MONSTER MAN
* * * (2003, 95 minutes, Rated R)
Monster, monster man! I wanna be, a monster man!
Talk about a swerve: We kick off with the opening credits accompanied by that sound all the cool
horror flicks just love these days, and go straight to a guy getting his head crushed in a vice. We
then spend the next hour in a Kevin Smith film.
* * * (2003, 95 minutes, Rated R)
Monster, monster man! I wanna be, a monster man!
Talk about a swerve: We kick off with the opening credits accompanied by that sound all the cool
horror flicks just love these days, and go straight to a guy getting his head crushed in a vice. We
then spend the next hour in a Kevin Smith film.
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Even after Diet Jack Black shoots his mouth off in a hick bar and the two are run off the road by a
mon-- no, it's more than a monster truck, it's like something out of Road Warrior -- it takes an
additional half hour for the two to realize they're in a horror movie. You might thing this gets old,
and for a while, it does. But over the course of the movie, particularly after a hottie hitchhiker
causes some friction between the duo, their act gets a bit more depth and the characters do start
to grow on you.
The action builds nicely, and even when we discover that the monster truck is driven by a
monstrous-looking man with a mouth stitched together in a most impractical manner, this turns
out to be a much better movie than it should be.
mon-- no, it's more than a monster truck, it's like something out of Road Warrior -- it takes an
additional half hour for the two to realize they're in a horror movie. You might thing this gets old,
and for a while, it does. But over the course of the movie, particularly after a hottie hitchhiker
causes some friction between the duo, their act gets a bit more depth and the characters do start
to grow on you.
The action builds nicely, and even when we discover that the monster truck is driven by a
monstrous-looking man with a mouth stitched together in a most impractical manner, this turns
out to be a much better movie than it should be.
| Like this, but a road movie. |
Seriously. Bland wussie Adam is taking
a road trip to crash the wedding of an
ex-girlfriend he's still hung up on.
Tagging along -- more or less against
Adam's will -- is his buddy, Harley, who
comes off as the Diet Coke version of
Jack Black. The first third of the movie is
almost entirely spent seeped in
Clerks-esque banter: Diet Jack Black
carries on about how much of an awful
slut Adam's ex was, oogles women like a
13-year-old, makes a variety of genital
jokes, etc. If you've ever caught an
episode of Reaper, the relationship
between the two is almost exactly like
that of Sam and Sock.
a road trip to crash the wedding of an
ex-girlfriend he's still hung up on.
Tagging along -- more or less against
Adam's will -- is his buddy, Harley, who
comes off as the Diet Coke version of
Jack Black. The first third of the movie is
almost entirely spent seeped in
Clerks-esque banter: Diet Jack Black
carries on about how much of an awful
slut Adam's ex was, oogles women like a
13-year-old, makes a variety of genital
jokes, etc. If you've ever caught an
episode of Reaper, the relationship
between the two is almost exactly like
that of Sam and Sock.
There are even a few good twists. And then... we get the Torso-less Man of Exposition.
It feels like a cop-out, because it is a cop-out. Dear Potential Scriptwriters: If you need to have a
character explain your whole ingenious plot like a second-tier Bond villain, you're doing
something wrong.
Yes, even if that character is lacking a torso.
It feels like a cop-out, because it is a cop-out. Dear Potential Scriptwriters: If you need to have a
character explain your whole ingenious plot like a second-tier Bond villain, you're doing
something wrong.
Yes, even if that character is lacking a torso.
| Good for being scary. Bad for eating a Chalupa. |