John Pappas Movies

Tremors is actually two movies in one. On its own terms, it's an enjoyable modern sci-fi horror-thriller, with good pacing and a sense of humor; but it's also a loving tribute to such 1950s low-budget desert-based sci-fi-horror films like Them!, It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula, and The Monolith Monsters. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are the stars, a pair of small-town handymen living in a small desert community, who stumble upon several difficult-to-explain phenomena, including a couple of people who've died under extremely strange (and, in one instance, very grisly) circumstances. Eventually, they and a handful of their neighbors find the cause: gigantic prehistoric worm-like creatures that streak under the desert the way fish swim through oceans, reaching up and grabbing anything they need for food. Cut off from the outside world, they have to figure out how to get across the desert alive while these creatures -- that are smart as well as fast -- close in on them, stalking them like monster sharks. The film benefits from the presence of special effects that are good enough to pull this all off, keeping the shock value high, and also from a subtly humorous script and performances to match by the entire cast, and director Ron Underwood's breezy pacing of the whole picture. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

This trippy drama offers a psychedelic slice of hippie life. The story centers on the members of one communal group who are first seen getting arrested for holding a peaceful anti-war demonstration. Following that, they return to their apartment and begin planning their next demonstration. Later the hippies go to a club and passively watch as a determined mother hauls her errant daughter home. Just as the girl leaves, one of the long-hairs hands her a note with their address. That night a hippie chick has a bad trip and sees herself laying a giant egg. Soon the errant girl arrives and she too drops a hit of LSD. The following day, the gang heads off to sell their underground newspaper on the street. That night one of the longhairs and the girl are cornered by a pusher who tries to force the man into becoming a dealer. The hippie refuses and gets the stuffing knocked out of him. A day or so later, the hippies are heading for another demonstration when they find themselves jumped by the pusher's henchmen. During the scuffle, the innocent girl is fatally shot. The demonstrators quietly pick up her corpse and take it down the streets. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi