Bug

Rating:
Summary: Firebugs...
Review: I first saw this movie as a double feature (w/ the great waldo pepper) at the drive-in back in the summer of '75. I was pleasantly amazed at how good it actually was (BUG, not waldo)! I love monsters of all shapes and sizes, so a story about pyromaniacal roaches w/ superior intelligence was / is my cup of hemlock! Bradford Dillman is fab as the only man with a clue! Watch as the pesky critters attempt world domination! Recommended...

Rating:
Summary: Bradford Dillman vs the gassy roaches...
Review: In general, I don't care for bugs...more specifically, bugs within my personal space or my domicile. I know insects serve their own, particular purposes within the grand scheme of things, but they're just so...creepy...and crawly...and prodigious. The most annoying experiences I have are during the summer months, as that's when the bees are out and they seem to take a particular interest in flying around me, as if I had some hidden cache of precious nectar (I don't). I've given up on drinking canned beverages outside during the summer months for fear a thirsty bumbly bee will find itself into the can just before I decide to take a drink...despite all that, I do enjoy movies about bugs...

Bug (1975), directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Jaws 2, Supergirl: The Movie), based on a book by Thomas Page called `The Hephaestus Plague', who co-wrote the screenplay, along with legendary writer/producer/director William Castle, a consummate showman famous for infusing his low budget B films with various gimmicks and over the top promotional materials, most famous probably being attaching vibrating devices to the movie theater seats, `shocking' various audience members during the showing of his 1959 film The Tingler, starring Vincent Price. The 1993 film Matinee, starring John Goodman, pays homage to Castle and his antics, and is well worth seeing. The film stars venerable B movie staple Bradford Dillman (The Swarm, Piranha), with appearances by Joanna Miles (Judge Dredd), Richard Gilliland (Airplane II: The Sequel), Alan Fudge (Airport 1975), and Patricia McCormack, who some may remember as the cute as a button but evil to the core little girl/serial killer Rhoda Penmark from the 1956 film The Bad Seed.

The movie begins with an earthquake in a small, southern California town, and the subsequent appearance of some rather large (about a foot long) insects that look a lot like your common cockroach. As we find out later, these are not your ordinary bugs as they can ignite fire from their backside (as I often do after a bowl of chili), and are extremely difficult to kill (the carapace, or shell, is like steel). After one of his former students brings the bugs to his attention, Professor of Entomology James Parmiter (Dillman) begins uncovering all kinds of interesting facts about this newly discover species of arthropod, but soon becomes personally involved with the creatures after a distressing incident with his wife (Miles). James secludes himself away, and begins performing extensive, freaky experiments, accidentally developing a super mutant/hybrid bug (What? Something worse than bugs with fire emitting bums?), one that could mean the very end of mankind's existence on this mudball we call Earth (nice going, dorkus).

I did groove on this film, but it took some very odd directions. I wasn't really sure what was going on at the beginning, but then it seemed to take a disaster/killer insect tact which quickly died out, feeding into plot about a man delving into uncharted waters (remember, it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature). I was looking forward to a straight up bug film, but the deviation of the story wasn't unwelcome. The problem it created was to really slow down, even interrupting, the momentum of the initial storyline, and I think many viewers will find that disconcerting and difficult to overcome. I thought Dillman did well, especially in the last half as a man driven to understand that which had taken so much from him. The scene where he realizes the mutant strain he helped to create has the intuitive ability to understand more than anyone would have thought was really creepy. I think my favorite scene was near the beginning, involving one of the Professor's former students bringing evidence that such bugs exist in the form of a slightly singed, half eaten feline in a shoe box. By the way, I'm sure the Professor was thankful that the dillhole decided to wait until the moment when the professor was halfway through his lunch before revealing this nugget of disgustingness. There were plenty of creepy crawly scares (oh look, one of the bugs is perched on the earpiece of the phone...and now the phone's ringing...uh-oh, do you think that woman who's answering the phone will notice before putting it to her ear?) The flaws throughout are noticeable (hey, that woman turned into a similarly dressed, now flaming stuntman), but I really appreciated the use of real, live bugs (much like in William Shatner's 1977 epic ode to arachnids in Kingdom of the Spiders), and found it refreshing compared to the obviously inexpensive CGI effects that so often plague the low budget (and even high budget) releases of today. An interesting note is the interior set used for the Parmiter home is the same interior set used on the television show The Brady Bunch ('69-'74). I hadn't recognized it as such during the film, but it did seem familiar in a way I couldn't put my finger one, until I read about it later and it clicked. This isn't a great movie, but it's also not a bad one (it was Castle's last film, as he passed a couple years later), but there was one thing about it that really annoyed me more than anything else in the film. It was during the later half of the film, when James is well into his distraught/cuckoo nutty phase, studying and breeding the bugs, housing them in a wooden box with metal grating. The box did have a latch, one James never bothered to secure properly, the bugs would escape, and more than once! I think the first time I woke to find voracious, carnivorous, burning roaches crawling around, I'd be inclined to lock the box tightly before going to sleep again...but hey, that's just me...

The anamorphic widescreen print (filmed for 1:85:1 cropping, presented in 16:9) provided looks pretty decent, but I thought the audio a bit soft. There are absolutely no special features (a brief bio of Castle would've been nice).

Cookieman108


Rating:
Summary: BUG
Review: THIS IS A REALLY COOL MOVIE FOR THOSE OF US WHO APPRECIATE THIS SORT OF MOVIE. ITS FINALLY ON DVD AND IS BEING RELEASED IN SEPTEMBER. THIS MOVIE DEFINITELY HAS ITS MOMENTS. ITS WORTH CHECKING OUT THIS FLICK!! WATCH IT!!!!ENJOY!!!!

Rating:
Summary: the greatest bug movie made!
Review: this is one of my all time favorites. I mean come on where else can you see little creepy crawley insects scorch people?

Rating:
Summary: the greatest bug movie made!
Review: this is one of my all time favorites. I mean come on where else can you see little creepy crawley insects scorch people?

Rating:
Summary: It sure did.
Review: This movie does not deal with large roach-like bugs taking over the world, as so many 70's eco-horrors showed, and as I thought it would. The insects arrive after an earthquake, kill a few unlikable people, start a few fires, and then? nada. The film goes on to portray one man becoming obsessed with studying them, and developing an unsettling relationship with them. Then not much else happens. It is not really *inept*, so bad film lovers probably will not find it intriguing. But lovers of fine cinema certainly will not be enamored of it, either.

An understated William Castle movie? Can it be? Yes. This movie leans happily toward camp on several brief occasions. But mostly everything just grinds to a slow, unpleasant halt. A few sparks (literally, if you watch) of inventiveness cannot save Bug from being by far the least entertaining Castle film I've ever seen. Too bad; it is an unfittingly blecch valedictory to the ultimate showman's flamboyantly fun career.

A final note: I don't know, but the story seems too similar to Sandkings to be coinkydink. (That was dull, too.)

Rating:
Summary: More a Collection of Scenes Than a Movie
Review: This movie is based upon The Hephaestus Plague by Thomas Page. This movie is produced by William Castle and the screenplay is co-written by Thomas Page. It is often a good thing when an author has some say in the screenplay, but this time it just didn't work.

A small town is wracked by an earthquake and a local farm gets a huge crack in one of its fields. Large, roach-like bugs crawl out of the crack. They have the ability to create fire and like to eat ashes. Soon things are burning all over and a local scientist is studying the problem.

Eventually the bugs are unable to survive by the scientist crossbreeds them with other bugs and gets bigger and smarter bugs that can still create fire. He soon realizes that they are intelligent and they start to communicate with him. But his plans for the bugs and their own plans do not mesh.

I read the book before seeing the movie and I felt that the movie was more of a companion to the book. There are quick visual scenes that viewers will probably not understand without having read the book. Knowing the book helps the viewer tie the movie together properly, but without that knowledge, the movie just does not work all that well.


Rating:
Summary: the greatest bug movie ever made!
Review: this movie is one of my all time favorites. I mean come on where else can you see little fire bugs burn everybody? Definately a must see!