An inappropriate title adorns this weak rehash of 1986's THE FLY, with all of Cronenberg's chills and explicit gruesomeness watered down to a television movie level. Sadly, for fans looking for some giant creature action, the only thrills this movie offers are of the low-budget variety, and such thrills as they are come few and far between. Instead, this amateurishly-scripted nonsense treads the length of its storyline with too much talk and not enough action, and a rushed, anti-climatic ending which offers none of the destruction I had initially hoped for. More of a whimper than a bang. The film itself is part of a series of five movies called 'Creature Features', which - with the help of Stan Winston, Colleen Camp, Lou Arkoff and others - have been created as homages to the sci-fi/horror movies of the 1950s. I only hope that the other instalments are closer to the real thing than this disappointment.Not that the film is totally bad; indeed there are a few redeeming qualities here and there, but the combination of a veteran actor (Dan Aykroyd) and a veteran effects man (Stan Winston) should have at least made a good film. My mistake. Dan Aykroyd does star as world-weary cop Jack Grillo, but his character is underdeveloped and performance-wise he simply goes through the motions in his own downtrodden way. Don't get me wrong, I love Aykroyd and his work, but this is definitely one of his lesser performances. The bulk of the screen time goes to fresh-faced newcomer Devon Gummersall but he's no Al Hedison or Jeff Goldblum; you never really sympathise with his plight, which is proof of this. The fact that the situation arises because Gummersall wants to be a superhero like in his comics also smacks of dumbing down (previous versions of the tale used science gone wrong as a basis for the horror to follow).One genuinely good performance comes from female lead and Denise Richards lookalike Amelia Heinle, as the neighbour with a heart of gold who wants to help our lead out; her quiet, laid back character is a nice change from the screaming blonde heroines usually seen in modern horror fare. Theresa Russell also makes a small appearance playing an unlikable and slightly crazy character. The few deaths that the film offers are mostly off screen with nothing in the way of gore; the transformation effects are suitably icky but I was hoping for a little more realism from the Stan Winston Studio instead of just ripping off THE FLY. It doesn't help that 90% of the film takes place in a hallway and apartment room either. Sorely lacking in both action and intelligence, EARTH VS THE SPIDER is a disappointing film in which the various ingredients - tragedy, superhero worship and bodily deformation - never really gel.

Before this short review begins, I would like to say that I am a person who can enjoy a TV movie and even a cheap B-movie if it has an actor in it I enjoy. I rented 'Earth Vs. The Spider' because Dan Aykroyd was in it, and I was eager to see him in a role that would remind me of 'Ghostbusters'. Basically, this movie is an exact cross between 'Spider-Man' and 'The Fly', although its script is not as nearly as good as that of 'Spider-Man'. Comic book geek Quentin, played by Devon Gummersall, dreams of becoming a superhero. He wants to get the girl. He wants to be tough in front of her and wants to show up the guys who sit outside of his apartment building every day and pick on him. After he is stuck by a spider-testing needle at the scientific research building he works at, he begins to notice a drastic change in his strength, agility, and hunger. At first, he is able to his his power for good but soon begins to be consumed by it and ultimately looses control as Det. Grillo (Dan Aykroyd) grows closer and closer to learning the truth about Quentin.The Good: -Dan Aykroyd and John Cho are the most believable out of the cast, but I think the acting was mostly pretty good considering the script they had to work with. The weakest was the lead, Devon Gummersall. -The Make-Up and special effects are pretty decent for a 2001 B movie.The Bad: -The cops in the film act like uneducated high school bullies. No joke, these are the stupidest and rudest cops in existence. A dumb cop once or twice isn't bad, but this film portrays all cops as ignorant slobs and it gets quite aggravating. -Devon Gummersall's acting is pretty questionable, especially the first part of the movie and his 'spider voice'. -If you're looking for a scare or even just a big monster to look at, he's only really transformed for a few minutes at the end and there is absolutely no scares. -The cinematography has terrible angles.Overall 3/10.

Earth Vs The Spider is a remake of the 1958 film except instead of a huge Spider attacking people we get a cross between Spider-Man and The Fly, a Secuirty Guard named Quentin Kemmer (Devon Gummersall) is working for a lab and is obsessed with comic books especially the Aracnid Avenger. When a group of armed men come into the lab and steal some things he's fired from his job. He then injects himself with a Spider serum and soon he starts to get spider like powers (Like Spider-Man) except he shoots webs from his chest not wrists.Things start to happen though as he slowly starts changing into a Spider Monster, Quentin's neighbour Stephanie Lewis (Amelia Heinle) is curious why he's hiding himself in his apartment all day while Det. Insp. Jack Grillo (Dan Aykroyd) starts to go on a search for the Spider. Earth Vs The Spider is a good Television movie with some great Spider effects.

"Earth vs. the Spider" is a sad, missed opportunity for a sleeper hit.**SPOILERS**Tired of constantly being picked up, Security Guard Quentin Kemmer, (Devon Gummersall) indulges in comic books to escape the torments of work, much to the chagrin of Nick Bezis, (Mario Roccuzzo) a fellow security guard. Following a robbery at the weapons research plant he works at, he begins to act strangely, which Stephanie Lewis, (Amelia Heinle) feels is different. As he starts to realize that he has super powers from the accident, Det. Insp. Jack Grillo, (Dan Aykroyd) begins to get involved in a series of murders that are believed to have been committed by Quentin, and he must race to stop the powers from taking over his whole persona.The Good News: There's a couple of really interesting moments in here. The final half-hour, when things really start to heat up and the action gets far more intense, are the best parts. From the beginning discovery of the body wrapped up in webbing inside a dank, grimy factory, it creates a nice atmosphere that really gets it down right. The ensuing chase scene is pretty nice, but the real kicker is the suspenseful walk-through of the building with no lights and just a flashlight. It's a long, incredibly drawn-out scene with all the clichés about a suspenseful scene played out to it's best potential, and is a really impressive sequence. This also has the final reveal of the monster, allowing for some nice cheesy moments in there with it's design and the final confrontation with it. The design is pretty cool, but it's basically apart of the really impressive ending that's the best part of the film.The Bad News: Outside of the final half hour, there isn't a whole lot to like in this one. It spends the middle part of it dealing with the discovery of the powers, but the fact that it really glosses over them with only a short amount of time devoted to them. Rather than simply being a long, drawn-out process of discovery, this has the full realization of the powers pretty quickly and easily. It really seems like a longer amount of time, as it's shown to be about a week, but it only shows snippets of that time, condensing it down considerably. It could've been a lot longer than that amount of time to what was shown, rather than just taking a highlight reel of it's best moments and make it seem a lot longer than it really was. The fact that it takes so long for him to receive his powers is also a missed opportunity. It occurs around the half-hour mark, far too long into the movie for this sort of revelation. It really could've been condensed far more and kept it rolling along much more. As it is, the beginning of the film is much to slow, as the main event is far too long coming and then a long, drawn-out realization of what's going on makes this a really long sit-through, especially in comparison to the rapid-fire and spectacular conclusion.The Final Verdict: Had it fixed a couple of problems in the first half, this might've been a good sleeper hit, but only the conclusion of the film is the only really good part. Won't make much of a dent to comic book fans or fans of the original, but it might be a possible view for the most accepting horror fans.Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence