Bats

Recently I decided that I would set myself up for a bad review. I took my time, trying to choose a movie that would surely hand me a movie to condemn and trash. A movie I could call my first "bad movie review"! A movie I would be proud to hate! That movie I decided would be the most disliked movie of the year (judging by previous reviews I had read): "BATS"! Did I find the movie for the bad review? Well, kind of, but it isn't BATS. The bad review I will submit later (see Carls's Stigmata review - Alan). Instead, I got a small kick out of this movie.

We start out with the must have bat expert. You always need an expert for these movies and they always need to be interupted from their work to be whisked away to the problem spot. The expert is female (the name escapes me) and she has an African American assistant (also, the name escapes me). They get taken to a town where people have been getting eaten by bats. The sherriff is shocked, but starts to believe within minutes.

They then go in search of the flying critters and find them, or the critters find them rather. They eventually get trapped in a building ala "The Birds" or "Night of the Living Dead". Then they get the revenge they are looking for.

What does this movie have going for it? Not much. But if you go into it with that in mind, you might find yourself enjoying this thing a bit. Just don't be expecting "The Birds" or even "The Relic". Rather be expecting a movie like "Skeeters". If you do that, this is a decent film. The camera work is decent and none of the characters are too bad.

The amount of stuff they packed onto this DVD is shocking. The fact that this movie was dumped on by everybody (go to www.rottentomatoes.com to see just how much this movie was disliked) and it still got better DVD treatment than most blockbusters is shocking! Then listen to the commentary. The commentary is done by the director and Lou Diamond Phillips. They both discuss the technical aspects and the fun "behind the scenes" stuff. But the amazing thing is that these guys treat this movie with respect! I don't think either one of them ever heard the reaction the public had to this thing. Which in a way is a saving grace to the movie. If they still love it and don't disown it, it might survive the test of time and someday have people come back to it and say "hey, this wasn't so bad". Which it wasn't.

This is not the walking piece of Guano (had to do it, sorry) most will have you believe. Just remember that it is about genetically engineered bats that are meant to kill and not trite religious monstrocities that make no damn sense at all and that have a priest who is so obsessed with his Lord that he suffers Stigmatas and then possesses a girl and turns her in to a foul mouthed beast, and you will be o.k. I may have given away the film that I ended up hating there.

So BATS is just a decent, dumb, innocent way to spend a few bucks and kill a few hours. I will give this thing:

**1/2 out of 5