I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Sure, it's not as "cool" as I remember it being when I watched it two decades ago, but Monster Squad is still entertaining. This is a good watered-down horror film for younger audiences. Plus, it has surprisingly good costumes and special effects.

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 grew up in the 80's and watched this as a child, it was fun and entertaining, and it worked with my imagination which was already leaning towards a tendency for horror. As a thirtysomething year old now, I've re-watched the movie, and I still got some enjoyment out of it, along with a bucket load of nostalgia. Van Helsing and his gang break into Castle Dracula and use a spell to stop a reign of evil by destroying an amulet. Something goes wrong and evil is not wiped out, instead the good guys lose, but evil ends up lying dormant for a while. Fast forward to the 80's and things are about to get ugly. While transporting Dracula's coffin to America, Dracula manages to escape, after which he calls on some of his most trusted henchmen - I mean, monsters. Arise then: Wolfman, Creature from the Lagoon (or Merman), The Mummy, and Frankenstein's monster. Set on destroying the vehicle which would allow them to be banished - the spell and an amulet. Luckily there is a Monster Squad in town, a group of friends who love monster movies, monster facts and trivia, and, well, anything monster related. The Monster Squad manage to work out what is happening. Along the way they slowly convince some adults to help out. The ultimate aim, is to succeed where Van Helsing failed, and put a final end to evil - stopping Dracula and his hench-monsters. Think "The Goonies" with a lot less money for the budget, mixed with "Stand by me" with more horror, and "Fright Night" but with the lights on. This is a fun adventure with all the charm of an 80's cheese tasting session. It's harmless, family fun which a touch of horror. The monsters are camp, the bats are rubber, the soundtrack is synth-tastic, there are tongue in cheek Easter eggs all over, it's cute, it's sad - it's a lot all rolled into one. I'm not saying it's the best kids horror film you will ever see, but definitely not the worst, but it's definitely fun. I'm expecting this to get re-booted at some point, as there is a lot you could do with CGI to amp-up the film, and because in its day, this got a cult following of fans. 7 out of 10.

I'd seen "the Monster Squad" several times as a kid, but (and this is unusual) the only thing I remember is one line: "Kick him in the nards!" That's it. I'm as prone to nostalgia fog as the next guy, but I carried no warm memories of this. I figure that's why it didn't do much for me as an adult. The kids seem well cast and I think the makeup and creature effects are fantastic (Stan Winston and Richard Edlund FTW). Not only that but it stands as a relic of a very different age of kids movies. Some of the language involved, and the fat kid actually being named Fat Kid? It just doesn't work like that in 2016.I've seen the comparison to "The Goonies" made often, but I'll take that one instead. This is very '80s, but also a huge shrug.