Tremors
3/4
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire
Rated PG-13 for Intense, Creature Violence/Gore, and Language
"Tremors" is the definition of a "cult" movie (I saw it at a midnight screening). It contains all the elements: hilariously stupid characters, cheesy special effects and, well, not much else. The film is fast paced once it gets going and enough of the humor works to make it worth seeing, but don't expect something great. Watch it with friends and a few beers.
Actually, that's how the public reacted to it when it was released in 1990. The film failed to make much of an impression in theaters, but this was around the time when VHS was coming into being, and that's when the film really took off. It ended up with a box office gross of $48.5 million; a great success coming off a budget of only $11 million (and this was 20 years ago).
The film takes place in the small desert town of Perfection. Only about, oh, 10 people live there. Two of them are handymen Val (Bacon) and Earl (Ward). Neither one of them has a particularly big brain, but as small town joes who do odds and ends so they can drink more, being intelligent isn't necessary for survival. Mysterious things are going on in Perfection, however. A bunch of sheep are suddenly found slaughtered. The town drunk is found dead from dehydration high on an electrical tower. And the local doctor and his wife are six feet under...literally! It turns out that there are king sized worms underground that have an appetite for human flesh. Now the townspeople, plus a graduate student studying seismology (Carter), will have to rally together to make it to the next town in one piece.
The acting is okay. Both Bacon and Ward appear to be having fun, and they have good chemistry. The same cannot be said about Finn Carter. She can't act, and for someone who's obviously meant to be eye candy, she's not particularly eye-catching either. No one else bears much of a mention except for Michael Gross and Reba McEntire as the local gun nuts who have an armory in their basement. And that Ariana Richards, who played Lex in "Jurassic Park" three years later, appears in a small role as Mindy Sterngood.
Director Ron Underwood, a short filmmaker who made his debut with this film, does a solid job with the film. There are some obvious references to "Jaws," like the camera going underground. The deficiencies lie mainly with the script. The stuff that works is good, but I wanted more. I wanted more humor, more action, more scares. Underwood and his writers clearly wanted to balance scary monster action with comedy, and they do. But I wanted more of both.
This isn't great entertainment, but it's an ideal "late night" movie.
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire
Rated PG-13 for Intense, Creature Violence/Gore, and Language
"Tremors" is the definition of a "cult" movie (I saw it at a midnight screening). It contains all the elements: hilariously stupid characters, cheesy special effects and, well, not much else. The film is fast paced once it gets going and enough of the humor works to make it worth seeing, but don't expect something great. Watch it with friends and a few beers.
Actually, that's how the public reacted to it when it was released in 1990. The film failed to make much of an impression in theaters, but this was around the time when VHS was coming into being, and that's when the film really took off. It ended up with a box office gross of $48.5 million; a great success coming off a budget of only $11 million (and this was 20 years ago).
The film takes place in the small desert town of Perfection. Only about, oh, 10 people live there. Two of them are handymen Val (Bacon) and Earl (Ward). Neither one of them has a particularly big brain, but as small town joes who do odds and ends so they can drink more, being intelligent isn't necessary for survival. Mysterious things are going on in Perfection, however. A bunch of sheep are suddenly found slaughtered. The town drunk is found dead from dehydration high on an electrical tower. And the local doctor and his wife are six feet under...literally! It turns out that there are king sized worms underground that have an appetite for human flesh. Now the townspeople, plus a graduate student studying seismology (Carter), will have to rally together to make it to the next town in one piece.
The acting is okay. Both Bacon and Ward appear to be having fun, and they have good chemistry. The same cannot be said about Finn Carter. She can't act, and for someone who's obviously meant to be eye candy, she's not particularly eye-catching either. No one else bears much of a mention except for Michael Gross and Reba McEntire as the local gun nuts who have an armory in their basement. And that Ariana Richards, who played Lex in "Jurassic Park" three years later, appears in a small role as Mindy Sterngood.
Director Ron Underwood, a short filmmaker who made his debut with this film, does a solid job with the film. There are some obvious references to "Jaws," like the camera going underground. The deficiencies lie mainly with the script. The stuff that works is good, but I wanted more. I wanted more humor, more action, more scares. Underwood and his writers clearly wanted to balance scary monster action with comedy, and they do. But I wanted more of both.
This isn't great entertainment, but it's an ideal "late night" movie.
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