one-nine-eighty Is this a straight to TV film by any chance? It certainly felt like it from the get go although this wasn't as tacky and cheap as other films I've seen in the last five years so credit where credit is due, it's not as bad as it easily could have been. Let's face it, there have been lots of films made already which deal with rats as a theme so this wasn't anything startlingly new but it was handled in a refreshing way. Fuelled by narrative rather than blockbuster action this film trundles along nicely and doesn't do anything too wrong. It's got suspense and tension and the special effects and minor use of CGI work well. A New York department store noticed it had a minor pest problem, they called in the professionals to deal with it who uncover that the minor problem is in fact a lot worse than thought. Meanwhile other reports circulate pointing towards the problem being less localised than just the store. The exterminator becomes detective and finds out that the rats are a rouge swarm which have been manipulated and mutated by science. Left abandoned the rats do the natural thing and try and support themselves to escape the science lab and live. In doing so they become a menace to the local populace as they nibble, bite and spread disease. Can the exterminator crack the problem and save the city before the problem gets out of hand? 5 out 10

sol1218 **SPOILERS** Skin crawling horror flick involving genetically altered mutant rats who, when excited, rampage through the subways and sewers of New York City devouring any and everything that happens to get in their way.These "cute" and "cuddly" little critters come on the scene in of all places the upscale and swanky Garsons Department Store where the rich and famous do their shopping. The mystery of way these hoards of infected, with Weils Disease, and flesh eating rodents choose Garsons is later found out by the store's manager's Susan Costello, Madchen Amick, 12 year-old daughter Amy, Daveigh Chase, That happens late in the movie. Which by that time the rats were coming out of their underground hideouts-by the millions-to do battle with the entire population of NYC!It's up to ace exterminator Jack Carver, Vincent Spano, and his rat a**-kicking sidekick Ty, Shawn Michael Howard,to not only find where these rats are hiding but to zap them, with explosives and state of the art rat poison, before they by breeding with the much meeker and less aggressive local city rats create a rat army of over 100 million giant mutant rodents. In no time at all this giant rat army will not only overrun the Big Apple but end up killing, with the deadly Weils Disease, half of the US population; Like they did back in Europe in the 14th century by spreading the Black Plague!***SPOILERS*** As you would have expected it's the top city leaders like Health Department's head Ray Jarrett, David Wolos Fonteno, who do more to have the mutant and killer rats getting out of control then anybody else. Jarrett doesn't want the public to be alarmed by the thought that millions upon millions of killer rats are secretly breeding right under their feet in the NY Subway System and are about to explode and overrun the city. This insane reason by Jarrett gives the rats every opportunity, in not being hunted down and killed by Carver & Ty, to do exactly what the not too on the ball Jarrett is in fact trying to prevent them from doing!Ferocious and gut-spilling final with the rats spilling into the city's underground subway system and terrorizing the unsuspecting strap-hangers to the point where more people end up dying from strokes and heart attacks then from the rats themselves! Carver realizing what's turning the rats on, something that's sold at Garsons Department Store, lays a trap for them at the midtown Recreation Center's massive Olympic size swimming pool. The far too shocking, for those of us in the audience with weak stomachs, and mind blowing ending has to be seen to be believed! With the rats, now numbering ten times more then the entire NYC population, spilling into the recreation's swimming pool with the added attraction of Susan, who accidentally sipped into the pool, being swarmed all over by them! This makes Carver plan in blasting the rats to kingdom come, with Susan's life in danger of being blasted along with them, that much more difficult!P.S The made for TV movie "The Rats" was to be broadcast on the evening of Tuesday September 11, 2001 on FOX TV Network. By then people had a lot more on their minds then rats and rodents which was why the film was rescheduled for a later, and less stressful, date.

John Crane I'll be truthful, when I first picked up this movie in the library, I though I would cry myself to sleep because of how horrible it might be, but I digress, it was pretty good. There were some scares; some scenes were you just cringe because its rats but I liked it. It boils down to New York run amok by rats, but these are no ordinary rats, they are, in fact, parasitic disease-spreading rodents that broke out of an abandoned genetics lab.The movie had some pretty sly humor and the characters were very well played out. The whole concept of rats invading a luxury department store and finding mounds of rat crap all over the place, using a dark light, was the funnies thing I have ever seen in a rodent movie. Some interesting scenes involving massive hordes and tunnels of rats got me pretty uncomfortable, some, like the pool scene, were suggestive considering massive blood loss of kids.The movie had some pretty snappy comebacks and a humorous relationship between the sophisticated luxury department store owner and the suave discrete exterminator. Their relationship, at points, is hard to look at because of campy level it's on but nonetheless a very good relationship. I liked how the Health Department is trying everything to cover everything up and…..its just a funny, scary movie.Of course, there is a limit of how much corniness and silliness a movie can have. But despite that factor, this isn't that bad of a movie, the rats are more of a vermin that his movie and I think that any horror fan should at least try this movie. I like it, not loved it, but like it, and I hope other will.

sludgehound Creepy crawly things that sneak up on you.....As prior comments said, well done for cable. If rats really do terrify you, then of course skip it. But if appreciate the scary genre well directed & played, then this is the deal.Gotta look up the dir. John Lafia. Oh 1990 Child's Play IIhmm I'm a Chucky fan for their clever interplay of humor & scare. The Rats has a bit of corp satire. Dif writer tho than Chucky.N2RODES