Bats (1999)

Plot Outline: Vicious bats that have been subject to genetic enhancement manage to get free, eating people from a town along the way. It's up to a bat expert, her assistant and the local sheriff to find a way to stop them before any more people are killed.

The Review: Bats is just so unoriginal and feels like it was made from borrowed parts of other films. Everything in it has been done before and done better too, turning it into one huge cliché along the way. There is the scientist who must find a way to destroy the bats. There is the local town person (usually a role taken up by a sheriff or doctor) who joins in with the fight. And there is the obligatory black guy, who also happens to be the comic relief too. He gets annoying after about 3 minutes but unfortunately for us, he makes it through the film in one piece. We're supposed to laugh at him because he issues a few quips about being scared of bats? The plot is almost non-existent and the mad scientist's excuse for genetically modifying them is hilarious (he pretty much says he only did it because he's a scientist and messing with things is "what scientists do"). The bats look more laughable than scary and the animatronic puppets are a joke. One huge plot hole that was missed is that bats can't see and use sonar to find their prey. In here we get some Predator-style infra-red vision mode that is supposed to be the bats vision. I know they've been genetically modified but come on! On the positive side Dina Meyer does look reasonably good once again but fails to make much of an impression on the film. Leon is terrible as the comic relief and Lou Diamond Phillips mumbles about with a Southern accent.

Final Verdict: Despite some half-decent gore effects, a couple of nice touches (Nosferatu playing at the local cinema was a hoot) and the presence of Dina Meyer (she really needed to get naked like she had done in Starship Troopers to liven the film up), Bats turns out into a very timid The Birds wannabe. It is just so badly done, it isn't even worth watching again to criticise it or pick faults.

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