Monkey Shines

Starring:Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stephen Root, Stanley Tucci, Janine Turner, Boo (II), William Newman, Tudi Wiggins, Tom Quinn (II), Chuck Baker (III), Patricia Tallman, David Early, Michael Naft, Tina Romero (II), Mitchell Baseman, Lia Savini, Tom Dileo
Director: George A. Romero
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

George A. Romero monkeys with nature in this gripping and fearful tale based on the novel by Michael Stewart. Allan Mann (John Beghe) is a law student who's hit by a truck while jogging, leaving him a quadriplegic. Luckily, his scientist friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) is experimenting with capuchin monkeys, making them smarter with injections of human genetic material. Geoffrey arranges with Melanie (Kate McNeil)--who's working on an experimental program that matches monkeys with paraplegics to perform guide-dog functions--to train his prize subject, Ella (Boo), to act as Allan's helper. Allan is paralyzed from the neck down, confined to a wheelchair he moves by working a lever with his mouth. He's really vulnerable. Ella can fetch things and do errands, and a real emotional bond develops between Mann and monkey. Too strong a bond, it turns out, as Allan begins to experience dreams from the monkey's-eye view (capuchin-cam), Ella's boosted intelligence giving her the residual benefit of a telepathic ability in which the monkey begins to act out Allan's subconscious rage. Allan's nurse, former girlfriend, doctor, even his mother are terrorized by the creepy capuchin, leading to a showdown between Ella and Allan himself. With Allan trapped in a house, alone with a super-intelligent and malevolent monkey, there is plenty of suspense to make you rip holes in your upholstery. But perhaps even more tension could have been wrung out of this story if Ella had been more sympathetic (being as she was the victim of a scientific experiment gone bad), her wicked antics the acts of a kind of exterminating angel. Performances are brilliant by both Ella and Jason Beghe, who turns in one of cinema's most accurate and intelligent depictions of a high-level quadriplegic character. --Jim Gay

Description

From writer/director George Romero, the man who unleashed Night of the Living Dead, comes a 'terrific psychological thriller (L.A. Weekly) that delivers a disturbing message about messing with Mother Nature. Starring Jason Beghe ( Melrose Place ) and Janine Turner ( Northern Exposure ), this riveting tale is a white-knuckle triumph [that doesn't] let up (Newsweek)! Allan Mann (Beghe) is a bitter, angry and vengeful man ever since an accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. He's fed up with himself and everyone around him. All that changes when he's given Ella, a monkey trained to meet his every need. But when Ella begins anticipating Allan's thoughts, strangeand deadly things start happening. And as she stalks and wreaks havoc on Allan's fair-weather girlfriend (Turner), incompetent doctor and meddling mother, Allan realizes he must stop the cunning maniacal creature...before she takes over his mind!

Customer Reviews:

In the memory of a free festival.......2006-04-25

My recollection of this flick is hazy. I saw it late night in the London West End as part of the National Film Festival. There was no one on the door so I just sat down without paying. Niavely I assumed film festivals must be free. Good old fashioned British incompetence was the more likely culprit.

After a promising start it became apparent that George had decided to eschew his auteur style in favour of a strange hybrid of Hitchcock homage and Russ Meyer. That may make it sound more colourful than the laughable and undistinguished results. At one point during the interminable proceedings I recognised a borrowed speech from Doctor Logan in 'Day of the Dead' about civilization that seemed extraneous.

Romero is a talented director who is either 'on' or 'off' and when he's off, the results are invariably puzzling. Despite its appearence at the festival, no further Monkey Business was seen at the local multiplexes which was probably a blessing for the old boy.

Good "Scary" Science Fiction with Human Drama.......2005-12-16

The story is not only scary but has both science fiction and human drama. I think the good acting helps the film not to appear silly as the idea of laboratory experiments on animals cause human to mentally connect to the experimental animals is silly.

Since murder and violence are part of the film, this is not something you can relax with or feel warm afterwards... I still think as a scary science fiction it is well made in terms of story telling, sound and photography effect, and acting.

I am not personally into scary movies because lots of unhappy people appear in them, but I am okay with this one.

No Monkey's Uncle.......2005-06-30

George Romero has a knack for creating suspenseful horror movies using very little in the way of anything. His movies rely on atmosphere with a dash of special effects. In this case, the horror comes from a (not so) innocent little monkey. Well, the monkey is innocent, but the monkey's master is not.

We start the movie off with a little bedroom action, which is really just a teaser to get you into the movie. We see a little bit of skin as we meet Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) and Linda Aikman (Janine Turner). We quickly learn that Allan is very fit, and he is quickly out on his morning jog, when he has a close encounter of the grill kind. Unfortunately, such encounters end badly, and in this one Allan becomes a (nasty) quadriplegic. Of course, going from a fit, macho man to a quadriplegic is sufficiently traumatic that it would upset nearly everyone, and Allan reacts to the situation quite badly. He is helped down the road to rage by the departure of girlfriend Linda.

Luckily for Allan he has a brilliant friend working at Allan's university, Geoffrey Fisher (John Pankow) and his brilliant friend arranges for Melanie Parker (Kate McNeil) to train a Capuchin monkey for Allan to use as a helper. In many other movies we would see touching moments and in the end Allan would develop a cure of some incurable disease, or win a Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. In a George Romero movie, something sinister is going to happen. In this case the sinister is the experiments the Geoffrey has been performing on the normally harmless monkeys, experiments where Geoffrey injects human brain soup into them to try to increase their intelligence. To this point Geoffrey has met with little success, but the pairing of Allan and monkey Ella (played by monkey Boo - seriously) turns out to be fortuitous, or not, depending on which character you are in the movie.

It seems that this time the treatment has formed some sort of empathic bond between Ella and Allan. The bond appears to work both ways. Allan picks up on Ella's primal behavior, and Ella picks up on Allan's feelings of frustration, rage and revenge. The empathy the two feel becomes increasing the feelings each have, and eventually Ella begins to act on Allan's feelings, with murder and mayhem being the result.

This movie has its high points and its low points. The movie is relatively bloodless, so if you are looking for a gore-fest you should probably move on. The tension in the movie builds, but there is little actual surprise, except for the ending. You can even figure out who will die because Romero makes most of the people who die deserving of death. Indeed, one of the low points of this movie is how stereotypical the characters are.

Some of the most annoying stereotypes are main character Allan, who likely was arrogant before he died, but now he has become what he probably previously looked down on. So now he is taking out his frustrations on anyone and everyone. Allan's mother Dorothy (Joyce Van Patten) was genuinely concerned about Allan, but I also thought she was a bit obnoxious (like mother, like son?).

The worst character was probably Geoffrey Fisher. I am not a big fan of scientists as portrayed by most movies because they are unbelievable. Geoffrey was supposed to be a "real" scientist, but his behavior was most unscientific, particularly for someone who was supposed to be on the cutting edge of science. Science is often made the scapegoat for these sorts of movies, when in reality it is some weirdo who thinks he is a scientist, but turns out to be psychotic. You have to admit, turning a poor little monkey into a killer was brilliant. Even more brilliant is how Geoffrey acted like he was surprised that the monkey was a vicious killer.

I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars for this movie. I wanted to give the movie 4 stars because of how well Romero filmed the scenes involving the monkey. However, the stereotypes and overacting tended to push the movie down in my estimation. Also, though I thought the ending had its good points, it also had its weaknesses. Thus, though there are places in this movie that rise to the level of 4 stars, overall this movie comes in at a more solid 3 stars.

Deadtime for Bonzo..........2005-06-21

For some reason every time I see anything having to do with monkeys I think of that episode of The Simpson's where actor Troy McClure (you may remember me from such films as...) marries Homer's sister-in-law Selma in a sham wedding and then appears in a musical play titled `Stop the Planet of the Apes I want to get off!', singing the following lines...

Troy: [singing] 'I hate every ape I see,
From chimpan-a to chimpan-zee,
No, you'll never make a monkey out of me'

But I digress...Monkey Shines (1988) is a film adapted for the screen and directed by horror maven George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Martin), who, incidentally, has a new `dead' film coming out sometime in 2005 titled Land of the Dead. Starring in Monkey Shines is Jason Beghe, who I first saw on the HBO series `1st and Ten' way back in the mid 80's and has gone on to appear in such films as Maid to Order (1987), and G.I. Jane (1997) before settling into a career of forgettable TV movies. Also appearing is John Pankow (To Live and Die in L.A.), Kate McNeil (The House on Sorority Row), Joyce Van Patten (Bone, The Bad News Bears), Christine Forrest, who just happens to be married to the director, Stephen Root (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story), Stanley Tucci (The Core, Shall We Dance), and Janine Turner (Cliffhanger).

As the movie begins we see a young couple nekkid in the bed, and we get half a bum shot of Janine Turner which is then ruined (for me at least), by a lengthier bum shot of Beghe (for this we should have had partial breastage shot from Turner...missed opportunities...oh well). Anyway, the man, named Allan, who is quite fit, begins what appears to be his daily morning jog, only to find himself on the losing end of a face to grill meeting with a truck, thus beginning Allan's new life as a quadriplegic. Adjusting to a life of near immobility is certainly difficult (so much so for the once active Allan), and not made better by the departure of his hot girlfriend (wait to you see who she trades up to). Allan's friend Geoffrey Fisher (Pankow), who is also a medical scientist working at the university Allan attended before the accident, sees that his friend is having difficulties, and arranges for one of the Capuchin monkeys from his lab to be trained by Melanie Parker (McNeil), an expert in the field of training helper monkeys for the disabled. Thing is, Geoffrey's experimentation involves trying to increase the brain power of primates (developing the cognitive skills) by injecting them with serum partially comprised of frozen human brain shavings have not met with the level of success he was hoping for, that is until Ella (the monkey) is paired with Allan, and its discovered that the formula may have worked too well causing a mind meld of sorts between primate and human. This connection allows for a number of things, but it also unleashes some very primal instincts in Allan, ones that Ella begins acting on, and soon people begin to die...

I enjoyed this film, despite my thinking it was just a tad too long. If you are expecting loads of gore based on the fact that this is a Romero film, you are going to be disappointed and should probably skip this one. It's listed as a horror/Sci-Fi film, but I think of it more as a semi-intellectual thriller. The main problem I had with the film was I didn't care for the main character in Allan...now it's understandable his initial bitterness in coping with his injury as I would think the loss of usage of nearly all ones limbs would be a real downer, but what I am talking about goes beyond that in his treatment of those around him, especially his nurse and his mother. Okay, the nurse was a slacker and complainer, but his harping on her didn't help...and his mother...she might have been a tad overbearing, but her heart seemed in the right place and her concern genuine. Neither really deserved the verbal abuse they got from Allan. Oh, wait, Allan's abusive nature stemmed from his close relationship with Ella, and the unleashing (perhaps transference) of primal furies...whatever...seemed to me Allan had more of an effect on Ella than she did on him. Ella, after her training, existed only to serve and protect Allan, obeying his every command. And something else I had a little problem with was the scientific credibility of Pankow's character. His methods certainly left something to be desired and I hardly bought off on the notion that he was some sort of acclaimed researcher on the cutting edge of brain/intelligence studies. The lack of scientific `veracity' doesn't break the film, but it could have been a little tighter...and why in the world would he donate his best test subject in such a manner? I know he and Allan were friends, but come on now...here's another question for anyone who has seen the film...why did Geoffrey take two hypodermic needles (when only one was needed) with him prior to the final confrontation? Other than it was a necessity for the plot? Perhaps the 2nd hypo was a backup, but I'd doubt it as Pankow's impulsive and erratic character wasn't they type to think in terms of safeguards and backups...anyway...this was a case for me where the supporting more or less cast carried the film, as I never felt any real connection with Beghe or his character (too jerky for me). He did well enough in the calm moments, but appeared too overwrought during the tense scenes. I think my favorite characters, besides the monkey (who was quite expressive) was played by Forrest (the nurse), Van Patten (Allan's mother), and the arrogant Dr. Wiseman (Tucci). One thing that puzzled me was the subplot with Geoffrey and his boss, Dean Burbage (Root). Was that supposed to go anywhere? Seems to me they could have cut those scenes out and saved about ten minutes or so...the real strength in the film lies in the direction as Romero does really well in setting scenes up and just creating and maintaining a general sense of suspense...the story may have been lacking in some areas, but the flow was generally strong, and the plot moved along, leading up to a dramatic finish.

The picture on this DVD, available in both widescreen (1.85:1) and pan and scan, looks sharp and clear, and suffers no noticeable defects. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround audio comes through well enough, but could use a little boost. In terms of special features there really isn't much except for a short `collectable' booklet (what's so collectable about it?) and a theatrical trailer for the film. All in all I'd give this 3 ½ stars...

Cookieman108

By the way, it was stated no monkeys were harmed in the making of this film...it says nothing about budgies, though...and as far as the Simpson's reference I made earlier, I know the film is more akin to the episode where Homer got his own helper monkey named Mojo...

7/10 Strange.......2005-06-15

I shoulda reviewed this like 2 weeks ago when I actually saw this film, so many of the details are getting a little fuzzy. Still, the pertinent information remains, but I'll have to keep it short.

'Monkey Shines' is one of the least popular titles in Romero's filmography. It's certainly not one of his best, but when it gets going it's just obscenely fun and eccentric. Problem is, the film isn't going all the time. This movie is based on a high concept idea: 'Paralyzed man does battle with murderous helper monkey' This is a wacky, amusing idea, and the scenes involving this scenario are... wacky and amusing. But, this is only about the final 30 minutes of the film. That's the big problem with this movie: too much padding, and too many subplots. Hell, the monkey doesn't even kill anyone until an hour into the film. Now I, being the easily amused sort, was always reasonably entertained throughout the film, but the fact is that it really does meander about a lot. There are a number of subplots that go absolutely nowhere, specifically the one about the conflict between the main character's chemist friend and his department head, and the one about the strained relationship between him and his mother. That and the setup of the main plot is a bit too prolonged.

Again, however, once it gets going it's a total hoot. Despite the fact that I generally find monkey's to be ugly, repulsive creatures, Ella is quite adorable, in her way. She's kinda ugly, but her whole anthropomorphic manner is just great. Now, it's nice to see an adorable little monkey scampering about and being friendly, but it's totally great too see a tiny monkey plot vengeance and death via it's beastly cunning and various monkeyous machinations. Of course, this stuff isn't scary or even suspesnseful: The idea of a tiny killer monkey is just too silly. But, it works in it's own way. Also, the film comes to a totally delicious and brilliant climax, which is followed shortly by a spectacularly awesome 'mandatory tacked on scare'. I won't give away any specifics, it'll hurt the film too much. But trust me, it's awesome.

Entertaining stuff. The end.

Grade: B-

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