Good start, but then it gets ruined

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It's like it was written by a 8-year -old. It was just silly. Unlike other great 80s films, like Gremlins, E.T., Goonies, Back To The Future, and other films aimed at kids, they were cleverly written and well executed. This, however, was just poorly written, structured and over all badly executed. I wanted to have some goofy fun with this interesting concept, but it was difficult to sit through.

I grew up in the 80's and watched this as a child, it was fun and entertaining, and it worked with my imagination which was already leaning towards a tendency for horror. As a thirtysomething year old now, I've re-watched the movie, and I still got some enjoyment out of it, along with a bucket load of nostalgia. Van Helsing and his gang break into Castle Dracula and use a spell to stop a reign of evil by destroying an amulet. Something goes wrong and evil is not wiped out, instead the good guys lose, but evil ends up lying dormant for a while. Fast forward to the 80's and things are about to get ugly. While transporting Dracula's coffin to America, Dracula manages to escape, after which he calls on some of his most trusted henchmen - I mean, monsters. Arise then: Wolfman, Creature from the Lagoon (or Merman), The Mummy, and Frankenstein's monster. Set on destroying the vehicle which would allow them to be banished - the spell and an amulet. Luckily there is a Monster Squad in town, a group of friends who love monster movies, monster facts and trivia, and, well, anything monster related. The Monster Squad manage to work out what is happening. Along the way they slowly convince some adults to help out. The ultimate aim, is to succeed where Van Helsing failed, and put a final end to evil - stopping Dracula and his hench-monsters. Think "The Goonies" with a lot less money for the budget, mixed with "Stand by me" with more horror, and "Fright Night" but with the lights on. This is a fun adventure with all the charm of an 80's cheese tasting session. It's harmless, family fun which a touch of horror. The monsters are camp, the bats are rubber, the soundtrack is synth-tastic, there are tongue in cheek Easter eggs all over, it's cute, it's sad - it's a lot all rolled into one. I'm not saying it's the best kids horror film you will ever see, but definitely not the worst, but it's definitely fun. I'm expecting this to get re-booted at some point, as there is a lot you could do with CGI to amp-up the film, and because in its day, this got a cult following of fans. 7 out of 10.

THE MONSTER SQUAD is one of those '80s nostalgia films that can happily sit in the same company as THE LOST BOYS, GHOSTBUSTERS, and THE GOONIES. Essentially, it's the story of how a band of monster-mad kids manage to defeat a band of genuine movie monsters, and with a running time that barely reaches 80 minutes there's not a great deal of time for anything else other than the set up and the pay off. On the minus side, the film is light hearted and corny throughout, full of predictable clichés involving the monsters and lacking the smallest bit of characterisation.On the plus side, it has genuine warmth, a good child cast for a change (the late Brent Chalem as Horace or 'Fat Kid' is the best), pretty decent-looking monsters and plenty of cheesy action to recommend it. Of the monsters, my favourite is the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a great guy-in-a-suit effect; Dracula has a little too much goth make-up while Tom Noonan's Frankenstein (sic) looks the part but is too much of a softy. The werewolf is the second best effect and recalls Oliver Reed in The Curse of the Werewolf.Pacing is spot-on and there are some catchy '80s tunes to enjoy, as well as plenty of references to films, Universal classics and otherwise; the bit where Frankenstein's Monster approaches the little girl by the river bank is my favourite reference and a very clever one it is too. Leonard Cimino has a perfect role as a concentration-camp survivor. The ending of the film features a vortex in time that appears to have been "inspired" by the one at the end of EVIL DEAD II, which coincidentally was released a few months before this movie. Some scenes are hilarious, like the unravelling of the Mummy on the back of the car. The tone of the film veers wildly from kiddie (anything with the cute little girl) to teen-style bad language and bad taste to adult (guns, the black cop getting blown to pieces in the car, the werewolf exploding in a shower of guts and limbs) but it remains entertaining throughout, and that's what counts. Director Fred Dekker clearly loves his material, and it's this love that makes this film touching.

It didn't take long for me to remember why THE MONSTER SQUAD was so forgettable: any movie wherein a character is called "Fat Kid" by his alleged friends throughout isn't exactly gunning for fans. I've given Dekker the benefit of the doubt quite often in the past, but this time around, he had the keys to the Kingdom (the Money and the Means) and STILL managed to blow it. By giving us GOOSEBUMPS by way of THE GOONIES, he did himself a grave disservice (not to mention the fans who shelled out the money to see this one). THE MONSTER SQUAD does have ONE thing going for it: the remarkable Monsters by the late Stan Winston- especially The Creature From the Black Lagoon. I give the Monsters in THE MONSTER SQUAD a 5; the rest pretty much squeaks for itself.