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Author Topic: Tremors Attack Pack (CONTAINS SPOILERS)  (Read 4921 times)
akiratubo
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« on: October 16, 2007, 09:29:34 PM »

The funny thing about the Tremors series is that it manages to maintain a fairly high level of quality across four installments.  The original Tremors is the best by far, of course; it's one of the best monster movies of all time.  However, the other three are also quite good on their own merits, coming up short only in comparison to the original.

Tremors
Tremors should need no introduction on this forum.  A movie this good, this perfect, in any genre, is a rare thing.  Tremors accomplishes what so many other monster movies only wish they could.  The monsters are rarely onscreen but they are always a presence.  The threat they pose is palpable and constant.  Even movies that manage to convey the threat of their monsters often fail to have the actions of the creature live up to the suspense.  Not so with Tremors.  When the monsters attack for real, they are, if anything, even more dangerous than the audience has been expecting.  The human characters are, for once, equal to the task at hand if only because they pull together and cooperate, with several characters contributing individual experience and resources to the defeat of the monsters.  There's no square-jawed scientist nor gruff military commander -- nor any Scooby Gang of insipid teens who outsmart everyone.  There are just a bunch of believeable people faced with disturbingly plausible monsters.  A true classic.

Tremors 2
A surprisingly good sequel.  It isn't as good as Tremors but that is hardly a mark against it.  Once again, we have a cast of real adults, played by seasoned pros, with only one fellow below the age of thirty.  Even he comes off well.  The graboids from the original Tremors are here but, now that the characters returning from the first movie know how to deal with them, they don't seem any more threatening than any other large, carnivorous animal.  That changes when they give birth to smaller, above-ground monsters.  The new monsters are pretty nifty, at least until some business about rapid, hermaphroditic reproduction rears its head.  Up until then, one could assume the little monsters would turn into graboids at some later time in their life cycle.  That they are supposed to be some form of instant evolution is a little too much.  The only other real strike against Tremors 2 is that it tries a little too hard at times to capture the mood of the original movie, rather than making an identity for itself.  Even so, Tremors 2 is still a pretty cool little monster movie.

Tremors 3
The second sequal takes us back to Perfection, Nevada, the setting of the original.  And ... it pretty much rehashes the plot of the original movie, too.  The graboids are back, and eating people and things.  They evolve into the Shriekers from the second movie.  Now, it would have been interesting to see the shriekers again but they hardly appear before evolving yet again into "ass-blasters".  Ass-blasters look a little like the shriekers but they fly ... by launching themselves into the air with the power of their farts.  Tremors 3 isn't a bad movie by any means -- in fact, it has a few scenes that are very good.  It's just that the original graboids were some of the best monsters ever to appear.  The more mutations, or evolutions, or whatever that are added to their life cycle, the less interesting they get.  Tremors 3 had one chance to really shine, to make itself a more worthy entry in the franchise.  Burt Gummer, a recurring character, is eaten by one of the graboids.  I was surprised by how affected I was by this, by how much I had come to feel for this character.  "Oh, no.  Burt's dead."  Just when I was contemplating the implications this even would have on the other characters and the rest of the movie, the moment was undone.  Perhaps realizing they blew it, the movie kills off a different recurring character later on but it feels like a cheap shot.

Tremors 4
Tremors 4 takes place in the late 1800s.  Aside from that, it seems an attempt was made to get back to basics.  Some graboid eggs are found in a mine, hatch, and the graboids begin eating people.  The baby graboids are nice and the movie could have benefitted from using them for longer.  However, they grow to adult size in a few mintues (of real time, in movie time it was apparently a month or more).  After that, it's more of the same.  One major drawback of setting the movie in that past is that we have to watch the character figure out the graboids almost exactly the same way as in the first movie.  The budget was obviously reduced from the previous installments, the graboids appear even less than usual, and the method of dispatching the last one strains credibility.  On the plus side, the acting is quite good all around.  Michael Gross returns again, playing an ancestor of Burt Gummer, and does good things with the role.  Billy Drago has a welcome cameo as gunfighter Black Hand Kelly.  Drago's approach to this type of character is interesting.  Black Hand Kelly is a hardened killer; he doesn't have a heart of gold.  However, he is thoroughly professional and businesslike.  He only draws his gun when there's profit in it, and he is capable of working with others to survive instead of just trying to save his own skin.  All in all, Kelly is a pretty believable gunman for hire.  Tremors 4 is probably the least of the Tremors movies but, taken on its own, it's still not a bad little movie.
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Torgo
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« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2007, 10:12:14 PM »

I bought the Tremors Attack Pack mainly to get the 1st film in anamorphic widescreen (it looks SO MUCH better than older DVD that was an old laserdisc transfer) along with the 2nd film.

I hadn't seen the 3rd one in ages and hadn't seen the 4th one at all.

I actually thought that the 3rd one was the weakest of the bunch.  The 1st is still a classic and the 2nd one like you mentioned was surprisingly good.
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« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2007, 11:44:06 PM »

I've been meaning to buy this.  I just wish it had come out before I got the original Tremors, which was $10 by itself way back when.  Oh well.

On a side note, it really makes no sense to have an ancestor of Burt in the same valley.  It's established in the original film that they moved to the valley specifically to survive nuclear war.
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The Burgomaster
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« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2007, 06:39:58 AM »

I bought this a couple weeks ago.  I have seen the first one several times but I haven't seen any of the sequels.
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« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2007, 05:45:20 PM »

On a side note, it really makes no sense to have an ancestor of Burt in the same valley.  It's established in the original film that they moved to the valley specifically to survive nuclear war.
Maybe somewhere along the line his familiy moved away and his heritage was the reason he found Perfection over similar "safe spots"
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« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2007, 09:01:10 PM »

The third one used to be one of my favotites, but now Its one of the worst. The first is the best and the secong follows. Im not that a big a fan of the 4th movie mainly due to the part that the charactors arent that enjoyable. There are soe good aspects, but its ultimatly the worst of the bunch.
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« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2007, 11:03:24 AM »

I have watched each of these films and enjoyed them all immensely,  I would rank them in the order of their appearance, the 1st being the best and #4 being the worst of the lot. Worst is a relative term, compared to the others it's the worst, but each film taken individually is a good movie, The chemistry between the actors is always good, each story is just different enough to be good all by itself and to be interesting to those of us who have seen the other 3 films. There is enough suspense and humor in the right proportions to make each movie in the series fun to watch.
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« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2007, 08:37:08 PM »

I should pop these in for a mini marathon when I have a day off of work.  Fun little movies.
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« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2007, 09:05:41 PM »

I've always thought that the 1st Tremors was a vastly underrated little monster movie.  The movie's got some priceless little dialogue changes in it that make me laugh everytime like:

Valentine McKee: Roger that Burt, and congratulations. Be advised, however, that there are two more, repeat, two more motherhumpers.

Earl Bassett: We gotta run. We've got a schedule to keep.
Valentine McKee: Yeah. See, we plan ahead, that way we don't do anything right now. Earl explained it to me.

Earl Bassett: Damn it, listen to me. I'm older and wiser.
Valentine McKee: Yeah, well you're half right.

Valentine McKee: STAMPEDE! Stampede, Earl! Get out of the way, get out of the way!
Earl Bassett: [waking up] You dumb sh*t. I was in a stampede once. Five hundred head, all hell-bent for the horizon.
Valentine McKee: Now, exactly how many cattle are required for a stampede, Earl? Is it three or more? Is there a minimum to 'pede?
Earl Bassett: I wish they'd stampede up your @ss.

Burt Gummer: No tracks, no sign, no spoor... you'd think after eating all those sheep they'd have to take a dump *some*place.

[Burt cuts off a piece of fuse for a bomb for Earl]
Earl Bassett: What kind of fuse is that?
Burt Gummer: Cannon fuse
Earl Bassett: What the hell do you use it for?
Burt Gummer: My cannon! 

Earl Bassett: No breakfast?
Valentine McKee: I did it yesterday. It was baloney and beans.
Earl Bassett: No, it was eggs. I made eggs. Over easy.
Valentine McKee: The hell you did! Baloney and beans. It's your turn!
[They go through a quick game of paper-rock-scissors, which Valentine loses]
Valentine McKee: Well, I guess when I'm your age, I'll forget what I eat, too.

Valentine McKee: What the hell's in those things, Burt?
Burt Gummer: A few household chemicals in the proper proportions.



« Last Edit: October 18, 2007, 09:07:44 PM by Torgo » Logged

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« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2007, 07:42:54 AM »

I've always thought that the 1st Tremors was a vastly underrated little monster movie.  The movie's got some priceless little dialogue changes in it that make me laugh everytime like:


[Burt cuts off a piece of fuse for a bomb for Earl]
Earl Bassett: What kind of fuse is that?
Burt Gummer: Cannon fuse
Earl Bassett: What the hell do you use it for?
Burt Gummer: My cannon! 




A classic. For me, Tremors is the most perfect monster movie ever.
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