Never piss off a trained monkey . . . these are words to live by.
Monkey Shines begins simply enough. Super jock and super girl live together in their little super world - that is until a big truck rams into super jock and he is left limp and lifeless from the neck down. Then of course, super girl runs off with super doctor . .. don't doctors take some kind of oath like "first do no harm"?
Anyway, things go from bad to worse for super jock a.k.a. Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) when he has to live his life being taken care of by Nurse Maryanne (Christine Forrest) who comes equipped with her own little attack bird named Bogart. Bogart seems to like nothing better than to fly into Allan's face and peck at his eyes.
Allan's friend Geoffrey Fisher (John Pankow) who also happens to be a mad scientist of sorts, gives him a monkey trained by the beautiful Melanie Parker (Kate McNeil) to assist him in every way. Of course, Geoffrey fails to mention that Ella (Boo) the monkey has been part of one of his experiments and is now with Allan as a kind of control setting to see if she will respond better to his genetic serum once away from her monkey siblings (a minor detail, but still would've been helpful to know). Turns out she more than outshines her siblings when left to her own devices.
Strange "accidents" begin to befall anyone who so much as crosses Allan and he is convinced that he has somehow bonded with Ella and she is carrying out his evil wishes. More right than he knows, he sends Ella away with Geoffrey and spends the weekend with Melanie whom he has fallen for quite deeply and who has also fallen for him.
When Allan comes home from his weekend retreat, his Mother (Joyce Van Patten) who has come to stay with him since Nurse Maryann left due to monkey trauma, begins to grate on his very last nerve. As he gets angrier and angrier, Allan begins to sense that Ella is back in the house. The remainder of the film deals with Allan's fight to regain control over Ella and ultimately get on with his life.
Monkey Shines was actually pretty good. I really felt Allan's frustrations at being unable to do the things he once took for granted. And the ending really creeped me out as it demonstrated that even with 5000 years of civilization, the instinct to survive still overrides everything else.
A movie to watch especially if you are a fan of Capuchin monkeys. Boo definitely steals the show!
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Monkey Shines Movie Cast and Credits
Directed by
George A. Romero
Writing credits (WGA)
Michael Stewart (novel)
George A. Romero (screenplay)
Cast (in credits order)
Jason Beghe .... Allan Mann
John Pankow .... Geoffrey Fisher
Kate McNeil .... Melanie Parker
Joyce Van Patten .... Dorothy Mann
Christine Forrest .... Maryanne Hodges
Stephen Root .... Dean Burbage
Stanley Tucci .... Dr. John Wiseman
Boo .... Ella
Janine Turner .... Linda Aikman
William Newman .... Doc Williams
Tudi Wiggins .... Esther Fry
Tom Quinn .... Charlie Cunningham
Chuck Baker .... Ambulance Driver
Patricia Tallman .... Party Guest
David Early .... Anesthetist
Michael Naft .... Young Allan
Tina Romero .... Child Playing
Mitchell Baseman .... Child Playing
Lia Savini .... Child Playing
Tom Dileo .... Vandal
Melanie Verlin .... Vandal
Dan Fallon .... Allan's Friend
Alice Shure .... Nurse
Leslie Dane Shapiro .... Nurse
Christina Galesi .... Nurse
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Heidi Hinzman .... (uncredited)
Eric Morgan Stuart .... (uncredited)More Monkey Shines Reviews and Information
Critics Reviews of Monkey Shines at Rotten TomatoesMonkey Shines Review and Information Page at The Internet Movie Database
