How To Make A Monster (2001, Rated R, 90 minutes) available from Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment
Stars: Steven Culp, Clea Duvall, Tyler Mane, Karim Prince, and Julie Strain
Plot: A video game developer hires a bunch of quirky programmers to create a scary combat game. A power surge hits the suit that recreates motion, and the computer decides it wants to play the game for real. The programmers are locked in the middle of a virtual reality nightmare that seems it will never end.
Features: Choice of either Widescreen or Full Screen presentation, a Making-Of Featurette, DVD Web Links, a DVD Interactive Game, Theatrical Trailers, a Photo Gallery, Dolby Digital 5.1 English/French audio, English/French/Spanish/Portuguese/Chinese/Korean/Thai subtitles.
Final Word: Proof that loads of effects do not necessarily make a good movie, this cheesy sci-fi flick harkens back to the great monster movies of the ’50s. However, technology has taken such a strong hold on the current age of filmmaking that things enjoyable in those original monster movies have been discarded for flashy computerized nonsense. Although the effects by Stan Winston (Jurassic Park, A.I.) are impressive in the right context, they don’t work here.
Rating: 2.5 briefs (out of 5)