Film Review: CRITTERS 2: THE MAIN COURSE

Bigger. Badder. And out for more food. The critters are back for more in Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) and back with them are returning bounty hunters Ug and Lee and Brad Brown (Scott Grimes) to save his little town from an all new infestation.

After the events of the first film the Brown family is unaware that Critter eggs were left in their barn where the cold has kept them in suspended animation for several years. An uncouple less junk sales man gets his hands on them and sells them to an unsuspecting woman who is contributing them to the yearly Eater Egg Hunt. This all coincides with Brad’s return home after leaving due to the events surrounding the first critter attack. He gets more than he bargained for when this new batch is more fierce and hungrier and are multiplying at an exponential rate. Now Brad must get the whole town to help him rid them of the infestation before they are completely over run.

This film is much bigger than the previous film and with a bigger budget it shows. The film is no longer limited to just one location like the original film and there are more explosions and more critters all over the place. This is a film that when it says, “Bigger is better,” they actually mean it. This film also ups the stakes as main characters are killed off and more people meet their deaths than in the previous film (which was tame compared to this film). There is plenty of humor to be had and just as much action (which makes up for the lack of suspense since the critters are not as menacing as they were in the previous film).

This is a rare instance where a sequel improves upon the original which is due to the strong screenplay by David Twohy (Warlock, The Arrival, Pitch Black) and Mick Garris (The Stand, Desperation), who also directed. The film also has a great supporting cast with many people returning from the original but also adding in a few new faces such as Liane Curtis, Sam Anderson, and Barry Corbin, to name a few.

Film Review: A PERFECT GETAWAY

After the heavy science fiction films The Arrival, Pitch Black, and The Chronicles of Riddick, writer & director David Twohy has decided to take it a little easy with his new suspense thriller A PERFECT GETAWAY. Although this film may look like another vacation in paradise that goes to hell, Twohy has decided to go a different route with his film. The structure for the film is very different from his usual film as it follows three couples on vacation in Hawaii who soon learn that a young couple just married were recently murdered and that the murders are still at large. What follows is a tense psychological journey as the couples interact with one another and soon think that the other is the murderers.

A PERFECT GETAWAY is anything but that. Twohy takes his time with allowing the audience to meet all three of the couples and how they interact with one another. His screenplay is very tight and walks a fine line of being a suspense thriller verses being a top notch mystery thriller. This is made even more apparent by the better then expected performances from the cast (which includes Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, and Kiele Sanchez, to name a few) whom all are playing against type adding to the mystery surrounding the film.

Twohy proves with this film that he is just at home with a suspense thriller as he is with science fiction and that his psychological ghost story Below wasn’t just a fluke.