A Família Applegate

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.

Second film from cult director Michael Lehmann follows exploits of a beetle family that migrates to Ohio under the guise of Disneyeana leftovers. While there, each family member falls under the spell of human idiocy which jeopardizes their plan to create another Chernobyl. Very witty throughout, and the ecological message doesn't become preachy (remember when there were more films that dealt with deforestation like "Ferngully"?). Stockard Channing in particular is a hoot. Ending is definitely a bit on the soft side, but this is still a very good film...

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.

I would give this film a 7.0.

This is the kind of film you watch with a big bowl of popcorn.

Stockard Channing is always great and the role of Sally Applegate is played extremely well.

This film should be required viewing for Ed Bundy.

I love the surreal and outrageous humour.

We all seem to be afraid of being invaded by aliens but I do believe that not many of us considered cockroaches even though they may among the few species that survive.

New World Picturs must have really dug Heathers (1988) as director Michael Lehmann had this in production before that even hit theaters. It tells the story of a group of giant bugs that move from the Amazon rainforest to the USA suburbs and pretend to be humans in order to destroy a nuclear power plant. The parents (Ed Begley Jr. And Stockard Channing) want to project normalcy on their mission, but are stuck with only 1950s stereotypes as reference. Soon their kids (Camille Cooper and Bobby Jacoby) are succumbing to evil American ways and the parents aren't far behind.

This has to be the oddest film in New World catalog post-Corman sale in 1983. Lehmann obviously must have been a big fan of Beetlejuice (1988) as this is totally trying to copy that Tim Burton style here. It must have worked in some regard as after this Burton teamed up with this film's producer, Denise Di Novi, for the next decade. This is actually pretty fun once it gets going as each family member has to hide their foul ups by cocooning people. Kevin Yagher's team provides some impressive big bug FX, but the filmmakers goof in the action climax as all the bugs look the same so you can't tell who is who as they fight the bad bug (played by Dabney Coleman in human form). The fact New World funneled money from successes like Hellraiser (1987) into something like this won't leave you shocked to learn the company was in financial trouble by the time this was wrapping up and delayed the release for several years.