Schlock

You won't see big stars or great acting performances in this production. It's not a masterpiece but it's cool because it parodies some famous movies. And, although silly, there are many funny scenes. The scene with the two twin girls and the puppy eating the cake, the scene when Schlock coming out of the cinema disgusted by the big crap with Steve McQueen called "The Blob", the scene when Schlock dismembers the red car, the scene with the boy who asks Schlock to take him to pee and, very funny, the scene when Schlock plays the piano with the blind man. Unfortunately, the ending is sad, beauty kills Schlock.

The reviews for this movie here are mainly positive. And it's no surprise. This is a very, Very strong first movie. In fact, it looks almost exactly like the more famous Landis movies down to the lighting and editing. It does have some silly stuff in it, and there are scenes to make the picture longer. But the movie never feels constricted by its low budget, it successfully pokes fun at it. Landis is great as the titular ape and Rick Baker's done a great job on the mask - it even allowed Landis to emote. Eric Roberts' wife plays a blind girl who befriends Schlock thinking he's a dog, but soon she regains her sight and then!... Schlock's really funny, it looks like it's someone's first movie only for the first 15 minutes, and then it becomes big and quite enjoyable.

The Schlock really got its funny moments but there are parts that do not work very well or where the humor feels rather forced and some scenes are even rather boring. Also from a today's perspective I would add some real gore to spice things up. Therefore, I won't say that Schlock is a classic or cult (like other reviewers claim) or even a must-watch. But I am also not a great fan of director John Landis' biggest hit The Blues Brothers (good but not outstanding in my view). All in all, okay to kill some spare time - if you want to go on a nostalgic trip.

This is a truly bad film in almost every conceivable way: Poorly scripted, amateurishly acted, badly directed, and incompetently edited, but is saved by director Landis himself: His largely improvised performance in Rick Baker's excellent "monkey suit" for most of the second half of the film is laugh-out-loud funny in places, truly saving an otherwise forgettable film.

Sadly, despite Mr. Landis's encyclopedic knowledge of early cinema, many opportunities to parody or pay homage to other monster movies are missed. For example, the sequence where Schlock is feeding the ducks at the pond is just asking for a reference to the "flower" scene from James Whale's "Frankenstein". (Or is this reference enough? Hmm.) Other similar opportunities are missed throughout.

I suppose I was a little hard on this film. It entertains, indeed, but it's filled with holes and inconsistencies. I suppose if you ignore the aforementioned "holes and inconsistencies" you could get a kick out of this.

Childish, ridiculous, at times funny... Goofy, filled with rotten acting (and rotten bananas), bad camera-work, bad colours...

It's actually kind of nice to see a pretty well established director's first film and realize it's a total B flick.

I like the king kong reference. And the 2001. And the Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau would be proud... either that or roll over in his grave)