Who payed the critics

hyped garbage

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A repairman is infected when his hand is "cut" by a certain flower which causes something encased in a cocoon to exit his mouth while he's unconscious in an emergency room of County Memorial Hospital. This causes an infection which soon leaves paramedics who brought the victim to the emergency room to become unconscious and afflicted as well. Detective Jim Bishop(Steve Railsback) enters the emergency room with a partner who was shot during a stakeout which went awry. Along with Dr. Rachel Carson(Gwynyth Walsh)and entomologist Elliot Jacobs(Don Lake), Bishop will have his hands full as hospitalized kids being mischievous enter the lab holding the cocooned insect, feeding it a large dose of NAC-5, an accelerant growth promoter, because they thought it was hungry and needed nourishment, which works as a catalyst in metamorphosing it to a substantial degree, now an insect monster on the rampage. The Lincoln Center for Disease Control(working with Department of Health) puts County Memorial Hospital under quarantine and burns down the greenhouse which contained the flower behind the insect. Developments emerge which includes the fact that a bottle of Jack helped stop the toxins(caused by the infection) from spreading throughout the bodies of two elderly ladies who get wasted, an audio recording by Elliot of the giant insect mate's "voice" actually interrupts its path towards killing Bishop, County Memorial has a laser research lab(Laser research is the wave of the future Dr. proclaims) for future benefits in molecular breakdown and DNA experiments which will be used as a method to distract the creature, and we are informed through the entomologist that future insects will breed at an alarming rate(feeding from humans slowly, as we see in the case of a nurse and scientist who are cocooned and eaten from!). Essentially a "giant bug" movie with Railsback up against an insect which walks upright and beheads innocent victims who cross its path. I think this film has a bad rep due to its ridiculous title, because BLUE MONKEY(the alternate title, INSECT, is actually more logical)is more or less reminiscent of other 50s giant insect titles, except in a modern 80s setting. The creature is darkly lit and carefully edited as it causes mayhem obviously so that it wouldn't cause chuckles if seen clearly. Railsback gets to play hero again, but will need help from Walsh and Lake if he is to conquer the fiend and its offspring. Susan Anspach is another emergency room doctor, Judith Glass(she's the one who discovers the solution to the outbreak)and John Vernon is the hospital administrator(not as much an asshole as he normally is in other movies). Joe Flaherty and Robin Duke are a couple expecting the birth of their first child, a sub-plot which has no reason to be in the movie, to tell you the truth, other than to add some comedy.

After getting pricked by an exotic plant, an old man ends up in a hospital emergency room and pukes up a larva before dying. The staff keep the bug isolated but a group of terminally ill young kids accidentally pour some growth serum on it and, you guess it, things be going down. Also on the scene is Det. Jim Bishop (Steve Railsback), who brought his shot partner into the ER just before the place is quarantined by the local government. Bishop teams with Dr. Rachel Carson (Gwynyth Walsh) and entomologist Elliot Jacobs (Don Lake) to take this mammoth bug down, despite the protestation of the hospital director (John Vernon).Like the director William Fruet's earlier SPASMS, this was shot in Canada and is played dead straight. I actually think a little humor from the leads would have helped (there are some supporting players who try to be funny). The big bug is kept mostly in the dark but does provide a few moments of gooey gore via some decapitations. Vernon only appears to have been with the production for a few days as his scenes are minimal. Future Canadian acting power house Sarah Polley plays one of the kids responsible for this mess (the killer bug, that is).

Nothing too original here. The lighting sort of helps the movie at times; hiding the creature, but overall sort of a murky movie. Pretty much a waste of Steve Railsback (so good as Duane Berry in X-Files and Manson in Helter Skelter)and Joe Flaherty(the comic relief a little flat). Not only that but Railsback gets second billed to the creature. But still some decent action scenes (nice beheading) and fair amount of predictable drama. The hospital,unbelievable as it may be, provides a fairly good setting. A previous reviewer astutely mentioned the 'Alien' imitations. That's pretty much what you got here: 'Them' crossed with 'Alien' and not as good as either, of course. Still worth the $3.00 I spent for it at the flea market. ** out of *****

This low budget sci-fi tries to incorporate so many elements from "Alien", "The Thing", "Arachnophobia", "Mimic" and "Them", it should be called "Blue Ripoff"!I know, I know... this film pre-dates "Arachnophobia" and "Mimic", but the "mutated insect-out-of-control, rampaging-through-a-decrepit hospital" idea provides little chills, little suspense, and a lot of sympathy for health insurance litigation. The casting was erratic at best (c'mon...Joe Flaherty and Robin Duke of SCTV fame?) and though the pace was fairly quick in the right places, you still had the sense that too much was crammed into too little a film all too late. The name, "Blue Monkey"?? What's with that? Probably a red herring only the writer and director are aware of.