Nonureva Really Surprised!

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

david-sarkies Now I can take this movie in one of two ways: either it is a criticism of American society or it is a praise of American society. I don't think that it is a movie that is meant to make a statement but rather it is for the entertainment of young adults. Now one of the reasons that this movie doesn't work is because the concept of it, giant insects moving into middle class America and disguising themselves as humans, is really something aimed at children, yet a lot of the in movie concepts, such as the continual drug references and hints at homosexuality, is something that only adults can understand. I don't know if this movie flopped, but in America it did receive an R rating (which is MA in Australia).Now let us look at the critical side of the film. What it seems to do is to take aspects of American society and blow them out of proportion. Meet the Applegates focuses on the middle class society and it seems to satirically attack what is considered average. The Applegates are supposed to be the average American family so that they don't look out of place. The problem is that by being the average they are actually singled out because the average is not in fact average. Even though they try to be average, problems arise. For example, the boy, Johnny, likes heavy metal music - this is what is average, but because of this he attracts the two delinquents who smoke and are into drugs. In the end he becomes a drug dealer who has informants everywhere and becomes far from being average.The girl is different. She is supposed to be a sweet woman who kisses on the second date. What they don't expect is that her boyfriend wants to go all the way. What angered me was that the guy practically raped her, yet at the end of the movie it is the Applegates that are accused of being bad. The only reason that he was cocooned was because he discovered that she was not human. In the end he went unpunished for something that I consider wrong. Yet this also is a comment on society. The girls knew what he was like and they could handle him, but the insect didn't so when he started coming on strong she couldn't fight back. Thus we see here that the American society overcomes the alien.This brings me on to the uniqueness of the American society as is portrayed in the film, and along with this is how the society will overcome its invaders. The concept of the secretary jumping her employer comes out, and Dick doesn't really understand the whole concept and thus is caught and fired. The secretary though was coming on very strong and though Dick succumbed, in the end she walks away free while Dick is the one who is punished. We also see this with Jane about how the American, who has grown up around a consumer society, has a spending curve that enables her to survive, while Jane, who is new to the society, is introduced to credit and rushes out and begins to buy all of these wonderful things. In the end, her desire to own more destroys her as the bank comes along and takes everything away.What we see here is American Society at its lowest, yet there is a patriotic speech at the end of the movie about how everybody should live in harmony and how we should not infringe on others societies. The bug killer is attacked but in general all of the things that went on in the movie seem to be ignored. Even though we see a degenerate and sadistic society, on the level, humanity is nice and loving and all of this is unimportant. That is what makes me sick.

itchyglobo2003 I'm sick and tired of people ripping this movie apart. Who cares why there's a scorpion featured in the opening shot when the movie is about cockroaches.Beetlejuice opened with a spider and that's not the main character either. Yes,in this age of political correctness there are flaws.Is rape ever funny? Funny that foul language isn't mentioned yet,I guess nowadays it's too commonplace and nobody cares. Low budget special effects-check. Cheesy dialog-check. Nods to John Waters-I guess so. I think this movie entertains.It also offends from what I've read. Is it one of the worst ever made? Hardly. I can think of 50 films right now (recently released) that should be flushed down the toilet immediately.Hollywood excels at churning out bland,tasteless fodder for the mainstream masses. Stop taking it so seriously.It's meant to be a dark comedy and that's exactly what it is. Now where's the DVD?.

merklekranz Trying to combine sci-fi with black comedy proves much too challenging and this picture misfires badly. If you are going to push an ecological message, then there must be a better vehicle than "The Applegates". Ed Begley Jr. has been in some pretty outrageous movies (see Eating Raoul), but it has to be both outrageous and entertaining, which this film is not. None of the characters elicit the tiniest bit of sympathy, and the "storage problem" for their prey is just one of several tedious situations which are endlessly played out. The two insect teenagers are especially annoying, and Dabney Coleman's "Aunt Bee" is little more than an embarrassment to his career. In summary, do not go out of your way to find a copy of "The Applegates". You will be just as disappointed as I was. - MERK

bob the moo Angered by a logging company encroaching deep into their natural forest, a family of large insects camouflage themselves as humans and blend themselves into a small American town. Dick gets a job with the nuclear power plant in order to sabotage it and wage war on the human population. However the family finds that their attempts to blend in are working a little too easy and they endanger their own mission. Despite being a little too gory for my tastes, this comedy is actually quite sharp in it's main satire on American life. The main joke for me was the way the family of bugs are sucked into the lifestyle of American mores – the mother gives in to commercialism, the son to drugs, the daughter to teenage sex and the father to adultery. It's comical to watch their descent and works pretty well. Where's it's all going is less clear and the message is not so clear in regards whether becoming `normal' is for the best or not. What is clear is the eco message which pokes fun at those who would make war on nature (whether bug or human) without respect for other life forms.For a 90 minute film it all works pretty well and is actually quite imaginative. The gore put me off a little, in the gore of the eggs and bugs generally and I would have preferred if they had just had the bugs without all the slime and stuff. The cast do a good job carrying the material – their performances generally help keep up the mood of weirdness! Begley Jnr and Channing are both good in the leads – each giving in to their human environment. The kids are OK but the best performance is an outrageous performance from Coleman as the queen of the species – complete with full drag and moustache!Overall this never quite delivers as many laughs as it's clever and funny pitch but it is still worth a watch. It has a surreal picture book image of `normal' America that it slowly explodes. For me, you could take or leave the eco message and still enjoy the film. Not great but different enough to be worth a try.