Lee Eisenberg George Romero burst onto the scene with "Night of the Living Dead", which used the image of reanimated corpses terrorizing people to address the breakdown of the nuclear family (among other issues). He continued addressing political issues in later movies, included "Monkey Shines". This one uses the story of a monkey that gets too attached to its human to address the issue of animal welfare (look how they treat the animals in the lab).It's not Romero's greatest movie but I still enjoyed it. Particularly neat were the POV scenes from the monkey whenever it's about to carry out one of the human's rage-induced wishes. A creepy movie, but one that I recommend.Watch for a young Stanley Tucci as the doctor.

utgard14 Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) is left paralyzed from the neck down following an accident. He loses all hope for living and even tries to commit suicide. A research scientist friend of his gets him a monkey named Ella that is trained to help him with day-to-day tasks. Allan's life improves and he develops a fondness for Ella. But when people that angered Allan start being killed, it becomes clear to him that Ella is somehow responsible.Middling horror movie from George Romero. Starts off well enough but becomes increasingly predictable as it goes along and, by the end, you're just ready for it to be over. The cast is unexceptional, though the writing does them no favors. Jason Beghe sports a laughably fake beard early on. John Pankow's pretty much the only interesting character and even he's a cliché. If one scene pinpoints when the movie starts to go off the rails, it's when the physical therapist chick gives Allan a pity lay. This scene is supposed to be erotic but it will surely just elicit laughter from all but the most sensitive types. Watchable but nothing special.

dee.reid It seems that every once and a while, a neat little horror film comes along that eschews genre conventions and is able to tap into a new vein to provide its scares. Writer-director George A. Romero, of "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) infamy, brings forth "Monkey Shines," an adaptation of the novel by Michael Stewart.Romero has always been a director who goes for the throat in delivering the shocks in his horror pictures. But in the savage gore and mayhem, he has never lost sight of the human characters, their drama, and their plight. In "Monkey Shines," Romero seems to have been domesticated somewhat - dare I say, "tamed" - in that characters and drama are most essential to the core of the film, and that horror is really the last thing on his mind."Monkey Shines" begins with the Good Day Gone Bad, Really Bad: Allan Mann (Jason Beghe), is a highly physical law student who goes for a jog early one morning after spending the night with his girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner). To avoid a dog on the sidewalk, he unknowingly runs into the path of an oncoming truck. He wakes up several weeks later in the hospital, now a quadriplegic, paralyzed, unable to use his body anywhere below the neck.Confined to a wheelchair he moves around by working a lever with his mouth and having to rely on live-in nurse Maryanne (Christine Forrest), his doting, overbearing mother Dorothy (Joyce Van Patten) and having to deal with his pompous surgeon Dr. Wiseman (Stanley Tucci) who begins having an affair with Linda, Allan gives up and tries to commit suicide. Luckily, Allan's mad-scientist friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) may have a solution: Ella, an extremely intelligent capuchin monkey who is being trained by animal specialist Melanie Parker (Kate McNiel) to be a sort of help-primate for paraplegics and quadriplegics, much like a seeing-eye dog is used for blind people.At first, a great weight seems lifted off Allan's shoulders; Ella's the perfect helper - she can answer the phone, play cassette tapes in the radio, and even help Allan turn the pages of his books when he reads. She even raises her hand in class for her turn to be called on. A deep bond develops between the two that's right out of any made-for-TV movie about hope and determination to beat the odds. Of course, and this is where the horror elements begin to kick in, what Allan doesn't know is that Ella is really Geoffrey's guinea pig in an experiment to create super-intelligent primates: he's been secretly injecting her with human brain tissue, which explains her super-intelligence in helping to make Allan's life a little bit easier. Even more horrifically, Allan has been having incredibly realistic nightmares in which he has acquired a monkey's-eye view of the world, and Ella is subconsciously acting out his deeply-suppressed anger, frustration, hatred, and rage for those around him. And it soon begins a battle of wits to see who is really controlling who, which also sees if Charles Darwin was really right all those years ago."Monkey Shines" develops so nicely during its first hour that it's easy to forget that first and foremost, it's a horror film and not just any horror film, a George A. Romero-directed horror film. Romero shows remarkable restraint in combining both the human story with the horror story, that both elements are given enough screen time to thoroughly develop and not seem so tacked-on to each other. That atmosphere and tension of the film's horror-themed second half is pretty intense, even if things can be forgiven for the haunted house-style climax.This is easily the best-acted film Romero has ever directed, though obviously it's not his best; that honor goes to "Dawn of the Dead." All of the characters turn in fine and realistic performances, including John Pankow as Allan's drug-addled mad-scientist friend who truly has his friend's best interests at heart, even if they're morally gray in the end. But there is one performer who is highly deserving of much praise, and that is Jason Beghe. Jason Beghe delivers a strong, controlled central performance that in my opinion, was criminally overlooked by a great many awards organizations. His performance is one of the most convincing and sympathetic portrayals of a physically handicapped protagonist I've ever seen in the movies. Essentially a prisoner in his own body, he hits every emotive note perfectly, and we believe and can see where and why his anger and rage at his condition is one of the most believable performances in the history of Romero's long and distinguished career as a filmmaker."Monkey Shines" is an overlooked career highlight from a highly distinguished director, George A. Romero. Even more so, Jason Beghe's criminally underrated performance makes the film even more worthy of more significant praise.This is one horror film that isn't monkeying around in the end. It is really scary.8/10

Paul Andrews Monkey Shines starts as athlete Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) is hit by a truck while out running, he is taken to hospital where Dr. John Wiseman (Stanley Tucci) operates & saves his life but unfortunately Allan is left as a wheel chair bound quadriplegic who only has movement in his neck & face. Obviously depressed after the accident his girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner) runs off with Dr. Wiseman & Allan attempts to commit suicide, his scientist friend Geoffrey Fisher (John Pankow) finds him & saves him. In an attempt to help Allan Geoffrey contacts animal trainer Melanie Parker (Kate McNeil) & ask's her to train one of his lab monkey's to act as Allan's helper which she does. The monkey called Ella makes a big difference to Allan's life & acts as his hands but Geoffrey doesn't mention the tiny fact that he has been injecting Ella with a serum made from human brains in an attempt to increase her intelligence, it proves a success beyond Geoffrey's expectations & has horrifying consequences...Also known as Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear this was written & directed by George A. Romero & I really wanted to like this, I like most horror fans love what Romero did for the genre during his early career with stonewall 100% solid gold classics like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Martin (1977), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Creepshow (1982) & in my opinion the criminally underrated Day of the Dead (1985) so I really, really wanted to like Monkey Shines which is unusual for me because I generally go into films expecting nothing. Monkey Shines was Romero's first major studio picture for Orion & his script was based on the novel by Michael Stewart & I have to say I was disappointed in just about every aspect of it. The most long-lasting impression of the film I have is that it is unbearably slow, the first 45 minutes is so boring it's untrue as it only features Allan being crippled & him be given the monkey. The character's are unlikable, the dialogue is dull, no-one is believable & the relationships are just not quite there. Then there's the fact that this is meant to be a horror film, well there's absolutely no horror in it until the final 20 odd minutes & I was just sitting there watching Monkey Shines & was literally debating whether to turn it off & go to sleep & I can tell you it was a pretty close thing but I just about managed to stick it out. The story has some interesting points & nice ideas & that makes what ended up on screen even more disappointing, the little sub plot between Geoffrey & his slimy boss comes to absolutely nothing for instance & lazy contradictions because they fit the script conveniently like Ella being able to inject someone with poison using a needle while the next time she has the opportunity she doesn't know how anymore. I wasn't keen on the oh so happiest of happy endings either as a so called quadriplegic has surgery which 'cures' him & he literally rides off into the distance with the pretty girl to presumably live happily ever after.Director Romero knows how to make a decent looking film & he manages to inject some tension into the climatic ending when Monkey Shines actually tries to be a horror film, unfortunately the preceding 90 minutes are as dull as dishwater & contain some unintentionally funny scenes. The love making scene between Allan & Melanie is hilarious, he can move anything below his neck so she positions her womanly bits over his face & her orally pleases her in a truly hilarious looking moment. The monkey, who is credited as 'Boo', for the most part isn't scary or frightening & is a bit too cute for my liking, it's well trained through I'll give it that & it acts better than most of the human cast! This being a Romero film & having Tom Savini listed in the opening credits as special make-up effects man I was hoping for some good gore, unfortunately there's barely a drop of blood in it. There's a cut hand, a little bit of blood in a surgery scene & a silly Alien (1979) inspired effect in a dream sequence.I was amazed to see this had a budget of about $7,000,000, where did all the money go? There's no special effects, no action scenes, no big name stars & although it's competently made it's nothing special. I mean Day of the Dead had half the budget of Monkey Shines & it looks the more expensive film. The acting isn't anything special & the monkey Boo gets the 'best actor' honours in it.Monkey Shines was a huge disappointment to me, I was expecting so much more. I really liked the overall story but it's so slow, so devoid of any sort of horror & just plain stupid on too many occasions. I hate to say it but Monkey Shines is basically the beginning of the end of Romero's midas touch in the horror genre.