Rating: 
Summary: Fangs for the Memories
Review: The 1950s were the golden age of monster movies. We had rebuilt people, atomic praying mantis, ants, grasshoppers, and slugs. Later we even had giant rabbits eating their way through the desert. And of course you don't want to forget the giant Gila monster. In the grand tradition of B-horror movies comes "Eight Legged Freaks".A truck carrying canisters of toxic waste swerves to avoid a poor innocent bunny rabbit, sending a drum of toxic waste careening into a local watering hole. Once you finish rolling your eyes at how carelessly lethal toxic waste was secured in this truck, we find that the local nut case has dozens of huge spiders in his house, as some sort of spider zoo. Naturally this guy feeds bugs that have absorbed some of the toxic waste to his spiders, which then commence growing to unbelievable proportions. As in all good bug monster movies, the first person to die is always obvious. Soon the digital spiders are chomping all the neighborhood pets, and start lusting after people as well. In one rather marvelous scene we see larger than life jumping spiders chase down a bunch of nice neighborhood boys trying to escape them on their dirt bikes. We also see an intentionally humorous scene where ostriches are being devoured by trap-door spiders larger than the ostriches, while their owner is clueless as the birds disappear in explosions of feathers. Interestingly enough, he's never looking when a bird gets taken. This movie is played for laughs, and the general predictability is part of the humor. Even the end of the movie has the kind of "are you kidding me?" kind of ending that we all remember from monster bug movies of the 50s and 60s. Watch this movie for the wonderful digital effects and to relive those wonderfully campy and corny bug movies of yore, or to paraphrase a famous actor, fangs for the memories.
Rating:
Summary: A Silly, Funny Movie
Review: "Eight Legged Freaks" was (and is) an underrated movie, largely because people don't like spiders. And I most certainly don't, so I was a little skeptical about seeng this movie. But quite frankly, the spiders don't freak you out that much, even the real ones. So as long as you're not arachnaphobic or anything like that, you should check out this movie for a good time. Anyway, this is a good movie. Despite the tired plot (a chemical spill in a lake, a spier farm owner gets crickets for spiders to eat from the lake, the crickets make the spiders grow, the spider get free and terrorize a town, etc.), they still put a fun twist on it by not taking it so seriously like the old giant animal horror movies did. They blend action, comedy, and horror (nothing gruesome though) in to this movie and it suceeds. The spiders actually look real! And there's not that much corny dialogue as you'd expect from it, and the acting's pretty good too. If you're looking for a good movie to watch with a friend, watch this. It's pretty damn good.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun movie to watch when your bored....
Review: I'm on summer vacation right now and I've been channel surfing for movies I want to watch and haven't seen in a long time. I came across Eight Legged Freaks on Cinemax the other day and decided to watch it. The movie looked ridiculous in the previews when the movie came out in theaters and I thought I'd hate it because I have extreme aracnaphobia, but I didn't. I thought the movie was so awesome and funny at times. It kind of reminded me of a 60's sci-fi film but in 2002. The movie takes place in a small mining town when one day barrels of bio-chemicals spill out and infect spiders. The spiders then grow to a massive size and begin to attack the citizens of the mining town. The males wrap them up in cacoons and then take them to their lair for the female to feast upon. The brave people of the mining city soon band together and unleashe a small militia against the spiders. The movie at first is kind of creepy crawly but you get used to it. When the people aren't fighting against the spiders, they usually crack funny moments at you to try and ligten you up. Like I said, if your bored and need something to watch thats very entertaining, then check out this movie. It's pretty cool.
Rating:
Summary: Formulaic, but fun.....
Review: I was kind of disappointed in some reviewers in their opinion of this movie. My impression of the movie wasn't that it was supposed to be some big blockbuster, special effects extravaganza, but a homage to the great 'giant bug' movies from the 1950's. In that respect, I think the dircetor and actors did a pretty good job. Another reviewer commented that there wasn't enough gore. Again, if you go back and watch those classics, it wasn't about the gore, but trying to scare the bejesus out of somewhat naive movie viewers. I think the actors did a pretty good job, and I noticed the deleted scenes contained a fair amount of the character development scenes. I am asuuming these scenes were removed in order to make the movie move at a speedier pace, keep the action going. The story involves a town trying to deal with the invasion of giant spiders. The cause of the giant spiders in not atomic radiation, as was the cause for so many terrors back in the 50's, but the accidental release of toxic chemicals in a local water supply. I would have liked to seen this movie take a more serious approach, but I enjoyed the humor. The original movies always had a serious tone, but watching them now, they can seem unintentionally funny. I don't care for so much CGI work in movies, but if it's done well and not used to cover plot holes or lack of stories, then I will accept it. I thought the spiders were done quite well, and I got some genuine creeps out of watching them attack the townspeople. All in all, this was a fun movie that reminded me of those classics I love so much.
Rating:
Summary: Good, clean, hairy, web-spinning fun
Review: An amiable and well-paced creature feature comedy, starring David Arquette as a nebbishy every-guy who has to help save his hometown from an infestation of giant, mutant spiders. The leviathan arachnids are escaped from a local vivarium, which means we get several different varieties of exotic monsters, each with their own special powers and habits (jumping, spinning giant webs, attacking from hidden trap doors, slurping out human innards like they were Icees, etc.). The special effects are great, the spiders make cute, anthropomorphized noises, and the script is funny and not to be taken seriously on any level. It's a fun film.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, scary, ...--but no gore.
Review: Okay, it's as derivative as can be, but so what? It's still fun. Yeah, it does remind me of _Prophecy,_ what with the toxic-waste monsters, and _Tremors,_ and _Them,_ and _Arachnophobia,_ and even though it's not up the quality of any of them, it's still scary and funny .... It's not gory, though. The special-effect spiders are...yee...I mean, these guys can jump! Unfortunately, the movie is flawed by sterotyped characters--the Single Hardworking Mom with a Genius Son and a Rebellious Daughter, the Prodigal Bad Boy Son, the Goofy but Lovable Deputy Sheriff, the Slightly Evil Politican...it just goes on. Every
character is a sterotype. Still, with those flaws, this movie
is surprisingly good, and fit for both children and adults.
Rating:
Summary: Eight Legged Freaks!!!-not for arachnophobes
Review: The Bottom line- this is a fun movie. it never, ever, takes itself seriously, so if you are expecting a serious film noire than this movie certainly isn't for you. If you like creature features or oddball movies that are fast, frantic and fun, then it ceratinly is. Personally, i enjoyed this movie, and for me, it falls somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, although i'm generous, so i gave it four. This movie is lively, entertaining and un.
Eight legged freaks is a horror-comedy film, that is, a horror that doesn't take itself seriously, and at times the attitude is almost sarcastic. But unlike some other films of it's genre, this film does provide shocks when it needs to, and i certainly would not recommend it to someone who is very arachnophobic. More than most, i personally dislike spiders, so if this film does shock someone, it may be me! Unexpectedly, i didn't have many hair-raising moments, although some scenes made me, and i imagine many others, jump.
Eight legged freaks may be looked down upon by some so- called 'highbrow' film buffs, but to the average film viewer, it should be very enjoyable. On a critical level, eight legged freaks is marked out as a cut above your average horror fare, as it has something most horror films alck, or don't have altogether - character development. Character development is as vital to a film as eight legged freaks as it is to most love stories, and that is because to make the action and suspense scenes thrilling, it is imperative that you have a feeling about the people featured. If you could not care less about the people involled in the story,the film would flop. But realatively speaking, eight legged freaks does have good character development, so the death scenes are all the more thrilling because of it (and believe me, the death scenes come thick and fast!). Eight legged freaks also delivers on the bug set-pieces, and this is also important to the genre. Such development means eight legged freaks is a winner... If you enjoy this sort of thing, than i would highly recommend it, and if you don't, then at least enjoy it for what it is- a welcome addition to the genre.
Rating:
Summary: WELL-SPUN CYCLE OF THRILLS!
Review: WHAT a Joy to find this [somewhat] mindless but vastly entertaining little romp with our morped little critters! A throwback to the 1950 "B" movies - Indeed with plenty of laughs and thrills - it's all very innocent ~ nary a cussword or a glimpse of nudity - SO it is quite safe for kids and somewhat prudish adults. The cycle chase alone is applause worthy ~ so just sit back with the pop-corn and favorite beverage!
Rating:
Summary: pleasing
Review: this movie was funny and good at the same time because it blended comedy and chessiness at the right times.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed 'till I cried!
Review: I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this film, however after the first ten minutes I knew that I was going to have a great laugh with this combination of action, science fiction, comedy and horror all rolled into one not so neat package. The plot is simple, take some toxic waste, loads of spiders, a small town in Arizona, a man with an Alien invasion complex, some old mines, a corrupt Mayor, a pretty Sheriff with two wayward kids, a handsome hero with a foul mouthed, hard smoking Aunt and you and you have recipe for a laugh a minute. No one can say that this movie is anything but a tongue in cheek take off, of a variety of well known science fiction movies. There are tons of clichés, heaps of cheesy jokes like the one where someone says, "What the hell is that?" and someone quips, "It's spider...man!" I howled and howled even louder when the handsome hero played well by David Arquette screams down the phone to the 911 operator, "They're coming, they're here!" Now where have we heard those words before? Doug E.Doug plays Harlan, a man who believes in Alien conspiracies and along with the dumb but loveable deputy Sheriff have you giggling away at their awesome stupidity combined with their hilarious bravery. Harlan constantly talks about "anal probes" and how he isn't going to be subjected to one and the Deputy Sheriff has you laughing out loud as he chain saws his way though a mass of Spiders legs and gets covered from head to toe in green spider blood. The female Sheriff's sassy kids get good innings with her son being the Spider expert and her daughter a walking hormone carrying a stun gun to protect her virtue at her mother insistence of course! This film is certainly not brain food; it is dumb and dumber with lots of hairy legs. The acting wouldn't win anyone an Oscar but if there was an Oscar for laughs this would surely get it. Look out for the scene with the Barber as he is followed by a tent in the shopping mall, unaware that inside it is a HUGE spider ready to make a meal of him. For laughs I'd give this ten out of five. It's a hoot!!
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