Transcript: The Munsters: Classic TV vs Rob Zombie Movie Review

Greetings Classic Cinema TV fans, this is Jason Lockhart here with you once again bringing you another Silver Screen Spotlight here on Classic Cinema Plus. Today we're talking about a new film that is based on a classic TV series. We're talking about Rob Zombie's film, The Monsters. Now, interestingly enough, The Monsters is based on the Universal monster films. Many of you may remember those. They're all right here. Dracula and Frankenstein. Frankenstein, steelbook. The Mummy. The Mummy Steelbook, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, all of the monster movies from the Universal Library were brought together to make a monster family entitled The Monsters. And it was a fun sitcom. Probably one of my favorite sitcoms. Now, I love the Addams family as well, but the Munsters was just special. The Munsters dealt with the Frankenstein monster, but more Herman Munster, and the Count Dracula, known as Grandpa, and his daughter Lily, and Herman's son, the wolf boy, Eddie. And then their extended family that included all of the monsters from the creature from the Black Lagoon to the Wolfman to the Invisible Man. All of them made appearances on the TV show, and it was just pretty awesome. Just loved it. And then the poor, you know, poor unfortunate one of the family was, of course, here, Marilyn. Bless her heart. Marilyn was just disfigured and just not very pretty. Uh, that was the running joke of the thing was that she was, she was the, the ugly duckling or whatever you want to say of the family. And, uh, because she didn't look like all they did, you know, and, uh, but it was, it was just a fun series, right? Love this series. Uh, of course the monsters would, uh, be tried to, uh, reboot, uh, many times. They actually did one full movie found in this collection with most of the original cast, which was Munster Go Home. Love that film so, so very much. It's one of my favorites. And then of course Lily and Herman and Grandpa would return to be in Munsters Revenge Then there would be different kinds of spin or reboots or however you want to say it with new people playing those characters such as the Munsters Today, Here Come the Munsters, or Munsters Scary Little Christmas as we have here. Um, these were all done in, and, and were a fun to watch, but again, they were not going to be like the original series. Well, Rob Zombie, uh, known for his, uh, his, uh, slasher films, if you will, uh, play, uh, directing all these, uh, slasher films, including the remake of, uh, Halloween, I had a, like all of us that are probably watching this video, he had that love for the Munsters as much as we did. And so he wanted to make the Munsters movie, his take on the Munsters. And when I heard about this, and I heard that it was actually going to go forth, my heart sank a little bit at first, because I was like, is he going to make a slasher Munsters movie? And I was like, oh no, please don't do this. That's just bad. So I was intrigued, to say the least. So yeah, we went ahead and got it and said, let's take a look at it and let's watch it. And I will say this, The Munsters, Rob Zombie's The Munsters is a very unique film. It is, it's got a lot of great color, okay? He wanted to make it in black and white. That's the reports. He wanted to make it like the TV series in black and white, but Universal said, no, that's not going to happen. We're going to make it in color or we're not going to make it. So you have to do what you have to do. And in a way, I kind of like it in color, to be honest with you, because it's not the original series. So why make it in color in a way? because this is like a remake or a reboot or something. Why make it in color? Give it like the Munster Go Home with the green skin and all this type of stuff. Do it that way. It's pretty good that way. I like the color, actually. Rob Zombie did a color palette in this film that is something like out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The colors just pop, and it really is like eye candy, if you will. It just draws you in with all the colors and everything. I really enjoy the color and all. Now, the actual Munsters movie here is, I think Zombie wanted to make a prequel. So this is how the Count is trying to find a mate for his daughter Lily and a mad scientist creates a monster Herman out of the by using a brain from his crazy assistant he brings the brain of a comic and sticks it in Herman And thus, that's why Herman has the kind of funny goofiness and all. So I think that's why Zombie wanted to make this like a prequel. Then, of course, this is, that's his vision here, is this is a prequel. Okay, then Lily falls in love with Herman. Herman falls in love with Lily. And they are, through a series of events, and I'm not going to spoil it for anybody, but a series of events. The Transylvania home is closed, and the Count and Lily and Herman must move, and they've got to find someplace else to go. Thus, they find 1313 Mockingbird Lane. Ha! Home at last, right? I mean, it's really kind of a fun little film. I will say, this is not like the original TV series. The original TV series is completely innocent. There is no signs of any sort of bad language or any sort of any suggestiveness or anything like that. And while Zombie's version is not dirty, it's by no means, there is one scene where the mad scientist goes on a tirade and they have to bleep some of his language. Okay, so that is, you got to look out for that. You can tell what's being said, but it's bleeped, so you don't have to hear it. There is a little bit of other things that maybe are just not exactly G-rated. But all in all, it's a pretty clean film. I will say that. It's pretty clean. I'll be honest with you. Everybody does pretty good here. nobody is going to be able to fill the shoes of Fred Gwynn, of Al Lewis, and Yvonne DiCarlo. Nobody. I don't care who they are. Nobody can fill their shoes. And these three did a great job, but they by no means can fill those iconic people's shoes in these characters. It just can't happen. But the film is kind of like goofball, hilarious and funny and just out of this world. There's one scene where Herman and Lily are doing Sonny and Cher singing, I got you, babe. And in a way, it was funny, but in a way, it was almost cringy, too. It was really bad. The singing was really really bad And I think it was made that way I mean I not saying that these people have bad voices It was made that way But it was really cringy in a lot of ways But anyway, all in all, it was a fun little film. And I will say, it's something that I'm going to revisit again. I will revisit it again, probably next Halloween. It was interesting to say the least. Now, whether Rob Zombie is going to make a sequel to this, I don't know. Personally, I would like to see a sequel to this. I know that sounds really strange, but I would like to see a sequel to this. Maybe the next film deals with Herman and Lily and starting their family with getting Eddie. Who knows? I don't know. Maybe the next film, deals with them after they have already had Eddie and he's grown up a little bit. I don't know. I could see this being a trilogy in the fact that you have the prequel, and then you have them having Eddie, and then maybe a third movie with Eddie being the teenager, young teenager. Maybe a good trilogy. I don't know. I don't know how this is going to work out. We don't know the whole gist of what's going to happen here, whether this is going to be a smash or whether it's going to be a flop. We don't know. If it ends up being a flop, then you know what happens. Then no sequels come forth. But I think it would be kind of interesting to see how Rob Zombie goes forward with these if he gets the chance. As a huge Munsters film fan and TV series fan, And I appreciate it. Now, I will say this is not a prequel to the series. I don't feel it is. I feel this is more of a reboot to a series. That's my opinion. Who knows? Maybe we even get a TV series out of this. I don't know. Maybe a Netflix series or something like that. I don't know. But it is definitely something you may want to check out. So definitely go check that out. We have a full written review of this movie where we go deep dive into our thoughts on this. And you may want to read that. You can read that at Classic Cinema Plus. We appreciate you watching this video. We thank you for coming along for the ride. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe. We would appreciate it so much. It helps out so much. And be sure to go to Classic Cinema Plus. Check out all of our reviews and articles and all kinds of good stuff up there. We would appreciate it. And until we see you next time with another silver screen spotlight or another video, This is Jason Locker reminding you that if you want to see a great film or a TV series, check out a classic, and we will see you next time. Have a good one. Bye.