recent views: spheres, crashes, rats and chickens...

[mr. henry]

wasted some holiday time watching these three flicks...i also read sphere over the break, so decided to watch it...glad i had read the book first (a real bubblegum read but better than the movie)...

Sphere - 1998 (PG-13). (VHS) Directed by Barry Levinson and based on the novel by Michael Crichton. When the Navy discovers a long-time submerged spaceship, civilian scientists and a psychologist run around a deep sea habitat while helping investigate the underwater site. After encountering a mysterious sphere on board, the makeshift crew begins experiencing strangeness including an attack by an off-camera sea monster. It was all explained much better in the book, which itself reads like a film; a better one. I believe, had I not read the book first, I would have been confused by the movie's plot holes and poor character development. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Crash - 1996 (NC-17). (VHS) David Cronenberg directs his screenplay about auto-crash fetishists---which means it's about demented folks that get turned on by accidents and injuries. You won't have to think much while cringing at this wreckage because the plot is nearly non-existent. While this does loosely follow the typical Cronenberg theme of disease and flesh modification as evolution, it's one of his weaker efforts; it comes off as late-night soft-core with a slight dash of the director's revisited ideas. Based on the novel by J.G. Ballard. NOT RECOMMENDED.

The Food of the Gods - 1976 (PG). (VHS) Directed/screenplay by Bert I. Gordon. After being taken for granted and polluted by man, nature rebels with a mysterious ooze that grows animals to approximately 100 times their normal size. A group of people on a wooded island are terrorized by giant chickens, worms, wasps, and rats. Apparently the giant rats don't know how to swim because, well...they just don't. Starring Marjoe Gortner (Marjoe = Mary + Joseph), former child minister who quit the healing circuit to star in the documentary Marjoe (1972) and act in such blockbusters as Starcrash (1979) and, well...this movie. NOT RECOMMENDED for those without a sanity-saving sense of humor.

-mr. henry

[Squishy]

The giant rats fix their little swimming problem in "Food Of The Gods 2." In fact, they manage to invade a gala event through the bottom of a huge swimming pool, though I couldn't tell you how they did that...  "Food of the Gods 2" also has The Simple Love of a Man and His Giant Rat, Huge Foulmouthed Murderous Kid, and a peculiar take on penis enlargement DURING sex--just some of the things that make it one of my guilty faves. It's quite crappy.

[Extreme Stasiak]

what the heck?
thats so strange!

[mr. henry]

i agree with you squishy---Food of the Gods II is more fun than the first...the big kid...the tomatoes the rats eat...the weird dream the guy has that he grows...and laboratories are always pretty good movie fun..all around, more to laugh at in part two...(the giant chickens in part one are pretty funny though)...

-mr. henry

[Chadzilla]

I'll admit to refusing to seeing The Food of the Gods because the poster just freaked me out utterly (it feature a giant rat perched on a tree branch, a dead woman in nightdown draped over the branch next to it).  TOO INTENSE my mind screamed, so I didn't see it until it was on the Channel 7 3:30 Movie...oh, boy what a turkey.  Needless to say I love it (not as much as The Swarm, but the dorky thing has its charm).

Yes, Food of the Gods Part 2 has a slight increase of intelligence, bit FotG Part 1 has a dopey plot that is impossible for me to dislike...Marjoe Gortner as a professional football player!?!  Strange ick bubbles up from the ground, so two old coots decide to feed it to the animals!?!?!?!  Dog Food CEO (Ralph Meeker) and his sweet henchperson (Pamela Franklin) want the bubbling ick for their product.  A know people like big dogs, but considering how big the RATS got (not to mention how vicious) how does putting it into DOG FOOD make it a GOOD IDEA!?!?

Just thinking about it makes me want to watch it again - HELLO, MIDNIGHT MOVIES, are you listening?