A teenage girl thinks that the monkey she owns is her innocent pet, but it turns out to be something much more dangerous, an evil shapeshifter capable of unthinkable acts no loyal pet would ever be able to perform.
Similar titles
Reviews
Beautiful, moving film.
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
I can live with poor CGI, if there is enough blood and a few laughs. I can overlook a shoddy, predictable script if the movie is fun. But this was so badly done and it wasn't even laughably bad.The worst, most tie breaking flaw is that the "monster" gets attached to the protagonist. He and the girl whose "pet" he's supposed to be bond, and he won't harm her. Then the monster-hunters, here specifically to kill it, tell us that it won't hurt her because she was kind to it, instead of "treating them like the monsters they are". As in, if they weren't being hunted in the first place, they'd be docile. Then the girl kills her pet anyway, just because, with zero rhyme or reason.The whole thing left a very sour taste in my mouth. A bad B grade horror movie relies on humor to make it watchable. Making it heartbreakingly and senselessly sad instead makes it completely worthless, as a film.
I was not expecting anything extraordinary in this movie because of this being another low budget movie from Syfy. While many others hate Syfy movies (but keep on watching them for some reason), I enjoy them for what they are and Flying Monkeys is the best one that I have seen. The CGI is always bad in these movies, but Flying Monkeys has the best CGI out of the bunch. There are multiple actors with bad acting and there seems to be a strange unneeded anti-gun message thrown in, but I can overlook those things because of it being a fun movie. I don't need everything to be cinematic genius. This is a low budget television film B movie so I knew what to expect.
For an original SyFy Channel movie, then "Flying Monkeys" wasn't as bad as it could have been. Let's face it, SyFy Channel do spew out a fair share of questionable movies in a steady pace. But every now and then they do manage to deliver something that isn't as campy, cheesy or unwatchable as the rest of their movies. "Flying Monkeys" wasn't one of their greatest movies, true, but it was enjoyable even though it was cheesy.The story in "Flying Monkeys" is about Joan (played by Maika Monroe) who graduates from high school. Although her dad James (played by Vincent Ventresca) promised to attend, he arrived late. And to make amends for his late-comings, then he buys his daughter an exotic pet monkey, which she names Skippy. It turns out that the cute monkey turns into a demonic winged killer monkey at night and wrecks havoc on the town. A couple of Asian hunters are chasing after the monkey to kill it before it can further its evil. And the trick is, that the monkey can only be killed by weapons that were blessed in old times. If killed by conventional means, the monkey parts and becomes two.Storywise, then "Flying Monkeys" is as standard as these type of movies come. But still, it was enjoyable, because there was a good pace to the story, and there was just something profound cheesy to the movie which made it more fun to watch.The acting was quite good, and that helped lift up the enjoyment of the movie. Even the monkey that played Skippy was doing a convincing job.I nearly toppled over when they showed a scene that was supposed to be from Hong Kong. That was from mainland China somewhere, and not Hong Kong. I lived there for four years and am familiar with the scenery, the street signs, cabs etc., and that was not Hong Kong. But hey, at least they had the continent right. It was an effort, but a goofy mistake to make.As for the CGI effects; well, they were there and they served their purpose. However, don't expect to be dazzled by multi-million dollar Hollywood CGi effects, because that is not the case."Flying Monkeys" is a fun movie to watch, it is predictable and generic, yes, but then again, so are many movies in the killer animal genre - if there is such a genre.4 out of 10 stars from me. Fun, campy, predictable but still enjoyable.
Attempting to make up for his continual absence, a man's purchase of a monkey for his daughter turns out to be a form of demonic monkey-creature that begins terrorizing the townspeople and must band together with a group of hunters to take the creatures down.This turned out to be a solid, middle-of-the-road offering that had some rather fun stuff about it. One of the better elements here is the fact that the opening shock jump doesn't kill off everyone it comes in contact with, which is a pleasant surprise as well as the film's origin story for the creatures which is far better than expected and definitely has some good elements for later use coming out of it. As well, we've got a couple fine action moments with the multitude of creatures swarming over their victims in town at several big scenes, and the finale at the house is quite exciting. This is still plagued with the usual Sci-Fi Channel atrocious CGI and gore, but as well there's another flaw in the treatment of the guardians' search for the creature who seem shoehorned into the story without really doing much and their quest at starting at the front of the chain of possession halfway through the movie doesn't make much sense. Overall, this one wasn't all that terrible though.Rated R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.