Good concept, poorly executed.

Brilliant and touching

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I have a confession to make: I like 'B' movies. Some can be very inventive while others are downright terrible. This movie falls somewhere in between the two poles. The plot of Monolith concerns a formless, shapeless alien presence which can transfer between bodies and gives its human hosts the ability of pyrokinesis. It also kills them after a fairly short time, but then again, it's an alien, it's been here before time began, so it really doesn't care much. And it's held by John Hurt who heads up the Department of Historical Research, which is a fancy name for a government black ops organization that tracks aliens.Enter two cops, played by Bill Paxton and Lindsay Frost. They're at odds with each other from day one, yet form a grudging respect and affection for one another by the end of the flick. They stumble onto the government's plan and after chases, watching their commander (played well by Louis Gossett, Jr.) get killed, and poorly staged fights, they manage to thwart John Hurts' plans and all is well...sort of.The good thing is director John Eyres manages to build some suspense with this flick in spite of working with a low budget. Paxton and Frost work well together even though the dialog between them--otherwise known as playful banter--is often stultifyingly bad. John Hurt overacts marvelously. His speech at the end ("I've earned this moment, I deserve this moment") should win an Oscar...or a Razzie. There's an amusing scene with a guard at the Department of Historical Research, an excellent good-cop/bad cop scene (very well edited, IMHO), and the music is surprisingly effective.The downsides to this film begin with the title. With a name like 'Monolith' I was expecting some kind of immense stone structure. We get a spaceship instead. (It's pretty cool, but still...) The dialog also could have been a lot better. A lot. Really, I'm surprised that the leads managed to work up any sympathy for themselves with some of the lines they had to spout and that's due to good acting more than anything else. The explanation for Paxton's wife's death is never fully explored although it can be guessed from the flashbacks, but is underdeveloped. I really think if Eyres had been given a decent budget and the script had been worked on more, it could have been elevated into 'A' status. Sadly, it wasn't, but it's still a very likable film in spite of its deficiencies.

Detectives Tucker (Bill Paxton) and Flynn (Lindsay Frost) individually stumble upon an out-of-this-world case when they both spot a deranged woman chasing down a young boy with her car and then shooting him dead. Things get messy when the Department of Historical Research boss Villano (John Hurt) shows up and takes the woman away (according to the screenplay, he has a higher security rating than the President) from police chief Mac (Lou Gossett, Jr.). Naturally, two curious and rule breaking detectives won't be having any of this and begin to investigate. But the bigger question is will these two cantankerous cops get along? Folks seem to peg this as an X-FILES ripoff, but that is hard to swallow because it was filming before that show debuted. It is more LETHAL WEAPON with aliens. Director John Eyres and screenwriter Stephen Lister had some marginal direct-to-video success with PROJECT: SHADOWCHASER so Shapiro-Glickenhaus maybe wanted a piece of that. It is nice seeing Paxton getting a film to carry on his own at this time (he previous did with THE VAGRANT), but the budget just isn't there for this one. Introvision handled the FX and some of them are really rough. It is a shame because I could totally get behind a "LETHAL WEAPON with aliens" film (well, I guess I have THE HIDDEN, which this closely resembles). John Hurt appears to have only done a day or two on this as his scenes in the last half have him isolated in shots (even including his major role in the finale).

This film really caught me off guard. IT had a close to A list cast, looked great on the video box when I rented it (Circa 1994 I think) started off with promise but rapidly became a mess.... It sorta has the feel of an unfinished and un-post produced mainstream scifi action flick.Terrible editing and f/x. Uninspired dialogue and generic plot. What the hell was Paxton and Hurt doing in this? Even Gossett jnr was a pull around this time.. Did the director have some juicy info on them all to get them to work on this dross? Thankfully for him Gossett shows some good judgement (watch and it'll make sense)I see the same director did Project Shadowchaser, A video staple of rentals in the uk during the early 90's. That had Martin Kove and the Android to hold it together. Here the stars just seem to be trying to battle thru to the end and forget they were involved lol

The reference to Starsky & Hutch by another viewer is brilliant. This movie has no story, but, instead, seems to have been pieced together with bits and pieces pulled from Hollywood's vast supply of garbage cans. Bill Paxton does his usual out-of-control-but-I'm-really-hurtin'-inside schtick. Lindsay Frost's hair stays miraculously manageable, despite her being blown into a pool, shot at on a high-rise terrace, and (why do they subject us to this schlock?) diving into sewage. Both actors serve as the other's straight-man to hackneyed one-liners that are as predictable as the victims. Just who or what this alien with eyeballs that shoot fireballs is... or wants... is never explained, nor do we have any idea what the goon scientists have been doing with/at it all these years. I paid 20 cents for the video of this film on the streets of Seoul. I think I was ripped off.