I'll say it right away: I'm a sucker for monster-movies. I just have to see them all. The good and the bad, I don't care. And PTERODACTYL is definitely one of those baddies, although not completely beyond redemption I might add. It's almost as entertaining as, for example, Gary Jones' SPIDERS. But I do say 'almost'. Don't think for a minute that it's a terrifying movie, 'cause it will mostly have you laughing at the edge of your seat.
The story is highly un-original (but who gives a damn?). Somewhere near the Turkish border a volcano erupts, hereby setting free a horde of hungry pterodactyls. A scientist and some students (unaware of our flying critters) go in to study the environment. Meantime, a group of American soldiers is hunting down a Turkish terrorist in that same area. Eventually, the two groups will meet and join forces to fight off the horde of beasties.
The characters are just a bunch of clichés piled together (so are their actions, as a matter of fact). The scientist and the senior student becoming romantically involved near the end of the movie; there's the nerdy guy with glasses; there's the annoying blonde bimbo, there's the dudes from special ops acting real tough, etc... As to be expected, the acting's rather bad, with the terrorist bad guys probably being some of the worst actors I've ever seen. And Coolio is completely unbelievable as the sergeant. Casting a blunting rapper from da hood as a military sergeant is pure genius. Come to think of it, casting him as a pot-smoking cop in THE CONVENT was perhaps even better.
With its title being PTERODACTYL, this movie delivers the goods. Even to that point that it almost becomes boring seeing the pterodactyls fly around all the time. I couldn't believe how many (un-stylized) gunfights this movie has. They keep on shooting the bastards, going ratatatatatatata left and right, and still missing almost every target. So everyone must be a real lousy shooter. Either that, or our winged serpents are nearly bulletproof. I loved the rocket-launcher; made me feel like I was in a shooting-game. But they didn't seem to have to re-load the thing. And for being a soldier or a scientist, I must say they're all pretty stupid too. Because, while under attack, they keep on running into the fields, instead of taking cover in the forests. Oh, well, I'm only trying to say here that this movie will have you laughing quite a lot.
And what about our pterodac-babies? Well, the CGI isn't exactly Jurasic Park-stuff, if you know what I mean and in some shots they even briefly use (not too impressive) puppetry. The abduction-scenes, with the actors hanging on (invisible) ropes were rather well-made. The attacks of the creatures are fairly bloody and gory (bodies cut in half, decapitation, dismemberment,...) and we get a few shots where we see them hungrily chewing on some bloody intestines. The ravine-scene at the end had me laughing because of its rudimentary portrayal of the action and its hockey special effects. It had me thinking of the ravine-scene in Peter Jackson's KING KONG, remembering how it should be done and nodding my head. It was also highly unbelievable that only one explosion killed of all the creatures at the same time(except one). And I really liked the last shot of the movie, which seemed more like a preview for a new PlayStation 2 game than a part of the movie, actually.
So this movie is bad but also a lot of fun. Perhaps even more fun is watching the 'making of'. I had the slight impression that director Mark L. Lester was on drugs or something, because of his enthusiastic ramblings about the political issues and entangling romance this movie has. He even compares PTERODACTYL with Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Come on, man, this movie is about a hungry horde of prehistoric creatures. Very much fun indeed.
You can see this flick, like I did, together with CURSE OF THE KOMODO, which is even a bit worse. But I did have a fun evening with this b-movie double feature. Like I said: I'm a sucker for monster-movies.
The story is highly un-original (but who gives a damn?). Somewhere near the Turkish border a volcano erupts, hereby setting free a horde of hungry pterodactyls. A scientist and some students (unaware of our flying critters) go in to study the environment. Meantime, a group of American soldiers is hunting down a Turkish terrorist in that same area. Eventually, the two groups will meet and join forces to fight off the horde of beasties.
The characters are just a bunch of clichés piled together (so are their actions, as a matter of fact). The scientist and the senior student becoming romantically involved near the end of the movie; there's the nerdy guy with glasses; there's the annoying blonde bimbo, there's the dudes from special ops acting real tough, etc... As to be expected, the acting's rather bad, with the terrorist bad guys probably being some of the worst actors I've ever seen. And Coolio is completely unbelievable as the sergeant. Casting a blunting rapper from da hood as a military sergeant is pure genius. Come to think of it, casting him as a pot-smoking cop in THE CONVENT was perhaps even better.
With its title being PTERODACTYL, this movie delivers the goods. Even to that point that it almost becomes boring seeing the pterodactyls fly around all the time. I couldn't believe how many (un-stylized) gunfights this movie has. They keep on shooting the bastards, going ratatatatatatata left and right, and still missing almost every target. So everyone must be a real lousy shooter. Either that, or our winged serpents are nearly bulletproof. I loved the rocket-launcher; made me feel like I was in a shooting-game. But they didn't seem to have to re-load the thing. And for being a soldier or a scientist, I must say they're all pretty stupid too. Because, while under attack, they keep on running into the fields, instead of taking cover in the forests. Oh, well, I'm only trying to say here that this movie will have you laughing quite a lot.
And what about our pterodac-babies? Well, the CGI isn't exactly Jurasic Park-stuff, if you know what I mean and in some shots they even briefly use (not too impressive) puppetry. The abduction-scenes, with the actors hanging on (invisible) ropes were rather well-made. The attacks of the creatures are fairly bloody and gory (bodies cut in half, decapitation, dismemberment,...) and we get a few shots where we see them hungrily chewing on some bloody intestines. The ravine-scene at the end had me laughing because of its rudimentary portrayal of the action and its hockey special effects. It had me thinking of the ravine-scene in Peter Jackson's KING KONG, remembering how it should be done and nodding my head. It was also highly unbelievable that only one explosion killed of all the creatures at the same time(except one). And I really liked the last shot of the movie, which seemed more like a preview for a new PlayStation 2 game than a part of the movie, actually.
So this movie is bad but also a lot of fun. Perhaps even more fun is watching the 'making of'. I had the slight impression that director Mark L. Lester was on drugs or something, because of his enthusiastic ramblings about the political issues and entangling romance this movie has. He even compares PTERODACTYL with Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Come on, man, this movie is about a hungry horde of prehistoric creatures. Very much fun indeed.
You can see this flick, like I did, together with CURSE OF THE KOMODO, which is even a bit worse. But I did have a fun evening with this b-movie double feature. Like I said: I'm a sucker for monster-movies.