Monolith (1994)

I love this movie so much

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Highly Overrated But Still Good

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.

Every so often i have the opportunity to see a movie which isn't highly rated. Monolith (1993) was rated 4.3 at IMDb. This score is a lot higher than it really deserves. As a sci-fi fan, i don't care to much if a plot or props and such are unconvincing. Even the acting isn't a real issue for me. This film had a good plot (even if it is a bit stale) and the acting wasn't bad. So why the low score? Well, there are several things in this movie which destroy the immersion i'd like to get from a sci-fi movie. I'll give three examples. In the beginning of the movie, a 'deranged' woman tries to kill a young boy. She chases the boy in a car while the boy is running away. According to the sounds of the engine of the car, she's driving high speed and the car is moving really fast. Yet the boy, on foot, not really very fast, manages to keep ahead of the chasing car, nonetheless (1). He ducks into an alley and the car chases behind him. You can see the boy running in the ally with the car in the background. (The car isn't moving at all). The camera switches into the car and it's moving very fast (2). At the end of the movie the main characters jump from the departing flying saucer which flies at the top of the skyscrapers. Their drop only lasts about a second (3). The movie has lots of things like the three examples i've mentioned which made the movie an utter disappointment to me. Perhaps i've been spoiled during the years but if your wise, skip this movie and save yourself time for more pleasurable things to watch.

Well being that I actually got to be on the set of this movie for a time, while it was being filmed in my home town.. I have to say it was an excellent adventure. The time it takes to do each scene and the work that goes into it is time consuming and to be honest very fun. That said, Bill Paxton and Lindsy Frost were very nice and they treated me like a part of the crew while I was there observing.. I even got to help out with setting up some things for the movie... I was not credited for what I did, as it wasn't a whole lot, but to be invited on the set by the director, to learn how things are done to film a scene was the best time in my life.. and it wouldn't be the 1st Movie set I got to visit over the years.... Man how would you feel to have been there for that Opening scene of Lethal Weapon 4? Well I was and it was also an Exhilarating adventure.

The reference to Starsky & Hutch by another viewer is brilliant. This movie has no story, but, instead, seems to have been pieced together with bits and pieces pulled from Hollywood's vast supply of garbage cans. Bill Paxton does his usual out-of-control-but-I'm-really-hurtin'-inside schtick. Lindsay Frost's hair stays miraculously manageable, despite her being blown into a pool, shot at on a high-rise terrace, and (why do they subject us to this schlock?) diving into sewage. Both actors serve as the other's straight-man to hackneyed one-liners that are as predictable as the victims. Just who or what this alien with eyeballs that shoot fireballs is... or wants... is never explained, nor do we have any idea what the goon scientists have been doing with/at it all these years. I paid 20 cents for the video of this film on the streets of Seoul. I think I was ripped off.

Another good idea poorly executed with pot holes in the story line, improbable action and one dimensional characters. Thoughtful Lindsay Frost (Hutch as a woman) and hard case Bill Paxton (Starsky as a man) stumble onto a zany murder (pretty, vulnerable and distraught, young Russian scientist tries to run down and then succeeds in discharging a firearm into a little boy). Evil Fed agent John Hurt takes custody of the murderer from police Captain Lou Gossett. Shortly thereafter, havoc ensues as discreet portions of Los Angeles are terrorized by the evil of the Monolith (the term is not used in the film so one assumes that Monolith refers to the evil or its source). Starsky & Hutch pursue the invincible evil being--continuing to shoot at it even though they discover early on that it is invulnerable (but everyone in the movie seems to shoot at it as well--to no avail). John Hurt is 100% bad--including his acting. Bill Paxton has greasy dark hair. Lindsay Frost has really skinny jeans for a cop. Lou Gossett and the Squad Room could be recycled into another movie--any other movie. Perhaps this was originally made for TV and commercial breaks were integral to the plot.