Critters 3 (1991)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Nice effects though.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The third chapter of the "Critters" saga offers more of the same, really, but benefits from a change of location, tight pacing (after a slow start), fewer but slightly bigger and angrier Critters, Katherine Cortez, who is sexy, especially in that red tank top, and a bit of a badass, and Aimee Brooks, who is gorgeous and brave. I wonder what DiCaprio thinks of this film today.... ** out of 4.

On their way home from a vacation, railway worker Clifford & his two children Annie & Johnny pull up into a rest stop with a flat tyre. While Clifford fixes the tyre, Annie & Johnny encounter Charlie McFadden, who warns them about the Crites. They dismiss him as crazy but a group of Crites hitch a ride on the underside of the RV. Once the family return to their home – an apartment complex that is due to be demolished to make way for a mini-mall by the landlord (who secretly plans to force the tenants to vacate without having to pay them relocation costs) – the Crites begin terrorising the building.Critters was an enterprising knockoff of Gremlins that somehow made a name for itself in video afterlife. It spawned three sequels – the turgid Critters 2, this one & a further sequel with Critters 4. These days, the Critters sequels, particularly this one, have been regarded as a bad joke by the actors in it, especially Leonardo DiCaprio, who made his debut here as an adolescent.Despite the negative publicity, Critters 3 is actually not too bad – in fact it is the closest the sequels get to matching the light family friendly fun of the original. The Critters are kept to the shadows for the majority of the film but once the lights go off, the real fun begins. Scribe David J. Schow, who would soon get famous with his script for The Crow about three years after this, gets a lot of mileage out of the Critters' attacks – and their appearances. It is a far cry from the usual output of Schow's bread & butter splatterpunk stories but it is still a fun ride. He & director Kristine Peterson do their best to cater to genre fans without letting the adults feel cheated by having the Critters do their usual thing & having Don Opper's bounty hunter return to blast the Critters yet again. Fellow hunter Terrence Mann also returns but only in the end-credits sequence that follows the film. If there is anything wrong with the film, it would be that the film is far too soft for the bodycount to happen, but the dogleg twists provide some suspense for the audience.

Critters 3 (1991)** (out of 4) The third film in the series is certainly a major step up from the previous one plus you've got Leonardo DiCaprio in his first screen role. The film's story is pretty simple as an apartment building comes under attack by the hairy aliens and it's up to Annie (Aimee Brooks) and Josh (DiCaprio) to try and save the day. CRITTERS 3 went direct-to-video back in the day and it's often considered a very bad movie but I've always thought it was somewhat fun in a "B" movie way. It certainly shouldn't be taken serious but then again no one making it took the subject matter very serious either. I thought for the most part we're given a pretty fun "B" movie that offers up some likable characters, good performances and of course we've got the actual critters back in action. The critters here have basically the same design with the only difference being that these here are a bit fatter and there's also a lot more hair on them. The screenplay actually gives them quite a bit more screen time, which certainly wasn't a bad thing and there's also a lot of humor added in. One sequence has one of the critters eating some soap and then chowing down on some beans so you can use your imagination as to what happens next. The screenplay certainly doesn't offer anything new or original but at least we're given some likable characters to root for. The main focus is on the Annie character who is having issues with her father. I thought Brooks was pretty good in her role and managed to at least help keep the film entertaining. We also get some good performances from John Calvin and Don Opper who returns as Charlie. Plus, it's always fun seeing a now-major star in one of their first roles. I watched this movie back when it was first released and you could just tell that there was something special about DiCaprio even in a film like this. CRITTERS 3 certainly isn't going to be for everyone but if you enjoy the series or just cheap movies then it offers up enough entertainment.

Critters three was a straight to VHS release filmed back to back with critters four, and stars Leonardo Decaprio in his film debut. In this film we find that some of the critters survived after their second attack on earth. They lay eggs in a camper, which goes to Los Angeles. The eggs hatch, and the new born critters take refuge in an apartment building. The critters grow rapidly, and attack the people living in the apartment. The family who drove the camper, an elderly couple, a maintenance women, a single lady, and Leonardo Dicaprio, who traveled to the apartment with his dad (the landlord) to evict the residents, hole up in a room,and the critters try to get to them. When the critters first attacked, the maintenance women shoved a flare in ones stomach, which fell down the laundry shoot, and set fire to the building. So after the critters break into the room, the group of people try to escape to the roof. Charlie returns as a bounty hunter to help destroy the critters. At the end of the film, Charlie finds two eggs, which he intends to destroy, but gets a holographic transmit from Ug, the remaining bounty hunter from the first two, who tells Charlie that since those were the last two eggs in existence, he couldn't destroy them, and must place them in a pod that would be launched into orbit. This film isn't nearly as good as the first two, but still has some pretty good critters action, and is worth checking out if you're a fan of the franchise.