The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent adaptation.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Don't be fooled by all of the (positive) reviewers saying not to be fooled by all of the (negative) reviewers. This movie absolutely sucks. If the horrible casting doesn't run you off and the horrible directing doesn't run you off then the horrible wannabe monster-esque voice-overs will definitely run you off. Otherwise you have horrible taste in movies. Press delete on this movie and go for the documentary about the making of it: "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau". The story about how horrible this movie turned out is much better than the horrible movie itself. Oh, btw... this movie is horrible.

Legendary movie I only saw once, back in the day when it was released. I remember watching it with mouth wide open, aghast at what I was seeing. It's widely regarded as one of the worst films in history, and in many ways it is, if you consider the quality of the cast, director and budget.But revisiting it 20 years later after seeing the interesting documentary "Lost Souls" about this car crash of a movie, I didn't find it quite so bad. It's poor, no doubt about it, but it's not tedious and mind numbing in a Battlefield Earth kind of way and nowhere near real dross like Batman & Robin or The Spirit. It's entertaining for many reasons, chief among them being Marlon Brando's blatant trolling of the entire production, insisting on wearing white make up and using buckets instead of hats to keep his head cool. His performance is worth the admission alone.The rest is worth watching for the implosion of Val Kilmer's career as an A-List actor. Fresh from the success of films like The Doors, Batman Forever and Heat he was apparently extremely arrogant during the making of this film, and he just oozes apathy in every scene he's in. If he truly was as insufferable as he's been accused of in "Lost Souls" then karma certainly paid him a visit here, as his career never recovered from this wreck. Fairuza Balk is decent and tries her best with weak material, Ron Perlman is solid as always, but David Thewlis is miscast, his North England accent and bad teeth detracting from his performance. But those scenes with Brando and the worlds smallest man as his freaky sidekick are pure gold.The make up effects are decent, and the location is gorgeous. Everything else is terrible. But it's certainly entertaining, even if it for all the wrong reasons.

This is adapted from the story by HG Wells in 1896, which was famously filmed as 'The Island of Lost Souls' in 1932, concerning animal/human hybrids.Initially, Douglas's (David Thewlis) disrespectful comments about Moreau's cross-bred children, whilst in their presence, grinds alongside their exemplary manners. Indeed, the agent is told there is not one note of malice in them. However, it soon becomes obvious that Moreau's control over them is far from humane, and the good doctor is – not that there was ever much doubt – insane.Marlon Brando wrestles with an upper-crust British accent and some outsized false teeth. The accent is perfect, the prosthetics less so, rendering occasional moments of dialogue incomprehensible. His performance though, is terrific. Dangerous and a lot of fun. From his first appearance, draped in white, outsized sunglasses and a full face smothered in white 'sunblock', he is delightfully bizarre.The film loses something when Brando's presence is removed, and events become a bit of a jumble. Val Kilmer's Montgomery, who takes Moreau's place, is good, but he's no Marlon Brando.Ultimately, 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' is a thoroughly enjoyable film. David Thewlis (who joined the film after shooting had started, replacing another actor) initially seems miscast as Douglas, but he soon proves himself as the talented actor he is. The same can be said for the various hybrids, most of who really take advantage of the excellent make-up jobs and imbue them with tangible emotion which would be lost if everything was achieved with CGI.It is difficult to ignore the critical mauling the film received, due in part to a series of unfortunate occurrences behind the scenes. Viewed almost 20 years after its release – and I speak as someone yet to see the original Charles Laughton version, so therefore have no other film to compare this to – I found it hugely enjoyable.

While this film has been written off by the filmerati types, that is only just the start of its appeal. Marlin Brando is unleashed here, and with absolute effortless extracts from his repertoire a delicious, eliding performance that dominates the film. However the transcendance of medium achieved here relies on David Thewlis and Val Kilmer as well. Each of main leads bring their own rich flavour of campiness. The happless Thewlis brings a turn of the century stilted formality to pay at least part homage to the original work, which is otherwise deservingly massacred. This arch patina of homoeroticism is in turn burnished up to a flashy sterile veneer by Val Kilmer's fleckless self prostitution. The dynamic between the two, compelling in itself, is both eclipsed and illuminated by the pure radiating light that is Brando. The three form a constellation of pulsing chaos that drives the film though its myriad of clichés punctuated with whatever viceral imagery stayed off the cutting room floor. The result shows film, even in the vacuum of commericality and popular culture, can attain an artistry as rich as any other form in history.