The Movie:

Directed by William Fruet and released in 1987, Blue Monkey (also known as Insect), begins when an older man cuts himself on a plant and almost instantly blacks out. He's taken to the hospital and is clearly in pretty rough shape because he pukes up a larva. By happenstance, a cop named Detective Jim Bishop (Steve Railsback), happens to be at this very same hospital around the time that the man arrives. He hits on doctor Dr. Rachel Carson (Gwynyth Walsh) but it goes nowhere, but if she's not interested in his advances she still gives him a tour of the facility and shows off their high tech laser lab!

Whatever it is that's wrong with the old man starts to have a ripple effect, much to the dismay of the man in charge, Roger Levering (the late, great John Vernon). What no one really realizes until its too late is that a tiny insect monster that will soon turn into a giant insect monster that will almost immediately wreak havoc across the hospital. Joe Flaherty shows up in an attempt to inject some comedic relief into the movie and a bunch of wacky kids poke around and don't really help the situation at all, but at least let the audience know why a movie that doesn't involve a blue monkey is called Blue Monkey. When the government finds out what is going on, the hospital is quarantined leaving Bishop as the world's last great hope of getting rid of the monster before it's too late.

Blue Monkey is a very flawed B-grade monster picture that is, despite these flaws, a pretty fun watch. The attempts at comedy that come courtesy of Flaherty and his character's wife fall flat and the bits with John Vernon are, shockingly, fairly flat. You don't put John Vernon in your movie and not have him swing for the fences, but that's what Fruet did here, his performance is surprisingly subdued and on top of that he just isn't used enough here, in fact, given how much he's brought to so many fun B-movies in the past, he's wasted in the part. Maybe he Fruet wanted a toned down performance or maybe Vernon was just having an off day but this role could have been played by any other middle-aged man and been just as effective.

As to the good stuff? Fruet's pacing is uneven, sure, but it isn't bad. Most of the time the movie goes at a pretty good clip with only a few dull spots slowing things down. Railsback proves to be a pretty likeable leading man here. His character is goofy as all get out but he plays the part well and is quite entertaining to watch. Gwynyth Walsh is decent enough here as well, and if their chemistry doesn't set the world on fire, they're fun to watch together. Also keep an eye out for a young but recognizable Sarah Polley as one of the goofy kids.

But this is, first and foremost, a monster movie and it does delivery a pretty cool monster. Yes, for large chunks of the film the beastie is shrouded in darkness but it works and when he does appear visibly on camera, he looks pretty cool. Most of the effects work featured in the film is handled quite well, there's some fun splashy moments of gore and neat creature effects on display, particularly in the last half of the film. This, coupled with a few of the aforementioned fun performances, proves to be enough to make Blue Monkey a B-movie worth checking out.

The Video:

Blue Monkey arrives on region free Blu-ray from Code Red in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1 widescreen and taking up 22.1GBs of space on the 25GB disc. Taken from an "HD transfer from original uncut 35mm negative with extensive color correction," the picture quality here is pretty solid. There isn't much print damage and while detail would certainly get an increase from a new 4k scan, what's here looks quite good. There's nice depth to the picture and no problems with any noise reduction, edge enhancement or compression problems. Skin tones look good and colors are reproduced nicely as well. Not reference quality, but quite good.

The Audio:

The only audio option on the disc is an English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track, there are no alternate language options or subtitles provided here. There's a bit of sibilance in a few spots but otherwise the audio sounds pretty good. It's properly balanced with a decent bit of range to it.

The Extras:

Extras are limited to two trailers for the feature (one under the alternate title of Insect) and bonus trailers for a few other Code Red properties, as well as static menus and chapter selection options. This release comes packaged with a slipcover and some cool reversible cover art.

Overall:

Blue Monkey is a pretty entertaining monster mash with some fun performances and solid old school effects work. Code Red's Blu-ray release offers up a pretty decent presentation but doesn't offer a whole lot in the way of extra features at all. Still, plenty of entertainment value to be had here. Recommended for the less discerning monster movie fans out there.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.