And Ward is absolutely brilliant in his second turn as the cantankerous Earl Bassett, and he imbues the character with a legitimate sense of pathos and regret in the aptly titled sequel Tremors 2: Aftershocks. Luckily for us, his Tremors co-star Fred Ward never fully found himself on the A-list, and he was game to jump back into the Tremors fray for a second Graboid showdown. Unfortunately, The Legend Continues proves little more than a clever concept as the film's plot is essentially a carbon copy of the original film. So too is Gross' hilarious work as his far more timid ancestor, Hiram. The appearance of Billy Drago as the hired gunslinger Black Hand Kelly is particularly inspired, even if his character isn't around long enough. We'd also say it's not really all that important, and that the Tremors 4 creative team still managed to have some serious fun with The Legend Begins, leaning fully into the Western tropes and slyly blending them into the comic creature feature formula that had served them pretty well in the first three movies. But before you ask just how in the heck Graboid lore didn't make its way from one generation to the next in the Gummer family's histories - thus leaving Burt wholly unprepared for the subterranean beasts a century later - we'll just say your guess is as good as ours. Surprisingly, they brought Michael Gross in to star as one of his own character's ancestors, Hiram Gummer. The Tremors creative team actually took the series all the way back to the Old West for Tremors 4, and they showed series fans how the town of Perfection came to be. And we freely admit that Burt getting swallowed by and then cut out of a Graboid is the most Burt Gummer thing that's ever happened to Burt Gummer in a Tremors flick. Just know that Burt and his Tremors 3 crew get far too much pleasure in calling the creatures by name in Tremors 3. Still, for all its shortcomings, it's really nice to see the return of much of Tremors original cast for the third film. If you're wondering what Ass Blasters do, we'd advise you not to overthink it. Tremors 3 is also, of course, the film that saw the arrival of the infamous Ass Blaster version of the Graboids, and it's safe to say the franchise has never really gotten over that particular stage in Graboid evolution. To make matters worse, Back to Perfection saw Gross paired with co-star Shawn Christian, who shamelessly plays things way, way over-the-top as thrill-seeker/entrepreneur "Desert Jack" Sawyer. On top of Kennedy's irritating performance, a seriously lackluster screenplay focuses more on camp than quality, and some surprisingly underwhelming CGI effects (replacing the franchise's trademark practical effects and puppetry) leave Bloodlines feeling so lifeless that even the arrival of the "Queen B***h" Graboid and the "African Ass Blaster" can't save it.Īnd yet Tremors 3: Return to Perfection found Gross' guileful gun nut taking center stage, and well, the results are about as bombastic as you'd expect. Kennedy's incessant mugging as Travis (who we eventually find out is Burt's son) in particular proves more distracting than funny throughout Bloodlines, even as the film itself aimed to expand the Tremors-verse in terms of scope and creature design. Unfortunately, neither the fresh locations nor fresh faces did much to reinvigorate the then-flagging franchise. setting, transporting Gross' Graboid-hunting Burt Gummer to the wilds of South Africa for Tremors 5: Bloodlines. Seems franchise producers were also keen to get the franchise out of its Southwestern U.S. As such, we were pretty pleased when we heard some new blood was coming to Tremors land for the fifth film in the series and that it was coming in the guise of funnyman Jamie Kennedy.
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