"The Stuff" as reviewed by Andy

I had to look it up. Rookie mistake. Larry Cohen is not one of "the Coen Brothers (Ethan & Joel)." I'm sort of embarrassed to admit it, and as I was watching "The Stuff" I questioned where Mr. Cohen could have written such great films as "No Country For Old Men" and "Fargo" and the ridiculous film that I was watching. Turns out the answer is the obvious "no." He is credited for writing "Cellular" and "Phone Booth," as well as "Body Snatchers (not the "Invasion of...")."

"The Stuff" is a spoof, as far as I can tell, of the 80's ice cream fad, or should I say ice-scream fad. I feel really stupid for just having written that, but it so typifies the silliness of the movie. I, of course, eat a lot of ice cream because I'm LDS, so I don't remember there being a fad in the 8o's for ice cream and more than today...

The proprietors of "The Stuff" as it's known in the movie, discovered the substance at some sort of industrial mine. It happened to taste good (who tastes glowing white crap eeking out of the ground?), so they shut down the mine and start marketing and selling THE STUFF as a replacement for other deserts. It quickly becomes a nationwide fad, replacing almost all other food in many consumers' diets. The tag line for the marketing is something like "the more you eat, the more you want..." And that's what happens, only the addiction people have to THE STUFF is biological. THE STUFF IS ALIVE!!!!!

I'm not sure what the purpose of THE STUFF was, but it apparently got really pissed when the hero started figuring out what THE STUFF was. He, of course, wasn't investigating for any altruistic reason; he was paid by the dairy conglomerates at some sort of secret corporate espionage yacht-meeting. And hilarity ensues.

Enjoyable, but I'm not sure that the movie shouldn't have been in our section of worst movies. It certainly wasn't as bad as several of the movies on our list, but I would probably put it in the same category as the other cult-classics "Blood Diner," and "Plan 9 from Outer Space." Shockingly deep cast for such a silly pseudo-horror film. Also, I'm not sure why it was rated R (don't remember any bad words, scenes, etc., and the horror was no big deal).

thoughts by Andy