The current cinema

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• Philmiv says:

  October 29, 2010 at 8:58 am

  So do the octop­oid mon­sters actu­ally come back and per­form “Give Peace a Chance”? Cuz that I’d watch, preachy or no.
  Too bad. I had high hopes for this.

• Jason M. says:

  October 29, 2010 at 10:48 am

  Hell, they don’t even have to per­form “Give Peace a Chance.” I’d plunk myself down in a theat­er for the mon­sters singing “It’s a Small World After All.”
  So, am I also cor­rect in assum­ing that, in fact, the tit­u­lar mon­sters may be, you know, refer­ring to us?

• Stephen Whitty says:

  October 29, 2010 at 11:25 am

  Given the hat-tip to “Apocalypse Now” at the begin­ning, I was rather hop­ing for a Dennis Hopper char­ac­ter to show up near the last third of the film, ranting.
  “Aliens, man. You can­’t just build a WALL, man. Cause you’re only walling YOURSELF in, man.” Or some­thing to that effect.
  Just in case, you know, there were a few mouth-breathers who needed the movie’s obvi­ous point explained to them even more obviously.
  Like you, Glenn, I liked the giant ambu­lat­ory octopi. I even did­n’t mind the sort of deja-viewed “Salvador” feel to the whole thing. (Would “Salvador” have been even bet­ter if James Woods had been attacked by a giant extra­ter­restri­al? Discuss.)
  But in the end, this is one of those movies that’s more inter­est­ing for how little it cost, rather than how much it says (which is far less than it thinks)…

• Graig says:

  October 29, 2010 at 12:21 pm

  Agreed. I walked out of the film kind of impressed by the cam­er­a­work and the sense of real-world ver­simil­it­ude, as well as, of course, the effects – that final octopi coup­ling at the gas sta­tion is really cool, and in a bet­ter movie would have knocked me out flat – but the storytelling is flat and all the per­form­ances are pretty wan. I mean, Scoot McNairy, nice guy though I’m sure he is, does­n’t have much in the way of a James Woods cha­risma. Which this film des­per­ately needs.

• John says:

  October 29, 2010 at 11:37 pm

  I’m not so sure the budget and the film’s sup­posed self-awareness of high-mindedness are the real prob­lems. The real prob­lem is prob­ably, you know, ‘it’s not that great’. Have no fear, though! On the Silver Globe is com­ing out on DVD!

• Michael Cusdin says:

  October 30, 2010 at 6:26 am

  The tag-line when “Monsters” screened here at the loc­al inter­na­tion­al film fest here two months back was some­thing to the effect of ‘hor­ror meets Cassavettes’. Instead of pulling me in, I recoiled with a “what the…?” frown.
  I agree with your review, Glenn – when it comes to hor­ror, i prefer to have the thought-provoking mes­sages embed­ded with­in a sea of vis­cer­al thrills.

• refriedwhiskey says:

  October 30, 2010 at 6:53 am

  I wish people, you know, would stop, you know, try­ing to write like, you know, Glenn.