"Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell" Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the season finale of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, and the latest episodes of Harley Quinn, and Transformers: Cyberverse.
Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell
Michael Gross is not the only thing in this franchise getting a bit long in the tooth.
None of these movies ever had huge budgets but I could seriously tell this one cut money corners even more than usual whenever possible. It's billed as a Tremors film set in the Canadian Arctic. Which is somehow inexplicably filmed in the South African desert. And the major set piece of the first half of the film basically involved a small plane having a slightly turbulent landing in Canada. I think the climax of them catching the Graboid was pretty good. But they obviously had money for nothing else.
Tremors is an unusual horror franchise in that the Graboids don't follow horror rule conventions over who they kill. This actually makes several of the films scarier than they have any right to be because because not only do stupid and cowardly characters die. Smart ones can have their luck run out too, so everyone is in trouble. And while smart characters DO tend to have a better survival rate, the first film was infamous for allowing the most loathsome and irresponsible character (Melvin) to survive. The Graboids don't care if you are a saint or a sinner and pretty everyone except Burt, Travis, and Val and Rhonda's daughter here are fair game.
Although I have to say it's ridiculous that Burt can't save more people from Graboids than he does. If he had shot the tentacles of the Graboids who had grabbed some of the victims, about half of the people who died wouldn't have. How long has he been doing this for anyways? He still kinda sucks at it.
Speaking of Val and Rhonda, this is a franchise that is very attentive to its fans. Even though this movie sucks and is badly written, I recognize that it updates us with what happened to characters whose actors aren't in the movie. Besides Valentine and Rhonda, we learn some updates for Burt's ex-wife Heather and Jodi Chang from the third film and TV series is mentioned also. It's hard to believe we haven't been back in Perfection since the TV show, but I like that they gave the town and the people who weren't in the movie their actual due.
Speaking of Heather, Travis reminding us Burt cheated on her is not my favorite thing in the world. At all.
One of the most endearing things about Burt Gummer to me is the fact that Michael Gross is alarmingly possessive of the character, and famously refuses to film scenes where Burt acts out of character. Gross is a bit of a lefty, and one of the things he's proud of is that Burt has never pointed a gun at a human being EVER. And he is adamant about maintaining that facet of the character decades later, to the point where it's fun to see the writers try to skirt up to that edge as much as possible without angering Gross. And while part of me loves Gross for it, he isn't making the job for the writers any easier in portraying a modern day rightwing, militant gun nut. Gross does not believe in the idea of Flanderization a single bit, and it's fun to see the writers try to make Burt as politically extreme as possible without violating that completely out of the ordinary facet to the character. And it doesn't always work, and I bet there are points where the writers are frustrated that Gross knows the character as well as he does. He's boxing them in in a lot of ways, and Burt doesn't land in 2018 the way he did in 1993.
I will never stop watching Tremors films. But although I DID really dig the TV show, the only actual film I loved was the first. I watch these movies with nostalgia for that, not because they're actually good. **1/2.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian "Chapter 8: Redemption"
That teaser was masterful. Considering the tragic place we left things off in the last episode, getting a highly comedic scene of nervous Stormtroopers discussing office politics and how crazy their genocidal boss is was most unexpected and pleasurable. Who DOESN'T want to see Baby Yoda? And I love IG Nurse swooping in with the big save. That was the perfect way to begin the episode. It was hilarious.
Speaking of IG Nurse, I think in hindsight, Quiil was the unsung hero of the season if only for successfully reprogramming IG Hunter to be a nurse who sacrifices himself to save them all. An INSIGHTFUL nurse who can tell when Mando is sad, and remind him he's not a living thing when he has to remove his helmet.
Was that Boba Fett who saved Mando in the flashback? A case could be made either way.
Speaking of Mando, the name and the face weren't actually secrets or spoilers. They just never came up before this episode. And they are ultimately no big deal to reveal.
Love the Jetpack. Gideon's black Lightsaber is boss too.
Mando will take care of The Child. And vice versa.
This is the first live-action Star Wars TV show, but it lands in a way none of the cartoons do. I often feel like The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance are half-fanfiction, and barely official no matter what Disney says. But this feels like a legit Star Wars project. A good one. What a dynamite end to a promising season. *****.
Harley Quinn "Being Harley Quinn"
In fairness to the episode, it did have a plot.
It's also to its credit that it tries to empower Harley at the end, but it's a tough thing to take a Girl Power message from when she's dressed like that.
The Frankie Muniz thing got creepy once the fantasy involved her trying to get her preteen self pregnant by him.
I didn't laugh at the idea that the Suicide Squad is the team that is always trying to get Harley to join... but I appreciated the joke.
This show really isn't my cup of tea, but that was a fair episode anyways. ***.
Transformers: Cyberverse "Perfect Storm"
I can't tell what's more annoying: The fact that the show is actually trying to get me to ship Grimlock and Arcee, or the fact that it's working.
They've been in space for 40 cycles? I guess this really is NOT the Transformers show that will ever live and die by a human cast of kids.
I was kind of bored, to be honest. ***.
Tremors: A Cold Day In Hell
Michael Gross is not the only thing in this franchise getting a bit long in the tooth.
None of these movies ever had huge budgets but I could seriously tell this one cut money corners even more than usual whenever possible. It's billed as a Tremors film set in the Canadian Arctic. Which is somehow inexplicably filmed in the South African desert. And the major set piece of the first half of the film basically involved a small plane having a slightly turbulent landing in Canada. I think the climax of them catching the Graboid was pretty good. But they obviously had money for nothing else.
Tremors is an unusual horror franchise in that the Graboids don't follow horror rule conventions over who they kill. This actually makes several of the films scarier than they have any right to be because because not only do stupid and cowardly characters die. Smart ones can have their luck run out too, so everyone is in trouble. And while smart characters DO tend to have a better survival rate, the first film was infamous for allowing the most loathsome and irresponsible character (Melvin) to survive. The Graboids don't care if you are a saint or a sinner and pretty everyone except Burt, Travis, and Val and Rhonda's daughter here are fair game.
Although I have to say it's ridiculous that Burt can't save more people from Graboids than he does. If he had shot the tentacles of the Graboids who had grabbed some of the victims, about half of the people who died wouldn't have. How long has he been doing this for anyways? He still kinda sucks at it.
Speaking of Val and Rhonda, this is a franchise that is very attentive to its fans. Even though this movie sucks and is badly written, I recognize that it updates us with what happened to characters whose actors aren't in the movie. Besides Valentine and Rhonda, we learn some updates for Burt's ex-wife Heather and Jodi Chang from the third film and TV series is mentioned also. It's hard to believe we haven't been back in Perfection since the TV show, but I like that they gave the town and the people who weren't in the movie their actual due.
Speaking of Heather, Travis reminding us Burt cheated on her is not my favorite thing in the world. At all.
One of the most endearing things about Burt Gummer to me is the fact that Michael Gross is alarmingly possessive of the character, and famously refuses to film scenes where Burt acts out of character. Gross is a bit of a lefty, and one of the things he's proud of is that Burt has never pointed a gun at a human being EVER. And he is adamant about maintaining that facet of the character decades later, to the point where it's fun to see the writers try to skirt up to that edge as much as possible without angering Gross. And while part of me loves Gross for it, he isn't making the job for the writers any easier in portraying a modern day rightwing, militant gun nut. Gross does not believe in the idea of Flanderization a single bit, and it's fun to see the writers try to make Burt as politically extreme as possible without violating that completely out of the ordinary facet to the character. And it doesn't always work, and I bet there are points where the writers are frustrated that Gross knows the character as well as he does. He's boxing them in in a lot of ways, and Burt doesn't land in 2018 the way he did in 1993.
I will never stop watching Tremors films. But although I DID really dig the TV show, the only actual film I loved was the first. I watch these movies with nostalgia for that, not because they're actually good. **1/2.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian "Chapter 8: Redemption"
That teaser was masterful. Considering the tragic place we left things off in the last episode, getting a highly comedic scene of nervous Stormtroopers discussing office politics and how crazy their genocidal boss is was most unexpected and pleasurable. Who DOESN'T want to see Baby Yoda? And I love IG Nurse swooping in with the big save. That was the perfect way to begin the episode. It was hilarious.
Speaking of IG Nurse, I think in hindsight, Quiil was the unsung hero of the season if only for successfully reprogramming IG Hunter to be a nurse who sacrifices himself to save them all. An INSIGHTFUL nurse who can tell when Mando is sad, and remind him he's not a living thing when he has to remove his helmet.
Was that Boba Fett who saved Mando in the flashback? A case could be made either way.
Speaking of Mando, the name and the face weren't actually secrets or spoilers. They just never came up before this episode. And they are ultimately no big deal to reveal.
Love the Jetpack. Gideon's black Lightsaber is boss too.
Mando will take care of The Child. And vice versa.
This is the first live-action Star Wars TV show, but it lands in a way none of the cartoons do. I often feel like The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance are half-fanfiction, and barely official no matter what Disney says. But this feels like a legit Star Wars project. A good one. What a dynamite end to a promising season. *****.
Harley Quinn "Being Harley Quinn"
In fairness to the episode, it did have a plot.
It's also to its credit that it tries to empower Harley at the end, but it's a tough thing to take a Girl Power message from when she's dressed like that.
The Frankie Muniz thing got creepy once the fantasy involved her trying to get her preteen self pregnant by him.
I didn't laugh at the idea that the Suicide Squad is the team that is always trying to get Harley to join... but I appreciated the joke.
This show really isn't my cup of tea, but that was a fair episode anyways. ***.
Transformers: Cyberverse "Perfect Storm"
I can't tell what's more annoying: The fact that the show is actually trying to get me to ship Grimlock and Arcee, or the fact that it's working.
They've been in space for 40 cycles? I guess this really is NOT the Transformers show that will ever live and die by a human cast of kids.
I was kind of bored, to be honest. ***.