Monsters of California

I came across this movie while browsing UFO threads on Reddit. It seemed to hide clues and revelations about the whole UAP and alien affair.

Well, imagine watching a bad episode of Scooby-Doo, minus the dog, with four teenagers stumbling upon mysteries they generally escape from by literally running away. So, the first survival lesson: run.

The dialogues, moreover, are nothing short of comical. Forced humor and comedic pauses, including the old stoner friend trick.

The funny thing, though, is to notice how some dialogues are actually meant to be revealing: the movie changes its mood, and you witness a dialogue pasted there, almost randomly, that seems like a script taken from some conspiracy-minded mind.

Tom DeLonge is a name known in the entertainment industry, so eventually he got to make a movie about his subject of interest, UFOs and alien lifeforms.

Going in, I had fairly high hopes for "Monsters of California".

I watched the entire thing, start to finish. And what a letdown it was, with way too much terribly-written dialog, three main characters who are each more annoying and unlikeable than the other, and constantly recurring unfunny dick humor that is like multiple hairs in your soup.

And, to top it off, there is no payoff, at all, whatsoever...nada.

Repulsive characters spouting idiotic dialog doing nothing the least bit believable or interesting is a formula for utter failure.

And that's all this hour-and-a-half of nothingness is...a waste of everyone's time.

We watched it for about 20 minutes and it was one scene after another with a combination of bad acting, dialogue, and direction. The three main characters are so clueless they couldn't even do what they set out to do. Ostensibly because they were stoned. One apparently took multiple doses of LSD. If a movie promises some kind of story, we'll struggle through until the end, hopeful of redemption. This movie promises nothing. Example: There was a little kid in a scene at the dinner table. She wasn't saying a word. Now, this can be hysterical if the child can act at all, because they can make faces and draw us in. This one looked like she was watching a slow-motion ping-pong match, looking back and forth with just a blank look on her face.

It's not funny, it's not well acted, it's not worth your time.

I have a soft spot for Casper Van Dien, so I said I would watch this film. He's in it just for a few scenes, though. The rest is a bunch of really cute guys and girls going in circles in a film that makes no sense. Come for Casper and stay for the bikini models.

The entire story circles around a teen boy who wants to find out what happened to his dad. His friends and him are active paranormal hunters and then they discover a tech MacGuffin left there by the missing father, which then leads to aliens and other random stuff. Meanwhile you get the most pointless personal dramas, like his (very hot) mom dating and then preparing to get married and then deciding to move the family to another city. Don't worry, none of this has any relevance to the story at all.

I thought it would be a fun "young group of boys go on an adventure" thing. But everybody is either too old for this kind of plot, or too young to take seriously. And the movie is so bad... Ugh!

Unfortunately, it doesn't quite hit the mark. The movie seems to approach the UFO phenomenon from a rather misguided perspective. It's as if the narrative is being driven by a religious fanatic's viewpoint, which doesn't really serve to enlighten or entertain. The acting is passable, but nothing to write home about, and the storyline feels scattered and lacks cohesion. "Monsters Of California" is a missed opportunity to explore the fascinating world of UFOs and extraterrestrial life in an engaging and thought-provoking manner. It lacks the depth and complexity that audiences expect from a film in this genre. In short, it's a mediocre offering in a genre that has so much potential for intrigue and excitement.