Runtime: 86 minutes
Directed by: Stephen Herek
Starring: Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Scott Grimes, Billy Green Bush, Nadine Van der Velde
From: New Line Cinema
After a night off from watching films due to my schedule, this movie (set in Kansas) was selected so I could mention that 24 hours from now, I’ll be in Kansas for a few days to visit my sister & her family, as I’ve done for years now in December—plus in August at the last minute. As always during those days, my schedule will be erratic. As for Critters, somehow none of those movies have never been tackled by me despite me being a product of the 80’s & 90’s. Much to my amusement, the director of this picture-Stephen Herek-went on to direct some Disney films and other name pictures and his latest effort is that new Lindsay Lohan Christmas film on Netflix which I presume is bad due to the star and platform.
After viewing the movie-it’s quite silly yet I was still entertained. “Kansas” looked like the rural California that stood in for “North Dakota” in Leprechaun but the farming family portrayed in the film aren’t that similar to my sister’s family anyhow; sis lives in a subdivision and none of my nephews mess around w/ firecrackers, thank goodness. It would be neat if they had boomboxes and hilarious 1980’s bedrooms… in any case, the titular Critters are voracious furballs from outer space who crash their ship on that Kansas farm and a pair of bounty hunters are on their tail. Of course I guffawed that one of the hunters transforms into an 80’s rocker on purpose.
The people in that fictitious small town of Grovers Bend are naturally rather colorful-from law enforcement to the town’s “eccentric” drunk to the family itself. The patriarch of the Brown family (Billy Green Bush) wears a turquoise and pink bowling shirt w/ a spoof of the Ghostbusters logo on the back, after all. It’s awhile before the creatures show up on Earth but that was alright as I was entertained by the shenanigans of all the humans. That was aided by such famous faces as Dee Wallace, Lin Shaye, and M. Emmet Walsh. The small early role for Billy Zane was rather amusing.
As someone who’s seen plenty of movies from this era, all the practical effects are appreciated by me (especially for the budget), including the work that the Chiodo Brothers did in animating those Critters, who were designed to be silly and threatening at the same time in this horror/comedy which did make me chortle on several occasions. Now, I hear that the filmmakers SWEAR this was written long before Gremlins, honest. No matter the truth, this was one of several clones that came out after the success of Dante’s film.
The Brown family is more interesting than the bounty hunters but it’s a goofy piece of schlock (especially w/ that hysterical ending) where the cat does NOT die & a little boy becomes a hero. As for the sequels, who knows if I’ll ever bother. Perhaps the third installment will be tackled, given the other Titanic cast member that’s in it…
No comments:
Post a Comment