BEN
Solid proof of how little an Oscar nomination really means
I rented this one, mistakenly thinking it came before Willard. (smacks forehead)
It's a good thing that there was an extensive trailer for Willard at the beginning of this movie, or it would have been about 45 minutes until I had the slightest clue what was going on. The movie begins with Ben (that's the rat) and Willard (that's the socially dysfunctional "King Of The Rats") having a little falling out, you might say. Then Ben and about a million of his rat buddies head on down to some suburb where they destroy a grocery store and befriend a little kid named Davey. Davey has a heart condition, and appears to want to cram the writing of as many awful songs as he possibly can into his likely-to-be-short lifetime. These songs simply must be heard by any connosseur of truly awful music. One of the songs is, indeed, the Oscar-nominated "Ben", made famous by Michael Jackson. How prophetic that it's a white kid who's singing it in the movie.
So the rats befriend the kid, and come to his aid when bullies pick on him, and eventually start to come between him and his older sister (played by a young Meredith Baxter, with brown hair, geeky glasses and an overall winsomeness). The police are out looking for the rats too (no disbelieving cops here - they want Ben, and they want him dead), so that can't possibly end happily for the kid. Meanwhile, his mom just looks over it all with exasperation, wishing it would end (much like the viewer well may).
An hour and a half feels like about three hours here, with so little action or horror scenes to speak of. I mean, if you're already scared of rats (which I have no reason to be, Alberta being completely rat-free) (PHTPHTTHPTHPTHTH!!!), then maybe this one might pique your interest, but probably not. Shot after shot shows all these rats just milling around, but they're very rarely actually doing something to warrant our concern, unless we own stock in grocery chains.
Just weak overall, offering nothing in the way of fright or excitement. Admittedly, the attempt at a tearjerker ending did kind of work (so help me, I'm a softie), but it's not like that's enough for a recommendation, even to rat aficionados. Stay away.