Customer Reviews

Monster Island

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A movie worthy of the camp actor/icon Adam West, with wonderful, cheesey, stop-motion giant bugs, Carmen Electra, darkly funny dialogue and a knowing and affectionate nod to the stop-motion films of Ray Harryhausen. Must see!

Carmen, Carmen, Carmen. What were you thinking? I am a big fan of cheese movies, big bug movies, and my personal fave, nature-run-amok flicks. The problem here is despite a wonderfully campy performance by Adam West (can he give any other type?) this is too bad and tries to hard to achieve cult status. One can not make a cult movie on purpose, and took itself to seriously to be campy. The special effects aren't special, the acting is non-existant, the plot is looser than Carmen's bra, and I've seen better direction on a bubble gum commercial. Please! I want to sue the producers to get back my 90 minutes.

This MTV made for TV movie is a tribute to stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen. Adam West even plays a mad scientist by the name of Harryhausen. The action centers around an MTV concert by Carmen Electra held on a small tropical island. Things get bad when a giant flying insect grabs Carmen and flies off with her. While some believe Carmen is now beyond hope, a small group of teens decide that any hope is worth pursuing and they set off to rescue the pop singer.

The giant insect is not the only monster on the island and we are treated to giant preying mantises, a giant spider, giant ants, a gill man, and even a predatory fungus with a dash of horseshoe crab. All must be overcome in order to rescue Carmen Electra.

As a tribute, this movie works quite well. The plot is a little weak but rather typical for movies targeting the same audience. I was a little surprised that MTV made this film and made the MTV personnel act like jerks. Definitely not their best job at self promotion but a great effort at stop motion animation. Some DVD extras take you behind the scenes to show just what is involved in making a stop motion extravaganza. If you like giant bugs and monsters then this is a film to watch.

[IN FACT 2.5 STARS] If you find a MTV movie with Carmen Electra playing herself, called 'Monster Island,' you know you cannot take it seriously. When it is made with unknown actors, and directed by the person whose previous work is 'Wild Things 2,' you just don't expect too much. Surprisingly, however, 'Monster island' is not all bad; in fact, acting is fairly good, and if you get what the film is trying to do, the cheesy special effects would not be a big embarrassment.

'Monster Island' is not a horror; it's more like a parody of those B-films made in the 50s, which featured big bugs or monsters that attack humans. In this MTV version, the characters come to an isolated island somewhere in the ocean (near that famous mysterious triangle, maybe). They have a party and concert (of Carmen Electra), but a red big ant-like bug makes a havoc there, and it snatches Carmen and flies away to the mountain.

Now it's the time for the stock characters to rescue her, including Josh and his ex-girlfriend Maddy, followed by opportunist TV crew thinking that this is going to be a reality TV show (how about 'Survivors'?). Their adventures include several fights against bugs, and an encounter with a strange scientist played by Adam West. La La Vasquez and Nick Carter appear as themselves, but the time allotted to them is too short.

As the name of Adam West's character suggests (he is called Dr. Harryhausen), the film is partly a tribute to old-fashioned monster flicks, as 'Spy Kids 2' is. The monsters are of cheap, cheesy kind, low-tech fake creatures powered by humans hiding outside the frame of the camera.

Though there are some funny moments, and actors are doing good jobs (considering the low-budget situation), the film lacks brio that would have made it more enjoyable. Another director like Robert Rodriguez would have imbued energy into the ordinary story, but here Jack Perez directs everything in an autopilot fashion, missing every opportunity to liven the whole things up. When a certain green 'thing' comes up from a swamp, it is a good chance to do some comedy, or something. However, 'Monster Island' lets the great chance slip away, only showing a feebly done, not-so-funny set-piece.

Intentionally made cheesy and corny, 'Monster Island' might be a good choice if you have nothing to do. Otherwsie, you might skip it, and watch much better 'Eight Legged Freak' instead.

Produced by MTV Movies, MONSTER ISLAND is an affectionately campy tribute to those big bug movies of the fifties. Carmen Electra serves as nothing more than a lovely prop to inspire a sincere nerd and his friends to come to her rescue after she is abducted by the queen ant of a humongous ant colony. With a giant spider, an amphibious aquaman and two giant praying mantises along for the ride, the movie is just what you would expect. Bad special effects, terrible acting, and one silly sequence after another. But with Adam West along as the heroic Dr. Harryhausen (a tribute to Ray for sure), the movie should please fans of both those cheesy old movies and unmitigated camp.

Was not a great monster film. But it was never meant to be taken seriously. It's a good campy throwback to monster movies of the 50's and 60's. This is this first movie I ever saw Mary Elizabeth Winstead in and one of the main reasons I bought this DVD. Adam West has a turn as a "mad scientist". He does a good job of it.

If you want to just sit back and enjoy some mindless sci-fi fun, this is the one for you. It's silly,with lots of low-budget effects...a hokey script...and a great time for all. By no means is it a 5-star flick, but it has the punch and humor to entertain...entertain...entertain. Reminded me of the films of the 60s...but there was no one that emulated Carmen back then.

This MTV made-for-TV movie manages to recapture some of the magic from the glory years of campy monster movies, complete with old school stop-motion photography visual effects. I'm not sure if stop-motion king Ray Harryhausen would be proud, but Monster Island is obviously (especially given the presence of a character named Dr. Harryhausen) a tribute of sorts to his work. When I say this movie is campy, I mean it is overtly campy, with no attempt to hide the fact that models were relied upon heavily in many, many scenes. The kids today, not having seen this type of special effects before, are bound to ridicule it mercilessly, but Monster Island is a real treat for those of us who appreciate the history of the craft. The ridiculous story is played for laughs all the way through, and the end result is a surprisingly good comedy.

Poor Josh (Daniel Letterle) is so depressed over losing his girlfriend Maddy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to the biggest poser in school that he can't even get excited over winning a free trip from MTV for his entire senior class to enjoy a Carmen Electra show on a lush, tropical island. OK, so he's miffed his sister Jen (Chelan Simmons) registered for it in his name, but good grief, man, we're talking about the chance to meet Carmen Electra here. Everyone else is stoked, naturally. So they get to the island (which just so happens to be located in the Bermuda Triangle) and even Josh is starting to enjoy himself, when - wouldn't you know it? - a giant insect swoops down and carries Carmen off to the top of a mountain. Not being the type of guy who takes the insectoid theft of a hot babe lying down, Josh organizes his friends into a search party and heads off into the jungle to rescue Carmen. Maddy and her beaux come along for the ride once Mr. Wonderful sees that MTV is sending a two-man crew to cover the rescue effort. These crazy kids soon find themselves on an adventure right out of Land of the Lost (and I'm talking the original TV series), evading gigantic Praying Mantis creatures, giant spiders, huge soldier ants, and an ill-tempered Piranha Man along the way. Things get even weirder once they meet up with the eccentric Dr. Harryhausen (Adam West, who knows all about campy acting).

How can you not love a film like this? It never pretends to be anything more than cheap, cheesy, campy, and patently ridiculous fun, and that is exactly what it delivers. Plus Carmen Electra and Adam West. If you ask me, that makes for a pretty potent recipe for good times.

Jack Perez's Monster Island is ninety minutes of parody. The old monster movies are given a royal treatment in a story set in the MTV venue.

Carmen Electra plays herself as the hapless heroine kidnapped by the Queen Ant for nefarious purposes. In other words, you have to keep your native slaves happy to maintain the hive at optimal health.

You have your assortment of high schoolers. The talented Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the usual object of affection by two seniors. However, when she picks up an amulet and becomes the island goddess of the enslaved natives in the bee hive, she takes on the persona of Xena: Warrior Princess.

Adam West, 60's TV's Batman, plays Dr. Ray Harryhausen, the last survivor of a doomed group of scientists playing God with radioactive experiments on animal life. For the younger generation, the real Ray Harryhausen was a writer, director, special effects wizard and producer for some of the great sci-fi movies of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

There is a plus to this film. The island scenery was actually filmed in British Columbia.

If you want to have a laugh, grab a bowl of buttery cheese popcorn and relive some bad special effects with a story about as bad. Hey! This is one way to get away from your troubles for ninety minutes.

Being like a Harryhausen film I expected at least 5 monsters. There were 2 stop motion types (tho 2 of one and a few of the other), and a dumb creature from the monster lagoon (ohh not again).
Ohh, plus one dummy spider for 1.5 seconds that doesn't move.

The stop motion is as good as any.

You can see from the clips in the behind the scenes it is cropped from the original widescreen! What a mistake for an effects intravoganza (or any DVD unless having 2 versions).
I am over the age of 13.