Monster Brawl (2011)

Sadly Over-hyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Some people take movies so seriously. This movie gets trashed by a lot of people - but, come on. Take it for what it is. It's not intended to be a good movie; it's not intended to be a serious horror movie. It's basically a spoof. It's a spoof of the whole WWE (or whatever acronyms are out there right now) experience, with over excited commentators (played by Dave Foley and Art Hindle) and an over the top announcer (Jimmy Hart as himself) and pretty (and barely clothed) ring girls and lots of ridiculous action in the ring - and sometimes out of the ring. It's not really much different than you'd see watching pro "wrestling" on television, and as a spoof of all that it's OK.It's a "tournament" featuring eight monsters divided into two Conferences (the Creatures and the Undead) going head to head against each other. Ninety minutes of it is a bit tiresome in all honesty, but I have to confess (and I'm a wee bit embarrassed about it) that when we finally got to the final match I was interested in seeing whether Frankenstein or Werewolf would come out on top!As Canadian movies go it's certainly not the worst I've ever seen (and in its opening it even manages to pay homage to the classic opening of Hockey Night in Canada.) I don't remember the exact words that opened the "broadcast," but they were a take on Foster Hewitt's iconic "Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland."It's not a good movie by any means, but it does have some humour in it, it doesn't take itself at all seriously and it is plain old stupid fun. You wouldn't want a steady diet of movies like this, but there's nothing wrong with it from time to time. (4/10)

This is a Frankenstein Comedy. There a lot of Frankenstein Comedy. The first one was Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. That one was funny most Frankenstein comedy movies are funny. This one was not. It was to bloody to be funny. If a Frankenstein movie it not going to be funny it should at lest be scary. It is not scary. The story line is awful. The ending is awful. The acting was good as was the special effects. Good actors wasted there talent being in this awful movie. Do not wast your money. Do not wast your time. Do not see this movie. It is a very bad movie. It is total pooh pooh. Don't see this movie don't see this movie.

I am a fan of old school wrestling, horror and splatter films, low rent makeup films and old school monster movies... This movie fails all of these genres. This could have been mildly entertaining as a 30-minute show. It was stretched out to feature length film and we are all the worse for it. How they got Dave Foley is perplexing, he must be hard up for work. I would suggest that anybody who rated this film higher than a 5 worked on the film, and anyone who rated it higher than a 3 is related to someone who worked on this film. so many missed opportunities in this movie. that is the biggest shame. Skip it and watch Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040068/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 the effects are better, the fear believable, and the laughs are legit.

I'm something of a wrestling fan. Sure, it might run into moments that I hate (as a recent Smackdown spoiler suggests), but I still watch it regardless of what happens. It's clear that writer/director Jesse T. Cook is a fan as well (what with the appearances of current and former wrestling personalities and references to things like Japanese Death Matches), but with "Monster Brawl", he takes a one note premise that could have been fun and does nothing to make it work.The plot couldn't be more simple-Buzz Chambers (Dave Foley) and Sasquatch Sid Tucker (Art Hindle) are two announcers who are pleased to give you Monster Brawl, in which eight monsters (Zombie Boy, Cyclops, The Mummy, Werewolf, Swamp Gut, Witch Bitch, Lady Vampire and Frankenstein) are all going to compete in one-on-one wrestling matches, with the voice of God (Lance Henriksen) serving as a narrator/ringside announcer. Oh, and the graveyard is cursed.As I said, pretty basic stuff. On the plus side, most of the performances are alright. Foley and Hindle seem to be having a lot of fun as the announcers, while Kevin Nash does a fine job as Zombie Boy's manager. The only performance that doesn't ring true comes is from Henriksen, who sounds bored most of the time. It's hard to blame him though, as this is a movie with a fun premise that doesn't know what to do with it. Sure, there's a few chuckles to be had, but most of the jokes fall flat on their face, especially around the final act. Speaking of which, the third act just drags on and on, not showing any sign of letting up, but never managing to do anything that's fun.Which leads me to my biggest complaint: the "matches" themselves are boring. Sure, it must be hard to wrestle with all that make-up or in a rubber suit, but there's little here that actually resembles a wrestling match. The fact that the film seems to be as influenced by old fighting games like "Killer Instinct" and "Mortal Kombat" as it is by wrestling hurts it too. Each match ends the same-you gotta kill your opponent in some gruesome fashion. By the third or fourth maiming that occurs however, it just gets repetitive. Apart from title belts, nothing feels like it's at stake here, making it all feel more like a pointless exercise than it does a wrestling and horror geeks dream come true.As a whole, even the most hardcore mark (look it up) will probably find themselves bored by "Monster Brawl." It's a premise that doesn't do anything with the joke at hand, and feels more like a boring fantasy from a fan boy than it does a movie you'd actually want to sit through.