Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

This movie was very disappointing for me and others at the Halloween party I went to.

It finishes in a strong style that pays homage well to 80s horror movies.

The build up is much too slow for it to be a very fun ride, and I don't see how a movie like this can be anything else. I am a big fan of the 80s horror classics, and this just builds the momentum too late for it to be a classic.

Looking at the cover art for this DVD, you might expect a movie chock full of monster killing action and adventure. Such is not the case. We get a little monster action at the beginning, and finally a bit more in the last 15 minutes, but in between we've got nothing but the dull life of Jack Brooks. For a main character, Jack isn't particularly likable. In fact, throughout the whole movie I thought he looked like he could use a bath. He visits his psychiatrist about 4 times for help with his anger management issues. The psychiatrist is pretty lousy at his job, offering touch-feely solutions which Jack will have no part of. I guess this stuff was supposed to be funny, but the highest compliment I can give it is that it wasn't actually tiresome. But funny? No, not really. Jack also attends a chemistry class in the evening. Robert Englund is the "professor", though from the material being studied it's more like a remedial high school class. Englund owns a big old house and is having trouble with his plumbing. Being a plumber, Jack goes over to fix the problem, but it turns out he's a pretty lousy plumber and only ends up pressurizing some pipe which releases some gas; an evil gas. This causes Englund to dig up some crate buried in his yard, which contains some evil black heart which jumps into his body and slowly - very slowly - takes over his body.

You know there's some monster action coming, but before it arrives we get yet more "funny" stuff. Englund comes to class in mid transformation. The students assume he's drunk. Jack has a little fight with his girlfriend. I think another visit to the psychiatrist is in order as well. Finally we get some cheesy monster action at the end. It's not bad, fairly fun actually. But the wait was entirely too long.

You know what this movie needed? T&A. That would have helped a whole lot. Overall, I was expecting a real adventure, but instead got a Shaun of the Dead style thing. I didn't find that movie the least bit funny either - in fact I turned it off halfway through because I was bored out of my skull. This one wasn't quite that bad, but I can only give it 2 out of 5 stars.

This was another film recommended to me by my brother, who absolutely loves horror films of all kinds and evidently of all qualities. I've heard that Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is good because its hero has shades of Ash, the hilariously heroic protagonist of The Evil Dead films. The film wants so badly for its hero to have that reputation and cult film iconic status, but despite the fact that the film has slight tinges of that, more specifically during the film's opening and conclusion, it just doesn't come close and it fails even more in my eyes for trying so hard. Although I do give credit to the filmmakers for having Jack be an ill-tempered underdog loser that finds his niche while destroying big stupid looking monsters. However, in the process of offering up a fairly unique personality, it also makes the character completely unappealing to me, to the point where I would want to see him die violently at the hands of co-star Robert England's iconic villain Freddy Kruger. Fortunately for Jack, he faced a really pathetic Robert Englund villain that reminded of the monsters from the Troll movies. If you identify with the character Jack Brooks and find yourself enjoying other gory horror/comedies, then this might be just the film for you. I nearly hated this.

As a boy Jack Brooks saw his family torn to shreds by some kind dog-like humanoid. As an adult he is a plumber who is nearly insane with rage. There are confusing scenes where Jack is taking night classes and has several therapy sessions. His night class teacher played by Robert Englund, needs some plumbing work done and Jack comes over to help. Together they inexplicably unleash some kind of force of monsters and the fun ensues.

I was actually pretty bored watching this. Something about the sticky and silly gore coupled with Jack just being a character I didn't want to root for, made me completely disinterested. I don't want to criticize the first hour for being slow because although it was slower than it needed to be, there was some effort to establish characters and pace. Still, Jack may not be likeable for me but he is richer than your average character in a film like this and if I'm being honest, the actor Trevor Matthews does a pretty decent job. Furthermore on the positive side, it does have some fun moments, in fact towards the end it has more fun moments than boring moments but fun and stupid are mostly the same thing here, so take that for what it is.

Alas, I never received this item, but would love to review it. At that time I will certainly change this one. I did need to remove the item from my list somehow.

On a family camping trip with Dad, Mom and younger sister, tween, Jack Brooks witnesses the brutal murder of his family. Now an anger-ridden twentysomething plumber, Jack struggles daily with an annoying as hell girlfriend, anger management therapy sessions that never resolve a thing, and a forced by his girlfriend biology night class that barely holds his interest. However, his biology teacher is none other than Professor Crowley (Robert Englund)who has just purchased an old house that is in need of a little "plumber's helper". A box is dug up along with a beating heart, an ancient curse is released and then mayhem ensues.

Newcomer Trevor Matthews packs a punch as the lead Jack Brooks. Having only 3 other film credits to his name, Trevor is a natural actor, plays a great hero and hopefully will have many more opportunities to shine like he did in this film. If you liked "Shaun Of The Dead", "The Evil Dead", "Dead Alive" or any of the other horror/comedy zombie films, you will enjoy "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer".

Look for a soon to be released sequel coming to a DVD store near you.

Unpleasant Dreams...