Michael Gross

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015)

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015)

Director:

Don Michael Paul

Writers:

William Truesmith

M.A. Deuce

John Whelpley

Starring:

Michael Gross

Jamie Kennedy

Natalie Becker

Blurb:

Burt and Travis battle ass-blasters and graboids in South Africa.

Review:

Tremors 5: Bloodlines started with negative points because of Jamie Kennedy. I do not know why but I can’t stand that man. His face pisses me off. So I found this movie difficult to watch.

Five movies in, and I’m starting to understand why I like this franchise despite it being in a genre I usually dislike. It’s the romance. Each movie has a little bit of romance that is enough to lighten things for me. There’s also the depiction of women, with almost all of them being badasses in their own right.

I was looking forward to watching Bloodlines despite Kennedy because fans seemed to like this one better than the last two. Sadly, I’ve got to disagree. I wasn’t a fan of the inclusion of bad guys, other than the graboids. I thought Michael Gross having a love child was stupid. The whole way things were handled with capturing the creatures just felt off to me. I did like that Kennedy wasn’t the love interest, but I wasn’t invested in the romance at all because those characters seemed to be just off on their own. They had to do with the main plot, but they weren’t connected to Gross until the end. I wasn’t a fan.

2/5

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Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)


Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)

Director:

S.S. Wilson

Starring:

Michael Gross

Sara Botsford

Billy Drago

Plot:

A prequel to Tremors (1990), this movie tells us about how the town of Perfection, Nevada became founded and how they defended it against the Graboids with the help of Burt Gummer’s ancestor, Hiram.

Review:

So with the fourth movie we finally learn the origins of the Graboids, because we so desperately wanted that information. The Graboids happened when a silver mine accidently struck a hidden hot spring. I guess the eggs were then rushed out or warmed or whatever and thus Graboids came back into existence.

Michael Gross owns the silver mine, when it stops earning money he travels to the town of Rejection to see why. When he finds out it’s because all the miners are either dead or have run away he tries to figure out a way to fix things. Since it’s the wild west naturally that means he hires Billy Drago.

The town people try to teach Michael Gross how not to be a greedy and he ends up becoming friends with most of them. Also, his love of guns and red heads is born. Well, his ancestors love of guns and red heads.

This movie lacked most of the things I love about Tremors movies. Tremors always has a smart, confident woman that is very capable and ends up falling for the less smart man. There are explosions and everything happens fairly fast. This movie had that, but it was definitely the lite version.

Sara Botsford was smart and capable but she was also left in town for most of the movie and not part of much action. Michael Gross was also not an idiot with common sense, he was probably the opposite. We had some big guns, but the Graboids seemed to travel at a much slower speed and so the humans were able to travel long distances in a horse and wagon. I don’t know, it was just not nearly as good, in my opinion.

2/5

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)


Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

Director:

Brent Maddock

Starring:

Michael Gross

Shawn Christian

Susan Chuang

Plot:

The now famous Burt Gummer returns to his hometown of Perfection, Nevada for the first time in years, but the deadliest Graboid evolution yet forces him to save the town he swore to protect.

Review:

The movies are clearly going down in quality, but I still have fun watching them.

This time we’ve got a lot of people from the original returning, but only one really main guy, Michael Gross. Returning to Perfection he finds that things have changed in the time he’s been away killing Graboids and Shriekers. Not a fan of those new changes, he doesn’t do much about it because it doesn’t affect him, until it does.

After everyone mocks him for thinking the Graboids will return, they do, but they’re all pretty prepared, and things are running smoothly until the town asshole ruins things. Then they learn that the Graboids have another evolution, the Assblasters.

Lots of explosions, the smart girl gets with the hot not as smart guy, and Michael Gross plays what could be a deadly prank on the town asshole. It hits all the things I expect from a Tremors movie, even if it doesn’t look as good as the first one.

3/5

Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)


Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)

Director:

S.S. Wilson

Starring:

Fred Ward

Chris Gartin

Helen Shaver

Michael Gross

Plot:

Battling a life depression, Earl Bassett is offered a job as a mercenary to help a Mexican oil company with a Graboid epidemic that’s killing more people each day. However, the humans aren’t the only ones with a new battle plan..

Review:

Fred Ward had it all. He should have been set for life after discovering the Graboids in the previous movie. Fame. Fortune. It was all his, but after a series of horrible investments he lost it all.

Back in Paradise, trying to make a living with an emu farm, alone and depressed, he’s propositioned by a Mexican Oil company that has developed a Graboid problem. Initially, he says no, but the draw of $50k per dead monster is enough to draw him back in.

Older and wiser and with the backing of the Mexican military he is properly armed this time. Those Graboids didn’t stand a chance. Still, their numbers start to overwhelm him and his new sidekick, Chris Gartin, so they call in the big guns of Michael Gross. A doomsday prepper and himself depressed after the excitement of the Graboid situation and destruction of his marriage, Gross hops at the chance.

Things are going easy, too easy, when they get thrown a curveball. The Graboids have evolved. Bursting from their hideous bodies are a new creature, easier to kill, but just as vicious and rapidly multiplying.

Death! Destruction! Mayhem!

With quick thinking and tons of explosives they manage to survive and the Graboids are once again destroyed and this time Fred Ward has more responsible aims for his money.

4/5

Tremors (1990)


Tremors (1990)

Director:

Ron Underwood

Starring:

Kevin Bacon

Fred Ward

Finn Carter

Michael Gross

Reba McEntire

Plot:

Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.

Review:

It is mind boggling that I love this movie. Seriously, I hate horror, monster movies scare me, but I’ve loved this movie since I was a kid.

Anyway, Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are handymen that do all the odd jobs in the little town of Paradise. They live beer can to beer can and who knows when they bathed last. After one too many shit jobs they decide to leave and head to the big town of Bixby where they will surely find new glamorous lives in no time.

On their way out of town they find the town drunk dead high up on an electrical tower. That sucks. Oh well, they are newly inspired to leave because what if they wind up like him? They find more bodies and more bodies and holy shit is there a serial killer on the lose? Nope! It’s GRABOIDS!!

Such a stupid name lol

They realize that giant worms under the ground are eating everyone and if the rest of the town wants to survive they need to get out of there. That is easier said than done. More people die, but eventually some of them make it out alive.

This movie is ridiculously entertaining and spawned several sequels. There were even talks about a TV series on SyFy recently with Kevin Bacon set to reprise his role. The trailer looked incredible, but sadly it was not picked up.

Every few years I watch this and I’m always entertained and I marvel over that fact considering how much I normally dislike this type of movie.

5/5