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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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03.08.04
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I'm always somewhat leery about anything produced by MTV (or Empty TV, as I call it) but MONSTER ISLAND was a surprisingly entertaining spoof/homage to those giant monster movies of the 50's and 60's.The movie starts off with a crowd of teenagers at a Carmen Electra (!) concert that's being held on a tropical island in the Bermuda Triangle. But before she finishes her first number, 'Jungle Fever', she's carried off by a twenty-foot long giant ant, which takes her to its lair.A guy infatuated with her decides to try to save her-and he's accompanied by a group of his friends, which includes his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. They trek through the jungle and encounter giant praying Mantises. Then it's a Creature from the Black Lagoon-like creature which kills the cameraman. As soon as they escape, though, they run into a mad scientist (Adam West) named Harry Hausen, who explains how the mutations came to be, which because of nuclear bomb testing in the surrounding waters in the 1960's.The group eventually finds Carmen Electra atop a mountain, which turns out to be a huge ant-hill. Only a few of the giant ants are alive and they are using the island's natives as slave labor. They captured Electra so that she could entertain them all with her music.There's a battle with the giant ants, the mad-scientist saves the day and the heroic group of kids escape just before the island is supposed to sink into the ocean.The name MONSTER ISLAND makes me think of that one in the old Godzilla movies-and in SON OF GODZILLA there are these giant praying mantises and a giant spider, creatures which are also in this movie. The special effects are a bit cheesy and utilize stop-motion-animation, which works well. There's even a scene with a bulldozer fighting a giant insect that's exactly like that one scene in DINOSAURUS.This is a fun, no-brainer movie.
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Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0 - 1 vote cast total
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