On October 2, 2001, the second direct-to-video sequel to Tremors was released and began the slow process to the demise of a once great franchise. Tremors was an all-right movie, while Tremors II was a fantastic movie. Tremors 3 (yes, they switched from Roman numerals in the second sequel) is one of the most boring films ever made.
Where to begin? Let's start with the trailer as always. What a crap trailer! Why make a big deal about your characters? Why take 30 seconds out of your trailer to name your characters? It felt like a Disney Channel TV promo introducing the characters. Also, an interesting point about the trailer is that it promotes the movie to be PG-13. The actual film is simply PG. It's a harsh PG if you ask me, but it amazes me that the movie started out with a PG-13 rating yet ended up with a PG rating on the shelves. Maybe the ratings board realized how bad the film was and gave them a gift of a PG rating in hopes of more sales for them. The poster once again looks nothing like the creature, but at least it looks like the creature in the first film's poster.
On a side note, saying that a single grabboid produces 6 shriekers in the first scene in the film is in direct contradiction with the previous film when only 3 shriekers were produced by a single grabboid. This starts off the film on a bad foot considering the original writers didn't respect the series enough to go back and watch the first two before they started writing the third film. The original writers only wrote the story this time around. It is an all new screenwriter, an issue that might explain all my complaints about this film.
The biggest problem with this film is Michael Gross returning. Making Burt Gummer the star of the movie killed his character. Gross is overacting like crazy. Gross can play a leading man. He can carry that weight like he did on Family Ties, but Burt Gummer should never have been the star. What was interesting about Burt in the first two films was he was a quirky character, not the leading man. The new character additions didn't help the film much either: both Jodi and Jack are bland and dull. They're not necessarily bad at playing their roles, or lack there of, but it's just so bland. The flavor that Burt gave to the first two films is completely gone by making him the star.
Another major problem this time around and I hate to say it is the creature. The creature was definitely a selling point in the first two films, but is rather lackluster the third time around. Yes, there is another scene where they name the creature. I'm sorry, but calling your terrifying creature an 'ass-blaster' destroys any tension you may have created in the first place. It makes the creature a joke. Yes, the way the creature is is jokey to begin with this time around, but with a name like that all credibility is completely shot.
That leads us to the problem the invades the entire film...it's too jokey. The first film almost crossed that line, but it never let the humor get in the way of the creature. This time the humor stops tension in the tracks. Also, trying to make grabboids scary again after they were so easily disposed of in the second film doesn't help the film at all.
There are two things that are good about this film: the returning town's characters and Burt's 'death' scene. The returning town's characters after 11 years is awesome. The place the writer took the characters was very smart and quite believable. It's a shame that we spend so much time with Burt and the new characters as opposed to these others. I would have loved to see more of them.
Burt's death scene is staggering and is the only moment of tension the film gives. Having Burt get eaten by a grabboid within the first 40 minutes was a bold move. I remember watching this film for the first time and being speechless after I watched that. What makes the scene even better is having him come out of the creature alive after putting a chainsaw to it's gut. It's such striking imagery that made the first two so enjoyable. If only they had taken more serious and less jokey risks...this might have been a solid flick, but we shall never know what might have been all we have now is the film itself.
Unless you feel attached to the series as I unfortunately do, avoid this film at all costs. It is not enjoyable, it is not scary, it is just a boring, contrite mess. Messing up Burt's character is a big offense in this franchise. Something that they never got over. There is no known amount of money this entry received. I have a feeling the worst is yet to come.
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