Lavalantula

It doesn't matter if you could have made better special effects in your basement, this movie is actually pretty good. There's lot's of action and plenty of silliness. I loved that the road was so hot it melted car tires but not shoes. See it.

Yes. I gave the obligatory eye roll when I saw the title. Another disaster movie. Another low budget attempt to make a movie with meaning. A rubber stamp copy of a copy of a copy. I went into viewing this with low expectations, thinking I wouldn't get past the first 10 minutes. But I was wrong.

From the beginning, this movie showed it did not take itself too seriously. It parodied all movies of this genre with a tongue in cheek innocence that belied it's self effacing motive. It had me smiling from end to end.

The clichés came with regularity and predictability. It's kind of like sitting in a Rocky Horror Picture Show revival. You know the lines. You speak them out loud. You throw rice. It's great fun as long as you accept you are part of the joke and it's OK to laugh.

Guttenberg and Peeples looked like they had so much fun with their roles. Their campy caricatures of people with greatness thrust upon them by adversity couldn't have been played (or overplayed, if you like) any better. And who could ever resist Michael Winslow?

This movie was a hoot. Take it for what it is....a very clever play on the genre.

Lavalantula (2015)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

90's action star Colton West (Steve Guttenburg) is having a pretty bad day. It starts off with a bar fight bringing him bad publicity and then it goes to him walking off a movie set, which was a cheap part in a cheap movie. After getting stuck in traffic and being late to pick up his son, his real trouble stars when an earthquake unleashes giant spiders who spit lava. Now the action star must try to rescue his family before it's too late.

LAVALANTULA works on a number of levels. For starters, it's a pretty fun monster that manages to stick out among the countless monsters that appear in SyFy movies. I thought the CGI effects, while very cheap and obvious, were actually pretty good and made for a fun villain. Their burnt design was a major plus and the fact that they could spit at lava was another fun aspect. I will say that these monsters needed to be in even more of the film but I'm sure the eventual sequel will work on that.

The second thing this succeeds at is reuniting four members of the POLICE ACADEMY series. If you weren't a fan of that series then you're obviously not going to care but as someone who grew up watching these movies it was pretty cool getting to see members reunited. In fact, I'd say it was excellent to see Guttenberg leading up a movie again and he manages to be quite fun here as he's sense of humor really works well with the material. Marion Ramsey, Michael Winslow and Leslie Easterbrook also appear as does another cameo from a SyFy series that I won't ruin. Nia Peeples was also fun as the wife. Patrick Reena (THE SANDLOT) is also on hand and adds some fun.

LAVALANTULA features a number of fun but gory deaths and overall it's a nice entertainment. For a monster feature it works and if you're a fan of POLICE ACADEMY then you're going to get an added bonus.

If you liked Mega Spider aka Big Ass Spider, you are likely to find a lot to like in Lavalantula. It's not a great movie as such, but it manages to be good fun and by far one of SyFy's better movies, considering that most of SyFy's movies are cheap, amateurishly made and terribly written that is saying a lot.

Lavalantula, as far as SyFy movies go, looks decent. Editing and photography is tighter than most SyFy movies, locations are colourful and atmospheric, the way the production is lit is less drab than usual and while there is the occasional cheapness and over-obviousness in places the spider effects have a menacing and never goofy look, are proportioned well and fit in the surroundings nicely without looking fake, in short far above the typical the SyFy special effects standard. The spiders actually have a personality (unlike most SyFy creatures), fun and believable as main villains (actually generating legitimate menace rather than unintentional laughs), and don't feel like they're used too much or too little. The music score is groovy and eerie, is careful not to overshadow the dialogue and is used appropriately. The direction shows great confidence throughout.

The script is surprisingly above-average, usually it's one of the worst assets of a SyFy movie, but while there is some cheesiness here and there the amount of hilarious snappy banter, some really neat references and endearing tongue-in-cheek humour far overshadow those spots. The story does feel disjointed and too stretched out in places (the writing for the son and mother did at times feel too much like filler), but it does something that not many low-budget movies get right, it clearly knows what it's trying to be and which audience it's aiming for, and doesn't do the annoying thing that a lot of SyFy/Asylum movies do which is trying too hard to be stupid and bad (when SyFy does that, it comes over as amateurish instead). For what the death scenes may lack in the scare factor, it more than makes up for it with the large degree of fun and suspense, and that the characters while not the best developed are far more likable than most characters in a SyFy movie and that the spiders are believable here is a further advantage. The acting is also better than average, amusing Steve Guttenberg and the other three Police Academy members are immensely fun to watch as is Patrick Renna and Nia Peeples brings some heart to the movie. They make their characters at least tolerable, and clearly know what movie they're in.

All in all, good fun if not necessarily a great movie. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This hilariously idiotic sci-fi horror TV movie from the SyFy channel, in which giant lava-breathing tarantulas are released upon Los Angeles by violent volcanic eruptions, is as completely ludicrous as it sounds.

Despite the obvious plot holes, errors, bad CGI and its lack of scientific accuracy, Lavalantula's typical separated family gets reunited in time to save the day style story, is both extremely entertaining and exceedingly scary for all those suffering from arachnophobia.

The film stars Steve Guttenberg from Police Academy and Short Circuit, as well as Nia Peeples from Pretty Little Liars.

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