HERE COME THE SPIDERS, MAN!Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic THE FOLKS BEHIND the new giant spider flick, ``Eight-Legged Freaks,'' set out to make a film that was very much in the tradition of the B-movie thrillers of the late 1950s. They succeeded. Consider that a warning. If you go to ``Eight-Legged Freaks,'' and leave the theater complaining that it was cheesy cheesy (che´ze) caseous. and campy and dumb, then - and pardon the reality-check - you're an idiot. It's like all the people who went to see ``Godzilla'' a few years back and griped about how their expectations were dashed. It's a Godzilla movie, people. You were expecting quality? ``Eight-Legged Freaks'' comes from Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the same producing team that gave us ``Godzilla'' and ``Independence Day.'' These guys love their B-movies, and, if their enthusiasm isn't exactly contagious, it does provide for some occasional moments of fun and well-intentioned stupidity. They're too few and far between, however, for the movie to appeal to anyone outside the fringe fanboy A male (or female if a "fangirl") who is completely devoted to a particular work. Fanboys are fiercely loyal and steadfast in their opinion. With regard to computers and technology, fanboys outnumber fangirls by a huge margin and may be enamored with particular computer platforms, MP3 crowd. ``Freaks'' adheres to the genre's atomic-era origins. Here, a truck driver carrying toxic waste accidentally dumps a container in a lake. When a mad scientist takes crickets from the water and feeds them to his vast collection of spiders, a parrot in the room is obliged to announce: ``I see dead people.'' Sure enough, giant arachnids soon begin to terrorize ter·ror·ize tr.v. ter·ror·ized, ter·ror·iz·ing, ter·ror·iz·es 1. To fill or overpower with terror; terrify. 2. To coerce by intimidation or fear. See Synonyms at frighten. and gobble up the inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. of the small desert town of Prosperity, Ariz. There are five different types of spiders  This article or section should be changed into list format to meet Wikipedia's .This article's content may be better presented as a stand-alone or embedded list. on the loose - some leap, some pop out of trap doors, some spew sticky webs and some wrap their prey like mummies. Then there are the tarantulas, which basically just bowl things over. Strangely, the five varieties of spiders don't keep ``Freaks'' from soon becoming a repetitive exercise in cheesy terror. Writer-director Ellory Elkayem attempts to combine horror and hokey hok·ey adj. hok·i·er, hok·i·est Slang 1. Mawkishly sentimental; corny. 2. Noticeably contrived; artificial. hok humor, but the blend serves only to undercut both areas. The movie is scary only if you're the kind of person who leaps on a chair any time a spider crawls by. ``Freaks'' does have its inspired moments. The movie comes alive during a giddy daytime sequence where the jumping spiders pursue a bunch of teen-age boys, who try to outrun out·run tr.v. out·ran , out·run, out·run·ning, out·runs 1. a. To run faster than. b. To escape from: outrun one's creditors. 2. the arachnids on their motorbikes. It looks fake, but that doesn't matter because the scene bursts with energy and imagination - not to mention one added bonus. The teens all get eaten. EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS - Two stars (Rated: PG-13; sci-fi violence, brief sexuality, language) Starring: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Doug E. Doug Doug E. Doug (born January 7 1970) is an American actor and comedian. Doug was born Douglas Bourne in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn. , Scarlett Johansson. Director: Ellory Elkayem. Running time :1 hr. 39 min. Playing: Wide release. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer lead a party of brave souls to take on the ``Eight Legged Freaks'' destroying their town. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion