Pretty Good

hyped garbage

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Due to some cosmic event ants in the desert become highly intelligent and wage a war on all other inhabitants, including humans. OK, so plot isn't the films strongest point. What makes this film such a classic is the stunning camera work, especially of the ants and other creatures, the use of very vivid colour and a very effective soundtrack. It is a superb movie to watch late at night with the lights out. Having a cast of only three main characters also helps create some great tension, though sadly Lynne Frederick's inability to do a convincing American accent is a negative.

By the Late Sixties and Early Seventies Sci-Fi took on a more Intellectual, Serious Concern about Our place in the Universe and Our place right here on Terra-Firma. This is one of those and one of the best. An underrated, little-seen Thriller with its Elegant Cinematography and Great Insect Footage remains a Thought-Provoking and wholly engaging Film.Directed by Famous and Award Winning Graphic Title Designer Saul Bass, combining stunning scenery and SFX with an Ominous Musical Score, the Movie is an Unnerving Unraveling of an event puzzling Scientists and could be a Foreboding of Things to Come.It's well Acted, save the Girl, and the Tension at times is unbearable. Some have said the the Ending is Ambiguous, but not really. The Voice-Over tells what happened and what is most likely going to happen. It's a bit Mysterious but a Solid wrap-up and is very disturbing.A tight little Thriller in the "Bug" Genre as the Little Creatures provide Unending Story lines and Fascination. A Cult Classic.

Michael Murphy and Nigel Davenport play two scientists studying the recent peculiar behavior of ants after a strange outer space phenomenon has occurred. They rescue a young woman(played by Lynne Frederick) who has survived an ant attack that destroyed her family and farm. Seems the(normal) sized ants have evolved into a collective intelligence, and are studying them as well, in the next step of mutual evolution...Weird(to say the least)film is nonetheless quite original and intelligent; seems to be partially inspired by "2001: A Space Odyssey", and though not a masterpiece, still contains some quite striking visual imagination and ambition(courtesy of director Saul Bass) and a mind-bending ending that gives much to ponder. A thought-provoking Sci-Fi film that deserves to be better known.

While it's true that "Phase IV" is rather slow moving in spots, and that the human characters are ciphers with no real depth to speak of, "Phase IV" is a nice sally at an experimental science fiction film that emphasizes mood and dread over action and character development.I had the good fortune to watch this on a really large flat screen TV, and the amazing insect photography (major kudos to the editor who managed to integrate it so completely into the story!) and dissonant synthesizer laden sound track come through nicely with good viewing equipment - they add the proper utterly alien and inhuman feel to the movie and turn something pretty good into something really creep and spooky.Although the characters are admittedly pretty flat, that's undoubtedly on purpose. "Phase IV" is all about the subjection of the human characters to the overwhelming power of a hive mind where "personality" is besides the point. Even so, Nigel Davenport brings the good stuff to his role as the biologist trying to contain the ants, and you both know everything you need to know and everything you'll ever know about in the first five minutes...without ever knowing him at all.An ambiguous and otherworldly/mystical ending might not sit well with a lot of viewers who like their science fiction movies to wrap things up by the end. And, OK, the goofy little montage at the end with the mathematician and the gamin doesn't really match the quality of the hallucinatory insect footage that preceded it.Still, Saul Bass knew how to present an otherworldly, truly alien experience, but he was probably just too far ahead of his time.A classic of sorts.