A Brilliant Conflict

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I was told this was a LAUGH-OUT-RIOT horror-comedy, and was told incorrectly. That said, I laughed a bit here and there, but this enormously clichéd, predictable and hardly original alien invasion film barely stood above the rest. It even had a completely uninspired creature. The saving grace was the moments of comedy – though you had to wait until the second half and the alcohol consumption "twist." Perhaps not to be taken too seriously, it might be a tad fun. I know I would've loved this as a kid. Cheers!

In reply to this review, by the_doofy, on 25 May 2017 I can categorically state that absolutely no animals were harmed in the making of this 'foreign' movie. No whales. No cats. No fish. No alien monsters.The pod of pilot whales on the beach near the start of the film were all FAKE. As in - not real. In fact - the film makers are delighted and not a little amused that you thought that real whales had been haunted down and butchered. If you thought they were real, then that's a great compliment to the craft on display.The whale that forms the centrepiece of the first scene between Ruth Bradley's and Russell Tovey's characters' first meeting was sculpted out of polystyrene, coated in silicone, and painted.The rest of the whales that you see lined up on the sand are 100% CGI.Did the_doofy really think this film lacked the budget for any CGI? Did he think that the film makers, (when not busy hunting down and butchering pilot whales) captured some giant tentacle aliens and forced them to perform?

GRABBERS, as a film, offers me a conundrum. I love creature features and this is certainly a creature feature. At the same time, one of my pet hates in cinema is drinking, and watching performers attempting to act drunk on screen. GRABBERS is a film that seeks to combine the two, so I had no idea what to expect.Sadly, this Irish comedy - about a remote fishing village being invaded by a killer alien squid creature that hates alcohol - goes for laughs first, thrills second. And I didn't think it was very funny. The characters are broadly drawn, but the actors chosen for the parts, like Richard Coyle and Ruth Bradley, fail to give them any warmth or sympathetic characteristics. They're trying too hard to be funny, and they're just not. 90% of the running time is concerned with drunken larking around, which is just something I'm not interested in watching.The creature stuff is more of a disappointment, and what makes this film feel like a SyFy Channel movie with tacked-on laughs. The CGI effects are as disappointing as you'd expect for a tentacled beastie, and it's a pity because obviously a lot of effort and enthusiasm has gone into this one. It's just not my cup of tea - or rather, pint of Guinness - I'm afraid.

Grabbers starts off promising, but towards it's prolonged end, it falls short of being something truly magnificent. As far as it's comedic humor goes, Grabbers delivers in small doses. The humor is raw and black, but that doesn't mean there weren't any solid laughs. But the main problem I faced when watching this movie was the clichéd story that we have seen before in alien/monster invasion movies. It isn't that different to the majority and it is too predictable to be a real gem.Grabbers is fun to say the least. But what it lacks is pure substance and originality. It won't be the most entertaining film on your watchlist, but if this is the solitary film that you have left to view, it won't be the worst movie you have ever seen.