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Caller From L.A. says ARAC ATTACK is Gold!!!
Hey folks, Harry here. We haven't reported much on ARAC ATTACK, why? Because we just haven't seen any reports on the film, because so far... we just haven't had any spies report on the film. However, I've been reading Coming Attractions and CHUD as they've been doing a great job covering the film. The concept for the film is to do a film in the style of the CLASSIC B MONSTER MOVIES from the 1950s. Movies like THEM, BEGINNING OF THE END and TARANTULA, in otherwords... Giant Bug Movies!!! A genre that I think any good geek can get behind, especially if we get to see some damn fine looking giant spiders.... eh? And, though Ellory Elkayem is a first time director/writer for a feature film, his short film on the SCI FI channel regarding giant spiders ruled. And the two screenwriters that helped Ellory along with the script.... First there was Jesse Alexander, a big time scifi film geek, who once wrote a pretty damn fine FLASH GORDON script that is languishing in development hell somewhere... Then there is Michael V Valle, who did a rewrite on the script. Michael passed on in April of this year, tragically early. He never got to see any script of his reach the screen, and his SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VENGENCE OF DRACULA is fricking unbelievably great! So... The film had the right ancestry to be good, and then with Emmerich and Devlin producing (and no matter what any of you think of Emmerich and Devlin, you have to admit their production values are fantastic) I had high hopes that this project could turn out to kick some major entertainment ass.... AND our spy (since 1999) Caller from L.A. says that the movie is gold. He wrote an abbreviated non-spoiler review of ARAC ATTACK that... well has me dying to see this thing. The film is scheduled to be released sometime in 2002... ACK!!! WANT GIANT BUGS NOW!!!!!!!! Read on.....
Here is a spoiler-free review of Arac Attack. Let me start by saying that for me, this movie is GOLD.
The following quote is from the flyer, which shows how the film will probably be marketed.
"Arac Attack is a film with thrills and chills - frightening, but in a fun sort of way. A toxic waste spill near a small Nevada town causes spiders to mutate into giant arachnids, which then go on
the attack...packing a poisonous punch. Arac Attack features an ensemble cast that lend a brand of humor to the action - including David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, and Doug E. Doug. The film is brought to you by the producing team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Godzilla), and will be rated PG-13 for its moments of intense, scary action."
So you know how this film will go, and this has NO spoilers:
- Introduce the people, environment, and the beginning of mutant spiders: Gold
- First spider attack and chase: GOLD GOLD GOLD. This alone will get me to pay to see it later.
- Couple of spider attacks on the townspeople: Gold
- Sheriff warns the non-believing townspeople: Gold
- The non-believing townspeople start believing, and dying, really fast: Gold
- The townspeople hole themselves up at the mall: Gold
- The townspeople arm themselves with whatever they find: GOLD GOLD GOLD
- The spiders break into the mall: Gold
(HARRY NOTE: I ERASED THE ENDING, NO WAY WAS I GOING TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT GETTING OUT THIS EARLY!!!)
Like Rush Hour 2, one of last month's test screenings, this film had no bad points to it. Lots of payoffs, and good timing. The town and its people had a Goonies / Poltergeist / Spielberg quality to them. I felt like I was thirteen again. Director Ellory Elkayem must have watched Goonies thirty times before writing and filming Arac Attack. But then Act 2 kicks in: the mutant spiders have their first attack, and I actually started sweating and grinning a mile wild because it was so cool how it was staged.
I know, I know: Arquette. He's generally annoying, but he was good in this role. I'm glad they chose these actors, included Wuhrer and Doug E. Doug, and that they didn't make it into a big-budget film.
Some other information:
- Directed by Ellory Elkayem, who also did "They Nest" about, yes, bugs that kill. For now, I'll be keeping my eye out for this director's future work.
- Ellory and Jesse Alexander wrote this, their first produced screenplay. Randy Kornfield (Jingle All the Way) also had a hand in the story.
- $30 million budget, 200 effects shots, brought to you by Centropolis and Warner Bros., the release date is unknown.
Cheers,
--Caller From L.A.
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I am arachnophobic but i
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I hate "giant bug" movies because the physics simply don't work. A bugs exo-skeleton simply cannot handle the extra pressure and weight of gravity. It would be like a house the size of a stadium without the proper roof supports. In fact, this is the ONLY reason why we don't see giant bugs in REAL life! No "giant bug" movie I've ever seen has given a good explanation why the bugs don't simply implode upon themselves. If they could come up with some rational explanation (like mutated internal butresses or something) I could enjoy the movie. But when you throw logic completely out the window, you're left with nothing but some nifty special effects. Does anybody remeber Centropolis' "Gozilla" travesty?
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Try it.
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Jul 26, 2001 12:30:12 AM CDT
Just so long as those damn spiders don't attack my home town of
by gary condidit
A giant spider abducted Chandra Levy and took her to a deep dark cave in Luray Virginia! I'm innocent I tell you I'm innocent! Giant Spiders did it! Not me! Giant Spiders! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
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Beaucoup, I have to agree with cartOOn on this point. Movies are rubbishimo unless totally realistic, and conforming to the laws of physics and biology. I have to bite my pillow to stop crying out...oh thats something else..um..my tongue, yes, thats it, when I'm in the cinema watching a sci-fi flick and ther's noise in space. NOISE IN SPACE! Come on people! It completely ruins the experience. And I just saw JP3 last night. You can't really clone dinosaurs, its just not possible yet, so they should have waited until it was before releasing that film. God I hate inaccuracies. I want wall to wall documentaries. And don't get me started on Stuart Little...
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Actually, the structural integrity of the exoskeleton isn't the main limiting factor on an arthropod's size. The lack of a circulatory system is much more of a factor. Back in the Paleozoic, there was proportionately a lot more oxygen in the atmosphere and there were milipedes bigger than your leg and spiders the size of hubcaps crawling around. Modern spiders actually have a rudimetary lung, (called a book lung), so it's not the biggest stretch of the imagination that they'd be able to make that last leap and maybe get as big as, say, a cat or dog.
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Jul 26, 2001 1:06:30 AM CDT
Do you only appreciate 0.000000000001% of studio movies?
by liquidnitrate
Cart00n and Lord of the Geps, your CPA rules take all the fun out of life. What a bunch of party-poopers... Are you related to William Atherton's character in Ghostbusters? I bet while the rest of us were celebrating 12:01 AM Jan 1, 2000, you were lecturing your unfortunate friends on their year-early inaccuracy. As long as a filmmaker's imagination respects the audience enough to make an attempt at plausibility (Jurassic Park), most audiences find that okay. I for one will support Emmerich-and-Devlin's effort to redeem themselves from their notorious lizard legacy. ARAC ATTACK sounds MUCH better than Arachnophobia (Frank Marshall is an incompetent clown) and hey, it's got Kari Wuhrer! I just don't understand why the reviewer makes so many comparisons to Goonies... "Poltergeist" I can understand, but I don't see a correlation to Goonies at all. Are Kari Wuhrer's kids heavily involved in the action or something?
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Hesitant though I am to speak for others, I have a funny feeling that Lord of the Geps was being sarcastic. Call me crazy
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Hello? Is there anyone at home? I can see lights, but, no...no there's no response. Look at my post, go on, take a good look. That is sarcasm. I really worry for your social circle if your previous experience of people led you to believe that someone could ctually be bothered about the lack of scientific rigour in Jurassic Park. If I had left it with the space/scream thing, then OK, I could understand someone mistaking that for a serious point, but really...The Stuart Little thing should have got those warning lights flashing.
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Jul 26, 2001 3:13:45 AM CDT
$30 Million Dollars? What kind of movie are we making? Blair W
by nicksh15
Interpret the subject and draw your own conclusions...
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I'm there. What this country needs is a good giant bug flick. I hope they don't play the humor angle too heavily, though. I'm sick of the post-modern shtick. Plus the shopping mall sounds cool, if a little too "Dawn of the Dead"y. Still, what better place to make a last stand against zombies/giant arachnids/locusts/rabbits/what-have-you's/
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Does anybody remember the best modern monster-movie?
How about "Tremors".
Arac sounds a little bit to much like it.But what did you expect from the fucked up clone-kings Emmerich and Devlin.They never had one original or innovative idea/fart ever.
Bunch of mothersuckers
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Jul 26, 2001 5:45:54 AM CDT
Could the word "gold be used some more, please? For me?
by rabid_republican
All that aside, the review has whet my appetite for another cheesy, but good giant insect movie. Speaking of which, does anyone remember "Ants" (not to be confused with the recent "Antz"), an old B classic from the 70's? It had giant radioactive ants terrorizing and enslaving a sugar refinery town with the usual round of naive teens protagonists. It was mighty good.
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can you guys just concentrate on the movie instead of showing off with 'clever' science words and sarcasm? you're supposed to talk about the movie, not use it to impress the female talkbackers that you imagine are getting off on your hugh grant bullshit. BeaucoupSexmoves (how many is very many buddy?) and st buggering are right on the mark, man. sarcasm is the lowest form of humor. you guys are fucking sad. forget your school books and this movie will ROCK.
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Jul 26, 2001 6:21:32 AM CDT
"No spiders were squished, stepped on, flushed, or made to suffe
by atomisk
-One spider did die of old age; we have two letters from doctors confirming this." Tom Servo,
"Earth vs. the Spider"
Arac Attack sounds like all sorts of fun, something that is sadly lacking from film in recent years . This is the sort of film, like Japanese rubber suit monsters, macho spy movies, sword and sorcery flicks, and kung fu films, that made me the film geek I am today. Personally, I can't wait to see this. I'm a sucker for movies that star oversized insects and/or arachnids. -
All I want to know is, does Kari Wuhrer flash her wonderful jubblies like a proper actress?
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Emmerich/Devlin are finally admitting that they are B-movie makers with bigger budgets. This is the kind of film they should be making more often. They should go with their strengths. I loved B-movies as a kid and I'm sure this will be a lot of fun. If not, then I'll rent it at Blockbusters, another "B" word.
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he should be calling himself "ringer" instead of "caller"
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Jul 26, 2001 8:27:00 AM CDT
science facts about giant monsters to whoever wrote about it and
by sundown
from a paper I read from Cornell Univeristy "
"You've seen monster movies with giant ants scaled up in a huge size
attacking cars and people. If these larger-than-life ants had the same
proportions as their much smaller counterparts, their legs would break
with the first step. To be much larger than life-size, an ant's
exoskeleton would have to be disproportionately much thicker compared to that of
a smaller ant," says Niklas. "For the same reason, if giant humans were
scaled up as they are in some movies, their hearts wouldn't be able to
circulate blood properly and they would die of a heart attack." This
scaling is known as the fourth spatial dimension because it relates mass
to the other three dimensions, width, length and depth. " pretty neat huh?
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the movie you're thinking of EMPIRE OF THE ANTS...a great late 70's B movie. Even stars Joan Collins. Saw it in the theater on a double bill when I was kid.........nice handle too!
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The single best ever big-bug shoot 'em up adventure - Starship Troopers, now that's a classic!
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in my best over acting shatner impression. Actually I'm partial to Arachnaphobia...gotta love those crappy John Goodman films. Although Earth Vs the Giant Spider MST3K had the best lines ever... Hello honey I'm smooth - INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC...YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN! - and my favorite - I'm made of liquid metal. Well, I'm off to make my own giant spider. It'll have massive plates to bolster the exoskeleton and a whole new circulatory and respiratory system and will look and act nothing like a spider. But a giant spider it will be.
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No profanity or vitriol, no attacks toward AICN staff or talkbackers...just a bit of humor about the ending of this film concerning a certain statue appearing in the form of a spider...not the funniest bit in the world, I grant you, but certainly topical WRT recent events, and non-threatening in any way. Just a little surprising to me to encounter that type of censorship here, given the proactively liberal bent of the site's founders.
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Killer Shrews are coming.....
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Leon Rippy is a very talented actor from Carolina and he has a part in Arac attack. Leon has been in no less than 40 big budget films and is in most of Devlin and Emmerich's films. He was the fellow who killed himself in "the Patriot" when he found his wife and sun killed. Carolina is very proud of Leon. He also played Sherrif Bob Ollinger in "Young Guns II". Hopefully this film will make the best of Leons talent.
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picture, pic, movie, flick, cinema
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movies are real, movies are real, movies are real, movies are real, movies are real, movies are real. And don't none of you try to tell me different. I believe a man can fly. And if Dean and Roland tell me that spiders can grow to the size of planets, I'd believe them. Help me Jeebus!
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damn that was funny almost forgot that parody G. I loved that show- why must all things be corrupted? well maybe this will renew the giant thing genre (facts aside) and we'll have our giant Mantis/fly/roach/ ant/ hornet/ bee/ bat/ wolf/ goat / giraffe / rhino / xylephone film. Hell why not put them all in one movie?
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