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"WILLARD! There Are Rats In The Basement!" WILLARD REVIEW

I bought WILLARD (2003) on DVD today from Newbury Comics, thinking that it was the original... now I have found out that the original WILLARD and it's sequel BEN have yet to be released on DVD, so it will be difficult to see them. However, I thought that this movie was great, and I loved Ben the overzed rat.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/723/crispingloverinwillardw.

The film starts out with the main Character, Willard, going into the basement because his mother (who is very ck and nearly bedridden) believed that there were

rats down there. Sure enough, there are... Willard then goes to a store and buys some mouse traps, and that night hears all of them snap closed, one after another. HE runs to the basement to see what got caught, but there is nothing in any of the traps... After setting more traps (this time the adheve strips), he finds a white rat caught in one. He takes pity on the trapped rat, ungluing it ung vegetable oil. He names this rat Socrates, and soon he believes Socrates to be his only friend,despite the fact that he has hundreds, maybe thousands of other rats in the basement...

Also, Willard works at the company started by his father, which is now run by Mr. Martin, who for some reason (probably just because he's a complete jerk) hates Willard's guts... He humiliates him and even teases him about Willard's dead father. He knows that Willard's mother is terribly ck, and claims to be an old friend of the family, but goes after Willard for coming to work late for too long.

Willard soon begins training the rats in his basement, and finds a huge rat which he calls Ben... he proclaims Ben the leader of the rat hoard, after Socrates. He then exacts revenge on his boss by having the rats eat Mr. Martin's new car's tires.

However, not everything goes to plan, and he pampers Socrates much more than the others, and soon Ben gets jealous... Ben then leads the other rats and kills Willard's mother, prompting Willard to try to get rid of all of the rats but Socrates...

One day, Willard brings Ben and Socrates to work with him, even though he usually only brings Socrates... Of course, today he gets a note on his desk, and finds out that he has been fired, the day after his mother's death. This causes him to become furious,and he storms into Mr. Martin's office, at the same time that Martin's head secretary orders Cathryn, one of Willard's coworkers, who seems to like Willard, to get the Christmas decorations from the storage room (where Willard hid Socrates and Ben). She then quits the job, and tells the secretary to get the decorations herself (apparently the secretary is as bad to her as Martin is to Willard...). The secretary then goes into the storage room, and discovers Socrates... She screams and Mr. Martin runs in, finds Socrates on a shelf, and kills him with a sharp plastic stick...

Willard, Ben and the rest of the rats get back at Martin, killing him and devouring him... Unfortunately for Willard, he tries to get away from the rats by leaving them at the work building... but they follow him back, of course.

Cathryn then comes over the next day to tell Willard the news about Martin, and the police also stop by to question him.... However, Willard locks all of them out of the house as a wave of rats, led by Ben come back home.

He is attacked again and again by Big Ben, but eventually manages to jump it and stab Ben several times, leading us to believe Ben the rat dead...

Cut to several months (or maybe years) later, and Willard is in an insane asylum. A guard comes in with some food for him, making fun of him for being the "Rat- man" and tosses him a small ball of cheese... it falls on the floor and the guard walks out of the cell. Suddenly, a small white rat scampers up to the dropped cheese, and Willard believes that it is Socrates, his only "friend",

and that he has come back.

This film was very good in my opinion, Crispin Glover was great as Willard and the rats were freaky.
Kidtut Wednesday 7/27/2011 at 12:40 AM | 79336
Wonderful Share... not many could play this part so well, but Crispin Glover being naturally as weird as they come..was perfect! Loveee this movie..
ImTheWolf Wednesday 7/27/2011 at 07:10 PM | 79378