Mansquito

SciFi has been doing a little better with their films lately. I enjoyed Frankenfish, this, and Species III. THey are making some ones better than Raptor Island...Ugh, I shudder to think of that crap. Anyway, this is Mansquito. SciFi usually uses bad CGI effects, but in this they managed to have GOOD effects! GO figure! The effects really impressed me, some CGI, but not much at all. THe Mansquito looked real good, and there were some nice gore effects. Hopefully there will be more gore in the DVD release hehe. ANyway, this film is not too original, but it is entertaining. Very entertaining. Good way to waste 2 hours of your time. Def. one good monster/killer bug film. Recommended if you want to have some good fun. 7/10

A convict is scheduled to be used in tests involving the west Nile virus, but escapes and is bitten by a mutant mosquito, transforming him into a hideous insectile humanoid. It's up to cops to track him down as he makes his way through a city, sucking his victims dry. This is one of those "Made for Sci-fi channel" films, which, lets face it, more often than not turn out to be stinking cesspools (See Dinocroc, King Snake, Boa vs. Python, etc.) or, putting it more kindly, on the "lower end of the horror spectrum". However, "Mansquito" actually manages to transcend most of the other films sci-fi produces. It's got decent enough acting, plenty of nasty gore scenes, cool creature effects, but lots of problems too. To start, the plot is carp. I'll admit that. It's got lots of 1-D characters whose sole purpose is to be killed off in horrible gruesome ways by the monster. The science behind the creature is non-existent. It's also very, very predictable. Director Tibor Takács—who was responsible for 1987's effects-laden cult hit, "The Gate", and the really cool "I, Madman"—has since done some not-so-great low-budget horror films like Killer Rats (2003), but he redeems himself somewhat with "Mansquito". He gives the film a fun feel and never lets the pace drop. He also gives us just what we paid for—gore and a slimy, ugly monster. At first the gore is rather tame, but it really picks up towards the end, check out the "SWAT team dismemberment" for some real nasty stuff! As I said before, the creature effects are really cool. The effects are handled by Tony Garner, who also worked on "Seed of Chucky". Thankfully the monster isn't CG most of the time, just a good old man-in-a-suit (Except for shots of the creature running or flying, in which the makers implored so truly awful CG).

If you're looking for a fresh, original sci-fi film, look elsewhere, 'cause "Mansquito" is anything but that. However, it IS a fun, gory monster movie for a boring, rainy Saturday afternoon.

6/10.

undoubtedly you've seen the previews on sci-fi which show the sexy scientist tearing off her blouse-- that and the title tell you all you need to know about how cheesy and ridiculous this picture is-- but I hate to admit I found it strangely watchable. Corin Nemec plays a positively Beowulfian cop who tussles repeatedly with the mansquito but somehow survives each time, while(numerous) lesser men and women die within a few tenths of a second of their 'squito encounters. The story hurtles forward at a breathless pace,which is undoubtedly a good thing considering how silly it is. The heroine is also infected by radioactive skeeter juice(hence her need to disrobe(?), and she figures out that Only She can lure Mansquito to his doom...and you can probably guess the rest.

Look: obviously no one watches a teevee movie called "Mansquito!"(it needed an exclamation point, don't you think?) expecting King Lear, unless they have neurological problems or something. Mansquito! is the cinematic equivalent of cheese nachos: you hate to admit you occasionally crave because you know they're nutritional gargbage-- good in a bad way. And gee, I didn't know mosquitos growl.

Once in a while a movie comes by that is so campy and fun that it forever finds a place in your heart. This could almost be one of those movies if the production wasn't so lackluster and straight-forward. The idea is delightfully insane, but where does it really go from there? The whole movie bathes in a rather unpleasant Eurotrash-atmosphere, probably because most of the dirty work was outsourced to Bulgaria to cut costs. Their cheap labour actually looks semi-professional, which is the absolute worst thing you can have in a movie about a killer half man/half mosquito. Corin Nemec plays the hero in this movie, to which I can only say that I'm glad he's working. It beats infomercials, not by much though. "Mansquito" is in many ways frustrating, because it could have gone so much more over the top. There are a couple of good action scenes though, and it does have the merit of an insanely high body count, so I guess I still kinda like it.

Great Scott! But it's starting to seem that the Sci-Fi Channel produces these things like link sausage, one after after another after another and all pretty much the same.

Take a cliché hero from column A, a heroine from column B, inject giant mutant X (insect, spider, snake etc), mix will with lots of faceless police/soldiers/general public with a collective I.Q. five points under room temperature as monster fodder and boil in pot until rank.

The only thing they left out of this one (other than an interesting story) was the evil rich guy who wants to exploit the monster of the week.

Oh... and by the way, male mosquitoes don't drink blood, only female mosquitoes do.