Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011)

I've been waiting for this to come out for some time now, since SyFy first aired it, and fortunately Netflix sent it on the day it was released on DVD. Tiffany and Debbie (Deborah) Gibson in an Asylum schlockfest featuring CG pythons and alligators? Do you need to ask?

Mega Python vs. Gatoroid takes place in the Everglades, where Gibson is a scientist/activist who is obsessed with pythons, and releases a bunch into the Everglades, where they wreak havoc on the local ecosystem. Park ranger Tiffany decides the best bet to counter them is to make the local alligators larger, so she pumps them full of steroids. Bad move, and now we have Armageddon in southern Florida.



Though this started out slow, overall it was pretty fun, and in spots was really fantastic. It did a great job with Tiffany and Gibson, really playing up their time as pop icons, and poking fun at the supposed rivalry the two had, going as far as a sweet cat fight. The Asylum amps up the silliness as well, with enormous CG snakes and alligators crashing into buildings and blowing shit up and eating people. You can see above that a snake jumps up and takes a blimp out of the air with "The Asylum" written across it. If you're looking for a good time, this will definitely fill the bill.

Anyone growing up in the 80s knows Tiffany and Debbie (now Deborah) Gibson. Of course, as a boy, I didn't like girl music, but now that I'm older, I enjoy it for the nostalgia factor. The sense I got here was that both women knew that they were best known for work they did when they were teenagers, and while they had accepted that, they had also moved onto other things in their lives and their careers, but the fact that they weren't trying to run from their teen idol success, that they embraced it here, made it all the more fun for us. It helped too that they embraced the bad Asylum movie concept, though we can't be too surprised considering they've each been in an Asylum flick before.



One thing that struck me about Deborah Gibson more here than in Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, is that she looked almost like Britney Spears. Her hair, her clothes, her make-up. Don't get me wrong, she's very hot, but it's kind of ironic that she was a teen idol when Spears was in elementary school, and now with the shifting trends in fashion, it's Spears that she now models her style after-- or at least her character here. As far as the acting goes, I think this role suited her better than the previous one too. It allowed her more room to have fun with it, which she definitely did.

I was worried about how they would treat Tiffany's character, after the frumpy soccer mom clothes they dressed her in in Mega Piranha, and though her park ranger outfit was more flattering, that still wasn't saying much. Later, though, at a party scene, she's in a really hot dress, so they made up for it. If you look at the pics of her at the premier on the imdb page, she's really smokin' there, and I wonder if it's just a Hollywood thing, that they have trouble fitting women with curves into flattering outfits, because in real life, it doesn't seem to be as hard. Also, there's a bit of a joke made about her weight towards the end, which you can decide for yourself whether or not it's below the belt (I don't want to say exactly what happens, because it gives away the ending).



And yes, that's Monkee Micky Dolenz next to Tiffany in that picture above. He played himself, and was supposed to perform at Tiffany's fundraiser for the Everglades, until the snakes and alligators come and break up the party. I'm surprised they stopped at Dolenz. Why not see what Leif Garrett is up to, or David Cassidy. They could've made the whole band out of teen idols. Hell, they had Barry Williams in Mega Piranha, why not call him back.

You can get this on DVD from all the usual suspects. As I mentioned above, it has a slow start, but is worth it overall. Everyone involved had a lot of fun, and that fun translates into the movie. This is what you came for when you saw the title, that The Asylum made it, and it starred Tiffany and Deborah Gibson.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1680138/