Empire of the Ants/Tentacles
by Bert I. Gordon, Ovidio G. Assonitis
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Actor: Joan Collins, John David Carson, John Huston, Robert Lansing, Shelley WintersDirector: Bert I. Gordon, Ovidio G. Assonitis
Brand: Sony
Writer: Bert I. Gordon
Writer: H.G. Wells
Writer: Jack Turley
Writer: Jerome Max
Writer: Steven W. Carabatsos
Writer: Tito Carpi
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 192 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-15
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Empire of the Ants/Tentacles
DVD Review: Two chilling tales of nature gone wild...
Summary: 3 Stars
Empire of the Ants (1977)
Run for the hills (or the Raid)! Bert I. Gordon, aka Mr. Big (due to his penchant for making films involving giant creatures, and also, it's his initials), brings on some serious cinematic pain with his rendition of author H.G. Wells story Empire of the Ants (1977). Gordon, certainly a man of many hats, not only wrote (adapted from an H.G. Wells story), directed and produced the film, but he also was in charge of the special effects. The film stars Joan Collins of TV's Dynasty, and Robert Lansing, whose television credits are too numerous to mention but is most familiar to me from the 1959 film 4D Man. In the beginning we get some painfully obvious foreshadowing involving stock footage, along with voice over, showing ants busy at work. We then cut to workers in HAZMAT suits on a boat, dumping clearly marked barrels of radioactive waste in the water. We see one of the barrels wash up on shore, as the ominous music plays on...Cut to preparations being made for an excursion by yacht to view swampy properties for sale, sponsored by some realty company called Dreamland Properties, or some such thing. It's here we meet Marilyn Fryer (Collins), the woman in charge. How do we know this? Because she's being a real pain in the rear, basically telling everyone she's the boss, especially Dan Stokely (Lansing), the captain of the boat, who, by the way, wears a lovely earring (yargh, I'm a pirate!) throughout the film (man, the 70's were weird). Soon the prospective suckers...er, I mean buyers show up, and what a charming lot they seem to be...adulterers, freeloaders, and just general sleezy characters all around, and they're off, leisure suits and all. They arrive at a pier, disembark from the yacht, and proceed to a tent to get liquored up (ply the rubes with free booze, and the property sells itself, I guess). Everyone then gets on a two-car tram, and tool around, while Marilyn, sitting in the front of the tram, all of about 3 or 4 feet from the clients, starts yelling into a megaphone in case anyone is hard of hearing (if they weren't, they are now). Earlier we saw the drum of radioactive waste wash up on the beach, and we also saw it beginning to leak silver paint, er...I mean radioactive waste, and we also saw ants wallowing around in the oozing material. That can't be good...I mean, if 1950's (and Bert I. Gordon) taught us anything, it's that radioactive materials generally have the effect of `embiggening' things. Well, sure enough, the ants exposed to the stuff become humongoid, and start picking off hapless members of this little outing. All I could think was this wasn't going to be good for the realty business, what with the radioactive waste and giants ants. Well, the remaining members of the party discover, to their horror, what ate up their former companions, and soon the nightmare ensues...
In terms of the special effects, the whole rear-projection enlargement technique was fairly well dated by the late 70's, but still managed to work well here at some points, but the noticeable difference in that technique and the use of prop ants certainly delineated the differences in the sizes of the ants. One method use would make them appear as big as a bus, while another would make them seem a large as a man. The actors all seem pretty bored and given they spent a fair amount of time futzing around in a swamp, I am sure they probably figured at some point they weren't getting paid nearly enough. The script, well, is pretty hideous. Inane remarks, pointless declarations, and lame characterizations only serve to make so very obvious who was going to be ant fodder. And not a likeable character in the bunch ensured the audience rooted for the ants, as this particular society really didn't seem worth saving. I did enjoy the sort of twist element near the end, even though it was telegraphed so obviously at the beginning of the film, giving this schlockery a bit of originality and a nice little spin within the genre. I have to say, I did get annoyed early on with some of the sound effects. The ants had two basic effects working, one being a persistent chirping which would indicate their presence nearby, and a screaming sound when they were attacking or being attacked. This second one was definitely the more annoying of the two, as it was akin to having a woman scream in your ear every ten seconds.
Tentacles (1977)
Also known as Tentacoli, Tentacles (1977) is definitely the worse of the two films on this MGM Midnite Movie creature double feature. Produced and directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis (Piranha Part Two: The Spawning), the film features a number of well-known actors including John Huston (Candy), Shelley Winters (Lolita), Bo Hopkins (The Day of the Locust), Claude `Sheriff Lobo' Akins (Battle for the Planet of the Apes), and Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond). The movie takes place in a small California beachfront town and begins with the disappearance of a couple of people due to something lurking in the waters (if you guess octopus based on the title, give yourself a cookie). Sheriff Robards (Akins) and local curmudgeon and reporter Ned Turner (Houston) are baffled by what is discovered when the bodies are found and examined, as the flesh has been stripped from the corpses, and the marrow sucked from the bones (okay, now I'm thinking maybe it wasn't a giant octopus, but a group of lawyers). There's speculation that Mr. Whitehead (Fonda), President of Trojan Tunnels (insert condom jokes here), and his company's local tunnel project maybe involved, but the evidence is thin. Soon it's decided to bring in a marine expert *cough cough* named Will Gleason (Hopkins), and he ultimately determines what this little beach front community has on their hands is a giant octopus, which then leads to a few more people getting all ate up along with a series of miniature boats destroyed. The situation becomes personal for Gleason, who sets out to destroy the carnivorous marine mollusk with the help of some recently released killer whales (insert free Willy jokes here).
I know the impressive cast list for this film has probably blown you away, but don't get too excited. Fonda appears in three scenes for a total of about five minutes. As far as the rest, well they can hardly save this film, despite their efforts...and not one of them got killed by the `giant' octopus (I was so hoping the incredibly annoying Shelley Winters' character might have been on the menu, but alas, no such luck). Overall the film is a series of loosely connected scenes eventually leading up to a final confrontation that's hardly worth waiting around for...the film starts off really strong with the disappearance of the people, but then gets bogged down as a bunch of rather meaningless characters are trotted around on the screen for the next hour and a half (the film runs about 1 hr 42 min which is about 20 minutes too long). I think Hopkins' character is supposed to be the hero, sort of a conglomeration of the three main characters from the film Jaws (1975) in Brody, Quint, and Hooper, but comes off as a complete lame duck character (most of the main characters that were introduced early on in the film are never seen again after about three quarters of the way in). Another thing I found really annoying was there was never any really clear shot of the octopus, giving us a clear perspective of its actual size, which seemed to vary greatly throughout the film. There was an attempt to create a sense that a giant killer octopus is much more dangerous than a killer shark (many of the films that followed Jaws tried to `one-up' themselves on that film), but it never really flies. At least this attempt wasn't as heavy-handed or obvious as was the case in Orca (1977). All in all the acting was okay with the direction and story sinking this film more than else. The music was odd, if not interesting (also repetitive)...
The anamorphic widescreen pictures for Empire of the Ants (1.85:1) and Tentacles (2.35:1) look very clear and clean, and the audio for both come through well. The only extra feature available for each film is a theatrical trailer. Now that Sony has bought up the MGM catalog, the fate of Midnite Movies seems uncertain. I hope they continue on releasing these lesser known films in this economical `twofer' format, as I will keep buying them.
Cookieman108
Description of Empire of the Ants/Tentacles
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