MEET THE APPLEGATES

Cover of the ex-rental big box VHS videocassette format of Meet the Applegates that I own (© Michael Lehmann/New World Pictures/Cinemarque Entertainment/Triton Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

For no particular reason, I designated the evening of 5 June 2019 as "Watch a weird movie night", and my choice for it was decidedly weird, even by my standards!

Gigantic insects are a staple ingredient of classic monster movies, creature features, and cryptozoology-themed films. They most commonly centre upon gargantuan ants but sometimes include giant bees or wasps, immense moths, mega-mosquitoes, colossal crickets and grasshoppers, even some truly enormous cockroaches (and don't forget the animated 7-ft-tall flea that starred in A Monster In Paris – click here to read my recent review of this charming movie). But I can confidently say that the overtly over-sized insects featuring in this present movie were decidedly different from anything that I'd previously encountered on the big – or small – screen!

(Incidentally, if you're a fan of such films, be sure to click here to access what must surely be the definitive online listing of movies featuring all manner of belligerent bugs on the big side.)

Directed by Michael Lehmann, and released in 1990 by Triton Pictures, Meet The Applegates (courtesy of another of my previously-unwatched 20+ year-old ex-rental big box VHS videocassettes) is an exceedingly curious confection of black comedy and environmental satire. Its surreal storyline is all about a scientifically-undiscovered species of giant Brazilian mantis-like insect with the ability to shape-shift into human form, which a family of them do in an attempt to infiltrate a typical US town as a family of typical US citizens, the Applegates, while covertly intending to blow up its nuclear plant in revenge for their South American rainforest home being felled.

Unfortunately for them, however, they soon become subverted by such human failings as illicit sex, drug-taking, credit-card overspending, etc etc, and their nefarious schemes go hilariously awry. The two lead roles, head of the family Dick Applegate and his wife Jane, are played by Ed Begley Jr and Stockard Channing respectively, but there are no other major names present. Interestingly, Begley is an environmental activist in real life.

Despite (or because of?) the ludicrous plot, Meet the Applegates is an engaging fantasy-comedy, and at just 90 minutes long it avoids stretching its bizarre theme beyond breaking point.

For everyone into entertainment of the entomological kind, click here if you would like to watch Meet the Applegates while it is still available to view in its entirety for free on YouTube. Or why not at least try out its official trailer, here, as a tantalizing taster of the six-legged silliness in store? You know it makes sense, unlike most of this movie!

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!