Official Synopsis:
“The stakes are raised for survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) in his most dangerous monster hunt yet. When Gummer’s hired to capture a deadly Assblaster terrorizing South Africa, he and his new sidekick, Travis Welker (Jamie Kennedy), engage in a battle of survival against the fiercely aggressive Assblasters and Graboids. Discovering the monsters have evolved into even more lethal creatures, their killer mission takes on a whole new level of unseen terror-far more than they bargained for.”
If you haven’t dared venture past the original Termors, you may not be privy to what new horrors the subsequent sequels have spawned in terms of new and terrifying creatures, because, you know, worms aren’t scary. Fear not, monster hunter, because right off the bat you get a crash course from an instructional video on the dangers of Graboids and the rest of the species. Since no one has ever watched every Tremors film, this makes it very convenient to know what is going on.
I was actually pleasantly surprised how much I liked the beginning of this film. The video that Burt Gummer is filming is really well done, and I like what they’ve done with the lore of the series. These creatures are pretty cool, and it definitely leaves me nostalgic for the first film.
All that ended when Jamie Kennedy appeared on screen.
I’m not sure what the plan is here – to hand the torch off to Jamie Kennedy and continue the series or what. What little credibility these films had left was the fact that Michael Gross reprised his role as one of the coolest characters from the first film. Jamie Kennedy’s character could have been played by one of those advertising air dancers and it wouldn’t have changed a thing. His character is tragically one-dimensional, with no redeeming or likeable qualities about him.
In fact, that is the case with all the characters in Tremors 5. Many characters are set up but have no follow through to even warrant existing in the first place. A second antagonist is introduced with a story-line that could have developed into something interesting, but instead is abandoned in favor of ripping off scenes from great monster movies. A great drinking-game would be to drink any time you see a blatant rip-off of Jurassic Park, Predator, or you hear one liners stolen from Jaws and Die Hard. Unfortunately what original dialogue they have is cringe-worthy and offers little to the paper thin plot.
Even though Tremors 5 has a lot of shortcomings, I honestly expected much worse. For a straight to video horror flick, Tremors 5 has some decent to semi-high quality special effects. I tried to see the film for what it is at its most basic level: Burt Gummer shooting worms. He’s a kick-ass character, and for fans of the character, and the original film, you can’t ask for much more.
Here’s a look at the technical aspect of this disc:
Video
Tremors 5 is presented in 1080p 1.78:1. The video looks really good here. Colors are a bit muted with the desert atmosphere but it gives it a really dry and dusty feel. As I said before, the CGI looks surprisingly good.
The menu for the disc is a bit confusing. Instead of labels, there are small icons you must guess at what they mean.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and is probably the best thing about this disc. The surrounds are fully utilized in all the action scenes, and pack quite the punch.
Special Features
There isn’t much to the Special Features, but the behind the scenes stuff is worth checking out. Michael Gross reaffirms that without him there wouldn’t be a Tremors 5. The outtakes just made me sad.
Deleted and Extended Scenes
Outtakes
Tremors 5: Behind the Bloodlines
At its core, Tremors 5: Bloodlines is a cool monster flick blended with a bit of comedy that continues the lore of a killer concept. The thing that keeps the films rolling is Michael Gross as Burt Gummer, so fans of the character will want to check this out.
If I were to sum up my review of the film as short as possible it would look something like this:
Burt: Good
Worms: Good
Everything Else: Bad
