Latest / The K.B. Radio Network / 2025 Halloween Special Part 2 - Universal Monster Movies/The Monster Squad (1987) Movie Review

Transcript

2025 Halloween Special Part 2 - Universal Monster Movies/The Monster Squad (1987) Movie Review · The K.B. Radio Network

0:11
hello everyone and welcome to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this ladies and gentlemen is part two of our 2025 halloween's
0:30
special uh in case you missed part one which i implore you to go back and listen to part one where we went over found footage films in horror i decided that we were going to discuss four different sub genres in horror uh this
0:48
month the month of october which is pretty much halloween month.
0:53
I know Halloween is at the very last day of October,
0:57
but it just...
1:00
Something about October just is all horror,
1:03
you know,
1:04
you have certain movie stations on television that do marathons all through the month,
1:12
you know,
1:12
it's just a it's just something about it,
1:15
you know,
1:15
people decorate their house,
1:16
at least they do down here,
1:18
decorate their house with Halloween stuff.
1:21
It is a whole thing and it lasts the entire month.
1:26
And so
1:27
I said,
1:27
you know what,
1:28
we're going to dive in.
1:29
to horror one of my favorite genres of film i just love horror and this episode part two of our special we're gonna go all the way back all the way back to
1:45
i guess some may say where it all started and that is the universal classic monster movies where they covered dr jekyll and Mr.
1:55
Hyde,
1:56
uh,
1:57
Dracula,
1:58
um,
1:59
um.
1:59
Frankenstein's monster,
2:00
the mummy,
2:01
the invisible man,
2:03
the Phantom of the Opera is even one of them.
2:06
You know,
2:06
the wolf man and the creature from the Black Lagoon.
2:10
You know,
2:10
all of those classic horror films that you probably weren't old enough to watch when they all came out.
2:19
I seriously doubt it.
2:21
But if you were old enough,
2:23
welcome to the welcome to the show,
2:25
youngsters.
2:27
but if
2:28
If you are like me,
2:30
you probably caught them on reruns,
2:32
you caught them on,
2:32
uh,
2:33
what is that,
2:34
uh,
2:34
TM,
2:35
T,
2:35
uh,
2:36
TCM,
2:37
you know,
2:37
Turner Classic Movies or something like that.
2:40
You saw these old films,
2:43
you know,
2:44
in black and white,
2:46
and saw the remakes of these movies and kind of piqued your interest,
2:51
whereas you went back and watched the originals,
2:54
and...
2:55
It's just something about these movies that have stood the test of time,
2:59
that make these films still cultural icons,
3:05
something that is magical about those films that people are still trying to capture today,
3:11
filmmakers and studios.
3:13
They're still trying to get lightning in a bottle by remaking or retelling or,
3:20
you know,
3:21
giving their spin.
3:22
on these classic monsters and we're going to go over the history of the universal classic monsters and of course since this is movie goodness we have a review at the end of this film no we're not going to review
3:39
any of the classic films from back in the day because i have a film that covers all of these classic well most of them and it's a film that i
3:50
finally remember watching when i was a young type and that is none other than the 1987 film the monster squad yeah we're gonna wish if you ever seen the monster squad don't really fit the
4:07
tone of these movies but it you have drackler in that film you have uh the creature from the black lagoon well wolf man you have a frankenstein's monster in that movie
4:20
It covered most of the Universal monsters,
4:26
even though that film was not released under Universal Pictures.
4:30
That film was released on TriStar,
4:33
I believe.
4:34
And so it's weird in that sense,
4:38
but these characters are public domain.
4:41
So any studio can make a Dracula movie or,
4:46
you know,
4:47
a Frankenstein film.
4:48
And.
4:49
This kind of fits because this week,
4:53
Guillermo del Toro has a Frankenstein movie coming out on Netflix.
4:59
even though this week is being released in theaters and it won't come out on netflix until next week i believe but either way it goes i'm excited to see uh this version of frankenstein you know if
5:14
anybody can step up and remake this classic monster movie it has to be galermo del toro he was born for this i'm excited for it even though i've heard some reviews
5:28
of critics who said it's not great but that's fine that's fine i'm still gonna watch it still gonna still going to uh dive in like it's it's gonna be the greatest thing on earth hopefully i don't set my expectations too high but
5:45
let's begin by going over the history of the universal classic monsters and now this little sub-genre if you will uh
5:57
They consist of different horror characters or creatures that originated from novels.
6:04
These weren't original creatures created for film.
6:09
These were based off of novels or some different form of media from way back then when film and television wasn't even thought of.
6:20
So you had to get all of your entertainment through books and novels and,
6:25
you know...
6:27
newspapers and stuff of that nature.
6:30
And some of those characters were,
6:33
just as I covered,
6:34
Dr.
6:34
Jekyll,
6:34
Mr.
6:35
Hyde,
6:35
the Phantom of the Opera,
6:36
Count Dracula,
6:38
Frankenstein's monster,
6:41
the mummy,
6:43
and the invisible man.
6:45
Now,
6:46
the only originals,
6:48
not the only originals,
6:50
that were made exclusively,
6:52
well,
6:52
I shouldn't say exclusively,
6:54
but made just for the...
6:55
film aspect of it all was the wolfman that was not based on any uh literature this this was made just for film and also the creature from the black lagoon those two characters were created just for the
7:13
films and so the rest came straight out of a different piece of media the original series began in 19...
7:25
13th with the release of dr jekyll and mr hyde and that original series ended in 1956 with the creature walks among us while the early installments were initially created as standalone films based on novels their
7:44
financial and critical success resulted in various crossovers released between these monsters as well as other properties such as albert and carsten
7:55
Costello,
7:56
the famed comedic duo who made films back around that time,
8:02
they had a crossover,
8:04
well,
8:04
a few of them,
8:05
actually,
8:06
along with others.
8:07
I think even the Three Stooges had some crossovers with these monsters as well.
8:14
But that's due to the popularity of them all.
8:18
Diving a little further into the history of these films,
8:21
Universal,
8:22
early...
8:23
horror films were adapted of works of familiar authors and texts to give the films a prestigious appeal you know that's like today slapping a director's name on a title or uh you know above the title or you know things of that nature even the star of the film if he's popular if he's a movie star like a tom cruise or something like that that
8:47
just draws people to the films a little bit more,
8:51
you know,
8:52
so.
8:53
These included the 1931 Dracula,
8:57
whose success led to the production of other works such as
9:01
Frankenstein, which came out that same year.
9:04
Frankenstein's ending was changed by the studio head at the time who wanted Universal to be able to develop to develop key characters into spinoffs.
9:16
At least that's what we call them today.
9:19
You know,
9:19
the spin off other characters.
9:21
from that production following the release of the other universal films such as the mummy which came out in
9:29
1932 uh the invisible man that came out the following year in 1933 and the bride of frankenstein in 1935 there was a dry spell of horror films universal only returned to the style following the successful re-release
9:49
of Dracula and...
9:50
Frankenstein,
9:52
the renewal interest in horror films led to new works.
9:57
starting with
9:58
Son of Frankenstein in 1939.
10:02
Universal would only introduce a few new monsters in the
10:07
1940s which the most famous being the totally original
10:13
Wolfman and the Wolfman that came out in 1941.
10:18
The decade of Universal's horror output includes many remakes and sequels
10:25
With films often directly reusing old sets,
10:29
even footage and narratives to replicate moments from their earlier horror productions.
10:37
Now,
10:37
before we had an MCU,
10:39
before we had a DCU,
10:42
when they had all of these crossover films and whatnot,
10:45
back in the
10:47
1940s and 50s,
10:49
Universals had the bright idea to have a...
10:53
Cinematic Universe.
10:55
And so,
10:56
they began doing these cross films such as
10:59
Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman in 1943,
11:04
House of Frankenstein in 1944,
11:06
House of Dracula in 1945,
11:09
and Albert and Costello
11:11
Meet Frankenstein in 1948.
11:14
In these films,
11:15
the monsters from the studio's earlier films teamed up against a variety of characters.
11:24
Now,
11:24
it was suggested that
11:26
Universal Classic Monster films exist as a loose mashup,
11:31
which allowed Dracula to exist,
11:34
but be watched separately from Frankenstein,
11:37
but also allowing the characters to systematically be brought together and developed in other films and media.
11:48
These productions were often crossovers and sequels.
11:53
such as,
11:54
you know,
11:54
Frankenstein meets the Wolfman,
11:56
the House of Frankenstein,
11:57
the House of Dracula,
11:59
and so on and so forth.
12:01
These meetings started with Albert and Costello meets
12:05
Frankenstein and ended with Albert and Costello meet the Mummy in 1955.
12:12
The idea from Universal was that their films contained a world that were potentially all monsters made real.
12:22
you know that this is a world where this is a thing that dracula and uh the mummy and the wolf man and frankenstein's monster all of them were here you know they were it's it's the norm you know and so the sole new monster films uh that universal produced in the
12:42
1950s uh that was the Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1954 and The Mummy in 1959,
12:51
the latter.
12:52
as a co-production with the British
12:55
Hammer Film Production.
12:57
If you know anything about the Hammer films,
13:00
a lot of great horror films came out of that studio as well.
13:05
Now,
13:05
towards the
13:06
1960s, the Universal Monsters grew beyond film and became more widespread.
13:12
Initially,
13:13
this began in 1957 when Universal struck a
13:17
10-year television deal which green gems to distribute.
13:22
52 of their own titles these television screenings and films being included on uh male just males matinee movie from 1958 to 1979 which is a was
13:40
a very popular uh television show i wasn't around actually it stopped the year i was born so i never got to see it but uh someone who did get to see it
13:52
was
13:53
Stephen Summers and he became a director in Hollywood and he directed a film that we may know and that was the remake to the mummy uh he what what year that was 1999 I think that movie came out and
14:10
he stated that he was introduced to those films through that program do males met uh marquee movie.
14:20
He used to watch that program.
14:21
So if it wasn't for that,
14:24
he never would have been inspired to make that remake.
14:29
To some's delight and some people not so much.
14:33
But there's neither here nor there.
14:36
Universal became part of.
14:38
MCA in 1962.
14:41
MCA is the
14:43
Music Corporation of America.
14:45
They merged in 1962.
14:46
By 1964,
14:50
Universal Studios tours would eventually include appearances from Frankenstein's Monster.
14:57
Several products based on the characters from Universal film series was released,
15:03
ranging from plastic model kits,
15:06
Halloween masks.
15:07
figures,
15:08
plush dolls,
15:09
toys,
15:10
drinking glasses,
15:11
coloring books,
15:12
postal stamps.
15:15
They started pushing them out like crazy back in the
15:21
60s. While some of these objects barely resembled the actors who portrayed them on film and television,
15:30
others were more generic interpretations.
15:35
Other mediums?
15:36
Featuring the Universal Monsters in tandem was the 1962 smash hit the monster monster mash which still to this day is played on a radio around Halloween.
15:50
I still hear that song and it's it is based off of the Universal Monster films and you had the TV show the monsters that came out in 1964 which was based on the likeness.
16:05
of the Universal monster characters.
16:08
In 1990,
16:10
Universal was part of a merger between
16:13
Panasonic and several other corporations.
16:17
Between 1991 and 1994,
16:21
Universal released
16:23
VHS, yes VHS people,
16:26
home video editions of their horror films.
16:31
This was the first time these films were packaged together
16:35
as the classic monster line,
16:37
accompanied with a newly designed logo.
16:41
Prior to its home video series,
16:43
the
16:44
Universal films were featured.
16:46
Multiple monsters were called
16:48
Super Shockers or
16:50
Monster Rallies.
16:52
I don't know the basis behind those names,
16:55
but,
16:56
you know,
16:56
I guess if I grew up in that era,
16:58
I probably would understand it more.
17:01
In the
17:02
1990s,
17:03
we also saw a trend in the merchandising of universal monster material as part of a trend of of a decade of recycling and reinventing old material from the past this led to release of the aforementioned stephen
17:21
summers the mummy in 1999 and a monster rally style film van helsing
17:29
in 2004 also directed by uh stephen summers i like the mummy didn't too much care for van helsing van helsing came in close to being reviewed today because it it too also featured all
17:46
of the uh classic monsters and it is a universal film but i just could not bring myself to do it i couldn't do it and that's not to say that monster squad is any better
17:59
of a film but it's just something i'll never get that opportunity to uh review that movie that so i chose that one but uh merchandising of the characters in formats such as clothing and board games have continued into
18:17
the
18:18
21st century the franchise has featured a dark universe portion of universal orlando theme park and the universal
18:28
epic universe which opened just a couple of months ago on may the 22nd 2025 beginning i've been in universal studios a couple of times and i i unfortunately i haven't been there around
18:45
halloween time because i always wanted to go to horror nights you know but i never got around to doing it one of these octobers i'm going to make my way to the universal studios man i gotta But...
18:58
I got to partake in all of that goodness.
19:02
So back in October of 2013,
19:05
Universal,
19:07
they had hired two screenwriters,
19:09
Roberto Orche,
19:11
who tragically passed away just a few months ago,
19:14
and Alex Kirchman.
19:16
They're known for making some or writing some pretty decent.
19:20
I think they did a couple of the Transformers.
19:25
I know they wrote the first one.
19:27
Which is the best one.
19:30
They're also a part of some other franchises as well.
19:33
But
19:34
Universal hired them.
19:36
to develop and relaunch the universal monster movies and uh bring these characters to the big screen in a shared universe you know because around this time this is when the mcu was kicking off and
19:52
the cinematic universe had had kind of been reborn i'm not going to say start because as i mentioned before these same characters are the ones who started it off
20:05
with a shared universe but they wanted to recapture that but in a modern way and kind of rival the mcu and so they wanted to make a franchise of films centered around universal classic monsters and so by july of 2014 the studio officially hired chris morgan
20:31
to replace orchi
20:33
and work alongside Alex Kirchman to oversee development of the
20:38
Interconnection series of films based upon the rebooted versions of these characters.
20:45
The duo was tasked with creating the overall outline,
20:51
if you will,
20:52
of these monsters.
20:53
The development of the cinematic universe continued as Kirchman and Morgan began additional...
21:02
photography for the 2014 film dracula untold now initially that film when they started off it was going to be its own film and once these decisions were made they before the release of that film they went back and did some reshoots that tried to include
21:23
it and what they were you know what they were putting together in this shared universe so reached uh
21:31
The reshoots position in the final film of that movie is in modern day.
21:38
Everything was going to take place in the past in that movie originally.
21:47
Dragalon told,
21:48
to be honest with you,
21:49
I only watched it once.
21:50
And that's when it came out.
21:52
I didn't dig it.
21:54
But it's certain moments in that movie that stick with me.
21:58
And so
21:59
I have to go back and re-watch that movie to have it.
22:01
honest opinion of it but what i remember of it it wasn't all that good so it really wasn't a good start to this quote-unquote shared universe and so that should have been the writing on the wall but i never looked at it as a shared universe because they didn't really announce it until
22:20
a couple of years later that it was going to be a shared universe here i always looked at uh dracula untold as his own little movie but that's neither here nor there
22:32
But to be honest with you,
22:33
they kind of pushed it to the side.
22:36
It was because the movie didn't do good box office-wise or critic-wise,
22:41
reception-wise.
22:44
It didn't really click,
22:45
and they kind of like,
22:46
uh...
22:49
It was his own thing.
22:50
But if we ever introduce
22:52
Dracula, we'll bring back...
22:55
Oh,
22:55
my God,
22:55
what's his name?
22:57
Oh,
22:57
I can't remember his name.
22:59
But he played a good Dracula.
23:01
the movie wasn't good unfortunately and so they had to kind of abandon things or reassess things and in 2017 they came out with the mummy another version of the mummy and that was the official start of this shared universe they they put they planted a flag in the mummy this
23:23
was it we're kicking off this cinematic universe blah blah blah and so in may of
23:30
2017 uh
23:31
the slate of these upcoming films was released with the logo they had the website they had a score they had everything laid out i remember it and i was super
23:46
excited they even had the stars of those films linked uh lockdown and we're talking the creme de la creme here we're We're not talking movie stars.
23:57
We're not talking unknown actors.
24:00
or up-and-coming actors we're talking academy award-winning big blockbusters starring actors i i think angelina jolie has signed on to be the bride of frankenstein i think javier bardem was
24:16
frankenstein uh or frankenstein monster uh johnny depp was the invisible man i uh who was wolfman
24:27
Oh man,
24:28
it's on the tip of my tongue.
24:29
I cannot.
24:30
Oh.
24:32
I want to say Ryan Gosling.
24:34
I know Ryan Gosling was linked to it in this last adaptation of it,
24:39
but he had backed out at the last minute.
24:42
But I don't know if he was at the initial release of this release.
24:49
I can't remember.
24:50
But any who's and Russell Crowe was Dr.
24:54
Jekyll and Mr.
24:55
Hyde.
24:56
And the mummy was played by
24:59
Sophia Bartella.
25:01
But Tom.
25:02
cruise has signed on to star in that film and so all right now you're like okay they're serious with tom cruise is gonna do the mummy a horror film never saw tom cruise in a horror film well when he went to go see the movie he
25:21
still hasn't been in a horror film it was an action movie and it was not good at all.
25:28
Uh,
25:30
following the poor reception.
25:32
in the it was a flop you know just a underwhelming box office performance of the mummy in uh 2017 universal canceled pre-production uh that had began on the bride of frankenstein that was the next movie that was going to come out of this franchise and postponed all
25:54
plans for the dark universe slate of films now i i don't i don't
26:02
I would say they overreacted
26:04
I understand the movie was bad the movie was not and I think it was all Tom Cruise initially it was a horror movie but when they signed Tom Cruise to it Tom Cruise brought his Tom Cruise-ness and brought his own writers and changed the whole plot and it was gonna now it's more action oriented and that's what initially
26:26
derailed that film but yeah
26:30
Yeah, in...
26:31
And,
26:33
unfortunately,
26:33
derailed the entire slate of
26:36
Dark Universe films.
26:39
It stinks.
26:40
It really does stink.
26:41
But,
26:42
hey,
26:43
maybe it was for the best.
26:44
But I would have loved to have seen Angelina Jolie as the Bride of Frankenstein.
26:50
That would have been great.
26:51
I think she would have killed it,
26:53
no pun intended.
26:55
But,
26:56
hey,
26:57
it's the one that got away.
26:59
and now
27:00
Let's run down the list of all
27:04
Universal Classic Monster films from the beginning to now.
27:09
And you let me know in a comic session or email the show that which one of these were your favorite.
27:17
And did you know that these films were Universal Monster movies?
27:23
There's a couple of them in here that I didn't realize was a Universal Monster movie.
27:28
I just thought it was a horror film.
27:30
I didn't know it was linked to the Universal Classic Monsters.
27:33
But there's neither here nor there.
27:35
We go all the way back to 1913 with the first
27:40
Universal Classic Monster movie.
27:42
And that was Dr.
27:43
Jekyll and Mr.
27:44
Hyde.
27:44
In 1923,
27:47
you had The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
27:49
In 1925,
27:52
The Phantom of the Opera.
27:53
In 1931,
27:56
Dracula.
27:56
And also in 1931...
27:59
Frankenstein in 1932 the mummy 1933 the invisible man in 1935 the bride of Frankenstein also in 1935 werewolf in London in 1936 Dracula's daughter in 1939 the son of Frankenstein in 1940 the invisible man returns and also in 1940 the
28:26
mummy's hand
28:28
In the same year,
28:29
The Invisible
28:30
Woman. In 1941,
28:33
The Wolfman.
28:33
In 1942,
28:35
The Ghost of
28:37
Frankenstein. Also in 1942,
28:41
Invisible Agent,
28:43
The Mummy's Tomb.
28:44
In 1943,
28:47
Frankenstein meets
28:49
The Wolfman,
28:50
Phantom of the Opera,
28:52
Son of Dracula.
28:53
In 1944...
28:56
The Invisible Man's Revenge,
28:58
The Mummy's Ghost,
29:00
House of Frankenstein,
29:02
The Mummy's Curse,
29:03
in 1945,
29:06
House of Dracula,
29:07
in 1946,
29:09
She-Wolf of London,
29:10
in 1948,
29:13
Albert and Costello meet Frankenstein,
29:16
in 1951,
29:19
Albert and Costello meet
29:22
The Invisible Man,
29:23
in 1953,
29:25
Albert and Cost...
29:25
Costello rounded it off going for the hat trick meet
29:31
Dr.
29:31
Jackal and Mr.
29:32
Hyde in 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1955 Return of the Creature and also in 1955 Abbott and Costello meet the mummy and in 1956 the creature walks
29:49
among us
29:50
Now,
29:51
that was the first run of these Universal Monster movies until 1979 when we got the remakes and the spin-offs.
30:01
When they tried to re-violize this franchise.
30:07
And in 1979,
30:09
a real good year,
30:11
you had Dracula.
30:13
I believe that's the one with Franklin Jella,
30:16
if I'm not mistaken.
30:18
And in 1999,
30:20
you had The Mummy,
30:22
The Mummy Returns in 2001,
30:25
The Scorpion King.
30:27
That's the one that I was shocked because I didn't put two and two together and realize that The Scorpion King was a part of the classic or the universal classic monster series because it is.
30:41
It's a spinoff of The Mummy Returns.
30:44
And so by default,
30:46
it is a.
30:48
universal classic monster movie congratulations to the rock for that achievement in
30:56
2004 van helsing in 2008 the mummy tomb of the dragon emperor and look man i i really it's something about that movie that i actually liked i don't know what it is it's not as good as the first
31:16
it's not as good as the second one but it's just it's something about that movie i really liked even though i fully acknowledge that it is the worst of all three of them including the scorpion king if you're gonna put four and so i i don't know what it is but i i'm just drawn to that movie uh in 2010 you had the wolfman now
31:40
this is another one that's kind of diversive at least in my eyes because i love
31:45
the wolfman this is the one that stars benicio del toro and uh anthony hopkins um uh joe johnson directed this movie i i love the wolfman but i hear people just spit pure vitriol on
32:03
this movie and it's like wow really i don't know what it is i what were y'all looking for i actually love that movie but
32:15
that ended that little run and so we fast forward to 2014 this is when we get the the quote-unquote modern era of these films and it started off with dracula untold in 2014 then
32:31
you got the mummy in 2017 the invisible man in 2020 renfield in
32:40
2023 and wolfman just a
32:42
few months ago in January of this year.
32:46
Yeah,
32:48
The Invisible Man is probably the best out of that era,
32:53
out of this little crop of films.
32:55
I love The Invisible Man because it wasn't your typical Invisible Man movie.
33:00
It had a different narrative,
33:03
but it fit,
33:05
and it fit within the horror genre as well.
33:08
I thought it was...
33:10
well done this this came out right before the pandemic i mean what a couple of weeks before the pandemic actually struck and every day was locked down and i remember this was one of the last movies i saw in the theater before we were uh uh held
33:27
hostage in our homes for the entire 2020 but i loved the invisible man uh renfield is another one of these movies that i didn't really put
33:40
two and two together that it was a part of this film franchise uh but technically it is because dracula this with nicholas cage as dracula uh i like that it was a cute little movie plus it was shot down here in new orleans i remember when they made this movie down here uh but uh
33:58
i thought it was uh i thought it was cute you know it wasn't uh nicholas hope was the star of the movie i I thought it was good.
34:08
And Wolfman.
34:09
um once again i gotta go back and watch it again i haven't seen it since it came out in january but i enjoyed it i did i i thought it was really good now is it as good as uh the invisible man and the reason i draw comparisons to that because both films were directed by lee one
34:28
one now um no it wasn't as good as the invisible man but it was entertaining you know because once again it was
34:37
the wolfman but it was told in a different way you know and
34:42
I actually like the story that they were telling but that's just me
34:49
so far and that's the end of it we of course that was a few months ago there's nothing else really in the chamber as far as uh universal monster movies there there's been a lot of movies in development that's
35:05
kind of stuck in limbo as as far as uh getting off the shelf or getting uh produced or whatever at this time nothing is really cemented like
35:18
they're gonna make it they were gonna make a dark army movie in 2019 nothing came nothing has come of that uh i think paul feig was gonna direct that movie which tells me it was gonna be uh
35:35
somewhat comedic there was the uh frankenstein movie like i said before in
35:41
2017 with harvey playing frankenstein's monster which was oh my god i couldn't
35:48
and i think james wan was producing that movie oh man we missed out uh in 2019 we were going to get the invisible woman uh i think elizabeth banks has signed on to direct and star in that movie but nothing
36:06
has come of that you uh 2020 he was going to get a musical uh monster mash nothing has came from that
36:15
in 2021 we were going to get another dracula movie uh chloe zow was hired to write and direct this film but it was going to be a futuristic science fiction western film centered around dracula i'm glad that that kind
36:33
of that that went to the back shelf uh they had a little monsters movie in the work they had the invisible man movie that was back in 2020
36:45
uh it was going to be the sequel to the uh invisible man uh but uh limo one what uh can't get his name out when now uh decided to move on to the wolfman movie and i don't i'll after the reception of wolfman i don't think he's returning and
37:05
there was going to be a reboot of the scorpion king a few years ago that didn't get off the ground uh van helsing
37:14
movie another one that didn't get off the ground uh a creature from the black lagoon i don't know what happened with that i don't know why that's like untapped potential there but nope for some strange reason that's never come around a lot of directors for years have
37:33
been attached to this movie but nothing has transpired uh john landis john carpenter peter jackson um
37:44
uh guerrilla del toro was attached to it but he left it and i think that's what brought about uh that's what brought about uh the shape of water which won him an academy award so um just
38:01
imagine if you would if you would have did the creature from the black lagoon uh but yeah that's that's basically it uh it's it's dormant for right now is in hibernation this this
38:13
classic monster movie franchise but you know as you can see it it isn't dead it never dies uh you can't keep it down for long and so we'll see um as as the days go on as the years go by will we get another stab at the
38:34
universal monster movies so without further ado let's get to our review
38:42
today and it is the 1987 horror comedy film directed by frank decker the monster squad this film marks the first screenplay written by shane black shane black who went on to the uh
38:58
right he also is a director but he first started off as a writer he wrote the lethal weapon films uh the last boy scout uh the lone kiss good night and um
39:11
One of my most underrated favorite movies of all time,
39:14
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,
39:16
Iron Man 3,
39:18
and
39:19
God forbid he did
39:22
The Predator,
39:23
which is the worst Predator movie ever made.
39:25
But he has so many good films under his resume,
39:31
and it all started with The Monster Squad.
39:35
And this is 8,
39:37
9 year old Kevin.
39:40
watching this movie and before before i really got into the universal monsters you know before i knew what they were all about this was my introduction into that world and that's what made me
39:55
you know start watching those movies and i quickly found out that those movies uh have a very different tone than this film this is pure 80s pure
40:14
80s there is nothing more dated than the monster squad i re-watched this movie last night
40:22
uh in anticipation for this recording and i because i haven't seen this movie in years years but i knew right off the bat this was the movie i wanted to talk about for this show and i re-watched it in about
40:39
20 minutes in now i'm lying
40:42
10 minutes in i sat there it was like i think i made a mistake i think i made a mistake before
40:51
film that was so treasured around that time because i remember uh watching this movie and going to school and uh we would talk about it in class and this was probably the most quotable movie before
41:08
i would say for a two-year run everybody quoted the monster squad at my school in elementary school we we knew this movie backwards and forwards
41:21
Because it came on,
41:23
I'm going to assume HBO,
41:25
it came on HBO all the time.
41:28
So that's all we could watch.
41:30
And it was the only horror film that you can get away with watching.
41:35
At least you could in my house because it was PG.
41:39
You know,
41:39
it wasn't R,
41:40
it wasn't gory,
41:41
it wasn't bloody.
41:42
It didn't have,
41:44
well,
41:44
it had cursing,
41:45
but it didn't,
41:46
it wasn't overly offensive.
41:48
And so you can get away with that as a kid watching the monster squad.
41:53
So it came on all the time and we watched it or I watched it in,
41:57
in my classmates watched it all the time.
41:59
But the premise of the boss,
42:01
the squad,
42:01
uh,
42:03
the,
42:04
the film features the universal monsters led by count Draco.
42:09
They are confronted by a group of salvy children out to keep them from controlling the world.
42:17
And
42:18
that's the that's the premise of the movie this was uh this was the filmmakers or the studio trying to capitalize on the goonie craze the goonies that came out a couple of years prior
42:33
to this i can't remember what year the goonies came out but it had came out everybody loved the goonies a group of kids you know uh i think this was before stand by me and all that but around the 80s it was always
42:47
at least 80s films it was kids getting into adult situations and trying to find a way out of it and this was one of them and they tried to do it in this horror film i love the premise i still love the premise of this movie another film that
43:06
if they decide to remake the monster squad it would fit today if they do it right but they'll they'll have to stay true
43:16
with the kids portion of it because it wouldn't work any other way but uh this movie was so bad it was so bad it is so offensive now i'm i got offended by a lot of the dialogue in this movie that
43:36
of course in 1987 you didn't you know in 1987 it was common dialogue that was spoken
43:45
and you know uh uh calling calling people the f word as an insult can't say that now you can't do that now you know call it call it a kid the dude the dude's nickname is fat kid that's
44:01
his nickname fat kid you can't go around calling a little kid fat kid for the entire movie and i still don't know his name i think it's horace yeah his name is horace which is even worse
44:15
But they called him Fat Kid the entire movie.
44:18
That was his name.
44:20
And,
44:21
bruh,
44:23
the style of clothes,
44:25
the way kids were with their parents,
44:28
you know,
44:29
going out.
44:30
It's stuff that don't happen today.
44:32
And I can see somebody who was born in the
44:36
90s or the
44:38
2000s that are young,
44:40
youngsters.
44:41
Watch this movie.
44:43
and think this is a science fiction film because there's no way you can there's no way people live like this but this is how we live kids will have to it was a such thing as
44:55
meeting up with your friends you know actually going outside and in breathing real air yeah this happened in the 80s and then and the 90s uh believe it or not but it's it was just weird to watch this this movie uh
45:14
40 almost 40 years later and just have a complete turnaround i mean this was my favorite movie when I was a kid.
45:24
I loved the Monster Squad
45:27
I can still quote it I was sitting there mouthing out the lines while I was watching the movie it was like oh my god I remember this why do I remember this why did I enjoy this movie so much the
45:44
acting in this movie is 80's acting it's not fair to critique this movie in 2025 eyes because
45:53
this is a 1987 movie through and through this is how movies are uh were i should say around this time this is how they acted and these kids these were all unknown kids these kids i don't even think they appeared in anything else i
46:13
don't recognize not one face or name from this movie uh kids wise now the adults i've seen in other things you know mary al
46:23
Mary Ellen Trainor,
46:24
she was in everything in the 80s.
46:27
Everything.
46:28
She played the mom.
46:30
She was the,
46:30
matter of fact,
46:31
she was the mom in the Goonies.
46:35
They used the same mom,
46:38
the same actress to play the mom from them Goonies in this movie.
46:43
It's like,
46:44
my God.
46:45
They tried to be the Goonies so bad.
46:48
But they had all the classic monsters in this movie.
46:52
You had
46:54
Dracula, Frankenstein's monster,
46:56
werewolf,
46:58
or wolfman,
46:59
I should say.
47:00
The creature from the Black Lagoon,
47:02
the mummy,
47:04
which they would just dare.
47:06
But the best one was the wolfman.
47:12
And what's the...
47:16
Jonathan Grise,
47:17
who plays the wolfman.
47:19
I think he played...
47:20
the wolfman in another movie too i want to say fright night 2 but i could be wrong i probably should have looked it up before i said it but i do recall him playing the wolfman in another movie if you don't know who jonathan grise is he
47:37
is uncle rico in napoleon dynamite yeah he was the wolfman in this movie but uh yeah they they had all that uh the plot was silly
47:50
I mean,
47:52
so dumb and ridiculous that if you wrote this screenplay in 2025 and sent it to a studio,
47:59
they would have shredded it.
48:01
They wouldn't even sent it back to the writer.
48:03
They would have shredded it right there and probably sent back the shreds to the writer.
48:10
I mean,
48:10
the plot was so bad.
48:14
It was so silly the way they stumbled upon certain.
48:18
things so easily got the mcguffin of the movie the uh the the mysteries weren't a mystery you know they tried to give a little hardy boy's edge to it and they couldn't it was just so convenient and dumb it
48:36
was just dumb some of the plot points they're still unanswered to this day it is it's just bad.
48:44
It was just so bad.
48:46
But it was there.
48:48
to make you laugh it was there to entertain and it was there to pay uh homage to these classic monsters and that's what it did you know it was funny i still chuckled at a couple had a couple of lines uh throughout the film but the crazy part for
49:07
almost 40 years there was a line in this movie that i remembered when i first watched it back in 1987
49:17
and i remember laughing so hard i remember that was the line that we always quoted at school because to a eight nine year old kid there was nothing funnier than this line and
49:33
i watched it last night and i didn't crack a smile i've been laughing at it forever you know since the last time i watched it i can't remember the last time i watched it but i
49:45
Every time I think about it,
49:47
I kind of chuckle internally,
49:49
you know?
49:50
So,
49:51
to witness it,
49:52
maybe it's because I knew it was coming.
49:55
But when I witnessed it watching,
49:59
I was like,
50:00
this is stupid.
50:03
This is the dumbest.
50:05
The delivery didn't even work.
50:06
Nothing about it was funny,
50:08
but it made me laugh.
50:10
To go deep and philosophical with y'all for a minute,
50:16
it really put things in perspective how an adult thinks and how a child thinks.
50:24
because as a child there was nothing funnier than this line and i'm gonna say the line i know i'm y'all are on the edge of your seats what the line is but it was so funny it was the funniest they ever heard in my life and
50:40
to today to feel that is the stupidest they had ever heard in my life and the line is when they were all in the uh clubhouse in the little tree house that they have
50:52
And they're talking.
50:53
The lead.
50:54
the leader of the monster squad is talking and the quote-unquote comic relief a guy he's sitting next to fat kid and it was real serious it was a serious discussion coming from the leader here and
51:12
all of a sudden to break the levity the guy the little kid says oh man fat kid farted and
51:20
They argued back and forth like no I didn't you know because it was he did that he said that because what the uh I think his name is Sean the leader of the uh monster squad was
51:36
so out there you know talking about monsters for real this is a real thing we gotta stop him and all this here and he just blurts out out of the blue out of nowhere oh man fat kid farted and that
51:51
tore me up as a kid i cried laughing as a kid and watching it and repeating it right now makes my stomach hurt it's amazing i don't know why they
52:07
always say women mature faster than men and i always believed that but i now i witnessed it because i truly have not matured until this moment i was a little kid
52:21
until today until i came to the realization that that there's a difference between the way a kid thinks in a way an adult thinks but yeah um i
52:36
went through all that just to say this movie is horrible but i loved every minute of i actually at the end of this movie i was i was in awe on how much i
52:49
despised it and loved it all at the same time it is nostalgia cheese there's nothing but the nostalgia that makes me appreciate it because this is not your cult classic that you would take it would be because i often wondered that i
53:05
never hear people talk about the monster squad why is that i thought this would be a cult classic maybe it is in some circles but no no this movie is not
53:18
good at all this is the most throwaway uh
53:24
80s film you could ever ever imagine now years ago i did hear rumblings of a remake they were going to do a remake of this movie and believe it or not michael bay was going to produce it he wasn't going to direct it but he was going to produce it and
53:43
it was going to be written by the gun brothers and It
53:46
if you know who the gun brothers are they are the brothers of james gunn and they had signed on the right screenplay and everything but it got canceled it was no longer in development they couldn't crack the story it's
54:01
hard to crack it to be honest with you but because it's not it's not that great of a movie you know it's not much meat on that bone so
54:14
I see why they should leave it alone,
54:16
but at the same time if they're able to crack it I hope they hope we get a better version of updated good version of this film now now
54:25
With that being said it is hard to crack to do it in modern times because of technology modern Technology and stuff like that with cell phones and all this here.
54:35
It's hard
54:37
It'll be harder,
54:38
but
54:39
I'm pretty sure somebody will find a way
54:42
The Monster Squad which was released in
54:46
1987 gets a letter grade of a C- and it gets that for nostalgia.
54:52
if it if it was released today in this version in this form it would be enough but for the sale for the for the mere fact that it is a time capsule and you can look back and see certain things from that era that if you're around my age or older you
55:14
you remember that and it brings back so many good memories it's good to watch it for that and if you are
55:21
a student of history and weren't born around that time and wanted to see how certain things were in the 80s this is a good film to look at it really captures the
55:30
80s in its greatest forms but but i digress yes man universal classic monsters man those movies are those those are great movies to watch because they're not long they're not three hour epic films you
55:49
know movies back then.
55:51
were an hour long so you could you could sit back and watch a movie and just have fun with it man it's like you could go back to back to back you could watch about eight or nine of them nine of them in one sitting one saturday evening or something like that it is it's
56:08
fun to watch i started watching a couple of them and you know i got distracted and went did something else but they're they're
56:18
they hold up for the most part you know if you go in with the frame of mind these are
56:23
60
56:24
70 year old movies or whatnot you oh fine man you you were accepted for what it is but when it came out in that era if there isn't big budget special effects in them but there are horror there are some real good horror elements there that gave birth to every horror film that
56:44
we watch today in some shape form or
56:47
fashion so i i really do appreciate the uh universal classic monsters uh my favorite before we get out of here my favorite universal classic monster and monster overall is
57:04
werewolf i love werewolves i love the wolfman i guess that's why i enjoyed the wolfman well wolfman earlier this year a little more than most people because i
57:16
I have a special place in my heart for the wolves,
57:19
for werewolves.
57:20
You know,
57:20
I just love it.
57:21
I love American Werewolf in London and,
57:25
you know,
57:25
stuff like that.
57:26
I love all those movies.
57:27
And so that's my favorite because of,
57:31
one,
57:32
the transformations.
57:34
That's one thing I wanted to mention about the Monster Squad.
57:38
The best part about that movie was the transformation.
57:41
That sticks with me.
57:44
that's where most of that money went in that production was the transformation of the wolfman in that movie it was so good so good and that held up me watching it yesterday it still holds up to this date and
58:00
so they really did a good job in that but uh yeah i do enjoy those uh universal monster movies so i would like to know ladies and gentlemen what is your
58:13
favorite universal monster?
58:16
Is it Dracula?
58:17
Is it Frankenstein monster?
58:18
Is it Wolfman?
58:19
Is it Creature from the Black Lagoon?
58:22
Dr.
58:22
Jekyll and Mr.
58:23
Hyde?
58:23
Which is probably my second favorite because that is you don't need a potion for that.
58:29
You know a lot of
58:31
Dr. Jekylls and Mr.
58:32
Hyde's if you're not one yourself.
58:35
But which one is your favorite?
58:38
Email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com
58:43
You can also search for the show on all social media platforms.
58:46
Just search for the KB Radio Network.
58:49
Also,
58:49
don't forget about YouTube.
58:51
Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind.
58:56
Don't forget about the five stars,
58:58
the reviews,
58:58
and sharing this show.
59:00
If you're listening on Apple Podcasts,
59:01
Spotify,
59:02
iHeartRadio,
59:03
wherever,
59:04
you are currently listening to movie goodness here on the KB Radio
59:10
Network. Everybody,
59:11
thank you for joining me for part two.
59:13
of our halloween special uh stay tuned for part three coming up next week uh i'm gonna surprise you with that one because i have two well we only have two left but there's one there are two i don't know which one is which right off because i
59:34
recorded these out of order if you can't tell but anyways i i uh
59:40
I know the next two are really,
59:41
really good.
59:42
So whichever one it is,
59:44
you're going to enjoy it.
59:45
Thank you for joining me for this one.
59:47
Happy Halloween.
59:49
And I want you all to know that I love you.
59:51
Continue to love everyone.
59:53
And until we speak again,
59:55
you all be blessed.