spencergrande6 This rat movie is basically Moby Dick. OK yeah, it's more The Old Man and the Sea. Oh yeah those are just the loaded references made to superior influences in this film.It's yuppie class climber versus the rat race and the slow descent into unhappiness and madness that that entails. Your hot wife goes on vacation with daddy without you. Her dad has money and rubs it in your face because you come from nothing. Your kid eats rat poison. You maybe almost cheat on your wife. You drink. Your brownstone gets trashed. Money is hard.This is a fun flick for sure, and the man vs beast metaphor is used supremely well. The moment Bart (Peter Weller) is offered the "big project" of his dreams, with the money and dehumanizing that inherently represents, the film cuts to the first shot of the rat coming to life in the brownstone and beginning his reign of terror. Subtle? Maybe not, but with killer rats it doesn't need to be.It doesn't stick the landing though. I never bought the supposed marital tension or his obsession with renovating the brownstone over family time. He seemed like a nice guy pulled a bit thin. I guess that makes him rootable, but also his journey less believable.The title is killer and the scene where he rattles off all his rat facts to a flabbergasted table full of moneyed people is a treat.

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) If you like rats, then this is a movie for you. Well, unless you'd rather watch Willard, original or remake, or Graveyard Shift, the one with Brad Dourif. But still, Of Unknown Origin does have a nasty rat in it. It's man versus rat in a battle of wits...and teeth. Cue horror-movie music.Of Unknown Origin stars Peter Weller as Bart, a successful businessman who's under a lot of strain at the office. With the wife and kid out of town, he can meander around his renovated-by-hand townhouse at the end of the day and just unwind. That is, until he hears noises coming from behind the walls.Bart buys traps. They don't work. He buys bigger traps, then poison. Nothing doing. We get occasional glimpses of the rat. The rat chews through various wires, eventually shutting down all electricity. Meanwhile, Bart is desperately trying to finish a project at work on very short notice. Life's not going well.Weller was sort of a poor man's version of James Woods: sometimes unhinged, sometimes too calm. That dichotomy is on display here. Weller, who would later play Robocop, is pretty good here, given the dopey and unbelievable material, and he shouldn't be faulted for the film's many shortcomings. Shannon Tweed also appears, briefly, as Bart's wife. It was Tweed's first movie, and it's shame she's not in it more.There's a lot of destruction and mayhem in Of Unknown Origin, more than you'd think a man-versus-rodent battle might entail. The director is one George Cosmatos, who would later direct both First Blood and Tombstone, so this just stands to reason. This is a harmless, vacant-mind movie.

videorama-759-859391 Before his Robocop days, and Buckaroo Banzai, cool future action star, Weller starred in this very effective and low budget horror, I've just viewed, and I have to say I was impressed. As having seen the video cover many times, when I was young, I flipped this one off. It's a very well made, Canadian effort. Alone (well that's Weller thinks) for a few weeks, while wife (Shannon Tweed-that's right) and son take a trip, Weller soon finds his serenity invaded by your not so ordinary rat. We're afforded peeks of the destructive, murderous fiend, like in teasing silhouettes, or flashes of it, lurking about, or running across camera, whatever, before we're properly introduced, and wished to hell we weren't. Though, not overly violent, the violence itself is adequate, but of course, this is not what makes it a good movie. It's the situation and how successful New Yorker, Weller deals with it. And too is the suspense, in wondering where the rat will strike next. We feel Weller's injuries too, those sharp stings, from the rat's sharp killer teeth, knowing into us. The scene in the kitchen with Tweed, and son leaving, painted such a similar picture to Weller and wife in Blue Jean Cop, this kitchen almost having you believe, it was the same one used. I know how Weller feels. I've stayed at my Dad's place and we've had mice. I was staying there once by myself. I was in my bedroom, settling down for the night. I heard rumbling behind my tele. I'm sure it had to be a mouse. I couldn't sleep, until it was out of there. I was even afraid to turn the light on in my bedroom, as if being faced with the visual of it. Like Weller, even though I hadn't spotted it yet, I charged out, got a broom, arming myself. What made Weller bring it up, in that early dinner conversation, with business associates, whatever, had me a bit weirded out, if almost put of chicken, as really his rat hell hadn't really begun yet. Weller carries this off great, as really most of the film relies on him and his war with the rat, that slowly breaks him down into nutso land. I couldn't really imagine watching any other actor in this role, as they wouldn't be as much fun as Weller. Dig his last response, to Tweeds O.S dialogue, when discovering the topsy turvy'd state of the apartment as having just arrived back, as Weller just claimed victory. An oldie, but goodie.

Superunknovvn This is the story of a man (Bart Hughes played by Peter Weller) who becomes obsessed with a little rat problem he's having at his newly renovated house. Instead of focusing on Bart's growing insanity, the director unfortunately showcases the rat as a vicious and dangerous beast. Although there are some quite effective closeups of the rat-villain, we never really feel any threat emerging from this little creature. Bart's obsession seems all but unbelievable. It's implausible that he would not just move to a hotel or try (harder) to contact an exterminator. Also, the movie just doesn't seem to have any real purpose. After a quick showdown it just ends, leaving some plot lines (Bart's job, his relationship to his family) unresolved."Of Unknown Origin" is still a very watchable movie. The pacing is quick and Weller does a pretty decent job in this one man-show. Had director George P. Cosmatos added anything to make it more than a mere monster movie, "Of Unknown Origin" would no be the obscure left-over from the early 80's that it is.