Larry Cohen is one of the big horror names and I've been meaning to get to his movies for quite some time. Never caught his "It's Alive" trilogy, nor "Q" or "God Told Me To" but as a horror nut; I'll get to them eventually. Perhaps "Full Moon High" isn't the best introduction into Larry Cohen the director. Adam Arkin gives his all as a teenager who's bitten by a wolf in Romania and his life falls apart soon after. Father dies (quite a funny scene though) and he fulfills his destiny; roaming the earth for a great deal of time before tiring of it eventually and then return home. He does just that but a lot has changed. Perhaps aiming for the heights of screwball comedy gold "Airplane"; "Full Moon High" is just a plain old misfire. Maybe some quality inside jokes flew by me but the flick is spoofing Werewolf oldie's left and right while trying to be somewhat topical of changing times and values in the old US of A. There are scattered laughs here and there in 93 minutes (mostly with Ed McMahon and Kenneth Mars - the shower scene early on is pretty funny) but on the whole this is a pretty painful sit-through. Certainly a one of a kind movie and not surprisingly it has a small cult following; I'm all for that (mostly in the horror department myself though) but I can't honestly recommend this movie for comedy buffs. Adam Arkin is likable here but like most others he looks a little lost and no wonder. I'll give the movie one thing; it's anything but predictable as I never knew what direction it was going to turn to next. Halfway through I thought I had it pegged but was I dead wrong! Weird flick and not in the good way.

Love Larry Cohen's work and his teen horror spoof "Full Moon High" is no exception to the trend. It might not be mentioned alongside other such films like "It's Alive", "Q-The Winged Serpent" and "God told Me to", but for me Cohen has hardly put a foot wrong. Yep I enjoyed such films like "Perfect Strangers", "A Return to Salem's lot" and "Special Effects". 9 out of 10 times I'm satisfied with what he helms.Set in the 1950s Tony Walker an American high school jock who heads to Transylvania with his father on a holiday getaway, but is cursed with immortality when he's bitten by a werewolf. Returning home to the States he finds it hard to control the beast inside and that he's stuck to roam the world like this for eternity.The Cohen produced / directed / written enterprise "Full Moon High" is an amusingly goof-ball, if low-brow (numerous gay and sex jokes) comedy poking fun at the werewolf genre with constant in-jokes and homage's. It's a fun, snappy ride with its rapid fire tongue-in-cheek gags, sharply cheeky dialogues ("It's a Wookiee!") and animated performances from a game cast. Plenty of lively and humorous appearances, as there's fun to be had with the likes of Ed Machon, Kenneth Mars, Alan Arkin, Roz Kelly, Elizabeth Hartman, Demond Wilson and a Cohen regular James Dixon. Adam Arkin in the lead is quite straight and dry with the delivery, but it seems to fit. His chemistry with Machon (portraying his father) was always delightful with the witty exchanges, especially when he encounters his son in werewolf form. "The Commies turned my son into a wolf!". The story's structure is randomly pieced together, but held by its laconically sarcastic script and Larry Cohen's ably assured and zippy direction. It's a flat out comedy with less concern with the running themes of some sort of social commentary (although the first half does touch upon the cold war paranoia), which is usually found within Cohen's writing. Even with the low-budget restraints (just look at the cheap transformation scene and werewolf make-up), he neatly works around it to make you more captivated with the characters and their actions. Through keeping everything in the shadows or done in POV shots (with resourceful photographer Daniel Pearl) and suggestively off-screen. Still I thought the make-up was decent enough, if you take for face value as it has that old-fashion touch of those golden oldies."Full Moon High" isn't high art, but it doesn't pretend to be anything else than what it sets out to be. Agreeable comedy entertainment.

Man, was I disappointed.1) Adam Arkin is more whiny than Ross Geller from 'Friends' 2) A great cast is wasted (Kenneth Mars, Alan Arkin, Ed McMahon, Pat Morita, Louis Nye) with this amateurish script.3) The movie suffers from horrible pacing. It jumps around through in a jumbled, confusing manner.4) The story doesn't even make sense. Why does he want to break the football streak? What about the stupid violin music? None of it is explained.5) It's not even funny. It's like a bunch of accountants trying to do improv, saying "Lookit me! Lookit me I'm being funny!" This was a bad attempt at making another "Love At First Bite".I like Larry Cohen movies, but man he failed here. I couldn't wait for the credits to roll. Horribly disappointed.

Being a fan of movies like "Fire Sale", "Where's Poppa", "Airplane" I saw this because it was mentioned favorably in the context of real comedies and satires like the aforementioned. Well, WRONG CONCLUSION!Not only is this not funny, it makes you angry because it isn't bad in a schlocky, likable way but in a really bad way. It's bad-bad. The script does not contain a single funny line which is rather in the way when you're trying to entertain your audience with humour.Adam Arkin's speech impediment is probably the single most annoying thing in this movie. Still this cruelty of nature doesn't prevent him from being smug throughout the movie and he has a hard time not looking into the camera. This amateur without charisma fits in nicely with the constant continuity errors and bumbling along of the story - if you can find one.Ed McMahon - I had to think of Jay Leno, another late night talk show person, who always refuses to call himself an actor. Well, I've seen a few Leno movies and he's Laurence Olivier compared to McMahon.Kenneth Mars is good, though. In the few lines that he's given. I'm not easily frightened by bad comedies so I kept watching and looking for all the quasi-jokes every 5 minutes or so.The movie actually becomes sort of a comedy as soon as Alan Arkin takes over - he literally does: Starting 75 minutes into the movie he's in every scene. But it's too little, too late.When movies try to fool you into believing their lack of professionalism is the reason you're supposed to like them because they have the right intentions they remind me of pupils that haven't prepared for an exam. In those cases you have to remain strict and the grade has to be an 'F'. (But please don't assume I'm a teacher. That is a profession with a respectability somewhere between politician and child molester).If you actually look for a likable schlocky horror/scifi movie that is fun to watch and does contain jokes try "Man with the Screaming Brain" by Bruce Campbell. Or watch Sunshine/Core if you prefer modern loud shallow SciFi Schlock. Those are equally funny, albeit involuntarily.