Monolith

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.

Mix"leathal weapon" and a Roger Corman movie and you have an idea what you are in for.

I tend to cut SF more slack than other genres, simply because there is so much more setup work to be done in establishing a believable reality in which the story takes place. It is also my favorite genre. That said, this movie was one of the worst I've seen (I've seen a lot and own over 1000), which was very surprising considering the star power among the cast. Every, and I mean every, scene was stereotypical of some previous movie (cop buddy, action, etc.) done countless times before. And these worn out scenes strung together do not a plot make.

I kept dully pawing the remote in a futile search for some way to lower the frickin movie music volume somehow. It was just relentless! The "smoky sax", the "distorted guitar", the "ominous strings", etc. Someone got their hands on the latest 1993 synth and was wearing it out - and me too. It was often louder than the dialog, telegraphing the "mood" of every boring scene, removing even the possibility of anything unexpected happening in this dog.

An what's up with the name of the movie "Monolith"? I was expecting some large structure ala 2001 to appear at some point. No one even mentioned the word. I don't get it.

I'd rather watch the space saga Albert Brooks was editing in "Modern Romance".

Another good idea poorly executed with pot holes in the story line, improbable action and one dimensional characters. Thoughtful Lindsay Frost (Hutch as a woman) and hard case Bill Paxton (Starsky as a man) stumble onto a zany murder (pretty, vulnerable and distraught, young Russian scientist tries to run down and then succeeds in discharging a firearm into a little boy). Evil Fed agent John Hurt takes custody of the murderer from police Captain Lou Gossett. Shortly thereafter, havoc ensues as discreet portions of Los Angeles are terrorized by the evil of the Monolith (the term is not used in the film so one assumes that Monolith refers to the evil or its source). Starsky & Hutch pursue the invincible evil being--continuing to shoot at it even though they discover early on that it is invulnerable (but everyone in the movie seems to shoot at it as well--to no avail). John Hurt is 100% bad--including his acting. Bill Paxton has greasy dark hair. Lindsay Frost has really skinny jeans for a cop. Lou Gossett and the Squad Room could be recycled into another movie--any other movie. Perhaps this was originally made for TV and commercial breaks were integral to the plot.

Very likely John Eyres' most ambitious movie to date. A sci-fi/action/horror/thriller hybrid populated with good folks like Bill Paxton, John Hurt, Louis Gosset Jr., gorgeous B-vamp Musetta Vander and Lindsay Frost (who somewhat comes across as the wisecracking tough blonde acting equivalent of Yancy Butler). A secret government agency has been fooling around with an alien entity. Of course, the thing gets loose and starts to run amok in the city. Well, "running" isn't exactly the right word, since it's more like some form of alien energy that possesses the bodies of humans (that eventually do all the running). It's up to Paxton, Frost & Gosset to figure out what is loose in their city and try to stop it. The plot kind of looses itself along the way, not really knowing where to aim things and eventually not bothering to explain itself anymore. The film ends ridiculously, but before that we do get to see some nifty alien set designs. The SFX are pretty decent at times. For fans of Jack Sholder's "The Hidden" (1987), this might be another amusing watch (though Sholder's film is much tighter & better).