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US Mall 1 - Empire of the Ants
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List Price: $7.95
Our Price: $1.99
Your Save: $ 5.96 ( 75% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Good Times Video
Starring: Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, John David Carson, Albert Salmi, Jacqueline Scott
Directed By: Bert I. Gordon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786303471464
Format: Color
ISBN: 6303471463
Label: Good Times Video
Manufacturer: Good Times Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Good Times Video
Release Date: 2001-05-15
Running Time: 89
Studio: Good Times Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1977-07
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Empire of the Ants
Comment: Joan Collins appeared bored through most of the film. The box cover is a sale ploy. You never see Miss Collins dressed that way in the movie.
Robert Lansing had some great moments as the fearless boat skipper. His performance was believable.
The special effects were bad. The music was not memorable.
Another thing: half way through the movie it goes from bad science fiction to twilight zone when the survivors reached the town. They may have escaped the radioactive ants, but escaping the zombie townspeople will be harder.
The movie ends in a sugar factory. Burnt sugar and roasted ants do not make an appetizing dish.
This movie and the H.G. Wells' short story have nothing in common. Read the short story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Empire of the Ants Video
Comment: I bought this tape for my mother, she loves all these old horror movies, though I have seen it before, I enjoyed watching it again & mother loved it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Serve up one plate of cheesiness!! This movie is the best!
Comment: Quick plot synopsis of "Empire of the Ants!"....
A bunch of cheapskates go with Joan Collins on a real estate, timeshare sort of all-expense-paid cruise to a remote island. Of course, no one on the trip actually intends to buy the real estate. They just want free booze and to sneak a peak at Joan Collins' caboose!
They go to the island and, little do they know that toxic waste recently fell of a government barge into the water coming ashore. This toxic waste mutates some ants. Do ants usually travel so far into the sand toward the coming tide of water? Anyway....they get mutated, turn into monster ants, and kill of the cheapskates one by one.
Before reading on, you must ask yourself some questions...
Do you enjoy watching elderly people get devoured by ants?
Do you like watching a has-been British snob of an actress boss people around?
Do you like watching Jacqueline Scott, a really corney actress, hit on Robert Lansing, who doesn't have the slightest interest in her, understandably!?
Do you mind seeing Pamela Shoop? Of course not, that's a stupid question. What a 70's hottie!
Do you think you can stand watching enormous, fake-looking props made of cardboard and painted plastic that are supposed to be ant mandables and arms?
How about an entire town that has been brainwashed by the ants into becoming their slaves through pheremone chemical suggestion?
If the answer is "yes," you're good to go! Of course, there's a dude named Larry who is a real WEASLE throughout the movie. Robert Pine plays Larry. Robert Pine was the chief on "Chips," the tv cop show in the 70's. Well, Larry is such a chicken to help his wife that he lets the ants eat her rather than try and save her life. Great guy! Jeez.
Check out this movie; it's fun....
Customer Rating:
Summary: Laughably bad
Comment: This is terrible. Thank goodness the Midnight Movies DVD release had the sense to dress up the cover with shlocky artwork that encourages you to enjoy the cheesier aspects of the film rather than the drama, because as a serious monster movie, it fails pretty solidly. Joan Collins leads the not-so-star cast in a tale of rampaging giant ants, grown huge on eating radioactive waste and overrunning a remote swampland location where Joan is leading a guided tour of prospective real-estate purchasers. The ants have grown to the size of horses and they aren't shy about attacking, so it's a fight for survival as the terrified humans try and escape the ant-filled swamp.
The cast are all pretty forgettable, and even Joan Collins does little with her (admittedly 2-dimensional) part. Playing the part of a haughty, manipulative schemer is one of her proven abilities, and she performs adequately and it is always nice to see her strutting and sniping while she's onscreen. Unfortunately her acting skills fail her when she is called upon to cower in terror in the face of giant ants, but then, none of the cast manage to pull this off realistically with the very poor special effects that have to contend with. And of course its giant ants we have paid to see, so after half an hour of very obvious character setting dialogue and strolling about, we are ready to cheer as we finally see the first giant ants attack....oh dear.
Well, it's not good. The ants are presented on screen in two ways, either in magnified footage of real ants performing on tiny sets, or giant fake prop ants bumping into the live actors for the attack close ups. The shots with real ants are sometimes blended together with shots of the actors which looks really bad on-screen, and you can see the dividing lines between the composite images almost every time. If this had been done flawlessly, the film would have looked great during these sequences because the close up ant footage is quite good, and on certain occasions the joins are not all visible (the old couple who find themselves surrounded when emerging from a small hut is quite a good example), but these good scenes are nearly always spoiled by the actors being required to stand rooted to the spot in case they unwittingly step outside of the patch of screen they are contained in, while the ants similarly rattle around in their portion of the screen, and the two sides never touch each other.
The giant fake ants are another matter entirely. Big cumbersome props of giant ant heads and a couple of the front legs are pushed and poked at the screaming actors who seem to fall to the ground and become magically covered in blood without making even the slightest effort to get out of the way. This is most glaringly apparent in the very first ant-attack, when a man urges his wife to run away, only to remain standing completely still himself, waiting to be eaten. Whats worse is that every (and I mean EVERY) scene involving the fake giant ants attacking people is filmed with a wildy flailing camera that is constantly swinging in all direction, obviously done to avoid showing the dummy giant ants too clearly and for too long. It's intensely irritating, but you can easily see why the director did it, as the model ants are pretty bad. They don't resemble the live ants very well, especially as they have big tufts of ginger hair all over them! Oh yes and they also make loud, electronic-sounding noises all the time...of course, because real ants are noted for the very loud chirruping, whirring noises they make, aren't they? And later on in the film, they also scream, which I thought had to be one of the female cast members when i first heard it, but no, it's the ants, yelling out and generally overacting more than the human cast.
There's plenty more lame plot, effects and twists to come before the end of the film, and all of it done with a really rotten script and some very daft plot devices. Right at the start of the attack, the captain of the small boat that brought the tourists decides to BLOW-UP the vessel - just because a couple of ants have jumped aboard! Surely any rightminded captain would think of a way to get them off and use the boat to escape rather than scupper it immediately...it's not even out at sea, just tethered to a small jetty. As soon as I saw this scene, my little remaining respect for the script went right down the pan, and I realised I might as well steel myself for plenty more lapses in logic to start cropping up - and they did, countless times.
This film is a dud of magnificent proportions, and to think I actually went to the theatre to watch it when it was released in the late 1970's. As a kid, I thought the giant ants were cool, but I must have missed all the awful script inconsistencies and poor acting. Some of the film is bad enough to be genuinely funny, so if you are thinking of watching it, get ready to laugh, because there's nothing remotely scary or dramatic going on here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Empire of the Brainless
Comment: Perhaps the synopsis should be reversed. It should read, "Will the leaders of giant ant community succeed in enslaving these obnoxious human beings? Will the ants be able to eat the humans without having indigestion?"
If one were to look up the word "stupid movie" in the dictionary, you'd see the words "Empire of the Ants" right underneath it as the definition.
If you want good acting and a very suspenseful plot, watch something else!
If you want to watch the dictionary definition of "stupid", watch this!
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Empire of the Ants
Comment: Joan Collins appeared bored through most of the film. The box cover is a sale ploy. You never see Miss Collins dressed that way in the movie.
Robert Lansing had some great moments as the fearless boat skipper. His performance was believable.
The special effects were bad. The music was not memorable.
Another thing: half way through the movie it goes from bad science fiction to twilight zone when the survivors reached the town. They may have escaped the radioactive ants, but escaping the zombie townspeople will be harder.
The movie ends in a sugar factory. Burnt sugar and roasted ants do not make an appetizing dish.
This movie and the H.G. Wells' short story have nothing in common. Read the short story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Empire of the Ants Video
Comment: I bought this tape for my mother, she loves all these old horror movies, though I have seen it before, I enjoyed watching it again & mother loved it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Serve up one plate of cheesiness!! This movie is the best!
Comment: Quick plot synopsis of "Empire of the Ants!"....
A bunch of cheapskates go with Joan Collins on a real estate, timeshare sort of all-expense-paid cruise to a remote island. Of course, no one on the trip actually intends to buy the real estate. They just want free booze and to sneak a peak at Joan Collins' caboose!
They go to the island and, little do they know that toxic waste recently fell of a government barge into the water coming ashore. This toxic waste mutates some ants. Do ants usually travel so far into the sand toward the coming tide of water? Anyway....they get mutated, turn into monster ants, and kill of the cheapskates one by one.
Before reading on, you must ask yourself some questions...
Do you enjoy watching elderly people get devoured by ants?
Do you like watching a has-been British snob of an actress boss people around?
Do you like watching Jacqueline Scott, a really corney actress, hit on Robert Lansing, who doesn't have the slightest interest in her, understandably!?
Do you mind seeing Pamela Shoop? Of course not, that's a stupid question. What a 70's hottie!
Do you think you can stand watching enormous, fake-looking props made of cardboard and painted plastic that are supposed to be ant mandables and arms?
How about an entire town that has been brainwashed by the ants into becoming their slaves through pheremone chemical suggestion?
If the answer is "yes," you're good to go! Of course, there's a dude named Larry who is a real WEASLE throughout the movie. Robert Pine plays Larry. Robert Pine was the chief on "Chips," the tv cop show in the 70's. Well, Larry is such a chicken to help his wife that he lets the ants eat her rather than try and save her life. Great guy! Jeez.
Check out this movie; it's fun....
Customer Rating:
Summary: Laughably bad
Comment: This is terrible. Thank goodness the Midnight Movies DVD release had the sense to dress up the cover with shlocky artwork that encourages you to enjoy the cheesier aspects of the film rather than the drama, because as a serious monster movie, it fails pretty solidly. Joan Collins leads the not-so-star cast in a tale of rampaging giant ants, grown huge on eating radioactive waste and overrunning a remote swampland location where Joan is leading a guided tour of prospective real-estate purchasers. The ants have grown to the size of horses and they aren't shy about attacking, so it's a fight for survival as the terrified humans try and escape the ant-filled swamp.
The cast are all pretty forgettable, and even Joan Collins does little with her (admittedly 2-dimensional) part. Playing the part of a haughty, manipulative schemer is one of her proven abilities, and she performs adequately and it is always nice to see her strutting and sniping while she's onscreen. Unfortunately her acting skills fail her when she is called upon to cower in terror in the face of giant ants, but then, none of the cast manage to pull this off realistically with the very poor special effects that have to contend with. And of course its giant ants we have paid to see, so after half an hour of very obvious character setting dialogue and strolling about, we are ready to cheer as we finally see the first giant ants attack....oh dear.
Well, it's not good. The ants are presented on screen in two ways, either in magnified footage of real ants performing on tiny sets, or giant fake prop ants bumping into the live actors for the attack close ups. The shots with real ants are sometimes blended together with shots of the actors which looks really bad on-screen, and you can see the dividing lines between the composite images almost every time. If this had been done flawlessly, the film would have looked great during these sequences because the close up ant footage is quite good, and on certain occasions the joins are not all visible (the old couple who find themselves surrounded when emerging from a small hut is quite a good example), but these good scenes are nearly always spoiled by the actors being required to stand rooted to the spot in case they unwittingly step outside of the patch of screen they are contained in, while the ants similarly rattle around in their portion of the screen, and the two sides never touch each other.
The giant fake ants are another matter entirely. Big cumbersome props of giant ant heads and a couple of the front legs are pushed and poked at the screaming actors who seem to fall to the ground and become magically covered in blood without making even the slightest effort to get out of the way. This is most glaringly apparent in the very first ant-attack, when a man urges his wife to run away, only to remain standing completely still himself, waiting to be eaten. Whats worse is that every (and I mean EVERY) scene involving the fake giant ants attacking people is filmed with a wildy flailing camera that is constantly swinging in all direction, obviously done to avoid showing the dummy giant ants too clearly and for too long. It's intensely irritating, but you can easily see why the director did it, as the model ants are pretty bad. They don't resemble the live ants very well, especially as they have big tufts of ginger hair all over them! Oh yes and they also make loud, electronic-sounding noises all the time...of course, because real ants are noted for the very loud chirruping, whirring noises they make, aren't they? And later on in the film, they also scream, which I thought had to be one of the female cast members when i first heard it, but no, it's the ants, yelling out and generally overacting more than the human cast.
There's plenty more lame plot, effects and twists to come before the end of the film, and all of it done with a really rotten script and some very daft plot devices. Right at the start of the attack, the captain of the small boat that brought the tourists decides to BLOW-UP the vessel - just because a couple of ants have jumped aboard! Surely any rightminded captain would think of a way to get them off and use the boat to escape rather than scupper it immediately...it's not even out at sea, just tethered to a small jetty. As soon as I saw this scene, my little remaining respect for the script went right down the pan, and I realised I might as well steel myself for plenty more lapses in logic to start cropping up - and they did, countless times.
This film is a dud of magnificent proportions, and to think I actually went to the theatre to watch it when it was released in the late 1970's. As a kid, I thought the giant ants were cool, but I must have missed all the awful script inconsistencies and poor acting. Some of the film is bad enough to be genuinely funny, so if you are thinking of watching it, get ready to laugh, because there's nothing remotely scary or dramatic going on here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Empire of the Brainless
Comment: Perhaps the synopsis should be reversed. It should read, "Will the leaders of giant ant community succeed in enslaving these obnoxious human beings? Will the ants be able to eat the humans without having indigestion?"
If one were to look up the word "stupid movie" in the dictionary, you'd see the words "Empire of the Ants" right underneath it as the definition.
If you want good acting and a very suspenseful plot, watch something else!
If you want to watch the dictionary definition of "stupid", watch this!
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