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What's More Awesome than a Bulletproof Werewolf? Project: Metalbeast (1995) Review
I have never been a fan of werewolf movies. I have found a majority of them to be slow, boring pieces of cinema, so I've strayed away from any sort of contact with them. However, one day, I came across a title that caught my eye: Project: Metalbeast. The VHS cover made it look like a fun, cheesy horror movie and the back description sounded interesting so I...wait, is this movie about a bulletproof werewolf? Oh man, I am definitely seeing this film! I eventually did get around to seeing it, which is how I am able to talk about it today. Read on, because we're about to learn all about...
Project: Metalbeast 1995 Review
Project: Metalbeast opens with a government mison in 1974 to Budapest to get werewolf blood to experiment with and posbly create a new breed of super-soldier. One of the team is killed by the werewolf, and the other, named Butler, gets the sample and makes it back to America. While there, Butler is angered by having to wait for the lab report on the blood to come, so he goes ahead and injects himself with it. He turns into a werewolf and kills a person before being shot by lver bullets and put into suspended animation.
Twenty years later, scientists at the same research facility where the werewolf was captured have developed an experimental, synthetic metal skin. The skin is intended to aid burn and cancer victims, but the one problem is that the skin can dry and become as hard as steel, killing any human wearing it. Their chief financier instructs them to test it out on a cadaver (really Butler in suspended animation) or he will cut their funding. Really, he wants to reanimate the werewolf and put him under his command. During the surgical operation where they apply the skin to Butler, they remove the lver bullets, he awakens, and transforms into a bulletproof werewolf. This causes trouble given that the only thing that can stop a werewolf is a lver bullet, so the werewolf goes on a killing spree as the scientists attempt to figure out what to do.
The biggest shock Project: Metalbeast has going for it is that the acting is surpringly good, even if some of the dialogue is really hokey. There are a few familiar faces, like Kim Delaney (Hunter's Blood), Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and, of course, the awesome Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th VII-X) as the MetalBeast. The rest of the players are really good as well, even if most of them are just there for a bigger body count. The best part in the movie is definitely the last twenty minutes. It's fast-paced with lots of werewolf killings and a lot of the MetalBeast, just like the other 70-minutes should have been.
The MetalBeast itself is an incredible werewolf. There was a large team behind the make-up on it, and I must commend them on their fantastic job, and casting Kane Hodder as the MetalBeast was a very smart movie. Hodder does for the MetalBeast what he did for Jason: He adds a whole new layer to this character whose vocabulary doesn't go beyond snarls, growls, and roars. Actually the main problem with the movie is the werewolf, or lack thereof. The MetalBeast doesn't really take full form until about the last 30-minutes. The
rest of the movie is mostly talking, a killing here and there, a surgery scene, and when they discover Butler's alive, they discuss what to do with the metal skin they put on him. I was growing rather bored, but the final 20-minutes, as I have previously stated, were awesome and almost made up for the rest of the film.
When you get right down to it, Project: Metalbeast is an OK movie. It wasn't that great, but I wouldn't say it was that bad either. If you have a lot of patience, you'll probably enjoy like I did. If you want constant action, I'd stay away if I was you. This is actually one of the few movies I'd like to be remade, if they didn't go overboard on the CGI like most movies nowadays. It has a great concept, but the results are arguably less than to be dered. It's not on DVD yet, and I can see why. I would buy it if it came out on DVD; it's that enjoyable, but I wouldn't pay any more than $10 for the VHS. If you like obscure horror and have lots of patience, I'd recommend buying. If you don't, stay away. Because I have that patience, Project: Metalbeast earns a
Rating System:
The best of the best
A really great film.
It's OK; has its flaws.
The power of Christ compels you to stay away from this film!
Death is preferable to this garbage.
Project: Metalbeast 1995 Review
Project: Metalbeast opens with a government mison in 1974 to Budapest to get werewolf blood to experiment with and posbly create a new breed of super-soldier. One of the team is killed by the werewolf, and the other, named Butler, gets the sample and makes it back to America. While there, Butler is angered by having to wait for the lab report on the blood to come, so he goes ahead and injects himself with it. He turns into a werewolf and kills a person before being shot by lver bullets and put into suspended animation.
Twenty years later, scientists at the same research facility where the werewolf was captured have developed an experimental, synthetic metal skin. The skin is intended to aid burn and cancer victims, but the one problem is that the skin can dry and become as hard as steel, killing any human wearing it. Their chief financier instructs them to test it out on a cadaver (really Butler in suspended animation) or he will cut their funding. Really, he wants to reanimate the werewolf and put him under his command. During the surgical operation where they apply the skin to Butler, they remove the lver bullets, he awakens, and transforms into a bulletproof werewolf. This causes trouble given that the only thing that can stop a werewolf is a lver bullet, so the werewolf goes on a killing spree as the scientists attempt to figure out what to do.
The biggest shock Project: Metalbeast has going for it is that the acting is surpringly good, even if some of the dialogue is really hokey. There are a few familiar faces, like Kim Delaney (Hunter's Blood), Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and, of course, the awesome Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th VII-X) as the MetalBeast. The rest of the players are really good as well, even if most of them are just there for a bigger body count. The best part in the movie is definitely the last twenty minutes. It's fast-paced with lots of werewolf killings and a lot of the MetalBeast, just like the other 70-minutes should have been.
The MetalBeast itself is an incredible werewolf. There was a large team behind the make-up on it, and I must commend them on their fantastic job, and casting Kane Hodder as the MetalBeast was a very smart movie. Hodder does for the MetalBeast what he did for Jason: He adds a whole new layer to this character whose vocabulary doesn't go beyond snarls, growls, and roars. Actually the main problem with the movie is the werewolf, or lack thereof. The MetalBeast doesn't really take full form until about the last 30-minutes. Therest of the movie is mostly talking, a killing here and there, a surgery scene, and when they discover Butler's alive, they discuss what to do with the metal skin they put on him. I was growing rather bored, but the final 20-minutes, as I have previously stated, were awesome and almost made up for the rest of the film.
When you get right down to it, Project: Metalbeast is an OK movie. It wasn't that great, but I wouldn't say it was that bad either. If you have a lot of patience, you'll probably enjoy like I did. If you want constant action, I'd stay away if I was you. This is actually one of the few movies I'd like to be remade, if they didn't go overboard on the CGI like most movies nowadays. It has a great concept, but the results are arguably less than to be dered. It's not on DVD yet, and I can see why. I would buy it if it came out on DVD; it's that enjoyable, but I wouldn't pay any more than $10 for the VHS. If you like obscure horror and have lots of patience, I'd recommend buying. If you don't, stay away. Because I have that patience, Project: Metalbeast earns a
Rating System:The best of the best
A really great film.
It's OK; has its flaws.
The power of Christ compels you to stay away from this film!
Death is preferable to this garbage.
ObscureCinema101
Tuesday 8/09/2011 at 07:01 PM | 80327
