DeuceWild_77 George A. Romero's first big studio film (from Orion Pictures), shows a more restrained direction from the man who brought us such horror cult movies as "Night of the Living Dead" ('68) or "Day of the Dead" ('85), "Monkey Shines", based on the novel by Michael Stewart, is an atmospheric suspense / thriller flick, intriguing & captivating to follow, creatively directed & photographed with some interesting camera angles and well-staged scenes giving a sense of eerie and paranoia.Jason Beghe (who looked a lot like Ed Harris) stars as Allan Mann, a handsome and healthy young athlete that becomes paralyzed after an accident, losing in the process his girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner) who can't handle Allan's new special condition. After a failed attempt to commit suicide, Allan is convinced by his best friend, Geoffrey (John Pankow), an unorthodox scientist, to adopt a monkey, named Ella, as a helper. This newly-acquired relationship gives Allan a new hope in life, both sharing everything together and facilitating his day-to-day, but soon their interaction will take an unexpected sinister turn... Beghe and Pankow are both good (especially Pankow who looks and acts like he was sleepless for the entire shoot), but all the glory goes to the little monkey Boo playing Ella with special kudos for his personal trainer and the camera tricks & movie magic techniques which turned the innocent and cute animal into a vicious stalker turned sadistic killer on-screen. His close-ups and interaction with the human actors are amazing and a must-see. Lower points are that the studio toned down the violence and cut some sub-plots' resolutions, trimming the picture in the cutting room floor and some scenes doesn't even make sense (suddenly the action jumps from Allan's home to a farm miles away without explanation). Romero's fans felt disappointed when this movie came out, because of the lack of horror, gore and violence, but it shows another side of the Master of Horror, that he can handle storytelling and delivered a picture, that besides its flaws, denotes a deep respect for the quadriplegic (the sex scene between Allan and Melanie Parker, Ella's trainer, was meaningful and poignant) and at the same time, keeps the viewer glued to the screen involved in this unsettling, spine-chilling & nightmarish tale of a disturbed attraction...

gwnightscream Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil and Joyce Van Patten star in George Romero's 1988 sci-fi/horror film based on the novel. This focuses on former athlete, Allan (Beghe) who gets paralyzed in an auto accident. Soon, his scientist friend, Geoffrey (Pankow) decides to give him an experimental monkey, Ella to help him recover. Allan and Ella bond immediately, but Allan starts having a telepathic link with her causing behavioral changes and Ella becomes dangerous. McNeil (The House on Sorority Row) plays Melanie, an animal specialist who finds romance with Allan and Van Patten plays Allan's overbearing mother, Dorothy. This is a pretty good 80's sci-fi/horror flick with a decent cast and great make-up effects by Tom Savini as usual. I recommend this.

Scott LeBrun While this will likely never be considered one of filmmaker George Romero's best, it still represents a commendable effort in one of his rare forays into studio productions (in this case Orion). Scripted by Romero based on a novel by Michael Stewart, it tells the story of Allan Mann (handsome Jason Beghe), a law student who gets into a horrible accident that renders him a quadriplegic. He soon becomes despondent enough to attempt suicide, but soon he receives some temporary salvation in the form of Ella (Boo), a capuchin monkey who is trained to see to his needs. What he doesn't know is that his friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) has been playing mad scientist and injecting the cute lil' thing with human brain cells. Soon the bond between patient and helper becomes so strong that a mental connection is made, and Ella is physically acting out Allan's worst impulses. So what is he going to do about this little homicidal primate? Romero does a good job here at telling a fairly interesting story, although some viewers might be turned off at the lack of sympathetic characters. Most of them are flawed to some degree or another - creepy dean Burbage (Stephen Root), smarmy, incompetent doctor Wiseman (Stanley Tucci), fair-weather girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner), bitchy nurse Maryanne (Christine Forrest, a.k.a. Mrs. Romero) - and even a guy like Geoffrey, who initially just wants to help, has his problems as he's obsessed with his work. At least Allan has an appealing love interest played by Kate McNeil, whom horror fans will recognize as the lead in the slasher "The House on Sorority Row". The cast is pretty good overall; Joyce Van Patten plays the stereotypically smothering mother to good effect, and it's a treat to see character actors Root and Tucci near the beginnings of their careers, but the one performer the audience is likely to remember is Boo, who's adorable and very well trained; the animal action is first rate throughout (there's also a rather annoying bird on hand). The evolving relationship between Allan and Ella makes for a compelling hook, and it makes one appreciate the real-life efforts that people put into training service animals, and the animals themselves. The film is light on horror - most of the violence is implied - as Romero tends to go for a more psychological approach, and refrains from going for the gore. Overall, this is a decent flick, worth a look for genre fans who are interested in checking out Romero's non-zombie films. Seven out of 10.

kirk-246 At of all of his movies besides 'Monkey Shines', the only films from George A. Romero that I have seen were 'Land of the Dead' and 'Diary of the Dead'.I thought that those two movies were really good, and I can't say that this one was a contender, but it certainly was a success.You might be asking yourself why Mr. Romero didn't make a zombie movie and decided to make a movie about a killer monkey instead.I honestly thought it was weird at first, but the movie didn't turn out to be half bad.The movie itself won 7 awards and 3 of them went to Romero.So don't just look at the cover of the movie and think that a nice director like Romero shouldn't have wasted his time by making a movie about a monkey instead of zombies.Instead, watch the movie and at least try to take the movie for what it is.After all, it's nice to see George return with something totally different than flesh-eating zombies.