Customer Reviews

Tremors (Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This review refers to the MCA/Universal VHS edition of "Tremors".....

Forget about building an underground shelter in case of a world catastrophe, that's exactly where all the evil lurks in this fun thriller.

Kevin Bacon(Val) and Fred Ward(Earl) star in this horror film that pays homage to the 50's monster flicks. They are two handymen in the small town of "Perfection", Nevada, who are just trying to get out of town and seek a better life.Everytime they try to leave though,they run into some grisly discovery. With the help of Rhonda(Finn Carter), a beautiful seismology student who has been recording underground rumblings, they stay and try to lead the few(but wacky) residents of Perfection to saftey. The rumblings, as it turns out, are no earthquakes, they are giant worm-like creatures, who go after anything that moves. Station wagons are just an appetizer for these grotesque subterranean monsters.

Michael Gross and Reba McEntire co-star as a couple who make their living selling guns. Their arsenal is astounding, and they are a treat to watch as they try to stave off these creatures. Annie Oakley ain't got nothin on Reba!

It's thrilling and funny, and you may want to hide your eyes, but you won't. Bacon and Ward play their roles with humor and a comradeship that works well.It was directed by Ron Underwood(City Slickers/Mighty Joe Young 1998),who keeps us laughing and screaming at the same time.Also look for a Ariana Richards, who plays little "Mindy". She is real good with creatures, as she went on to become "Lex" in Jurassic Park!

This VHS has an exceptioanlly good picture and the sound is equally as good in Dolby Surround/Hi Fi Stereo.

If you're a fan of the old classic monster films and you think "They just don't make em like they used to.." try this one on for size.....Have fun....Laurie

The best movies are those in which you don't expect much and then it blows you away. I've read the other reviews and all those that are five star are on target. What can I add? Some of the banter, and curse words (that are not just the f word over and over) are orginal. The pseudoscientific stream involved with seismology, and sensitivity to sound is wonderfully written. All in all a classic tongue firmly in cheek movie.

Director: Ron Underwood
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire.
Running Time: 95 minutes.
Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and mild amounts of gooey monster gore.

A classic monster movie in line with the 1950's onslaught of similar films, "Tremors" is a devastatingly enjoyable film that will mark high on most viewer's richter scales. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward star as a quirky duo of garbage collectors for the small town of Perfection, Nevada. Just as they are ready to leave town for good, start up a new business, and sail into the sunset as new men, their quiet little desert town is not all that it seems. Seismologist Finn Carter discovers strange rumblings in the ground and suspects that their area is to be inflicted with a massive earthquake, but there is no past evidence of quake occurences.

The town of Perfection is soon put into a terrible frenzy as they are traumatized and gobbled up by flesh-eating, snake-like monsters that actually live underground. They have no eyes, but can sense movements and sound--forcing all of the remaining citizens to read higher ground in order to survive. Michael Gross (yes, that Michael Gross from "Family Ties") and Reba McEtnire (yes, the famous country star) organize a military onslaught to protect and hold their neighborhood. "Tremors" develops into a devilishly hilarious and campy monster movie with lovable characters, thrills and chills, and superb special effects. Bacon is very good in the one of the lead roles, depicting his reckless character with charm and determination.

The screenplay created by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock does not miss a beat, increasing in intensity and humor as the film goes on. The firearm standoff between Gross/McEntire and the huge soil-slithering creatures is a a fun, ten-minute epic scene that is truly dazzling. Rivals "Aliens" as the best monster movie of the latter part of the 1980's, "Tremors" might just be the most fun a horror cinematic experience can be. Unheralded and somewhat forgotten; should be considered one of the best of its kind.

Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) are two men trying to make a living in a sleepy, dusty little town, and eventually move themselves on to bigger and better things. However, a few suspicious deaths, and a rockslide blocking the only road out of town put a kink in their plans. Together, a female geologist (Finn Carter) recording seismic activity in the area, and the two unlikely heroes set out to determine the cause of the strange seismic readings and the local deaths. They get much more than they bargained for when they determine that a previously unheard of creature (a "graboid") is the cause of both. This eyeless creature travels through the ground tracking small vibrations in order to get to its prey. The townspeople must band together to try and get out of the valley before the small town's population dwindles down to zero.

The "monster" in this movie is something somewhat believable, as well as something that hasn't been done before. There are thousands of estimated species on this planet that we do not yet know about, and have yet to be discovered. Who's to say whether one of them is or is not a large underground-dwelling, vibration-sensing snake? It's slightly more believable, and thus slightly more scary than, Dracula, Frankenstein, or aliens. Regardless, it's an idea that hadn't been done before at the time, and hasn't been done since (not counting the less-than-stellar sequels to this film), and that's always a good thing no matter what genre of film.

This was one of the movies that got me into horror films. It definitely proves that "horror" need not be gory, high budget, or flashy to be great. In addition, a little comic relief can be a good thing! Furthermore, "B" horror films need not always equate with "bad" horror films. This movie is an incredible blend of a refreshing new idea, a great cast of characters, and an excellent, well thought out script. Tremors is action, adventure, thrills, suspense, and comedy all rolled into one. The dialogue is immensely entertaining, and the cast all put in great performances. Though this film is almost 15 years old and I've watched it several times, it never seems to get old. I have discovered that this DVD is not very easy to find anywhere, especially not at a decent price, so grab it up while you can! This is a very fun movie that I highly recommend!

This is my favorite horror series, along with Critters and Predator series. Tons of actions.

The movie begins in sun small Pefection Nevada The move start with vale and Earl the main characters start of another boring old day. Things turn crazy the find and electricon on Top of a light pole dead. Died of dehydration.

Shortly after this a bunch of gore murders occur. First old fried the sheepered is found with his head ended in the ground. All his shep slaughtered.

The fined some like a snake attached to there well. They later discovered the snack was a tongue of a monster. Apparently a giant worm like creatures they named Graboids. Some how these monster end up down I perfection. How they got there is never reveled in the movie.

Veil and Earl, a hot colledge, student and a Parnoid survilist Burnt Gummer and his wife who unfortunatley break up with him after the move ends and is never seen again for the rest of series. Together they must kill the Graboids before the eat every person and other animal in Perfection and turn in into a ghost town.

Watch the movie. If you enjoy this film I recomend seing the 2 sequels Tremors 2 after Shocks, Tremors 3 back to perfection and the prequel tremors 4 the legend begins.

This is what you get when a cast, crew, director, and screenwriters believe in their project but don't take themselves to levels of pretension. This is good clean fun: a monster movie that doesn't require buckets of blood and an overdose of c.g.i. effects. The setting is a brilliant daytime desert instead of a fog-enshrouded gloomy night in a Victorian house whose lights suddenly fail to work. (The foggy, gloomy night in other horror movies usually has to hide a weak script and shoddy directing.)

The plot of TREMORS is simple and classic. Something, which is for the most part invisible, is killing off the population of a teeny hamlet one-by-one. Who will save the day? The heroes are the most unlikely of men who rise to the occasion, of course. Will two young people fall in love during the course of the adventure? Of course. Where do the monsters come from? Who knows? It doesn't matter. They're just here and have to be dealt with. Simple, classic.

Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Reba McEntie, and Michael Gross all turn in unbelieveably wonderful performances, and Ron Underwood's direction is a perfect combination of light-hearted, quick pacing and heavy-handed suspense, which is okay in a movie about giant worms sucking people underground for their snacks. This movie is great fun and has its heart in the right place.

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are a pair on down-on-their-luck guys living in the small town of Perfection (population 16). They have decided it is finally time to get out of the valley and head for Bixby. But they have made their decision one day too late. Strange events have them running back and forth as they try to leave. Then a rockslide closes the only road out of the valley. Now they are stuck with the other residents including the Gummers played by Reba McEntire and Michael Gross.

Strange deaths and missing animals have started to occur in the valley. Then something grabs the guys truck and everyone sees a snake monster and gets their first view of the graboids. But while trying to warn others about the snake monsters, Fred and Kevin discover the monsters are much bigger than thought and they travel under the ground.

The rest of the movie has the inhabitants banding together first to avoid the monsters, then to destroy them and get out of the valley. Some survive and some do not.

The action is tense with moments of humor (I love the pole vaulting and the headlights shining in the sky). The monsters are very well done and very original. Good performances from most of the cast add to the mix resulting in a tight and fun creature film. This is a real must see for creature fans. My wife, not a fan of horror or monsters, also liked this movie when we first saw it.

Tremors is often described by many to be a cult classic, which is odd. The fact is, cult films usually have a quirky quality to them that separate them from the usual Hollywood-churned machine. Take Re-Animator, for example, or even the recent Ravenous, both of which have oddities and bloody quirks that average viewers might find repellant. But Tremors isn't the slightest bit offbeat. It's made in full Hollywood-style with a predictably happy ending to boot. So what makes it a "cult classic"? Could it be that it's successful in mixing almost every genre into the proceedings or that it's great entertainment that simply didn't get the box office reception it deserved? Perhaps both, because this is one movie that always puts a smile on my face and simultaneously gets my pulse-pounding every time I watch it.

The plot is similar to that of the monster films of the old days. Valentine Mckee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) are two handymen "trapped" in the small town of Perfection, Nevada. They have dreams of making it big, but their ambitious goals always seem out of reach. Just when they do decide to finally leave, the discovery of dead bodies, both human and animal, keep them there for just a while longer. There's also the road, which has been blocked by a large boulder.

On hand to study some strange seismic activity is Rhonda (Finn Carter), a grad student who helps Mckee and Bassett come to the realization that both the deaths and the odd vibrations in the ground are connected. It turns out to be the work of giant 30-foot worms, four of them to be exact, and they trap the townspeople of Perfection in their homes, including gun-happy, WWIII-prepared couple Burt and Heather Gummer (Michael Gross and Reba Mcentire). The rest of the film becomes a desperate scramble to outsmart the worms and get out of the town alive.

The first thing that's noticable about Tremors is probably how it's obviously inspired by 50's monster flicks. The great thing, though, is that Tremors plays itself as a comedy, preferring laughs over scares, a wise decision since if the film took itself seriously, it would have been a major detriment. The laughs aren't cheap, either, as they result from witty dialogue and new twists on the "monster" subgenre. The great chemistry between Bacon and Ward brings the most humor to the film. Playing best friends with little education but plenty of smarts, these are two performances that are a hoot to watch. It'd be great to see them in another film together again (too bad it didn't happen in Tremors 2).

But in addition to the laughs, there's also the action, which is frenetic and exciting. Director Ron Underwood gives the film a lightning pace and the 95 minutes seems to just roll by. The fun action consists of a lot of running and "get off the ground" moments. For the last 45 minutes, Tremors is almost full of non-stop excitement, and it's surprising to see that the action never gets tiresome nor dull for a single moment. The movie isn't scary or frightening at all, but with suspense and thrills this sharp, who cares (Besides, being scary is hardly the film's intent.)?

It's nice to see that this movie is not particularly gory or full of gratuitous violence. While I do enjoy gory violence when it fits the style and tone, it wouldn't have been welcome here and the light-hearted feel that permeates Tremors is a crucial reason to its success; there's no unneccessary unpleasantness and it also proves that the movie creates genuine excitement without resorting to splashing blood all over the screen. Because of this, it easily reaches out to a larger amount of viewers, making it a movie that's just as easily accessible for fans of, say, screwball comeides as it is for action lovers. Since the movie is PG-13, there are still a couple of moments of semi-graphic violence, but nothing objectionable to someone 10 years or older.

The special effects are fun, with the worms as the film's showpiece. Thankfully, there's no overdone CGI and the worms are actually well-rendered and convincing. But I must say, I was a little misled, seeing how it is the worms don't actually look like the one on the video box cover (which actually looks cooler). But never mind that, I'm wondering how the director managed to pull off so many scenes of the creatures popping out from underground. I mean, given the fact that this is a goofy monster movie, it couldn't have been given a very big budget. I also love those worm POV shots, particularly the ones that actually feature the camera wading through the dirt.

S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock's script is clever without being particulary intelligent or distinguished. This isn't a brilliant film by a long shot but it goes to show that some writers who just want to write a fun script can actually get the job done. It's a little odd to note that all of Wilson and Maddock's other screenplays (with maybe the exception of Tremors' own sequels) have been pretty bad, culminating to the debacle known as Wild Wild West. Unlike that film and the others they've written, this one isn't soulless.

But it's not the action and the laughs that put this film above so many countless movies of the genre. It is, after all, the characters that make this film as highly entertaining as it is. As said before, Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward's chemistry is natural and they deliver some of their best acting in their careers. It's actually a shame that Ward never reached the same heights of stardom as Bacon; he sure as hell had the charisma and acting skill for it. Also very good is Finn Carter as Rhonda, and it's also a little unfortunate her career hasn't gone far since this. She and Bacon also have some nice chemistry, which further establishes this movie as one that also works partially as a romance (a good feat, considering it's not even striving to be one). The other standouts are Michael Gross and Reba Mcentire as the gun-toting couple. Their performances are a lot of fun and there's a hilarious scene involving the two of them trying to kill one of the giant worms in their basement.

Tremors wasn't much of a box office success but has since gone on to have a strong life on video, to the point where it even inspired other knowingly goofy creature features such as Anaconda, Lake Placid, Deep Blue Sea, and Deep Rising (of these three, only Rising comes to mind as a must see). The film's also got its own sequels, the first of which I remember as being pretty fun but certainly inferior.
*** 1/2 out of *****

Tremors is just-for-fun, but extremely well done. The cast, writing and effects are top-notch. This is a film I rewatch every now and then, so it's worth having on DVD. Before buying, though, check out Tremors 4, which is about the same price and includes a free copy of Tremors as of January 2004.

I thought the movie was great!Kevin Bacon,Fred Ward, Michael Gross,And Reba McEntire!The other actors not as well known,made it seem really like a small town in nevada.The story was a little un-beliveble,but it turned out to be great.The whole town trying to get to higher gound,brought suspense throughout the movie.Also comedy made the movie even better,especially between Bacon and Ward.I liked it so much I now have a site you can visit for more information, www.geocities.com/burt_trem