starring shawnee smith ; donovan leitch ; ricky paull goldin ; kevin dillon & billy beck the blob is the remake of the 1960’s classic ( a term that i use very loosely to define the original ) about a really mean glob of goop that takes out anything that gets in its way .
now the original version has the virtue of cheesy special effects which give it a kind of nostalgic campy feel .
the fact that steve mcqueen was the star of the film doesn’t exactly hurt it either .
fast forward to the late ’80’s .
steve mcqueen isn’t in the remake ( this might have something to do with the fact that he had been pushing up daisies for years ) .
nor is there any hollywood heavy hitters in the lead role .
that is unless you count matt dillon’s brother kevin as a hollywood heavy hitter .
the other thing that works against this new blob is that special effects technology has improved dramatically since the original .
the only things you need now to have great special effects in a movie are deep pockets .
it looks as if the produces of the new blob had a couple of holes in their pockets .
the special effects in this movie are cheesy , like the original’s .
unlike the original , they don’t look campy , they just look cheap .
one bright spot in the movie from a purely sexist point of view is shawnee smith .
she is very attractive and can actually act , which is more than i can say about some of her costars .
in terms of plot , a little ball of pink goop falls from the sky .
seems this goop was an experiment that was being housed up on a satellite .
anyway , the pink stuff has a taste for humans .
the more people it absorbs , the bigger it gets .
and it isn’t the friendliest goop on the block either .
anyway , it attacks this little town and it’s up to the attractive local teenage population to stop it .
not really , but that is how it seems .
this version attempts to recapture the camp of the original .
as i’ve already said , this new version of the blob comes off more as cheap , badly acted , and badly written than campy .
in the years since this film was made none of the cast have gone on to greatness .
although , star shawnee smith had a very tiny role in armageddon .
the reason that we have never heard of any of them again is quite simple — they all stunk out loud .
although some of the film’s smaller roles are filled with some actors that , while not big stars , are doubtless people that you will recognize from their supporting roles in other movies and tv shows .
it also appears that the producers of the blob tried to compensate for the lack of a special effects budget by making the scenes in which the blob makes meals of the townsfolk as gory as possible .
sadly , it doesn’t work very well .
if you want to see a big ball of goop terrorize a town , then i would say that you should skip the remake and rent the original .
( although that isn’t so hot either . )
this newest version is seriously lacking in any redeeming qualities .