Men In Black 2/8-Legged Freaks (Cinema: August 2002)

The same jokes but worse lacking the buddy movie hilarity of OTT Smith & deadpan Jones. Smith's totally overrated ego leads the story nowhere, Jones is criminally absent, Lara Flynn Boyle attempts to trade on her Twin Peaks creepiness but comes across more like Elvira without the wit. An utter waste of contracted talent that mocks the brilliant original with such a needless display of soulless garbage.

If you're looking for a good B-movie, or rather a big budget HW masquerade, then you'll do no better than 8-Legged Freaks this August. All the elements are there: small town idiosyncrasies, a tough (but attractive) female lead, token outsider & marauding mutuated beasts - courtesy of Uncle Sam's very own toxic waste recipe for disaster. 8-Legged Freaks actually confuses the lines of parody with a cast of almost's & nearly were's from Mr. Courtney Cox, David Arquette (famous for one role - coincidently itself a parody - & marrying fellow b-movie actress turned TV star) to t&a queen & heir to Shannon Tweed's C5 throne, Kari Wuhrer. The outsized spiders are oddly lacking in menace while the plot boasts it's kitsch inspiration's flaws a little too well. But maybe this is the point?!

Better than Chuck Russell's (re)take on The Blob, not as smart as Lake Placid & lacks the incisive wit of Tremors.

RATING: MIB2 (for the trailer)

RATING: 8-Legged Freaks 1/2

(c)Limer 2002