Customer Reviews

Gods and Monsters

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I view this movie years ago on television and have seen it numerous time since, both in English and with the French transalation. I FINALLY BOUGHT IT! I remember the first time I watch it that I was greatly touch and move by it. Each succeeding viewing, I obtain more. Ian McKellen is a marvelous actor! He manages to transmit his feelings and the problems with his brain after a stroke in small unsuspecting way. After watching the movie several times, I finally saw or imagine that McKellen/Whale started working on Brendan Fraser/Clayton Boone from his very first meeting with the yardman. When Whale find out that Boone, never actually was in the marine and wouldn't have their killer instinct, that he first thought he might have, his subtility in changing his plan is barely apparent, but he does change it, by using Clayton Boone's slight aversion to homosexuality!

I'll stop there, don't want to give you the ending as there is lots more to see. Just enjoy the movie.

Ghislain Desjardins

Forget the dreadful "Shadow of a Vampire". This is the one to watch.

Here Ian McKellen possibly does his best performance to date (Yes, it is better than Gandalf but not by much!) and so does Brendan Fraser. So two actors have their best roles ever in this movie and that says a lot about the quality of this film. This one has also got a few Oscars, even though that might not say much, it is still quite an achievement given that this film is pretty much a medium budget movie with limited locations and sets.

The story is about the director James Whale who was primarily a horror director in the 1930s and 1940s. This is the story about the perils of old age, sexual discrimination, lust, anger, manipulation and love - all played out to the tune of a film that documents the reasons for this director's status as one of the all time greats.

McKellen is frighteningly real at times. He has an old-age seizure on camera that looks stunningly realistic. The man is an impeccable performer and takes on his role here like a bull by the horns. You feel sadness and grossness for him at the same time. He is a manipulator, a conman, a sexual deviant- but also a great heart. Strangely enough this film has similar themes as Lord of the Rings. Tolken wrote many of the battle scenes, especially the Dead Marshes, because of his real experiences during the war. Whale is also attributing much of his own personal horrors that he paints on his canvas (both films and portrait artwork that he makes) to these artefacts of battle. There is a lot of depth to Gods and Monsters and plenty of emotion to boot. It spans across nearly every era between the early 1900s and the 1940s. Much of it is told in flashbacks especially the making of Whale's horror films.

The plot is basically about Whale and his gardener (Fraser) and their relationship. It is a bit like asking questions and getting answers and showing a bit of skin in-between. Not only do both these actors stand out but Lynn Redgrave plays Whale's housekeeper in her best role to date too! She is an absolute side-splitting hoot and her cynicism is second to none.

It would be hard to tell you much more about the plot without giving lots of it away but let's just say that you will learn a lot about everyone in this delightful film and it does come with a shock attached towards the end as the characters move a little closer to one another. The ending is moving and filled with sadness and loss with the passing of time. You can bring a lot to this movie and take a lot of it away with you too.

This is an inspiring movie about talent, friendship and filmmaking. It is hard to find dramas much better than Gods and Monsters...

The film is so interesting that the DVD capitalizes on the opportunity of further informing the viewer about the real facts behind the "fact-tion" story of director James Whale. Unfortunately the production of the special features seemed a bit rushed and "unproduced," apparently (according to the director) much the same way as the film itself. Interesting insight into the world of indie film and leaves the audience wondering what glorious heights this one might have reached had the filmmakers had ample time and resources to recognize their vision. Nonetheless, it is a beautifully acted and packaged piece...well worth the time and attention!

I often Buy having not seen a movie, especially when the reviews are glowing. Thankfully, I rented this first. I just don't see what was so special about this movie that was not family friendly, boring and drifted. My tastes go more for the movie that i can watch with my large family. This one doesn't qualify.

Moreover, I don't see any of the usual devises that make you sit back and say, "wow, well written". I only rented this because of the academy award. I don't agree that it should have gotten the award over some of its worthy competitors.

Rent it first as I did, maybe you'll agree with the professional reviews.

Tom Lehrer once said that political satire died the day Henry Kissinger was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Thus it is with cinematic satire as this film won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. There is no story of any worth here. It adds nothing to our understanding of the human condition (which other reviewers seem to imply is where its value lies) per se, it is merely a series of sketches in search of a coherent theme which fails qua entertainment. McKellan and Redgrave do their best, but with such prosaic material to work off they cannot save a very boring film whose raison d'etre escapes the ever increasing somnolent viewer. That it won an Oscar for the screenplay says far more about the Academy's often appalling decisions than anything else. Perhaps, like the American Presidency, lobby money can buy anything.

This is an excellent film that vividly portrays the plight of many elder men in the gay community. The director-of-yesteryear character was played with Oscar-caliber acting (Ian was nominated). He plays the tormented director who remembers the lavish parties and the numerous young pretty boys who sought his attention, primarily due to his prestige in the film-making industry. As he lost this prestige, so did he misplace the affections of these pretty boys, until Fraser (the landscaper) is viewed at a distance and is seduced. Out of pity or respect, Fraser gives the ultimate gift of himself, but the sadness and hunger of the director takes advantage of the offer. An excellent portrait of a bridge between hetero- and homo-sexual urges. Fraser should have been nominated as well in this film. It is a drama to be viewed hopefully by those outside of the gay community as well as the younger members of the community caught up in the club-scene. It provides a reminder, to be kind to your elders and looks and prestige last only so long. What goes around, truly comes back.

To be sure, there are a few clunky moments in "Gods and Monsters," a pretty low budget piece of historical fiction about the final days of Hollywood's legendary director of horror, James Whale. The clunky moments usually have Brendan Fraser in them. He's the new "yard man," Clayton Boone, at James Whale's estate, and he agrees to pose for Whale, played to a phosphorescent brilliance by Ian McKellen, because Whale tells Boone that his face has a remarkable architecture! Sure. It's McKellen at his horny old codger best.

While Boone poses, Whale reminisces about everything from the trench Warfare of WWI where he was an officer to the days on the set of "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frakenstein." He includes tidbits about other Hollywood directors of the 1930's, particularly George Cukor and his wild Sunday pool parties to which only men where invited. Whale had been open about his homosexuality, and it's hinted that his openness may have been his undoing in hypocritical "Tinsel Town." The yard boy only "gets" Whale's sexual orientation when the loyal housemaid of twenty years tells Boon, "Mr. Whale is a bugger." Oh, says Boon, an ex-Marine: "A homo!" (Since the movie is set in 1957, the word "Gay" didn't exist.) I defy you to recognize Lynn Redgrave as the Hungarian housekeeper. She, like Ian, plays her part extraordinarily well. Two of Britian's greatest actors in the same film is reason enough to own this film.

Since Whale has had a stroke, memories flood over him uncontrollably and he doesn't always take his medication that would tone these flashes down because it reduces the wit and brilliance that were his life-long trademark. Nonetheless, the superb screenplay and the savvy direction of Bill Condon, allow McKellen, a trained Shakesperian, to show why he is, without exception, the world's finest actor.

In the greatest scene I may have ever watched in film, Whale and Boone go to a Cukor party where Princess Margaret is being feted. Cukor is standing by the princess in the receiving line, and Whale, impeccably dressed, introduces the obviously out-of-his-element yard boy to the princess. There is some tension between the two old directors, and Whale snaps that tension by declaring: "Yes. Clayton hasn't met many princess, but he knows a great many Queens."

In the film's climactic moment, Boone agrees to pose fully nude for Whale and what ensues is a brilliant moment that is erotic yet as sad-as-sad-could-ever-be.

Whale, in my interpretation of the film, is the outcast just as his creation, Frankenstein, was an outcast looking for love and companionship. He doesn't find love, but Clayton Boone provided companionship.

This is a truly great film.

If you don't finish watching this movie moved in some way i'd be very suprised. God's and Monster's is the story of the horror film manster James While("Frankenstien", "Bride of Frankenstien", "The Invisable Man")who in his older years battles sickness, and Homosexuallity. He forms a stange friendship with the young man who mow his law for money. Even though he is straght 100%. The acting in this flim is untoppable. Horror legend Clive Barker and executive producer of Gods and Monsters Clive Baker is also a open Homosexual. This DVD also comes with a very interging documantry. See This!

As a society enamored of Hollywood we tend to focus most of our interest on the people who star in the movies. What these actors and actresses are up to keeps us constantly scanning the news shows, legitimate periodicals, and tabloids. Frequently, this fascination causes us to forget that someone was directing these movies. Only a small handful of Directors ever get the attention that we focus on the stars. This movie focuses on one.

James Whale directed many movies but the two that put him on the map were Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. This movie focuses on the last weeks of his life. Prior to the beginning of the movie he has had a stroke. While Whale has made a complete recovery physically the stroke has affected his brain. He is beginning to have flashbacks of his younger years and loves. Memories that he may be happier not remembering. We discover that Whale may have been hounded out of the elite of Hollywood over a sex scandal. You see, while it is acknowledged that there are homosexuals in Hollywood, it has always been something that people don't want to have flaunted in front of them. Whale didn't care what people thought and seemed to have many wild parties at his house.

Whale begins a strange relationship with a young gardener that has recently begun to work for him. The gardener, Clayton Boone, is a strapping young man who is searching for something in his life. The two's relationship grows as each begins to find more of what they are missing from the other until the final explosive night.

Ian McKellen is James Whale. Mainstream American audiences haven't seen much of McKellen over his long career. That will soon pass as McKellen has been signed as Magneto in the upcoming X-Men film. All who have seen him find McKellen to be a phenomenal actor and richly deserving of all the awards that have come his way. The surprise to some in this movie will be the man who plays Clayton Boone, Brendan Fraser. Mainstream audiences are used to Fraser in movies such as Encino Man and George of the Jungle. While exceedingly funny movies, they don't show his acting ability to the fullest. This role does. Fraser is with McKellen step for step all the way through expressing surprise that this famous man wants to spend time with him and then coming to a greater understanding of himself.

This is a very powerful movie. Some will not like it because of the blatant homosexual references throughout but to allay this fear it is for the most part not graphic in this depiction. The movie is well directed and the acting by all is wonderful!

I purchased this movie because I am a huge Brendan Fraser fan, but the movie is so moving that I somewhat forgot that Brendan was in it and became so captivated in the story, that I ended up watching it again a second time. It is wonderfully acted! I think it's Brendan's best work ever and Ian Mckellen is outstanding in this movie. For anyone looking for a movie that will move you and having you wanting friends and family to see it, this one will. It's such a powerful drama. One that I will watch over and over. I'm glad to have it in my Collection.