Mosquito

I consider myself fortunate to have caught "Mosquito" on a Sunday matinee. The opening scene depicts a huge mosquito smashing against a car windshield and the acting only gets worse from there. We get to see the "deputy" with a full beard in one scene lose the beard when the camera cuts back to him (stellar editing). We also get to see the main character who is the human incarnation of South Park's "Chef." My sides split when Gunnar Hansen (a.k.a. Letherface) picks up a chainsaw and says: "I haven't handled one of these things in 20 years....feels good." A commonly-used, extremely cheesy line is also: "..if I wasn't having such a bad day, I'd kill you." Anyway, go rent this, but you might have some trouble finding it (try a mom 'n pop video store).

I am torn on this movie but mostly leaning towards the side of loving it. The problem is the main reasons I love it are completely subjective, so I feel that I must still give an accurate technical rating of the movie.

I love this movie mainly because I remember seeing it many many times as a kid. In fact there was a time when my family and I would visit my grandma's house for a weekend at least once or twice a month and I would always sleep on the couch out in the main room, which meant I could watch tv until late. And for about a year, it seemed that every time we went, this movie was on cable as the late night movie, so I saw it probably about 15 times. I was young and so I wasn't really familiar with a lot of similar horror b films. At the time I remember thinking this was actually a serious scary film and not a campy b horror.

Years later now, I remembered the movie and wanted to see if I could find a copy of it. So I researched and got one and rewatched it. At first I thought this had to be a different film. The campiness of some of the park rangers reminded me of Wes Craven's "I Spit On Your Grave". But then quickly came in some of the really bad special effects and I knew this was the film I remembered.

So what does the film have going for it? Well it is definitely in the realm of those so bad its funny films. Although the movie does actually appear to attempt some humor which fails miserably. I think for me the best parts are the special effects, because they are so over the top and fake, yet also somewhat terrifying. I would say that all in all, the film feels like a homage to early zombie films both in its plot and special effects. Its definitely a film that anyone can sit down and enjoy for an evening if they just want something laugh at and be entertained by for an hour or two.

This movie is in constant rotation on SciFi and its another one of those movies that I stop at each time its on. The plot has badly done giant mosquitoes attacking people in the country side. They have been mutated after feeding on the blood of dead aliens...I know you're shocked, you were expecting a high class movie (even with the title Mosquito) and instead you got a very silly movie played (reasonably) straight by everyone involved. Clearly the cast and crew knew this was a silly idea, but they milk it for all its worth turning the attack scenes into something you both wince at (for the idea of it) and groan at (the silliness of the execution). This is one of the rare modern attempts at a drive in movie that walks the fine line between being serious and being mocking to create something thats enjoyable despite the dumbness of it all. If you can take it on its own level its worth two bags of popcorn and a couple of sodas. If you can't take it for what it it is then you're in for a long painful viewing experience.

9 out of 10 on the brain dead fun-o-meter.

"Mosquito" is a perfect example of a movie that's so bad it's good. I can't in all honesty give it any higher than a 5 because of the "so bad" issues, but the "so good" parts prop it up. Low budget, dire acting, ridiculous script. But with the exception of the flying skeeters, the low budget special effects are actually not that bad. And in spite of the low budget, you get the feeling that everyone involved gave it the old college try and threw everything they could into it. As a result, I literally applauded at a couple of scenes for their over-the-topness, and laughed my butt off through most of the film.

So yeah, as far as movie making goes, it was bad. But I enjoyed the dumb thing and was thoroughly entertained and movies are meant to entertain so in that, it succeeded. So, it's not so bad.

What a tremendous achievement in American cinema! Did any of y'all know that you can hammer boards over windows without nails? Did you know that facial hair can disappear and reappear at random moments? Did you realize the safe haven that can be had in a bathtub? A perfect way to spend the day.