Lavalantula (2015)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It doesn't matter if you could have made better special effects in your basement, this movie is actually pretty good. There's lot's of action and plenty of silliness. I loved that the road was so hot it melted car tires but not shoes. See it.

Wow! This is like Police Academy 12 vs awful CGI spiders who shoot lava. If you like cheesy films this is right up there with other Sy-Fy/ Horror channel classics, honestly! Guttenberg plays a down on his luck, over the hill actor, who now specialises in extremely low budget horror and disaster films - like the film you are watching. Soon chaos ensues as lava begins to explode from the ground all around him releasing lava spiders, or lavalantuas, if you like. Using all his acting experience Guttenberg sets about rescuing his family and escaping the unfolding horror. With OTT slapstick, cheesy narrative and acting, tongue in cheek and camp performances all around, terrible CGI, and a story which has already been previously exhausted.... meh, just sit back and prepare to ignore your brain for an hour and half. Don't expect an award winning film!

So the success of Sharknado (why again?), has made things like this possible. This goes Meta too, with Steve Guttenberg playing a formerly successful celebrity ... sounds familiar? I guess you've seen Police Academy then. And he's not alone from that movie, also there are some other "stars" who do have their moment.And while this is far from perfect, it does work overall, with some bumps and holes along the way. If you can dig the humor that is really setting a low bar, you will be entertained while watching this. It's made for TV and the effects are therefor ... well you actually have seen way better effects on TV shows. Then again, this has probably a lower budget. You'll either make excuses for it, because you love it, or you'll be annoyed by it to say the least. Make up your mind and enjoy or stay away ..

I have no idea what other reviewers are complaining about, have they not seen a SyFy movie before? Did they expect a new 'INDEPENDENCE DAY' or what? This is a TV movie okay, you can't expect 100 million dollar special effects in a TV movie by SyFy.So yes the effects are not that great BUT that's a big part of the charm with these kind of movies, and it's most definitely one of SyFy's better efforts, cheesy good fun.For Police Academy fans it's a extra special treat because the lead is none other than Steve 'Mahoney' Guttenberg and not only that there are smaller roles by 3 other Police Academy actors: Marion 'Hooks' Ramsey, Leslie 'Callahan' Easterbrook and Michael 'Larvell Jones' Winslow.And there are also multiple Police Academy references which observant fans will get and of course Michael Winslow gets to make a lot of funny noises which is his trade.And co-starring with Steve as his wife is Nia Peeples who was 53 when the movie was filmed but looks more stunning than most actresses half her age.So yeah, if you like these sorts of 'so bad it's good' movies plus the Police Academy films then I don't see how you could not enjoy this movie if just a little.The rating I gave it might seem a little high, and perhaps it is BUT really come on people when it comes to SyFy TV movies this is about as good as it gets.