Munchies

OK, now... I won't lie... This film IS basically a Gremlins rip-off, but many reviewers like to trash films solely on how they felt about it, instead of at least appreciating the artistic integrity of the film and seeing it for what it is, a rather good comedy, and may I say a blatant stab at Gremlins.

It seemed obvious to me, even as a boy, that it was intended to have a similar plot to Gremlins. This being a lighter touch on such a film, which was deemed scary by many youngsters at the time... The more comedic creature features are a fine way to introduce and draw kids in to the wide world of horror, of which I am now an avid fan and obsessed collector.

I haven't even seen this movie in years, in fact since I was about 12 or 13, but I still remember it clearly as one of the funniest B-grade 'critter-comedies' I saw as a youth.

Let's face it people... Reviews are never that much help anyway. They really are nothing more than one person's own humble opinion.

My advice: Watch any film that YOU think sounds even remotely interesting and make up your own mind. What have you lost in the end? The few bucks it takes to hire a movie and maybe the 2hrs of your time it takes to watch it.

Another film watched for the "How Did This Get Made" podcast, "Munchies" is a film rather cynically designed to cash in on the success of "Gremlins" and the similar low budget versions that aped it. Having fallen asleep during my first attempt to watch the film (let's not judge it based that though) I picked up from where I could remember and finished the film.

Whilst trying to prove that Machu Picchu was built by Aliens, Simon Watterman (Harvey Korman) returns to America with his son, Paul (Charles Stratton) and a strange creature they've discovered. The creature is kidnapped by Simon's twin brother Cecil (Harvey Korman) who wants Simon's land for himself, but Cecil's stepson, Melvis (Alix Elias) gets frustrated and attempts to kill the creature, inadvertently transforming one into four. More aggressive as a group, they start to terrorise the town, whilst Paul tries to chase them down.

It wasn't the films fault I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it, but it really didn't help itself. The budget is, as I say, modest and the puppets that result from it are pretty rubbish. Their made of a hard rubber and are incapable of much in the way of movement. The performances are generally quite poor, Korman is probably the standout, as you might imagine, but even he's struggling against a shallow and confusing plot.

I can get past those sorts of issues though, if the film is interesting around it's budgetary limitations. "Munchies" isn't though, it's predominantly quite boring and the lack of fun scenes really makes it drag to watch.

It's maybe not the worse film I've watched for the podcast, but it's a really bad time and I don't recommend it.

Terrible little film that has small creatures from outer-space terrorizing people in the desert. Harvey Korman plays dual roles in this amazingly bad movie that is nothing but a bunch of stupid scenes pieced together and called a movie. Lowest common denominator film-making from start to finish. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

Cute and playful, but lame and cheap. 'Munchies' is another Gremlins clone to come out from the 80s. I'm not much of a fan of the imitations.

First it was the excellent 'Gremlins'.

Then came the very average 'Critters'.

Lets not forget the lousy 'Ghoulies'.

But the complete pits would have to go to 'Hobgoblins'.

Is there more??

Now 'Munchies' for me would have to fall somewhere between 'Ghoulies' and 'Hobgoblins'. Actually I probably found it more entertaining than 'Ghoulies', but I preferred thst one's darker tone.

From the get-go it plays up its goofy nature (which it's better for it), but due to that nature the hammy acting (Alix Elias and Charlie Phillips), can get rather overbearing that you rather just see the munchies running amok. That's where the fun occurs. Mostly light-hearted fluff though, as the story mainly centres on the munchies (who are either hungry, horny and destructive) in a whole bunch of supposed comical encounters (some moments do work) in the small desert town as a couple of people are on the chase. It's silly, but strangely engaging thanks to the zippy pacing. The creatures themselves look rather bland and poorly detailed, as they're basic dolls being chucked about. Where their personalities arrived from is that they can actually speak... and with attitude.

Charlie Stratton and a feisty Nadine Van der Velde (who was in 'Critters') were fair leads. Harvey Korman was acceptable in two roles. Robert Picardo also pops up.

Amusingly low-cut entertainment for the undemanding.

I guess this is supposed to be a parody of Gremlins and ET but they forgot that parodies are supposed to be funny. They only character who is even slightly funny is Corman's wife. Most of the comedy is just having everyone be named after a musician. The worst thing is that almost nothing that happened made any sense.