Critters 3

Okay I was a big fan of the first Critters movie. In fact I love it with a passion, but the sequels are bad. This one isn't the worst. I would have to say that this is the best sequel that came out of the series. Plays more of a comedy than a Science Fiction-Horror flick but hey what are you going to do?

The DVD-cover suggests that - following two episodes set in the remote Kansas countryside area - the Krites will now be spreading fear and terror in the big city, but the truth is they never get any further than running amok in a ramshackle old apartment building and frightening a handful of its tenants. Part three in the series is an okay time-waster, but very forgettable and obviously lacking the joyous and charming spirit of the first two films. It sometimes seems that, with entering the 1990's, it suddenly became impossible to make cheesy & light-headed horror like they did in the 1980's. Oh well, at least number three is still a dozen times better than the truly awful fourth installment, which was shot back-to-back with this one and takes place in outer space. "Critters 3" particularly marks the further and irreversible descent of the franchise into comical territory. Mainly due to the eccentric design of the monsters – courtesy of the amazing Chiodo Brothers – the series bathes in a light-headed and silly atmosphere, but the two previous films nevertheless found a better balance between the comedy aspects and genuine horror. Here, the little supposedly ravenous and evil creatures almost look like tiny stand up comedians. They giggle non-stop, eat beans and fart, watching cooking programs on TV and entertain themselves with food fights. Meanwhile, a bizarre posse of low-keyed tenants (among them THE Leonardo DiCaprio in his very first long-feature film) attempt to escape the Critter-terror through fleeing to the roof. Why they just don't go out via the front door, I don't know… Don Opper reprises his role as bounty hunter Charlie, and he seems to get more imbecilic with every episode. I don't really feel like mocking DiCaprio's appearance because, in all honesty, he gives a good performance and depicts a likable teenage character.

A young family stop off at a lay-by on their way home. At the lay-by they meet bounty hunter Charlie who warns them about something living in the woods. However that `something' has just attached it self under their mobile home and hitches a ride back to their tenement block where the critters cause havoc amongst the residents.

Lets be honest – no one say to be shocked to discover this is a cheap little film that doesn't have too much going for it. The plot is the usual – people hunted by critters – stuff, this time in a building so it's like Die Hard with aliens….err no! The story doesn't matter as the action is what counts.

Sadly the action is poor – it's not really gory and the critter attacks are always more funny than thrilling. There is no real excitement or tension and it's all a bit predictable – take a guess who'll live and who'll die – the cute kids or the evil landlord? See! The one thing it does have though is a sort of humour – the critters have senses of humours and are cruel and some of this is amusing.

However the comedy is nowhere near the one it aspires to – Gremlins, and really the funniest bit is how silly the whole thing is. Needless to say the acting is poor – some people can't even be mauled convincingly. But it's interesting to see DiCaprio's debut, even if he looks about 9 years old!

Really this is a bit of dumb fun that is daft and slightly shoddy. It's may just pass the time but there are much better horror/comedies out there if you want them.

Well if you don't have that much money, you kind of have to. This was done simultaneously with part 4 - with the cumulative budget of what they had for the very first movie. So two movies for the price of one. Which is I guess a byproduct of the failure of Critters 2 at the box office at least back then. There is a nice story about the boxoffice in the audio commentary on the disc of part 2 or in the hour long documentary.

Back to this though, which continues the "tradition" of having people that later were involved in the Titanic movie. In this case we have a very young Leonardo DiCaprio. I can't imagine him talking to anyone publicly about this movie of course, but it is one of those curiosities. So this plays out in a relatively close space - with at least one familiar face coming back to help the humans - if they can be helped of course. And again we have a PG-13 rating, but still violence and blood included

This has to be the worse Critter movie in the series, full of cheap effects and bad acting. The storyline is just as bad and the acting is terrible. Why is this movie fun? Because there is so much good material to make fun of and mock. It's not scary, and it's not really any good in the Sci-Fi department, but as a bad film to make fun of, its great. Don't watch this film if you're looking for a good movie, watch this film if you're looking for a good film to make cracks at.