MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Willard isn’t worth the rats that star in it’
It’s hard to know where to start and where to leave off on this sordid little remake that misfires and then proceeds to gnaw through the better part of a couple misspent hours of life. “Willard” is a remake of a 1971 “thriller” by the same name.
How unfortunate that it is that they remade it. I have not seen the original, but if it is as campy and predictable as the remake, I don’t want to spend a dollar at Hastings to rent it. My true feeling is that this film doesn’t even deserve to be a direct-to-video release. It is more in the realm of the old series “USA Up All Nite.” Argh.
OK, here is the quick plot sum up: Willard’s family had a lot of money, but daddy made some bad choices and almost lost it all, so he sold out the family business but had struck a deal with the new owner that he son couldn’t ever be fired.
Enter Willard, who still lives at home with mommy dearest. Willard is basically the everyman geek from hell who discovers that the displaced rats from all the old homes in the area, which are being torn down to make room for new houses, have moved into his basement. He befriends the rats and begins to play pied piper to a bunch of rodents. It is with the help of these newfound friends that he takes revenge on those who would oppress him. Blah. Blah. Blah.
The story itself leaves so much to be desired that it is hard to sit through. It is based on a novel called “Ratman’s Notebook,” which I have never heard of, but the movie is plenty trite and boring. Crispin Glover plays the lead character (remember Willard — this is him). And he is very good in the quirky, everyman types.
But that is just not enough to save this film. In truth, even his performance is overly melodramatic and, after awhile, it is the same old thing in a new costume and hairdo.
First-time director Glen Morgan seems to struggle to find the voice of the film. It just becomes one garbled, watered-down story, and it was nothing I would want to show my mother as my first big Hollywood project. This movie had the heart to be a Hitchcock-esque film. But in reality, it became a half-hour, Sci-Fi Channel reject turned full-length film. It just wasn’t worth the effort.
The film really wanted to be “Psycho” or “The Birds,” and it never made it. Just another fine example of the drudge of movies studios trying to pander to unsuspecting audiences at this time of year. Honestly, one of the only entertaining moments in the show was trying to spot the real rats verses the CGI-added, fake ones. How sad I sat in the dark wondering which ones were real and why any human would let that many rodents crawl on him. Who knows, but I sure didn’t think the film was worth much.
My advice is don’t waste your time or money here. In the next few weeks, several promising films are being released. Wait, and see them instead.
This is nothing more than a cheap attempt to keep butts in seats while relying on a strange and often hazy performance by the leading actor. But like I said, he is not enough to make this film work.
Someone needs to call pest control and put us all out of this misery.
Justin Berry is a local actor turned movie buff. Comments can be sent to justinsb26@hotmail.com.