The Movie:
Monkey Shines is a horrible "B" movie from the 80's. While there are movies that are worse than this one, Monkey Shines really is unbearable to watch at times. The basic premise is that a strong runner is hit by a car and paralyzed. He only has the use of his body from the neck up. His nurse is incompetent and his good friend who experiments with monkeys decides that he should have one to do some chores. The problem is, his friend, Geoffrey, genetically alters the monkey in hopes that it will get smarter, which it does. Now we're left with a highly intelligent monkey whoe carries out murders for his owner and will do practically anything to protect him. Very stupid plot with very mediocre acting. Apparently the book was actually quite good, but unfortunately the movie stinks.

The Picture:
Since there wasn't very much happening in the movie to look at, I concentrated harder on the picture and sound and actually I was surprised by the quality. The color and contrast is crisp and clear and there are no apparent flaws. I wouldn't recommend this DVD because the movie is simply horrible, but for some reason they spent some time on a good transfer of the picture.

The Sound:
The sound, as mentioned above in the picture review is actually quite good. The Surround sound, while not Dolby 5.1 is still utilized well throughout the movie and although it is impossible to save the movie, does add a little bit extra to it.

The Extras:
Extras? You mean you're supposed to include extras on DVDs? I guess the good folks at MGM decided that they were going to put a horrible movie on a DVD with NO extras except for a trailer and try and pass it off at $25. This is absolutely absurd. The movie stinks, there's only 1 trailer, and on the back where it lists "special features," it has "Collectable Booklet" (see review of this below) and "Original Theatrical Trailer." No commentary, no featurette, nothing. It's pretty sad that they were able to pass this DVD off at $25 thinking that people would buy it with no special features.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, Monkey Shines is a complete waste of not only money, but time. The movie is absurd, horribly acted and not even scary. The fact that MGM tried to pass this off at $25 with nothing but a trailer and 2 page "collectable" booklet is also crazy. MGM has put out some great titles with great features at great prices, but they just missed all three with this lame attempt at a DVD. Skip it.