Monster Man

Gross horror and American Pie humour is an odd mix. Actually, it causes nausea and should be avoided.

Everything in Monster Man has been nicked from other movies. To list them would take up the rest of this review. Suffice to say that writer/director Michael Davis hasn't an original gene in his pool.

The protagonists are ex-college buddies who fell out over a girl called Betty Anne. Shy, wuzzy Adam (Eric Jungmann) and Jack Black lookalike Harley (Justin Urich) are polar opposites. Adam is anally retentive and - can you believe it? - a virgin. Harley is a loudmouth show-off and self-professed sexual predator.

They find themselves in a car, driving through Breakdown country to Betty Anne's wedding. At truck stops and redneck bars, Harley makes a point of insulting the natives, the majority of whom are amputees. That's the cue for the serial limb chopper (Michael Bailey Smith), who makes Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre look handsome, to chase the likely lads in his handmade mammoth iron-clad battle truck.

To give the audience a break from Harley and Adam's constant bickering, Sarah (Aimee Brooks) is introduced. She's a scantily clad hitchhiker, who flirts with both of them and becomes less of a distraction and more of a four-letter fantasy. Her dialogue is a plagiarised version of soft porn tease talk and her ability to mess with the boys' heads frankly boggles what remains of your mind.

The yuk factor comes later in Mr Ugly's lair. If you have had the misfortune of sitting through Rob Zombie's House Of 1000 Corpses you don't need to be told.

As an excuse to play around with nasty special effects, Monster Man is the movie Sid from Toy Story might have made if he had grown up. The saving grace is Adam, whose nerdy innocence acts as protection against an abuse of disgust. Trouble is there's always Harley, who announces, "I'm the kinda guy who puts the 'ick' in the word 'dick'."