In the same sort of vein as 'The Goonies', 'The Monster Squad' is your typical 1980's family adventure film, but with the difference being that the titular group of kids are battling the famous horror movie monsters of yesteryear such as Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy, The Wolfman and er...Gillman?
A group kids (headed up by Sean, played by Andre Gower) who are huge fans of the monster world find it is up to them to save the day, as Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr) has returned in search of an ancient amulet, that contains concentrated 'good'. One day every one hundred years, said amulet becomes vulnerable to destruction, so it's a race against time to get it before Dracula and the fellow monsters he has brought back with him, find it.
Meanwhile Frankenstein's Monster befriends Sean's sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank), and helps the squad in the search for the amulet.
Like so many other films like this at the time, 'The Monster Squad' isn't afraid to have violent moments, big scares, some gore and plenty of foul language. I've always preferred 'kids films' this way, because anything else isn't really an accurate representation of how kids talk. They swear! And it's always good to be frightened as a kid, never did me any harm!
The kids are all likable, but where the cast is let down for me were the adults. There were some really poorly acted moments with the grown up cast, and I also found Duncan Regehr's performance as Dracula totally bland. Apparently, he is considered by Drac aficionados to be one of the best on-screen Counts of all time, but I can't see it.
The exception to the rule of the adult cast is Tom Noonan as Frankenstein's Monster. Noonan always adds a touch of class to most of the stuff he is in, and it's quite a touching portrayal of the famously tortured creation, even if he was hidden under loads of makeup. And the makeup is superb - all the creatures look fantastic, but it was the late, great Stan Winston on special effects duty, so that is hardly surprising.
For most of the time, the film is a laugh, not taking itself too seriously, with a few nice nods to the classic monster movies. The writing is surprisingly 'OK', considering the brilliant Shane Black had a co-writer credit, I was expecting something slightly more witty, but overall 'The Monster Squad' is well worth a watch with the family, just as long as they haven't been weened on the watered down family films of recent years.
***
Nothing outstanding, but a entertaining film while it's on. Great special effects, a likable child cast, and a nice little performance from Tom Noonan make up for the slight inadequacies from the adult cast and the writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment