Abbott & Costello Meet Chuck Norris

I think I was born predisposed to be a fan of the old school Universal Studios Monster movies. I can remember being obsessed with The Creature From The Black Lagoon for years before I even saw it. I love those new DVD boxsets they have out now. I bought the Black Lagoon collection (the second movie has Clint Eastwood's first screen appearance) and will probably pick up more of them in the future.

I mention the old Universal movies because I just watched Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein the other night. I first hear about this movie after reading an interview with Fred Dekker. He mentioned this movie as being an influence on his 1987 movie The Monster Squad. Now, I have to say that Monster Squad is one of my all-time favorite movies. As cheesy and totally 80s as it is, it still ranks near the top of my favorite movies list. So after I read the interview, I decided that I had to see the Abbott & Costello movie. Hence the recent purchase on an Abbott & Costello boxset.

The movie was pretty funny, all very classic old-timey humor (it was 1948 after all). The movie had Abbott & Costello meeting up with not just Frankenstein but Dracula and the Wolf Man as well (played by Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney respectively.) There were a lot of similarities between this movie and Monster Squad which made me enjoy it all the more. Even Dracula's cartoony transformation from bat to vampire was awesome. Lon Chaney seemed underused, but was still at the top of his game. No Mummy or Gillman like in Monster Squad but an enjoyable horror comedy all the same.

Also, I recently watched Good Guys Wear Black. Ever since I saw The Octagon a few months ago, I've been watching a lot of old Chuck Norris movies. Now, The Octagon kicked ass, but Good Guys was a little dull. I will say that Norris does do a really cool jump kick through the windshield of a speeding car. But this movie is short one Lee Van Cleef and a buttload of ninjas. Every action movie should have some ninjas in it somewhere, am I wrong?