Monster! Premiered on UPN (United Paramount Network) back in November 1999 and features a killer premise; the kind of thing that they should be remaking today. Travis Reeves (Tobias Mehler) returns to his hometown of New Purgatory so that his grandfather, Lloyd Reeves (M. Emmet Walsh), can be released into his care from a mental institution. Lloyd is a celebrated b-movie actor who gained fame in the Monster! Movie series of the 1950s, but everyone thinks he is nuts now because he claims the creatures are real. Turns out they are as every three years the town holds a film festival and the monster comes to life. Lloyd has been through the town hero routine 6 times and now it is time for Travis to take over the role. And he is just in time as the movie marathon begins the day he arrives back. This is fun stuff and the script by Ronnie Christensen pokes fun at the cliches of old horror and sci-fi movies, like Lloyd telling his grandson "movie laws" like: the cops will never believe him, the coroner will find logical explanations for deaths, a freak storm will shut the city down, and he'll have a girlfriend by the end of the night. It even explains why only Lloyd remembers these battles. Unfortunately, the execution isn't as great as it could have been. I always liked director John Lafia's work on Child's Play 2 and Man's Best Friend, but things are a little flat here. Oddly, he has the entire town gang acting like Eminem wannabes too and it is bad. And the monster being full blown CGI (1999 CGI!) doesn't help. He does make Australia (yes, that is where it was shot) look like small town USA though. The real pleasure in this one is seeing Walsh in a rare leading role. He has lots of fun with it. With no video release in the U. S. (I watched it on Youtube), it is the kind of thing a studio should be remaking as it has a really clever premise that could be improved upon.
