Monkey Shines (1988)

Too much of everything

Sorry, this movie sucks

Powerful

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

George Romero burst onto the scene with "Night of the Living Dead", which used the image of reanimated corpses terrorizing people to address the breakdown of the nuclear family (among other issues). He continued addressing political issues in later movies, included "Monkey Shines". This one uses the story of a monkey that gets too attached to its human to address the issue of animal welfare (look how they treat the animals in the lab).It's not Romero's greatest movie but I still enjoyed it. Particularly neat were the POV scenes from the monkey whenever it's about to carry out one of the human's rage-induced wishes. A creepy movie, but one that I recommend.Watch for a young Stanley Tucci as the doctor.

Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil and Joyce Van Patten star in George Romero's 1988 sci-fi/horror film based on the novel. This focuses on former athlete, Allan (Beghe) who gets paralyzed in an auto accident. Soon, his scientist friend, Geoffrey (Pankow) decides to give him an experimental monkey, Ella to help him recover. Allan and Ella bond immediately, but Allan starts having a telepathic link with her causing behavioral changes and Ella becomes dangerous. McNeil (The House on Sorority Row) plays Melanie, an animal specialist who finds romance with Allan and Van Patten plays Allan's overbearing mother, Dorothy. This is a pretty good 80's sci-fi/horror flick with a decent cast and great make-up effects by Tom Savini as usual. I recommend this.

This film may sound ridiculous in the most preposterous way because it's a killer monkey movie, but don't monkey around. Go see this movie. It's not that bad as it seem. It's honestly pretty alright. I have to say, this isn't your run-of-the-mill cheesy Slasher monkey horror film like 1990's Shakma & 1995's Congo. This is a pretty smart psychological thriller that you can go bananas for! Written and directed by George A. Romero, the film is based on a novel with the same title authored by Michael Stewart. Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear tells the story of an ex-track athlete, Alan Mann (Jason Beghe), whom became paralyzed when struck by a truck. Mann fails to adjust to his condition, becoming suicidal and despondent. To help Alan out, his friend Geoffrey Fischer (John Pankow) trained a monkey named Ella (Boo the Monkey) to help him with his paralysis. What he doesn't know is that Geoffrey has been experimenting with Ella, genetically alter her brain that cause the little monkey to develop more human-like deep feelings, and rage, against its new master and her monkey trainer, Melanie Parker (Kate McNeil). I can understand why, people might overlook this movie. The little monkey is too cute. Whose idea was it to use a capuchin monkey as a villain? Why didn't they just use a bigger ape? While, a capuchin monkey seem silly as a villain. There is a way to portray it, right like what they did in 1995's Outbreak. They was able to do it, because that monkey in that movie was carrying a deadly disease that cause its villains to have violent and gory deaths. This movie didn't have any of that, fears, because it lacks gore. The movie is a bit laughable as the small monkey tries to poison and burn fully grown human beings. Clearly, Boo has no clue, what she was doing. Most of the action in the film is very unintentionally hilarious. The crash scene involving a running man, a barking dog and flying bricks is just cheesy. While, I couldn't see the monkey as a serious threat. I did love, how the movie portray their relationship. The relationship built up is a genuinely loving one. It was a deep bond, between the two that's right out of any kid's animal movie and then it got really bizarre, with Alan picks up on Ella's primal behavior, and Ella picks up on Allan's feelings of frustration, rage and revenge. The movie never explain this odd empathy of two, as both feel increasing in love with each other. It almost beasty. As if the movie was trying to channel the same themes of horror in Gothic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Planet of the Apes & the Island of Doctor Moreau, where no matter, how civilize you can act, you still have one foot, out of the jungle. I guess, the movie was trying to say something like a link from man to beast, but it never fully explained satisfactorily leaving a gaping plot hole that is a wart to what the film is trying to accomplish. I had actually read Monkey Shines. It was not a great read, but it's explain the concept, better than the movie, with the main character taking the same pills intended to increase the learning ability of his primate companion, but in the movie, it's never explained. Why and how exactly does Geoffrey's intelligence-boosting potion wind up linking Ella to Alan psychically? Who Knows! The movie doesn't bothered with it. The concept of the story has some interesting aspects. The life of a quadriplegic is an interesting subject, and you see it, with the great acting from Jason Beghe. You really see the struggle of it, through his facial expression and eyes. Kate McNeil is very convincing as the energetic, robust and beautiful trainer. Together, Beghe and McNeil make a cute couple on screen, and unlike other viewers, I didn't find the sex scene between them weird. It's very rare to see how severely handicapped are able to make love. Their love scene is very sensual, proving that the handicapped can do most anything. A young Stanley Tucci is a cool look, as the supporting character, despicable neurosurgeon Dr. John Wiseman. I really couldn't believe that was him. Most of the rest of the supporting cast was alright in their roles. Boo the monkey was the star of the film, big time. Without her, the movie couldn't had work. A lot of people might hate this movie, due to the fact, that they have a monkey as a villain. Watching a monkey maim and kill people could be pretty traumatic for younger and even some older viewers I would imagine. PETA might jump in, for the very controversial ending. The ending was so controversial that the film's distributor, Orion Pictures, forced Romero to add a happy ending to the picture, a plot device which the director had long avoided in favor of more ambiguous endings, because they were desperate for a hit, as it was in financial difficulty. Second, after poor previews, the studio recut the film without Romero's knowledge to add a "shock" ending. While, there are tons of alternate endings. It didn't help the film, much. Overall: Unfortunately, the plotting and scripting is quite weak. The pacing, a bit too long. The concept is interesting, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Still, it's worth watching, at least once. Monkey see monkey do.

I hated this movie. It was boring, it dragged, it wasn't scary, and it had nothing noteworthy. Before you start flaming me keep in mind that I do realize that this is George Romero and the studio messed him over or whatever. I feel bad for the guy and I like his films, but at the end of the day this movie is just flat out dumb. If you've seen the cover for this movie ignore it and move along. This cover was skunk turds. It showed this evil monkey looking creepy and scary. Well guess what that monkey isn't even in the film. Instead we get a super smart helper monkey. If it sounds cool to you I can't blame you but it was a bunch of garbage.Nothing in this movie is scary. The plot is too ridiculous for the audience to relate too, thus nullifying the feeling that this could happen to you. The tension in the film really doesn't work, because even though the main guy is in a wheel chair helpless, he goes so slow and it just seems humorous rather than scary. The worst part of this movie is the pace. It drags along from one uninteresting scene to the next before somebody dies. It must have been at least one hour before there was any action, and that includes the monkey killing the bird. So really if your a horror fan and a Romero fan then you will still hate this movie. This film is more for the stay at home mom who has a soft spot for paraplegics and they want tension, drama, and a feel good ending. So please do yourself a favor and skip this garbage.