Undescribable Perfection

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

The Monkey's Paw was written in 1902 by W. W. Jacobs, but if you didn't know that and you read the message board for this film, you'd be tempted to think it was originally a Simpsons or Goosebumps episode.While so many iconic stories like the one Jacobs penned lend themselves to parody or adaptation, the writers of this version actually created something original - which is why, I would guess, the ratings here are so much lower than they should be.Instead of giving us one more pass through of the "be careful what you wish for" scenario, the filmmakers take us in a different direction. Saying much more would ruin the story, so I'll only point out that it's not only the protagonist who suffers for his choices.All aspects of this film are competent or better. The length is also very appropriate to the overall arc and pacing. I'll also mention that the connection to the original story is so subtle that many will miss it.

After receiving a mystical paw from a friend, a man's life is turned upside down finally culminating in his best friends' resurrection from death and his continual stalking of his friends to get the powerful object.On the whole this one was quite a decent enough effort without too much really affecting it. One of the few positives on display here is the rather demented manner in which this one goes about the resurrection of the friend, slowly but surely turning him away from the calm and level- headed friend into a gleeful and inhuman slasher that takes advantage of numerous opportunities to really get some great suspense in this. Not only is the behavior change here responsible for that but also the rather obvious physical changes abound as there's plenty of different marks and scars that give away his appearance quite readily that makes the slow transition all the more obvious and creepy to match that newfound psychotic behavior. The scenes where he gets to show that off, mainly the stalking scene in the grocery store, the freeway chase after his friends and the final brawl in the house all manage to get some nice action in here as well as allowing for the performance of superhuman feats which is quite a bit of fun and really manages to get that transformation across as best it can here with a lot to like. Finish it off with some solid gore and it manages to come off nicely, but still flawed as there's a few rather distressing elements present. The biggest issue here is easily the fact that there's just no way to take the plot seriously or even find a great deal of creepiness from it as the majority of the time here is spent on doing nothing but the two arguing over whether or not the resurrected friend should have the paw in question, resorting to bullying and tormenting tactics to get it but never showing anything that deserves why he should have it. That really tends to force him into being far more psychotic than he really should've been and tends to render a vast majority of the scenes here into a repetitive manner of requesting it, denial and then a vicious murder only for it to start back up again which gets very old very quickly. It doesn't do anything for the pace of the film and none of these scenes are different from the previous ones only the location has changed and the people still alive in that world. The last problematic effort here is the fact that there's never any real back-story on the paw as for how it got it's powers from in the first place, really tending to just be around and never really offering anything on what it is or how it got that way which was all given in the original story but dropped here which is quite confusing. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, sexual content and children-in- jeopardy.

The bottom line: don't waste your time. This should not be called "The Monkey's Paw." This has nothing to do with the original story. I am so very disappointed! I was hoping that the story was brought to the big screen. I could not be any more wrong. I highly suggest for viewers who like the original story NOT to view the movie. However, if you have never read the original story or do not like the original story, watch the movie an decide for yourself how bad the movie REALLY is. Truly, it id REALLY bad. If you decide to waste your time with this movie, I hope you have the chance to do something else constructive in parallel. I hope somebody decides to remake this movie the way it is supposed to be.

"The Monkey's Paw" is a movie for in between and looks like a movie version of one of Stephen King's short stories. Upon further investigation, it appears to have originated from W.W. Jacobs who has written this story in 1902. The story is based on the well-known 3 wishes which are granted to someone. In this movie the paw of a dead monkey can achieve this. However, there is a snag. The wishes are carried out but you have to pay an extremely heavy price because you are tampering with fate.The basis of the original story is mostly retained in this film. Only the end has a different turn. The final message behind the whole story is in the description of the leg. "There was a spell written by a fakir. He was a very holy man. He wanted to show that life depends on fate, and those who are interfering with it won't do this without any sorrow." Actually, it is a perfect story with the right atmosphere for an episode of "Tales from the crypt" or "Creepshow". Also there's a comic of "The Monkey's paw" and even a radio show. It actually sounds a bit corny and feels like an old-fashioned ghost story to read to children at Halloween.Despite the fact that I didn't expect much of it, the movie was still reasonable. You should forget about the overused banality, such as a phone ringing at the wrong time. Ultimately, it's an ordinary creepy story with a bit of voodoo and a zombie section. The feeling and atmosphere of "Pet Sematary" leans close to it, but nevertheless, this movie has its own personality.The acting is reasonably well . You do have the feeling that you are watching a TV episode. I don't think it's screened a lot in the cinemas. It appears also that the protagonist C.J. Thomason has quite some experience in the world of television. Generally he played his part convincingly. However, his actions weren't always logical. Jake didn't have a easy life thus far. His mother is in the hospital and is suffering from cancer . He has a bland, probably poorly paid job with a gland of a boss, who's also married to his ex-girlfriend he apparently still has feelings for. A reasonable person would immediately think of his mother at the first wish. Nope. The first thing he wishes is to become the owner of a glitzy sports car parked in front of the pub. You can bring up the arguments about his drunken state and his skeptical attitude towards the so called wishes. But still ! Stephen Lang looked familiar, but I couldn't place him immediately. Compared with Jake he's a more colorful figure. In the beginning he played an ordinary fellow who apparently can handle his liquor. The changing into a blood-drooling murderous zombie who kills anything that stands in his way of fulfilling his only desire by a wish, is rather successful. So we get a soft-slasher zombie movie where the massacres are not visualized too gross. The most original was the part with the machine working on air pressure. A typical horror story and an enjoyable entertaining movie. Don't expect more. One thing always amazes me. Am I the only one whose first wish would spontaneously be to ask for a 1000 wishes more ? More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/