Project X

Amazon.com

Matthew Broderick, in one of his first grownup roles after years of playing teen heroes, stars as an air force foul-up, a pilot who, as punishment, is assigned to care for the chimps in military medical experiments. He's indignant at first but gradually warms up to his simian charges (who wouldn't?). The more time he spends with them, the more he realizes just what thinking, feeling creatures they are--which sticks him squarely in the center of a moral dilemma when he realizes that the outcome of the experiments involves putting all the chimps to sleep. Director Jonathan Kaplan, no stranger to ethically complex melodrama, gives what might otherwise be a predictable tale a jolt of both adrenaline and real emotion--and it doesn't hurt that most of his actors are lovable scene-stealers. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-09-04

I saw this movie when it first came out and have always wanted it. I could not believe I found it here at Amazon at such a great low price. This movie is so funny and yet so sad. It is the best movie I have ever seen. You have to see it. It is so sad to know that this kind of testing was actually performed on chimps by the US Airforce. This movie really makes you think. It gives you a sense of respect and love for these animals. (I was rooting for the chimps all the way.)

A Tear-Jerker.......2007-07-20

This movie is a poignant reminder to me of how cruel and how kind the human race can be to other animals. I know it is mostly a fictional story, but I still root for the escape of the chimps, even for grumpy Goliath. Jimmy was being manipulated, same as the subjects of the "experiment" and he comes to realize he has to stand up for himself. He won't just be the wise-cracking card player anymore.

esta pelicula fue intersante no solamenta para mi so ni toda la familia.......2007-01-12

everything in perfect condition

More Fantasy Than Comedy.......2006-07-21

PROJECT X is really a movie fairy tale for adults. It is billed as a comedy, and there are truly some humorous moments, but the basic thrust of the film is to transport the audience to a world of a deep and dark forest populated and run by evil witches and warlocks. The dark forest is a United States Air Force research test center and the resident warlock is a heartless and slimy researcher whose only stated purpose is to expose chimpanzees to lethal doses of radiation. Enter Matthew Broderick as a young and innocent air force recruit whose job is to bond with these chimps and basically and unwittingly get them ready for their lethal exposures. Broderick is young and boyishly goodlooking, but he is not the star. The one who steals more than a few scenes is Virgil the chimp. Virgil learns to trust Broderick, who in turn learns that the horrors of the dark forest are masked by the antiseptic environment that kills chimps in the name of science.

Director Jonathan Kaplan clearly tries hard to infuse PROJECT X with more than just the comic interaction between a chimp that is as at least as bright as his handler. Kaplan sets up the relation between Broderick and Virgil as a dramatic focus that zeros in on the rationale that the air force doctor slimily insists is the case: namely that if and when American pilots are exposed to killing radiation during a bombing run--perhaps to Russia--then how well will they be able to continue their mission? To Kaplan's credit, he has Broderick point out that unlike their simian counterparts in a flight simulator, a human pilot will certainly know if he has been exposed, and it is this knowledge that renders the entire PROJECT X experiment rationale as unneeded at best and evil at worst. Broderick is forced to juggle duty versus conscience, never an easy task at any time. By the film's midpoint Helen Hunt enters as a simian sign language teacher who, years earlier, had taught Virgil to communicate in contextually meaningful ways, thus intensifying Broderick's dilemma about the potential destruction of a sentient being that is not only cute but smart. It is this smartness that director Kaplan uses to ease the film into the slapstick world of farce. Not only is Virgil bright enough to help Broderick defuse a melt down in a lab experiment gone haywire, but he is also savvy enough to take an airplane up and pilot it in an escape.

PROJECT X is that odd but pleasant comedy/fantasy that brings the audience into the dark world of science to force the hero and the audience to wonder where duty ends and conscience begins. PROJECT X implies that a useful starting point is to define just what it means to be human--or in Virgil's case--near human.

The epitome of irony.......2006-05-28

This rating does not reflect the story in the film; it reflects the story behind the film. It is a disheartening revelation that a movie which explores the kinship between humans and chimps, and which condemns the inhumane treatment of our evolutionary cousins, is itself a glaring example of the regular mistreatment of animals in the entertainment industry. The chimp actors in this film were regularly beaten and abused (despite what the American Humane Association might say). Chances are any chimp actor in any movie has received similar treatment because, unlike domestic animals which have become inherently submissive, chimps are fiercely independent and resilient, much like their human counterparts. If you believe in the message of this movie, you should be adamantly against it for the horrible irony it embodies.

Average customer rating:

A great film, and what a "reimagining" should be...
Simply the best version you can get
Great ending
All Time Favorite
Fantastic

12 Monkeys
Starring: Ernest Abuba , Bob Adrian , Vernon Campbell , Michael Chance , and Carol Florence
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: 078322608X
Release Date: 1998-03-31

Amazon.com

Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetée (which is included on the DVD Short Cinema Journal, Volume 2), 12 Monkeys combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, 12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. The Collector's Edition DVD includes a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary (The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of 12 Monkeys) in addition to the theatrical trailer, production notes, and a 12 Monkeys archive of still photos, design concepts, and storyboards. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

A great film, and what a "reimagining" should be..........2007-09-03

This is one of Gilliam's best films, and one of his most commercially successful. It's one of the few films I really liked in the 1990's, as it is (as with most of Gilliam's work) a true work of art and something that is totally Gilliamish. It is a sad, haunting, strange work. One of the reasons this film works so well is that the studio left Gilliam alone and let him get on with it. The performances by Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, and Brad Pitt are all excellent. Willis is exceptionally good, showing that he can actually act if working with a great director like Gilliam. Stowe brings a tender, quiet quality to her role, and Pitt is great as a borderline insane guy. Some of his dialogue is a bit obvious, but overall it doesn't detract too much from the film. This is a pseudo-remake of Chris Marker's remarkable La Jetee, but Gilliams does it justice. La Jetee is a masterpiece, but then, so is this film. Gilliam really does "reimagine" it, bringing his own distinct voice to the material, and expounding on Marker's masterpiece. Marker recently said he felt this film was wonderful because Gilliam has such a rich imagination (which he does). The ending is quite sad, but it works very well, and kudos to the studio and Gilliam for keeping it in. I always admired Gilliam's film, even his misunderstood Tideland. I think he's one of the great directors. This is one of his best films....

Simply the best version you can get.......2007-08-31

This is of course one of the best films ever made, and this is the best version you can get of that film, so get it :)
+ you gotta watch the bonus material "The Hamster Factor" great stuff.

Great ending.......2007-08-24

One of Pitt's best roles. The world is devastated by a plague everyone dies. The few survivors go and live below ground and search back through time for a cure. Great ending.

Corey Cotta, Author of All of Yesterdays Tomorrows.

All Time Favorite.......2007-08-13

I remembered watching this movie in the theatre when I was in high school. It has remained my favorite of all time.

Fantastic.......2007-06-04

I really liked the movie. One of the best sci-fi movies I have seen. But I have a question. When Madeleine Stowe calls up the number that Bruce Willis is supposed to call, and she reaches a carpet cleaning company she is overjoyed thinking that the virus plague is a hoax after all. She nevertheless leaves a message in the voice mail of that number and recounts it to Bruce Willis who of course has heard it before and repeats the message verbatim even before Stowe could finish telling him. The whole point of the film is that Bruce Willis is reliving the past exactly as it had happened, with him as one of the main protagonist. So what actually happened in 1996? Did Stowe call up the carpet cleaning company? Did she leave a message? If she did and repeated that to Willis did Willis know beforehand what her message was? If he knew, then how did he know? He was NOT time travelling THEN. He was just a little boy of 8 years. And if it was not Willis (Cole) in 1996 who Stowe (Railly) met, then who was it? Because Cole was 8 years old in 1996. Can anybody throw any light?

Average customer rating:

One unexpected reaction by one character and I'd have liked it. Really.
A Forgotten Gem
You alright?
Odd, But Believable
Pleasant movie with an unpleasant topic

Spanking the Monkey
Starring: Jeremy Davies , Elizabeth Newett , Benjamin Hendrickson , Alberta Watson , and Carla Gallo
Director: David O. Russell
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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ASIN: B000BC8T28
Release Date: 2005-12-06

Amazon.com

Jeremy Davies, so weaselly as the interpreter in Saving Private Ryan, got his break in this 1994 dark comedy debut by writer-director David O. Russell. Davies plays a college student whose entire future seems to implode when his traveling-salesman father forces him to stay home for the summer and take care of his mother, who is recovering from a broken leg. In anguish, he gives up a prestigious summer internship and moves back to the house where he grew up. There, he distracts himself with masturbation and lots of long walks, and even a half-hearted courtship of a much younger girl. But his proximity to his mother provides surprising preoccupations and impulses, which give this film the best of its squirmy humor. Russell, a sharp-eyed observer of surreptitious human behavior, extracts wonderfully drawn performances from Davies and Alberta Watson as his mother in this unexpected delight. --Marshall Fine

Description

A critically acclaimed, outrageously offbeat look at growing up! Looking forward to a prestigious summer internship in Washington, D.C., pre-med college student Raymond (Saving Private Ryan's Jeremy Davies) has his dreams put on hold when he's forced to stay at home caring for his invalid mother (Alberta Watson, The Sweet Hereafter, TV's 24). Constantly harassed by his domineering, travelling salesman father, Raymond struggles to deal with his mother's bed-ridden anxieties and his first, stumbling attempts to romance the naive girl next door.

Customer Reviews:

One unexpected reaction by one character and I'd have liked it. Really........2007-07-10

Spanking the Monkey (David O. Russell, 1994)

Spanking the Monkey is a movie that wants to be deep. Russell, it seems, wants to offer some sort of incisive criticism on suburbia wrapped in a weird coming-of-age tale; the problem is that neither branch off this distended stump produces enough of substance to be taken seriously.

Our hero, Ray (Rescue Dawn's Jeremy Davies), is a medical student poised to begin a summer internship. Unfortunately, his plans are interrupted when his mother Susan (Alberta Watson, probably best-known these days for a stint on 24) breaks her leg, and Ray is conscripted into caretaking while his insufferable father (Benjamin Hendrickson of As the World Turns) is away on business. Ray comes home, hooks up with his old drug pals (one of whom is rising star Zak Orth in his first screen appearance), and finds himself smitten with Toni (Superbad's Carla Peck), a high school student from the neighborhood. All of which seems as if it wants to go somewhere. That's all well and good; the problem is that each thread's destination is entirely independent of the destination of the others. That works fine in real life, but this is the movies. There has to be some sort of structure, some defining factor that makes it all come together in some way. Ray isn't a strong enough character to be the linchpin for all this, but that is the role Russell thrusts upon him. Any one of these plots might have made a good movie; twisting two together would have worked well enough. But all combined required either a much stronger script, a much longer movie, or both; no one plot gets enough face time here to assert itself, so we end up with the last scene, which is both completely unbelievable and the only way things could have really worked out. If you've painted yourself into that kind of corner, you should probably consider reworking your script. * ½, because Russell at least attempted some serious transgression here (even if he ended up having his characters react in textbook manner to all of them).

A Forgotten Gem.......2007-01-11

This is a bittersweet coming-of-age movie that's more sweet than bitter. Some of the scenes are downright hilarious, thanks to some wonderful, nuanced and well-timed performances from the actors. Just the kind of comedy for viewers fed up with the formulaic stuff churned out by Hollywood's play-safe executives. Made more than a decade ago, this is truly one of those forgotten gems that deserves to be unearthed and enjoyed. A solid 4 stars.

You alright?.......2006-12-08

I have an old laserdisc of this film that, years ago, I used to watch over and over. I popped it in again recently to see if I still liked the film enough to buy the DVD. It's not as funny as I remembered. Actually, it's horrifying. The only reason I'd consider buying the DVD is to give it to a therapist to watch and discuss it.

Ray (Jeremy Davies, "Saving Private Ryan") has to pass up an internship to the Surgeon General's office so he can take care of his mother, Susan (Alberta Watson, "Guilt by Association"), who's bedridden due to depression and a broken leg. His father Tom (Benjamin Hendrickson, "Regarding Henry") is busy traveling around the country selling motivational tapes. Susan and Ray develop an unhealthy relationship.

This is a very angry film. Maybe I didn't notice this before because I was distracted by the in-jokes, like the winky "Shaking Hands" homage to "The Graduate" when Tom confronts Ray -- or maybe I was too angry myself to notice the director's anger. David O. Russell made the very funny "Flirting with Disaster" after this, which in retrospect, "Spanking the Monkey" must have freed him to make. "Spanking" is worth a try if you like disturbing psychological comedy(?), but it's one that probably won't hurt you to miss.

Odd, But Believable.......2006-07-04

In the vein of "Sex, Lies, & Videotape" and written-directed by the guy who wrote & directed the quirky "I Heart Huckabees," Spanking the Monkey is a shocking and just plain wrong look on an Oedipal relationship in modern suburbia. Oddly enough, and I say that due to the film's subject matter, the film won the 1994 Audience Award at The Sundance Film Festival. Don't get me wrong, it's a very entertaining movie; But, I'm surprised it was that widely accepted. Despite the title, the film isn't about...Choking the Bishop. Here is what the movie is about; Jeremy Davies plays Ray Aibelli, is in college and has recieved an internship in Washington. Problem is, he can't go because his pig-headed father is forcing him to take care of his mother Susan (Alberta Watson), an attractive woman probably in her 40's, who has just fractured her leg. Ray is dissapointed about losing his internship, but he still does his best to take care of his mother; While he, meanwhile, tries to woo a naive girl named Toni (Carla Gallo). Anyway, while this would be shocking to a person who began watching the movie and not knowing this, everyone knows this already, so...There's a weird kind of sexual tension we see between Ray and Susan in the beginning of the film. Especially in scenes, where Ray has to help Susan shower. The scenes aren't overly pervertedly sexual or anything, but they're not without a hint of innapropriateness either. Eventually, due to the unhealthy mix of vodka tonics and stupidity, incest occurs between Susan and Ray. Luckily, we don't have to actually observe this. We watch them roll around on the bed and then we have a quick cut to the next morning, where it's made clear something has happened. Writer/director David O. Russell makes it clear in the beginning of the movie that these characters are perfectly sane and normal. Yet somehow, when this incest finally happens we're not disgusted and it's not completely unbelievable. The way Ray reacts to it immediately and then the way he reacts to it later is questionable. Overall, this movie will not hit the right note for some people. A lot of people may be turned off by the synopsis alone, but this is a very good movie; It's entertaining and thought-provoking, in other words...Worth a watch.

GRADE: A-

Pleasant movie with an unpleasant topic.......2006-04-13

Spanking the Monkey is for the open-minded only. Many will find this film horrible, wrong, and disgusting due to the fact it deals with such a forbidden topic: incest, but because of how real and natural the acting and mood of this film achieves, you understand where the main character is coming from. It is not an 'incest movie' but rather a movie about a young man finding himself, in the most bizarre way. A fine debut from director David O. Russell with solid performances from Jeremy Davies and Alberta Watson.

Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection II (Don't Bother to Knock / Let's Make Love / Monkey Business / Niagara / River of No Return)

Average customer rating:

Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection II
Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection II
STUNNING LEGENDARY PERFORMANCES~BRAVO MARILYN!!!
Niagara is a (flawed) Gem
Waiting for the soundtrack of the DIAMOND COLLECTION , Volume II. This collection merits a soundtrack.

Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection II (Don't Bother to Knock / Let's Make Love / Monkey Business / Niagara / River of No Return)
Starring: Marilyn Monroe
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000062XG8
Release Date: 2002-05-14

Amazon.com

Some essential examples of the Marilyn Monroe mystique make up this second collection of titles from MM's years at Twentieth Century Fox. After sparkling in small roles, she burst upon the public consciousness in 1952, thanks to five films and a certain nude calendar. Two of the 1952 pictures, showing very different sides of the new actress, are included here. One is Monkey Business, Howard Hawks's raucous comedy about a youth serum, in which top-lined stars Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers regress to a state of adolescent abandon, with Monroe doing spot-on supporting duty. Don't Bother to Knock gives Marilyn her first lead role, in a tense little film noir; she's a babysitter with an unstable streak, a fine performance hinting at depths rarely touched in her career.

In Niagara, Monroe is a full-fledged sex goddess, a scheming wife tormenting husband Joseph Cotten in their cabin by the falls. This Technicolor slice of pseudo-Hitchcock is a fun location picture with a genuinely exciting climax. Otto Preminger's River of No Return has Marilyn livened up by the presence of costar Robert Mitchum, in a strong outdoorsy Western that catches the two stars in appealing form. By the time of 1960's Let's Make Love, MM looks tired. This backstage musical is more interesting as a time capsule than as a romance, although one number shines: "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." Less urgent for Monroe fans than the first Diamond Collection, this set is still a good one for the die-hards. --Robert Horton

Description

Contains: *Don't Bother to Knock *Let's Make it Legal *Monkey Business *Niagra *River of No Return

Customer Reviews:

Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection II.......2007-01-19

These are the movies that made us love her forever and a day or two.

Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection II.......2007-01-10

If you're a fan of Marilyn Monroe, this is a great collection ... each selection is Classic Marilyn. Quality is excellent.

STUNNING LEGENDARY PERFORMANCES~BRAVO MARILYN!!! .......2006-11-10

Marilyn Monroe is a once-in-a-lifetime legend and nobody has come along since to match the magic of this gifted and very versatile performer...each gem in this Diamond Collection are classics to be enjoyed over and over again for anyone who enjoys the finest that the world of entertainment has to offer! "Don't Bother To Knock" is an amazing hauntingly brilliant performance early in Marilyn's career that shows incredible dramatic range while "Monkey Business" is a fun romp showing Monroe's great comic ability. "Niagara" is a real DIVA Superstar turn unlike any other and Marilyn is drop-dead gorgeous in this colorful spectactular with this film being the one that made Marilyn Monroe a true film Superstar and introduced without a doubt that famous Monroe walk with Marilyn unforgettable in that sumptuous red dress...mesmerizing and exotic singing "Kiss" and never was Marilyn more seductive!!! "River Of No Return" is a great movie that has aged well having a timeless quality to it with a moving and richly etched performance from Marilyn that holds up well today...musical numbers show Marilyn had her own totally original style and made magic with these numbers and every moment is fascinating to watch. "Let's Make Love" was ahead of its time and its style of intergrating musical numbers into the story was used some ten years later in "Cabaret"...listening to the Original Soundtrack CD it is clear that Marilyn delivers some of the finest musical performances of her brilliant career (Cole Porter's "My Hear Belongs To Daddy" is a real showstopper!) making this a must have for fans of great musical films and this winning release also features wonderful unreleased performances not in the film...as a young teen who sneaked into the theatre to see this racy at that time film, I have lost track of how many times I have seen this classic and find it richly entertaining every time...and the final never completed "Something's Got TO Give" show a sophisicated and very beautiful Marilyn who never looked so stunning on the big screen and this motion picture would have been a real classic...Marilyn was coming into her own as a unique performer and living screen legend who showed promise of becoming the greatest star of her generation...too bad her career which meant so much to Marilyn and showed such promise of hitting greater heights was cut tragically short. Thankfully movies such as these keep this incredible legend alive and Marilyn will in this way always shine the brightest and she always lit the screen up in a way that nobody else ever could...Marilyn was the true meaning of SUPERSTAR...we love and miss you Marilyn and thank you for leaving behind a treasure chest of magic for all of us to savor and enjoy!!!

Niagara is a (flawed) Gem.......2006-01-01

I bought the 1st Diamond collection for my wife (a devoted Marilyn fan) and we were both impressed with the quality of the restorations. We were looking for more of the same with the Marilyn II collection. Although I ordered the collection well before Christmas, I didn't receive it until the day after Christmas. The tracking site showed it ready for pickup on December 18. When we received it we first viewed Niagara. The restoration was very good. I've been to the Falls many times and I got a kick out of how little things had changed since this movie was shot. Joseph Cotton was very convincing as the tortured soul who was infatuated with Marilyn. The action was well-paced and kept you in suspense during the last half of the movie. Unfortunately, this DVD was defective and the picture broke up 30 minutes into the movie and we lost about 10 minutes of the movie. I went to Amazon's site and after going through a short questionaire I was able to print out a postage-paid mailer without having to talk to anyone. I returned the collection for replacement due to arrive in a week. Hopefully this one will not be defective since we are looking forward to viewing the other DVDs in this set.

Waiting for the soundtrack of the DIAMOND COLLECTION , Volume II. This collection merits a soundtrack........2005-12-19

After The DIAMOND COLLECTION of Marilyn Monroe DVD was released,
a soundtrack CD was also released with many interesting tracks.
Yet this time around, no soundtrack was released. I am waiting
for a soundtrack with the songs Marilyn sings in NIAGARA (KISS),
River of No Return, and Lets Make Love, as well as the main themes from Don't Bother to Knock, and Monkey Business. There must be enough tracks in the vaults of 2oth Century Fox to include as Bonus items of Marilyn Monroe singing, deleted songs
from her movies, alternate takes, etc. We Marilyn Monroe fans
demand that a soundtrack CD to the Marilyn Monroe DIAMOND COLLECTION vol. II be released.

Average customer rating:

Image Entertainment version is very good
Great special effects for the time
Enjoyable 1920s hokum
Dated, But Still Fascinating
amazing restoration

The Lost World (Restored Edition)
Starring: Bessie Love , Lewis Stone , Wallace Beery , Lloyd Hughes , and Alma Bennett
Director: Harry O. Hoyt
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005ABVF
Release Date: 2001-04-03

Amazon.com

Every larger-than-life creature feature, from King Kong to Godzilla to Jurassic Park, owes a debt to the original Lost World, the granddaddy of giant monster movies. Based on an adventure fantasy by Arthur Conan Doyle, it's the story of a maverick scientist (Wallace Beery, under a bushy beard) who finds a land that time forgot on a plateau deep within the South American jungles and comes back to London with a captured brontosaur to prove it. His expedition includes Bessie Love, the daughter of an explorer who disappeared on the previous expedition, and big-game hunter Lewis Stone. The ostensible stars of the picture are all upstaged by Willis O'Brien's dinosaurs, simple models brought to life with primitive stop-motion animation. Hardly realistic by any measure, these pioneering special effects are still a sight to behold, especially the lumbering brontosaur (which receives the most care from O'Brien, both foraging in his jungle and rampaging through the streets of London).

The Lost World was truncated for rerelease in the 1930s and the original negative was subsequently lost. David Shepard meticulously "rebuilt" the film using material from eight different surviving prints from all over the world, cleaning and restoring along the way. The result, which is 50 percent longer than previously extant prints, is still not complete but closer than any version since its 1925 debut. The difference is not merely in restored scenes but in a rediscovered sense of grace in scenes filled out to their original detail and pace. The film moves and breathes once again like a silent film.

The disc features the choice of an original, modern score by the Alloy Orchestra and a classic orchestral score compiled and conducted by Robert Israel (both enjoyable and effective), 13 minutes of O'Brien's animation outtakes (including a couple of isolated frames that capture O'Brien manipulating his models), and rudimentary commentary by Arthur Conan Doyle historian Roy Pilot. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Newly restored with fifty percent more footage than any version in seventy years, here is the model for "King Kong," "Jurassic Park" and "Godzilla." A world wide sensation when it opened on February 15, 1925, "The Lost World" is a story of living dinosaurs from the Jurassic age written by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and starring a cast of stegosaurus, allosaurus, brontosaurus, triceratops, and pterodactyl under the technical direction of Willis H. O'Brien (King Kong, Mighty Joe Young) and a cast of actors under the direction of Harry O. Hoyt.

Customer Reviews:

Image Entertainment version is very good.......2007-07-08

There had been dinosaurs in films before this 1925 feature, such as "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link" and "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain", both made before 1920. However, this was the first film to feature realistic looking dinosaurs on a large scale, setting the ground work for "King Kong" eight years later. Apparently, there are several versions of this film in circulation. In this case it pays to get the more expensive version from Image Entertainment. It has the longest running version of the film to date, and for all of the splicing that likely went into compiling it, the film actually flows quite smoothly. For all the abuse the original went through over the years, this version is pretty clear with only a few scratches in the film here and there. Plus you get a couple of treats you probably don't get on cheaper versions - a running commentary and the roughly 15 minutes of omitted scenes of dinosaur animation. When you view the omitted scenes you can quickly find the one flaw that caused their deletion - the cameraman has caught a frame or two of someone actually moving the dinosaurs through the stop-animation process. Otherwise they are very clear close-ups of the creatures.

Besides being a pretty good silent picture, this film is interesting for several reasons. First, it is interesting to see what people thought that the various dinosaurs looked like in 1925. Plus, for me, it was interesting to see Lewis Stone in an early film and to notice that he looks the same age - approximately 50 - in every film role I've ever seen him in, from this film up through the Andy Hardy pictures. The one real annoying feature of the film is the presence of the solitary caveman in the lost world. Why is he alone? Is he the last of his kind? The first? Is his chimpanzee companion a "relative" or just a companion? Nothing is ever said about it.

Great special effects for the time.......2007-07-05

I'm not even going to bother nitpicking about how inaccurate the dinosaurs are or how rough the picture quality is; it was 1925. There is no point in comparing it to a modern film. For those who insist on complaining about the unconvincing dinosaurs: This was one of the first feature-length movies to employ stop-motion animation. It was the first movie to combine stop-motion animation effects with living actors. Cut it some slack. (It was also shown as the first in-flight movie.)

It's _Jurassic Park_, Version I.

I'm aware that the plot of this film was panned even when it was new, and it deserved it. The story line is somewhere between weak and nonsensical. There are some unpleasant racial stereotypes that, unfortunately, were more common at the time. The filmmaking is beyond dated; the movie was released in 1925 so that shouldn't surprise anyone.

The stop-motion dinosaurs look like home movies in comparison to today's computer animation, but they were state-of-the-art at the time and are still surprisingly effective if you watch the movie with the technological limitations of the silent era in mind and are forgiving. Even if the movie itself is unimpressive by modern standards, it's very interesting from a historical perspective.

Enjoyable 1920s hokum.......2007-06-18

(NOTE)-This is NOT the restored version I am reviewing, although I would love to see that in the near future.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. It's a good old fashioned, leave-your brains at the door and enjoy it tale (tail?) of delicious malarkey. A mad professor in England goes on a search for dinosaurs to complete the work of a deceased colleague. They bring a brontasaurus back to London and WATCH OUT!

Lovers of the original KING KONG (they has special effex pioneer Willis O'Brien and stop motion wild creatures on the loose in common) and old fashioned adventure films in general will get a big hoot out of the dino fights and the brontosaurus on the rampage in London. Oh, what FUN!

Unfortuantely, I saw the trimmed 63 minute version which leaves plot elements unclear and leaves the viewer wanting more of the dinos in action. Lon Chaney would have been excellent as the mad professor (a staple of old-time science fiction corn), although Wallace Beery is pretty good here. However, the white servant in blackface and his grossly stereotyped dialogue left a nasty taste in my mouth, so I had to FF him on my remote control.

In either case, this whets one's appetitie for restored version. Enjoy.

Dated, But Still Fascinating.......2007-01-07

The Lost World in an interesting film for several reasons. First, it is an entertaining and early look at dinosaurs on the screen. Second, the animation was done by Willis O'Brien who also worked on King Kong. Finally, the film boasts a wonderful cast including Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Bessie Love, and Lloyd Hughes.

The story is thought provoking; a scientist/explorer claims that there are still dinosaurs living on a plateau in the uncharted rainforest. This might sound silly now, but in the late 1920s, there were still many parts of the world that were blacked out on the map. The scientist decides to take a new expedition of people back the plateau not only to prove that dinosaurs live there but also in hopes of finding the family of Love's character who got lost in the search.

The dinosaurs are certainly not of the caliber of those in Jurassic Park, but for the time period, they were shockingly realistic. The sequences with them are interesting because they have been made to take on human characteristics. When they are attacked, they scream in pain. When they defend themselves and their children, they hug in happiness. They even inspect their own wounds. These things seem sort of silly, but they make the fight scenes more fun to watch.

This seems to be one of Milestone Videos earlier efforts, and it shows. Unfortunately, this film has many missing scenes which causes the viewer to feel unresolved about certain parts of the story and also wishing for more. Milestone, a wonderful company, has been trumped by the lesser Alpha video who offers almost a half an hour of more footage.

amazing restoration .......2006-11-10

The Lost world is one of the first of the animated monster movie genre and was made I guess in 1925 or so. It is silent with subtitles.
The plot is kind of silly because of its exagerated story line - A young reporter wants to get married to this ditsy girl who tells him he must do a great adventure first. So the guy signs up with a crazy scientist and company to go to the amazon to find a group of scientists led by a young pretty and sad girl's lost father.
They go there and there are dinosaurs up on a plateau that is difficult to get to. They get there, dinosaurs run aroung up the ying yang, and it is alot of fun, really..
I wont tell you if the guy ends up with his original spoiled fiance or with the nice girl - you can guess or just buy the dvd and see for yourself,
By the way they do bring a brontosaurus back to civilization and it gets loose and breaks lots of buildings and stuff - now we see where the King Kong formula originates.

Great fun and masterful restoration.

Average customer rating:

enough to make me work myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty
Marxes on the Rampage
"Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo."
ONE OF THEIR BEST MOVIES!!
Marx Brothers Rule!!!!

Monkey Business
Starring: Groucho Marx , Harpo Marx , Chico Marx , Zeppo Marx , and Rockliffe Fellowes
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: 6305078467
Release Date: 1998-06-24

Description

It's comedy on the high seas when the Marx Brothers sneak aboard an ocean liner and get involved in a crazy set of comedy capers not to be missed. A madcap vintage voyage where pure lunacy rides the waves.

Customer Reviews:

enough to make me work myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.......2007-08-22

Monkey Business has got to be one of the funniest Marx Brothers films I've seen yet. The movie moves along at a good pace; and the actors all turn in a fine performance. The actors' timing helps to enhance the quality of the gags and the jokes.

The action begins on a steamship headed to America from Europe. There are four stowaways on board--guess who! Yep--The Marx Brothers! Of course the captain and his crew discover them and the laughs ensue as the crew chases the brothers all over the ship, predictably without ever actually catching and cornering them although there are a few close calls.

In addition, there are gangster wars so intense they continue even during the voyage. Eventually Chico and Harpo work as bodyguards for Big Joe Helton (Rockliffe Fellowes); and Groucho and Zeppo work for Helton's enemy Alky Briggs (Harry Woods). The boundaries soon blur, however, with Zeppo and Helton's daughter Mary (Ruth Hall) falling in love while Groucho flirts with Briggs' wife Lucille (Thelma Todd).

It may well seem that I've given away the whole plot but rest assured that there's plenty more left unsaid here. Questions arise: How will the gangster war play out? Will the four brothers stay clean despite their recruitment by gangsters? What about Zeppo and Mary Helton, Joe Helton's daughter--will they remain a couple with all the trouble that keeps happening? No spoilers here, folks; you'll just have to watch the movie to find out.

The brilliant cinematography uses great camera angles in the numerous steamship scenes to make them even funnier; and look for some excellent choreography in the party scenes in the second half of the picture and the barn scenes later on as well. Great!

Overall, Monkey Business is a must-have for fans of The Marx Brothers. The four brothers work hard and it shows; I laughed harder than ever especially with Groucho's antics and his zesty one liners! I highly recommend Monkey Business for people who enjoy classic screwball comedies from the 1930s as well.

Enjoy!

Marxes on the Rampage.......2006-01-12

The Marx Brothers' first Hollywood production survives as a masterpiece of cinematic anarchy. "Monkey Business" (1931) takes no prisoners -- it's fast, furious and doesn't give a damn about convention. There are enough sight gags and nonsequiturs for a half-dozen comedies. Thelma Todd is a lively addition to the Marxian ensemble and compensates for the absence of Margaret Dumont. Memorable Groucho dialogue: "Don't forget that the stockholder of yesteryear is the stowaway of today."

"Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo.".......2005-09-28

The first Marx Brothers movie filmed directly for the screen, it's their first great picture. They are a bunch of stowaways on an ocean liner who get mixed up with racketeers along the way. Fast and furiously funny for the most part, though the last 20 minutes, after they get off the ship (after the hilarious scene where they all try to immitate Maurice Chevalier) are a let down. It was their first movie in which rather than being merely wiseacres and insulting punsters they were truly anarchic: Harpo totally disrupts the passport proceedings, stamping everything in sight and then throwing the papers in the air. From this point on they would not be just verbally wild and funny guys, but their humor would take on a Freudian aspect as well. Definitely worth a watch.

ONE OF THEIR BEST MOVIES!!.......2004-03-08

I have recently become a DIE-HARD Marx Brothers fan. I was introduced to them by my wonderful cousin Lewis. THANK YOU LEWIS!!!!!!!!!! The Marx Brothers are FANTASTICALY HILARIOUS!! Monkey Business was the first movie of their's that I saw, and its, so far, the best. Even thought the others I have seen come close behind, there's just something about Monkey Business. Its down-right hilarious. Great lines by Groucho, great scene of Harpo and him playing the harpo, Chico and the piano...This movie deserves a 5 stars.

Marx Brothers Rule!!!!.......2003-08-16

I looooooove the marx brothers, and Monkey Buiness is one of my favourite Marx films! Anyone who hasn't seen this movie should, even if you are unfamilier with the Marxes. (As soon as you see your first Marx movie you will probably become obsessed with them anyway, like I did). Anyhow, this movie is filled with jokes from start to finish, and there's never a dull moment! HILARIOUS!

Average customer rating:

Image Entertainment version is very good
Great special effects for the time
Enjoyable 1920s hokum
Dated, But Still Fascinating
amazing restoration

Lost World (1925) (Silent) (B&W)
Starring: Bessie Love , Lewis Stone , Wallace Beery , Lloyd Hughes , and Alma Bennett
Director: Harry O. Hoyt
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00006SFJ2
Release Date: 2002-10-22

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Image Entertainment version is very good.......2007-07-08

Great special effects for the time.......2007-07-05

Enjoyable 1920s hokum.......2007-06-18

Dated, But Still Fascinating.......2007-01-07

amazing restoration .......2006-11-10

Average customer rating:

love and monkeys!
great fun!
A must-see for Jeremy Renner fans

Monkey Love
Starring: Eve Brenner , William Sanderson , Amy Stewart , Mary Margaret Robinson , and Jesse Vint
Director: Mark Stratton
Manufacturer: Allumination
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009KA7XG
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Description

To spice up her ho-hum life, stuck-in-a-rut college senior Amy (Amy Stewart) sleeps with Aaron Séamus Dever) and Dil (Jeremy Renner), her two best pals since the 3rd grade. Unfortunately, her best-laid plans for more excitement turn their perfect, if predictable, platonic triangle into a tangled web of super-charged emotions with hilarious consequences. Packed with laughter, a sensational cast (including Deadwood's William Sanderson) and outrageous situations, Monkey Love is a miracle of a movie...in the great American tradition of the Screwball Comedy!" (Seattle International Film Festival)

Customer Reviews:

love and monkeys!.......2005-09-23

I love this movie. It is one of those rare films that you can love while objectively realising that there are flaws in its making...its overall feel of delighted angst is bright and pleasurable.
The characters are quirky and real and their dialogue is to die for. There really aren't any characters that don't seem to do their very best - even the minor characters shine when given the opportunity.
Actually, my very favorite moment in the movie is when Amy and a certain person are getting it on upstairs in her parents' house (gutsy!) and he is bouncing around on her so vigorously that the windows are rattling...her parents think there is an earthquake, so her(ever timorous) mother comes to the foot of the stairs and calls tremulously "Amy....? Are you under a doorway?"
I do think certain parts could have been shot better - for example, the love scene between Amy and the OTHER certain person (you don't see ME spoiling the whole damn movie for others!) is a long, sexy one, but it is screwed up by being pieced together in an odd, choppy fashion. One minute she is topless, the next minute you see him take off her shirt. Also the music during this scene is so bouncy, almost humourous...it's hard to believe that the couple is as into each other as you later learn that they are.
Other than that scene, I think the music is well-chosen and happy, it was a pleasure to hear such high-quality independent artists.
All in all, fun, fun, fun!
Except I REALLY wanted to kick Mishnu's ass.

great fun!.......2005-08-03

Monkey Love is such a fun title and an equally fun movie.
Get ready for the unexpected and make sure you have
your popcorn ready for a fun evening.
I loved Amy and William Sanderson, too! He was in
Blade Runner, which is also a fave of mine.
I loved the MUSIC....
Hopefully the CD will be released soon, too, because I would buy it today.

A must-see for Jeremy Renner fans.......2005-08-02

Well, I got this on DVD today.

The movie is more or less what I expected - a lightweight rom-com aimed at the teen/twenty-something market. Not so heavy on the comedy, but enough scenes that make you smile, with some good, realistic dialogue. I liked Amy Stewart's character, and wanted to see things work out for her.

*SLIGHT SPOILER* I'm not sure why the whole psycho-dad thing is in there, and some of the secondary characters (Amy's parents, Mishnu, Brie etc) could have been explored before the end of the film to flesh it out a bit. If you are a fan of Jeremy, though, he does have a sex scene... *END SPOILER*

Great for Jeremy fans obviously, because other than that he has lots of scenes. I am not going to say it is the best film I have ever seen, but then again I couldn't say that about Senior Trip or SWAT either and I still enjoyed watching them. All in all it is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes with some popcorn.

All things considered, this would be a great movie for any self-respecting Jeremy fan to see, so I would recommend that you buy it.

Average customer rating:

I am one of the lucky ones.
Very bad and quite funny.
let's be honest
One of the best bad movies ever.
Daikaiju on crack!

Ape
Starring: Rod Arrants , Larry Chandler , J.J. Gould , Jerry Harke , and Charles Johnson (II)
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005OCKQ
Release Date: 2001-10-30

Description

Torn from his jungle home, this brutal 36-foot-tall monster unleashes a furious attack on the metropolis and people of Seoul, Korea. Nothing can withstand his rage. Buildings crumble to his touch. Armies cannot stop him. His only weakness: he has fallen for gorgeous American movie star Marilyn Baker (Joanna Kerns). Can she escape from his iron grip? Will the military be able to end his reign of destruction? A gargantuan spectacle... a heart-stopping adventure... a guy in a monkey suit... It's A*P*E!

Customer Reviews:

I am one of the lucky ones........2007-09-08

That's right. I saw this movie when I was 6 years old, in 1976 during a snowy night, at the Leo Mall in Philadelphia, and in 3-D! I haven't seen this movie in 31 years until tonight. I wish it was in 3-D still. Then again, I also wish I was skinny with more hair. Things change. But I still love this movie. And now I can appreciate how utterly bad it is. If this movie were a real ape, it would throw its own poop at itself, and love doing it. I couldn't praise this movie more.

Very bad and quite funny........2006-09-14

When people are talking about the best King Kong themed movies, it's not often anyone remembers this woeful effort. Filmed in Korea as a USA/Korean production, it makes a nice change to see a new location in a monster movie beside Tokyo or New York. That doesn't make up for the rest of the many failed aspects of the film, though. At least it had a cracking poster...just look at all the action going on in that cover! And yes - you will see giant sharks, snakes and helicopter battles depicted, but very badly. Legend has it that no trailers ever existed for "APE"...and when you see the film itself, the reasons for that become quite clear.

"APE" starts with a boat chugging through the darkness. Two crew members muse over how the giant ape they have captured and stored in the hold is headed for Disneyland...hows that for a neat way to avoid all the expense of showing the discovery and capture of the monster in some exotic location? However, it's all about to go pear-shaped because APE (I'm going to call him that in lieu of the script referring to him by any name in particular), promptly breaks free from captivity and leaps into the sea, which somehow causes the boat to explode - or rather a small plastic model boat explodes. As APE swims to freedom he encounters a giant shark and a hilarious wrestling match ensues as we watch a guy in a cheap monkey suit (for that is APE) fling and shake around a limp, dead shark for about 5 solid minutes.

After victory, APE reaches the shore and begins to destroy the beachside village. This is the first of many "destruction" scenes of the film and it illustrates the film's two main weaknesses...firstly, the model miniatures are not actually that bad when first seen, but they break apart like flimsy cardboard when APE starts bashing them. And if you think the model buildings are poor, wait untill you see the model vehicles later on. Secondly, the village seems to be totally deserted, except for two (count 'em!) shots of terrified extras rushing about and pointing at the sky. Now, if "APE" the movie was ever going to work it would have had to have shown, at least at some point, it's lead monster in the same frame as some real human beings. But it never does. All the scenes with APE smashing stuff up are filmed totally seperately from any scene featuring live actors. There's not a single shot in the film where monkey and human share the frame - I know, I was looking for one! And if a monster movie cannot do that, then it is doomed.

Anyway, moving on, there is a bit more to the plot than just destruction, as APE develops a crush on a blond actress called Marilyn who is in town along with her reporter boyfriend. The remainder of the film revolves around APE's rampage, his abduction of the girl, and her eventual rescue and APE's downfall. But even this small plot is difficult to stick with, as all the important scenes have no build-up, pacing or tension. The director seems to have no conception of cinematic language, as reaction shots, connecting shots and establishing shots are virtually non existant. Its just a parade of images and dialogue. I could go on about the whole cavalcade of bad effects that litter the movie, but there are just too many to mention. Some will really have you chuckling, (in one scene APE encounters a cow in a field, represented by monkey-suit guy stepping over an unbelievable toy cow, static except for a wagging tail) while others, sadly will just bore or annoy you (the many shots filmed for the film's original 3-D screening come into this category, as APE flings rocks that wobble straight towards the camera on wires, and badly directed extras point long-barrelled rifles "right at you"!...over and over again). In fact repetition is a major problem here, especially in the footage of army reinforcements arrivng that must eat up ten whole minutes of screen time. That and a ridiculous scene in which Marilyn tries to soothe two Korean children by helping their mother perform a puppet show while APE looms closer outside...there's only one puppet and it doesn't really do much, but the children are shown in protracted fits of giggling in shot after shot as Marilyn wiggles the strings while at the same time glancing nervously out of the window...it's extended so much it becomes almost a surreal experience.

To put things in perspective, some degree of work really did go into making this. Someone obviously spent a lot of time building the many miniature sets for APE to trash, it's a shame that no corresponding full size versions of the miniatures are ever seen with any real actors in them. Also on the note, the camera work on any effects scenes is awful. The normal shots with the actors are bad enough, but the framing during any "action" sequences is terrible, the camera seems incapable of framing the important parts of the shot correctly. Most noticeable is when APE has picked up the blond actress...she's scarcely held in shot half the time, and even though it's just some moth-eaten prop hand that she's in, they don't seem able to get her centre frame. I will add one other compliment, though. The acting in this movie does not sink as low as the effects, in fact the leads Rod Arrants and Joanna Kerns acquit themselves pretty well, and even their romantic scenes are handled without too much cheesiness. The assorted Korean actors also do quite well, in fact the only real ham if the film is Alex Nicol as Colonel Davis.

This is definitely a party movie, so bring some friends and laugh your way through it. But keep some other form of entertainment handy too, because you may find that boredom creeps in due to the constant repetition and inability of the director to edit all the wildly different types of footage into an overall film with any sign of narrative flow.

let's be honest.......2006-08-15

There should be two kinds of reviews. One for movies you like but that are bad, and one for movies that are not bad enough to fall into that category. This movie sucks, so it falls into the former. It sucks so badly, though, you might actually enjoy it. But by any objective criterion, it is truly horrible. And thus one star.

One of the best bad movies ever........2006-07-07

Well, OK, maybe it's not quite in the same league as such films as ROBOT MONSTER or the works of Ed Wood. But this film is still plenty awful.

The story: Explorers go to an exotic island where the find and capture a 36-foot-tall ape, which they bring on board their ship and put in the cargo hold with plans to bring him to Disneyland. (By the way we never actually see the men come to the island and capture the gorilla, it starts off with them sailing at night with the beast inside the ship and past events explained with two shipmates expositing, so the film has this strange starting-off-in-the-middle feeling.) Anyway, the gas the use on the monster unfortunately wears off too soon and the creature wakes up and smashes his way out of the ship, completely destroying it in the process. He then travels to South Korea and begins wrecking havoc. Later he captures an American actress who's come to Korea with her news journalist boy friend to make a film. (Apparently it's a universal rule that all giant monkies must fall in love with a white woman.)

This film is chock full of ludicrous moments, but the single most absurd thing by far is when after the ape destroys a helicopter he gives it the finger. How, where and when the ape learned about that particular gesture the film never even bothers trying to explain to us. Geez, was this film EVER meant to be taken seriously?!

Originally shown in theaters in 3-D. I'm very sad that I'll never be able to see it that way.

Daikaiju on crack!.......2006-05-03

Please see my "The Mighty Peking Man" review to see why I liked that movie but fail to understand this film. I, more than anyone can understand how "bad is good" but I just really want to know if the producers of this film had ANY idea what a surrealistic freakout that they have created. It's pretty good but just not a pretty film to view.

From start to finish this film is bizarre blend of intentional comedy and what appears to be sincere action filmmaking. What a surprise to see a familiar blond sitcom actress (poor Joanna Kerns...is this what it's like when you have a porno film surface from your past on dvd?) being paraded around with kooks most likely wondering "what have I done?" by being involved in this production. I bet she had a nice vacation in Korea at least.

I say it's worth a look (rated 2 for being unique) if you want to be amazed at how bad a film can lower itself. I remember seeing this movie on the cover of Famous Monsters magazine as a kid and thinking how amazing the press art was for this big epic production, of course, Forrest Ackerman (editor) had a way of making any movie look important.

Average customer rating:

"I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here."
Astonishingly Unfunny
Horribly brilliant ....
Schlocktastic!
Schlock schucks!

Schlock
Starring: Forrest J Ackerman , Eric Allison , Tom Alvich , Ralph Baker , and John Chambers
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00004Y6BE
Release Date: 2001-10-02

Customer Reviews:

"I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here.".......2005-05-17

In the continuing series of `everyone has to start somewhere', here we are presented with Schlock (1973)...no, I'm not saying this film is schlock (okay, it is), but, in fact, that is the actual title of the movie (it was once known as The Banana Monster when Troma own the rights, but has since reverted back to its original name). But in terms of starting out in the biz, this was the first film written and directed by John Landis, the man behind such movies as Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), and Trading Places (1983). Also, while not his first film, this does mark one of the first collaborations between legendary make-up artist Rick Baker and Landis, which would be followed up with great success in the popular movie An American Werewolf in London (1981).

The movie opens on a playground strewn with bodies...and banana peels. The police arrive in time to speak to one survivor, but he offers little in the way of assistance, uttering one word before he passes..."Bananas!" Not much to go on, but we do learn in the last three weeks the Banana Killer (as he's been dubbed by the media) has been the cause for 789 deaths, and Detective/Sergeant Wino (who's in charge of the investigation) sees no end in sight to the carnage stating the only reason he even ventures outside anymore is because it's his job. Also, he thinks the deaths will continue unabated...not exactly the reassurances the general public is looking for, but then that's part of the comedy here. After a group of teenagers stumble across a hidden lair in the California hills and give the police an actual lead, it's determined by the scientific community that the killer is a Schlockthropus, or Schlock, for short (played by Landis himself in a Rick Baker created monkey suit), a prehistoric apeman and missing link in the human evolutionary chain, frozen for the last 20 million years, recently revived somehow in an unfamiliar world. There's a confrontation as the authorities try to apprehend the beast, but it escapes and finds its way to the home of a blind girl named Mindy Binderman, who mistakes Schlock for a dog she names `Willie'. Anyway, the two develop a relationship of sorts, but once Mindy gets her eyesight back, she freaks. Eventually, after a series of seemingly unrelated semi-comic episodes (Schlock in a bakery, Schlock in the movie theater, etc.), all roads lead to the big high school dance where Schlock crashes the party in an attempt to profess his monkey love to Mindy (as only a primate can), but his monkey woo woo is interrupted a