Intensity	Stupidity:Nudity Ratio 3:1	Budget Medium

In the interests of full disclosure, I got to say I love this movie. I first saw it at a time when movies were really starting to bore me and I didn't think anyone in Hollywood had a clue on how to make a really good comedy. But I watched this one anyway. Even though it had Kevin Bacon (Foot Loose, Stir of Echoes), Fred Ward (Remo Williams), Michael Gross (Family Ties) and Reba McEntire. Tremors had more than enough B-grade actors to get mired in mediocre talent. So why didn't this movie suck? First of all the writing. Great characters, a plausible monster, a little bit of gore, some good action, more than a few unexpected moments, and a great sense of humor. There is a bit of a slapstick theme running through the movie that relaxes you a little bit, which really sets you up for the gore and shocks which in turn don't have to go way overboard because you've let your guard down.

Then there is the acting. I have tried to dislike Kevin Bacon, but way too often I stumble across a film of his and buy his character completely every time. Tremors was probably the start of my begrudging respect of Kevin. The chemistry between him and Fred Ward was great. These two really seemed like friends and partners. Michael Gross was given just one note to play, a pompous ass but a loyal friend, and he played it well. Reba had a bit part in the movie playing Gross's wife, but had a solid presence. At first blush you would think that her character would be lost in Gross's shadow, that she would be meek. It quickly becomes evident that she is his equal in the relationship and he values her and her judgment. The scene where he asks her which gun to bring and she rattles off the capabilities of each rifle and its relative worth given what they are facing brings tears to my eyes every time.

As the movie opens we meet Earl (Ward)and Val (Bacon). They are a couple of handymen eking out a living in the town of Perfection which is in a closed canyon with limited access to the outside world. After a particularly bad experience with a septic tank, they decide to leave Perfection and move to the big city. As they are leaving they encounter the remnants of the monsters' first attacks. Soon the town is completely isolated as a monster not only takes out the two-man crew working on the phones lines but damages the road as well. With the help of a seismologist who just happened to be in the area, Val and Earl and the townsfolk try to survive and eventually fight back. Quickly naming the monsters Graboids, they determine the number of them and their rough location using the seismographs that had been seeded throughout the valley. We spend some time with most of the characters and get to know them pretty well. Just as Reba's character is shown to be competent and intelligent, so are most of the other characters. This is not a movie where the hero is always right and comes up with all the ideas (this is not Die Hard), instead different people come up with different solutions to the problems and offer insight as to what the Graboids can and cannot do. Everyone in the movie is treated with respect.

So as the movie switches gear from comedy movie to monster movie and kills off a couple characters, we start to worry about the survivors chances. The monsters learn from experience and you can't kill the next one the way you killed the last one. This brings the cast back to square one three times during the course of the movie. There are limited opportunities for secondary plots in Tremors and the decision to keep it PG-13 means they won't be using nudity to distract us when things get boring, so it is important that the monsters are interesting. They are both intelligent and have multiple live stages that create even more problems for our heroes.

All in all the movie is nicely paced and entertaining throughout. None of the problems presented are solved by superhuman effort or extraordinary circumstances. This helps us relate to the characters even more as we can put ourselves in their shoes as they do logical and realistic things to survive. In the end the thing that sets this movie apart from most of it's brethren is the use of suspense instead of bloody evisceration and the way it restricts the monsters and the characters to dependable limits.

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