Monsters reviewed by Mark Kermode

[orkavorn]

Mayo's hilarious at the end! XD

[Federoism]

I thought it was a deep, clever and creative film, liked the character development and how the world and they had adapted to the alien characters with surprisingly realisim. The bonus of the DVD's were rewarding to watch. Yes some patience is needed but I think that's down to other sci-fi movies that demand instant dramatic action once every ten minutes or less. This was quite refreshing.

[SputnikMovies]

I just imagined Michael Bay watching this film and laughed my arse off as I pictured his dumbstruck expression as he goes "Where's the explosions? Where's the hot chick bent over a car? Where's the casual racism?" Monster's is proof you do not need $300 million to make a good film.

[tomstardis]

I've just bought this on DVD and I thought that I was going to disagree with the good doctor but to be honest I completley agree. It was a different take on the alien threat. Good stuff

[jpa3333]

Monsters is one of the worst films i've seen. I knew what to expect but was still very disappointed.

[ThePsilocypher]

Isn't Italian Neorealism pretty much the most famous 'art' cinema? I'm just surprised Mayo hasn't heard of it before, in at least an ironic sense.

[MySpiderPal]

The review asks the question but completely sidesteps the issue. Could the film have been made the same without the Monsters. Well, yes.

This film is another example of what's happening in films and TV; making a soap opera more interesting by giving it a genre background. Fleeing through a monster inhabited landscape rather than any other environment, and calling it sci-fi to get extra bums down. Yes there's character, but no meat in the plot.

Mayo got it right: It just sounds really tedious

[MySpiderPal]

The review asks the question but completely sidesteps the issue. Could the film have been made the same without the Monsters. Well, yes.

This film is another example of what's happening in films and TV; making a soap opera more interesting by giving it a genre background. Fleeing through a monster inhabited landscape rather than any other environment, and calling it sci-fi to get extra bums down. Yes there's character, but no meat in the plot.

Mayo got it right: It just sounds really tedious

[mixmastermiddy]

The two main characters were dull, predictable and far from as original as the reviews make out, watched this film on a dull thursday afternoon and it did little to inspire.

[jhuan0]

I fucking loved this film.

Thought it did an amazing job at making a film featuring space aliens feel incredibly naturalistic and believable.

[trooperJac]

I found it dull with some sub friends plotting & weak ass dialogue pretending to be profound. A guy and girl who barely know each other have a few drinks and he attempts a lame seduction which she ignores...

"What are you doing"

"Waiting for a boat"

"No, What are you DOING?"

Bollocks, I didn't know where it was going, what it was trying to say or how!

[newtonswig]

Great film. Jurassic Park meets The Motorcycle Diaries, but in a good way.

[RAIDERS58th]

This may be off topic slightly but YOUTUBE really needs to put the comment and reply format back the way it was.

[emanboogie]

I'm glad mark kermode liked it

[Squemby]

'the bicycle thieves' wasn't expecting him to say that........naut

[welshfilmbuff]

Conversations like these between Mark and Simon are partly the reason I haven't listened to the show much in the past year. The essence of the reviews are getting lost amongst the "wittertainment".

[wankerishwanker]

@welshfilmbuff Guess the one "dislike" is from you then :-)

[welshfilmbuff]

@wankerishwanker

Yup... and I got no satisfaction out of it, either :-(

[SookMaDook1]

@drplbiftin Watch the video!

[kwisnothere]

"Italian Neo-realist".... he should of said Visconti's Ossessione... then we could of segued into Clara Calamai then into Profondo rosso... would of been a different discussion really...

i don't think i'll be catching Monsters as the inane american drivel dialogue has already put me off.

[fanboydee]

"Did you just make up a genre?"

oh god, i lol'd

[tobiosnmakky]

simon mayo is like a child in some clips, although he does keep things together

[PeteBlaggit]

Looking forward to seeing this.

[Filmzie]

After i saw this with my girlfriend she turned to me and said five words "Mike Leigh meets Roland Emerich"

[Kitsua]

I just watched this film and to be honest I was blown away. Haven't seen such a good film in a long time. This is the sort of movie that should be setting the standard as far as I'm concerned. Absolutely outstanding.

[bamigogy12345]

@Kitsua Well Said

[pypeworld]

It's a very good flick, but anyone expecting huge monster battles will be very disappointed. As other comments have stated this is more of a romance road movie featuring giant alien mutants.

[PurushaDesa]

Hah! That was great - Mark went all camp when he said "Italian neo-realist since we're doing all this".

[TheUltimoLee]

The most overated film of the year

[AdventChild93]

Don't be stupid and knock it because it's not a 'monster' film. This is an excellent social commentary on America's relief system and also contains a great romance/road movie. It's excellent and I really do urge you to see it.

[thekwizatshaderach]

@AdventChild93 at best its boring and at worst its a pretentious piece of shit.

[AdventChild93]

@thekwizatshaderach Again, wrong.

[thekwizatshaderach]

@AdventChild93 can you tell me why,but in the end i really think its subjective

[AdventChild93]

@thekwizatshaderach Of course, it's subjective, I'm just being an asshole. I thought it was an excellent film because it lacked over the top melodrama that is often in road films or monster films. In terms of the relationship between the characters, the actual sexual side of it takes a very backseat role which is something very rare these days. In terms of pacing, I thought unusual choice of timing certain events definitely showed the creativity of the director. [CONT.]

[thekwizatshaderach]

@AdventChild93 excellent reply,now my turn,i thought it was painfully slow,boring to an extreme.arty for the sake of it,pretentious,i thought it was actually quite dumb as well,it didnt come across to me as any kind of social commentary,also i didnt really care what happened to the charcters either,im not sure if that says something about the actors or the script,i mean there was not one memorable line or piece of dialogue.didnt even remember the whole dolphin dialogue that was in kermodes revie

[AdventChild93]

@thekwizatshaderach [...] The score was excellent, had a wonderful post-rock feel to it and the political analogy the film created was, yes fairly obvious, but smart enough and original enough that it definitely helped aid the fllm's purpose. 'it's different looking at america from the outside rather than the in'. I loved the set pieces and the fairly guerilla camera work. The ending was beautiful and I won't go into it because of spoilers.

[thekwizatshaderach]

@AdventChild93 will need to listen to the score again,so cant disagree on that one with you,the one thing i will agree with you on is that it was shot beautifully and for how much it cost the effects were quite good,but all in all i still thought it was a pretentious piece of shit

[thekwizatshaderach]

it was utter shit people,if you can do something more productive with your life i would advise you to do so

[AdventChild93]

@thekwizatshaderach nah, wrong.

[natmanprime]

@thekwizatshaderach you are the one honest guy it was a shit movie even as a relationship thing , that was boring

the monsters were unimaginative

the political mexican immigration message commentary thing was unintelligent

and there wasn't even any surprise about the monster because we see it on a tv at the beginning

people only praise it because it was good graphics done on the cheap

TEDIOUS SHIT MOVIE

[Frellyouall]

4:38 Mayo gets bored and shows off his i-Pad

[LePierre]

(pasolini)

[lordtufty]

BAANTERR!

[YellingInMyEar]

Ha! Loved the banter between the doctor and Mayo about neo-realist films. When he quesrtioned if that was a real genre or not I almost screamed!!

[Sapphonouveau]

The good doctor's being way too mean about Dr.Necessitor. That was one of Nicolas Cage's best roles, I thought...

[georginiou]

How many minutes of aliens are in this movie? I heard Jurassic Park has only 14 minutes of dinosaurs in it.

[RAIDERS58th]

This is the second review I've come across that's said that this movie is basically a romance with monsters in the background. I think I'll give it a miss for now and wait for it on sky movies. Shame. I was looking forward to it in much the same way I looked forward to seeing SKYLINE; a movie that was plain just dreadfull.

[natmanprime]

@RAIDERS58th very wise trust me youll be even more disappointed i saw both

even worse than skyline

[SookMaDook1]

Italian neo realism...did you just make up a genre!? classic

[chuckyd9]

@SookMaDook1 No. Watch 'Bicycle Thieves'

[SookMaDook1]

@chuckyd9 Watch the video... Simon Mayo says that to Kermode. Its a quote from the video. idiot.

[chuckyd9]

@SookMaDook1 umad? yeah he mad

[chuckyd9]

@SookMaDook1 Oh just actually watched the vid and he says 'Bicycle Thieves'. Another one is 'Rome: Open City'. Im studying it at the moment :D

[BlackMagnumFilms]

Another great review by the Doctor