Mystery on Monster Island (1981) User Reviews

Adventure fictional about two travelers who are shipwrecked on a remote island and freely based on Jules Verne novel

[ma-cortes · 4/10 · 14 April 2012]

Adventure tale full of colorful scenarios , thrills , humor and pretty fierce monsters . Amusing , lighthearted romp though average , only for kids and teenagers , based upon the Jules Verne novel . It's a mediocre fun with naive special effects , passable set decoration and functional art direction without use of computer generator . It deals with a young European (Ian Sera) residing in San Francisco is reluctant to marry his long-term bride (Ana Obregon) because he wishes to travel around the world first . His wealthy uncle (Peter Cushing) agrees to send him on a global expedition aboard his vessel . He along with a professor (David Hatton) undergo a hazardous voyage but en route the young man and his traveling companion are shipwrecked on a far island loaded with rare creatures and gold . Along the way they face numerous dangers , risks as the duo descend into deep caverns and discover a tunnel system populated by countless prehistoric creatures as well as gold-hunting natives , torrential floods , volcanic eruptions and many other things . It results to be a silly but likable Spanish adaptation based on Jules Verne classic novel .

This below average humdrum adaptation is a special version of the Jules Verne adventure yarn titled ¨L'Ile Mysterieuse" or "The Mysterious Island" it was written in 1874, though the source of this picture is actually "L'École des Robinsons" or "The Robinson School" published in 1882 . There're rip-roaring action , spirit of adventure , derring-do , humor , thrills and results to be briefly entertaining . Two greatest stars of this production , Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp , are really wasted . There appears usual secondary actors seen in co-productions of the 60s and 70s , Spaghetti and Terror genre , as Frank Braña , Luis Barboo , Gerard Tichy and the horror idol , the great Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina . It's a slight fun with average special effects by Emilio Ruiz Del Rio , passable set decoration , functional art direction and none use of computer generator . The rubber monsters are the real stars of this production , however being middling made , it has numerous "older technique" special effects such as matte paintings, rubber-suited monsters, uses the standard film technique of reverse-footage to create certain effects . The fable is silly and laughable , and the effects and action are regularly made . Among the most spectacular of its visuals there are some deeply shrouded caverns , several monsters roaring menacingly towards the camera and the colorful backgrounds of the lost island . Some monsters are clumsily but the movie has some good moments here and there . Some illogical parts in the argument are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the monsters, though sometimes are a little bit cheesy . Highlights of the voyage includes a roller-coaster trip , a terrifying odyssey in sailing , prehistoric beasts and many others. The motion picture is middling realized by Juan Piquer Simon . Piquer who recently passed away was a good craftsman , he owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . Juan was expert on all kind of genres as Terror ( Slugs, Piezes , Cthulhu ) and Sci-fi (The rift , The new Extraterrestres, Supersonic man) . While his films have been universally panned by the prestigious reviewers, they have a kind of quality that must be endured to be fully appreciated .

Danger ahead

[unbrokenmetal · 5/10 · 3 December 2008]

Mr Kolderup (Peter Cushing) buys a tropical island for five million dollars. His rival Taskinar (Terence Stamp) also wanted the island - because he knows a gold treasure is hidden there. Still he couldn't make a higher bid than Kolderup. When Kolderup sends young Jeff (Ian Sera) to the island along with his teacher (David Hatton), because the lad looks for adventure, wants to become a man et cetera, Taskinar plans to make that adventure much more dangerous than intended...

Well, it's innocent fun with the typical ingredients: shipwrecked on a mysterious island, the heroes meet monsters and unknown enemies, a beautiful lady in distress, and last not least a monkey for comic relief. "Mystery On Monster Island" is not among the classics of the genre, but definitely less boring than most stuff they show on TV in the afternoon.

MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND (Juan Piquer Simon, 1981) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 5 October 2008]

Unfortunately, this one constituted another gaffe within my ongoing Halloween challenge since it's not really a horror film despite title, director (he'd later make the gory PIECES [1983]) and presence of genre icons Peter Cushing and Paul Naschy! In fact, it's a typical Jules Verne adventure (based on his much-filmed "Mysterious Island") which proves surprisingly palatable – thanks also to a lively score – though unbalanced by comedy relief from the youthful hero's bumbling/cowardly sidekick, a Professor of Elocution whose name is constantly mispronounced ("T. Artelet not tartlet!").

Cushing is the protagonist's rich uncle who has purchased an island, to which the boy is sent and where he meets a variety of dangers (pirates, cannibals, monsters) – eventually, there's a twist with respect to most of these, which thankfully explains the sheer poverty of the creatures on display! On the other hand, Naschy has a very small role at the start as a man who has struck gold – which is then coveted by his associates. The latter include Terence Stamp who, for obvious reasons, was Cushing's chief rival for the acquisition of the island; later on, he turns up on it (ludicrously shrouded from top to bottom complete with anachronistic goggles!) with his bandit horde to take the gold by force – to this end, he even plants a female 'shipwreck victim' to lure the hero into divulging the loot's whereabouts.

Coupled with the far better GORILLA AT LARGE (1954; see above) on Fox's-by-way-of-MGM "Midnite Movies" banner, it offers the film both in English and Spanish. At first, always the stickler for a film's native country being its original language, I started watching the film in Spanish but when a narrator began translating the credits into Spanish and the English subtitles proved to be of the descriptive "hard of hearing" variety, I soon gave up my puritan pretensions and watched it with the more 'user friendly' English soundtrack on. At least, one does get to hear Cushing and Stamp reciting their own lines this way...

It's been over for 5 hours and I'm still aghast...

[lesmarsden · 1/10 · 8 June 2003]

"It's the worst movie ever" is an oft-used phrase. "It's a real turkey" has just about lost its punch. How about this for a plug line: "MONSTER ISLAND isn't a movie; it's punishment for a lifetime of horrible deeds."

I taped it for my 6-year-old son and we just got through watching the thing; I had to have a bath afterwards in case any stray remnants of this cheesy, inept, incompetently-directed, over-the-top spectacularly bad acting, ill-conceived design, Jules-Verne-insulting, direct-attack-on-filmmaking pile managed to shoot through the pixels and land on me. The looping was apparently done by performers for whom 'human' is a second language. Truly excellent actors Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp were fortunate because while top-billed, they barely had any screen time at all. I'm still floored by having to witness one of the most baroquely florid and horrendously just plain bad performances in the history of cinema: that of the estimable David Hatton as Professor Artelect. It all makes sense in a way: he must have been the title Monster; his victim the acting profession.

In summation, this is a reprehensibly dreadful z-budget debacle. Suffice it to say my young son found it unbelievably bad and he's about as easy an audience as they come. Don't just avoid this one: work hard to help find a cure for it.

Why did they even bother?

[angelynx-2 · 2/10 · 22 August 1999]

Whew. Glacially paced, barely directed, amateurish and dopey pseudo-adventure-comedy about shipwrecked travellers dodging evil treasure-hunters on an island packed with rubber dinosaurs, walking seaweed men, and *gasp* giant, whistling, steam-blowing caterpillars. (Yes, really). --Stalwart young hero, comic-relief panicky professor, cute chimpanzee, and embarrassingly-close-to-racist native companion bumble around the island (acquiring along the way a female castaway who's apparently located the volcanic island's only beauty salon) one step ahead of the gold-seekers. Supposedly cute twist ending only makes the whole thing even more preposterous. A long, long way from Jules Verne's original (I believe it's the same story which Harryhausen made FAR better as "Mysterious Island") - too bad Verne can't sue for defamation of plot...

One of the most annoying movies ever made

[lfdewolfe · 1/10 · 31 August 2020]

This movie sucks! I mean it, if I had a choice I would give this a zero. But I can't and so it gets a one. The story is awful, the twist that all the monsters were toys sucks like, why couldn't they just be actual monsters? Maybe because the effects were so bad they decided that, I don't know. After all, they do look like toys. But the worst part, the very worst part, is the acting. Everyone except for Terence Stamp and Peter Cushing sucks! But they only have two scenes, so the rest of the movie your stuck with some annoying stereotypes. While most of the actors and actresses suck equally, there's one character that stands out as being the worst. Professor Ardelect! I want to rip this guys throat out because all he does is complain, "I'm hungry, I don't want to walk!" Yeah, well I'm sick of him! Then, when the monsters show up all he does is stand there and scream like a little girl. And it's supposed to be funny? That's not funny, a two year old could come up with better humor! Bottom line, don't watch this at any costs! Not even if your family is being held hostage, you would just be better off.

Monstrous waste of talent

[barnabyrudge · 2/10 · 4 December 2002]

I remember seeing this film on the Sci-Fi channel. I noticed that it had Peter Cushing in it, and I thought "Ah, a Peter Cushing movie I haven't seen. I'll tape it". What a mistake!

Firstly, poor old Peter is hardly in it at all. Secondly, Terence Stamp is also billed, but also barely gets a look in. Thirdly, it's so cheap and tacky that even if they were in it for longer, it would still be unendurable. The monsters on Monster Island look like something that got rejected from an episode of Doctor Who for being too unconvincing. The plot is just a modest variation of The Lost World, but rather than a plateau in the middle of the Amazon, the action occurs on an island in the middle of uncharted waters.

The director Simon has made some bad movies (Pieces springs to mind), but this is still a good bet for one of his worst. It may entertain very young kids, but for anyone over the age of 8 it just looks too fake. For any over the age of 18, it simply hasn't got an interesting enough storyline.

Sorry Cushing fans, this one's not worth the effort.

It makes Plan 9 from Outer Space look a masterpiece.

[hitchcockthelegend · 1/10 · 21 October 2011]

Jules Verne must turn in his grave every time this daft adaptation of his story is shown any where in the world. As a lover of creaky creature features and sci-fi schlockers myself, I can understand to a small degree why the odd genre fan will stick up for this as a piece of fun and harmless entertainment, but they shouldn't kid themselves that this is not the lowest of the low of Z grade monster movie world. Something like Plan 9 has viable budget excuses, this, however, does not.

In Terence Stamp and Peter Cushing you have two of Great Britain's most elegant actors appearing, and location work comes from the Canary Islands, Asturias and Puerto Rico. There was money there, definitely. But what follows is a crude attempt at a comedy/adventure movie that just embarrasses every one involved. In fact with Stamp and Cushing only really bookending the picture, you have to feel that they drugged them and never let them see the hour and half of film in between!

Again I have to say that there are many a "man in rubber suit" movies that I enjoy and gladly have as part of my own DVD collection, yet this sullies the good name of low budget schlock creators. The bad "monster" creations aside for a moment, the acting reaches new levels of awfulness, so bad in fact that Ian Sera, David Hatton, Gasphar Ipua and Blanca Estrada are out acted by a chimp! The monsters are laughably bad, the sort you see when your 8 year old nephew makes a 5 minute monster movie short in your back garden. At one point our hapless castaways are menaced by seaweed monsters, they are all wearing gabardine trousers! (pants for our American friends). Funny? Yes it was. Insulting? Without doubt.

Amazingly there's a real nice print on the DVD, with Andrés Berenguer's lovely location photography sticking out like a sore thumb (filmed in Dinavision Technicolor no less!). There's even the joyous site of a Gatling Gun firing bananas, while the presence of some genuine wildlife animals briefly lifts the spirit. Yet there is every chance that if those animals could talk? With all things considered...they too felt embarrassed to be in this hopeless waste of time and money. 1/10

Wow... So much assurance from the would-be critics...

[Playitagainsam · 6/10 · 29 June 2007]

Let me begin by saying that I had read Jules Verne's original source novel BEFORE seeing this movie... and the source is NOT "The Mysterious Island", as most of the would-be intellectuals who reviewed the film would make you believe.

While "L'Ile Mysterieuse" ("The Mysterious Island") was written in 1874, the source of this film is actually "L'École des Robinsons" (which could be translated as "The Robinson School"), first published in 1882... and the entire "plot twist" criticized by the others before me is actually Jules Verne's original idea... it seems he used the "plot twist" before M. Night Shyamalan! Seriously, people... this is a fantasy, a farce, lighten up! Jules Verne himself was winking at his readers throughout the pages of his novel, and the movie only took it further. Since I knew the source of the film, it was a great fun ride to watch a retelling by a director who thought his viewers would laugh with him, not at him (probably just as foolishly as Ed Wood, but that's another story!) I enjoyed this bizarre flick, it was just as fun as some Russian fantasy movies I'd seen as a child, except that it had the brazen attitude of a more adult-oriented fare, but without becoming a "Gwendoline"...

Also, movies are not created and do not exist in a void. When this film was released, in 1981, the era of the blockbuster was not yet upon us, Reagan and Thatcher had just been sworn in, and the Cold War was entering its fourth decade, flaring up again... The great era of the '70s, which had given us so many introspective and serious movies, was over, and people felt they needed more comedies, even hysterical comedies. It all probably started with "Airplane!" in 1980, and the ball just rolled on. There was at least one other title that came out in 1981, blending comedy, spoof and horror as a perfect companion for "Monster Island" - I'm thinking of "Saturday the 14th"...

All in all, the criticisms leveled here don't surprise me. Truly, it's probably not the kind of film appreciated in the U.S. culture.

As bad as most make it out to be.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 6 October 2006]

Monster Island starts in San Francisco where the richest man in America William T. Kolderup (Peter Cushing) has just brought an island in an auction, meanwhile his daughter Meg's (Ana Obregon) fiancé Jeff (Ian Sera) says that he wants to travel the world to find adventure & leave her behind, for a while. So, along with his bumbling teacher Thomas Artelect (David Hatton) Jeff sets sail to, well whatever he plans to do. However events take a turn for the worse when the ship they are sailing in is attacked by sea creatures & is sunk, both Jeff & Thomas end up washed ashore a mysterious island where they have to fend for themselves. The local perils include monsters, dinosaurs, erupting volcanoes, native cannibals & a bunch of mean pirates who want to get they're grubby filthy little hands on the islands underground deposits of gold...

This Spanish American co-production was co-written, produced & directed by Juan Piquer Simon & is a really, really bad film. The script by Simon, Ron Grantman & Joaquin Grau was apparently based upon the novel Mysterious Island by Jules Verne which it never at any point resembles apart from the fact that there's an island in both stories. Where to start? I think Monster Island is a film that needs to be seen to have any idea just how embarrassingly bad it is. Right lets start with the stupid comic & slapstick tone & nature of the thing, it's all so childish & frankly silly that it isn't exciting in the slightest. Some of the stuff in this has to be seen to be believed, a home made tommy gun which fires bananas at the bad guys! There are comedy fight scenes, some terrible looking monsters & they even throw in a 'cute' animal sidekick which seems to have more intelligence than any of the human character's. Which brings me nicely to Thomas Artelect, yes it's true he is quite possibly the most annoying character ever committed to the silver screen. Talk about getting on your nerves, I think I'd rather have my teeth pulled out with pliers than have to put up with this buffoon anymore. I'd have thrown him into the volcano... Then there's the lame so-called twist ending which I figured out within twenty minutes, the stupid plot hole in which William could never have known or guaranteed Jeff & Thomas would have been washed ashore his island I mean what if they had drowned in the sea? What would he have said to his daughter Meg? Would he have said 'sorry love but my plan went wrong & now your fiancé is dead at the bottom of the ocean'? Well would he? The bad guys are dumb enough to be defeated by some bananas & coconuts & unless your under five your simply going to think it's the most stupid thing you've ever seen & quite possibly it is. This ones a bit of a stinker although it moves along at a fair pace & is harmless enough but, well, it's bad & there's no two ways about it.

Director Simon has no talent & Monster Island proves it, there's no style, no excitement, it's incredibly badly made with a really cheap & nasty look & feel to it throughout & it's just so predictable. He throws in that awful twist ending & five minutes later everyone is walking off into the sunset like nothing ever happened, the whole film is badly thought out, poorly written & contains some of the worst monster effects ever. From awful giant caterpillars to a dinosaur that looks like it was made from wool. Jurassic Park (1992) this ain't! Lets not forget the seaweed people who are obviously just poor actors with seaweed placed over them, at least their faces are covered to spare any more embarrassment.

I'm not sure what sort of budget this had, probably not huge. Monster Island is pretty inept from start to finish, again anyone under five is going to have a hard time sitting through this one to the end. I have to mention the music as the main theme tune which gets used repeatedly is annoying as hell, I hated it & it along with many other aspects of Monster Island grated my nerves. I'm sure fine actors like both Peter Cushing or Terence Stamp wouldn't boast about being in this & despite their top billing on the credits each only has about five or tens minutes worth of screen time, luckily for them. I have to mention David Hatton as Thomas, along with the character being horrible his performance is truly dire, I don't know what else to say I really don't.

Monster Island, also known as Mystery on Monster Island, is a terrible film & it's as simple & straight forward as that. This is a film which insults the intelligence of adults & kids alike, probably safe to give this one a miss.

Great adventure movie

[f.gimenez · 10/10 · 7 March 2001]

I just don´t understand what´s wrong with this movie.. I say this due to the comments I´ve read about it.

It´s most enjoyable, the great and unknown David Hatton (the professor) is without a doubt the real star of the movie...

Great photography, fine performances from the entire cast including the guest stars Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp make this movie most amusing and a must to see from time to time.

Perhaps it´s a movie for children, I don´t know. But that´s precisely why I like it so much.

Bearing in mind the movies that Hollywood and even Europe offer at present, I really think that the dose of ingenuity this movie releases is just unpayable.

I adore it.

Interesting and fun Jules Verne tale

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 14 May 2013]

I'd been after this movie for some years as I am a fan of this type of film and Peter Cushing. I recently obtained a VHS copy off E-bay.

A young man and a professor head on an expedition to an island just bought by his uncle. Lots of dangers lurk on the island including a volcano, unfriendly natives and, best of all, some rather shoddy looking monsters, more of them later. They also befriend a chimp and a native. Then, towards the end, the uncle comes to the island where I was taken by surprise with the ending...

Now to those monsters, these include some seaweed men who attack the ship, a giant horned beast that looks similar to one that appeared in At Earth's Core (also starring Peter Cushing), giant rubber caterpillars and some humanoid large eyed creatures. Certainly not prehistoric monsters as I've read in some reviews.

Despite being top billed, Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp (Superman 2) only appear in the movie for a few minutes at the beginning and the end. David Hatton plays the professor, rather annoying at times.

In all though, I found this movie great fun.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

"Blasted turkeys!"

[zmaturin · 2 July 2000]

Yet another fascinating motion picture extravaganza from prolific Spanish director Juan Piquer Simon. In this one, Mr. Simon actually got some name actors to appear, namely Peter Cushing and Terrance Stamp, who most will remember as old guys in various Star Wars movies. Luckily, they only appear in a couple of scenes, leaving the leading man duties to Ian Sera, who was memorable as the "It Stinks!" guy in "Pod People" and the guy who gets his crotch crushed in "Pieces". Frank Brana, another venerable Simon regular, has a brief appearance as well (too brief- he doesn't get any ridiculous dialog like he did in "Slugs").

Anyway, Sera has been stranded on a deserted island with a really annoying sidekick who constantly screams and falls over and wets himself in the most disgraceful performance since Jerry Lewis repelled movie goers in the sixties. Sera and his grating companion face every deserted island cliché ever as they build a fort, forage for supplies, befriend a precocious chimp, and team up with an offensive black native stereotype who has to constantly save our "heroes" from their own stupidity. We get to see them in seemingly endless musical montages which are mostly taken up by the constant mugging of the painfully unfunny sidekick, as he manages to drop every possible object on the island on his toe.

But remember, they were unfortunate enough to land on Monster Island, and this flick certainly doesn't skimp on said monsters. First their boat is attacked by green fish monsters whose eyes seem to be painted on. Then it's a giant dinosaur who can't close his mouth, some lumbering seaweed men with no discernable powers to attack with, and some cute, steam blowing caterpillars. It should be noted that our hero repeatedly discovers that bullets can't stop the monsters, but doesn't stop unloading clip after clip at them, wasting his limited ammunition supply.

Despite the aggravating comic relief guy and a couple of racist caricatures, this would be a pretty good movie for kids- the monkey is great, and the effects are competent enough, and things move along fast enough to hold a youngster's interest. Unfortunately, there is a completely ridiculous plot twist towards the end that sends this flick into the simply idiotic file. I won't spoil it here, but needless to say, "The Game" this ain't.

As for experiences, I've had enough of those to last me quite a while.

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 5 March 2010]

I might have been better off watching Godzilla on Monster Island, but Paul Naschy wasn't in that one, and I'm a Naschy completest. So, let's be honest upfront; I am only here for the Naschy! Starring Peter Cushing as the uncle of adventurer Jeff (Ian Sera), who is off to make his way in the world accompanied by the hilarious David Hatton.

It's a silly Jules Verne adventure with lots of animal laughs and pratfalls.

The silly looking monsters, the guns that never seem to do any damage or run out of bullets, stupid homemade weapons, bombs that don't kill anyone, and the incessant whining of the professor (Hatton) begins to wear you down to the point that only a five-year-old would appreciate this film. The turkey bit was the last straw!

As for Naschy, I never saw him except for a brief time in the beginning.

Fireworks

[viamillitaris · 5/10 · 4 December 2017]

This is the movie of my childhood. Everything was so colorful with beautiful landscapes of desert island, predictable, scary creatures, monsters, guys behind the masks and the bad guy in the middle, pulling all the strings. Of course, there is a beautiful girl in the very end, who comes as the reward for heroic action of the main character. I just love happy endings, where happy couple proves that love between man and a woman is the only thing which matters on this world.

This is my new 'worst ever' movie.

[Redils · 30 November 2003]

This wasn't smart enough to be considered campy or tongue-in-cheek. Although, come to think of it, it did have every cliche of bad monster/castaway/uncharted island movies. I suppose that's an accomplishment.

Wretched beyond belief; it's made my top 10 list of the worst movies ever made

[callanvass · 1/10 · 4 September 2013]

I decided to watch this movie, simply for the presence of Peter Cushing & Terrance Stamp. I ignored the very low rating on IMDb, and decided to go ahead with watching this one. Serves me right! This movie was a complete waste of time and one of the worst movies I have ever seen, period. The island is filled with prehistoric monsters alright, but they are laughably bad; one is reminiscent from The Creature of The Black Lagoon, and we also get some silly looking people that are covered in seaweed and other stuff from the sea. It takes place in the islands of Spain, so the cinematography is certainly beautiful, but even that gets old after a while. It's also filled with this annoyingly happy music, which is constant throughout the film. I understand that this is partially a comedy, but it wasn't needed in my opinion. Peter Cushing's role is very limited, almost to a glorified cameo. It's a thankless role which I'm assuming was for a much needed paycheck. Terrance Stamp doesn't have much screen time either. I'm sure it's a role he has quickly put out of his mind. Ian Sera makes for a weak hero in Jeff. David Hatton grated my nerves as Thomas, and I couldn't stand his shrilled voice or his whiny performance. He's meant to be the comedic relief, but he's terribly unfunny. What was the point of that twist ending? The movie was so laborious, did they think we would give a damn? I don't know what they were thinking when this was green-lit, but this was one of the worst 90 minutes or so I've ever spent in my life

Final Thoughts: You want the headache that comes with this? Be my guest. I usually am rebellious when it comes to such low ratings, but in this case it is richly deserved. You won't see many films that are worse than this. Avoid it like the plague

DUD

Cheezy

[erich1010 · 3/10 · 2 August 2003]

When I first saw the monsters on the ship, I thought it was part of the plot to have people in costumes scare them off. I didn't realize that the rest of the movie would have people in monster suits. Very cheezy, cheap, and predictable. It is a very bad movie. I would have rated it lower, but it is so bad that it was fun to watch to see how bad it would get.

Worst Peter Cushing Film I've ever seen

[kwskws · 1/10 · 9 August 2017]

I can't help but think that if Cushing bothered to watch this dung heap of a movie he would have been seriously embarrassed. From the 30 or 40 shots from a revolver without reloading to the banana Gatling gun, each scene was more ridiculous than the others. A truly wasted hour and a half of my life.

Rip-off on Rip-Off Island!

[Coventry · 2/10 · 29 March 2010]

Good Samaritan Peter Cushing pays $5 million for an island during an auction and hereby beats mean bastard Terence Stamp who knows for a fact there's a gold treasure buried somewhere. Cushing sends his nephew to the island to explore, accompanied by a clumsy professor as some sort of comic relief, but things already start to get awry from the ocean journey. One night the nephew finds the crew dead and the deck infested with cheesy seaweed monsters inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The ship explodes but the boy and his nutty professor wash ashore the island where they're welcomed by plenty of other abnormalities. There are dinosaurs, seaweed zombies, Arabs with sunglasses, gas-spurting caterpillars and a beautiful French female castaway. I got "lured" into watching "Mystery on Monster Island" because of the famous names (Cushing and Stamp in one movie!?!) in the cast and crew (Juan Piquer Simon made my personal favorites "Supersonic Man", "Pieces" and "Slugs") and also simply because it sounds awesome and purely nostalgic. In reality, however, this is a very misleading family/comedy/adventure movie instead of a mystery thriller. I can easily stand a little bit of comedy, but I really wasn't prepared for an uptight professor teaching table manners to a chimpanzee and diction to aboriginals. Another reason why you can tell this movie is family-friendly: the nephew remains faithful to his fiancée back home, even though the gorgeous French chick literally throws herself at him. I think it's highly unlikely any man will refuse (or able to resist) such an offer in this particular situation.

"Mystery on Monster Island" is somewhat reminiscent to the Sinbad movies; expect they're a lot more infantile. The special effects are really back-to-basic, with giant plastic dinosaurs and postcard images of waterfalls and cave entrances and even a little bit of exotic wildlife. The aboriginals set up a wooden fort faster than MacGyver and The A-Team combined and that where there's not a hardware store in sight. Where do they get their equipment? Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp perhaps receive top billing but naturally they only appear briefly in the film. Altogether not even five minutes, I estimate. There's another famous horror legend in the cast, namely Paul Naschy, but his character already dies within the first three minutes of the film. Absolute nobodies play the real main characters of the story. It's a total rip-off however you look at it. Avoid

Wow - What A Turkey With Cheese

[shark-43 · 7/10 · 6 June 2009]

I give this trainwreck a "7" just because the group I watched it with had such a good time HOWLING with laughter at how horrible it all was - everything is wrong - the direction, the acting, the "special" effects, etc. Two vets like Stamp and Cushing take the money and run - they are barely in it - the two male leads are like oil and water - one guy is dead eyed and no energy and the other David Hatton overacts so much you are stunned at the hammy performance. He must have known how bad the thing was so he decided to give a 1000% to make up for the lame script and bad effects - he acts with his eyes, he acts with his eyebrows, he acts with his MOUSTACHE - he plays the nervous, sniveling kind of sissy character that was very popular in comedies from 1930's and 1940's (Edward Everret Horton usually played them) but the thing is.....THIS MOVIE IS MADE IN THE 1980's!!!! We laughed so hard when the "dinosaur" monster finally showed up - it is so bad, so not real, so not scary that we saluted the filmmaker for even yelling "Action" - wow - is it lame and then the scene where they encounter giant caterpillars is also unintentionally hilarious. So for fans of Grade Z cheese, pull up a chair and laugh - for those looking for a good old fashioned Jules Verne adventure - you are out of luck,.

Huh?

[val-rogers · 1/10 · 23 May 2007]

You have got to be kidding me. I saw this on sky TV and this is not a comedy, just a low budget crap about tribes and weird creatures. The sea creature was a toy because i can tell from looking at it. The caterpillar is some train like robot. The dinosaurs are stuffed animals man. The Dino's didn't even walk proply, man. I couldn't even tell it was a dinosaur. The sea creature could have been better but he just looks like a man in a werewolf costume. The story is boring and the tribes are really weird. Don't watch this, this is just about people trapped in the island from stuffed animals and a tribe. I give it a 1 out of 10. Not funny. NOT CREATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The movie won't go over well with most, but it's my personal favorite.

[XPogaX · 10/10 · 28 January 2006]

(Note: I've also seen this title appear on the Sci-Fi channel, but they have edited some scenes out—as well as most of the credits—to make more room for advertising time. Regardless of the movie, this is not fair to the artists who worked on it, or the viewers who wish to see it. It unfortunately seems to be an increasingly common practice in the industry.)

I'm not going to try to defend this movie on objective grounds from the criticism that I'm not surprised to see it has received. It certainly has its share of corniness, clichés, questionable acting performances, and low-production values. And while I can certainly understand those who brand it as a laughably bad movie, it does have a few things going for it. The musical score, while weak in parts, actually has a few strong numbers in it; much of the natural scenery is very beautiful; and a couple of the acting performances were overall very well done. But these things aside, I would imagine that most viewers would think this movie to be a poor one.

Despite its flaws, though, this movie is without question my all-time favorite out of all of my cinematic experiences (which are both quite plentiful and quite broad). Granted, this is largely (if not wholly) due to the fact that I first saw it when I was four years old seventeen years ago, and thus carries with it both nostalgic value and perceptions that have not left me since. I watched it frequently (sometimes every day) for a number of years. In the eyes of a child—at least in my case—the corniness, low-production values, and general execution of the directing didn't matter. The movie possessed a magical sense of adventure and exploration. It was thrilling, otherworldly, and full of risks and discoveries.

In response to some of the others who've commented here: To suggest that the movie approaches any racist undertones is, I think, misunderstanding the movie and needlessly politicizing it. The character of Carefinatu and the tribesmen are indeed cliché and exaggerated. But as the true manner of the plot becomes apparent towards the end of the movie, such characterization and setting is clearly understandable. Besides, it's just part of the nature of the movie itself.

As an interesting note, I believe that the audio samples used for the 'whistling caterpillar' monsters were actually taken from recordings of a certain species of monkey.

Silly, cheese, trash whatever highly underrated another guilty pleasure!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 6/10 · 17 March 2021]

It's an alternative offer of Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, a trash picture with strong humor oriented on the funny and clumsy character of the Prof. Thomas Artelect, they casting Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp to draw attention in order to sell the movie as leading role, actually they acted for fifteen minutes or so, in the beginning and the ending, due the age of Cushing, the storyline developed with a secondary casting plentiful, an odd adventure of Mysterious Island perfect entertainment for all ages, perfect for a Sunday matinee.

The story began when an Island is about to be auctioned in San Francisco just two men are able to contest before the highest price the first the bleak Mr. Skinner (Terence Stamp) who already know that the has a hidden gold there, in other hand the wealthiest man of United States Mr. William T. Kolderup (Peter Cushing) who is the winner for mere five millions dollars, his young nephew Jeff Morgan (Ian Sera) wants explore this unknown Island, thus Mr. William choose his partnership Prof. Thomas Artelect (David Hatton) an expedition is settles at once.

A Steamboat of the own Mr. William is assigned to send both bold guys at the Island, nonetheless along the night the ship is invaded by weird sea monsters, they got escape and reach the island by dawn, there an endless nightmare takes place, first they saves a black man about to be sacrifice by a bunch of evil cannibals, shortly thereafter came up all sort of giant dinosaurs, they hide in a cave, once more weirdo insect monsters underneath of earth, at shore they are attacked by a countless seaweed's monsters, slipping away helped by a lovely Chimpanzee, soon they meet a lone French girl Meg (Ana Obregon) who live there after a shipwreck, soon they are chased by a gang of masked men, well it sounds bizzare? Just waiting by an unexpected final.

Delightful trash adventure having in the funniest and priceless character Prof. Thomas Artelect the highlight of the movie, also the breathtaking French girl with a sexual interesting on Jeff Morgan, among fake volcanic eruption, lousy monsters all this surround by a lavish landscape at Canary Island as beautiful waterfalls clean rivers and exuberant rain forest, I'm startled by unwillingness over so pleasant picture, though it may be an whimsical offer, it's a true guilty pleasure gem that I watched in my youth days, that came at my hands with a restored DVD with a classic dubbed version attached!!

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1986 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6

Adventure for Kids

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 17 August 2022]

In San Francisco, the wealthy William T. Kolderup (Peter Cushing) wins an auction against Taskinar (Terence Stamp) and buys an island for US$ 5 million. Then he asks his grandson Jeff Morgan (Ian Sera) to get married with his beloved fiancée Meg Hollaney (Ana Obregón), but Jeff tells that he would like to spend one year traveling around the world before marrying Meg. Kolderup agrees and sends Jeff with Professor Thomas Artelect (David Hatton) in a steamship of his own to the island he has just bought. One night, Jeff and Artelect find that the ship is on fire and the captain and crew dead, attacked by strange creatures, and they jump in the water and see the vessel exploding. They wake up on a beach of an island and look for supplies and a place to stay. But soon they stumble upon cannibals, prehistoric monsters, gold and pirates in an unforgettable adventure.

"Misterio en la isla de los monstruos" is a silly adventure for kids based on a Jules Verne novel. The reference to horror genre misleads the viewers. The story is not totally bad but the character Professor Thomas Artelect is a kind of annoying Dr. Zachary Smith from "Lost in Space" with stupid and unfunny attitudes along the story and destroys the movie. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Misterio da Ilha dos Monstros" ("The Mystery of the Monsters' Island")