Tremors 3: Back to Perfection

My Take: A decent TV sequel.

This sequel lacks the monster movie flavor of the original, but still kinda enjoyable, mostly by the fans of the series. This film is quite like a reunion for the cast of the original "Tremors". Michael Gross returns for the role of Burt Gummer, and so does some of the original cast including Ariana Richards, Tony Genero, Robert Jayne and Charlotte Stewart as the townies of Perfection, which has become famous all over the world as habitat of the giant graboids. But their re-appearance in the town isn't all attraction, when they begin to change again.

Although not as excellent, "Tremors 3" emerges as a funny, skin-crawling sequel. The comedy is fine, and the action is fast. But the special-effects aren't of much realism. The creatures look just like a couple of cartoons on a real background.

Anyway, it's not one of those bad sequels, "Tremors 3: Back to Perfection" is still fun, even for the young viewers.

TV movie rating: *** out of 5.

I really wasn't expecting much from a third in the series even tho Tremors 2 added so much more imagination. So I was pleasantly surprised when this turned out to be so much fun.

It begins with a rather cool opening scene in which Burt Gummer (still in Mexico) takes out zillions of Shriekers with a massive machine-gun tank thing. After returning home to Perfection Burt must deal with new graboids, new shriekers and another metamorphosis...The shriekers turn into Ass-Blasters, flying creatures with rocket propelled farts. As the town (and the returning, surviving cast from the first film) is besieged by all forms of these animals, Burt and his pals must figure out increasing desperate ways to destroy them.

There's loads of energy and self-referential humor and the locations have a more dark/sophisticated look to them than in the previous 2 films. A light-hearted tone is still in check tho. There's even one teriffic scene in which Burt is swallowed by a Graboid and taken halfway across the desert. I paniced, I honestly thot we'd lost him. Turns out he's okay in the end.

Fred Ward is definitely missed tho his abscence is explained (Earl and Grady went to make a Graboid amusement park) but Michael Gross is simply irreplaceable as the eccentric and paranoid Burt Gummer. And Ariana Richards is so much more cuter now that she's grown up.

Tremors 3 is the best presented Tremors movie on DVD. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture looks great and the Dolby 5.1 is reasonably lively with lots of bass during the tunnelling scenes. A fair amount of extras come along too.

I knew this movie couldn't be nearly as good as "Tremors", and probably on the same level as "Tremors 2: Aftershocks", so I wasn't expecting anything great. I saw this film more out of curiosity than anything... and I got pretty much exactly what I expected. The movie isn't anything great, but it's got some cool stuff in it.

I thought it was funny that they managed to work in a mention of just about every character from the first film as they could, and if they didn't mention them, they actually showed them in the film. I thought it was also funny that they had more people returning to the 3rd installment than they did in the 2nd installment. The only returning characters in part 2 was Michael Gross and Fred Ward. The 3rd installment had Michael Gross, Ariana Richards, Tony Genaro, Charolette Stewart, and Bobby Jacoby. They even had one returning actor (John Papas) who was in part 1 as one of the construction workers that got killed, and played one of the Feds that got killed in this film. I guess that only makes sense though, since part 2 takes place in Mexico where as this film takes place back in Perfection, Nevada, where it all started. But, in any case, it still struck me as interesting.

One thing that I really liked about this film was Ariana Richards. Wow, has she grown up! She looks absolutely incredible, I'll definitely need to keep an eye out for future work.

I have to say I liked the new design of the next phase of the "Tremors" (or if you must, "Graboids"). I liked the idea of having the "Tremors" fly, but they way they (they being the film-makers) did it, was pretty stupid.

I was also less than stoked about the computer animated worm-tremors. What was that? They looked way too cartoon-ish and just plain weird. Anyhow, I didn't like that, but I didn't really care a great deal, cause the movie is full of problems.

All in all, this is an OK movie, but nothing too get excited about. I would DEFINITELY recommend watching "Tremors" first, then watch "Tremors 2: Aftershocks", and if you're still interested, go ahead and watch this one. Thanks for reading,

-Chris

Third movie in the Tremors series returns back to the town that started it all: Perfection, Nevada. Returning from the previous two movies is Michael Gross as Burt Gummer. Gross got as much mileage as he could out of the role of Burt but it's admittedly wearing a little thin by this point. Also returning is Ariana Richards, who was a little girl in the first Tremors movie. She's all grown up here and it's cool to see her back. She was probably my favorite part of the movie. This is a mostly enjoyable monster flick but not as good as the second movie and not even on the same planet as the highly entertaining first Tremors. This one relies heavily on comedy and likability of its cast, which is probably smart considering the obvious effects limitations. This was made for video, after all. This is also the movie that introduces the poorly-conceived "Ass Blaster" Graboid. I guess they didn't use that in the title for fear it would be confused with a porno.

In the third installment of the Tremors series, survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) returns to the desert town of Perfection, Nevada, to find that the subterranean terrors are back and wreaking havoc once more. This time the beasts evolve a stage further: from the 'Shrieker' (seen in Tremors 2), they transform into flying creatures, nicknamed 'Ass-blasters', because of the unusual manner in which they propel themselves into the air.

Tremors 3 is another fun dose of B-movie monster mayhem, albeit one slightly marred by the notable absence of the main stars of the first movie (Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward) and the inclusion of some rather ropey CGI effects.

Bacon and Ward may be missing, but several of the supporting characters from the first Tremors film make a welcome comeback: Mindy Sterngood (Ariana Richards, who is all grown up now and looking rather foxy!), Nancy Sterngood (Charlotte Stewart), Miguel (Tony Genaro), Melvin Plug (Robert Jayne) and, of course, good old Burt, loaded to the nines with firepower.

The script won't win any awards, but fans of the Tremors series don't expect Shakespeare—they want 'Graboid' action, and 'Graboid' action is what they get! There is some excitement involving an albino 'Graboid' (nicknamed El Blanco), but most of the story revolves around the appearance of the 'Ass-blasters'. An exciting showdown in a junkyard between the 'blasters and three of the Perfection residents is the highlight of the film.

This episode definitely has enough laughs, monster action and gloopy effects to keep fans of the series happy. I just wish that they had stuck with the traditional 'Graboid's, rather than using those dreadful computer generated monstrosities.