Holy crap. The Monster Squad so desperately wants to be the unofficial Goonies sequel, it hurts. While it may not be as good as Donner and Spielberg's kids adventure flick, it has enough talent, energy and originality to still be a fun little romp, even after all these years. Basically, Count Dracula comes to contemporary Los Angeles searching for an mystical amulet (for some reason...wasn't paying attention) and recruits a load of other classic Universal monsters, including Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman, The Mummy and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. A bunch of kids with an obsession of monsters, form a club called The Monster Squad to save their town from evil. Hi-jinks ensue.
Fred Dekkar (yes, he of the awful RoboCop 3) delivers his best work here thanks to some script input from Lethal Weapon's screenwriter Shane Black. Bruce Broughton provides a lavish score, Bradford May's photography looks sharp 23 years later, Richard Edlund's effects still impress, Stan Winston's bats-on-a-wire embarrass and Tom Noonan (Cane from RoboCop 2/The Ripper from Last Action Hero) does his best Sloth impression, as the simple minded Frankenstein's Monster who befriends the kiddywinks.
A daft, formulaic romp...but a well made, lovingly told romp with a genius central concept. No wonder they never made a Goonies sequel; The Monster Squad imagined up a storyline far superior than Donner or Spielberg ever could. Now that's impressive.
1 comment:
"Wolfman's got nards!"
That HAD to be a Shane Black line.
A great 80's kids movie of the type they just don't make anymore...and when they do try (e.g. Cirque Du Freak) they're usually shit. The Monster Squad is a lot of silly, charming fun. But it is also made with a genuine love for its source material. A love you can feel. It is infinitely beter than the abortion that was Van Helsing which did a similar thing in bringing the classic Universal monsters together...and then one by one butt fucking them in to shitty CGI oblivion.
One of the best things about this flick is that, despite the daft concept and it being essentially a kids flick...it can be pretty harsh. There's swearing and (quasi) girl nakedness and sex gags and blood and dismemberment. And Duncan Regehr's Dracula, despite looking exactly like a Halloween costume version of the Count, is damn good. He plays it straight. He is intense, single minded and thoroughly nasty. The bit near the end where he grabs the little girl (only five yrs old), lifts her up and hisses at her, "Give me the amulet, you BITCH!" allegedly terrified the poor tot so much that the scream of fear you hear from her is absolutely genuine. A cruel act by director Fred Dekker as, prior to that, Duncan Regerh had categorically refused to wear his fangs and red eyes around the child because he already scared her so much. But Dekker made him do it for that one moment. A moment which probably scarred the poor little thing for life.
There's been talk of a remake of The Monster Squad. I hope not. You just know it would be shit and that they'd cast the worst possible person to play Dracula...something nobody seems able to do anymore. Channing Tatum anyone? Anyone? No? Okay...
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