Danger Island

The movie was cute. I caught it on the Family Channel at the end of July. Most of the actors were familiar. I like Sci-Fi and I always enjoy watching a Joe Lara show or movie. Check this one out.

When this TV movie made its debut, the trailer (and the montage behind the end credits) made a lot of Kathy Ireland's appearance in a swimsuit. Enough said. (That, and the fact that early on she can't believe someone tells her and other models to "Make those bikinis sing!" If even the characters in the film can't believe their dialogue...)

I first watched this movie back in 1998, in a late night slot on the UK's Channel 5. I had never heard of the movie or read about it and just happened to start watching it. In the first few minutes, I assumed it would be a romantic drama on a tropical island. Swiss Family Robinson meets Blue Lagoon, maybe? Oh, how I was wrong.

After they arrive safely upon the island we get the view from under the water and the eerie music comes on. So its not a modern day Swiss Family Robinson after all. More like Demon Seed. I become even more intrigued in to what mysteries the island possesses, with references to the mutated fruit, 'fish like people' and hallucinations that Vic (Graham) has. I had to keep watching this movie, even though some of the acting was cringe worthy.

In to the latter part of the movie when they move in to the ''Habitat'', the group start to discover what truths there are behind the islands military past. A lot of the action takes place around this part of the movie, some it quite entertaining and exiting. When it came to an end I was shocked, I wanted more. Looking back though, there are painful reminders that Danger Island was not meant to end like this, but made to pave the way for a TV series, which never took off unfortunately (unless you can count Lost).

A good and entertaining film, with a relatively unknown cast and poor scripting, but good acting from Gary Graham and June Lockhart. In all though very intriguing characters and all work well together as a group. Would have been great to found out the answers that were never given especially if they were ever rescued. Oh well, a worthy 7/10

I agree with the comments made by other users, but have to disagree with the trivia section..

This film did become a very successful TV series, however they changed the name from "Danger Island" to "Lost" and just spent a bit more money on the special effects (and threw in the odd polar bear..) :-)

Here in the UK this film is either shown at 3pm or 3am (which should tell you a lot!) Very much like the ATeam in its production values and storyline, so if you used to enjoy the Ateam in the 80's, you will find this film a very easy watch for a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon.

Having just seen the film again (seen it a few times now over the years) I think it would make the basis of a very good computer game. (everything seems to be level based - probably due to the limited budget)

It also has the Human from the "Alien Nation" TV series in it (Gary Graham - most recently seen as Vulcan Ambassador Soval in "Enterprise"), and also one of the very first uses of computer generated "morphing".

This movie contains very few established actors with Kathy Ireland and the Mexican guy from the A-Team being the best known. It also has as its hero a guy who looks remarkably like Mick Jagger(he has a huge jaw). The plot centres around a desert island which contains a sinister abandoned research facility. A motley crew of annoying people are washed ashore after a plane crash and terror ensues when some of them inexplicably turn into incredibly cheap looking monsters. The special effects are poor, especially the explosions at the start which sound similar to a cap-gun. Having said this it should be remembered that this is just a TV movie after all. There is one extremely strange scene halfway through the film when one of the characters makes what appears to be a vital quote about "operation Naomi", it appears as if he has some inside knowledge about the hugely chilling goings on, but no, our hopes are dashed. "Operation Naomi" is not mentioned again in the movie. This is the most bizarre part of the movie as it might have explained what the hell was going on, but it just made it more confusing. Finally, this movie contains poor TV actors and has a rotten script and minute budget for the special effects, but it is still one of the most entertaining TV movies ever made.