Monster Island

If there is one thing i have learned in life, it is that The Asylum movies can make any bad day turn around and make everything better. How is that possible ? It is very easy. The Asylum knows what humanity needs. They make sure we have films with monsters, bad CGI effects, bad acting, and wonderful characters. I would not say i enjoy all of their films, but for most titles i always find something that is entertaining. So why not dig into two films from The Asylum that i think you should buy on DVD or Blu Ray, to prepare christmas gifts for this year ? Let´s start with the 2011 horror film Zombie Apocalypse from director Nick Lyon. This film have some classic zombie elements and a great cast as well including actor Ving Rhames ( most known for his films such as Con Air, Dawn Of The Dead and the Mission Impossible franchise ) and actress Taryn Manning ( known especially from Netflix series Orange Is The New Black ). Zombie Apocalypse is exactly that title you have waited for, especially if you are a fan of British cricket matches. Let´s get into the next film. 3-Headead Shark Attack is a wonderful sequel to the awful film 2-Headed Shark Attack. This sequel actually looks much better, and has a much better cast including legendary actor Danny Trejo, wonderful actress Jenna Sims, wrestling legend Rob Van Dam and Baywatch actor Jaason Simmons as well. If you love sharks and underwater action scenes, then 3-Headed Shark Attack will guaranteed please your Mariah Carey fantasies ( this combination actually makes more sense than you can imagine ). Every year The Asylum keep releasing new films, and i try to check some of the titles out. And this summer i saw a premiere was coming of a new film called Monster Island. The title itself sounded wonderful, so of course i had to give this film a chance. With a production bigger than all of Åhlens stores around Stockholm area, is Monster Island the masterpiece we all have been waiting for, or is this film as bad as you expected it to be ?

Billy Ford ( Adrian Bouchet ) is a billionaire who´s into undersea mining. While his team is looking into the mining operation a giant starfish is released from the mining location. Billy´s two employees Cherise Ramon ( Donna Cormack Thomson ) and Riley James ( Chris Fisher ) help Billy and the government agent Sarah Murray ( Natalie Robbie ) to get to safety from the giant sea monster. They piss off the Starfish who bleeds out lava, and the situation gets worse from here. Navy captain General Horne ( Eric Roberts ) is ready to kill the beast with all the firepower they have. But the truth is that they need help from another monster, known as Living Mountain. This might be the only chance to save humanity.

I am surprised over Monster Island. This is perhaps one of the more serious films i have seen being made by The Asylum. As you might know, in most films made from this company they focus more on the monsters than on the characters. And sometimes that works, while sometimes it should have been the other way. When it comes to Monster Island, this film focus more on the characters than on the big Kajun monster. If you expect to see the monster attack in many scenes, you won´t see it in this film. This film is trying to move in a different direction. The acting is not in any way good, but i do like that this film stands out from other productions of The Asylum, by focusing more on the characters. The best character for me personally in this film, is actor Adrian Bouchet ( who you might remember from films such as Alien vs. Predator and The Seasoning House ) as the character Bily Ford. He is the right kind of character for a film like this, being confident about his position. The other character i enjoy in this film is Sarah Murray, played by actress Natalie Robbie. She is a character you would want underneath the ocean, not afraid to take chances. Legendary actor Eric Roberts is of course here as well, as the character General Horne. He may not have many scenes, and does not give this film anything unique, but you can´t help enjoying his presence. What about the monsters ? They are not around a lot, and that is too bad. Because i do like to see Kajun monsters in different forms. Now to my biggest problem with this film. The ending is really bad. In fact, it feels like they choosed to make the ending as easy as possible, just to finish the story without any real reason. And this is where Monster Island fails to deliver, since the ending destroys the plot that is built up through out the film. Director Mark Atkins have directed a lot of The Asylum films, especially the solid film Android Cop. He does have some good ideas with Monster Island, but i have no idea why he let this film end as bad as it does. Such a shame when we have some interesting characters here. Hopefully the cast will return for Monster Island 2 with more monsters and a better ending. Then i might actually have something to be happy about.

Rating: DD