Scott LeBrun After revisiting this 1990s update of the classic "nature strikes back" genre of the 1970s, this viewer can say that he has warmed up to it a bit. It's of absolutely no real distinction, but adequate directing and acceptable acting manage to overcome a VERY routine script. An unending multitude of killer bats (that have been genetically engineered, naturally) are unleashed on a sleepy Texas burg. Among our heroes are a laid back sheriff (Lou Diamond Phillips), a bat expert (Dina Meyer), and her assistant (Leon).The script by John Logan is stupid and clichéd, and unfortunately treats the assistant character as a comedy relief stereotype. It's also kind of hard to feel sorry for the many townspeople in the movies' big set piece when they prove too dumb to get the Hell out of Dodge. The execution does manage to make this reasonably entertaining, with a fair bit of intense action and some moderate suspense. The effects, unfortunately, are mostly pretty poor. The puppets are not the best work that KNB has ever done, and the digital FX are purely laughable. At the very least, there's some pleasing widescreen photography and scenic locations. Some horror fans may also be pleased with the fairly high body count.Phillips is likable in the hero role; he's at least more convincing here as a cop than he was in "The First Power". The real standout is the lovely Meyer: not only is she excellent eye candy, but her character is very smart, very strong, and very capable. Leon is wasted in his role. That brings us to the matter of Bob Gunton, a superb veteran character actor who has one of the most embarrassing roles of his career. Cast as the requisite mad scientist, you'll likely be left shaking your head at the flimsiness of his motivation.NOT an altogether bad movie, but also far from being a good one. Fortunately, it's relatively short.Five out of 10.

Woodyanders The tranquility of a sleepy small Texas town gets ripped asunder by a swarm of lethal genetically enhanced bats created by mad scientist Dr. Alexander McCabe (neatly played with sinister aplomb by Bob Gunton). It's up to earnest Sheriff Emmett Kimsey (a solid and likable performance by Lou Diamond Phillips), spunky zoologist Dr. Sheila Casper (a perky and appealing portrayal by Dina Meyer), and Casper's cowardly assistant Jimmy Sands (an amusing turn by Leon) to figure out a way to stop the ferocious buggers before it's too late.Director Louis Morneau and screenwriter John Logan bring a winningly lean'n'lean Grade B sensibility to the familiar, yet still effective and entertaining premise: The compact story zips along at a constant brisk pace, there's no pretense to speak of, the savage bat attack set pieces are staged with flair (a major sequence with the bats attacking the center of town rates as a real rip-roaring doozy), and things are even topped with a satisfying smattering of gore. The puppets and CGI effects used for the bats are pretty gnarly. George Moorodian's slick widescreen cinematography provides a nice glossy look. Graeme Revell's spirited shuddery score hits the stirring spot. Granted, this sure ain't no groundbreaking work of exceptional cinematic art, but if accepted on its own admittedly modest terms this movie overall sizes up as a really fun little flick.

Toronto85 An expert named Dr. Sheila Casper is brought in when "Bats" begin killing animals and people in a small town in Texas. Some bodies are first found all chewed up, and we discover the killers are large bats who have been injected with something thanks to a mad scientist Dr. Alexander McCabe. Those bats attack and infect a large number of other normal bats, and that's when it becomes feeding time. Whatever the scientist did to the bats he was testing gives them the ability to sense things that normal bats wouldn't, and also gives them the thirst for human blood. We see the bats attack our main group of characters, as well as the entire town until Sheila realizes the only way to stop them for good is to freeze them. Will this attempt to end their reign of terror work, or will the mutated bats live on and kill everyone in sight?'Bats' is pretty much an average "animal/mammal attacks" type of horror movie. It really gave nothing too special other than a few moments. Those moments which work are the scenes in the small town when the bats attack the townsfolk. We get nice location shots of them attacking a bar, a grocery store, the outside of a movie theatre, etc. That was really well done. Where the movie fails is it's ending portion. It drags on way too much in which the experts and Sheriff Emmett Kimsey tries to kill them. Plus an added plot point of making it that the government was creating killer bats as weapons in war or something fell flat. I don't know, I thought it was really silly.Acting was pretty good I thought. Lou Diamond Phillips as the Sheriff and Dina Meyer as the expert did a good job. The stand-out performance goes to Leon as funny guy Jimmy, he had some funny one-liners and delivered them perfectly. I'd recommend 'Bats' if you like these kinds of horror films where animals or birds attack. It wasn't bad, but could've been better.5/10

bkoganbing Bats, a film that should have premiered on the Science Fiction channel on cable, somehow got a theatrical release. If it had been made fifty years earlier I can definitely see Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi in the part that Bob Gunton plays as the mad scientist.The scariest thing about Bats is not the creatures themselves although they are the ugliest looking things this side of the Black Scorpion. The scariest part of the film was Bob Gunton's portrayal of the mad scientist who created this race of killer omnivirous Bats. He's identified as working for the Center For Disease Control. I was watching this figuring out how this creep got government clearance.Yet Gunton is the most enjoyable thing in this film. And you got to love the fact that he had all these government facilities to work with, he's not hidden away in some laboratory in an old castle the way Karloff and Lugosi used to be. He's bred this race of flying fox bats from Indonesia which are aggressive to begin with and they've taken up residence in a bat cavern in Lou Diamond Phillips's county where he's the sheriff. After several suspicious deaths with mutilation, the cause is identified and zoologists Dina Meyer and Leon Robinson are brought in to clean out the bat cave. If you care about how and if they do it by all means watch the film and the hint is, think blob.Bats will never go down as a great science fiction classic, but it does have a certain campiness to it. And Gunton is a hoot.