Tremors (1990)
When I first saw this I kinda liked it but didn't think it was anything special so didn't buy myself a VHS of it back then. But during the years I've seen it very often as it tends to run on some channel on telly once every two years or so and I somehow most of the times ended up watching it. During those years I grew to love it and it eventually ended up in my collection. It's an absolutely brilliant mix of comedy, horror and action. Not only that but it's also a brilliant buddy movie, mostly because of the great chemistry of Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. They nail the whole buddy act down so well that it's hard to find a better pairing in any movie. Another thing I love about this movie is the fact that close to all of the horror bits happen in a bright daylight without the usual night setting in attempt to get additional suspense. And it works brilliantly as this is not a horror movie, it's a comedy with some horror elements and plenty of action to keep the fun up. The monsters, "Graboids" as they call them, are also superb. Hell, with an open mind and some humour you could actually believe the quite unbelievable sounding idea of them. And all that is not even the best part, the best part is that I've seen this movie now about 7 times, maybe even more, and it still keeps me entertained. This has become a classic for me and I will revisit it from time to time in the future too.
95%
The thing is, I never saw any of the sequels. Mostly because I thought they would be crap and would bring down the good feeling of the original I had. Well as I noticed that the original already had an iconic place in my heart, I decided to give them a go. So I bought the four movie collection and tonight I finally finished the last episode and here's what I think of them.
Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)
This sequel was almost like straight from a rulebook on how to make a sequel. Rule 1; try to get the cast from the first one. Check, well almost, Fred Ward and Michael Gross are there again. Unfortunately Kevin Bacon didn't return so a big part of the first one, the buddy factor, is lost. Rule 2; give the audience more of what they loved in the first one. Check, dozens of Graboids being blown up, tons of bad jokes and lots of fun. With even a bit of an effort trying to make a new buddy pairing, which though fails a bit. Rule 3; try to bring the story to a new level. Check, the Graboids evolve. Not the best idea I think, would have worked better how I thought it would go that there would have been some huge mother Graboid or something like that. The new evolved creatures are quite nice though, they look quite cute little critters so props for that. So it's not a bad sequel, though not a great one either.
62%
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)
Where the second part did many things right straight from the rule book, this one tries the same concept. Unfortunately this time it was mostly sad that they tried the same ideas as in the second one. They didn't even get Fred Ward in it so Michael Gross is the only one to return and to be honest that's not a good thing. His character, fun as it is, only works for so long. All the jokes were already done, well at least the funny ones. And of course the Graboids evolve again and that was just complete idiocy. I mean these movies are certainly not made to be taken seriously, but this was just a bit too idiotic. Unfortunately it wasn't so bad that it would have been good either. Was quite a waste of time.
21%
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
So I guess they noticed that evolving the story further was a bad idea so they took another look at the rulebook. Can't go forward, go backwards. And that's what they do, all the way to 1889 to the founding moments of the town. This time the story is actually quite good, but unfortunately the movie isn't. Bad acting and bad jokes. Still it's better than the third part as it's quite true to the original. With a better direction and cast this would have been pretty good actually, now it's just quite bad.
38%
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