Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're continuing the "Critters" series by taking a look at the second movie which came out in 1988. That movie is "Critters 2: The Main Course".
Now, in case you're new here and reading this for the first time, a couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the first "Critters" movie. And I really enjoyed it. Mind you, the film wasn't without it's flaws, mainly that the writing in that movie was incredibly weak, and the "Critters" themselves were pretty generic, especially if you tried to compare them to other creature films such as "Gremlins" and "Munchies". But despite all that, I still wound up really enjoying it, even with the weak writing aside.
Now as for the sequel, I don't really know much about it, other than the Kritons, which is what the furry monsters are actually called, are back, and apparently they're out for more stuff to eat. I don't know anything else beyond that, but I'm hoping for it to be better than it's predecessor. The only way I'm gonna know that for sure, though, 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 "Critters 2: The Main Course".
18 minutes later
OK, you know, I've never heard a female reporter being compared to Jimmy Olsen, from the "Superman" comics, only with breasts. That's kind of a bold statement there, Brad, especially since you say that right in front of her. Or, next to her, since he's riding with her in her truck. But still, pretty bold to say that kind of thing to her, dude.
6 minutes later
And already we have our first two victims, the old beer drinker and his dog. And I believe his dog got the worst of that exchange rather than him. Still, at least these furry little bastards haven't lost their touch.
9 minutes later
You know, guys, when I saw earlier that they were advertising an Easter Egg Hunt, I was expecting something, like, the hidden candy being eaten or one of the kids ends up getting killed by one of these things. I was "sorta" expecting the Easter Bunny to be involved in all this, though I didn't expect him to crash through the church window like that. That kinda took me by surprise there.
5 minutes later
You know what's funny to me, guys? Well, first off, the faceless bounty hunter that could transform into whatever human it liked just based on what it saw, has transformed into a playboy model from a Playboy magazine. And what's funny about all this to me is that, along with the "Critters" movies, I'm also reviewing another series, which is Andy Sidaris's "Triple B" series, that also features Playboy models that are also suppose to be action stars. I don't know why I find that hilarious, maybe it's just because it's coincidental or something. Who knows?
15 minutes later
So, Charlie prevented Lee, the bounty who transforms his face, from turning into Freddy Krueger from "Nightmare On Elm Street". Why the hell would you do that!? That would've been an awesome little crossover. Unintentional sure, but still, it would've been really cool. If anything else, at least Freddy wouldn't be involved in a proper crossover until "Freddy vs. Jason". So, at least there's that, I guess.
18 minutes later
OK...I never expected that kind of fucking twist before. I didn't think that could actually happened, but that definitely was a really interesting and surprising turn. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what that is, guys, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Critters 2: The Main Course". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. I should note, by the way, that unlike the first movie, this one doesn't end on a sequel hook. It just kinda has it's own closure. So where exactly they go from here, I don't know. But, I will say, on it's own standards, the movie's still pretty good. Is it as good as the first movie? Um...that's kind of a hard one to answer. I'll try and answer it later when I get to recommendations.
So, let's start this thing off by first talking about the writing. And this is where I'm gonna have a hard time with this one because, in a way, it's both better and weaker than the first movie. So, to start with, this movie takes place two years after the first movie. And between that movie and the first one, the only characters that return here are Brad, the two bounty hunters, Charile, and Harv the sheriff. I didn't mention him in my previous review because he was just kinda forgettable to me. Nothing about him really stood out in the first movie, so that's the reason why I didn't mention him. He kinda plays more of a role here, as he apparently was voted out of office after the incident that happened a couple of years ago in Grover's Bend involving the "Krites", thus he's been hiding out in his trailer home after the incident. Though he comes back later to rally the citizens of Grover's Bend in order to fend themselves against the "Krites", who have more or less taken over the town.
Now as for Brad, he actually moved with his family from between the first movie and this one. Which kinda makes, but also doesn't. You see, near the end of the first movie, the bounty hunters were able to, well, scientifically restore their house back to the way it was before it exploded. Which then left me wondering why did Brad's family move out of their home if it was properly restored? Well, they kinda sorta answer that when Brad tried to tell everyone in town about what had happened back then, only for them to not believe any of it, and thus they believed that Brad was just being a dumb kid who made shit up. Even though there bounty hunters there too, who also were going around town looking for the furry little monsters that were causing havoc somewhere nearby. So why they tried to brush it off then makes almost no sense. I suppose you could argue that the town's residents wanted to forget about the incident as much as possible, so they tried to pretend that it didn't exist. Which, again, makes no sense, considering they *saw* the bounty hunters and all, so I'm gonna just chalk that off as complete ignorance on their part.
But as with Brad, he comes back to stay with his grandmother throughout Easter. And it's here where I have to comment on something. You see, I've seen a lot of horror movies, and sometimes, they would center themselves around a certain holiday. The ones I've usually come across center around Christmas and Halloween. The former, more so than the latter. But I don't think I've ever seen a horror movies of sorts where the holiday is centered around Easter. Which is rather unique, simply because I haven't really seen a whole lot of horror movies that take place around Easter. In fact, I think this may be the first one I've ever come across. I could be totally wrong there, but I'm pretty sure that it is the first in my case.
But anyway, going back to Brad, seeing as how I kept holding him off for so long. Like I said, he comes back to stay and help out with his grandmother set up the Easter Egg Hunt. And he also ends up meeting a girl named Megan, who's really kinda bland to be perfectly honest with you guys. She really has no character other than that she exists as a reporter, who also works for her parents because they own a newspaper printing business that they operate. Beyond that, though, her character doesn't really go through any development. Also, the Krites are back and they're pretty much the same as they were in the first movie. There's not much that's unique about them. They can talk still, but there's only about a couple of words of dialogue that they speak and nothing else. I know that they can speak English, but for them to speak even less than they do in this movie is kinda astounding. I thought they would've taken more advantage of that, but I guess when you have a group of monsters that only care about eating stuff, then I guess talking isn't really much of their strong suits.
So, writing here is definitely an odd one. It's definitely a mixed bag here when it comes to writing. But I still think there is enough material here to where you can overlook any flaws that the story has and watch it as a simple little creature flick. Essentially, guys, this movie, and I'm even going to include the first film, is what I would call a popcorn flick. Where you go into it with your brain shut off and you just watch it for what it is, and you're bound to really enjoy it. And if you do go into it with that mindset, then you're basically set for a pretty cool flick. Now as for the acting, well, most of it is pretty good. The only one I would say that sounded rather flaky was the actress who was originally the playboy model also playing Lee, the bounty hunter. Although that's more so a nitpick, since she only had two lines of dialogue in the entire movie, and they were both literally the same line. So, I'm not gonna hold it too much against her, unless I somehow end up finding more movies that feature her. But for now, I'm gonna give her small bits of flaky acting a bit of a pass here. Everyone else, from the returning cast, and the new cast members do a pretty good job here. So I can't say much else about the acting beyond that.
Special effects are pretty much on par with what was presented in the first movie. And that's mainly because they got the Chiodo Brothers from the first movie to do the special effects for the Krites once again. And they're great. Puppetteering here is amazing. The blood and gore effects are really good. And mind you, these movies were on pretty low budgets. In fact, from what I looked up, the budget for this movie was about $4 million. Which, for the time that this movie came out, probably sounded like a lot. Although compared to today, that's almost nothing nowadays, since bigger movies have to stupidly reply on over-bloated budgets. But that's neither here nor there. Point is, I still think it's a pretty low budget, even for the standards of 1988. And regardless of whether or not that was high then, it doesn't stop the special effects from looking great.
Camerawork here is also great. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. Sound-mix here is also mixed fine. Music, though, I will say isn't nearly as good as the first movie was. For everything this movie got back, they didn't get back David Newman, who composed the music for the first movie. Here, it's a pretty forgettable score. Which is disappointing to say, but I guess it is what it is.
So, when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "Critters 2: The Main Course"? Yes, I can. If you were a fan of the first movie and you're curious to know how the sequel pans out, go ahead and check it out for yourself. If you go into this thing as a mindless popcorn flick, chances are that you're really going to like it. Now, I suppose I should stop side-stepping the question here and get right to it. Is this movie as good as the first one was? Honestly...not quite. While it certainly does more here in certain areas, the writing is almost as weak as the first one. At least with the first one, you can forgive it for being a knock off of "Gremlins". But considering this one's suppose to be a sequel to it's predecessor, I don't think it entirely accomplishes that. However, I am in no way gonna say that this movie is bad, it's just slightly weaker than it's predecessor is all. But now that leaves me curious as to what they're gonna do with a third movie. And considering this thing doesn't end on a sequel hook, it makes me curious about it even more. However, I'll save that for next time. For now, I think I'm in the mood to watch "Gremlins" again, because this movie got me thinking about it and now I kinda want to watch it again now. So, I'm gonna go do that next after I get done with this review.
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.
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