Feast (2005)

This little movie has a lot of big muscle behind it, with producing credits that include Wes Craven, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon. And apparently a whole bunch of actors owed them a favor because everyone and their mother is in this movie. We've got Jason Mewes ("Jay and Silent Bob"), Balthazar Getty ("Alias" and frolicking with a topless Sienna Miller whilst still married), Henry Rollins (self explanatory), Navi Rawat (numerous prime time TV dramas), and Judah Friedlander (that guy from the Dave Matthews video). This movie was actually a result of the "Project Greenlight" reality show, which gives everyone only a million-dollar budget to work with.


So there are a bunch of random people hanging out in this bar, which is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We get introduced to each of the characters with names, "fun facts", and life expectancies, which is original and funny and it gets my stamp of approval. None of the people have "real" names -- they all just have these nicknames, and surprisingly, it does not make the movie hard to follow at all.

Everyone is just chillin out until a random guy stumbles in and says that monsters are about to attack the building in five minutes. And attack they do. The poor bastard who was nice enough to warn everyone is immediately snarfed up, and the remaining patrons prepare to defend themselves against these mysterious creatures. They manage to get ahold of one and kill it after a prety intense struggle. Everyone is surprised and disappointed when they find out that this is actually a "baby" monster and the real ones are exponetially larger. They decide to show the dead monster to the other monsters (dumb) to assert who's boss. All this gets them is some pissed off creatures and a full view of monster-sex (this was a first for me!)

And then it's on, bitches. What follows is tons of blood, gore, and violence with plenty of campiness to satisfy the Evil Dead-lover in all of us. The acting was solid, the story moved quickly, and it was gross gross gross! I thought this movie was pretty damn good, especially since it involves monsters, which are usually not scary enough and typically fall flat for me. It's got a great Rodriguez/From Dusk Til Dawn vibe, so if that's your jam, check it out.

I also see that two sequels are lined up for this...ugh, why can't they leave horror movies alone nowadays?! I might check out the second one, but I certainly won't be expecting much...

Grade: A (Planet Terror - gory, grimy, and oh-so-good)