Bottom Feeder: Shouldn't it have been about a fish creature, then?

Interesting creature, albeit misclassified...

Okay, first I have to get my complaint about this movie title out of the way. It's called Bottom Feeder, right? And a 'bottom feeder' is a type of fish, right? But the creature in this feature has nothing aquatic about him! So what's with calling the movie Bottom Feeder? I was expecting a fish creature movie, and get a man/rat/dog thing instead.

Oh well. It's not like the movie is going to be one I watch again, anyways. It's not as bad as some of the movies I've watched lately, but it's definitely not a keeper. There's guts and blood and slimy skin mutating, but it's there for a reason, so I can deal with that. The characters are actually pretty funny, and there are lots of great lines bandied about.

Even the premise of the story is interesting, hinging on a genetic serum designed to heal all sorts of damage, including burns, broken bones, and other wounds. Of course with any scientific enterprise based on genetics, there are horrible side effects that can only be countered by more scientific stuff. In this case it's blue stuff that has to be injected into the patient at the right time after you inject them with the green stuff. If you don't, then they're going to be very, very hungry, and eat anything that crosses their path. Disgusting as that can be, the kicker is their cells will continue to mutate without the blue stuff, and they'll mutate into hybrids of whatever they've eaten. Fun stuff.

So a billionaire is hoping to buy himself full recuperation from his severe burns, and then a long life. He's paid a team to track down the scientist who made the green and blue stuff, and lures him in with promises of money that would help the scientist's ailing wife. Instead they test the green stuff on the scientist, and completely ignore what he tells them about the blue stuff, so he mutates, and the story goes into full swing.

Stumbling into the middle of the mess is a maintenance crew led by poor bastard Tom Sizemore. The four of them end up going into the tunnels where the scientist has been locked up to mutate. It isn't very pretty after that, but there are some great one liners. There is also a good side story going on with this evil wench of a woman working for the billionaire. She has no problems beating and shooting someone, leaving them to mutate, and then go in prepared to chop up his body with a power saw, all the while making comments like "A woman's work is never done." She's played by Wendy Anderson who has a Gillian Anderson look about her, but a lot more attitude. Her character by far is the most interesting of the bunch, and I found myself hoping she survived to the end.

The only thing this movie has going for it is the interesting characters and entertaining dialogue. The plot never really takes off, and the science is flawed, even for a B-movie. The theory is you'll mutate into whatever you eat, so if you're eating humans, you should become more human again, right? That probably would have called for too many changes to the makeup after the man/rat/dog hybrid was established, and I bet there wasn't enough budget for it.

This was worth one viewing, but I won't be making an effort to watch it again. For a creature feature it's tolerable, saved by the dialogue, but this is another movie that will go in my mental 'don't bother' pile.