Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)

Waste of time

Very best movie i ever watch

That was an excellent one.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Not as good as the original - almost as if it wasn't taken as seriously. The creature offsprings are funny rather than scary and the film offers very little suspense due to bland acting. This is more of a slapstick comedy - and its not even funny...

The original "Tremors" was a great movie. "Tremors 2" is a different movie than the first. The first was a mix of sci-fi and horror with a very light hearted atmosphere and plenty of comedy worked in. The sequel changes this formula significantly. "Tremors 2" is comedy first, before anything else and has a different feel than the first. So much so, that in fact at many times it's impossible to take the movie seriously at all - something the first movie was not guilty of. At any rate "Tremors 2" does succeed in this respect as being an effective comedy monster action movie. You'll have to have seen the first to really appreciate the movie, as much of the funniest scenes are based around what everyone loved about the first (Burt's military obsessions and new found paranoias, and Earl's personality).CGI is introduced to the series here. Fortunately it's only used very sparingly when the mini Graboids run or jump. Otherwise they're decent looking puppet creatures. These creatures take up the second half of the film. The original Graboids make a complete exit about an hour into the film and our gang is left to deal with the land walking creatures. Through a good story and some funny moments courtesy of the original writing team and good monster FX, this ends up being a very worthy sequel. Sure, it's not as good as the first film, but working with what they have, I'd say they pulled it off wonderfully.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

No Kevin Bacon in this one and it does suffer some from his not being in this one. Fred Ward is his steady self again. The movie does have its funny parts and the graboids, while smaller versions of the ones from the first movie, Tremors, are a lot more numerous. Michael Gross is back as the gun toting survivalist, Burt Gummer. Unfortunately Reba McIntyre does not reprise her role as Gummers equally gun nut wife. Burt shows up at the refinery with not only a crap load of weapons but a very tough vehicle that they use to get some worm meat. Going to Mexico to kill the new graboids is a lucrative deal for Bassett and his replacement sidekick that he doesn't want at first, because he is a very rash acting person, but does take to the site.

Despite meager box office returns and only late success on home video, Tremors may be one of the only films to spawn a franchise out of a film that was never a big hit nor really intended to be a series. But unlike contemporary, flash-in-the-pan successes like The Hangover and Taken, the substance of the Tremors sequels is what kept their longevity and their quality at least in some ways comparable to the original masterwork. Tremors II: Aftershocks is a very strong sequel, and with the original film's screenwriter S.S. Wilson getting promoted to director and Brent Maddock assisting Wilson once again in the writing department, the original film's spirit is still captured in what is also a pleasantly different film than the first. For all the griping I, myself, and others do about sequels failing to raise the stakes, here's a film that doesn't mind changing the rules late in the game because, hey, it was already told that Graboids themselves don't play fair.After opening with a stunningly suspenseful scene of an oil worker trying to avoid a Graboid, we are dropped right in the middle of the sleepy desert-town of Perfection, Nevada, once more, where Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) is now making his living as an ostrich farmer. Despite him and his partner Valentine gaining unprecedented popularity from their discovery of Graboids, Earl hasn't received much, if any, royalties from the licensing of the beasts, from comic books to arcade games. He still makes his living as a humble handyman and is almost going to keep it that way until Señor Carlos Ortega (Marcelo Tubert) and Grady Hoover (Christopher Gartin) show up on his doorstep informing them of the most recent Graboid, large, subterranean worms that hunt by sounds and sonic vibrations in the ground, crisis. An oil rig in Mexico has been deemed a serious hazard to employees and occupants after numerous Graboid attacks have resulted in the deaths of innocent workers. Ortega is prepared to offer Earl $50,000 per each Graboid he kills whilst in Mexico, in addition to $100,000 if he can capture one alive.After much persuasion from Grady, Earl reluctantly agrees to make good use of his big "second chance," taking Grady along with him as his right-hand-man. When the two realize the Graboid operation is more dangerous and prolific than they thought, even after managing to blow up several using a remote-control car and dynamite, they enlist in the help of survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), who has spent his most recent days wallowing in self-pity and frustration after his wife Heather chose to leave him. The three, in addition to Kate (Helen Shaver), a local paleontologist, work to complete Ortega's operation, which goes rather seamlessly until the worms wind up undergoing metamorphosis and subsequently transforming into something more dangerous and more ubiquitous.While the amiable and often hilarious chemistry of Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward is subtracted from the formula of this sequel, Gartin steps in to do an okay job at playing second banana to Fred Ward's always interesting Earl character. Gartin's obnoxiousness is grating at times, and while his character is clearly the comic relief here, he comes off as a sign as being that a bit too obviously. The great thing about the original Tremors was no blatant comic relief was needed (even the listless teenager Melvin really didn't constitute as one, in my mind) because both leading men were capable of being funny without forgoing any element of seriousness and believability. Gartin does what he can within the screenplay of Wilson and Maddock and the result is fair but not totally destructive to the plot.Tremors II largely works because it doesn't settle to do the same thing twice; it keeps its story moving by not only changing the setting and adding a few more characters in the mix, but changing the entire biological spectrum of the monsters. Wilson and Maddock put a lot of thought into the mindset of these Graboids, biologically, physically, and conceptually, which results in a fairly elaborate and well-played detailing of the next wave of monsters sure to plague our characters. In addition, much like the original Tremors, this is a film that makes total use of its desert setting, spending considerable amounts of time in some settings, but always giving different locations their time of day in a manner that feels very regionally democratic.Tremors II: Aftershocks is a thoroughly pleasant sequel because it helps to revoke the spirit of the original film, whilst deviating course into something that expands upon the mythology of the monsters in the film and general likability of most of the film's characters. Rarely has there been a franchise quite like Tremors that has proved its own longevity better than most established, financially successful franchises and rarely has there been an impressive sequel quite like Tremors II: Aftershocks.Starring: Fred Ward, Christopher Gartin, Michael Gross, Helen Slater, Marco Hernandez, and Marcelo Tubert. Directed by: S.S. Wilson.