Critters2

Critters 2 The Main Course (1988)

Young Brad Brown returns to Grover’s Bend for the Easter holiday only to run into a newly hatched batch of Critters in this sequel to an excellent piece of 80s cheese. The intergalactic bounty hunters Ug and Lee, as well as former town drunk Charlie also return. The movie opens with Ug, Lee, and Charlie, now a bounty hunter as well, finishing up another job when the people that they work for contact them. It seems that their first encounter on Earth with the Crites (what the aliens call the Critters) didn’t go as well as they thought and they must return to Earth to finish the job. It seems that there are still some eggs left on the Brown’s farm that are ready to hatch, eggs that are taken by the locals and used by the town in their Easter celebration. Soon the eggs are hatching and Critters begin running all over Grover’s Bend killing and eating everything in site. It is up to Brad and the newly arrived bounty hunters to save the Earth from the threat posed by the Critters. Will they succeed or is the world doomed?

Before I start the review I suppose that I should be honest and admit to you all that this movie is what I consider a guilty pleasure of mine. But to be fair I think that this movie is a pretty good attempt at a horror comedy. Many of the original cast members are back including Scott Grimes as Brad Brown and Terrance Mann as Ug. Both of these actors do a great job in this low budget follow up creature feature as does the rest of the cast. Don’t get me wrong no one is going to win any awards for this movie, but all in all the entire cast does well with a goofy silly script. The best thing that I can say about the script as well as the directing is that the movie keeps the action coming at you quickly. There are no slow boring “talky” parts where anyone feels the need to explain anything. Basically there are furry little aliens that kill and eat anything that they can catch end of story. Do we really need to know more? I say hell no! The special effects in this movie are pretty good as well. The Critters, while not done as well as they were in the first film, are pretty damn effective and funny. They are clearly puppets, but what the hell were you expecting in a movie like this? The movie is also a fairly bloodless affair and is definitely geared towards the PG crowd, but that also didn’t really bother me at all.

Critters 2 the Main Course is nothing more than a harmless movie filled with furry little puppet aliens eating and killing the cast on Easter. Who could ask for more than that? Are you in the mood to turn your brain on cruise control and have some fun? Then Critters 2 is the movie for you.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer