Bullet Points: Tremors 5: Bloodlines
The Tremors franchise is as hard to kill as the very subterranean monsters that give the films their names. They have survived both Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward as their heroic leads and now for the third time we have Michael Gross taking the lead as survivalist, gun-fanatic Burt Gummer. I’ve always been a fan of Gross’s work and Burt was most likely your favorite character from the previous films so it shouldn’t keep you from seeing this latest sequel. The major difference with this film is that Jamie Kennedy shows up to play the comedic sidekick to Gross’s veteran monster killing badass. Will this be another Jamie Kennedy Experiment gone wrong or will it succeed where other direct to video sequels have failed? Keep reading to find out!
Synopsis: After a series of Graboid attacks in South Africa, the local wildlife guy brings in living legend Burt Gummer to track and capture the beasts. Not surprisingly, the problem gets expounded when they find that the Graboids have a lair filled with unhatched eggs. Will Burt and his new partner save the day or become Graboid dung?
The X-Factor: I expected Jamie Kennedy to be pure crap. I don’t think that makes me any different than any of you out there but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I didn’t hate his character in Tremors 5.
Like Father, Like Son: One area in which I think this movie had no real reason to go was the whole “I’m your long lost son” trope. We’ve seen that crap far too many times and it seriously adds nothing to the film other than a couple of bad daddy jokes.
Call Kev & Fred: At one point during pre-production Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward were going to return to reprise their roles but that fell apart. I can’t say that wouldn’t have been more interesting than having Jamie Kennedy show up but as cool as it would have been it could have also been a pile of shit. Not having them probably also saved a ton of money and it looked like that money probably went towards the effects which were pretty decent.
Great Scott: Burt & Company go all Doc Brown on the final big boy Graboid as they figure out some sort of lightnight-based killing device. I thought that we had heard the last of Back To The Future after October 21. I guess not.
The Verdict: While Gross and Kennedy don’t have the chemistry of Bacon and Ward in the first Tremors film it was still quite good. I definitely went into the film with low expectations but the visual effects were impressive for a DTV film and there wasn’t much wasted time. I would recommend this movie to any fan of the original film or if you’re one of the few people who has followed the entire series than you will probably be a big fan of Tremors 5. Burt Gummer won’t go down as the next John McClane but he’s a fun character to see on screen and Tremors is a series with just enough action and laughs to keep fans coming back time and time again.
OH YEAH: The new creatures are called “Ass Blasters”! Who in hell came up with that name?
