Monday, June 18, 2012

Monster Brawl


After finding this movie on Twitter and following it for what feels like forever, I have FINALLY seen Monster Brawl, and this was good. By now I will assume that you are at least somewhat familiar with the concept behind the movie, monsters beating the shit out of each other in a wrestling ring tournament style, and from that you've likely already made up your mind as to whether you're gonna watch it or not. If the idea of watching a werewolf put a cyclops in a figure four leg lock is one that puts a big, stupid grin on your face, then rest assured Monster Brawl is your movie.

Is it perfect? Of course not. It is literally like watching a wrestling pay per view, only before wrestling became stupid, and with monsters doing the wrestling. We do get to see some short back story segments on all of the monsters, but outside of that there isn't much going on in terms of story, which I will admit was a little disappointing. My biggest let down though, was the fact that outside of commentators, ring girls, and the occasional manager (Jimmy Hart!), there's no crowd whatsoever. Definitely feels like a missed opportunity there. How cool would it have been to see the Werewolf tear apart a spectator or two on his way to the ring? At least the wrestling is good though, definitely would've been a deal breaker there.


There are a few recognizable faces and voices, but nothing to get overly excited about. Wrestling fans will of course recognize the aforementioned "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart, Kevin Nash and Robert "Kurrgan" Maillet, as well as UFC ref Herb Dean. For those of us who aren't as into the wrasslin, there's Dave Foley, Art Hindle, and the wonderful voice over work of genre legend Lance Henriksen, whose last name is actually misspelled on the back of the bluray. For shame packaging department, for shame!

When all is said and done, the easiest way to describe Monster Brawl is simply "fun". That's a term that gets tossed around a lot to describe "so bad, it's good" movies, particularly in the horror genre, and I hesitate to use it here, but when you laugh as much as I did at a movie, and genuinely enjoyed the experience, I can't come up with any better adjective to use. Monster Brawl is big, monster beating the shit out of other monster, laugh out loud fun. It won't be for everybody, but it was definitely for me. The ending leaves things wide open for a sequel, and I'd put money down today to see it. Bring it on!


1 comment:

Maynard Morrissey said...

Agree, the absence of a crowd is pretty disappointing - lucky me saw it at a Film Festival where the whole theater crowd acted like a wrestling crowd ("let's go frankie!") :)