Victor Wong) to Melvin the smartass teenager, and of course there's the seismologist Rhonda (Carter) who Val and Earl meet up with and despite her not meeting Val's rather ambitious rules for a date, romance is hinted at and the three together are definitely entertaining.

This is definitely a B-movie at heart-the idea of grabboids being a real creature is of course pretty wacky at best-and as long as you sit back and relax and want to have a good time along with the characters, then you should check this out, especially if you've somehow never watched this before. I'll be back Thursday night. 

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