Méga araignée

A monster film plenty of impressive scenes , frenetic action and humor . A giant alien spider escapes from a military lab and rampage the city of Los Angeles . When a massive military (commanded by Major Braxton : Ray Wise and Lt. Karly Brant : Clare Kramer) strike fails , it is up to a team of scientists and one clever exterminator to kill the creature before the city is destroyed . Meanwhile , the bloodthirsty spider meet up local citizens and spontaneously catch them and begins to consume people . Later on , the gigantic spider over a skyscraper surrounded by planes shooting similarly to ¨King King¨ movie . The gigantesque spider rapidly multiplies and the protagonists confronting with them , being L. A. town devastated by the attacks . When Downtown Los Angeles , including City Hall , under attack , an eclectic bunch led by bug/pest exterminator Alex Mathis(starring "Heroes" alumni Greg Grunberg) along with a security agent called Jose Ramos (Lombardo Boyar) and Army Lieutenant (Clare Kramer) take on the evil spiders .

This monster/comedy film with medium budget packs thrills , some good action and funny moments . It's a hybrid of monster movies from the 50s such as 'Tarantula' and modern American production plenty of C.G.I. The thrilling screenplay is a bit yawn-inspiring but nifty special effects will keep you from dozing off , with nice creatures designers, created by means of Animatronics and computer visual effects . This is a suspenseful and amusing Sci-Fi/thriller/comedy especially at the amazing ending tableau when Greg Grunberg , Lombardo and Clare Kramer have to tackle the gigantic spider in the final . The picture was professionally directed by Mike Mendez (¨The killers¨, ¨The Conven," "Masters of Horror" ¨, ¨The Gravedancers¨) with rather too much camera movement and there are also lots of low-angle shots of people hanging around waiting to get bitten by the carnivorous spider . This Mike Mendez's newest film "Big Ass Spider!" for Epic Pictures premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and had a limited theatrical worldwide . Although nothing which haven't been seen before, this is not the picture to watch if you are scared of spiders , however the movie is quite entertaining . Utterly arachnophobia people must flee this film.

Other movies about this Spider sub-genre are the followings : ¨Tarantula (1955)¨ by Jack Arnold with John Agar ; ¨Tarantula: the deadly cargo (1977)¨ with Claude Akins ; ¨Kingdom of spiders (77)¨ by John Budd Cardos with William Shatner , ¨Arachnophobia(1990)¨ by Frank Marshall with John Goodman , ¨Arachnid¨ (2000) by Jack Sholder with Chris Potter , Jose Sancho , Neus Asensi and ¨Eight Legged Freaks¨ (2002) by Ellory Elkayem with Scarlett Johansson , Kari Wuhrer , and David Arquette .

"Big Ass Spider" is a reasonably entertaining B-Movie that neither takes itself too seriously nor insults your intelligence (except with your permission). If you like this kind of comedy/horror/monster movie at all, you'll enjoy yourself here. It's not Shakespeare; then again, that's not what it said on the box. And you opened it anyway.

You could compare it to a Syfy original; it's in that genre. But it's better than all than about three of them, and that's including "Sharknado." Not like BAS is genius, but Syfy movies are… not good.

It does what a B is supposed to do: entertain, divert, scare a little, clown around. Decent job. A perfect NetFlix weeknight movie; even Saturday night, if you're not doing anything.

Alex (Greg Grunberg) is an exterminator working in Los Angeles, whose speciality is spiders – he can get inside their minds, you see. A minor spider bite sends him to the local emergency room, where he soon learns that something has infiltrated the place. Turns out there was a military "accident" and soon the hospital is taken over by a Special Forces Major (Ray Wise) and his crew, including lovely Carly (Clare Kramer). But it is up to Alex and his sidekick, hospital security guard Jose (Lombardo Boyar) to figure out how to save the day.... Really, a movie like this needs no description, as it says it all in the title – there's a Big-Ass Spider threatening downtown LA! Very funny, a little gory (but only very briefly), this film had rather more character development than I'd expect in an 85-minute popcorn movie – and it was a perfect film to see with the great FantAsia audience too!

BIG ASS SPIDER! is the story of exterminator, Alex Mathis (Greg Grunberg) and his extraordinary day. Upon receiving a bite from a Brown Recluse spider, Mathis winds up in the hospital. While he's there, by some unholy happenstance, another species of spider, a particularly large specimen, crawls forth. In seconds, the angry arachnid is on a deadly rampage!

If that's not bad enough, the military shows up, led by Maj. Tanner (Ray Wise), to "take care of things". The hospital is quickly locked down, and it's obvious that this is no ordinary spider. Can Mathis use his bug-killing skills to assist in the eradication of this fast-growing monster?

Grunberg is fantastic in his nebbish cum hero role. The movie is an excellent blend of sci-fi horror / creature feature and comedy. Not as hopelessly "zany" as one might expect, it benefits from well-written humor. The CGI isn't bad, especially later in the movie, when the BAS goes "KING KONG".

A low budget film that makes the best of its limited funds...

For a B-flick this was actually rather well done; I would even go so far as to say that this is more a lovingly made spoof of B-movies than an actual B-movie (although the budget is clearly B). A cameo appearance by Lloyd Kaufman (legendary Troma producer) seems to further indicate that this an homage to trashy horror and monster films.

Given the budget on this, the effects - especially the spider - are pretty decent. Don't expect the kind of CGI quality of films like "Starship Troopers" or "Mimic" and you'll have a fun 82 minutes.

I guess the version I just saw must be the R-rated one: there definitely are at least a few gory moments in this film, so the PG-13 rating here on IMDb could be misleading.

This film is a lot of fun and has some witty dialog and was obviously made by someone who loves this genre - apart from that, the two lead characters are very likable and have great chemistry.

It might deserve less, but I'll give it a 6

Favorite Films: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054200841/

Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Fun B-Flicks/Low Budget Films: http://www.imdb.com/list/YV1Lxq7WLkU/