Review of Monkey Shines (1988) by Gw S — 12 Dec 2009

"C'mon, Ace, let's go fishing".

Ordinarily I'm very cynical of so-called director's cuts and the reasons for their release. The way I see it, unless there was outside interference, the director should have got it right first time. And with something like Apocalypse Now, frankly I have much more respect for Coppola's artistic integrity circa 1976-1979, when he made it, than in 2001 when he re-edited it. Anyway, here's a potentially great little movie that really was ruined by studio interference and which, I feel, would not need a great deal of tweaking to improve it immeasurably. First to go, obviously, would be the unbearably corny, tacked-on ending. I'm trying not to give too much away for those who haven't seen it, but why not just end the movie directly after the tense climax, on the optimistic note that Allan (Jason Beghe) has done enough to guarantee his spinal surgery? It would, however, be unfair to blame the studio for everything that is wrong with this picture. Back in 1976/1977 when he made his brilliant modern day vampire movie, Martin, Romero was clever enough not to make an issue of pointy teeth, unless it was to poke fun at the silliness of traditional vampire lore. In Monkey Shines, Romero's own, unnecessary, equally silly dental fixation suggests a significant erosion of his artistic good sense over the intervening decade.