Tremors 5: Bloodlines

Released: October 2015

Director: Don Michael Paul

Run Time: 99 Minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Cast:
Michael Gross: Burt Gummer
Jamie Kennedy: Travis Welker
Natalie Becker: Lucia
Brandon Auret
Daniel Janks
Rea Rangaka

About 20 or so years ago, my dad had a friend who had a massive movie collection.  This was a huge VHS collection, because DVD didn’t exist yet.  One day, my dad took my brother and I, and showed some footage from a small monster movie were monsters were attacking people from underground.  This scared the living hell out of me and my brother, so when we got out of the house, we ran to the car hoping we weren’t going to get eaten by these giant monsters.  So, my dad had borrowed that movie and sat us down to watch the whole thing from beginning to end.  It was one of the funniest movies we had ever seen.  Yeah, it was scary at times, but it was also genuinely hilarious.  The monsters?  Graboids.  The movie?  TREMORS!  Starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire, Tremors was one of the biggest monster movies of the decade.  With great characters, decent story, and awesome monsters, Tremors became a phenomenon.  It was such a hit, that it had developed two sequels, a prequel, and full-blown television series.  I know, because I have them all on DVD.  After the 4th film was released, there were multiple rumors that a 5th Tremors was going into production.  There was no substantial evidence to suggest such a thing, but the rumors persisted.  A few years back, the rumors had started with the possible title of Tremors 5: Thunder From Down Under.  It was going to take place in Australia…which would make sense since everything in that country has evolved to murder you.  Last year, the news had broken that a 5th Tremors film was indeed going into production, starring Michael Gross as Burt Gummer.  That movie is now available as Tremors 5: Bloodlines.

Tremors 5 opens with a commercial for Burt Gummer’s new survival TV/Internet show.  Soon, he meets with a new cameraman, Travis.  Both are interrupted by a South African gentleman, who tells Burt that South Africa is being targeted by an Ass-Blaster.  Initially in disbelief, Burt realizes that the gentleman is telling the truth, so he and Travis head to South Africa to assess the situation.  After arriving in the country, they realize that the creatures have evolved along a different path than the others.  They are bigger, meaner and tougher than the beasts that Gummer has faced in North America.  The story really isn’t anything special, but it does have some interesting twists.  One you will see coming a mile away, and another one that you won’t.  When you’re dealing with giant man-eating monsters, you really don’t want the story to get in the way, and it really doesn’t.  It’s a film that really knows what it is and it goes full throttle.  This is probably the most intense film in the series outside of the first movie.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that the film is well-shot.  Filmed on location outside of Johannesburg, Tremors 5 features some of the most spectacular scenery in a direct-to-video movie.  The way they shot the African fields, with the wildlife, is gorgeous.  In terms of production values, direct-to-video films have, mostly, come a long way since the mid 90’s and early 2000’s.  Tremors never got a theatrical sequel, so it’s very surprising that the sequels were surprisingly decent.  Tremors 5 is the best of the sequels, bar none.  As technology has changed, so has the look of the Graboids and Ass-Blasters.  The creature designs in this film are amazing.  While some of the CGI is not particularly great, the look and animation of the creatures is really, really good.  I’m very surprised at how good this movie looks and feels.  Is it over-the-top?  Definitely, especially when it comes to the creature gore.  When these things blow up, they blow up, sending entrails all over the place.  I’m amazed the film got a PG-13 rating considering the amount of gore in the film.

In the first movie, what really stood out was the characters.  Val Mckee, Earl Bassett and Burt Gummer were the three really big highlights of the film, even though everybody else did a great job as well.  The one constant through these movies, however, is Michael Gross as Burt Gummer.  He played an ancestor of the character in the previous film, but he returns as the legendary survivalist in this 5th installment.  This is Michael Gross’s film through and through, although Jamie Kennedy does a great job of playing against Gross.  In fact, the film has some pretty decent character development, particularly with Kennedy’s character, Travis.  He goes from this annoying, talkative twerp to a total bad-ass by the end of the film.  I never figured Jamie Kennedy for something like that, and he does a really good job.  Even the lovely Natalie Becker brings her A-game as Lucia.  The acting, for the most part, is pretty good.  In a Tremors film, you’ve got to have some funny shit going on, and this movie delivers.  Because it focuses on Burt Gummer, he gets himself into some pretty….odd situations.  The whole cage sequence is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and yet the character takes things pretty seriously, as the situation requires it, so you believe that these guys are in danger.  The film does acknowledge where it comes from, because of some references to the previous films.  Some of it’s pretty funny, and some of it is groan-inducing.

There is some suspect CGI, and one of the characters turns out to be a greedy douchebag, so that’s kind of predictable.  As far as direct-to-video movies go, Tremors  5 is one of the best I’ve ever seen.  It’s intense, spectacular, and funny:  All the trademarks that a good Tremors movie should have.  While the film isn’t perfect, it is by far the best sequel in the franchise, and with some outstanding performances by Michael Gross and Jamie Kennedy, I can honestly say that I recommend this film to fans of the series.  Even if you didn’t care for the previous sequels, give this one a shot, it’s surprisingly awesome.  This one gets a 9/10 from me.

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.