Monsters (2010)

I cannot review this film without quoting somebody on Netfix:

"If you like movies about good-looking people having trouble making travel arrangements, then this is the film for you! But if you were hoping that Monsters would be about something else - like, oh I dunno, MONSTERS? - then youd better keep looking. Seriously, its 90 minutes of two people sitting on a train, sitting on a boat, sitting in a car, walking in the woods, and making the occasional telephone call. To the extent that the eponymous monsters do show up, alls I can say is that Ive seen scarier aliens in an episode of Alf. "

The trouble with this comment is that it expects the movie to be something it isn't, while ignoring what it is.  Monsters is a movie about 2 strangers, who might be right for each other, struggling to get home while traveling across what is essentially a war zone.  The fact that the war zone is occupied by rarely seen extra-terrestrials is besides the point.   The film creates a crafty suspense that turns the movie into something well worth experiencing.  I am very glad that I saw it.

The fact that a movie of this quality was made on such a low budget is amazing.   The entire crew consisted of only 7 people, including the two main actors, who drove around central America in just one van.  There are many extras in the film, but these are just people they met along the way who they convinced to be in the movie.  Sure, the low budget does show occasionally, but for the most part the movie feels like a much more expensive film.

Roger Ebert agrees.


Rating: B+

Spoilers below ...

From: Robert

I watched it last evening.  I liked it a lot.   It’s very suspenseful.  I like when they don’t show the monster because that builds the anticipation.  I wasn’t planning on finishing it all in one evening.  But I did anyways because I had to see how it ended.

I didn’t like what I learned about the opening scene though.  In the commentary they make it clear that the opening scene is actually the very end of the movie.  I wanted a happy ending where the girl and the guy make it home and they live happily ever after.  They don’t dwell on it too much and it’s not that obvious.