Los bichos nucleares

I highly recommend this film to all. For some unexplainable reason I'd call this film a mixture of Tim Burton and John Waters (although neither of them have any association with it) For instance, if you are a fan of Beetlejuice & Mars Attacks (Burton) or Cry-Baby & Serial Mom (Waters) this film is definitely up your alley. This film has the subtle strangeness of Burton and the sick humor of Waters. That's all I can really say. The movie is hilarious (as are the 4 films mentioned above) in its own twisted little way.

The Applegates (Ed Begley Jr, Stockard Channing) are a peculiar suburban family. They live under assumed identities to infiltrate and sabotage the nuclear power plant. They are actually giant preying mantis from the Brazilian rainforest which is being stripped by development. Their queen, Aunt Bea (Dabney Coleman), is invading Ohio in three months. The daughter Sally falls for Vince Sampson from next door. When Vince forces himself on her, she goes mantis on him. The suburbs are harder than it seems. Sally gets pregnant. Johnny turns into a weed head. Jane goes crazy with her Discovery card. Richard gets fired. Then Aunt Bea arrives.

I wouldn't say that there are any big laughs. It does have a weird dark satirical take on the suburbs. There is also an environmental message. This all adds up to an unseen cult movie. It has some fun takes. Michael Lehmann directed one of the great teen satires of all times, Heathers. This is way weirder.

Before I start this review can I just ask why this film opens with a shot of an Emperor scorpion? A West African arachnid in a brazilian rainforest? Righto.

Now that's out the way, on with the review. Though this film has a very strong moral (people who think insects are disgusting and live disgusting lives should first take a look at the human race) the whole thing is marred by the fact that it can't seem to decide whether it's a comedy or a more serious ecologically-themed drama. The insect family trying to fit into human society and coming to terms with it could have been hilarious, but the film is too mean-spirited and bleak to be funny (the family daughter is date-raped, the father commits adultery with his secretary, the son takes drugs, the dog is poisoned by the same drugs and ends up reverting back to an insect before being crushed to death). It's also too cosily bland and light-hearted to be regarded as having anything serious to say about ecology.

Angered by a logging company encroaching deep into their natural forest, a family of large insects camouflage themselves as humans and blend themselves into a small American town. Dick gets a job with the nuclear power plant in order to sabotage it and wage war on the human population. However the family finds that their attempts to blend in are working a little too easy and they endanger their own mission.

Despite being a little too gory for my tastes, this comedy is actually quite sharp in it's main satire on American life. The main joke for me was the way the family of bugs are sucked into the lifestyle of American mores – the mother gives in to commercialism, the son to drugs, the daughter to teenage sex and the father to adultery. It's comical to watch their descent and works pretty well. Where's it's all going is less clear and the message is not so clear in regards whether becoming `normal' is for the best or not. What is clear is the eco message which pokes fun at those who would make war on nature (whether bug or human) without respect for other life forms.

For a 90 minute film it all works pretty well and is actually quite imaginative. The gore put me off a little, in the gore of the eggs and bugs generally and I would have preferred if they had just had the bugs without all the slime and stuff. The cast do a good job carrying the material – their performances generally help keep up the mood of weirdness! Begley Jnr and Channing are both good in the leads – each giving in to their human environment. The kids are OK but the best performance is an outrageous performance from Coleman as the queen of the species – complete with full drag and moustache!

Overall this never quite delivers as many laughs as it's clever and funny pitch but it is still worth a watch. It has a surreal picture book image of `normal' America that it slowly explodes. For me, you could take or leave the eco message and still enjoy the film. Not great but different enough to be worth a try.

I'm sick and tired of people ripping this movie apart. Who cares why there's a scorpion featured in the opening shot when the movie is about cockroaches.Beetlejuice opened with a spider and that's not the main character either. Yes,in this age of political correctness there are flaws.Is rape ever funny? Funny that foul language isn't mentioned yet,I guess nowadays it's too commonplace and nobody cares. Low budget special effects-check. Cheesy dialog-check. Nods to John Waters-I guess so. I think this movie entertains.It also offends from what I've read. Is it one of the worst ever made? Hardly. I can think of 50 films right now (recently released) that should be flushed down the toilet immediately.Hollywood excels at churning out bland,tasteless fodder for the mainstream masses. Stop taking it so seriously.It's meant to be a dark comedy and that's exactly what it is. Now where's the DVD?.