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NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

GL84 When a series of earthquakes releases a violent breed of spider into New Orleans, a tourist group and several others band together to fight off the deadly creatures before they wreak havoc on the city.This was a slightly silly and goofy Sci-Fi Channel creature feature that actually has some good points to make it worthwhile. One of the biggest aspects here comes from the frantic, continuous plot on display, with the spiders out and about quite early it makes for a lot of action to come from their encounters. Even though there's no deaths present, the attack on the tour bus is a lot of fun with their first appearance driving this one along a nice scene and makes the most of it with several rather big action scenes followed off this one including a fantastic scene in a convenience store and a rather suspenseful one later on in a stranded bus along a lonely highway that's quickly overrun by the creatures that's a lot of fun watching it slowly get covered with webbing. Other stand-outs include the numerous encounters and chases in the swamps around the city as there's plenty of gunfights with the creatures, a rather impressive autopsy sequence where we finally get a handle on the creatures and a chance to see that they have some nifty powers that add to the fun here, as well as getting some suspenseful moments throughout here. While the finale is far out-of-place in the film it has plenty of cheesy action here with the military encounters attempting to stop it and the final resolution to stopping it is pure cheesy fun. Aside from the action, there's also a lot to like with the spiders here being far more involved and given much more here than expected going into their backstory and society which not only gives them a logical reason for being here as well as having a nice bit of knowledge about the creatures. These here are enough to hold this off from the few small problems here, which start with the actions of the finale. It doesn't really have a lot of purpose being there other than to fill the cheese quotient even more, but that doesn't make it seem coherent in the narrative of the story. It comes from out of nowhere here and really just seems awkward at times in terms of what happens elsewhere in the rest of the movie and it feels a little underwhelming. As well, there's also the fact that this one features a really irritating ploy here with the family members continually getting to bag on the guy here for what is obviously out of his control for no reason here and this one feels too repetitious here in the later half of the by keeping up this lame storyline here. The ability of this one jumping to conclusions in blaming him for what's going on is such a stretch that it becomes laughable to assume that kind of action was the result of what he was being accused of and it goes deep enough into here that it does become a problem. Overall, this was a decent enough entry with some minor problems.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

jonathan_k80 After surviving a viewing of this, my impression is that this is one of those movies that was filmed simultaneously as the script was still being written - you know, "Okay, we're done with Scene 10... hurry up and finish writing scene 11... we begin shooting it tomorrow." This explains why characters seem to drop into the story with no explanation or background, like when the National Guard just happens to be on the scene of a spider attack... did somebody call them or were they just driving through the area at the time?There are too many "conveniences" in the plot. Tracey Gold's character just happens to be an expert on arachnology, the Guardsman's daughter just happens to be aboard the bus they are trying to rescue. Add to this the hammed-up acting and what you get is a cast of cardboard characters you have no empathy for.And what is it with that background music? The generic "scenes of peril" film score runs at full volume throughout the majority of the movie!Since the IMDb ratings system only allows whole numbers, I give this a "1." If it were possible I would award it an extra half point for (unintentional) comedic value for the scene of the final showdown with the giant cheap-CGI spider.In short, this is another movie I highly recommend......that you avoid.

DarkVengence Flipped the stations, came across this title and decided to cheaply entertain myself. I used to watch movies like this all the time just for the hell of it (though once in a rare while, there's a gem in all the rubble).When I looked at who was in this movie - Tracey Gold, Ethan Phillips, and Edward Furlong among others - I already knew this was going to be one of THOSE movies. It was more out of seeing what Furlong was doing and what the spiders looked like more than anything that kept me tuned in. The spiders are as atrocious as any bad movie "monster". Even in 2012 and on TV, this was seriously poor.Furlong looked bad as anyone would suspect. His acting (which to me was never all that great to begin with) was terrible and he was seriously miscast.I made it halfway through and decided to just watch the rest, knowing full well this will be the last time I watch this garbage movie. Predictable and nothing greatly original, but if you enjoy bad movies like this, by all means - but this is pretty much as bad as it gets.

Paul Magne Haakonsen Unfortunately the market for monstrous spider movies is flooded with less than average movies, and only a handful of the movies of this genre actually managed to pull it off decently. "Arachnoquake" is in the lower scale of the genre, that, of course, being not-so-good end, as you might have guessed.The movie is a SyFy Channel movie, which pretty much sets the bar for expectations. But "Arachnoquake" does deliver what has become the trademark quality of SyFy Channel; that being cheesy effects, campy storyline and mindless entertainment that will actually have you laughing or smiling in disbelief.An earthquake strikes New Orleans, causing cracks in the ground to open up. But as if earthquakes in this region wasn't strange enough, then the cracks in the ground opened up to subterranean spiders who emerge to prey on the people of New Orleans. These subterranean spiders that no one ever have seen or heard of range in the size from a human fist to actually larger than a school bus. The bayou is in dire threat now from the lurkers of beneath.That being the storyline, well it is pretty much straight forward textbook approach; natural disaster awakens slumbering beasts, beasts emerge to prey on humans in the area, humans are terrified but manage to fight back (and win, of course) against these unnatural predators. It is as in every other spider movie available. And of course you have the fairly stereotypical character gallery in "Arachnoquake" as well.As for the acting in "Arachnoquake", well it was actually good enough. Sure, don't expect award-winning performances here, but in overall, then I think the actors and actresses actually did well enough, as what I had expected from it, being a SyFy Channel movie and all.The effects, well of that I am somewhat swaying in my opinions. Because in some scenes the spiders actually looked nice enough, despite their pinkish-white color, but then in other scenes it just went to awful CGI effects. But if you are familiar with SyFy Channels previous work (well most of it anyway) then you know what level of effects you are in for in this movie.The movie give the expression that this spider infestation happened all over New Orleans, but the movie didn't manage to pull that off. The movie never managed to make it seem like the entire city was in dire peril, or that the citizens were terrified. And when the spider queen was killed, all other spiders just died as well. Wait, what? So they died in sympathy? Never heard about that before, so you kill the queen, and automatically all spiders in the nest drop over dead from sorrow or shock? That was just hilarious.One thing that made me crack out laughing was when the spiders started breathing fire. So monstrously large subterranean spiders wasn't enough? No, apparently some writer somewhere thought 'oh yeah, it would be so much better if the spiders breathe fire as well'. Right. Well that just made the movie even more cheesy than it already was.I think that Ethan Phillips character Roy's death scene was hilarious. I am not spoiling it more by saying how he dies (having said he died is spoiling it enough), but pay attention to the billowing steamy breath from his mouth, showing that he is obviously still alive and breathing, when he just have died. Hooray for the weather there, eh? How could the people behind the camera or the fellow actors around that not see it and point it out? Or did the movie maker just go 'and that's a wrap, no one will notice his steamy breath anyway'? It always makes me curl up my toes in disbelief when there are mistakes like this in movies.But entertainment wise, then "Arachnoquake" is actually fun to watch. Why? Well because it is just that cheesy and campy, and because you know exactly how the movie will turn out, even before the first scene starts rolling. But unfortunately, this wasn't one of SyFy Channels better movies, nor did it manage to carve itself out from some of the more outstanding spider movies of the same genre, and thus it just becomes a less than mediocre experience.