Munchies (1987)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A lot of people don't like this movie. I can't imagine why. Despite the bad writing, terrible acting, and cheesy effects, this movie is pretty fun to watch,mostly to kids though. An archaeologist and his reluctant son find a strange little creature in Peru and take it home. However it gets abducted. After severe mistreating, it grows slightly larger and become more aggressive and dangerous, and gets chopped, causing there to be several of them running around town wrecking havoc. Good performances by Harvey Coreman and Nadine Van Der Velde, but everyone else was just bad. If you can forget about that, you'll have fun. Just don't think and watch the movie.

I suppose all the inside jokes is what made Munchies a cult classic. I thought it was awful, though given the ridiculous story and the nature of the characters, it probably could've been a much better (and funnier) movie. Maybe all they needed was a real budget.Munchies, as many viewers have pointed out already, is something of a Gremlins parody. Hence, all the references to the movie. The movie begins somewhere in Peru during an archeological dig. An annoying dufus named Paul, aspiring stand up comedian who offers no sarcasm or witty jokes during the movie despite his career plans, is holed up with his dad in the caves. His dad is an unconventional kind of archeologist, searching the caves not for artificats or mummies or anything, but proof of U.F.O.'s. And that's where the Munchies come into the picture. Hidden in the crevice of a rock is an ugly little mutant that looks like a gyrating rubber doll with a Gizmo voice. They name him Arnold, stash him in a bag, and bring him home so Paul's dad can finally show proof of extra terrestrial life. Paul, the idiot that he is, breaks his promise to his dad to watch Arnold (a wager he made with his dad, if he loses, it's off to community college to get a 'real' career). The creepy next door neighbor with the bad rug, Cecil (television veteran Harvey Korman), wonders what his neighbors are up to. So, he and his lazy son, some airhead hippie type (who looks more like they should've made his character a biker or heavy metal enthusiast) to go and snatch Arnold. Why? A get rich quick scheme of course. And of course, even Cecil's son is too dumb to look after Arnold. And after a few pokes and prods at Arnold, he multiplies into more Munchies.This wasn't even a movie that was so bad it was good. It was just plain awful. I was hoping that the Munchies would've mutated and killed the morons that were always after them, even Paul and his girlfriend. At least it would be one way to get rid of all the bad acting in this movie that really hams up the movie. Not to mention poor special effects that look like hand puppets. And really bad writing all around--it wasn't even funny--not even that young cop who can really give you the homicidal twitch in your eye. Like I said, Munchies, if they had been given an actual budget and better actors, they might've been able to pull off a good parody. Pass.

This Roger Corman produced comedy could be labeled as a Gremlins rip-off. Well, it is. The Munchies are short little dudes who multiply rapidly and are into creating mischief and wreaking a little havoc. Sound familiar? The funniest thing about the movie is all the Gremlins references. There's a newspaper with Gizmo on the cover, Robert Picardo (of Gremlins 2) stars in the film, and the absolute highlight is the Munchies driving around in a Gremlin. Truly some classic stuff. Other stars of the film include Summer Camp Nightmare's own Charles Stratton and Nadine Van Der Velde from Critters. If you want to see the extremely poor man's version of Gremlins, rent the Munchies, if you can find it.

Not a knock on Korman as he was very funny on the Carol Burnett show. He was also good at playing secondary characters in Mel Brooks' movies ("High Anxiety" comes to mind). He is, however, not a person who can carry a movie in dueling roles no less. This one is basically a "Gremlins" knockoff, following a tradition of such movies as "Critters" and "Ghoulies". It is not a very good knockoff either, on par with "Ghoulies", but with a much lighter tone to it as it is no where near as dark as that movie got. In fact, this one is too light and frothy, and unfortunately many of the jokes end up falling flat. Though I did give it a 3 for a score, this is only because there is a movie that is even a worse "Gremlin" knockoff. If you watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 you know the one I am talking about...the infamous "Hobgoblins". This one has a guy finding a little critter in some underground place (I only saw this movie once a long time ago so I don't remember everything to clearly) and it starts out friendly enough. However, this creature quickly becomes unfriendly and of course more are spawned and that is the movie. More misses than hits in the joke department, and it is also really lame to see Korman playing the evil brother role. Best to skip this one, but then you may want to check it out just for kicks.