Pterodactyl

I gave this movie 2*'s to save the rating of 1* on the chance that there are worse movies out there. It's possible. The acting was horrible, but I've seen worse (usually when they decide they need *real* athletes to play roles). The special effects were bad, but I've seen worse (they're usually 50 years old though). The dialog was ridiculous (trying to remember when I've seen worse, but nothing comes to mind -- oh wait, maybe some of the dialog in the recent Star Wars movies). As giant-monster-terrorizing-helpless-people movies go - they're not known for deep character development - this one stood out as being exceptionally bad, as none of the characters behave at any time in any way that a normal human would reasonably be expected to behave under the circumstances. That's quite an accomplishment in itself. This movie might have been funny with a roomful of good friends and lots of tequila. Unfortunately, I had neither at the time.

This movie is proof that our Army just isn't ready for a war against dinosaurs. And we should get ready, because terrorists around the world who have access to this fill now know our weakness. The guys in this movie shot so much led into the air i found myself wondering why some of it isn't raining down on them and killing them. So many of the characters were narrowly avoiding death and i hated them all so much that i started to make up fantasies in my head about cool ways they could die, their own bullets coming down being one of the best.

During the course of this 2005 summer blockbuster you see these peaceful winged dinosaurs get some really bad press. Now i myself have only once met a Pterodactly so i can't speak for all of them but what i do know is that they are not found of eating people. Don't believe me, you could always google it. They ate fish. They cannot fly fast enough to rip off a man's torso from his legs, and if their wing hit a guys head i assure you both the guy and the dactyl would be on the ground screaming together rather then the guy's head coming off. That aside, i really like it when people come apart in movies. As for the bullets, dinosaurs came from a time before bullets, they don't believe in such things. The power of belief kept them safe from man's weapons. That is one theory i have. The second one is that they had on bullet proof vests. The dinosaurs were terribly rendered so they could have been wearing dresses and it would have been a struggle to tell.

Why didn't i rate this a one you ask? I hope your asking cause i'm gunna tell you. Because Coolio is in it. Coolio is the only rapper turned actor i like in a movie. After watching his performance in Dracula 3,000 (see my review for that if you dare) i can't hate anything he touches. I take that back, i can hate them, cause i sure hated both this movie and Dracula 3000, but i won't ever rate one of his movies a 1.

So Don Rumsfeld, this movie better be playing 24/7 in the pentagon as a warning to you all... get ready for Muslim extremists riding unstoppable dactyls into things. Bullets can't stop them, nothing can. Nothing... except coolio.

3.5/10. Just what you would expect it to be, a bad sci-fi horror film, cheaply produced. For some inane reason, I get a kick out of these kind of films. That doesn't mean i think they are good, I just relish in the badness of them. Some of the special effects are decent, but I am not a big fan of these computer generated special effects. This acting is poor overall,but a couple of the actors do fine. Not much here to recommend. It can be quite gory and gruesome at times, and the special effects in this area are very poor. Mark L. lester's direction is minimal to say the least. The score is very obvious and even distracting at times. Cheesy sets. Yuk.

A great cast is what saves this CGI cheap. Cameron Daddo does the best he can with what he has to work with. Amy Sloan is always interesting to watch. Come on Sci-Fi, give us some deeper plots. Don't underestimate our intelligence..The Sci-Fi channel is pumping out these 2 million dollar movies, and they still can't find the balance between scientific and campy. I have to assume the execs at Sci-Fi think the visuals trump the story, which is too bad. Who watches Star Trek for the effects? I don't even mind bad special effects, I just wish these Original Sci-Fi flicks had more depth and less clichés. A bigger budget is not required, only inspiration.

The characters were terribly written, I never did get their names, they were just "generic nerd" or "stuck-up drama queen". They were all cardboard cut-outs.

The plot was completely unbelievable. Why did the us special forces bother trying to save the American students and then try to argue that no, they can't help them out of the forest? Why bother saving them if you're not committed to the idea? The Generic Professer was relying on these kids to help him save his career? He would have been better off looking for another position.

And the CGI was obvious. I don't have a problem with good CGI, but here it was impossible NOT to notice how fake everything was.