It is a performances centric movie

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A growth serum being experimented with on a college campus infects a pack of angry rats and typical carnage ensues. Belated sequel released a decade and a half after the original. Basically the two are not connected. Why producers felt the average original warranted a sequel years upon years later is beyond me, but here we go. The creature effects are not the greatest, but passable. There is a lot of blood thrown around in the attack scenes to keep things interesting, and the film is competently made. It's a basic view for the horror consumer and it's not all that bad. Originality is pretty minimal, but a tight pace keeps everything going. The stand-out scene perhaps is the rats attacking a swimming pool full of synchronized swimmers. The sex scene when the male partner grows to immense proportions is short, but also good. Dominated movie channels upon it's release years ago. Two And A Half Stars.

Once again my ability to be entertained finds it's happy place at the near lowest common denominator one can possibly find: A movie about growth hormone mutated rats chewing their way through the supporting cast of an unnamed Canadian university. Packed with in jokes, sight-gags and made by people who were using their brains for more than shoulder ballast, I found this to be a rip-roaring entertainment heightened by the ingenious way that miniature sets, forced perspective shots and other gimmicks were used to create monster rats, an over-sized university professor, and a giant mutant kid who's escape at the conclusion of the film was the perfect open ending. And I hope nobody ever makes a FOTG Pt3 to show what happens to him: some things are best left to the imagination.Anyone familiar with the abysmal 1976 film of more or less the same name can rest assured: Part 2 has absolutely nothing to do with the original FOTG, setting off on a totally independent storyline which produces more or less the same results -- giant rats eating people, a universally frightening concept -- though this film is correctly played for laughs where the original was a semi-serious ecological horror flick unable to overcome it's underlying stupidity.This one works because it embraced that stupidity & went with it.THE PLOT: An overachieving researcher develops a growth hormone formula, tests it on some tomatoes which are then eaten by a cage full of lab rats who get big and eat people. End of story.Along the way, the film takes hilarious pot-shots at such deserving targets as animal rights activists, liberal university administrations, the police, Clint Eastwood, and synchronized swimming. In fact the minute that the evil Dean character voiced concern that an effort to corral the mutant rats might interfere with the opening of a new pool complex I knew that the climax would be fun, though the bigger laugh came when he referred to "all the rich alumni with their checkbooks" who would be in attendance. Everyone whom I went to college with is as broke as I am, except the worms who weaseled their way into teaching or other academic positions. Like research work.Look, if you're going to be sitting down and watching a film about mutant rats on the rampage the last thing in the world you're really going to fret over are convincing performances, slick special effects and a coherent plot, so why not approach the material at an angle & have some fun? On that level of consideration this film is a minor masterpiece, and anyone who finds it to be prurient or juvenile in nature is simply refusing to play along with the fun.Highly recommended as a "party movie", with plenty of laughs, some repulsive gore and even a few bared breasts here & there.But if you're looking for a serious film, well that's why they make DVDs of CITIZEN KANE, and you'd be advised to stick with that. But for those with a sense of humor and a love for low-middle budget horror this flick is very hard to beat, and I've even seen DEATH SHIP.***1/2 out of ****

I have mixed feelings about the original "Food of the Gods". It's amazing, but easy to hate at the same time. This one is just good eighties fun and with buckets of blood. It's like "Demons", but with giant wet rats in a swimming pool instead of a movie theater. Poor synchronized swimmers!! The animal rights activists are pretty realistic, I should know. Oh yeah, the effects, both the real rats on mini sets, and the rat costumes, look fantastic.

And that's saying something. Fortunately, unlike the original, the sequel uses a cast of unknowns (save for Colin Fox), so a lot of people weren't lured to it by big name stars.The plot deals with a laboratory experiment gone horrible wrong. Lab rats grow to monstrous size and terrorize the countryside. This concept was handled much better and with a much smaller budget in the 1955 classic "Tarantula." Actually, the rats take a trip over to the local college campus. Apparently, the producers figured showing gorgeous college co-eds getting chomped would make viewers ignore the horrible acting, poor special effects and sorry dialogue, not to mention the fact that the same two songs get used over and over again for the background music.There's a subplot involving a scientist who exposes his kid to the experimental substance and the kid, who's a real brat, grows into an even bigger brat. You'll honestly wish the cops would just shoot the kid. The concept appeared in H.G. Wells' "Food of the Gods" story, but it was, by far, the weakest part of the book, so it shouldn't have been touched upon for this movie.I won't spoil the ending (should you even care to watch the movie in the first place), but I will mention rats intermingling with college kids packed in to see a swimming meet (!), as well as a scene in a subway that might have been meant for another sequel. Since it took 13 years for "Food of the Gods II" to make it to production, that means (gulp!!) part III should be on the shelves at Blockbuster in 2002.