best movie i've ever seen.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

In Monster Brawl, eight legendary monsters (Frankenstein, Cyclops, Witch Bitch, The Wolfman, Swamp Gut, The Mummy, Lady Vampire, and a zombie) battle it out in the ring to see who is the greatest of them all; sounds all sorts of awesome, huh? Well, trust me when I say that this 'film' couldn't have been more tiresome had they intended it to be.What we get are 8 very cheap looking monsters, a crappy graveyard set, boring back-stories for each monster to pad out the running time, several unexciting wrestling bouts, inane chat from commentators Buzz Chambers and Sasquatch Sid Tucker (Dave Foley and Art Hindle), former wrestling manager Jimmy Hart as the guest announcer, a pair of sexy ring girls (to keep the viewer from completely nodding off), and some risible bargain basement gore effects.It's all so repetitive, poorly executed and lacking in atmosphere (a crowd of cheering monster fans might have helped, but I doubt the budget would have stretched that far) that I imagine even the most fervent of wrestling fans will find this a chore to sit through—and that's saying something!

Sorry, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, because I've already wasted too much of my life actually watching (some) of this film. Trust me, I'm a fan of B-movie horror, cheesy films and everything in between. But believe me when I say this movie horrible on so many levels, that I really feel bad having ever even watched it.First off, it's not at all funny - I mean, at least cheesy movies you can expect a couple of chuckles, but I just sat there wondering how anyone could possibly enjoy this crap. Especially with someone like Dave Foley involved - you'd think they could write in a couple of funny lines - but not so much.It really felt like a 3rd grader wrote and directed this film. I mean I really wanted to watch it and like it, but please save yourself the trouble and don't. Seriously, I *love* cheesy garbage movies - movies that are so "bad" that they're good - but this just isn't even close to something like that. I've never written a movie nor do I proclaim to be able to - but I'm confident I could spend a day thinking about it and come up with a much better script and story line for this movie than the people that wrote this.

This is a cult classic B movie that of course is a take on WWF but reviews to date have not pinned down the TEKKEN influence. If the announcer didn't say 'combo' and if that wasn't a big enough clue, the deep voice at the end for the winner ought to have given it away. There's parodies and nods to Tarantino / Rodriguez movies in terms of video style and events. This is a fan's movie. I would say that not only does the script have a lot of imagination, but the presenter's puns are actually very funny. As their lines span throughout the picture - one needs to give credit where its due, that's a fair amount of innuendo. I will admit the acting isn't brilliant, but neither is the acting in great cult movies like 'Evil Dead'. The SFX are as good as your budget TV channel show - if not cheaper. I think this movie is one to put on low, while you have a party, people will laugh at the pictures and wonder what channel you're viewing. I will agree that it doesn't really have a 'plot', but perhaps the banality and frivolousness of excessive violence is in itself a message. Like Romero used Zombies in the Return of the Living Dead to social comment our own repetitive zombie like behavior to fashion and consumerism as 'zombie-like'. One can then see how Romero's movie is parodied in Shaun of the Dead. It's not the best horror movie on the market. In terms of referencing real life, cult movie and video game references plus well scripted comedy it does a VERY good job. Unless you know and can reference this movie I think a lot will be lost on the viewer. This explains the poor marks to date. Yes, the movie has bad acting, yes it can seem boring with no plot. But that is like critiquing WWF - Invasion for not having deeper characters. Look at the subject matter and tell me if the Rock or Hulk Hogan are complex characters. I think people will turn off WWF if the writers from BSG or Lost got writing for them. Anyone who knows pop culture will see where I'm coming from.

How many times have you been primed to see a well-hyped "monster brawl," only to walk away afterward feeling cheated? One of the earliest disappointments for me would have to have been FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN: after a wearying week of school, I was looking forward to Saturday night, around Midnight, when SHOCK THEATER, hosted by "The Bowman Body," promised viewers a slug-fest to end all slug-fests: Frankenstein's Monster would be going toe-to-toe with The Wolf Man. What kid worth his or her FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND collection wouldn't be fighting sleep to see THAT one...? A quarter of the way through, though, with far more talk than action, eyelids were already drooping; halfway through, they were at half mast; three-quarters of the way and the weaker members of the herd had succumbed. Those of us made of sterner stuff, who hung on to the very end... saw a quick back and forth that lasted mere moments before the castle was flooded and both combatants swept away. "The HELL...?" Sure, we lied to those who had slept through the final reel, telling them that the big brawl had been one for the ages, an epic struggle to rival the first Frazier-Ali fight. Opinions differed as to who had actually won the bout, but all were agreed that it was an epic never to be forgotten. Yeah... And then there were the GODZILLA movies, with ten or fifteen really cool minutes of giant monsters stomping Tokyo flat, padded with 90 or 100 minutes of people just sitting around talking about it. Fright filmmakers seemed to have a knack for NOT delivering the goods as promised. When first the title MONSTER BRAWL was whispered in the back alleys and dens of iniquity, interest was rekindled. Seeking out the underground caverns where such spectacles were staged, I took my seat next to a two-headed wrestler who called himself Janus and Anus and settled in for the duration. While MONSTER BRAWL would've been better served by a bit more storyline and a little less straight-laced "wrestling," the makeups are outstanding (and hold up remarkably well during the action) and the look of the movie is gorgeous. When it comes to monsters brawling and people talking about it, I guess it all really boils down to six of one or half-a-dozen of the other.