Movies: Tremors

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Tremors. It's hard to believe that it's been that long. This has been one of my favorite monster movies for most of my life. It's an homage to much older monster movies and is a perfect blend of thrills and laughs, IMO. Everything--the writing, directing, acting, etc.--is just perfect. That's not to say that it's a masterpiece or anything, just perfectly tuned for what it wants to be: a fun time.

30 Years Later, Tremors Is Still A Perfect Monster Movie, and It Keeps Getting Better << Rotten Tomatoes – Movie and TV News

A few years ago, I watched all of the straight-to-video sequels. They aren't nearly as good as the original, but they have their fun moments and are watchable, IMO.
 
Last edited:

bigdirty

Registered User
Mar 11, 2010
3,456
1,036
I like it when a movie knows what it wants to be, and Tremors is B movie perfection.

And yeah, the sequels are kinda bad, but they're still good campy fun. Bringing back the gun nut was a good choice.
 

J T Money

Biggest Bozo
Jan 21, 2016
2,740
2,779
I have no idea how they roped Kevin Bacon to star in it, but Tremors is a classic.
 

kihei

McEnroe: The older I get, the better I used to be.
Jun 14, 2006
42,531
10,130
Toronto
A lot of fun. Just the right mix of everything.
 

Datsyukian Deke

The Captain is Home!!
Apr 5, 2012
2,467
425
Middle Tennessee
tumblr_nq3viwNJhT1qlei8eo7_250.gifv
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hivemind

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
This movie was so damn fun, I actually saw it 4 times before it left the theaters.

You must've accounted for half of the ticket sales, since it was a box office flop. It's hard to believe that Universal released it near the end of January. If they'd saved it for the Summer, it probably would've done a lot better. I likely would've seen it then, perhaps more than once, since I went to a lot of movies that Summer. Heck, I went to see Ghost because I had a lot of free time then, and Tremors would've been more up the alley of a teenage boy.
 
Last edited:

expatriatedtexan

Habitual Line Stepper
Aug 17, 2005
16,342
11,657
You must've accounted for half of the ticket sales, since it was a box office flop. It's hard to believe that Universal released it near the end of January. If they'd saved it for the Summer, it probably would've done a lot better. I likely would've seen it then, perhaps more than once, since I went to a lot of movies that Summer. Heck, I went to see Ghost, and Tremors is more up the alley of a teenage boy.
Yeah, it was an instant classic with me and some friends. That was our senior year of HS, so we were just killing time. Most of them had already been accepted to college and I had already enlisted in the Navy and was just waiting to graduate.

While being released a few years later another movie that paid wonderful homage to the monster movies of the 50s and 60s that was extremely enjoyable for me was Matinee (1993) staring John Goodman. Just a fun, silly, disconnect and enjoy flick. It's set during the Cuban missle crisis in Key West, FL.
 

Bocephus86

Registered User
Mar 2, 2011
6,166
3,664
Boston
What a great thread, I love Tremors and have probably seen it 25 times. I've seen the second one a couple times, and I think even the third once. But you want to know why this thread is so great? It got me curious again and I googled to find out there are 6 of them, and they are ALL ON NETFLIX.

I should be all caught up by Friday.
 

Pizza!Pizza!

Registered User
Sep 25, 2018
4,716
7,183
Tremors 2 was always my favorite of the series. I liked the pacing and action a little better than the first film. Tremors 3 was....not the greatest, but Tremors 4 was surprisingly decent. Tremors 5 was also good for a watch - although 1, 2 and 4 are the only ones that I feel are rewatchable. The TV series was okay too, and Kevin Bacon tried to do a second series that didn't get picked up. It's a shame they have not been able to get the entire cast back together for a proper 'finale'. It always seems to be Michael Gross or Fred Willard but never both and Kevin Bacon was MIA from all the sequels despite saying its the one character he wants to revisit.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
Tremors 2 was always my favorite of the series. I liked the pacing and action a little better than the first film. Tremors 3 was....not the greatest, but Tremors 4 was surprisingly decent. Tremors 5 was also good for a watch - although 1, 2 and 4 are the only ones that I feel are rewatchable. The TV series was okay too, and Kevin Bacon tried to do a second series that didn't get picked up. It's a shame they have not been able to get the entire cast back together for a proper 'finale'. It always seems to be Michael Gross or Fred Willard but never both and Kevin Bacon was MIA from all the sequels despite saying its the one character he wants to revisit.

I agree that 4 is surprisingly decent. I saw it for only the first time when I caught myself up a few years ago and I liked it, mostly because of the Old West setting and the "new" characters. If it's not my favorite of the sequels, then it's just after 2.

I still need to watch the TV series. I wasn't really aware of it until I caught up on the movies and I made a mental note to watch it some time, but haven't followed through on it yet. I should do that.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Pizza!Pizza!

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
FYI, I read that Tremors and the first four sequels will be leaving Netflix at the end of the month. If you want to watch them, you have one week to do so.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pizza!Pizza!

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
Today is the release day for the latest sequel, Tremors: Shrieker Island. This is one movie that didn't need to be delayed due to the pandemic because it was never going to be in theaters, anyways :laugh:.



Also, to promote it and celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the original, Universal made a 30-minute making-of documentary about the original and uploaded it to YouTube last week. Notably, it features bits of interview with Kevin Bacon, who's been mostly missing from the franchise since the original.



Edit: I just watched the documentary and highly recommend it if you love the original film.
 
Last edited:

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
Here's my review of the new movie that I posted in the review thread:
Osprey said:
Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020) - 6/10 (Liked it)

Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) and a new sidekick (Jon Heder) battle graboids and their offspring on a tropical island after a big game hunter imported and bred them for sport. Basically, the premise of this sixth sequel to the 1990 classic is "what if the giant worms were on a tropical island, like the dinosaurs were in Jurassic Park?" It's silly, but it was also rather easy to forgive when I saw how beautiful the tropical locations are. It's a welcome relief from the desert of most entries in the series. Also a nice change of pace is that Burt has to make do without guns for the first time in the series. Most of the weapons at his disposal are WWII era flamethrowers, machetes and dynamite. Besides Jurassic Park, there are also some visuals similar to Predator, and Jon Heder's character even makes a few references to the movie. Speaking of which, I was worried that Heder would be too much of the goofy sidekick, and he's definitely the film's comic relief, but I was happy to see that he doesn't overdo it. In fact, surprisingly, the whole film is less campy than you might expect from a low budget, sixth sequel to a camp classic. What you probably can expect, especially from the premise, is that plot is not the film's strong suit, nor is logic. For example, you'd imagine that Burt would go and get firearms from the hunters instead of trying to fight monsters with antique weapons. It's more interesting this way, though, even if it doesn't make much sense.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. It's not the worst sequel in the series and may even be one the best, though that may not be saying much. For the record, though, I've become somewhat of a fan of the whole series, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. If you disliked the other sequels, this one probably isn't going to be for you, either, but I think that it's worth seeing if you tend to enjoy them for what they are, as I do. It's available on Netflix, as well as other streaming services.
 
Last edited:

RobBrown4PM

Pringles?
Oct 12, 2009
8,878
2,766
Today is the release day for the latest sequel, Tremors: Shrieker Island. This is one movie that didn't need to be delayed due to the pandemic because it was never going to be in theaters, anyways :laugh:.



Also, to promote it and celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the original, Universal made a 30-minute making-of documentary about the original and uploaded it to YouTube last week. Notably, it features bits of interview with Kevin Bacon, who's been mostly missing from the franchise since the original.



Edit: I just watched the documentary and highly recommend it if you love the original film.


I was expecting Asylum level CGI. This doesn't look to bad.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
I was expecting Asylum level CGI. This doesn't look to bad.

I wanted to mention that in my review. The CGI isn't bad. It's pretty decent, especially for a relatively low budget movie. It's not the sore spot in this one that it usually is in Tremors movies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RobBrown4PM

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->