has a big-time spider flick been released and even today, I have trouble watching that one all the way through.  Bottom line, spiders freak me out!

Putting on my critics hat sees the film begin in a small American town where a barrel of nuclear waste falls off a truck and into a river.  Animals in the river are affected including small crickets which a local spider guy feeds to his scary pets.  The spiders start growing to massive proportions then wreak havoc on the town and its people.

Leading the fight is Chris McCormack (Arquette) and Sheriff Sam Parker (Wurher).  There’s a whole other sub-plot involving these two which isn’t worth wasting time on.  If you’ve seen the poster, you don’t see a film like this for its romance.  I did like the way though director Ellory Elkayem mocks that standard Hollywood scene where two people kiss for the first time.  A nice touch.

Special effects could have been better.  After hearing conversations with the film’s stars, it would have be quite a challenge to run around like a manic being chased by spiders that didn’t even exist when the film was shot.  All the spiders were inserted later with digital effects and if you ask me, the CGI effects team weren’t up to their own challenge.  Good without being great.

I also expected better from David Arquette.  He’s made some decent films but I don’t what particularly attracted him to this project (aside from the money).  Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World) is also a favourite actress of mine who should picked another film.  I hope they don’t share the same agent.