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Willard | Year: 2003 Classification: Horror Directed: - Glen Morgan Actors/Actresses: - Crispin Glover - R. Lee Ermey - Laura Harring Well well worth the price of admission In this movie, a remake of the 1971 Daniel Mann film, Crispin Glover stars as Willard Stiles, a lonely, slightly unhinged, loser who trains an army of rats to do his bidding. Although it has a few flaws, Willard is a highly entertaining film, and definitely worth the price of admission. Willard has a go-nowhere job at Martin-Stiles Manufacturing, which was co-founded by his now-deceased father. The company is now run by its tyrant co-founder Frank Martin, played by R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket). As the story unfolds, we learn that Martin bought out the shares of the elder Mr. Stiles, who, for reasons that aren't fully explained, later committed suicide. As a part of the contract, Willard was promised a job for life. Predictably, though, as soon as Willard's mother dies, Martin fires him. At that point, Willard completely loses his mind and the real action begins. In the beginning, the film is a little hard to get into because the premise of the movie is, well, preposterous. As the film opens, Willard is seen trying to exterminate a white rat that he found living in his basement. Willard has second thoughts about killing him, though, so he befriends the little guy and names him "Socrates." He then begins to train thousands of Socrates' cohorts (including the nearly dog-sized "Ben") to do all kinds of neat tricks, like climbing into briefcases and chewing things on command. In what seems like just a few minutes, the rats have become a well-trained army of furry little soldiers, ready and willing to do whatever Willard asks. As a viewer, you're left wondering why the rats suddenly agree to submit to Willard's control. But Glover really sells it and, later on at least, it doesn't seem so unbelievable. In fact, the acting is pretty good across the board. Glover's performance is excellent throughout. Most people probably remember him from his role as George McFly in Back to the Future. He doesn't stray too far from the McFly persona in Willard, but it still works: he is totally believable as the crazy Willard. Ermey is also effective, but perhaps a little too over-the-top, as Willard's abusive boss. Ermey is probably best known as the former real-life Marine who played the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, a role that he has played (unintentionally at times) in about a hundred other movies since then. He essentially reprises his part in FMJ here; in fact, through the whole movie, you're half expecting him to call Willard a "panty waste" or something. Despite a few shortcomings here and there, Willard is an effective and enjoyable film. A warning is in order, though: this movie is not for the squeamish and definitely not for children. In fact, some of it is downright painful to watch. The violence inflicted on animals in a couple of scenes is pretty harsh, even for hardened horror-film fans. But if you enjoy a good psychological thriller, you'll find Willard well worth the price of admission. Check it out. It's a Shame 0 Stars Isn't an Option Ok, there was some bad films last year. Charlie's Angels 2, House of 1000 Corpses, and Gothika. But no movie was as bad Willard. You could say that this movie is at the bottom of the barrel, but really it doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentences with barrels. It's such a worthless and pathetic film that theres no wonder Saddam Hussein hated us, he probably saw this movie. The film stars Chrispen Glover, a low beat employee stuck at the same dead end job owned by this rich guy who he happens to hate. One night he hears rats, and like any other loser he becomes Friends with them and teaches them to kill people. Then he's shocked when he finds his mom lying in the stair way dead with rats crawling all over her. So he decides to kill his boss because his boss killed his favorite rat. This movie may not resemble the style of horror film that you're used to. For example when the rats take over he's looking at one and it bites him in the eye and blood squirts out. Or when he's looking over his moms casket and snoot squirts out of his nose. The movies awful, sick, disgusting, and just plain awful. There is no way that I would ever recommend this film to anyone. It is by far the worst film that I have ever seen, if you see this and like it check your self into a mental institution because you have serious problems. Crispin Glover as Willard? Of course that is worth watching "Willard" is another one of those movies that disappeared quickly after being released that turns out to be a lot better than you would have thought when you check it out on DVD. If anything this remake of "Willard" is too slick for its own good and there is a point where an army of computer generated rats cannot help but remind you that it is computer generated (as opposed to being the work of rat wranglers). But is is a stylish effort which reaches its apex in the shot where a waterfall of rats empties out of an elevator to reveal Willard with Ben and few friends on his shoulders. However, if there is a quintessential moment in this film it is when Willard is given the gift of a cat, which he tosses into his house where the poor feline discovers it is grossly unnumbered. As the rats turn the tables on the cat, we hear Michael Jackson sing "Ben." You have to admit, there is a sense of fun and joy to the sequence rarely found in a horror film. The familiar story for those of us who remember Bruce Davidson in 1971 (his cameo is as photographs of Willard's late father) is that Willard (Crispin Glover) is stuck at a dead end job at the business founded by his father but now run by the cruel taskmaster Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey), while at home he takes care of his infirmed mother (Jackie Burroughs). Willard does not have a friend in the world before he finds one in Socrates, a white rat. Then he discovers that the other rats in the basement are willing to listen to what he says. Well, except for the largest of the bunch, named Ben, and all of the ingredients are in place for the death and mayhem. Writer-director Glen Morgan apparently wrote the script for "Willard" with actor Doug Hutchison (Percy Wetmore in "The Green Mile") in mind for the title role. This is rather ironic because the chief attraction of this film is the performance of Crispin Glover. To every one who saw Glover in the first "Charlie's Angels" film, the fact that he would be perfect as Willard Stilles seems fairly obvious. Emery, as the film's villain, is not as scary as he was in the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," but still has its moments and it was certainly a trip to see Burroughs, remembered as Aunt Hetty from "Tales of Avonlea," as Willard's mother, who decides that his problem is his name and re-christens him "Clark." Laura Elena Harring plays Cathryn, the temp worker hired to help Willard at work and who takes a liking to him despite his problems, but she is never more than an observer on the festivities. The DVD extras are fairly interesting given the problems Morgan had it putting a finished film together. Starting with a R-rated version that gets below average ratings from the first preview audience, he cobbles together a pair of PG-13 versions, with a changed ending, but each version gets even lower scores and the film is sent off into the world to only make $4 million its first week, finish in eighth place, and disappear a fortnight later. Th Buy Willard at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Willard Search with the Priority Search Engine on Willard This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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