Tag Archives: William Newman

Brad reviews MONKEY SHINES (1988), directed by George A. Romero!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

When I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, a lot of people called me a gym rat. My dad was a high school basketball coach by profession, so most of those years you could find me hanging out in the gym practicing basketball, watching basketball, just doing anything I could related to the game. I guess you could also have called me a video store rat, because if I wasn’t at the gym, I wanted to be browsing the inventory of our local video stores looking for that perfect movie to rent and take home. I remember often seeing the VHS box for MONKEY SHINES: An Experiment in Fear on those shelves, but I never had the nerve to rent it. You see, I wasn’t big on horror movies back in those days so a movie might intrigue me, but if it looked kind of scary I’d usually pass. This year’s Horror-Thon has been all about watching horror movies and thrillers for the first time. When I recently saw the title MONKEY SHINES on one of my streaming services, I knew it was finally the right time to check it out!

The film stars Jason Beghe as Allan Mann, a young man who’s hit by a truck while he’s out jogging one morning. This accident leaves him paralyzed from the neck down, and he finds himself having to depend on other people for just about everything. Understandably, he doesn’t handle this new life very well emotionally, even going so far as trying to kill himself. Enter Ella, a cute little monkey trained to assist people with disabilities. At first, Ella is a tremendous help with Allan’s attitude improving as she helps him gain a little independence. But unknown to Allan, Ella has been the subject of experiments involving human brain tissue, and their connection becomes something more than anyone could have anticipated. Soon, when Allan has bad thoughts about someone, something bad happens to them. When Allan gets too close to someone, something bad happens to them. With this, the little monkey who was making Allan’s life so much better begins turning it into a living hell.

MONKEY SHINES was written and directed by George A. Romero. Considering his place in horror history, I was certainly interested in seeing what he had come up with here. I do have to admit though, that I haven’t watched much of his work before. Looking at his filmography, I think I’ve only seen NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, CREEPSHOW, and THE DARK HALF, which I saw at the theater and didn’t even like. But still, the man is a legend, and I knew this would be another good chance to appreciate his work while expanding my own vast film watching history.

One of the things I appreciated about the film is that Romero really takes his time establishing the characters and situation before jumping into the horror elements. Allan seems like a good guy with such a promising future, only to have it all changed so suddenly. We understand why he’s struggling so much, and we’re also happy for him as we see his spirits lifted through Ella, as well as her beautiful trainer Melanie Parker (Kate McNeil).

We get to see how Allan’s accident affects the people that knew him before the accident, like his best friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) and girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner). We also meet the brand new people in his life, like Melanie and his live-in nurse, Maryanne (Christine Forrest). In essence the film has taken its time establishing the people who have treated Allan well, and those who haven’t, which adds to the emotional stakes once the horror finally starts kicking in. It might be fair to criticize Romero for taking too long to get to the action, but for me, a little patience pays off with this one.

I think Jason Beghe does a good job as Allan. His character has a lot of highs and lows throughout the film, and he seems to navigate the emotions well enough that I was still pulling for him, even if he did act like a jerk at times. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but Beghe’s career is still going strong to this day as he plays the lead in the hit series CHICAGO PD. And then there’s Ella, the cute little capuchin monkey played by Boo, who gets an “introducing” credit in the film. I laughed and smiled with Allan as she came into his life and made things so much better at first. One of the more effective things about the movie is the sense of dread that comes from knowing that joy cannot last.

As far as the supporting cast, I think I most appreciated John Pankow’s performance as the best friend. He’s one of those guys who loves his buddy, but he’s morally compromised and has so many self-medicating vices that he ends up screwing up other people’s lives while taking himself down. One of the things I love about watching 80s movies is seeing who pops up in the more minor roles. Here we get Stanley Tucci as a sleazily arrogant doctor and Stephen Root as the cruel head of an animal research lab.

I’d say if the movie does falter, it would be in its ending. Rather than following through on the more grounded, psychological story it had been telling, it seems to push things in a direction that’s pretty far over-the-top. I wanted the ending to feel like a natural progression of everything that had come before, but instead, it felt like the movie was going for more crowd-pleasing theatrics. With that said, it was still very effective when Allan, with all his physical limitations and vulnerability, was truly forced to defend himself. I’ve read that the studio got involved with the ending, interfering with Romero’s original vision, but I can only judge the finished product. It didn’t ruin the film by any stretch, but the change in tone is very noticeable.

My final verdict on MONKEY SHINES is that it’s an effectively dramatic horror film with an interesting premise, a good central performance, and a talented director who knows how to tell a story while building up a sense of dread, even if its ending didn’t land perfectly. Looking back now, I’m glad this video store rat finally took that box off the shelf.

Leprechaun (1993, directed by Mark Jones)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Teenage Tory (Jennifer Aniston) is visiting her family’s new North Dakota farmhouse when the dimwits hired to paint the place accidentally set free the Leprechaun (Warwick Davis), who had been trapped in the basement ten years earlier by the former owner. The Leprechaun wants all of his gold. It’s too bad the painters already found the gold and one of them somehow swallowed a piece. This Leprechaun gets all of his gold back except for that one piece. Leprechauns don’t stop until they get all the gold. It’s the Leprechaun code.

The very first Leprechaun film is actually a pretty simple affair. I am surprised the movie was given a theatrical release, because everything about it feels like something that would go direct-to-video. The puns are bad and the kills are unimpressive, though this might be the only movie to feature a deadly pogo stick. It also features a Leprechaun in a go-kart and a kid saying, “Fuck you, Lucky Charms!” because the cereal company decided they didn’t want their product in the film.  That earned Leprechaun an R-rating.  It would probably have been a PG-13 otherwise.

Warwick Davis is at least having fun as the Leprechaun. After Return of the Jedi and Willow, this film was his chance not only to be bad but also to head a franchise, and you can’t blame him for taking advantage of it. Jennifer Aniston is cute beyond words, and this is probably her liveliest film performance. The movie would probably be forgotten if it hadn’t spawned so many sequels. Remember Leprechaun in the Hood?

Funny Farm (1988, directed by George Roy Hill)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Andy Farmer (Chevy Chase) is a New York sports writer who leaves the city and moves to the small town of Rosebud, Vermont so that he can work on his novel.  He and his wife, Elizabeth (Madolyn Smith), struggle to adjust to living in a small town.  The delivery of their furniture is delayed by the collapse of a covered bridge.  When they try to make a phone call from inside their own house, the local operator tells them to deposit ten cents.  They were expecting a Norman Rockwell-type town and instead, they find themselves having to pay for the funeral of a man who was buried on their property long before they moved in.  When Elizabeth makes more progress writing a children’s book than Andy does with his heist novel, their marriage starts to feel the strain.

Chevy Chase is now so much better known for the stories of his unprofessional and diva-like behavior on film and television sets that it’s easy to forget that he was, at his peak, a very funny actor.  Chase may be playing a variation of his put-upon everyman but, compared to the first two Vacation movies, most of the humor in Funny Farm is very mild.  George Roy Hill was a classy director who had been making movies since the 50s and Funny Farm feels like a throwback to the type of family-friendly comedies that Disney would make in the 60s.  That I laughed as much as I did was largely due to Chase’s performance.  Whether he was tripping over a Dutch door, reacting to his wife’s dislike of the first few chapters of his new novel, or offering to pay the townspeople $50 to pretend to be nice for a weekend, Chase was consistently funny and even likable.  I don’t know if this is the type of performance that Chevy Chase could give today.  There’s a bitterness that’s now integral to screen persona and it’s made him into someone who audience want to laugh at instead of with.  It’s too bad because Funny Farm is a reminder of the type of comedic actor that Chevy Chase used to be and who he probably still could be if not for the failed talk show and the infamous Friar’s Club roast.

As for Funny Farm, it’s an amusing and likable comedy and it still holds up well today.  Chase is the key to the film’s success but he’s not the only reason that the film works.  I liked the scene where Mike Starr and Glenn Plummer, as the two movers, watch as the bridge they tried to drive over collapses.  I even liked the running joke about the two ducks who refused to leave the Farmers’s property.  Funny Farm may not have been a hit when it was first released but it’s since built up a cult following.  There will always be a place for a funny comedy that leaves you in a good mood.

Horror Film Review: Squirm (dir by Jeff Lieberman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Worms are creepy and you don’t want to get them in your hair.

I think that, more than anything, explains the continuing appeal of this lightly satirical Southern shocker from 1976.  The film’s plot is a simple one, as the plots of the best horror films often are.  There’s a storm.  The power lines over Fly Creek, Georgia get knocked down.  The power line lands in the mud and soon, you’ve got thousands of electrified worms crawling all over the place.  These worms are angry and noisy and they like to eat people’s faces and take control of their bodies.  Of course, since the power lines are all down, you’re can/t exactly call for help and even worse, you’re thrown into darkness once the sun goes down.  Squirm gets at some very basic fears.

Squirm has a welcome sense of humor, as any film about killer worms should.  It’s obvious that Lieberman knew that the audience would be demanding that the worms get revenge on at least a few fisherman and those scenes are tossed in there.  The film’s nominal hero is Mick (Don Scardino), a visitor from New York City, and he’s so out-of-place in rural Georgia that it becomes funny watching him try to do simple things like order food or have a simple conversation.  Even when he tries to warn people about the worms, you can tell they’re thinking, “He might be right but do I want to listen to a yankee?”  As we say down here in Texas, you can always spot the yankee because they’re the ones sweating profusely and talking about killer worms.  The scenes of Mick trying to order something at the local diner reminded me of the great “We don’t got no goddamn trout” scene from Hell or High Water.

Mick is in Georgia to visit his girlfriend, Geri (Patricia Pearcy).  Almost everyone who Mick meets seems like they could have come out of an overheated first draft of a Tennessee Williams play.  Once the worm attack starts in earnest, Geri’s mother sinks into a state of denial that would have impressed Blanche DuBois.  Meanwhile, Squirm has its own wannaba Stanley Kowalski in the form of Roger (R.A. Dow), who obviously can’t understand why Geri would want a boyfriend from New York when she could have him.  Roger is a creep but he’s a familiar creep.  Anyone who has ever lived in the country will immediately recognize Roger and know everything that they need to know about him.

That said, the worms are the real stars of Squirm and they certainly do manage to get everywhere.  On the one hand, it’s funny to see the worms emerging from a shower head but, on the other hand, it’s actually really terrifying because, when you’re standing naked in a shower, the last thing you want is to get about a thousand worms dumped on your head.  Seriously, that would freak me out even more than threat of getting killed by Norman Bates’s mother.  The film is also full of close-ups of the worms and, to be honest, worms are really freaky to look at.  The opening and closing of that little mouth is like pure nightmare fuel.

Squirm is a classic of Southern horror.  You’ll never look at a worm the same way again.