Phil Hubbs The insatiable appetite of the Crites continues in this inevitable sequel.It seems the bounty hunters missed a small batch of Crite eggs when they were last on Earth. You'd think they would have known to check for something like that considering they are bounty hunters and apparent experts in various alien lifeforms such as the Crites. Alas no, the professional bounty hunters bungled their last job by forgetting to check for eggs. Oh yeah and its Easter time on Earth. Crite eggs...Easter...got it. So after a brief hologram message from some wiry alien creature (must be the new space prison boss. The last hovering alien was probably fired for f*cking up and allowing the Crites to escape, probably), the bounty hunters are off to Earth yet again for another ultra destructive rescue mission.So lets just address the most obvious change here. This franchise started after the classic 1984 horror comedy 'Gremlins', yet it was apparently written before. This critter sequel came out in 1988, two years before the sequel to 'Gremlins' in 1990. And still, like the original films the similarities between the sequels are easy to spot. Where as the original movies (both 'Critters' and 'Gremlins') were basically horror comedies with a somewhat semi-serious dark thrilling vibe; the sequels go down the comedy route. Everything in this movie is one step up, more in your face, more lunacy, more cartoonish. But lets be clear, this isn't a goofy spoof which 'Gremlins 2' kinda turned out like. No this is still a semi dark, thriller-esque horror comedy for sure, it just has more laughs at the Crites expense. The Crites themselves have definitely gone down the cartoon route for certain scenes. They are still threatening and make you wanna pull your feet away from the edge of the couch; but at the same time they are now used as the butt of some definite goofy visual gags. Nevertheless this movie doesn't ever go down the meta/self-referential route for its gags, it doesn't satirise the original movie. The basic plot still holds up and plays out.So lets have a look at the plot. Well its the same as before only more! More Crites, more feeding, more blood, more gore etc...Oh and Charlie is now a bounty hunter. Why is Charlie (Don Opper) a bounty hunter? Beats me, no clue why Ug would allow this clearly weak human to accompany him into space as a trainee. We even see how bad Charlie is at the job at the start. Meanwhile on Earth Brad (Scott Grimes) is all grown up now and visiting Grover's Bend to see his gran (conveniently). For some reason Brad has a bully problem from a guy called Wesley (in a very 'Back to the Future II'-esque scene). Not sure why this guy was in the movie. And Sheriff Harv has now been recast with the younger (at the time, I think) Barry Corbin who was at one time the main man to cast for any authority figure...usually in a small town type scenario. This guy is the most Texan Texan I've ever seen; his name should be Tex Stetson McSixShooter.One of the big attractions with this sequel (for all us dirty minded underage boys at the time) was of course Ug's partner in crime (now called Lee). In the first movie his gimmick was shape-shifting between various human forms for comedic effect. This time things got a bit more grown-up, a bit more seedy; dare I say a more lowbrow hook or carrot on a stick. Yep this time Lee shape-shifts into a hot sexy blonde with big boobs that adorned a Playboy magazine cover that Charlie finds lying around in a field (as if). I should also point out that not only does Lee's face change, his body changes too. Complete with firm arse, huge boobs (that inflate like balloons complete with whining sound), and even a nice tight thong. Because of course that would be included in his shape-shifting. The other big draw with this movie was the Crite special effects. Basically the new tricks and gimmicks the puppets could do and the various comedic ways in which they got killed. And with that we see critters getting blown to pieces with the bounty hunter space guns. Getting run over and squashed flat. Boiled in a vat of chip fat until lobster red and bald. Electrocuted in a very cartoonish manner. Biting on a car tyre and inflating like a critter balloon. Splattered against a wall. Seeing Crite facial expressions such as their little eye bulging out of their head when scared. And the coup de grâce, where all the Crites join together like an organic Transformer to form the giant critter ball which eats people alive as it snowballs along. Everyone loved that bit, the bit where the critter ball rolls over some guy reducing him to a quivering bloody skeleton in its trail.Quick note, Ug transforms/morphs into a critter in this movie. That is something new which leads to questions such as, why did he not do this before? Surely that would have helped in the first movie. How can he do this?? It is kinda assumed these shape-shifters can only transform their face, but in this movie it seems they can transform their entire body shape and even size! So clearly the goalposts are being moved to suit the plot here, which is fine I guess (this is a B-movie), but also troublesome for consistency.So what's the lowdown? Well I'd say this movie is pretty much on par with the first movie. The original is more of a genuine horror thriller with reasonable jump scares and tension; the sequel is more of a horror comedy with more silly Crite hijinks. Both movies are good stand alone flicks, both are easy to follow, and both deliver exactly what you would expect. Some folks will prefer the original and some will prefer the sequel, and that's completely understandable. Myself now, I think I slightly prefer the original as it takes itself a tad more seriously, a bit darker. When I was a youngster I preferred the sequel because bewbs. But overall, weighing up the pros and cons, I'd say they were about equal.7/10

tomgillespie2002 The first Critters (1986) movie was one of the best in an abundance of Gremlins rip-off's to come out following the release of Joe Dante's classic in 1984. It was amusing, entertaining, satisfyingly bloody and whizzed by in a fast-paced 90 minute running time. The titular Critters or, to give them their proper name, Crites, were also a memorable creation - tiny balls of fur with nasty teeth and the ability to shoot poisoned darts from their back. They are cuddly enough to be oddly cute but with a face only a mother could love. The surprisingly modest box-office takings established Critters as a franchise, and the sequel arrived just two years later.Unsurprisingly, Critters 2 is little more than a re-hash of the first movie, with the terrorising creatures attacking the same town again and coming up against their arch-nemesis Brad (Scott Grimes), who apparently had his ear pieced and grew a mullet between films. Brad's celebrity status in the town catches the eye of the slight- older Megan (Liane Curtis), but Brad just wants his friend Charlie (Don Keith Opper) back. Still teamed up with bounty hunter Ug (Terrence Mann) somewhere in space, Charlie's spaceship detects Crite activity back on Earth, and so they return to destroy them. Soon enough, the Crites have bred beyond count and are munching on everything in sight.The biggest disappointment with Critters 2 is the sheer lack of imagination. The first movie had enough wit and self-awareness to create something bolder, the like of which was done in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and its bat-s**t crazy, anything-goes climax. The creatures too, are easily propped behind a variety of counters so their puppeteers can operate them with ease, while the first movie at least demonstrated some creative puppet work. The humour is goofier and more obvious, and the climactic set-piece involving a giant ball of combined critters attacking a garage packed with fast- food, just fails to hit the mark. It's certainly an easy watch, but there's little here to excite.

Scott LeBrun This sequel to "Critters" begins logically enough, as the bounty hunters Ug (Terrence Mann) and Charlie (Don Keith Opper) return to Earth, having found out about the pile of Crite eggs left at the end of the first movie. In the company of another bounty hunter, they go about their mission, while former farm boy Brad Brown (the likable Scott Grimes) returns to the town of Grovers' Bend for an Easter vacation with his grandma (Herta Ware), and the Crite eggs unfortunately get distributed around town.Once the eggs are hatched, it's all about the Critter action in this fairly fast paced effort by first time feature director Mick Garris ("Sleepwalkers"), who also wrote the script with David Twohy ("Pitch Black"). The main change is the opening up of the action, what with having the Crites take on the town of Grovers' Bend en masse. The effects by the Chiodo brothers are typically amusing; the big draw this time is seeing the petite monsters fuse themselves into a great big ball and go rolling hungrily along. (It does make one wish that they do a little more damage in this capacity.)The cast proves to be game: Opper is once again endearing as Charlie, Liane Curtis likewise appealing as young reporter Megan. Lending their valuable support are Sam Anderson as Megans' dad, the local newspaper publisher, Lin Shaye (another returnee from the first "Critters") as his employee Sally, Barry Corbin, taking over the role of Harv from M. Emmet Walsh, and the always-good-for-a-laugh Eddie Deezen as a restaurant manager. Garris's wife Cynthia plays a small role and also wrote and sang that catchy jingle. Some viewers will appreciate the presence of the sadly short lived beauty Roxanne Kernohan, as the third bounty hunters' incarnation as a Playboy centerfold.There is a funny little in-joke regarding New Line Cinemas' biggest franchise character at that time.Overall, agreeable entertainment for fans of the genre.Seven out of 10.

GL84 With the news of more aliens still on Earth, the bounty hunters set off to find the lone human they can trust to help them corral the beings before they spread throughout the town and become too much for them to handle.This here turned out to be quite an exciting and enjoyable horror/comedy that has so much going for it that there's just no shortage of fun to be had here. The fact that this one decides to get the creatures out quite early with the discovery of the eggs and the town becoming aware of what's going on with his reappearance to their total dismay and a series of isolated attacks that clearly signal the creatures are back and ready to continue their rampage as before, only making the creatures as completely oblivious to the others around them makes for a rather fun time with the different attacks not being recognized until the mid-way point results in some nice fun. With the different tactics of trying to get the creatures under control still providing a lot of laughs as well, it makes for much more fun to be had when it plays off the previously established guidelines for the series as well as injecting a lot of clever and sometimes creepy points in this to add in a horror angle when all is said and done makes this one a lot more entertaining and enjoyable. There's enough gore in this to appeal to the more traditional horror fans with their attacks on the townspeople in the diner, the church and the final attack in the storage locker not only provide some fun moments throughout with their fun combination of mixing light-hearted action with some rather gruesome moments to add up to a bunch of fun times. While there's some flaws here in that the continuous jokes about the events in the first film are used to make it appear that he's just insane and should know better about spreading such information around get tiresome quite quickly, there's enough to like here that it's enough to overcome the few flaws.Rated PG-13: Language, Violence and Nudity.