Good start, but then it gets ruined

Best movie ever!

A Disappointing Continuation

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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 don't have any nostalgia for these sorts of children's movies, but I admit that "The Monster Squad" is charming in parts. And, as a comedy, it works about as well as, say, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948), which isn't bad. The "Wolf man's got nards" line and the "dorking" comments, however, are atrocious. On the other hand, "The Monster Squad" almost seems daring compared to today's kiddie fare considering that it consists of some mild curse words, which I'm not even sure I'm allowed to repeat on IMDb. And, kids can be bigots, so it's realistic that the ones in this movie spout homophobic slurs and mock people for their appearances and other superficial qualities. One kid is called "the fat kid" repeatedly throughout, for example, and a Holocaust survivor is referred to as the "scary German guy." But, the kids are curious, and they have a passion that's contagious.Dracula and the Frankenstein creature make out the best among the monster rally: one is a solid villain and the other a sympathetic monster. The Wolf Man plays out his usual Jekyll/Hyde identity crisis, as a repentant man and a deranged animal, but the werewolf costume is pretty bad. Gillman and the Mummy have little to do, and the three brides of Dracula are especially too slow to be a menace. The semordnilap of "Alucard," also employed in other Dracula movies, "Son of Dracula" (1943) and "Dracula A.D. 1972" (1972), is repeated here for no apparent reason and for further no apparent reason the kid sees what he can spell by mixing up the words. The pairing of the little girl with the Frankenstein monster is a better reference and reworking of a classic horror film, "Frankenstein" (1931). In general, "The Monster Squad" is a sincere homage and charming successor to the classic monster movies.(Mirror Note: The German proves to the kids he's not a vampire by pointing out that he has a reflection in a mirror.)

A group of monster-savvy kids must rescue their city from Dracula (Regehr) and his monster troops. It's as stupid as it sounds, with some of the kids not even being likable, such as Gower's character, who is so underdeveloped that there's the need to flesh him out by dragging his parents and five-year-old sister into the mix, with the mom and dad's conflict being that he works too much and then we have Dracula actually calling the five-year-old sister a well, that part's worth seeing, so no spoilers there. Rightly earns itself a cult status for Stan Winston & Co reimagining the Universal Monsters but the terrible story still can't be redeemed by amazing SFX. Some versions of the film foolishly credit Noonan as Frankenstein when the movie itself points out the common misconception of it being the monster's name when it's actually the creature's creator's.★½ (out of four)

A young group of monster fanatics attempt to save their hometown from Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr) and his army of monsters.A bit of this movie has aged poorly, namely its homophobic comments. Not to say that kids don't talk like that, but it is much less likely you would see it in a movie today (2015) than in the 1980s. The whole outlook on homosexuality has shifted completely (for the better). There is also some potty language which was okay for PG movies in the 1980s but probably would not slide today.Overall, though, this is a really good movie that brings the Universal monsters to the next generation. I am not exactly sure how they were able to use the characters without risking copyright infringement, but well done. And it is great to see Jon Gries in an early role, well before his big break as Uncle Rico.