Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"Ghost Chase" was an early effort by director Roland Emmerich before he moved onto big-budget Hollywood movies, and when he was turning out German-financed movies derivative of famous Hollywood movies. While this movie isn't as derivative as some of his other movies made at this time, you can still see influences, ranging from "Halloween" to "E.T." Actually, this unoriginality is one of the lesser problems I had with this movie. It's a pretty cheap-looking movie, for one thing, with poor cinematography and lighting. Much of the dialogue seems post-dubbed, and many of the special effects are tacky. And they apparently couldn't afford a decent-sounding musical score. But most of the blame falls on Emmerich's direction and script. Emmerich doesn't seem to know how to stage scenes many times (look at how the bicycle crash and the overpouring of coffee in a mug is filmed.) The script almost seems to have been written as the movie was filmed, with the plot taking forever to get going and then progressing at a sluggish pace when it's not being confusing. If you hate Emmerich's major Hollywood studio movies, take a look at this, and you'll see what real bad movie making is like.

Hollywood-Monster, or the more widely used & much better alternate title Ghost Chase, starts with a groovy credit sequence involving big pink animated eyes & a catchy 80's pop tune after which we are introduced to Fred (Tim McDaniel) who is a huge horror film buff & aspires to make his own & uses his friend's Warren McCloud (Jason Lively) & Laurie (Jill Whitlow) to star in it. One night, on his 21st birthday, Warren receives a phone-call from his lawyer (Julian Curry) who informs him that he is invited to the reading of his Father's will. Sensing some money Warren & Fred are visibly disappointed when all he is left is an old suitcase containing a clock, it's quite a nice looking clock but still only a clock. Meanwhile corporate villain Stan Gordon (Paul Gleason) has a mysterious interest in the suitcase himself & sends some seemingly random half German half American guy named Karl (Leonard Lansink) to steal it. Back at Warren's house & as the clock strikes one the ghost of his Grandfather's butler Lewis appears who reveals that there is an absolute fortune hidden in his Grandfather's house & he was murdered to protect it's whereabouts. Warren, Fred, Laurie & Lewis set out to find the missing fortune...This German production was co-written & directed by Roland Emmerich who would later go on to make mega budget Hollywood films like Universal Soldier (1992), Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), The Patriot (2000) & The Day After Tomorrow (2004) & I personally didn't think it was too bad but at the same time wasn't exactly brilliant either. The script by Emmerich, Oliver Eberle & Thomas Kubisch is definitely aimed at children for the most part although there is some minor violence & bad language. Hollywood-Monster moves along at a fair pace although it is a bit dull at times, the comedy isn't really that funny while the horror elements are played down & it doesn't particularly satisfy in either department. Lewis the ghost is almost a secondary character, doesn't get much screen time & when he does get some he barely does anything other than stand there & talk anyway. The plot is silly, childish & somewhat predictable with all the clichéd feel good family elements present & correct like in the end the good guys win, the bad guys are defeated while love & friendship conquers all, but then did you really expect anything else? On the positive side Hollywood-Monster goes about it's business with a certain likability, as a whole the film sort of entertains & has a nice climax when our heroes have to fight a possessed suit of armour in a basement dungeon.Director Emmerich pays homage to the horror film throughout as he uses the typical slasher scenario at the start to try & fool his audience, he tries to get as many posters into the background as he can from the likes of The Shining (1980) to Friday the 13th (1980), he shows lots of clips from Night of the Living Dead (1968), has the lead character who drives around in a hearse & is obsessed by horror films & he sets various scenes in a special effects workshop. I must confess I'm confused as to why he has done this considering Hollywood-Monster is pretty family friendly, these homages & references are going to pass most children by especially one instance when he name drops Boris Karloff, how many pre-teens are going to know who Boris Karloff is?Technically Hollywood-Monster is well made with good cinematography, music & solid production values but nothing particularly stands out. The special effects are decent enough considering the time it was made. The cute, large eyed, bushy eyebrowed design of Lewis obviously is meant to appeal to children, I would have preferred him a little scarier. The acting was OK but nothing spectacular.Hollywood-Monster is an OK film but in no way a brilliant one, it passes an hour and a half without too much pain & provides a few decent scenes here & there although I'm sure children will get more out of it than adults. Worth a watch if you catch it on TV for free or it's going cheap somewhere.

I was over at the local used book/CD/movie store the other day when my friend came up to me showing me this movie for sale for $2.50. He told me he was going to buy it because it looked really bad. "NO!" I said. "I'm the one who collects bad movies, I should be the one buying it!" He with held from my torment for a while, until I showed him where the Godzilla movies were. THEN he gave it up in favor of Godzilla vs. Mothra. "Haha!" I exclaimed, holding the movie over my head. "I have won!" Little did I know that this movie was the one who REALLY won.If you are reading this, it probably means you have rented or bought this movie, and you should be ashamed of yourself. How dare you support this movie with your hard earned money! The basis of this movie should have told you right away that this movie was a piece of crap. A group of film makers are struggling with production, when one of the kids (I mean "kids" literally, because these actors look as if they were only 17 or 18-years-old. None of them should be living on their own, making movies. They should be in high school.) gets called to the reading of a family will. He gets a bunch of junk left to him by his great grandfather. One piece of junk was an old clock that turns out to be housing the spirit of an old servant of the kid's great grandfather. And every time the clock struck 1:00 am, the spirit left the clock to roam his surrounding area. What I didn't get was why this spirit didn't do the same all of the other hundreds of nights he was locked away in that trunk. Well, the director of the films sees the ghost, and immediately after he wakes up, begins to construct a bunch of things that resemble what he saw when the spirit came into his room. He makes puppet about two feet tall, a scale model of a huge house, and writes a script for a movie based on his vision. My question, where did he get the money, and the know-how to make such detailed objects. The puppet is shown to have radio controlled eyes. What kind of a technological high school drop wizard is this guy who knows how to rig up remote sensor appendages? I don't know... On to the next "important" thing!Across town, another film maker (this one in his 30's) hears about the will reading, and orders a spy to steal the clock. The ghost appears again, scaring away the spy, and this time, he inhabits the puppet made by the director guy. This leads the ghost (I think his name is Lewis) to speak of the great grandfather and how he had lots of money, but he never gave it to anybody, rather put it in the basement of some house. So the kids spend the night roaming Hollywood in search of some house, trying to jog Lewis's memory along the way, because Lewis is a moron and can't remember where the house was.Well, they finally find the house after a girl recognizes the house in one of the older movie maker's movies, only to find out that the older guy is going to blow it up for the grand finale of some movie. They sneak into the closed set, end up in the basement of the house and are about to break into a wall, when the ghost of the great grandfather shows up, inhibits a suit of armor, and begins battling the kids. One blow and the armor falls apart though, but it somehow reassembles itself, and begins to exact it's revenge. It puts the director kid on a bed of spikes, entraps the great grandson behind bars, and does something to Lewis, but Lewis can still talk, and he tells the director kid that the only way to defeat the great grandfather's ghost is to destroy the clock. So he does it and the house blows up with the kids inside it. They find the fortune, the director kid is upset because he lost Lewis, the old director is bankrupted because the kids exploit a fraud he committed back a few years ago, and to end the movie, they drive away in a limo with guess who driving?... Awww... it's Lewis... Everybody with me, Awwwww... Lewis is still alive. DAMN YOU LEWIS!!! Damn you back to the pits of despair you came from!!! And as you're on your way down, don't hang onto me for support, because I'm not giving any! Lewis doesn't deserve it!! This movie doesn't deserve it! The actors don't deserve it! Nobody related to this movie deserves it!All in all, this movie wasn't all that bad. The ending was what killed it though. I never liked Lewis. I wanted him to stay dead, and when I saw him driving that limo, I wanted to punch a hole through a wall. By far, the WORST ending I have ever seen. That is my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. Good day gentlemen...

It's weird how the writer/director of such exciting blockbusters such as ID4 and The Patriot could create such a strange film. I'll try my hardest to recount the plot. Two ultra-cheap filmmakers (art reflects life) have a great idea for a movie and rope in an unwilling but attractive starlet and make up a Muppet-like monster based on the photographs of a long-dead grandfather's butler. A rival studio producer wants to blow up the grandfather's house as the climax to his big budget movie so the butler's ghost comes back to possess the Muppet doll to lead them to hidden billions in the cellar.It's not a bad film, by no means, it's quite cringe-worthy in places but inconsistently entertaining. There are no big name stars or SFX but that is made up for with bizarre plotting and storyline. This film is more in the style of Roland Emmerich in his Making Contact/Moon 44 days. But if he had the budget he gets these days who knows what this film might have ended up as. I give it 6/10 for weirdness, plot and defying convention.