The Stuff (1985)

 Written by Happywax   June 2011
Rating 7 out of 10

Director -  Larry Cohen

Cast
Mike Moiarty - David 'Mo' Rutherford

Andrea Marcovicci - Nicole

Garrett Morris - "Chocolate Chip" Charlie W. Hobbs
Paul Sorvino - Colonel Malcolm Spears
Scott Bloom - Jason

Danny Aiello - Vickers

 

"I Hate Beer Burps ! Yuck !"

Well Well Well ..........Look what your old pal Happy found tucked in the back of the fridge (I wondered what that smell was, I thought maybe Axemaster left one of his severed heads in there to long , but this "STUFF" is way worse). Oh that Larry Cohen...after B-movie home runs like "Q", "It's Alive" and "God Told Me To," what would this spiritual cousin of William Castle think of next?

How about a living dessert that likes to eat people as much as people like to eat IT?

That's the bottom line of THE STUFF, a yuk (and YUCK)-filled black comedy that some will find...WAIT FOR IT...an "acquired taste." (Bah-dum-BUM!)

Longtime Cohen associate Michael Moriarty is back for "seconds" as sharp-as-a-tack food industry mole David "Mo" Rutherford. (That's "Mo" as in "Mo' MONEY!") With the initial discovery and distribution of THE STUFF, it's bitch-slapped the sales of all other desserts, especially ice-cream, and now the suits behind the scoops want to know all about what this "stuff" is and how they can sabotage its popularity.

"Timmy ! How Much Tide Did You Put In The Washer !??"

Amongst Larry Cohen's typical all-star cast ensemble: Andrea Marcovicci as a Mad Ave exec who created the campaign promoting the wildly popular new dessert; Garrett Morris as a "Famous Amos" clone who wants to help Mo (after all, it IS in his best interests); Danny Aiello as an FDA official who mysteriously got THE STUFF approved with no red tape whatsoever, and Paul Sorvino as a 'Strangelovian' right-winger who proves to be a valuable ally, once he's been convinced that THE STUFF is a "threat to national security"...never mind that it's a whole lot worse than that!

I love the fact that you can get really deep about this movie, and how Cohen is giving American consumerism( I would never say anything bad about Canada) and the greed for "more, more, more STUFF" consumes us all as we consume all the crap we don't really need, but are programmed to blindly want. Or you can just screw all the intellectualism and just groove on the fact that this is a BLOB/BODY SNATCHERS/BLUE SUNSHINE hybrid that's just a helluva lot of fun to watch! Just remember though......the next time you see the mayonaise moving around in the fridge ........  DONT EAT IT !!!!!!!!!

"You Really are a Big Mouth!"

"This is Why I Don't Bake !!"