Dinosaur Island (1994)

So much average

Good movie but grossly overrated

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I would like to begin by giving a small summary to the plot of the film: An army captain is flying three misfit deserters home for a court martial when the plane has engine trouble and they must land on an uncharted island. There they find a primitive society of cave women who routinely sacrifice virgins to appease The Great One, the top dog dinosaur on the the island. I was indulged into the story almost instantly, with use of a brilliantly intense plot. The production and actors were spanking. When the two main characters kissed my heart defiantly skipped a beat. I believe Fred Olen Ray has done a remarkable and ground breaking job, which has really captivated the future of filmography. With use of uncustomary CGI I would call this revelation a success comparing to the greats of Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club and also Avatar. 10/10 Superb I must say!!!!!!!!

The late night movie channels, home of such vast quantities (and I do mean the last two syllables of the word "quantities") of tripe, beckon. And I find Dinosaur Island, courtesy of not just Jim Wynorsky, but also Fred Olen Ray. If you recognise those names, you will know exactly the sort of film we're in for. And it ain't good.A small group of military men crash land on a tropical-ish island. This island is inhabited by a) dinosaurs (hence the title), and b) attractive young women in fur bikinis. Conveniently, the number of young women is the same as the number of military men. A plot - I can't believe I have dignified it with the word "plot" - involves fighting the dinosaurs and having sex with the women.Let me say at the outset that this film isn't entirely without merit. There are actually some witty lines in the script here and there, Antonia Dorian is gorgeous in (and out of) her fur bikini, and there is a fairly large scale dinosaur model/puppet/suit which features.Less praiseworthy, but worth remarking on, are the presence of Michelle Bauer (overexposed in more ways than several, but still decorative) and Griffin Drew (including implants), and a small quantity of extremely bad stop-frame animation used to bring certain dinosaurs to, er, life.The big trick used here, though, is forced perspective. Thus, there is no need to finance a giant egg prop - you use a normal egg near the camera and have your actors 50 yards away point in the right direction to make it look as if they are pointing at the egg near the camera. Or they run away, as if chased by a dinosaur, while a small scale dinosaur close to the camera is manipulated to look as though it is chasing them. Of course, it helps if both the close and distant items are focused the same. And it helps as if the dinosaur model doesn't look as if you just bought it from a toy shop. And it helps if your models aren't grounded in normal sized (and scaled) foliage, thus making them look like the models they are.The cheap, tatty special effects are dreadful. The film as a whole is preposterous. And yet it has a cheesy good nature which makes it oddly appealing...

Dinosaur Island starts as a small plane flies over the ocean from Asia to San Diego where Captain Jason Briggs (Ross Hagen) is to hand over three deserters for trial, suddenly one of the engines cut out & the plane is forced to crash land in the sea. Captain Briggs & his mate Sergeant Healey (Steve Barkett) along with the three deserters Skeemer (Richard Gabai), Turbo (Peter Spellos) & Wayne (Tom Shell) make it to a nearby uncharted island with the injured Buzz (Bob Sheridan). Once on the island it becomes clear their problems have only just begun, poor Buzz is eaten by a giant Dinosaur & the rest of the men are captured by young & beautiful semi naked women from an Amozonian tribe & initially put to death by Queen Morganna (Toni Naples). However a cheap tattoo on Skeemer's arm saves them as the tribe believe the men to have been sent as part of a prophecy, soon the men realise in order to stay alive they have to kill the fearsome Dinosaur known as the 'Great One'...Produced & directed by quite possibly the two worst director's working in Hollywood, namely Jim Wynorski & Fred Olen Ray I have to say that while Dinosaur Island wasn't as bad as I expected it's still an absolutely terrible film which shows just what sort of expectation level I initially had for it. I think the makers knew that Dinosaur Island was going to be bad so they play up to it & maybe this light hearted approach saves it from being a complete bore although please don't take that as any sort of recommendation as I will repeat the fact that I think Dinosaur Island is a terrible film. It's just a terrible film filled with bad one-liners, silly performances & awful special effects. The plot is pretty meaningless & makes no sense or has any central story of any worth, I mean the whole script is pretty bad from start to finish. The script only really exists to show lots of good looking women in not much clothing, the initial sacrifice scene for instance not only calls for a good looking woman to be tied up & scream her head off but for another topless woman painted blue to rip her bra off like all good human sacrifice rituals do, of course. Then there's scenes of women playing in a river, washing each other & taking their tops off, women wrestling each other & women generally looking good with the minimum amount of clothing on. At only 75 minutes long (what's with the spelling of the 'Ende' caption?) at least it's short but there's not even enough story to fill that scant duration, the plot is lethargic & I found it impossible to get involved in.The special effects are anything but, I wonder if the bad effects were deliberate to try & increase the camp value even more. The Dinosaur effects range from embarrassing socks puppets to inanimate on set models that just sort of sit there to some horrible stop motion animation that is amongst the jerkiest & tatty I have seen. Some of the blue screen work is also incompetent. There's no real gore, a woman has her arm bitten but other than that forget it. There's a fair bit of nudity as a lot of the woman take their tops off at various points. Amateurishly made the whole production sucks, there's no excitement or sense of wonder or anything here & I don't care what anyone says there's no way that small rubber dinghy could have carried six men even if one of them hadn't been badly injured & lying down in it. Not wanting to spend any more than was necessary Dinosaur Island feature footage edited in from Carnosaur (1993) of the Dinosaurs, footage of the plane from Farewell to the King (1989) & long shots of the actual island are stolen from Terror in Paradise (1995).Shot in just twelve days (why so long guy's?) in the often used Bronson Canyon in California as well as the late David Carradine's ranch the production values are rock bottom here with tatty costumes, sets, locations & props. The acting is bad, everyone got on my nerves although Ross Hagen as the tough Captain gives a surprisingly straight performance while all those around him are hamming it up.Dinosaur Island is as cheap & nasty as they come, made by two of the worst director's ever to get behind a camera it was never going to be pretty. Poverty row comedy, nudie & monster film that really is as bad as it sounds.

This movie is awesome! It has a great script, really cheesy effects, and nudity galore. Ross Hagen, Peter Spellos , Tom Shell and the always hilarious Richard Gabai star as soldiers stranded on a deserted island. They find that they are not alone. Bikini clad cave babes inhabit the island and mistake the soldiers for Gods thanks to a happy face tattoo on Gabai's arm. The men must prove their worth by slaughtering "the great one" (no, it's not Jackie Gleason) and bring food to the village. In the process the men teach the women about other activities involving very little clothing and we see a lot of stock footage. Tom Shell has since gone on to other pursuits in producing and I'm happy for him but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss him. He played a good "joe average who gets laid" character and he did it without looking like a sleaze. Gabai gives a comedic performance reminiscent of Dean Martin. This review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the ladies. Griffin Drew, Michelle Bauer and (the completely natural bodied) Antonia Dorian play the sexy cave babes who teach the guys the real meaning of R&R and they do it with very little dialogue. This is a fun film that doesn't take itself too seriously.