Alraune - Die Wurzel des Grauens

I wanted to like this movie, filmed in Shreveport, La. including a better cast than some of these SyFy movies have, but NO. Andre Stevens of Dallas fame and b-movie star produced this film it has some good special FX, and production values, yet the script never works, the actors never capture their characters. Watch it you sit thru the whole thing thinking wow this looks better than most Saturday Night flicks, even the monster is fairly cool looking, and when its over you'll think what happened to my last two hours. The actor from the Unit isn't bad but you just can't seem to connect to anyone in the film. A few inventive moments nothing more.

A really silly little movie that I might have liked more as a teenager I guess. It has the wife of Jigsaw in it, that's a plus, no? Of course it's not, although I really do like her. Another character is pretty neat (imho), but the whole plot is a mess. It doesn't make much sense, the CGI isn't helping either.

But since this is a Syfy production (and you probably know them from their other mostly creature feature ... features), you should know what to expect... and what not to expect! With that in mind, you can enjoy the silliness of it all or just stop watching after the first couple of minutes, because you ain't going to like it any better along the ride.

After have seen a production from The Asylum, The Terminators, it was back again time to see a SyFy production. If you ever have seen a SyFy flick you will never forget it because they are mostly really bad. This one here was an average flick but again the cheap CGI teared it down.

As always the beginning is rather good and I thought, hell, this is going to be something in the Predator genre. But no, once the creature attacks it's just cheap CGI. The whole cocoon scene looked promising but of course they always did the killings off-camera. You do see some blood splattering here and there but it is never that frightening. Overall it looked like a flick to watch with the family on a Saturday night.

But this time they added a big name on the list, Max Martini from The Unit. The second main lead was by Betsy Russell, another big name from the Saw franchise but I was never involved with their characters. I couldn't care less if they were hurt or going to die. Storywise it was also a bit simple and you could see clearly what was going on.

I have seen worse, especially from SyFy but still, not a good movie.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I had no I idea if this movie would be worth watching or not, but me and my mom decided to get it. When she was reading to me what it was a bout at the Red Box I told her to get it.

The cast was amazing! Top notch acting I believe. They all had my attention and I found there characters all very likable, even the ones that I didn't think I would like eventually I found likable. Not to say there ain't ones you may not like.

You'll see the scenery in the movie is beautiful. It takes place about in mid South America, but was really shot in Louisiana. This creature you will see in the movie looks pretty amazing. This wasn't no typical SyFy movie. Give it a watch, its worth it!

In a fictitious Latin American country, the soldier of fortune Sgt. McCall (Max Martini) leads the Vargas Expedition sponsored by the powerful Harry Vargas (Benito Martinez) and formed by the archaeologists Dr. Felicia (Betsy Russell) and Lin (Wayne Pere); the local Santiago Zavala (Nick Gomez) and a baggage carrier through the jungle. In the base, Carla Manning (Jon Mack) gives support to McCall's team and is the liaison with Harry, who is obsessed for a dagger.

When they reach a tomb facing south in a sacred ground, they open the tomb and finds a dagger with a ruby craved in a skeleton and Lin removes weapon from the grave, accomplishing the objective of their assignment. Dr. Felicia advises them that the tomb has a warning advising to not remove the dagger. Soon they discover that nature and the Yamballi tribe are chasing them; further, the previous expedition sent to the forest to retrieve the dagger has been slaughtered.

"Mandrake" is a TV movie released in Brazil on DVD. The story is absolutely predictable and the adventure of the expeditionary team is not scary. In the end, watching this film was a waste of time in a Saturday afternoon. Better off if I had taken a nap. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Raiz do Mal" ("The Root of the Evil")