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!

In my area, this movie is available to rent as "Invasion!" It also has a holographic box, and the picture of Campbell Scott looks eerily like Martin Sheen. Don't let any of these factors deter you from renting the movie. It is a little known gem. Even video clerks don't know about it, they'll look on you with scorn when you bring it to the counter. But it's worth their scorn, trust me.

This movie parodies the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as other 50's sci fi classics. But it doesn't just do a basic plot parody with dumb jokes plastered over it, a la Airplane or other Hollywood broad parodies. Top of the Foodchain gets into little details, like making fun of how all men in 50's sci fi seem to have traditionally female names (see cast list) or the bizarre, ham handed way that those movies dole out religious platitudes and hypocritically pro- and anti-science ideology.

Campbell Scott is, as usual, dead on in his mimicry -- this time of 50's leading man mannerisms. He's got the reassuring shoulder clap *down*. Every little nuance of this movie is brilliant and surprisingly innovative in spite of the fact that the movie is a spoof. I'm giving credit to the Canadians on this one. I doubt this movie would have been as funny or insane had it been done in the States. Do not miss Invasion! or Top of the Food Chain or whatever it's called in your neighborhood. It is smart, funny and will always be one of my personal all time favorite rentals.

TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN (3 outta 5 stars) Canadian director John Paisz came out with some brilliant short movies back in the 80s... culminating in the brilliant "Crime Wave". He showed great promise at the time... his work sharing many surface similarities with the work of David Lynch. But for almost 15 years he seemed to disappear from the world of film... doing a little TV work in Canada and not much else. Well, he finally came back in 1999 with this zany B movie parody film and, while comes nowhere near the quality of his earlier work, it does have enough wit and style to make it worth seeing. The movie starts out TERRIBLY... so don't let the first five minutes put you off... it does get better. Man-eating aliens come down to a small Twin Peaks kind of town and start noshing on the citizens. Luckily a world famous atomic scientist (Campbell Scott) is passing through town to lend a hand. The movie's story isn't quite as well-scripted as the more recent "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" but it does have some very funny lines... and some bizarre characterizations (the way-too-friendly brother and sister, the town policeman who goes around singing his own jazzy theme song). If you're in the mood for something silly you could do lots worse than this. Choicest lines: "An atomic scientist's life can be very lonely. There aren't many atomic lady scientists, after all." "I got backbone! Matter of fact when I was born I had a tail, too! That's just MORE backbone only it's furry!" "A genetically engineered band of devil worshiping serial killers... or a Sasquatch type thing? I don't like the sound of that!"

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 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.