Top of the Food Chain

The 'let's make fun of 50's monster movies' thing has been done to death but TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN is a surprising and total delight. Where most comedies lately work with visual shock and gross-out gags, the humour in this movie--often as shockingly hilarious as anything by the Farrelly brothers--is almost completely verbal. The lines fly by with dizzying speed--a barrage of bad puns, silly one-liners, kinky innuendo and loony non-sequiteurs that had my head spinning! And the fact that it's a Canadian film is the cherry on the cake. Go see it!

This is a remarkable little movie. I didn't really expect much when I started watching it - after all it's a low-budget sci-fi spoof made in rather obscure circumstances. But it truly is excellent. It's finely written, well executed, and very, very funny - I stopped the playback of the movie numerous times just to give myself time to savour some of the great moments and laugh at them properly without missing anything else. The script is consistently sharp and intelligent... and the movie also has the other two requisites of great comedy - well-judged timing and high quality straight-men. It's sort of a spoof on old sci-fi movies such as The Thing and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers... but that's only the start... the movie just has an off-kilter insight into human craziness that's not quite like anything. Actually the film to which it bears the closest comparison is the Rocky Horror Picture Show... although it's not a musical. Still I could easily imagine audiences watching Top Of The Food Chain over and over again and reciting their favourite lines along with the characters. Unfortunately this probably won't happen... it's an obscure movie, and will probably lapse into oblivion without ever finding much of an audience - which would be a great shame... so go out of your way to see it - you won't regret it.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, but after it started I found myself laughing my ass off throughout the whole movie.

It's as B as a movie can be, it's cheesie and it's awesome.

If you liked this, I'd check out Psycho Beach Party and Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.

'Top of the food chain' is a parody of the science fiction movies of the 50s which preceded the horror stories a few decades before Polanski and the gang turned horror into a genre that cannot be ignored. It makes clear from the beginning that it is not to be taken too seriously, and keeps all over an air of freshness and authenticity, avoiding any computerized special effects. It looks like a film of the 50s with a smile, the only real big miss, but a big one is the lack of a more effective humor. Gags like the ones in this film seem too innocent to viewers have seen the heavier parody stuff of the last years. The team of anonymous actors does a decent job, among them best was in my opinion Fiona Loewi who really catches the attention and deserves some better or broader distributed roles.

I just saw this film and really had no idea what to expect. I watched it twice and found that I really enjoyed it. Its a strange, funny little tale. I really thought it was going to be dumb. But as turns out I really liked it.