Monster Island starts in San Francisco where the richest man in America William T. Kolderup (Peter Cushing) has just brought an island in an auction, meanwhile his daughter Meg's (Ana Obregon) fiancé Jeff (Ian Sera) says that he wants to travel the world to find adventure & leave her behind, for a while. So, along with his bumbling teacher Thomas Artelect (David Hatton) Jeff sets sail to, well whatever he plans to do. However events take a turn for the worse when the ship they are sailing in is attacked by sea creatures & is sunk, both Jeff & Thomas end up washed ashore a mysterious island where they have to fend for themselves. The local perils include monsters, dinosaurs, erupting volcanoes, native cannibals & a bunch of mean pirates who want to get they're grubby filthy little hands on the islands underground deposits of gold...
This Spanish American co-production was co-written, produced & directed by Juan Piquer Simon & is a really, really bad film. The script by Simon, Ron Grantman & Joaquin Grau was apparently based upon the novel Mysterious Island by Jules Verne which it never at any point resembles apart from the fact that there's an island in both stories. Where to start? I think Monster Island is a film that needs to be seen to have any idea just how embarrassingly bad it is. Right lets start with the stupid comic & slapstick tone & nature of the thing, it's all so childish & frankly silly that it isn't exciting in the slightest. Some of the stuff in this has to be seen to be believed, a home made tommy gun which fires bananas at the bad guys! There are comedy fight scenes, some terrible looking monsters & they even throw in a 'cute' animal sidekick which seems to have more intelligence than any of the human character's. Which brings me nicely to Thomas Artelect, yes it's true he is quite possibly the most annoying character ever committed to the silver screen. Talk about getting on your nerves, I think I'd rather have my teeth pulled out with pliers than have to put up with this buffoon anymore. I'd have thrown him into the volcano... Then there's the lame so-called twist ending which I figured out within twenty minutes, the stupid plot hole in which William could never have known or guaranteed Jeff & Thomas would have been washed ashore his island I mean what if they had drowned in the sea? What would he have said to his daughter Meg? Would he have said 'sorry love but my plan went wrong & now your fiancé is dead at the bottom of the ocean'? Well would he? The bad guys are dumb enough to be defeated by some bananas & coconuts & unless your under five your simply going to think it's the most stupid thing you've ever seen & quite possibly it is. This ones a bit of a stinker although it moves along at a fair pace & is harmless enough but, well, it's bad & there's no two ways about it.
Director Simon has no talent & Monster Island proves it, there's no style, no excitement, it's incredibly badly made with a really cheap & nasty look & feel to it throughout & it's just so predictable. He throws in that awful twist ending & five minutes later everyone is walking off into the sunset like nothing ever happened, the whole film is badly thought out, poorly written & contains some of the worst monster effects ever. From awful giant caterpillars to a dinosaur that looks like it was made from wool. Jurassic Park (1992) this ain't! Lets not forget the seaweed people who are obviously just poor actors with seaweed placed over them, at least their faces are covered to spare any more embarrassment.
I'm not sure what sort of budget this had, probably not huge. Monster Island is pretty inept from start to finish, again anyone under five is going to have a hard time sitting through this one to the end. I have to mention the music as the main theme tune which gets used repeatedly is annoying as hell, I hated it & it along with many other aspects of Monster Island grated my nerves. I'm sure fine actors like both Peter Cushing or Terence Stamp wouldn't boast about being in this & despite their top billing on the credits each only has about five or tens minutes worth of screen time, luckily for them. I have to mention David Hatton as Thomas, along with the character being horrible his performance is truly dire, I don't know what else to say I really don't.
Monster Island, also known as Mystery on Monster Island, is a terrible film & it's as simple & straight forward as that. This is a film which insults the intelligence of adults & kids alike, probably safe to give this one a miss.
This Spanish American co-production was co-written, produced & directed by Juan Piquer Simon & is a really, really bad film. The script by Simon, Ron Grantman & Joaquin Grau was apparently based upon the novel Mysterious Island by Jules Verne which it never at any point resembles apart from the fact that there's an island in both stories. Where to start? I think Monster Island is a film that needs to be seen to have any idea just how embarrassingly bad it is. Right lets start with the stupid comic & slapstick tone & nature of the thing, it's all so childish & frankly silly that it isn't exciting in the slightest. Some of the stuff in this has to be seen to be believed, a home made tommy gun which fires bananas at the bad guys! There are comedy fight scenes, some terrible looking monsters & they even throw in a 'cute' animal sidekick which seems to have more intelligence than any of the human character's. Which brings me nicely to Thomas Artelect, yes it's true he is quite possibly the most annoying character ever committed to the silver screen. Talk about getting on your nerves, I think I'd rather have my teeth pulled out with pliers than have to put up with this buffoon anymore. I'd have thrown him into the volcano... Then there's the lame so-called twist ending which I figured out within twenty minutes, the stupid plot hole in which William could never have known or guaranteed Jeff & Thomas would have been washed ashore his island I mean what if they had drowned in the sea? What would he have said to his daughter Meg? Would he have said 'sorry love but my plan went wrong & now your fiancé is dead at the bottom of the ocean'? Well would he? The bad guys are dumb enough to be defeated by some bananas & coconuts & unless your under five your simply going to think it's the most stupid thing you've ever seen & quite possibly it is. This ones a bit of a stinker although it moves along at a fair pace & is harmless enough but, well, it's bad & there's no two ways about it.
Director Simon has no talent & Monster Island proves it, there's no style, no excitement, it's incredibly badly made with a really cheap & nasty look & feel to it throughout & it's just so predictable. He throws in that awful twist ending & five minutes later everyone is walking off into the sunset like nothing ever happened, the whole film is badly thought out, poorly written & contains some of the worst monster effects ever. From awful giant caterpillars to a dinosaur that looks like it was made from wool. Jurassic Park (1992) this ain't! Lets not forget the seaweed people who are obviously just poor actors with seaweed placed over them, at least their faces are covered to spare any more embarrassment.
I'm not sure what sort of budget this had, probably not huge. Monster Island is pretty inept from start to finish, again anyone under five is going to have a hard time sitting through this one to the end. I have to mention the music as the main theme tune which gets used repeatedly is annoying as hell, I hated it & it along with many other aspects of Monster Island grated my nerves. I'm sure fine actors like both Peter Cushing or Terence Stamp wouldn't boast about being in this & despite their top billing on the credits each only has about five or tens minutes worth of screen time, luckily for them. I have to mention David Hatton as Thomas, along with the character being horrible his performance is truly dire, I don't know what else to say I really don't.
Monster Island, also known as Mystery on Monster Island, is a terrible film & it's as simple & straight forward as that. This is a film which insults the intelligence of adults & kids alike, probably safe to give this one a miss.