WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
This giant-rat movie would be worthless, except for FOUR wonderful redeeming features/moments/scenes.
1. Feature: The great character-actor Colin Fox is on top of his game, playing a character perfect for him, a sneaky university scientist posing as a cancer researcher but really trying to find a cure for baldness so he can get rich. Fox's campy villainy reminds me of Vincent Price (although Fox is nowhere near as imposing as VP was).
2. Scene: The scene where the rats attack the girls synchro-swim team and the audience is a masterpiece. Just to see this scene is worth the price of admission. And the special-effects are cheesy and funny--they're filming ordinary rats in a miniature swimming pool, and also obviously superimposing the rats' images on the images of the fleeing people. You see a victim staring at an imaginary rat and screaming in terror, but the rat is in the wrong place, not in her field of vision.
3. A funny line: a professor warns the president of the university that the campus may be infested with giant rats, and advises him to cancel the synchro-swim event. The professor answers something like (paraphrasing): "It's already difficult enough to get the alumni to send us money. If we cancel this event because we're worried about GIANT RATS, we can forget about ever getting more contributions." The disgust in his voice when he says "giant rats" is hilarious.
4. There's a moment where a student and a co-ed are about to score in the back seat of a car. The guy says "hang on, I gotta pee", gets out of the car and walks over to a bush, unzipping his fly as he walks, humming cheerfully to himself, happy that he's about to get laid. Then you hear a loud squeak and he's running around screaming in pain clutching his crotch. Yikes!
This giant-rat movie would be worthless, except for FOUR wonderful redeeming features/moments/scenes.
1. Feature: The great character-actor Colin Fox is on top of his game, playing a character perfect for him, a sneaky university scientist posing as a cancer researcher but really trying to find a cure for baldness so he can get rich. Fox's campy villainy reminds me of Vincent Price (although Fox is nowhere near as imposing as VP was).
2. Scene: The scene where the rats attack the girls synchro-swim team and the audience is a masterpiece. Just to see this scene is worth the price of admission. And the special-effects are cheesy and funny--they're filming ordinary rats in a miniature swimming pool, and also obviously superimposing the rats' images on the images of the fleeing people. You see a victim staring at an imaginary rat and screaming in terror, but the rat is in the wrong place, not in her field of vision.
3. A funny line: a professor warns the president of the university that the campus may be infested with giant rats, and advises him to cancel the synchro-swim event. The professor answers something like (paraphrasing): "It's already difficult enough to get the alumni to send us money. If we cancel this event because we're worried about GIANT RATS, we can forget about ever getting more contributions." The disgust in his voice when he says "giant rats" is hilarious.
4. There's a moment where a student and a co-ed are about to score in the back seat of a car. The guy says "hang on, I gotta pee", gets out of the car and walks over to a bush, unzipping his fly as he walks, humming cheerfully to himself, happy that he's about to get laid. Then you hear a loud squeak and he's running around screaming in pain clutching his crotch. Yikes!