I have no idea realistically what I just sat through…90 minutes of a time sink hole is about as good as I’ve got when it comes to describing ‘Munchies’ a ‘family’ movie that broadly falls into the ‘Hard PG’ catagory of 80’s film making.
In essence, it feels like the film makers saw the success of ‘Gremlins’ and ‘Ghoulies’ and went ‘We’ll have some of that!…But we dont wanna really do too much!’ Because thats all this is. The opening act introduces us to a father and son who are exploring some old Incan ruins when they stumble across (what is presumably) the last of an alien civilisation. The father, delighted by this, shoves the little alien in a canvas bag and takes it back to the US to be investigated more, as he believes its proof that Machu Picchu was the central hub of operations for a radio beacon for Alien life.
The creatures gain the nickname ‘Munchies’ from the fact they love eating junk food, and later find a taste for beer and cigarettes. Theres some shenanigans around the house, and then its revealed that the ‘Munchies’ can multiply.
At the same time, a neighbour from across the street spots one of the lil guys, catches it and takes it back to his house for his son to keep an eye on…only, it escapes, meets up with the other alien and…basically from that point onwards the rest of the film is just a road trip/chase sequence for 80 something minutes.
Occasionally broken up with awful comedy set pieces, bad puns or poor physical comedy.
Its so hard not to look at this thing and just…IMMEDIATELY see how hollow it is as a venture…how easy it is to spot out as a cash in attempt on that particular subgenre of the times. the script basically has about 15 minutes of actual plot, which it spreads SO thinly…its unreal.
I dont even really know who this film would be for these days. its targeted as a family film, but it has sex, smoking and booze in it alongside a few curse words, adults wont watch it because its tryinfg too hard to be a kids film. I only watched it because Im ill and couldnt handle anything more complex than a base level childrens comedy movie…and even I wasnt happy with how this turned out.
The direction is basic, functional and nothing else, the cine is drab and fairly lifeless…the set design is about as good as it gets, with crazy colourful ‘peewee’s playhouse’ inspired costumes and set designs…the performances are all over the top manic and aggressively unpleasent to sit through.
Everyones trying to play it cool, but in a really goofy way that gets offputting VERY quickly. its all WAY too much honestly. The design for the ‘Munchies’ is ugly, unpleasent and they look bizarrely stiff in a way that really struggles to bring ANY kind of life into them.
And thats not to mention the soundtrack which is GRATINGLY comedic. its really trying all it can to scream ‘THIS IS A FAMILY COMEDY!’ while forgetting that being a family comedy means more than just slapstick and pulling funny faces…there has to be a REASON this is all happening…
I didnt care for this one. The nicest thing I can say about it, is that it’d probably be right at home as the B-feature to ‘Hobgoblins’…and THAT is not a compliment.
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