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35 out of 41 people found the following review useful: The Black Heart Beats Again, 29 March 2008 Author: Mart Sander from www.martsander.com
What is the best anger management program for someone who has witnessed his family slain in one's childhood by a hideous monster and has blamed himself for not having been able to do something to save them? Meditation? Yoga? Pilates? Yolates? Gay exercise videos? Wrong: it's professional monster slaying. The bottled up emotions that might complicate everyday life can be used effectively to annihilate various monsters and thusly to achieve great therapeutic effect combined with social beneficence. That's The Monster Slayer in a nutshell. It's a campy, smooth old-school gore-fest, but it's well executed and acted in spite of the fact that the cup of the budget runneth not over. Good old Robert Englund delivers a tour de force over the top charleslaughtonian performance which is a delight. Rachel Skarsten is a perfectly nasty Barbie bitch from hell. Her high-pitched whining scene in the car is a total blast. Now the hero, Trevor Matthews, is someone to watch with attention. Methinks stardom might come knocking on the door any day soon. A very nice 1980s style (i.e. trendy) flick makes a great 1,5 hour entertainment if it's not Hamlet you're really craving for.
21 out of 23 people found the following review useful: A fantastic throwback to 50's horror and Army of Darkness., 24 September 2008 Author: dudeamis from United States
Sometimes you see a movie at the video store and you decided to take a chance on it, usually you're stuck with a bad movie and out a couple bucks, not the case with Monster Slayer.Jack seems to be a fairly regular guy, working a thankless job and dating a whiny college girl. But Jack is not a regular guy, when he was a kid he witnessed a terrible tragedy, a tragedy he blames himself for and that fuels his episodes of rage. While doing a job for his science teacher, Professor Crowley (Robert Englund), Jack unintentionally awakens an ancient evil. Soon his entire science class is in mortal danger.Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is a slow building monster movie, that really allows the character of Jack to be explored before the crap hits the fan. After the opening scene we don't see a monster for about 2/3 of the movie. But that's fine because the last third makes up for it.Jack Brooks also does something rarely seen today, effective use of prosthetics. Instead of relying on cheesy cgi like this weeks Sci-Fi original, this movie uses well made monster make up to create realistic hell spawn.The acting is fantastic for a movie of this level, Trevor Matthews does a fantastic job as the hero. Rachel Skarsten is terrifically annoying and James A. Woods plays the stereotypical wanna be philosopher college kid who smokes too much weed, perfectly.While this movie is made in the spirit of Army of Darkness, you will not confuse the two movies. Jack Brooks is much more serious, but not too serious. Jack Brooks doesn't throw out classic one liners, or is too cocky for his own good. Jack is just a guy with a lot of anger issues who steps up when he's needed the most.
17 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Like the good old days of popcorn and horror!!!, 28 September 2008 Author: orochiklan from Chile
Forget the past review, this is one hell of a movie!!! I'm so happy to see stuff like this or Hatchet, cause they have the feeling of the golden age of gore horror funny films... remember brain damage or house and stuff like that? just friends popcorn and a bad ass funny over the top film! ...its so nice to see some good old style horror films, now that horror is so conservative, full of ghost dramatic stories or remakes. And above all that we have one of the modern classic actors of the genre, Mr Englund. I think there will be a lot of people who will find this film bad or something, but to that people, please rent or buy another Asian Hollywood remake, drama/ghosts from spain or a new Texas chainsaw clone. For all of you who enjoy : basket case, braindead, brain damage, house and evil dead, this will be a pleasure to watch.Thanks to the people behind this film, this was one hell of a ride!!! truly thanks!! and I'm looking forward for a part II
16 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Mad, Mad Monster Party!, 6 April 2008 Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls
The ambitions of director Jon Knautz and his entire cast & crew were obviously limited, but nevertheless admirable. All they ever intended to do was bring homage to the glorious horror decade of the 80's and make a nonsensical movie with clichéd themes, stereotypical characters and over-the-top gooey make-up effects reminiscent to the movies the young filmmakers grew up with, like "The Evil Dead" and "Demons". I saw this film at the Belgian Fantasy Film Festival, were it fulfilled the role of ideal midnight movie crowd-pleaser. "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer" offers plenty of splatter, absurdly crude humor, identifiable anti-hero characters, silly story lines and – last not least – Robert Englund himself in another terrific supportive B-role. Jack Brooks is an ordinary twenty-something man, working as a plumber during the day and attending chemistry classes in the evening in order to reach a more valuable certificate. He suffers from one major problem, though. Ever since he helplessly witnessed his family getting butchered by a forest monster as a child, Jack can't control his anger and regularly suffers from aggressive outbursts. When his teacher, Professor Crowley, gradually transforms into a monstrous entity after a plumbing job gone awry, Jack comes to realize the monster slaying business is exactly the type of anger management he needed. "Monster Slayer" is pretty weak in the plotting department, as you can see, but this widely gets compensated by the enthusiast spirit and determination of everybody involved in the production. The film starts off a little slow and hesitant, but once Prof Crowley starts undergoing his transformation, there's no more stopping the camp and cheese! You can clearly notice how genre veteran Robert Englund enjoyed helping out the young crew and the make-up department seemingly just received a carte-blanche. The monster designs and demonic grimaces are delightfully cheesy and gross, just like they were in the 1980's, and the film constantly remains comical and light-headed in spite of the gory bloodshed. Trevor Matthews is terrific as the reluctant Bruce "Ash" Campbell typed horror Savior and he receives good support from various other young and (still) unknown players. "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer" is a totally unpretentious and entertaining throwback to B-cinema, and even though it'll never be regarded as a classic, it's warmly recommended viewing for all fans of the genre.
10 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Just Better than Average, 13 October 2008 Author: Scars_Remain from United States
This movie was fun and entertaining but I think people are getting a little ahead of themselves in some of these reviews. It's not the greatest modern horror film or even the greatest horror film of the year. It's just mindless fun. Try not to take it as anything more than that and you should like it.The acting is pretty bad but we can't really expect much, I suppose. However, Robert Englund was pretty good. The story is an interesting idea but I think it takes too long to get going, about a full hour and then we're left with about 15 minutes of actual action. Normally I like slow moving films but not when I'm promised a "fun" movie.
7 out of 10 people found the following review useful: So much fun!, 8 October 2008 Author: whammy666 from United States
This is one of the most fun horror movies I have seen all year. It is pretty original (although, in one scene a bit similar to Jason Goes to Hell), has good acting, nice gore/slime, and Robert Englund! What more would a fan want? The comedy is funny, and Jack is a character you want to root for in the end. The only flaw really, is that it does take a long time to get into the action. But up until then, it is still extremely entertaining, and pretty funny. It i a great homage to b-rated monster films from the 50's, and is a must for any horror fan. The cinemagoraphy is creative in parts, and the effects are really good. Watch this now!
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Great Fun., 17 October 2008 Author: x_thebrokenvow_x from United States
i've heard lots of people go back and forth about this flick, so I decided to pick it up. I must say, I was EXTREMELY impressed. Newcomer Trevor Matthews (Jack Brooks) has the potential to be the next Bruce Campbell. I think the plot and action sequences, while they've been done before (for the most part), were still done in an original way. The best part of this film would be the brilliant performance of horror vet Robert Englund.This film is honestly a refreshing step back in to the glory of days of mid-80's gore. It is definitely in the same vein of modern gems such as Feast, and is even comparable to solidified classics such as Evil Dead, and Dead Alive.All-in-all, I highly recommend this flick to anyone who wants to have some fun, and ACTUALLY be entertained while watching a movie.I hope the sequel gets made soon.
3 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Not good, not bad!, 30 September 2008 Author: Icarus Akamatsu from United Kingdom
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Well, what can I say? If this film was actually made in the 80's I bet they could make a kick ass re-make of it now, unfortunately its only just been made! (Which means the re-make will be out in about 10 years)Cons: - Takes at least 10 mins too long to get into the action. - When the action does start, it doesn't last long enough! - Some of the acting is, well, um... - The entire thing with the therapist is pointless and adds nothing. - I don't think some character (Character?) threads were properly concluded. - End of film was way too sudden! - Needed to have a bigger variety of monster. - Some of the effects were...questionable, cant decide if this was good or bad!?!?Pros: - Robert Englund actually gives a pretty good performance. He obviously had fun with this, and didn't mind getting his hands dirty! (I have met the guy! Just thought id say! He he!) - Hello!! I believe this film was meant to be ridiculous!! - This film should be watched for the old guy in the hardware store, funniest thing in the entire film!! - It is most refreshing to see a modern film that IS NOT infested with CGI!! - Jack Brooks has a nicely thought out background and motivation for his actions. (Nice moment in the van with the Sinatra song)In conclusion, this is not the best film ever made, and I have seen much better 'Hats Off' films of 80's type B-movies. But, mostly due to the Hardware store guy and Robert Englund, this movie is staying in my collection, and if you have 85 mins to mindlessly kill, or are drunk with mates I recommend (Just make sure you fast-forward to the action!)Icarus.
tongue in cheek monster bash, 13 December 2009 Author: Raegan Butcher from Rain City, Pacific Northwest
Tightly wound plumber Trevor Mathews has serious anger issues due to the fact that his parents were killed by monsters when he was just a wee lad. When his college professor played by Robert Englund unleashes an ancient horde of evil creatures, it is up to the plucky plumber to realize his destiny as a monster slayer and save humanity. The ranting of Trevor Mathews in the title role is very amusing but it is really Robert Englund who steals the show. He is clearly having a ball with the material and his enthusiasm is contagious.I laughed quite a bit.The SPFX are pretty good and refreshingly old-school.Lots of gore and prosthetics as opposed to lame CGI. I wouldn't mind watching Jack Brooks slay monsters thru a whole series of films like this!
Not as funny as they think it is, 25 November 2009 Author: anthony-727 from United Kingdom
From the point of budget 2.5m CAD isn't very much when you look at the animatronics, puppetry in this film, that alone being the reason for the 9 week shoot. I was really keen to see this film and had hoped to catch it when it came out, instead got it on DVD recently. My main problem is it's just not funny at all, it's better than Tenacious D which hasn't got a funny bone in it's body. But this was a truly disappointing film.Trevor Matthews is a very strong physically performer, but his acting sucks! Rachel Skarsten gives what is possibly one of the most irritating and none funny performances I have ever seen. The only really BIG star in this is David Scott who's artwork for the monsters is fab! His special effects work is the main reason this film is worth watching, loved the Cyclops and Troll and and the Prof Monster was straight out of the Henson library.If you watch this it won't be the biggest waste of time, but if you are looking to see this for a great Horror Comedy Romp... Don't bother.
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