Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

(On DVD, August 2002) Monster movies! You like them or you don’t. In this case, this second sequel to the already-classic Tremors falls short of the original (unsurprisingly) but still manages to pack some punch, especially for a straight-to-video release. In the Tremors tradition, it’s not bad in presenting relatively smart characters using their wits to fight off killer creatures. Unfortunately or not, it also keeps expanding the lifecycle of the “Graboid” creatures in a third stage (completing the cycle), the unfortunately-named “ass-blasters”. (no joke) Michael Gross returns as Burt the not-so-crazed survivalist, along with a variety of other players from the first feature. (Ariana Richards also returns, but it’s been a long time Jurassic Park, and she here seems to be trying her damnedest to win a Kirsten Dunst look-alike contest.) The film advances at a decent pace and delivers the expected chills and thrills but make no mistake; this is a film for the fans of the series only. Don’t apply if you haven’t seen (and liked) the first two features. The DVD features a fluffy making-of featurette, cast bios (which is useful when you don’t know these people), trailers for all three Tremors movies and not much else. Not that you actually need much else.