Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell Movie Review

Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)

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Written by: John Whelpley
Directed by: Don Michael Paul
Starring: Jamie Kennedy, Michael Gross, Tanya van Graan, Jamie-Lee Money
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Burt Gummer, dying from Graboid poison, and his son Travis face a new batch of Graboids at a remote research station in Canada's Nunavut Territory, to save Burt's life.

Verdict
This is bad. From low production values, to lack of development, to the ridiculous dialog. It's often quotable just for how ridiculous the lines sound. How do you come up with such gibberish. This was direct to video and it shows. For most of the movie, aside from the dialog, I was bored. There is a complete lack of tension, stakes, and anything interesting.
Skip it.

Review
In a world where giant worms roam the Earth, one man is called to the sandy beaches of Canada to crush the worms once and for all

I had no idea this franchise was still going. I didn't know there were any sequels after the first movie.

In the  first scene I wondered if the snow was really a sand dune. it looks like a sand dune and the image saturation has been reduced to look white like snow. Is this a joke or earnest? I went to wikipedia, apparently they were going to film in Bulgaria, but there was a blizzard and too much snow so they went to the next best location, South Africa.
In the first scene we get noticeable CGI, sand as snow, made up science, and death. Game on.

Michael Gross plays Burt Gummer.

Burt is at odds with the taxman. I don't know why. This is so over dramatic. I don't know why movies like this even try to force a story. I want to see 90 minutes of giant sand worm attacks, each more ridiculous than the last.
Why does this let any of these actors speak? It's a almost a parody level of dialog. On one hand I'm amazed someone came up with this dialog, but i still don't know if this movie is supposed to be a comedy or action. I never figured it out. Michael Gross is giving it his all while Jamie Kennedy phones it in.

At the science lab there is no snow or winter clothes. There's an Arctic heat wave apparently. We do get the funniest scene of the movie when Burt Gummer tells obvious cannon fodder Dr. Ferezze to follow him and do exactly as he does. This leads to a synchronized dance sequence as Burt suffers from the effects of poison, clutching his stomach and stumbling as the Dr. follows every move exactly.

The major pacing problem is that there is no tension. Burt has a broken seismic detector that could have been when worms are close just to create a mood. This movie has no mood at all.
There are plenty of contrived scenes. Sometimes the worms kill, sometimes they don't.

My big issue with this is the simple fact that  giant worms tunnel underground. We see dirt flying when people are being chased, but after the fact the ground is back to normal. There should be large tunnels underground as these are large worms. It would make just walking around outside a lot more dangerous. Characters could fall into the holes to increase the stakes.

Jamie Kennedy plays Travis.

Towards the end this gets slightly comedic as they must recover an antidote for Burt from a live worm. Travis climbs into the mouth of a worm. The movie is frequently close to being a comedy but always stops short. I wish it were sillier. Much of the dialog sets up a joke that never comes. I was bored for long stretches of this. The ending is lacking, but so was the movie.