Tremors (1990).

Review #2286: Tremors (1990).

Cast: 

Kevin Bacon (Val McKee), Fred Ward (Earl Bassett), Finn Carter (Rhonda LeBeck), Michael Gross (Burt Gummer), Reba McEntire (Heather Gummer), Bobby Jacoby (Melvin Plug), Charlotte Stewart (Nancy Sterngood), Ariana Richards (Mindy Sterngood), Tony Genaro (Miguel), Richard Marcus (Nestor Cunningham), Víctor Wong (Walter Chang), and Bibi Besch (Megan Wallace) Directed by Ron Underwood (#808 - City Slickers and #1930 - The Adventures of Pluto Nash)

Review: 

I'm surprised that I hadn't encountered Tremors before, but then again you never know how many monster comedies will come your way in the horror season. The original idea for the film came from S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, a writing duo that had first met when studying at the University of Southern California. After years of doing shorts, the two had their big break in writing and selling what became Short Circuit (1986), complete with a subsequent sequel in 1988. They wanted to break into producing alongside writing, and one idea that their agent Nancy Roberts liked involved inspiration from days spent hiking on a Navy base and wondering what would happen if there was something under a rock that meant they couldn't get off. They worked with Ron Underwood on outlining it in considerable detail before going through the trudge of trying to sell their script, which slowly but surely ended up with distribution by Universal Pictures. This was the debut feature film for Underwood (also a USC attendee), who had worked for several years in a variety of positions for films and TV, such as an adaptation of "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". The screenplay (as originally known as "Beneath Perfection") was originally finished in 1988 and the movie was shot over the course of nearly two months in 1989. The end result was a mild success (being released in January 1990 after all) with audiences that ended up spawning a certain kind of audience curiosity in six further Tremors films (1996, 2001, 2004, 2015, 2018, 2020), with Wilson and Maddock being involved in the first three sequels (complete with each directing a film); Michael Gross appeared in each one of the films, which had varying levels of success on home video. There also was a television series that briefly ran in 2003 that had involvement from Wilson and Maddock.

Well, you do get your monster worm with tentacles, with a mix of those effects being through puppets and wire (Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis were behind the creature design). People that had fun with say, Piranha (1978), will have a ball with this film for 96 minutes (well, they both involve shark-like monsters). This is mostly because it manages to generate plenty of warmth in its harkening back to some of the familiar beats of the old creature feature without having the aura of being beneath it. One doesn't have a weak link among the actors when it comes to commitment of timing to go with a quality creature look (referred to as "Graboids") to fulfill the basic needs one would like from a horror movie that likes to have a chuckle with its viewer. Bacon and Ward make for quite a fun pair to lead the way that one would almost assume they were playing brothers (interestingly enough, it took a while for Bacon to warm to the film beyond calling it one done for the money) with how they pair off each other in shades of the everyman. It probably works best that Carter just rolls along with only some of the cliches that come with science babble or in monster-peddling, mostly because the film elects to just let the monster origin just go by the wayside (the studio actually wanted an explanation for the monsters and even compelled the filmmakers to do a scene; the scene, involving earthquakes and a dead coyote, did not fare well in testing and was deleted). Gross and McEntire (a debut performance for the noted singer) makes for quite the pairing in offbeat enjoyment to round out the general curiosity. You don't get too many desert-bound horror movies, but this one makes the best of it in maintaining curiosity for its apparent threat and why we grow to care about what happens around this small town, regardless of how the body count goes. Cheesy with pride and clearly committed, Tremors is a delight for all who enter its range of curiosity.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Big Trouble in Little China.

Review #1479: Big Trouble in Little China.

Cast:
Kurt Russell (Jack Burton), Kim Cattrall (Gracie Law), Dennis Dun (Wang Chi), James Hong (David Lo Pan), Victor Wong (Egg Shen), Kate Burton (Margo Litzenberger), Donald Li (Eddie Lee), Carter Wong (Thunder), Peter Kwong (Rain), James Pax (Lightning), Suzee Pai (Miao Yin), and Chao-Li Chi (Uncle Chu) Directed by John Carpenter (#068 - Halloween (1978), #634 - Escape from New York, #712 - The Thing (1982), #732 - Escape from L.A., #1221 - Dark Star, and #1298 - They Live)

Review: 
"I'm pretty happy with who I am. I like myself and what I'm doing. I don't need to be the world's greatest director or the most famous - or the richest. I don't need to make a whole lot of great films. I can do my job and I can do it pretty well. This is the realization I've come to, later in life. It's called growing up."
"I seem to have a knack for picking movies that go on to be cult favorites."

John Carpenter is a director that deserves further inspection, one that is far more than just his horror films. The 1980s are ertainly an interesting indicator of this diverting director, with eight of his eighteen directorial efforts being in that era (ranging from The Fog to They Live), comprised of success and flops that eventually alienated him away from Hollywood, but most of the features are generally well appreciated for their efforts in horror, science fiction and action, with some of those features also being composed or written by him as well. At the helm as star for some of those successes is Kurt Russell, who first rose to prominence as a child star in television and for Disney films before growing into further lines of work in the 1980s as an action hero (along with sentimental favorite in my view). The film had three different writers credited: Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein originally wrote it as a western that would combine Chinese fantasy elements one might find in a martial arts film within a western; subsequent attempts to turn it into something more filmable led to their firing and W. D. Richter (writer of films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)) brought in to rehaul the screenplay into a contemporary tale that kept just basic elements like Lo Pan and Jack Burton, using Rosemary's Baby (yes, that one) as his template.

Ultimately, what we have here is a film that screams cult classic - it was a flop at the box office in the midst of a busy summer (to put it in perspective, the top films of that summer were Top Gun, The Karate Kid Part II and Aliens) and marketing that even Russell found not to his liking, with the studio not really understanding Burton's character (to the point where they had them do the opening scene about his heroism). It influenced Carpenter back to independent filmmaking as yet another painfully misspreciated film of his catalogue in the 1980s (with only his film The Thing (1982) being more unappreciated in its time, which also found a deserved following). For all of its obviousness, one can't help but enjoy its b-movie style - cheesy but with wonderful effects and a zippy charm to its cast that make a strange and stark delight to the action film. Russell proves quite enjoyable with brash brightness for a part that is part-hero and part-sidekick, lumbering through lines of screwball bravado, whether in engaging in some trucker lines on a truck, or showing confidence right before knocking himself out of a fight. Cattrall follows along the screwball aspects of the film at times with sharpness, making for a quirky time when paired with Russell. Dun proves well in keeping with the quick pace and timing required of our true hero with confidence that springs well with the action sequences. Hong (a prolific Chinese American actor of various mediums for six decades) proves a fair villain, inviting one with some creeping mystery (we are talking about a long-living sorcerer who wants a green-eyed bride/sacrifice, after all) that makes a satisfactory threat. Wong, Burton, and Li prove a decent supporting cast to a film that moves along for 99 minutes with an aim to make a snappy martial arts effects film and succeeding fairly well at it. With floating eyeballs, lightning effects, a underworld beneath Chinatown, and a big ugly monster, how could one resist such a film? To call it contrived or bumbling is missing out on the fun, particularly one with an interesting approach to the hero-sidekick dynamic. On the whole, it is a likable film with enough well-done staging in action and design to go with an amiable cast for a deserved cult classic and a fair piece in John Carpenter's line of work that is worth a watch.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Son of Kong.

Review #914: Son of Kong.

Cast:
Robert Armstrong (Carl Denham), Helen Mack (Hilda Petersen), Frank Reicher (Captain Englehorn), John Marston (Nils Helstrom), Victor Wong (Charlie), and Ed Brady (Red) Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack (#283 - King Kong, #604 - Mighty Joe Young, and #709 - The Most Dangerous Game)

Review:
I will watch Kong: Skull Island next week, and as such it makes sense to do a review of a Kong movie. Enjoy, and I would encourage checking out the other Kong reviews done over the years: #283, #604 (made with the same creative team), and #726 - King Kong (1976).

Released just nine months after the first film had been released into theaters, Son of Kong is a sequel that isn't as well known (nor well-liked) as the original film. The movie begins with a brief recap of the first film (in dialogue), with the premise being set up by the time 10 minutes pass by. At least they didn't just take footage from the end of the movie. Some of the cast from the first film (Armstrong, Reicher, and Wong) appear in this one, and this is certainly one that gives Armstrong a bit more in terms of characterization. The tight budget and shooting schedule (screenwriter Ruby Rose described doing the movie as this: "If you can't make it bigger, make it funnier") meant that several models from the first film were reused, though Willis O'Brien does contribute stop-motion animation once again. It isn't until around 43 minutes that the Son of Kong appears in the movie, looking noticeably lighter skinned than his larger father, with facial expressions that seem to go with any sort of comedic moments the movie tries to do. The best thing I can say about the movie is that it isn't just a simple repeat of the first film, with semblances of romance and adventure taking the mantle this time. Unfortunately, it doesn't really have much of the tension nor importance the first film. Simply put, it's obviously not as good as the first one. It doesn't have too much spectacle and is quite rushed, giving a product that could have had potential had there been more time and length (this is only 69 minutes long) given to the movie. By releasing the movie quickly in order to ride off the memories people had of the original film, Son of Kong manages to be a middling sequel that could have been so much better.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.