[Bottomfeeder]
Plot:City maintenance worker Vince Stoker is in the ultimate race for survival when he and his crew investigate an abandoned tunnel system and come face-to-face with a medical mutilation experiment gone horribly wrong. With time running out, it's up to Vince to find a way to the surface before they're killed by a terrifying, blood-thirsty creature that has a disturbing appetite...for human flesh.

Cast: Tom Sizemore, Wendy Anderson, Charles Fitzpatrick, Amber Cull, Martin Roach, James Binkley, Simon Northwood, Philip Akin, Tig Fong, Joe Dinicol.

My Thoughts:Poor Tom Sizemore.

Review:Maybe Hollywood has gotten a bit too crowded with movie stars, aspiring movie stars, and those who fall in between. Because the last time I saw Tom Sizemore, it was in "Paparazzi". Next thing you know, he's starring in a cheesy B movie about a humanoid rodent creature terrorizing maintenance workers. Perhaps he's been feeling the squeeze lately? At any rate, "Bottomfeeder" follows all of the cliches a film like this should follow. Cold blooded killers, shady warehouse business deals, treachery, and an eccentric billionaire behind it all. Which is normally how mutant creatures usually wind up unleashed upon the general public in films like these. Some crazy person with too much cash, a twisted mind, and too much time on their hands.

The trouble begins when a research scientist is betrayed by the aforementioned eccentric billionaire, and gets dosed with his own serum. Slowly but surely, he begins to mutate into a humanoid rodent montrosity which spells trouble for anyone or anything down there with him. Honestly while watching this film, I was hoping to see a giant rodent monster on screen, just to give it atleast some merit. However, that did not happen. Despite the cover art suggesting a massive rodent beast in the movie, instead we get sort of a "Resident Evil" licker looking thing which at times looks like a rat.

Go figure, I guess the budget just wasn't big enough to do what was necessary with the creature fx. The early portion of the film doesn't offer up much in the line of excitement of anything remotely interesting. Add to that the characters are pretty much the most uninteresting bunch of movie folks you'd ever meet. In fact at times it's pretty hard to watch most of them on screen without dozing off a few times, although the rastafarian bum who makes an appearance early in the film, does add some slightly humorous moments to the pic until his untimely demise much later. But with a horror movie in this particular class, strong character development isn't expected.

However, I would've liked to atleast have been able to root for the good guys once or twice. But truthfully, the bad guys are the most interesting characters in this picture, particularly the evil billionaire guy and his stone-cold henchwoman. Who cross paths with the maintenance crew led by Tom Sizemore, when they decide to snag some stuff from an abandoned site they are sent to clean up at. The two parties both have different interests in mind, Sizemore and his crew just want to do their jobs, grab some stuff to sell, and go home. The billionaire's henchwoman and other nameless cronies want to capture the now mutated doctor for their employer.

Of course once they all get down into the bowels of the building, survival against the flesh-hungry rodent creature becomes the ultimate goal for all involved. A movie like this, even for a C grade flick should've been alot more exciting considering the forces at work. You've got a dark series of tunnels, and enough people for a pretty high body count. I'm sure the French, English, Asian, or even Russian horror filmmakers would've been able to do something special with this movie. But writer/director Randy Daudlin just turned it into the type of horror movie horror fans dread watching, and people like me dread reviewing.

The creature itself, which should always be a saving grace for creature feature trash such as "Bottomfeeder", couldn't even rescue this movie. For one thing, it wasn't vicious enough, and really didn't come off as anything to be feared. Daudlin tries to give the movie a last push up to the rung of a "decent C flick" by adding in a twist at the end which reveals some startling secrets about the henchwoman, her employers, and the overall "purpose" of the serum used to mutate the doctor.

But in the end it all turns out to be one of those situations where the viewer tosses up his or her hands and says "Of course, they were behind it, I should've seen that coming". The problem with the twist is, it's nothing new, or original, and basically smacks as a bad attempt at misdirection instead of being the smart and clever plot twist it was originally intended to be. "Bottomfeeder" truly is a "bottomfeeder", even when it comes to C grade direct to dvd horror pictures.

Positives:The Rastafarian bum offers up a few entertaining moments. Wendy Anderson who plays the evil henchwoman of the eccentric billionaire was very fun to watch.

Negatives:Bad acting by mostly everyone else, Sizemore included. Lame monster. Lack of entertainment value.

Overall:Bad movie on so many levels.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)