TREMORS
A film review by Greg Goebel
Copyright 1990 Greg Goebel
To some people, the term "B-movie" translates as: low quality film-making. If "quality" translates as high budgets, big-name actors, and grand themes, then that equation would seem to be true; but as any progressive quality-assurance person will tell you, that's a somewhat arbitrary definition of "quality." A more useful definition is: "Conformance to specifications." Or, more simply: "Does it accomplish what it is trying to do?"
Using such a definition, it would seem likely that there are more "high-quality" B-movies than A-movies, since B-movies rarely (and almost never successfully) have any higher ambition than to entertain -- which should be a relatively simple goal.
And which leads directly the movie TREMORS.
TREMORS begins in the back-of-beyond in Nevada -- a gritty little country-store town with the name of "Perfection" -- with two handymen, Earl and Val, who do the dirty and dusty work for the region's few inhabitants. They're a couple of tough fellas, but they've had enough; they pack up their belongings in their beat-up 4x4 and are heading out of town when STRANGE AND DEADLY OCCURRENCES block their way and lead them and the inhabitants of Perfection in a struggle for survival against ... THINGS ...
I don't really need to say any more about the story than that; you undoubtedly get the general idea. Which leads to the next question: Well, is this movie any good? The answer to this question relates directly to the discussion of "quality" above.
I cannot describe TREMORS in terms of any superlatives -- there is nothing original about this film, there is nothing in it that stands out as exceptional, and there is nothing particularly memorable about it. But I don't dare say anything unkind about it either, for if one accepts the premise that this is a B-movie and isn't intended to do anything but give the viewer a good ride for an hour-and-a-half, it absolutely succeeds on those terms. In fact, it is so competent and deft that it could be used as a textbook case of "HOW TO MAKE A GOOD B-MOVIE." (One wonders if the credit "CAROL ANNE HURD -- EXECUTIVE PRODUCER" has something to do with it.)
We have a plot that clicks along nicely with few false moves; the story is developed intelligently and resolved equally intelligently. The dialogue makes few false steps and the acting is competent throughout.
The characters drive the film; TREMORS avoids the twin traps of either making them comic-book heroes or condescending to them as rustic clods; they're ordinary people who are reacting sensibly to a survival situation. Val and Earl may be uneducated and unwashed shit-kickers, but they're decent people and not stupid or cowardly; and even the local survivalist couple, while the butt of a few jabs, are doing the right things when the situation gets rough.
And TREMOR's biggest asset is that it hits EXACTLY the right tone: It takes itself JUST SERIOUSLY ENOUGH to keep the viewer going, without collapsing into outright comedy.
Okay, this isn't a great film, and I know those who want something a little more innovative and artistic will probably hate it. But those who are less particular will find their time and money well spent, and may even want to give a little restrained applause while they sit there with a smile on their faces in appreciation of this good-natured horror flic.
Oh, yes, the caveats: moderate foul language -- a little gore; whether gratuitous or not is arguable.
[<>]
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews