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Monkey Shines | Year: 1988 Classification: Horror Directed: - George A. Romero Actors/Actresses: - Jason Beghe - John Pankow <b>Monkey Shines From a purely animal training perspective this movie is brilliant. Romero did a great job directing these 6, 10 pounds capuchin monkeys to look like 1 monkey did the job. Much harder than Lassie and Flipper.The editing was also very slick. Watch the movie from a technical POV and see if you can find the different monkey faces, bodies and also puppets used in the more intense scenes. I trained them all and was very proud of them. Romero's best I never cared too much for Romero's zombie movies, but I've always thought "Monkey Shines" is an extremely good movie. -His best, actually. It's a brilliant script, and the acting is superb. A very suspensful movie from start to finish. I have the first of its two DVD releases from MGM, but unfortunately the piture quality is not all that sharp (-only slightly better than VHS, I'd say), and therefore no more than acceptable. This is not the first somewhat sloppy disc from MGM, so they better shape up if they want happy costumers. -In their defense I must add that I haven't seen the newest edition, but this Hitchcock-like thriller deserves to look a lot better than this. One of the forgotten gems of the 80's "Night of the Living Dead" fanatics will disagree, but in my opinion "Monkey Shines" represents George Romero at the top of his game. (Okay, I love "Creepshow", too.) It is one of the most well-crafted suspense movies I have ever seen. It takes a potentially ludicrous scenario and knocks your socks off with it. A quadriplegic law student named Alan (excellently played by the underrated actor Jason Beghe), develops a psychic bond with his nurse-maid monkey, Ella. Alan understandably has a short temper and no sense of humor about his condition; he's not aware, however, that the confused but well-meaning Ella has been acting upon his violent revenge fantasies. It all comes to a head one dark and stormy night when Ella finally goes over the edge and menaces her master endlessly, despite vain rescue attempts by his pals.<BR>How many ways can a little monkey torment a grown man? Plenty, it turns out, if you can't move like Alan. His claustraphobia and terror are wonderfully and effectively splashed across the screen by both Beghe and Romero's camera. The supporting cast, especially the two actors playing his overbearing mother and his best friend Geoffrey (forgive me, I can't remember their names at the moment), is superb. And if the suspense-packed final 30 minutes of this movie don't give you goosebumps a-plenty, you'd better check your pulse.<BR>A couple flaws:<BR>1. An overly cheesy ending preceded by a lame "final scare" (which I hear was forced upon Romero by the studio).<BR>2. A bizarre sex scene which induces either head-scratching confusion or incredulous laughter.<BR>3. The whole "mad scientist" aspect of the plot: WHY exactly does Geoffrey's intelligence-boosting potion wind up linking Ella to Alan psycically? Not explained.<BR>But these flaws are far from fatal. They can be easily ignored, in favor of the immense enjoyment factor of the movie as a whole. Spooky, suspenseful, and frequently touching, it's a great "popcorn" movie. Bravo, George! Buy Monkey Shines at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Monkey Shines Search with the Priority Search Engine on Monkey Shines This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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