Rock Monster (TV Movie 2008) Poster

(2008 TV Movie)

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3/10
What Can I Expect Out of A Sci-Fi Original Movie? (Some spoilers)
SVU14_123 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
That's a very good question...

Basically, this movie is about a group of American (and one British) college kids hiking in an Eastern European forest. They find an old sword embedded in a boulder, the hero (Jason) pulls it out. Upon arriving at a local village, the villagers are immediately frightened and angry at the kid who was the sword. Then we learn the sword unleashed the spirit of an evil wizard from the Middle Ages who comes back in the form of a walking pile of rocks. Then there's this really creepy guy with a stereotypical Eastern European name (Dimetri or something) who's incredible nice to the kids and then he turns out to be a madman who wants the evil wizard's powers! Oh and did I mention that the American kid who pulled out the sword is the descendant of the knight in shining armor who killed the wizard in the Middle Ages? Now the kids together with a militia of the village people must join forces to save the village from the Rock Monster! AH! It was beyond predictable and I can't even call it low budget because of the heavy use of special effects (which is by far the only thing that allows me to give this movie 3 stars). The lines are cheesy, the back story is also very vague and the flashback to it: incredibly bad. The actors were okay (except for the modern-day bad guy who honestly over acted) but the movie itself was poorly written. The ending, which I will not give away was also pretty lame and believe it or not it does leave room for a sequel (which I don't know why anyone would want to do).

All in all, it is a Sci-Fi movie (but you'd think they' make some entertaining ones). Watch if you want (attempt to at least). It's better than Hybrid but not that good.
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3/10
Petrified stupidity
MartianOctocretr513 July 2008
The bad guy, who has a megalomania problem, looks like a refugee from an Uwe Bolle movie, complete with the lousy accent, shaved bald head, phony make-up, and ridiculous black leather jacket costuming. Most of the time he's making "I will take over the world and here's how I'll do it!" speeches.

But the rock creature is even more pathetic. CGI animation that looks like it was done by Mickey Mouse, and the thing is less scary than Mickey is. It hobbles around, looking like it's going to crumble into a pile of fake-looking pebbles any moment. Meanwhile, Uwe Bolle, or whatever his name is, screams dumb comments to and about the thing any chance he gets to shoot his mouth off. The hero: some guy in an orange down jacket that he never takes off. At least this guy made an effort to act, as did his love interest and the guy playing the Major. But with a script this sloppy, they end up looking silly too.

Somebody smash this rocky horror with a sledge hammer.
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3/10
Rockin' Out
wsmith-269 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The best thing about this movie is getting to see John Polito, who you will instantly recognize because he has been in almost every movie and television series ever made, ham it up as The Colonel. No, they couldn't even bother to give him a name. In an otherwise forgettable film, Ron rocks. He gets drunk. He leads the citizens to fight the rock monster not once, but twice (but has his flask handy all the time). He cheers when the hero, Jason (Chad Collins) defeats the rock monster not once, but twice. Yeah! If you can't tell already, I just loved watching John in this movie. Never mind that he is Italian, but is playing an Eastern Euro (I think!). Never mind that his lines are lame, for the most part. John is on fire! As far as the movie is concerned, the monster looks good, special effects-wise. But, for some reason, the rock monster isn't really scary at all. The Sword In The Stone plot is a retread. You have the wise cracking girl (Alicia Lagano as Toni), and the black guy who apparently has no function in the plot and gets killed early on, the sniveling mayor who gives a woman away in exchange for the village's safety (as if he had the right to do that in the first place), and the lame hero who, for some reason, has the stunningly beautiful Cassandra (Natalie Sperl) fall for him - all because he pulled a sword out of a stone! I suppose you could do worse, but make sure to check it out just to watch John rock!
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5/10
Has a bit of charm
drystyx13 July 2008
Science fiction movies are almost a dime a dozen, so you need to do something fairly creative. This one simply puts a bit of charm in the movie. It isn't a classic, and I can't understand the votes of "10", but neither can I understand the votes of "1". The characters are fairly engaging, and the movie has its moments. It doesn't exactly have the cohesiveness of a sit down movie, but like most movies made in the last thirty years, it is meant to be viewed while doing housework, chores, or on the elliptical or exercise bike. It is more about scenes and atmosphere. An American in a backwards looking European countryside, straight out of the old vampire days, takes a sword out of a stone, and awakens a rock monster. Not great science, but neither is most Science Fiction. The movie gets a lift in the rating mostly due to the heroine's father, who does a parody of Robert Shaw in "Jaws", almost to the letter. The director had the good sense of humor to show some reactions to his speech, taking advantage of the comic double take. Bits and pieces make this a fairly decent movie. Not exactly memorable, but has some assets.
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2/10
Rocky Monster High
bkoganbing31 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Young Chad Collins and his college buds are off in the Balkans, presumably Bulgaria which is where Rock Monster was filmed to check out a piece of real estate that he inherited. Chad finds a sword deeply embedded in a rock, his friends try to pull it out, but all they pull is muscles. Chad however like young King Arthur pulls it from the stone.

When the group arrives at the local town, the natives aren't exactly open and welcoming, but they become downright unfriendly when they catch sight of the sword. King Arthur never got greeted like this, but David Figlioli one of the crowd offers to get them out of town and at least to Chad's new property.

Figlioli is one of those characters who you know from the beginning is going to be one sinister dude. That he is, in fact he's set this whole thing up. Chad pulling the sword from the stone was like someone removing a stake from Dracula's corpse. An ancient wizard that Figlioli is descended from is that Rock Monster and a guy made of stone is hard to kill.

Even all kinds of modern weaponry that retired Red Army officer Jon Polito supplies only slows the thing down a bit. It feasts on blood and that town is a banquet.

You've got to love films like this where actors like Figlioli and Polito get to ham it up outrageously. Even Alicia Lagano one of Collins's friends gets her cut of the pig with her tank girl impersonation.

Rock Monster is kind of silly all around, but the cast knows it and is not taking it all too seriously.
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3/10
so-so Sci-Fi
em8907200226 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The Plot: While going about ordinary outdoor/sports-related activities, a young man/the lead character encounters a monster that kills people, and he must defeat it to survive. To achieve this task, he convinces the local town's people to help him. A young woman also helps him and they develop a sweet little romance in the course of vanquishing the monster.

This plot description for ROCK MONSTER also applies to several other Sci-Fi 'original' movies such as OGRE, BEYOND LOCH NESS, and ICE SPIDERS. In other words, none of these movies produced for the Sci-Fi channel are that original; they're formulaic.

These are G or at most PG type movies. There is not much if any blood/gore, a very innocent romance (no skin/not even kissing), and a monster that looks like some cheap plastic creature you'd find in a happy meal from a fast food restaurant.

Although there isn't much substance to these movies, they also aren't the worst movies out there --- that's not an endorsement, just a statement of fact. Here, the visual and audio departments are competent; you can both see and hear these movies. And, for the most part the acting is fair enough. Finally, the movie does have a story line even though it goes in a predictable linear direction.

Some Sci-Fi 'original' movies like KAW or BATS: HUMAN HARVEST are slightly better (4 on a scale of 10) because the monster/threat is more believable. But, again, the plots tend to be borrowed, predictable and the hero always seems to defeat the monster, albeit with that final gimmick that leaves the question: is it really over?
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2/10
Absolutely terrible
inme_rawk19 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
If you are thinking about watching this film then I recommend that you don't waste your time. The plot is unoriginal and predictable, just a load of ideas stolen from different films jumbled up together to create this. Its cheesy to the extreme, some of the lines actually made me wince they were so bad.

The acting was okay, the lead character Jason was the best out of the lot in my opinion but the script was so poor that it made him look crap. He's the only reason this review gets 2 stars.

One of the things that really got to me was the accents. What was up with that? The British guy, Warren, was so horrible that I felt relieved when he was finally and predictably killed off. I first thought he was French, then there was the typical Queen's English that obviously everyone in Britain uses, then he sounded eastern European. Rubbish. It also surprised me that in a tiny remote village (that buses only travel to once a week) they were all able to speak such good English. I mean, Cassandra sounded American she was that good.

So, yeah. Thought it was terrible :)
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2/10
A movie to watch...
quartermile506 August 2010
... if you only have one TV channel available and are tired of crying from boredom.

A guy pulls an Excalibur stunt with a sword, stumbles into a backwards village, finds a hottie and ridiculousness ensues. I kept watching in hopes of finding redemption in *something*....*anything*... But the only part of the movie I enjoyed was the credits (Because that's what gave me the hot co-star's name so I could Google her and see if she has any other movies she may have been more "exposed" in.) While this production may have been recently created, it was certainly founded in the old-school style of where the bad guy lays out his plans in an extended speech to the reluctant, possibly mentally challenged movie hero.

I never honestly expected quality movies on the SyFy channel and I can certainly say they did not let me down on this one.

I would've given this movie a 1, but Natalie Denise Sperl adds "1" to the entire movie.
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3/10
Bad but not quite bottom-of-the-barrel quality...
TheLittleSongbird3 April 2012
I reserve that dishonour to the likes of Titanic II, Alien vs Predator, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Super Tanker, 2010: Moby Dick and Quantum Apocalypse. But that is not saying Rock Monster is good, it is not, at least not to me. It gets plus points for some okay, if not great, acting, especially from the lead and Jon Polito, though David Figlioni overdoes it pretty badly, and a few moments of good-natured goofy charm. However, this is really one of those movies where the title itself tells you all you need to know. The story is incredibly basic and predictable, not much difficult from other creature movies of the SyFy channel, with some ridiculous suspend-disbelief moments, like the ending, and some of it feels rushed through. The final act completely falls apart, compared to some of the film's good nature this part feels like a completely different movie and in all honesty I lost interest. The script had a few quirks that I liked, but overall it was cheesy and all over the place, and the characters are stereotypical and not always easy to engage with. As for the effects, I have no better news, the Rock Monster/Creature of the title looks cheap and has no menace whatsoever. All in all, not one of SyFy's worst, but ridiculous and not much different from other SyFy movies of this genre. 3/10 Bethany Cox
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2/10
The Worst
kensdal8 June 2008
Please spare yourself from watching this. It has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen, even for SciFi Channel.

Basically it's about four college students (one of them looks 40 years old) who pull a sword out of a stone (how original).

This unleashes a cheesy c.g.i. looking "rock monster" (hence the original title).

This Movie Contains: *The worst acting I've ever seen. *Cheesy effects *Boring plot line & a slow moving pace

Please Avoid At All Costs.

P.S. The next time your bus breaks down, and you decide to take a detour through a spooky forest in the middle or nowhere, rather than waiting for another bus, don't pull any swords out of any stones. =]
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8/10
There's worse ones out there
kannibalcorpsegrinder16 June 2016
Traveling through Eastern Europe, a group of friends manage to remove a sword stuck in a rock, which soon unleashes a deadly monster made of rock upon the town and forces them to uncover his heritage to stop it.

This here wasn't that bad of a creature feature. One of the main factors is the rather nice story for the film being a rather nice change of pace to have it take place elsewhere than the US, and the Eastern Europe setting here is rather nice and feels welcome. It also allows for their traditions and standards, as well as fears and legends that are incorporated here to come across as really neat, from the complicated back-story, itself another highlight as well as the really detailed explanation sequence that contains a nice battle and contributes to the strong story. Another factor is the reasonably well-done and exciting action scene in here, which are more plentiful than expected. The confrontations with the creature are really nice, especially the initial encounter in the woods which amounts to a rather fun car chase as the creature comes at them through the woods, ending in a brutal car crash, and their later forest attack does have some good stuff to come from it as the gunfire and scattering troops is quite fun along with the final resolution that knocks the monster out. An attack on the village later on is really great, as the fun monster movie rampage comes complete with throwing people around into the surroundings and some unique counters to the creature, mainly flamethrowers and a tank brought into play. The last really good part to it is the conclusion, which is pretty creative bringing in the fantasy and sorcery battles against the creature that leads to a bigger action scene than imagined. These here are the film's good points that hold up over the few negatives. The main issue here is the actual creature itself, as there's nothing about it other than the size to be imposing as the overall design is inherently ludicrous and never comes close to be readily believable. The thing's so top heavy that it's nearly impossible to believe it can move around, nonetheless walk around and sneak up on victims, since it has several surprise attacks that don't have any reason to believe could've happened with something of that design. As well, it's once again being conceived through the usually atrocious CGI that comes with all the big trappings there. This just makes the film look all the cheaper, especially with the fact that more than just the creature this time around was done with CGI. The battle in the streets of the town, with the battle carrying on even though a hanger-on is flopping around like no human could, and the conclusion out in the rocky hills is even worse with all the fantasy elements brought to bear in the scene. The last flaw here is the rather confusing ending to the first battle in the forest. It ends way too quickly and easily for them to take it seriously, and it just doesn't seem believable that they could make it to the later portion without feeling something was off. These here are the film's few flaws.

Rated R: Violence and Language.
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6/10
not bad
arbspam621 August 2009
I love "B" movies.. and i don't care for many of the sci-fi channel "Made for TV" ones..

But this one was o.k.

The humor (intentional) added a light-hearted aspect that kept it entertaining.

The special effects were typical "Sci-Fi" channel cgi..

The acting was better than some.. but not Oscar nomination material.

The story was decent.....

Rate it 6 out of 10.. not a bad way to kill some time.

My wife thinks i'm insane for watching movies like this... but hey... we all find entertainment in different forms.. I remember one of my fondest memories growing up was watching Saturday Afternoon "B" sci-fi movies with my father on the local independent channel (WUAB out of Cleveland.).. this brought back some fond memories.
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2/10
"But it wasn't a rock...it was a ROCK MONSTER!"
Sandcooler4 January 2013
There's really only one reason to watch this awful movie, so let's get it out of the way as fast as possible: Jon Polito's bit part is awesome. I don't think Polito knew "Rock Monster" wasn't a parody, but it all worked out fine. Most semi-established actors that take jobs in low-budget garbage totally phone it in, but Polito does the exact opposite and chews the scenery like there's no tomorrow. Damn it, why isn't he the lead? Unfortunately the Polito-free bits are much harder to sit through, mainly because everything just moves at a snail's pace. Take for instance the whole sequence after they "kill" the monster for a first time: you know the movie's only halfway done, you know it's not really dead yet. Why do they show the villagers celebrating for what feels like eight hours? Get to the damn point. Furthermore, why do they put so much effort into killing the indestructible supercreature when they know for a fact that it's controlled by a mortal guy who can barely take a punch? Damn it, just kill that guy! I guess these Russian villagers just really enjoy challenges, that's probably why they speak English with one another as well. Overall there's just nothing about "Rock Monster" that kept my attention. Everything about it is terrible, but at the same time not terrible enough to really laugh at. So basically, it's one of the most frustrating B-movies you can encounter. Steer clear.
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1/10
Horrible movie do not watch
kris-arj9021 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Horibile movie with bad actors, horrible effects and a rubbish storyline DO NOT WATCH!!!!! I wouldn't watch it again even if i got paid. The protagonists find an old sword in a boulder, the lead then pulls it out. Upon arriving at a local village, the villagers are immediately frightened and angry at the kid . Then we learn the sword unleashed the spirit of an evil wizard from the Middle Ages who comes back in the form of a walking pile of rocks. Then there's this really creepy guy with a stereotypical Eastern European name (Dimetri or something) terrorizes the village and Jason who is half dead after being crushed under hundreds of rocks kills the large pile of rocks Absolute bullshit
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2/10
Dumb characters ruin a non-story
ArthurDental8 June 2008
The story is not predictable, because you can describe it in a short paragraph. The rest of it was simply filler - a guy trying to walk to another town after failing to do so in a car and seeing it destroying two vehicles; the rock monster being blown to the ground after hitting a car with its fist and making it explode, but not at the least bit affected by a grenade; the monster throwing trees and cars around at attackers, but does nothing except getting stabbed by a guy coming at it with a sword. that sort of thing.

I don't want to call anyone names, but I think the only people that calls this movie good is either involved in the production, or, well, let's not go there.
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1/10
Just don't: Don't watch it. Don't make another.
ithinkmyemailaddressis20 November 2010
How do I describe this movie, that so many have so eloquently and poignantly done so, preceding me, using several syllable words, that I think only deserves singles? Like "Barf.

Plot is thinner than steam-on-a-window and the CGI is just bloody awful. (Anyone remember Alien where you didn't really get to see the monster? How'd it ever sell? Try the original Cat People for a real thrill...) How did this crap get made? It's right up there with other lame one in the Iraqi desert with the Chicotay begging for scraps after his gig was over in outer space, which I believe ran the night before on Space.

Oh, yeah, probably my Canadian tax dollars, hard at work! Herk
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5/10
A little bit of sword and the stone?
leader-161 April 2008
I saw the premier of this, i orignially had high hopes for this film but after seeing it, I had different thoughts.

There are some elements from other films that they put into this film, like my title, sword in the stone, could they have thought of anything else creative? I don't think so.

Story was OK, acting was descent, it was so cheesy when Jason said "You'll go no further" classic line. I did'nt like the fact that the one Arician American person went away immediately, i think that they should of kept him until the end of the film.

I did'nt really like this film very much, kinda cheesy for me, hopefully they will have a better one than this.
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3/10
Up to you
Leofwine_draca24 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Typical cheese from the Sci Fi Channel, shot in Bulgaria and with a bunch of the usual moronic American teenagers stumbling into uncharted waters. Here, the plotline's loosely influenced by the legend of King Arthur and in particular Excalibur, except now they're pursued by some giant rock monster that goes around beating on people. Bad FX, overacting from the supporting cast members and general cheesy mayhem is the order of the day here, so it's up to you if you want to risk it.
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2/10
Typical Sci Fi Pictures rubbish
Stevieboy66628 July 2023
Four friends are backpacking across Europe, when their bus breaks down in rural Bulgaria they hike through a forest where they find an ancient sword stuck in a rock. One of the guys pulls it out and in doing so unwittingly unleashes an evil creature - the Rock Monster! The title alone should serve as a warning to potential viewers that classic monster movie this is not! I can't say much good about this made for TV film I'm afraid. Despite being set in a remote Bulgarian village everyone there seems to speak or understand English quite fluently, I'd have been happy to have had some Bulgarian dialogue coupled with subtitles but I guess so many viewers for these type of films are too lazy to read them. To its credit there are several Bulgarian actors in the cast. However a stunning barmaid called Cassandra (Natalie Denise Sperl) says that she'd love to go to the USA, judging by her "Romanian" accent I think it fair to say that she's already spent much time there! Amongst the cast we get non-actors to established actors, Jon Polito being the prime example of the latter though he really hams it up as a former communist military general. As for the Rock Monster itself the usually horrid CGI "special" effects are fairly reasonable plus there is a gore highlight in which a man quite literally loses the top of his head. There is a lot of romance plus a bit of comedy in the plot but I would like to have seen more horror, I found it rather boring.
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10/10
Saw it on Syfy on Demand - Loved it!
sara_boyle14 September 2019
I didn't think I'd like it because I went in knowing the FX were below standard but the acting was great and I loved the comedy. I laughed out loud many times. If you go in knowing what to expect, its really enjoyable.
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7/10
A decent & entertaining low-budget TV flick!
BJLindseyB-122 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this film tonight, Easter Saturday, just 'cause there was nothing else on. I didn't expect much from the TV-Spot & I never really have been impressed w/ any of Sci-Fi Channel's Originals (which this is) as of yet, albeit a big sci-fi fan. I was in for a pleasant surprise, however. The plot is OK, but it's the characters that are interesting ; ordinary people in which you quickly grow to like. The fact that lesser-knowns are cast (w/ the exception of Jon Polito) makes it easier to see the characters as just that-characters. For the budget (or lack thereof) that Sci-Fi Channel prob got for this flick, the 'rock monster' is actually cool-somewhat impressive CGI for a lower dollar amt! All in all, a good movie that really entertained me, had me invested, & that I could see again some time down the road!
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