Pterodactyl

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.

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.

Sci-Fi Channel. Home of the worst movies imaginable.

Sadly, these movies aren't bad in the "so bad they're good" way, despite what the fools who run the network might want you to believe. They are just BAD. As in "a pain to watch". "Without value". The only way to make movies like this remotely entertaining would be to make them utter comedies. Sadly, though, movies such as "Pterodactyl" are not comedic, just pathetic.

Were these characters and was the acting supposed to be funny somehow? They were utterly abominable! From the stereotypical diva actually looking at herself in the mirror for minutes at a time and saying "I love you" to her reflection to geeks who are like Urkel without the charisma. Was it supposed to be funny? Were we supposed to laugh? Maybe the first 1,000 times we saw such exaggerated stereotypes they might have been mildly amusing. Now they're just lame and tired. Can't laugh at them. Can't hate them. Can't like them. We can only hate watching them.

Send these flying dinos after the management of the Sci-Fi Channel. Now THAT would be funny and elicit great cheering from the fans of the Sci-Fi genre!

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.

The movie is developed on the Armenian-Turkish frontier where a students group(Amy Sloan, and a gorgeous Mircea Monroe, among them) and their professor(Cameron Daddo)undergo an archaeological expedition. In a dormant volcano closes an incredible secret, a nest of pterodactyls eggs, accurately preserved, are ready to hatch . Meanwhile a contra-terrorist team led by a tough commander(Coolio) tracks down Armenian dangerous terrorist. Then Pterodactyls spontaneously attack and the humans try desperately to escape and grisly death happen, while the soldiers use their technological weapons.

The movie delivers the goods with hair-rising chills and noisy scares when the Pterodactyls appear savagely stalking its prey and attacking. This is an OK amusing juvenile with thin characters and contrived plot but quite entertaining . It's remarkable for FX recreation the ferocious and carnivorous beast developing a bloodthirsty hunger for human eating. The actors give vigorous physical performances dodging the prehistoric giant birds recreated by the prolific computer generator, as usual. The Pterodactyls, themselves, of course, are the real stars, and they're marvellous terrifying astounding, and quite convincing. The motion picture is professionally produced and directed by Mark L Lester. He's a cool director and producer-American World Pictures- of B movies , his greatest success was during the 80s, when he directed hits , such as ¨Commando, Firestarter, Showdown in Little Tokio and Class of 1984¨ . No for small children for realistic, gory and violent attack scenes. Rating : Average but entertaining.