Meet the Applegates

There isn't much I could add to Tom's comment, except that for an European it is so refreshing to see an American director really make fun of America and Michael Lehmann definitely is always doing an excellent job at just that. That's probably why he still hasn't made any box office-hit, despite the fact that, in my humble opinion he still has to make a bad movie. Yes, I and many of my friends even loved Hudson Hawk ("Sssh, You're embarrassing your country!"). And Meet the Applegates is one of our all time Party-Favorites.

Meet the Applegates, there's the head of the family Richard Applegate (Ed Begley Jr.) also known as Dick, his wife Jane (Stockard Channing) & their two teenage children Johnny (Robert Jayne as Bobby Jacoby) & Sally (Camile Cooper as Cami Cooper). The Applegates at first glance appear to be a normal middle class American family when they move into a quiet suburban town somewhere in Ohio to all their new neighbours & friends. But in reality the Applegates are in fact giant cockroach type insects from the Amazonian rain forests disguised as humans. These giant insects are fed up of us humans chopping down their home, polluting the planet & having no respect or regard for the Earth & it's other inhabitants, fair enough... Dick talks himself into a job at the local nuclear power plant & plans to cause a meltdown, the Applegates & their species then hope the resulting radiation leak will wipe out the entire human race & leave the insect kingdom to live in peace. At first things go extremely well & their plan works perfectly but soon enough the pleasures & peril's of everyday American life begin to have an effect on their family unit & their plans. First Sally has sex with Vincent Sampson (Adam Biesk) whom finds out that she is a giant cockroach so Sally cocoons him & takes him home which causes problems as Vincent is the son of one of the Applegates neighbours, Greg Sampson (Glenn Shadix) who is a bug exterminator. Johnny gets involved with two dope smoking twins, Kevin (Philip Arthur Ross) & Kenny (Steven Robert Ross) & becomes addicted to dope himself. Jane can't stop buying things on credit, Dick has an affair with his secretary Dottie (Savannah Smith Boucher) & gets himself fired from the nuclear plant. Their carefully thought out plans & the very existence of their species lay in tatters as living an everyday American life has all but destroyed them, but others of their kind are on the way... Co-written & directed by Micheal Lehmann I thought Meet the Applegates was a highly original & very enjoyable comic horror. The script by Lehmann & Redbeard Simmons really hits the nail on the head with it's witty & satirical look on middle class American life. I loved the scene where Jane wouldn't have sex with Dick so he finds a picture of two insects having sex & masturbates, or the scene when Johnny questions if smoking dope is safe & his two spaced out friends say "we do it all the time" "and look at us", in fact Meet the Applegates is full of great individual scenes. The Applegates descent from the perfect American family into the emotional wrecks they ended up as was just spot on for me & although obviously the story is pure fantasy it seemed almost believable. It has considerable charm, the themes & issues that it raises & tackles are handled well & it manages to both tell a story which at the same time has a strong message & manages to entertain. Meet the Applegates is rather silly when all said & done but if you want something a little different & you are able to just go with the bizarre notion of giant cockroaches disguised as humans then you should be rewarded with a great viewing experience, the ending was a bit of a cop out though. The creature effects by Kevin Yagher are generally impressive & the bugs looked both quite cute & creepy at the same time. The transformation scenes are pretty good as well. The acting is pretty much spot on from everyone & all the characters are likable except Johnny Applegate & Aunt Bea (Dabney Coleman) who both irritated me. Meet the Applegates is generally very well made with nice production values & nothing really to complain about. Overall I really liked Meet the Applegates, it's a very original piece of storytelling that definitely stands out as being just that bit different which makes a nice change. I wholeheartedly recommend Meet the Applegates & urge anyone to at least give it a go if you get the opportunity.

Heather's director, Michael Lehmann, who directs and co-writes this amusing satire about environmental awareness. A family of cockroaches living in some tropical country are disgusted with humans destroying their habitat, but they have a plan to put an end to their carelessness. Because cockroaches will be the only things to survive a nuclear disaster, this family of cockroaches will disguise themselves as the statistically average all-American family (so as not to draw any suspicions). Head of the household, Richard Applegate (Ed Beagly, Jr.), a suave engineer, will pose as a worker at the local nuclear power plant, and then use his privileged access to figure out the layout of the plant and the key eliminating the human race, and pretty much every other living and non-living thing. However, their plan starts to fall apart when the perfect all-American storybook Applegate gradually turns into a seriously dysfunctional family. Jane Applegate (Stockard Channing), after being introduced to shopping by a neighbor, goes on an endless spending spree, finding fulfillment in useless material possessions. Sally Applegate (Camille Cooper) is raped by an obnoxious jock, also a neighbor, impregnating her with a cockroach baby. She swears off men and becomes a bitter lesbian. This also rouses the suspicions of the neighborhood because one the Applegate family goes dysfunctional, people start winding up dead. Like the twin heavy metal dope-head brothers, Kevin and Kenny, who likewise turn young Billy Applegate (Bobby Jacoby) into a burned out dope-head. And Richard Applegate, becomes uninterested in wife, and starts fooling around with the secretary. So the movie remarks on much more than environmental concerns, although that is the underlying purpose of it all. Dabney Coleman is pretty funny in this movie with his small role as "Aunt Bea," the queen of the cockroach clan. And 'Heathers' fans will recognize Glenn Shadix, who played the Reverend at all the Heathers funerals. He plays pest control specialist, Greg Samson here. This kind of movie is really an acquired taste, and is a much different satire than Lehmann offers in 'The Heathers.' It is certainly a wild satire--cockroaches disguised as the perfect human beings? And the question in the end is, is global nuclear destruction really necessary for humans to appreciate cockroaches, or hell, to quit destroying species in general? It is a bizarre story, but there is political significance nonetheless. The movie, too, may go overboard with some things such as the young Applegate daughter being raped by the horny jock, turning her into a lesbian. But part of the humor is the fact that the family, once so achingly average, soon becomes so achingly dysfunctional. Discovering that their cockroaches is the least of their concerns at that point.

In the wilds of Brazil, as yet more rainforests are being cut down to make way for burger bars and other such makers of food which doesn't taste as nice as the little cardboard boxes it comes in, an unknown species of giant bug finds a children's 'Learn to Read' book which contains pictures of the 'ordinary' family. In no time, the outsized mantids are disguised as a human family and are on a mission to cause a nuclear disaster which will wipe out humanity. Though this film does have serious things to say about ecology, it is also a black comedy about the seedier side of families and married life. It captures hilariously such subjects as teenage rebellion, credit card shop-a-holics, sexless marriages and even political topics like the paranoia surrounding 'reds under the beds'. Alright, so some of the subjects tend to verge on the tasteless (and I don't think date rape is really something to laugh about), it's still a very entertaining sci-fi/comedy.

Smelly and disgusting would-be comedy about a typical looking suburban family (led by Ed Begley, Jr. and Stockard Channing) who are actually giant cockroaches in elaborate disguises. The mandatory oddball situations occur as the group tries to keep their secret from all the real human beings in their lives. "Meet the Applegates" is a terrible movie that tries to be funny, but has too many unnecessary adult themed elements. It also doubles as a science fiction-styled bore that has no idea which way it is going. Not much potential here to start with. Still amazes me that it ever got studio backing to become theatrical in the first place. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

Second film from cult director Michael Lehmann follows exploits of a beetle family that migrates to Ohio under the guise of Disneyeana leftovers. While there, each family member falls under the spell of human idiocy which jeopardizes their plan to create another Chernobyl. Very witty throughout, and the ecological message doesn't become preachy (remember when there were more films that dealt with deforestation like "Ferngully"?). Stockard Channing in particular is a hoot. Ending is definitely a bit on the soft side, but this is still a very good film...

Meet the Applegates is a black comedy that isn't particularly funny. And not really all that black either. It really just sorta sucks in a non-spectacular and pretty boring way. One gets the impression they were trying for a edward scissorhands/heathersey biting satire on contemporary American culture. They only partially succeeded. It bites. The costumes and set design are going for that 50's era kitschy look that John Waters uses so well, but Applegates is just a cheap imitation. The "story" is about a bunch of giant bugs disguise themselves as humans and invade America in an attempt to sabotage a power plant and wipe out a town as a first strike in the war between mankind and bug puppets. Dabney Coleman wears a dress in a phoned in performance as their leader Aunt Bea. This is as far as I can tell the only joke in the movie. Man it's dull. As our culture corrupts them, we watch the Applegates go from the Brady Bunch to the Manson Family. Then in a rather hastily done fashion the Applegates decide we aren't so bad and try to save the town from Dabney Coleman. Along the way we get some environmental messages that are more forced than the average Captain Planet episode, but not nearly as funny. Dabney Coleman is much better in other movies, as for the rest of the cast... three words. Ed Begley and Jr. It's about as bland and dull as the stereotypical American family they're mocking in the first place. If you have insomnia and happen to stumble across Meet the Applegate on late night cable as I did, you might want to keep flipping, with all the channels we've got there's definitely something better on.

"Meet the Applegates" is more of a social commentary than an ecology lesson. The movie shows what can happen to total aliens who immerse themselves in our culture. Even the best of families can go bad if they lack substance to keep their values and goals intact. This film is one of the lightest dark comedies made, and one of the best. I would give an 8 out of ten.

Trying to combine sci-fi with black comedy proves much too challenging and this picture misfires badly. If you are going to push an ecological message, then there must be a better vehicle than "The Applegates". Ed Begley Jr. has been in some pretty outrageous movies (see Eating Raoul), but it has to be both outrageous and entertaining, which this film is not. None of the characters elicit the tiniest bit of sympathy, and the "storage problem" for their prey is just one of several tedious situations which are endlessly played out. The two insect teenagers are especially annoying, and Dabney Coleman's "Aunt Bee" is little more than an embarrassment to his career. In summary, do not go out of your way to find a copy of "The Applegates". You will be just as disappointed as I was. - MERK

I would give this film a 7.0. This is the kind of film you watch with a big bowl of popcorn. Stockard Channing is always great and the role of Sally Applegate is played extremely well. This film should be required viewing for Ed Bundy. I love the surreal and outrageous humour. We all seem to be afraid of being invaded by aliens but I do believe that not many of us considered cockroaches even though they may among the few species that survive.