Reaction & Review | Munchies

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1987. That movie is "Munchies".

Now, this movie was one of the many films from the 80's that was trying to cash in on the success of "Gremlins" and "Critters" (more so the former than the latter, but still). Two franchises that were centered around little monster creatures. Now, while I haven't seen any movies from the "Critters" series, I have seen both "Gremlins" movies, and I really enjoyed them. Shockingly, I still don't have them on DVD. I watched the second movie on TV years ago, and I saw the first "Gremlins" movie at my aunt's place a while back. I'm probably gonna have to get around to buying those movies at some point, but I'm getting way off track here. Point is, tonight's movie that I'm covering is, supposedly, a knock off of "Gremlins".

Now, the only other thing that I know about this movie is that it was produced by legendary filmmaker Roger Corman. And the person who directed this movie was Tina Hirsch, who also was the editor for "Gremlins". So yeah, this movie is TOTALLY being subtle on the fact that it's not trying to be a knock off of "Gremlins". However, I am not going to hold that against this movie, because it could wind up being really decent. I don't know if it's gonna end up being any good, but I am about to find out for myself. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Munchies".

19 minutes later

Well, guys, I can easily say that, out of all the characters in this movie so far, this fucking bum is already becoming irritating as shit. He's barely been on screen for not even 5 minutes, and I already fucking despise him. I'm kinda hoping we don't have to deal with his shit for the next hour and 10 minutes or so, otherwise, it's gonna be a bit painful with him around.

6 minutes later

So, now that I'm getting a closer look at Arnold, this Munchie here...well, it sorta looks like if ALF and one of the bird creatures from "The Dark Crystal" got together, fucked, and had a gross baby. Don't ask me WHY I thought of that, it was just the first thing that came to my mind. Still though...at least it looks OK. Puppeteering is decent, too. So, at least, we have that much, so far.

5 minutes later

You know, guys, how I mentioned earlier about how this movie was trying to be a "Gremlins" knock off? Well, this lady is reading a magazine. And on the back of it, they're advertising a creature and questioning whether or not it's a Gremlin. You just gotta love this movie's subtlety, because they obviously hide that fact VERY well.

1 minute later

OK...so, not only do these creatures multiply, but they can talk, too...interesting. It certainly is different. I mean, the only time I can think of any Gremlin that ever talked was in "Gremlins 2", but aside from that, these creatures can fully talk. And their voices are kinda weird, but still, at least it's something different.

4 minutes later

So, guys, I just learned something else about these Munchies. Not only can they talk, but their mouth movements are fucking horrible. Like, NOTHING they have said, so far, matches their mouth movements. I'm kinda hoping, maybe, these mouth movements will get better as the film goes along, but I honestly don't think it's going to.

7 minutes later

OK, I have a BIG question here, and I know it's, probably, a stupid one, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Why does everyone in this movie have a normal reaction to these Munchies driving around? What I mean by that is, why is nobody freaked out by the fact that these creatures are able to drive a shitty-looking car all by themselves? I'm gonna tell you, guys, if I ever saw a bunch of creatures driving a car by themselves, I would, probably, be kinda concerned about that kind of thing! I understand that this is, probably, trivial in the long run, but my question still stands. Why is nobody freaking out over these creatures that can, casually, drive a car? I'm REALLY curious here.

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I'll just go ahead and say this now, the best actor in this entire movie is Harvey Korman as Cecil Watterman. His character in this movie is just ridiculously hammy, but it works so fucking well. Can't exactly say the same thing about Paul's actor, but I'm gonna save that for when I eventually review this thing.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Munchies". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Well, what to even say about this movie? Umm...well, it certainly is an interesting film. But now, I have to actually talk about it.

So, let's go straight into this by talking about the writing. There's no way I can get around this without stating that this is, indeed, a knock off "Gremlins". I know that was kinda obvious going in, but I wasn't totally sure how much this movie was going to live up to being a knock off of "Gremlins". Well, it certainly does take a lot from "Gremlins", but with some minor changes added to it. For example, in "Gremlins", they established in that movie 3 different rules. Never feed them after midnight, make sure they don't come into contact with water, and don't expose them to sunlight. While there are no set rules for the Munchies in this movie, we do find out that if you cut these creatures in half, they will spawn into several different Munchies. Also, instead of exposing them to sunlight, which is what kills the Gremlins in their own movie, in this movie, if the Munchies come into contact with electricity, they will turn into aztec statues. There's kind of an explanation for it, which I won't go too much into, but it kinda ties into their existence. But anyway, those are the only two rules in this movie, which Paul, somehow, figures out from a book that he read that explains how these creatures operate. Well, it wasn't EXACTLY these creatures, it was more so something else. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's, at least, an explanation. So yeah, this movie is totally borrowing a lot from "Gremlins". But the funny thing about this is that if you've never watched any of the "Gremlins" movies, and you saw this movie first, you probably would've not noticed any of that. Because this movie's, obviously, not trying to hide the fact that it knows that it's a knock off of "Gremlins". However, there might be those of you who haven't seen "Gremlins" yet, so you probably wouldn't notice that fact, if you had watched this movie first. Others, who have seen "Gremlins", will notice it without even trying to look for it. So make of that what you will.

As for our characters, almost everbody in this movie is ridiculously shallow and bland. The only character who has any semblance of personality and character is Cecil Watterman. Cecil is, basically, this entrepreneur who kidnaps Arnold, the Munchie that first gets discovered by Harvey Korman's other character in Peru. And like I said earlier, his personality is what makes his character very charming and stands out the most out of every other character in this movie. Everybody else, I can just write off as fucking shallow as shit. Our main charater, Paul, has no personality to his character. He wants to go to L.A. to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian, but his father won't let him, because he wants Paul to go to college, unless if he can take care of Arnold the entire day while he's away, then he can pursue his comedy act. Mind you, Paul is suppose to be a comedian, and just about all of his jokes fall flat in this movie. Most of that can attribute to his acting, but I'll get to that in a bit. A lot of characters in this movie are either ridiculously annoying, or are just there for the sake of being there. The most annoying character in this movie goes to Dude, who is the bum I mentioned earlier that is also the son of Cecil and Melvis Watterman. Thankfully, he's killed off shortly after he and his Dad kidnap Arnold, so I didn't have to worry about him for very long in this movie. But honestly, nobody here has any real depth, outside of the couple of characters who I just mentioned earlier. Which isn't really saying much, honestly, but still. And as for the Munchies, well, they're kind of a more crude version of the Gremlins. Because while the Gremlins were pretty much little bastards of destruction, they were still charming throughout their run. And while the Munchies do have some capabilities of destruction, mostly early on in the movie, they mostly lean on the crude side of things. They drink beer, they smoke, they like hot women, and they pretty much are just dicks all around. And they talk, too, which certainly gave them personality at first, but by the time that they multiply again, it kinda wears off, because most of them talk the same way, and act the same way. Which is rather disappointing to say the least.

Now, some people are gonna think that because this is a "Gremlins" knock off, that means that this movie automatically sucks because of that fact. Well...no. Because, while I will admit that both "Gremlins" movies had better writing and better characters, this movie does have some level of charm that I, honestly, can't bring myself to hate on. It's certainly aiming for more comedy than horror, which I appreciate, because I love horror comedies. It's not as funny as other horror comedies that I've seen, both for this series and on my own time, but it still has some humourous moments that you, yourself, might actually like out of this movie. So, while I will say that the writing here isn't great, and the characters are mostly shallow and lifeless, as a cheesy horror flick, it does a decent enough job to where you can overlook the shallow characters, with the exception of Cecil Watterman. Speaking of which, let's get into the acting. The acting ranges from being ridiculously hammy to being wooden as all hell. And the latter certainly rings true for Paul's actor, Charlie Stratton. He cannot fucking act. At all. And it's not just vocally that he can't act, this dude cannot express an emotion to save his fucking soul! He is almost on par with Chuck Norris when it comes to not knowing how to express emotions. Paul has only ONE expression, which is smiling. And if he was attemptiing to give out a different expression, then he fails miserably at it, because he's never acted a day in his life. The worst example of his acting comes when he and Cindy enter an ice cream parlor. And as one of the Munchies jumps down and attacks the male ice cream owner, Paul has no expression on his face whatsoever, other than looking bored on camera. He never looks surprised, you never hear him be surprised at anything, and all he does on camera is just giving out the most expressionless look on his face the entire time, and doesn't know what the hell he's doing in this movie. And the worst part about this is that he is our main character, which we follow throughout the entire movie! And when you're main character turns in the worst showing, that is fucking depressing as shit. Now, as for everybody else, like I said, the one actor who pulls in the best showing is Harvey Korman as both Paul's dad, and Cecil Watterman. I should also give a special mention to legendary voice actor, Frank Welker, who voices a majority of the Munchies in this movie. I couldn't tell you WHICH ones, but he does voice some of them. And it's pretty standard stuff for Welken to do here. So, it's fine for what he had to work with.

While I'm on the subject of the Munchies themselves, let's get into the special effects. And I want to talk about the puppeteering on these Munchies. It's honestly not as good as what was seen in both "Gremlins" films, but they are still decent for a low budget movie. However, the noticeable downside to these Munchies is the mouth movements. Because every single line of dialogue they have in this movie does not match up with any of their mouth movements. All of the mouth movements are very cheap and poorly done, too. There was no effort into matching their dialogue with the poorly done mouth movements. Their mouths barely move up and down, and it's so noticeable that it could throw you off a bit. Now again, I totally understand that this movie was filmed on a low budget, but so was the first "Gremlins" film. Now, while I don't know the budget to this movie, it couldn't have been made for more than, let's say, $2-3 million dollars. That's being a bit generous, mind you, but they could've totally improved on these puppets mouth movements a bit. As for everything else involving special effects, the blood effects are pretty good. Pyrotechnics, what few there are, are pretty decent. So overall, the special effects are OK, but they're nothing amazing.

Camerawork here is pretty good, but I did notice a small issue involving the picture quality. There's a scene in this movie where the Munchies are harrasing a couple of women who were swimming at a lake or a river. And as the women were freaking out and screaming, a few of the shots looked rather blurry when it focuses on one of the women in the water, and the Munchies themselves also suffer a bit with this blurriness that happens when the camera is focusing on them. Now, I don't know if it was a technical issue on my end, or if it was the version of this movie that I watched on YouTube. But either way, the picture quality looked a little bit blurry during those shots, and I have no idea if that was an issue on VHS, DVD, or even Betamax. I imagine this thing was also released on Betamax, but I could be totally wrong there. Lighting here is lit perfectly fine. Sound-mix is mostly good, save for one small scene where the parents and their kid that run the ice cream parlor are in a car with Paul and Cindy. And as they're talking, there was a moment where the sound changed quite dramatically, and some of the dialogue was drowned out by the background noise of the car as it was driving. I have no idea why that is, but it was something that caught my attention. But everything else involving sound-mix is perfectly fine. Music here is pretty good, as is the score. It's nothing memorable, mind you, but it is still completely serviceable.

So, when all is said and done, guys, can I recommend "Munchies"? It's sort of a difficult answer to give out. If you're able to look past the fact that this is a "Gremlins" knock off, or if you're someone who has seen "Gremlins", and you're curious to see how a knock off of it would be able to stand on it's own, then I would say yes. I mean, the movie is up on YouTube for free. At least, by the time that I uploaded this review. So, if you have about 90 minutes to spare, go ahead and check it out. It certainly is an interesting movie. At least, to me, it is. However, if you're someone who is a die-hard fan of the "Gremlins" franchise and you don't care to see anything that would, obviously, be a knock off of that franchise, then you can easily skip this. However, I also can't deny that there is some good riffing material to be had from this movie. So, if you want to watch it with friends to make fun of, then I would probably recommend it on that end. But as for myself...I'm not totally sure if it's something I would watch a second time, but it does make me kinda interested in wanting to watch the "Gremlins" movies again. It's just that, well...I still don't have physical copes of them yet. So, I'm gonna go see if they're running on sale on Amazon or something. Preferably in a 2-pack that features both of them together. But if not, then I'll go watch something else. Maybe I'll just pop in a "Puppet Master" movie or something. Who knows? But anyway, I'm gonna go do one of those things next.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.