Meet the Applegates (1991)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Fantastic!

Best movie ever!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The improbable mix of early Tim Burton production design, the tone of Home Alone, a strange Paul Verhoeven-type satire, surreal David Lynchness, John Waters crass and a bit of John Landis cartoonishness for good measure.

Meet The Applegates doesn't meet much intelligence, however, it is a fun movie to watch if you just want to watch, and not think. This is not a thinking movie, unless you are thinking "What were they thinking?" while you're watching this. This movie is weird, even to my standards. The whole idea of preying mantis going incognito as humans is disturbing enough. Ed Begley Jr, in spite of it all, actually makes this all worth watching, and I'm really shocked to be admitting this, but there is almost literally nothing else to see here. The ending just got a little too ridiculous for me. I want to warn you, even though Meet The Applegates is in general a comedy, there are a few yucky scenes ( I won't spoil any of them for you, that would spoil the fun...and that's all I can see that this movie was made. For fun!) So get your giant can of RAID ready, sit back, and enjoy meeting the Applegates.

Second film from cult director Michael Lehmann follows exploits of a beetle family that migrates to Ohio under the guise of Disneyeana leftovers. While there, each family member falls under the spell of human idiocy which jeopardizes their plan to create another Chernobyl. Very witty throughout, and the ecological message doesn't become preachy (remember when there were more films that dealt with deforestation like "Ferngully"?). Stockard Channing in particular is a hoot. Ending is definitely a bit on the soft side, but this is still a very good film...

Michael Lehmann has had a somewhat checkered career: on the one hand he is responsible for the excellent 'Heathers' and the warm and competently made 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs' and on the other hand he also produced not only 'Hudson Hawk', a textbook flop of the highest order, and the awful '40 Days and 40 Nights' but also My Giant, a film so bad that audiences leaving the theatre should have been provided with complementary hypnotism to remove the experience from their memories. However it is no surprise that the team responsible for this film - Lehmann and the wonderfully named Redbeard Simmons - should have produced a film entitled Beaver Gets a Boner. Applegates is the duo's followup and what a delicious wedge of trash it is, a tart with a heart kind of a movie easily mixing the downright unpleasant with the lightly comic and a bit of social and environmental commentary. The Applegates are not your ordinary suburban American family: they're giant insects bent on world destruction. I started watching this expecting that the bug natures of the family (excellently played by Ed Begley Jnr, the always brilliant Stockard Channing and two bright young things whose careers have since faltered) would be played down because of the tight budget. I hadn't realised what sort of territory this film is staking out: mention of John Waters is totally justified in the best possible way and there is also a whiff of Troma. Someone somewhere has decided ropey-schmopey they're going with the effects lending a wonderful air of B-movie to proceedings.I said before that the Applegates weren't an ordinary American family but they are recognisable as a sort of hellish recreation of one in the late twentieth century and they evolve fast. Developing their personae from a sort of Janet and Jim book the family arrive as fifties cardboard cutouts, in that curious way that only a film born of the 80's and that decade's fifties fixation can achieve. That in a sense is what this film is really about for exposure to Bush Mark I's America leaves Dad jerking off to insect porn in the bathroom, Mom a hopelessly addicted shopaholic, Johnny a rather scuzzy ultra-pothead and daughter Sally stroppy, pregnant and rather more than bi-curious. Best of all, that's not even the plot. There's lots to love here: cross dressing Queen Bea (a lovely turn by Dabney Coleman), Kevin and Kenny the twin dealers who now look like something out of a time warp and a whole lot of gore. This isn't a film for the easily offended or the weak of stomach and even I found one or two moments a touch unpleasant. But a broad streak of comedy and a thin veneer of environmentalism gives this in many ways bleak film plenty of heart and if the dialogue sparkled a bit better then this quite political tale (is it really about communism vs. capitalism?) would be a trash classic. As it is this is quirky, unpredictable and looks dated in the best way possible. Don't get me wrong this is no Citizen Kane. They don't make films like this any more and maybe they shouldn't but I'm glad they made this one like this, so sit back, relax, crack open the beers, light up whatever and enjoy because this film - though at times a touch heavy handed - is lots of fun. Just don't show it to Granny.