Dr. Bob's minions tire away endlessly to help the good Doctor in the name of science,
but with what little downtime they get they would like to share with you fine people! 

MOVIES!

By Richard

Since the M3Wdb features a movie every month at midnight mostly featuring a monster (hence the title- Midnight Monster Movies with Dr. Bob.) I thought I would opine about a movie series today.

Let’s talk about great movie series. These are the movies that not only have had a great original movie, they have had sequels. Sometimes multiple sequels. And most importantly, the sequels did NOT suck. And while I am narrowing down my chosen series for you, I will eliminate all the trilogies, non-monster and indie series from consideration- so out go Feast, Puppet Master, Hatchet, Resident Evil and many others. I will also be eliminating the “obvious” blockbuster series, because, let’s face it, they had the budget to pull offa great series –even if they failed to be consistently good (Terminator, Alien, Star wars, Star Trek, etc. ).

 I want to praise a series that has had high standards, good acting, quality effects, good writing, a central character in every one of the movies, consistently entertained and always took the right self-deferential tone- so that eliminates Sharknado and Lavalantula (yes, there really is a movie about Lavalantulas- 2 of them actually).

 While made by a major studio, this series is not a blockbuster (there goes LotR, Star everything and most of your guesses. My series I want to speak of is a throwback to the early days of monster movies when they just gave us likeable characters, believable monsters, good acting and scripts and the monster did not have to be explained – it was just THERE. Mostly to eat or kill most of the protagonists, but still.

 The movie series I love? It has become a cult classic, spawning 4 confirmed sequels and a just announced 5th sequel along with a short lived tv series on the SciFi network.

 Tremors. Tremor 2: Aftershocks. Tremors 3: Return to Perfection. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins. Tremors the Series. And Tremors 5: Bloodlines.

 Quality entertainment – every one of them. With Michael Gross as Burt Gummer being the common thread, this series has been well done and has yet to let me down. Each has managed to combine tremor-verse items with new twists, from introducing the various life cycle changes of the Graboids to shuffling old and new characters to setting the movie in different eras or countries. And Bert has even been allowed to grow as a character, mostly. He is still the same gun loving, doomsday prepper we have come to know, even if they have revealed his softer edges.

 Possibly most surprising about this series is the lack of CGI. While the movies can be effects laden, they rarely if ever use CGI. The explosions are even real explosions! I have enjoyed the series most for its very appropriate sense of humor. Rarely forced and almost always on the mark as tension breaking, the series humor is both well written and well played.

 So I guess what I am saying is that if you like monster movies (and if you are reading this, you do) then you should check this series out. It is readily available new and second hand, with many options available- I myself just acquired the Bloodlines pack with all 5 movies recently. Looking forward to watching the 5th without annoying commercials!

 Till later gator!!

Previously on Minion Musings...