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Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer | 
 enlarge | Director: Jon Knautz
Actors: Trevor Matthews, Robert Englund, Daniel Kash, Rachel Skarsten, James A. Woods
Studio: ANCHOR BAY
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.97
Buy Used: $8.65
You Save: $18.32 (68%)
New (39) Used (25) Collectible (2) from $8.65
Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 8657
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 85 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: ANBD15939D
UPC: 013131593990
EAN: 0013131593990
ASIN: B001C0NMU2
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Gift Quality 100% Guaranteed and FREE first class upgrade. The case is BRAND NEW and the disc has been resurfaced and buffed to look NEW. We supply email confirmation and FREE tracking for every order we ship.
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Product Description
Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 10/07/2008 Run time: 90 minutes
Amazon.com
A delirious performance by horror vet Robert (Nightmare on Elm Street) Englund and the filmmakers' predilection for old-school monster suits over CGI help to make the Canadian indie horror-comedy Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer an enjoyable and entertaining alternative to the current rash of relentlessly grim fright fare. As played by co-producer Trevor Mathews, Jack Brooks is no barrel-chested pulp hero, but rather an aimless small-town slacker with a hair-trigger temper (the result of childhood trauma involving his family's death at the hands of a monster). Plagued on all sides by a nagging girlfriend, a hapless shrink and a dead-end job as a plumber, Jack seems destined for mediocrity--until his night school professor (an terrific, unfettered comic turn by Englund) unearths an ancient evil and begins to change into a ravenous, slobbering creature, thus giving Jack both a purpose and an outlet for his anger issues. Director Jon Knautz's feature debut pays loving homage to all manner of boyish pop-culture touchstones, from Marvel Comics and Ray Harryhausen epics to the early works of fellow do-it-yourselfers like Sam Raimi, and if his set up feels belabored in its telling, he delivers the goods once Jack straps on his plumbing toolkit to square off against the monster-fied Englund. Inventive and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, Jack Brooks is one potential franchise series that actually deserves a follow up film. The DVD includes commentary by Knautz, Mathews and members of the production team, as well as lengthy featurettes on the film, its soundtrack and the monster FX. Deleted scenes, conceptual art galleries and the original trailer are also included on the disc. --Paul Gaita
Stills from Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 VERY BAD November 20, 2008
Marc Bouhana (FRANCE)
WELL I DON T LIKE THIS MOVIE AT ALL I COULD N T SEE THE END AS I WAS SO BORING
I DON T LIKE COMEDIE HORROR MOVIE SO
 A bona fide horror comedy dud November 20, 2008
Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A plumber with serious anger management issues fighting monsters -with Robert Englund thrown in for good measure. That sounds like a pretty good formula for success. Unfortunately, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer pretty much lays an egg. It's a movie without any soul and very little identity. I hate to call it a horror comedy because it fails on both counts. Sure, there's gore aplenty, but it's all so over the top as to be more pitiful than anything else. On top of that, it sort of annoyed this devoted horror fan to hear the filmmakers say they chose this genre for their first feature film basically because there would be a ready market in place no matter how badly they might screw the whole thing up. In other words, they thought a horror film was much easier to make than, say, a drama. Oh, they also thought it would be a lot of fun to play around with all the special effects and makeup. Obviously, I have to question their commitment and level of respect for the genre I love most in the world. In fact, I would argue that the film actually ends up making a mockery of the entire horror genre. And comedy? Please. I don't remember even one remotely funny scene in the entire film. The whole thing's laughable, but it's not funny.
So just who is Jack Brooks? Well, he's a plumber, and he's taking a night school science class because his incredibly annoying girlfriend somehow talked him into it. Jack (Trevor Matthews) has some issues - having watched his family slaughtered by a troll (yeah, you read that right: a troll) back when he was still a kid, he is prone to intense outbursts of anger (borne of his guilt over running for his life while his parents and sister were brutally killed). He's seeing a therapist, but let's just say that no personal breakthrough seems likely any time soon. As luck would have it, Jack's professor (Robert Englund) is having some serious plumbing problems at his new home (a dilapidated old house he bought for a song because it's supposedly cursed). Jack accidentally awakens something evil there, and the next thing you know Professor Crowley begins turning into an evil, viciously aggressive Jabba the Hut. It looks like Jack is finally going to get a second chance to test the old flight or fight response.
I applaud the filmmakers for eschewing CGI for more traditional methods of monster creation, but I think they went way overboard with all the special effects. In the end, the monsters just look increasingly foolish. Heck, the whole movie looks increasingly foolish. Without the safety net of a decent, original script and/or a genuinely comedic presence, thing whole thing falls hard and fast right into the ground.
The DVD does at least come with some decent bonus material. There's a commentary featuring the filmmakers, a fairly lengthy Behind the Scenes feature, some sixteen minutes of deleted scenes, and several other goodies. To tell you the truth, I didn't care enough about the film to watch all of the special features, but those who actually enjoy this movie may well be interested in them.
 Decent B-grade horror movie November 18, 2008
ChibiNeko (Here)
First off let me say that if you don't like cheezy horror flicks, this movie is not for you. And I don't mean "gee, I liked Nightmare on Elm Street 2,456" cheezy. This is a cheezy that has it's roots in the worst of the 80s horror flicks.
The plot revolves around a rather angry everyman known as Jack, who not only has problems controlling his anger, but also just problems in general. His girlfriend's thinking about straying, his classwork is going nowhere, & he's stuck in a job that gives him no satisfaction. This all changes the night that he tries to repair his professor's pipes & accidentally summons an evil demon that posesses his teacher. What's a guy to do?
While this wasn't nearly as good as the 80s cheeze that preceeded it, the movie did an overall good job of summoning up a similar feel. The special effects are pretty good for a flick with a limited budget, but it's the actors that ended up being the overall weak spot of the film. The only exception is the always wonderful Robert Englund, who is the one true reason to watch the film. He's magnificent as always in his scream king type roles. The actors do a good job of looking darn good, but don't really endear themselves very well. When the forces of evil finally do start wreaking havock, you start to hope that they not only win, but that they kill off some of the more annoying characters. Even so, this film was far more enjoyable than I expected it to be. As long as you don't expect a lot from it, the film is fantastic.
4/5
B-movie goodness November 18, 2008
TastyBabySyndrome ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA)
When I looked at the cover art for the movie, the first thing I wondered was "will this be bad as in an awful movie" or "will this be bad as in B-movie sexy?" It has all the things that make one think it could be either - the description on the back draws on a silly plot line that you know is going to be weird and gimmicky, the picture on the front looks like a poster that fell off a Troma bus, and the actors themselves sound like a horror convention stopping in a town nearby. When I watched it I kept thinking "this is great to have been able to see," and yet it confused me with that B-movie feeling hat comes when you watch something truly conflicting.
It is a good feeling to not know how to fill in the feeling.
As far as the immediate needs of a movie go, this flies all the B-movie standards. It has the acting that is brilliant and yet borders close to criminal, it wears a suit that says "no money" and yet makes one feel like it plays out wonderfully, it recycles names and faces and yet creates characters that are stereotypes -with flavor?, and has a plot that seems like something you would not want to watch but it keeps drawing the eyes in. I personally found myself laughing at things that I did not think I could like while drawing sober breaths, kept wondering if my peers would enjoy it while secretly knowing that many of them would love the thing (they like the Toxic Avenger, C.H.U.D., and other acts of awful goodness, by the way), and I also wondered what to put in a review on something that could be seen in such different ways. As I said before, I could understand why some people would absolutely hate this movie and yet I understand why I liked it quite a bit. Really, I guess the review becomes conflicted just as much as watching something like this does.
If you like B-movies, check this one out. Maybe check it out in a rental fashion first, casually loving it before taking it home to live with you, or jump straight in if this is your cup of tea. Either way, I thought this was a sexy walk through a hive and depends on how much you like the B's.
Gut-Busting Fun...!!! November 17, 2008
Bruce E. Munck (Gaston, SC United States)
The first thing that really caught my attention was that this flick was released through Anchor Bay. I have yet to be disappointed with the quality of any DVD (or VHS) from them, and this is no exception. The transfer is crisp and clear and when watched through my Samsung DVD-V9650 upconverting HDMI player on my 56" JVC Genessa 1080p D-ILA TV it looks very much like a true high definition DVD. Kudos once again to the good folks at Anchor Bay.
The plot really isn't very important to a movie like this since it's main appeal is the gore, so to put it in a nutshell a dormant evil is awakened through unplanned events and is trying to spread itself. The evil manages to transform normal human beings into hideously monstrous creatures in it's quest to multiply. Enter Jack Brooks...a guy with a chip on his shoulder and a temper from hell. Will Jack save the day? Can he even save himself?? Robert Englund turns in another sparkling performance as a teacher turned creature, and Trevor Matthews does a credible job as Jack Brooks. Gore afficionados won't be disappointed with this flick as it compares favorably to the first two Evil Dead movies. Therein lies the one rub...no new ground was broken; so while there are copious amounts of gore there is an almost total absence of fear.
If you want to watch something that makes the hairs on your neck stand up straight and your heart beat wildly...this is not your movie. If you want a good-time retro carnage flick, by all means get this!
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