The Stuff
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Movie Reviews of The Stuff
Movie Review: You just cant get enough, of the stuff
Summary: 4 Stars
Learn it, live it, love it. Remember, sometimes you need to eat shaving cream to survive.Movie Review: the stuff
Summary: 4 Stars
it is different in that was kills is weird stuff so enjoy its worth having in a collectionMovie Review: Flawed but occasionally amusing
Summary: 3 Stars
I have never enjoyed watching Michael Moriarty in either television programs or films. There is something about the guy, like fingernails on a chalkboard or a dripping faucet, which annoys me whenever his mug appears on my television screen. Regrettably, and for some completely unexplainable reason, I have seen him way too often recently. You cannot avoid running across him on television due to the saturation of a certain courtroom drama program, so I don't necessarily place the blame there because I simply refuse to watch that show. Still, even that split second glimpse before my finger slams down on the remote control is enough to send me into a dither. No, I need to police my movie viewing habits a little more carefully in the future if I wish to avoid sustained Moriarty encounters. The problem comes when I want to watch a Larry Cohen film. It seems like this director/producer/writer cast this actor in nearly every schlock film he made from the 1970s on. "The Stuff" is primary evidence in my effort to prove a Cohen/Moriarty conspiracy. And wouldn't you know it? Moriarty is at his most grating in this occasionally interesting social critique of rampant 1980s consumerism."The Stuff" is about, well, a new food sensation called "The Stuff." We learn at the beginning of the film that the stuff is actually something bubbling up from the ground and that it tastes deliciously sweet because some old duffer decides to sample the white paste after he touches it (note to self: never, NEVER decide to taste something bubbling out of the ground). Since it is the evil 1980s, a time when corporate greed finally came into its own, in no time at all some company decides to sell this gunk as a low fat, low calorie confection. You would think the FDA or some other government agency working tirelessly to protect consumers would throw up major roadblocks to such a shameless attempt to garner a buck. Not in Larry Cohen's universe, where corporations are distant relations to fallen angels and the rest of us are gullible sheep along for the ride. We find out that the FDA did perform a battery of rigorous tests on the stuff but something happened during the process that resulted in either strange disappearances or cowed testers who refuse to speak out about what they found in the laboratory. With those pesky government agencies out of the way, the people behind the stuff pull in money hand over fist. The competition, made up of companies making such boring products as ice cream and candy, decide enough is enough and hire an industrial spy so they can get the formula.
Enter Michael Moriarty as David 'Mo' Rutherford (the 'mo' means 'more money'), a greedy former government agent who now makes his living stealing corporate secrets for the highest bidder. Moriarty assumes a languorous southern drawl for his character, an accent so annoying I actually felt parts of my brain liquefy every time he opened his mouth. Rutherford begins his investigation immediately, quickly discovering that something isn't quite right about the stuff. People cannot seem to get enough of this new treat, leading our hero to surmise that the company producing this white sweet is putting an addictive substance in it. After teaming up with up a disgruntled marketing executive, a cookie maker known as Chocolate Chip Charlie (Garrett Morris), a precocious kid who escaped his addicted family, and a far right militia type named Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears, Rutherford is ready to do battle with the forces of darkness (or whiteness). The team discovers that the stuff comes out of the ground and that it possesses properties decidedly harmful to the human race as a whole. The company selling the stuff as a food product could care less about the potential dangers to people as long as they make a profit. At least the concluding scenes of the film, where the stuff executives get their "just desserts," so to speak, is moderately entertaining. Regrettably, "The Stuff" as a film collapses under a host of problems.
It has been at least a week since I have seen such a poorly edited film. The beginning and middle parts of the movie aren't all that bad, but by the time we get to the end the whole thing looks like Cohen slapped it together in an effort to get the film ready for a distribution deadline. Even a Herschell Gordon Lewis film has better editing than "The Stuff," and that is saying a lot. I have already gone into the problems with Moriarty's performance here, a problem that could have been offset had the other characters in the movie proved even remotely interesting. The terrorized kid is annoying, Chocolate Chip Charlie is amusing but only appears briefly in the beginning and towards the end, and Colonel Spears (played over the top by Paul Sorvino) plays on every wacko stereotype imaginable. Moreover, the romance springing up between Rutherford and Nicole, the disillusioned advertising executive, is unrealistic.
Happily, "The Stuff" does succeed on several levels. The special effects showing the stuff on a rampage and what it does to those who eat it on a regular basis looks good. The social critique works well, especially the slick advertising spots and the cheesy yet catchy jingles used to sell the product. Viewers well versed in 1980's pop culture should get a chuckle or two out of the cameo by Clara Peller, the lady who did the "Where's the beef?" ads for a widely recognizable hamburger chain back in the days of Reagan. Finally, the DVD release contains a Cohen commentary, trailers, and a widescreen picture transfer. "The Stuff" has plenty of flaws, but still manages to occasionally entertain.
Movie Review: Not as goofy as I'd like it to be, but still pretty good.
Summary: 3 Stars
Now when you first hear about a movie that has a killer dessert in it you'd probably think this is gonna rock. Well, this movie is funny, but wears thin sometimes. First of all, there's a real cheeseball story, which if they stuck to it most of the time this would be better. The opening is funny, you see this dude in the artic just waltzin' around when all of a sudden he comes across this white stuff comin' out of the ground. He promptly dips his finger in it and eats some of it. (Yeah, the first thing you do when you see a random substance in the ground is you HAVE TO TASTE IT.) So these dudes start marketing the white junk now named "The Stuff". Then we see a boy looking for a midnight snack when he sees the stuff dancin' around. The boy freaks and tries to tell everyone, and obviously they don't believe him at first. Pretty soon, the stuff starts selling better than any other dessert so the candy companies hire some guy named Mo. ("They call me that cause whenever you give me money, I always want Mo.") On the trail of the secret behind the stuff Mo meets Choclate Chip Charlie, the best character in the movie who unfortunately we don't see enough of. Choclate Chip charlie has fists of death and can mutilate people by slapping and punching them (a la Story of Ricky style, which is an awsome movie that you should go buy now). Eventually the two heroes find that the stuff turns people into mindless zombies who only crave more of the stuff and are evil. So the two kick some zombie ... and decide to split up and investigate (and we don't see Charlie until the end). Then the movie gets kinda boring for a while. So at the end they get rid of the stuff epidemic by warning people about what it does and poor charlie gets killed by the stuff at the end. Some very funny scenes in the movie. You should at least see. Cohen's movie "It's Alive" was pure genius and you should buy that one if you have to choose.Movie Review: Good stuff
Summary: 3 Stars
As a rather unsubtle allegory of mindless consumerism The Stuff works quite well. It'd be easy to dismiss it as an 80's shlockfest but there is some brains behind it and Larry Cohen (the very man who wrote Maniac Cop, Phone Booth and Cellular) keeps the film fun until the last frame.
It's a cool story too. A weird goo oozes out of the ground in a quarry and it tastes good. So good in fact that within days it's being sold in mass, mass, incredibly mass quantities to the whole country. People are having it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert and supper. They feed it to their pets and put it in their coffee. Enough is not enough as the slogan goes.
Rival candy companies don't like the look of this and hire a very smooth industrial spy, David `Mo' Rutherford, to find out exactly what it is. What he finds is rather sinister indeed. And with the help of a commercial maker, a runaway kid and a gung-ho militia leader he tries to put a stop to The Stuff.
My main problem is that the origins off The Stuff and its `intentions' are never fully revealed or exploited. It ends without a satisfactory explanation which is quite a shame considering how much potential is wasted. There are stories that Larry Cohen cut 30 minutes of erm...stuff from the movie and perhaps there's more to the missing scenes. But for what it is, The Stuff, is a fun 90-minute movie that will not linger in your memory too long after seeing it.
Anchor Bay's DVD of The Stuff presents the film in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture is generally clean and dirt free but has some trouble in a few scenes. The Mono sound is adequate and tolerable but the ADR is too apparent in the early scenes and there are brief drop-outs towards the end. A commentary by Larry Cohen is also included.