Critters 2 (1988)

Too much of everything

Thanks for the memories!

As Good As It Gets

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Not as good as the original, but still good old-fashioned fun. This was very Gremlins resemblance comedy-ish, but nevertheless still entertaining. The film picks up where the original left off, with Scott Grimes returning to town to fight more fur balls.

The furry space munchers are back in Grover's Bend..."Critters 2" has a good storyline that is easy to follow and also serves as a great continuation of the storyline from the first movie. It is a combination of the events in the storyline and the detailed characters that makes the movie good.It was nice to have Scott Grimes (playing Brad), Terrence Mann (playing Ug) and Don Keith Opper (playing Charlie) return to the sequel, which added a great sense of continuity to the movie. Furthermore, the movie also have Lin Shaye, Barry Corbin and Sam Anderson on the cast list, so if you have watched movies during the 1980s there is a good amount of familiar faces to be seen here. But in general, the casting was good and they had some nice talents appearing in the movie. And people were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters.The pacing of "Critters 2" is fairly much the same as in the previous movie. However, it takes some twenty odd minutes before the movie starts to get up in gear. So taking 20 something minutes to set the atmosphere and build up the story was a bit tedious. Especially since we already am familiar with the concept of the critters from the first movie.Some of the scenes were actually quite nice, especially when you had the critter's point of view of the surroundings and the world in which it was running around in, before it got squished.The special effects team were doing a great job with their work on "Critters 2", and it was nice to see that they had given them more money, because the effects were definitely a notch up in comparison to the effects seen in the first movie. The critters are starting to look more interesting and more life-like.There is a a good atmosphere to the movie, and the setting was good. And it worked out quite well with the specific style of cinematography and the work of director Mick Garris. There is a very "Gremlins 2" feel to this sequel with the increased comedy level of the movie. So if you like that or not is a matter of personal preference, of course. I did enjoy it.The music score for "Critters 2" is quite good and it suits the movie and the atmosphere of the movie quite well. It is subtle enough to function as background music, yet still prominent enough to demand attention.I must say that the critters design is really interesting, and I like it quite a lot. They are every bit as funny as they are ferocious. They looks like cuddly small creatures, but are in fact crazed feeding machines. But the design of the featureless bounty hunters is also quite interesting, and I especially like their shape-changing ability that allows them to mimic the appearance of others.If you enjoyed the first "Critters" movie, then you will definitely also like the sequel. And like its predecessor, "Critters 2" is a wonderful mix of Sci-Fi, horror and comedy, with the introduction of more comedy compared to the previous movie.

The first Critters (1986) movie was one of the best in an abundance of Gremlins rip-off's to come out following the release of Joe Dante's classic in 1984. It was amusing, entertaining, satisfyingly bloody and whizzed by in a fast-paced 90 minute running time. The titular Critters or, to give them their proper name, Crites, were also a memorable creation - tiny balls of fur with nasty teeth and the ability to shoot poisoned darts from their back. They are cuddly enough to be oddly cute but with a face only a mother could love. The surprisingly modest box-office takings established Critters as a franchise, and the sequel arrived just two years later.Unsurprisingly, Critters 2 is little more than a re-hash of the first movie, with the terrorising creatures attacking the same town again and coming up against their arch-nemesis Brad (Scott Grimes), who apparently had his ear pieced and grew a mullet between films. Brad's celebrity status in the town catches the eye of the slight- older Megan (Liane Curtis), but Brad just wants his friend Charlie (Don Keith Opper) back. Still teamed up with bounty hunter Ug (Terrence Mann) somewhere in space, Charlie's spaceship detects Crite activity back on Earth, and so they return to destroy them. Soon enough, the Crites have bred beyond count and are munching on everything in sight.The biggest disappointment with Critters 2 is the sheer lack of imagination. The first movie had enough wit and self-awareness to create something bolder, the like of which was done in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and its bat-s**t crazy, anything-goes climax. The creatures too, are easily propped behind a variety of counters so their puppeteers can operate them with ease, while the first movie at least demonstrated some creative puppet work. The humour is goofier and more obvious, and the climactic set-piece involving a giant ball of combined critters attacking a garage packed with fast- food, just fails to hit the mark. It's certainly an easy watch, but there's little here to excite.

Whilst re-watching the original "Critters" for the sixteenth time or something, I suddenly realized that I never actually bothered to see any of its sequels. Luckily all those glorious favorite 80's horror franchises are available in box collection sets on the internet nowadays, so you don't really have to search for a long time. "Critters 2" is in many ways a very prototypical, standardized and logical sequel to an unexpected modest cult hit. The famous names in the cast have gone (Dee Wallace and M. Emmet Walsh) and were replaced with inferior actors, the lesser famous names reprise their roles but have obviously grown as actors (Scott Grimes and Don Opper), the monsters are much more plentiful (enough to form one gigantic munching bowling ball), the scope of their attacks is much wider (the entire town of Grover's Bend and its inhabitants instead of just one farmhouse family) and the whole damn thing is just a tad bit sillier, sleazier and nastier. Supposedly two years after the first invasion, Brad returns to Grover's Bend to spend the Easter Holiday with his grandmother. Just at that exact same time – speaking of coincidence – the Krites eggs that were left behind last time are mistaken for funny looking Easter eggs and spread all over town for the annual festivities. When the eggs hatch and the ravenous little monsters run amok all around, Brad can finally prove that he wasn't just the village idiot two years ago, and also the bounty hunters from space return to the rescue. This second installment was co-written and directed by Mick Garris, who's always been obsessed the horror genre and literally stuffs his scenarios with little inside jokes & references to other classics. The greatest quality of the Critters, a downright fantastic design by the wonderful Chiodo Brothers, is that they might look silly and easily conquerable, but they're nevertheless sadist and relentless little monsters that are not to be underestimated. Like it ought to be in a sequel, they're a lot more bloodthirsty and commit several nasty attacks. Enjoyable guff for the fans of marvelous 1980's.