Am I Missing Something?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Two intergalactic bounty hunters are alerted when a group of dangerous. fuzzy aliens, known as "Crites", escape from a nearby "space jail". The Crites are able to land on earth before the hunters can get to them though. They land in a town where a family, The Browns, live. The son of the family is a very big horror fan and is the only character who is immediately aware of the potential danger of the Crites. Meanwhile, the bounty hunters have landed in the same town and are now back on the hunt. They end up causing more damage than the Crites though, due to their unfamiliarity with Earth. They eventually track the Crites down and the greatest battle in cinematic history ensues."Critters" is a surprisingly original film, even if it was marketed as a rip off of the far superior "Gremlins". It never takes itself to seriously and the plot is pretty tight for something most people would write off as schlock. The Critter effects are decent, in some scenes they look surprisingly real and then in other scenes they're as fake as a four dollar bill. The Chiodo brothers are great effects artists. just look at their masks and make up in "Killer Klowns From Outer Space", but the effects in "Critters" are somewhere in the middle. "Critters" is a fine film if you're looking for a fun night in with a mid 80's creature feature, but if you're looking for genuinely great movie making-stick with "Gremlins".

This movie rocks! Anybody who just sees the poster automatically thinks it's a rip-off of Gremlins, but this isn't a rip-off, it's something completely new.Now, I have to admit: I did go to this movie because of James Rolfe's review on it (and that kick-ass "Power of the Night" song), though I knew about it ever since I saw the first TMNT movie.Anyways, this movie definitely delivers. It has awesome-looking creatures, fun characters, great music by David Newman, and a bad-ass storyline.Some creatures from space escape to our planet, and it's up to the bounty hunters to have them destroyed. I love the bounty hunters. They can disguise as anything they see with their own eyes.If you think that this is a cheap rip-off of Gremlins, you are wrong. Check this movie out!

Critters (1986) *** (out of 4) Fun sci-fi spoof about a Kansas family who finds themselves under attack from small fur balls that can shoot out poisonous darts and have an appetite for flesh. CRITTERS was New Line's reply to GREMLINS and for my money it's the better movie. There's no question that this film was made for a rather small budget but I think it's a perfect example of how the genre can be done right without having to spend a lot of cash on special effects. The film offers up some fun homages to other films, some great characters to root for and we're also given some terrific villains who you just love to hate. I think the creatures themselves are certainly the highlight of the picture. Their design really was a work of genius in the way that they can roll to wherever they're going and the darts are just an added goodie. I really loved the way that they looked and there's no question that those teeth are priceless. While the things aren't ever scary I really don't think they need to be because this picture really isn't about being scared but it's about just having fun. It also doesn't hurt that we're given a great family to cheer for along the way. Dee Wallace Stone play the mom, Billy Green Bush the dad, Scott Grimes the son, Nadine Van Der Velde the daughter and M. Emmet Walsh plays the local Sheriff. We also have Billy Zane in a small role as a boyfriend. The performances are also extremely good here including the always reliable Dee Wallace Stone. Grimes makes for a good guy to cheer for as well. The film really doesn't contain any major violence, which wasn't the norm for the horror and sci-fi genre from this period but the creativity here really makes up for that. Director Stephen Herek really does a nice job mixing everything up and he keeps the film moving at a terrific pace. The film has plenty of laughs but best of all is that you can just sit back and have a good time with it.

Yesterday I killed some time by browsing the DVD aisle(s) at Best Buy. I came across a four-feature offer that included Critters 1-4 for the low price of $12.99. Since I have a soft spot for just this sort of low brow garbage, I thought, "What the heck? This will make for a fun Friday night movie marathon." So, having never seen a single one of the Critters films, I picked up the entire collection and embarked on a journey to see just how cheesy/idiotic (after all, the "so-bad-it's- good" appeal is really the only thing these having going for them, right?) they really are.Here's the scoop: a hostile alien species known as the Crites escapes from an intergalactic prison asteroid and executes an escape plan—the word "plan" is used very loosely—to hide on the planet Earth until they can make their next move. Two bounty hunters are sent after the Crites; they are ordered to bring back the razor-toothed furballs at any and all costs. Thus the stage is set for one of the great sci-fi confrontations of the past 25 years.Not.Critters seems to be savvy enough to realize that it's nothing more than moronic popcorn cinema, but it never really accomplishes any gags that truly elicits the chuckles (or scares) that were certainly intended to define this most lowbrow of offerings.If I had to pinpoint the main problem with Critters, I'd say it has to do with the uneven transition between the cartoonish antics of the extraterrestrials themselves and the oddly serious moments of violence that pop-up sporadically when things really hit the fan. One minute we see one of the malicious little creatures swallow a firecracker and momentarily stagger as the thing explodes and a thin trail of smoke pours from his mouth (it's shockingly close to what you'd seen during any given episode of Looney Tunes). The next, we watch the thing tear off hunks of flesh in an effort to consume the innocent inhabits of a rural Kansas community.As you'd expect, there are plenty of pop-culture references and hammy one-liners, but this seems like little more than a pale remake of that other "critter" classic of the 1980′s—Gremlins.Sure, the movie is mildly entertaining, but how it spawned three sequels I'll never know.Stay tuned for my reviews of the other three films, which, here's hoping, will manage to strike some sort of balance in the clunky dichotomy between laughs and gore that we see in the first entry.