The Curse of the Komodo (2004)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Diplodocus-sized Komodo dragons stalk the inhabitants of a small island off Hawaii, the result of a Defence experiment gone awry. When the local team of scientists are mysteriously joined by a band of fugitives of a fatal casino heist, the two groups must co-operate to survive whilst the mainland Defence department organises a deadly napalm mission to neutralise the situation, and cover all the tracks.Something of a sequel to "Komodo" though baring no relation to the predecessor, both in terms of production quality or storyline (not to suggest that the original was a memorable debut for the killer Komodo theme). The cast is fairly obscure for talent, but there's an over-abundance of cleavage if that's your tonic; Melissa Brasselle and Glori-Anne Gilbert's characters are a buxom if brain-dead duo, with whom even buffed-up muscle-man Paul Logan's pecks can't compete. Ex British playmate, Gail Harris supplies the scientific credentials vis-à-vis a British accent, but despite her flamboyant background, stays fully clothed throughout. Only Arthur Roberts and George 'Buck' Flower offer a link (albeit a tenuous one) to mainstream cinema with frivolous bit parts.Aside from the scarcity of recognisable personnel on screen, there also seems to have been a strike in the special effects department, where more effort was paid in the creation of a ridiculous zombie tangent, where contact with the Komodo's drool causes a septicaemia akin to the behaviour of one of Lucio Fulci's zombie flesh-eaters. The predators rarely look convincing, and despite churning the ammunition, there are only a couple of beasts with which to contend. And yet it still takes 84 minutes to end the carnage that is the film "Curse of the Komodo".

The brainchild of military man Foster(Jay Richardson)regarding giant Komodo dragons against American enemies is given birth thanks to scientist, Professor Nathan Phipps(William Langlois)who has bio-engineered the supposedly extinct species into massive dinosaur sized monsters, quite carnivorous and hungry for food. Along with a few associates on an island compound near Hawaii, Phipps, his daughter Rebecca(..porn starlet Glori-Anne Gilbert, who isn't in this flick because of her acting ability, having a nice little topless bathing scene near water falls), and his assistant Dawn(Gail Harris)attempt to find a way at controlling the beasts without success. Meanwhile, a trio of casino thieves hitch a ride with paid alcoholic ex-military pilot Jack(Tim Abell, an ex-porn actor who gets a chance to play hero in an action adventure)who lands them on the island containing the Komodo dragon. Jack informs cranky muscular head heister Drake(Paul Logan), his lover Tiffany(Melissa Brasselle), and fellow thief Reece(Cam Newlin)that his chopper will need repairs, but they will soon find themselves joining forces with Phipps remaining crew against a giant Komodo dragon whose outer skin seems impenetrable from gunfire as everyone fires endless rounds at it without effect, just annoying the beast. Phipps' compound is guarded by an electric fence but they are low on fuel and the generator is on the fritz. With a plague deriving from a slime secreted by the Komodo dragon causing those infected to slowly succumb to horrible skin rashes, sickness and erratic behavior, and that Komodo loose and hungry, the group will attempt to make it for Jack's chopper due to the fact that Foster won't send a rescue team to fly them off the island. But, it won't be easy as the Komodo always returns to feast on human meat when it can corner victims.When inspired, director Jim Wynorski makes other films than just porn spoofs which is the case with this creature feature. It's nothing that you haven't seen numerous times on Sci-fi channel(..for which Wynorski has been a major contributor with numerous killer monster flicks), but I found it an entertaining enough time-waster. You get to see the Komodo dragon gulp a few humans. For a low-budget horror adventure, the special effects of the monster are the standard you are use to seeing on the Sci-fi channel, not really that bad or mind-blowing, either. The film alternates between our folks on the island squaring off with their sharp-teeth beast and the military headquarters of Foster. Unlike many of Wynorski efforts, the film plays it straight, not layered with tongue-in-cheek humor. As usual, though, Wynorski has two actresses with large fake breasts. Gilbert is a Wynorski regular who has starred in several of his porn spoofs such as "Witches of Breastwick" & "The Breastford Wives"(..also starring as a fantasy girl in another Wynorski creature feature "The Thing Below"). She attempts to emote, but couldn't act if her life depended on it. Abell isn't so bad and could make a living in these type of genre flicks. He'd probably made it well in Italian rip-offs back in the late 70's/early 80's. Brasselle is a major babe who serves as a very ripped source of eye candy. Logan as the brooding heavy Drake(..who shoots the late Buck Flower in his opening scene because Reece mentioned his name while they were looting a casino)might be familiar to those who have his seen him in a bevy of porn flicks. The film has a nice pace, with decent inserts of military footage, and fulfills all the requirements of a B-movie adventure flick. It's supposed to be escapist fare and is geared towards fans of creature feature flicks. Could be better. Could be worse. It is what it is.

Memorable in this film:the same scene of the party walking though the savannah pasted into a variety of different scenic backgroundseveryone who repents of their past mistakes and plans to do things better in future gets eatenthe same Komodo seems to vary in size from scene to scenecompletely gratuitous topless sceneIncidentally, Komodos are not the world's most dangerous reptiles (crocodiles and snakes are much more dangerous, and they don't walk on their hind legs like T. rex.

*Spoilers* This movie is peopled with Soft Core Porn Actors whose over-acting is compounded by bizarre facial tics. Between scenes full of cheesy over baked dialog and spastic eyebrows, the characters shoot guns at the lizard from the set of 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth'. The gun play is hideous. They might as well be holding sticks and shouting 'bang bang'. I do have an appreciation for Tim Abell and Ted Monte as actors, and they try, they really do, but nothing else in the movie works. The character Jack (Tim Abell) carries around a flask of never ending liquor, which, y'know, he really *needed* just to make it through this offal.