Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Monster

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 01-11-2004, 01:52 PM:

AMC Hamilton, 1/10, 4:35 PM matinee. Hall #18, attendance ~50-60. This film is starting its "Oscar Bait" release and AMC has a local exclusive.

What was the premise of Basic Instinct? Call girl seduces men and kills them with an ice pick. Change the call girl to a streetwalker and the ice pick to a .44. That's what Monster is like.

This film is loosely based on Aileen Wuornos, the hooker/serial killer who loved to off her johns. The first time she killed a man it was self-defense -- she was tied up and being raped with an iron bar when she found a .44 in her john's stash. From there she killed men to get thrills. Wuornos eventually got caught, was convicted in 1990 and executed 2 years ago.

Monster is intended to grab an Oscar for Charlize Theron, heretofore consider "Box Office Poison". The movie got made mainly because she's also one of the producers. Theron does the "play a sicko, win an Oscar" bit to the hilt. Not convincing at all! Christina Ricci, her lesbian chum, is more attractive and comes out the better.

If you're by yourself Monster is a decent way to pass the time. If you're with somebody you're better off seeing Calendar Girls.

Presentation: Image rock-solid with some random dirt -- and no CRAP Code! [Cool]

Sound was Dolby, easy to understand and not ear-shattering. Listen for "Crimson and Clover" on the soundtrack; the 60's stereo mix will stand out even if you have to play it in analog. On the end credits the projector cut off before "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey was finished.

Trailer pack was strange. The Passion of the Christ ran first; that trailer might be attached on the prints now going out. AMC also included Elephant (has come and gone already) and The Cooler (won't play in my area unless it gets Oscar nominations).

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 01-20-2004, 02:23 AM:

Just saw it.. It was pretty good. My friend commented that Charlize Theron should definitely deserve an Oscar for this role. He would be really pissed if she didn't.(He usually doesn't think ahead of time who should be nominated) To me the film was well done, some funny moments and very serious ones. I was surprised how much detail they made to make Charlize look like the actual person based on the film.

8/10

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-20-2004, 07:50 PM:

Basic Instinct was about a call girl? Um...not the one with Sharon Stone.

Having also seen the documentary "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer" I think Theron's portrayal was uncanny and well worthy of an Oscar nomination if not award and not just because of the makeup effects. Her performance is probably better than the film is overall, however. But still a very good movie.

Posted by Dennis M Dow Jr (Member # 1970) on 01-27-2004, 08:45 PM:

This movie is very strange..... Charlize Theron looked really bad.... Kinda like Jon Voight in Anaconda. Acting was excellent. Story was bizarre. 2outta 4 stars

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 01-30-2004, 04:11 AM:

I didn't get to finish this one but I saw the first 5.5 reels.

Yeah Charlize Theron is hideous, you might want to bring sunglasses or mabe one of those eclipse viewing boxes.

I'm kinda getting tired of seeing Christina Ricci as a Lesbo, well, with her clothes on that is.

The story seemed pretty dumb to me, but I cant fully say since I did not see the ending. I don't see what was so great about Carlize Theron's acting. She just seemed like a female Billy Bob to me.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 02-05-2004, 08:31 PM:

Man...

Where to begin... I liked it. Then again, I rarely see a movie based on a true story that I don't like. Aileen Wornous was a very, very mentally ill person. Somewhere around teh time she had killed her third John, I almost felt sorry for the woman. I dare say that not ONE person who reads this review could EVER imagine the things that Aileen would have witnessed as a child. Her father was a scumbag, as was the old fart who raped her. It's a viscous cycle whereby she was caught up with not outlet for help of any kind. The cycle took it's toll in the fact that she turned out to be such a cold blooded killer. Some of the guys were real pieces of shit, but none of them deserved to die. I can't see where Selby was so infatuated with Aileen, but low self esteem will do very strange things to a person's overall mental stability.

As everyone already knows, Theron looked ROUGH in this role. She played it WELL. I agree with others who mention an Oscar worthy role. I mean, if Halle Berry can get one for an orgasm.. [Roll Eyes]

I don't consider this a 'mainstream' film, and as such, I don't have really high expectations for it's gross here in my area. I will recommend it as I did like the film.

Overall, 4 outta 5.

Tonight was a good night.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 02-09-2004, 01:08 AM:

I liked the movie. If you go in expecting an accurate account, you will just set yourself up to get mad at the way they take for granted some of Aileen's claims. If you want a faithful retelling of the Aileen Wuornos story, I would check out the web or watch the documentaries, one of which just came out.

OK, on to the movie. Charles, I don't how you would consider Theron box office poison. She does not draw in a crowd opening weekend, but she has no negative effect on the Box Office of her movies either. Charlize Theron does an excellent jobn- if at times, a bit too showy, such as the mirror scene. In some scenes, the teeth kind of make you all too aware that this is Charlize going for the Oscar. Realism was already compromised anyway when they cast Ricci as the lover. The real love had a different name, looked like a man(supposedly like the real Aileen's dad), and did not look like small cutish tomboy. Also the real Wournos did have pretty harsh circumstances(she was just a couple of steps from being raised as a feral kid in the wild) that could explain her transformation to serial killer, but the johns were not the main reason. The movie really seems to put the emphasis on the latter part of her life which is unfair to the victims.

Theron makes us empathize with the character and that's why I wish they did not use the Based on True Story tag. As a movie, Theron's character will stay with you after you leave the movie. They should have just taken the basic premise and ran with some interesting areas to explore even if it meant changing the events totally at times - like the evolving relationship between Ricci and Theron and how amoral the character played by Ricci was. They should have also shown Aileen as more ruthless and then show the childhood circumstances which pretty much made her like a wild animal in terms of survival instincts which would explain the reason why it would not have been obvious to her that what she was doing to these victims was wrong on such a horrific level.
In real life, she was raped by her dad(I think) and lived a winter out in the forest before she even hit her teens. That is brutal. No need to give more credence to the "clients as potential rapists" theory.

After seeing this movie, whenever you hear the Journey song Don't Stop Believing, all you will remember is the rollerskating scene.

Great makeup job for such a low budget movie. There were many closeups of Theron and I didn't find one of them unrealistic.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 02-10-2004, 07:56 AM:

Yesterday, Court TV had a replay of the original trial as well as interviews with the Producer and clips from the film.

It was very interesting...and disturbing.

It's also on today...

>>> Phil