The Island of Dr. Moreau - 1996 ------------------------ If you are tempted to rent this turkey let me just warn you right off, it sucks. I rented it against my better judgement because a) I was sick with a cold, and needed a nice light monster movie to warm my heart, b) I knew it had Marlon Brando in an over-the-top performance as the titular Doctor. c) I heard it was bad, but at least good-bad, as in campy. There are a few other percs that might lure the unsuspecting into renting this abomination against nature, including the very bo-hunky Val Kilmer and the exotic Fairuza Balk from "The Craft" fame. Incidentally, they both turn in very good perfromances considering the lousy material they're given. But the sum of this film's parts adds up to less than nothing. No amount of drugs and alcohol consumed by the typical PROCASTINATOR viewer can rescue this from being anything other than a dismal viewing experience. A few tips on monster movie making to the director, allegedly John Frankenheimer, 1) Never have your made-up monsters walking around in broad daylight, in the open. In the original 1933 version you NEVER even saw the island in the daylight. And the monsters were always leering from the branches and hiding in the shadows...scary! Seeing these poor saps in this movie jumping up and down and squealing in the bright sun of mid-day is simply saddening. 2) The main character should be remotely sympathetic: The lead guy here is a self-righteous moron, so seethingly anti-everything that he is impossible to root for. Only Fairuza Balk comes off well. In her sexy Arabian outfit she's obviously supposed to remind us of that North African tribal girl on the National Geographic cover with those haunting gray eyes, and she does. She's the only one we care about, and we long to reach out take her by the hand, and lead her into some better movie. Of Marlon Brando's performance, what is there to say but "Oh, Marlon." - F+