SPIDERS 2: BREEDING GROUND (2002)
Directed by Sam Firstenberg
Starring Stephanie Niznik and Greg Cromeer
Weak direct-to-video sequel to the direct-to-video classic "Spiders." The original Lion's Gate film was an absolutely delicious heap of guilty-pleasure garbage, which featured teens investigating a government facility overrun with weapons-grade super monster spiders.
Like the original film, "Spiders II" boasts some impressive CGI effects. The
monster spiders look really good here. But the film takes itself way too
seriously. It starts off with a bang, then gets too talky, and finishes with a
mildly entertaining climax.
A couple boating in the high seas run across another ship that was burned to a crisp. After a storm destroys their own craft, they are saved by a giant cargo liner that happens to be in the area. As it turns out, the cargo liner is being run by a mad doctor using the same super-spider technology we were introduced to in the first film to impregnate unsuspecting victims with "Alien"-like spider eggs. The husband, impregnated with one of the eggs, starts acting paranoid, and when he becomes suspicious that the crew of the ship is up to no good. Naturally his wife (Niznik) doesn't believe him. In the end, however, she turns out to be the tough-ass Ripley-esque bitch of the picture.
Too much talk and not enough spiders until the end greatly hamper this little movie. Even worse, a Lisa Gerrard-like music score comes across as pretentious in the context of a movie like this. The movie gets saved by the spiders which, when they turn up, look pretty cool, particularly when they suddenly swoop down behind a soon-to-be-dead bad guy. CGI has come a long way, and it's obviously not as expensive to use it in a flick as it was back in the days of "Jurassic Park."
If you haven't seeen the original "Spiders," pass on this one until you see that. If you've got nothing else going on in your life, and can't find anything else to rent at the local video store, you might want to check this out. At the very least you can fast forward to the giant spider-laden climax.