The Stuff (1985)

• Can't find a rating
• 86 mins
• SD
• I rated it 4 stars (Really Liked It)

Initial Thoughts:

I saw this film as a kid, and I do remember being blown away by the story. Though when you're 7 years old, a story about white goo that kills you if you eat it is the cat's meow. If you go into this film knowing it's an 80's B movie, you should enjoy it.

Movie:

Watching it now, with grown-up eyes, and with posterity on my side, it doesn't hold up as well as I'd thought. That's not to say, that The Stuff isn't worth the time. 

The themes are so deliciously 80's it hurts. A weird and unexplained white goo bubbles out of the Earth. It tastes sweet and smooth. Some country bumbkins decide that they could sell it -- and  it's apparent that no testing is done (Capitalism RULES!). Flash forward to a fancy ad agency marketing the crap out of it, and it's on every supermarket's shelves. They shill the hell out of it. Turn it into a giant industry that supports one town and kills another, and commit all types of corporate crime.

Problems arise when a little boy, who's head is far to big for his body, notices the Stuff moving in the fridge. Later the boy freaks out at the market, knocking down store displays and taking cartons of the Stuff out of shopper's carts.

This kind of animosity towards the new wonder product doesn't sit well. The boy's family soon demands that he eat the stuff and, "join the family."

All the while Michael "almost as cool as Jesus" Moriarty is going around kicking ass and taking names. Moriarty rescues the kid and long story short: a disgraced ultra right-wing general (who sees the stuff as a communist threat) activates his all white militia and takes over the stuff factory and compound by force. I can imagine Newt's pants stirring watching all of this unfold.

After the stuff has been banned, we see in the final scenes that it goes underground, much like the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 80's.

The only eighties cliche missing is the syth-heavy soundtrack.

Afterthoughts:
Watching the credits roll, I was glad I re-watched The Stuff. If you're bored, or have some friends over and want to clown it up a bit, put this on. Deliciously good.