Frogs (1972)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
This movie was about as scary as Kermit the Frog chasing people around with a pick axe. Jason Crockett, played by Ray Milland (The Last Tycoon), plays an aging, grumpy, physically disabled millionaire who hates nature and poisons any amphibious creature that crawls out of the nearby swamp and onto his property. Crockett invites his family to his island estate for his birthday celebration, where that night, the frogs of the swamp lead a revolt of the small creatures to pay back Crokett and his guests. A young Sam Elliott (Road House) plays Pickett Smith, a freelance photographer doing a pollution layout for an ecology magazine and gets caught up in the mess. This is a perfect example of how horror movies evolved from the 1970s, through the 80s and finally in decent concepts in the 90s. The movie is very dated and uses every stupid horror movie convention ever created to make people nervous for the safety of those involved. However, there is one problem; one, we don't care about the people involved. We never get a chance to know them. Two, we're talking about little amphibious animals WITH NO TEETH. Smith would find victims of an attack with chunks of flesh taken out of them. HOW? FROGS HAVE NO TEETH? It's like frogs jump out of the bushes and go "BOO! I mean, RIBBIT!" Sam Elliott gives the movie its only shred of respectability, but the filmmakers didn't bother to use it. This movie made no attempt to break any molds and that's why it's easily forgotten. I would forget it if I were you. You've probably seen it in the department store bargain bins and contemplated buying it, but I'm warning you, this movie sucks. Get one of the "Naked Gun" movies out of there instead. Benn - Where's the Humanity? |