# Willard! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491 "2003-03-15T02:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/1 "2003-03-15T02:12:59Z")
I just got back from _Willard_, and had a campy good time, just as expected. The plot was a bit thin and predictable, but who really cares? It’s a modern B-movie, and it has Crispin Glover. And rats. I adore both rats and Crispin Glover (who is looking his creepiest, pallid-est and hottest by far), and since 95% of the movie’s screen time is filled by one or the other there was really no way I **wouldn’t** enjoy the movie. I don’t understand the extensive marketing New Line is doing, though. _Willard_ seems like it was made to have a somewhat limited release, be adored and hated, and drift off into cult obscurity, much like the original. So yeah: Glover, rats, all good. If you are a fan of either, I say go out and have a ball and start thinking up sassy callbacks for midnight screenings 15 years down the line. ---
**Author:** ![irkenDoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c2a13f/32.png) [@irkenDoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irkenDoom)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/2 "2003-03-15T03:03:23Z")
So, how does this affect rat PR? The wife and I want to see it, but all I can think is, “man, this’ll make people hate rats even _more_.” Still, I wanna see it. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/3 "2003-03-15T03:10:49Z")
Or you might rent the original and watch it before you go see the remake. ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/4 "2003-03-15T03:17:03Z")
I’d say if you hate rats before seeing the movie, you’ll just hate them more. If you loved rats, you will be rockin’ out in your seat every time Willard makes a sobby face or gets uber-emotional over his rats. If you are nonplussed by rats, you might actually start to understand crazy rat-people like me. Socrates is adorable!!, and the rats in general are painted in a “heroically sinister” light. ---
**Author:** ![irkenDoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c2a13f/32.png) [@irkenDoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irkenDoom)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/5 "2003-03-15T03:49:12Z")
Well, either way, it’s just going to make me want to train our rats to, um, tear things up… doubt they’d actually do it though. **Reeder:** will do. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/6 "2003-03-15T07:06:54Z")
The only thing better than a movie about rats is a movie about rats staring Crispin Glover. Its funny how the only people that seemed to like Willard own rats. I counted 3 people out of the dozen or so at the the theater walk out before the movie was over, but my sister and I(with 4 rats between us) loved it. What he did after he visited his boss’s office that night did kind of ruin it a bit for me. Anyone see Glover’s music video for the movie? Wonderfully creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/7 "2003-03-15T16:28:41Z")
I just saw it last night. I thought it was sort of predictable but fun. Crispin Glover is terrific of, course. Nobody does crazy like Crispin. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/8 "2003-03-15T17:31:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irkenDoom \* > \*\*So, how does this affect rat PR? The wife and I want to see it, but all I can think is, “man, this’ll make people hate rats even _more_.” Still, I wanna see it. \*\* I heard a coalition of rats were picketing outside the studios because they object to the negative stereotyping. They wrote a letter of protest but no one can read it (their handwriting is just too darned small.) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/9 "2003-03-16T02:19:37Z")
In all the photos I’ve seen, [Crispin Glover](http://salon.com/ent/movies/review/2003/03/14/willard/index_np.html) looks _exactly_ like [Aubrey Beardsley](http://www.1890s.org/sub/beardsley.htm)! Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_to\_be\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Never\_to\_be\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_to_be_Queen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willard/161491/10 "2003-03-16T06:37:14Z")
I thought Ben was a cutey. He kind of looked liked a bat. Do you think that Socrates and Ben were played by female rats, at least for part of the film? I was not certain.