Starring
Michael Gross, Jamie Kennedy, Tanya van Graan, Stephanie
Schildknecht, Greg Kriek, Jenna Upton, Jay Anstey, Jamie-Lee Money,
Christie Peruso. Directed by Don Michael Paul. (2018/98 min).
AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY & DVD FROM
Review
by Josey Jumpscaređ
Every
family seems to have one...that loud, brash uncle with an endless
supply of dirty jokes, who encourages nephews to pull his finger and taps the beer keg too often at family barbecues. He's a
funny guy, mainly because you don't see him that often, so his
schtick doesn't have time to get on your nerves. Now imagine him
moving in with you, where you're subjected to his wit day after day. When he runs out of new jokes, he just retells the old ones as though
you've never heard them before.
As
played by Michael Gross in every movie of the Tremors
franchise, Burt Gummer is now that uncle. In the original, whenever he showed up with his massive cache of
weapons and conspiracy theories, Gummer was just one of the many
amusing characters that helped make it a minor classic.
But
since Tremors 3, Gummer has been front-and-center
(presumably because Gross keeps agreeing to come back long after the
rest of the original cast has bailed). Like your obnoxious uncle, 90 minutes
of this guy is simply too much, especially since he's evolved from
being a clever send-up of survivalist culture to a cartoon
caricature. Gross can't be faulted, though. He's just working with the
material he's been handed.
Speaking
of which, Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell is the sixth film in a
franchise that probably should have quit after two. Like all the
previous sequels, it's a straight-to-video affair, and despite the
intriguing promise of a Graboid infestation in the snowy Arctic
tundra, most of the film takes place in a remote wilderness not
unlike any of the other films' settings (global warming is
conveniently blamed for the lack of snow, saving the film crew the
trouble of finding some).
 |
| Photobomb! |
Gummer
and his partner/son Travis (Jamie Kennedy, returning from Tremors 5) come to the aid of a group of young scientists up north. Then
it's business as usual. Everyone becomes trapped in a research
facility by three Graboids, along with a few Ass-Blasters. Some folks get
eaten, some don't, and one cast member suffers a fate worse than
death as Jamie Kennedy's love interest. Nothing personal against
Jamie, but he looks like he's been sleeping under a bridge and Travis
is no substitute for Kevin Bacon's Val. Speaking of which, another
character, Valerie (Jamie-Lee Money), is introduced as Val's
daughter, which only serves to make us miss
the original cast even more.
Then
there's Gummer, of course, still ranting, cartoonishly paranoid and obsessed with
killing Graboids, even at the possible expense of his own life (he's
been infected by Graboid bacteria). But he isn't really that amusing
anymore, not helped by a screenplay that doesn't give him anything
new to say or do.
Considering
its budget, the visual effects are convincing and it's always fun to
watch the Graboids in action, as well as the creatively amusing ways
to kill them. For some fans, that might be enough. But the charm of
the original Tremors stemmed from its eclectic characters and
clever dialogue, something that's been missing from this franchise
for a long time.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
FEATURETTES
- "The Making of Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell"
(consisting of several promotional clips); "Anatomy of a Scene";
"Inside Chang's Market"
DVD
& DIGITAL COPIES
KITTY CONSENSUS:
MEH...IT COULD BE TIME FOR BURT TO RETIRE
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