Caçadores de Tesouro

Antonio Margheriti will forever remain - at least as far as I am concerned - the undisputed king of Italian rip-off classics! During the late 70s and first half of the 80s, this wonderful man blatantly imitated the biggest contemporary blockbusters and made them crazier, sleazier, more violent, and more exploitative. His masterworks include "Killer Fish" (= "Piranha"), "The Last Hunter" (= The Deer Hunter), "Yor" (= "Conan the Barbarian"), "Tornado Joe" (= "Rambo"), "Hunters of the Golden Cobra", and "Ark of the Sun God" (= both "Raiders of the Lost Ark").

"Jungle Raiders" is also a knock-off of Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but by the time of its release, in 1985, Margheriti's energy and inspiration had clearly watered down a lot. This is undoubtedly Antonio's least entertaining rip-off effort, and a sorely disappointing jungle adventure/actioner altogether.

Still, Margheriti - or Anthony M. Dawson, like he always prefers to name himself internationally - effectively tricked me (and probably everyone) with the first 10 minutes of "Jungle Raiders". Three men are on a dangerous rainforest expedition to recover a tribal statue, but it surprisingly turns out to be a complete scam! Two of them, Duke "Captain Yankee" Howard and Gin Fizz, run a profitable business where they make rich wannabe-adventurers believe they are on actual jungle missions, but everything is fake; - including the primitive tribes' attacks and death traps! Well-played, Antonio!

Sadly, it's all downhill from here. Yankee and Gin Fizz are recruited for a real mission, and it rapidly becomes a familiar stew of cartoonish villains, erupting volcanos, exploding barrels, and jumping down waterfalls to escape. In fact, the only original gimmick is the local kid with his super-intelligent (and obedient) Cobra. Lee Van Cleef receives top billing, but he must have had a clause in his contract that stated he didn't want to get his clothes dirty, because he only appears in a few dull and talkative sequences.

I found an old VHS copy of this in a used book store. One look at the case and I knew I had to buy it. On the cover was an illustration of some guy, shirt unbuttoned, standing in the middle of the jungle holding a tommy gun, with a curvaceous woman clinging to his arm. You know you've got a terrible B-movie when you see a picture like that on the cover (i.e. the picture looks stupid, and you know the actual movie won't look anything like the picture anyway). Oh, and the best part: the title, "Jungle Raiders," was in the EXACT same font you'll see on the cover of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Obviously, people were supposed to buy it thinking it was an Indiana Jones movie. Not realizing their mistake until they got home, and too lazy to go back for a refund, these sad individuals would then resign themselves with the knowledge that they had brought home Captain Yankee when they could have had Indy.

Upon inserting the video into a friend's VCR, I realized something. This wasn't merely a campy, low-budget, '80s action flick. No, it was a campy, low-budget, '80s action flick FROM ITALY! The Italians are crazy, of course, so I knew I was in for something wacky. I was right. My friend and I couldn't stop laughing until it was over, and even after that we were still chuckling about it. This was seriously the most fun I'd had watching a movie in a long time.

I don't know where to start talking about it! Okay, first of all, it is NOT a rip-off of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as some other IMDb reviewers have said. Apart from a couple of tombs and some angry natives, the resemblance doesn't extend beyond the packaging.

"Jungle Raiders" is in fact a roller-coaster ride of extremely random action sequences, crappy special effects, and horrendous dubbing. The plot is rapid fire; one idiotic thing after another. This movie has everything! It has a boy who sends his pet cobra out to do errands for him! It has flame-throwers! It has pirates! It has a buck-toothed villain who wears a turban with a jewel in the middle of it! It has a Scottish sidekick who wears a plaid pancake hat! It has a fire-breathing mummy! It has Lee Van Cleef! All things which could only come from the sick mind of an Italian. The ridiculous booby traps that our heroes encounter are enough to send you into fits of laughter, and if that doesn't happen the hilariously bad film score will probably do the trick. And if you haven't died laughing by the time the ending credits roll, you'll get to hear one of the worst songs ever written.

Only seasoned veterans of bad movies should attempt to watch "Jungle Raiders." The viewing should not be done alone. Popcorn is optional. And...what more can I say? I don't understand how anyone could not love this movie.

I like this film, apart from being directed by the great Antonio Margheriti, it also features a great cast of B Movie stalwarts - Christopher Connelly, Lee Van Cleef, Luciano Pigozzi and Mike Monty - all with tongues firmly stuck in cheeks. The model effects may not be convincing, but I will take them over CGI any day. Margheriti directs with pure gutso and the cast look to be enjoying themselves. If I had to make a choice between Indiana Jones or Captain Yankee, Captain Yankee would win hands down.

I saw this years ago, and was astonished when I first saw it. It is a bad film, with a hunt for some gem called The Ruby of Gloom. Why anyone would look for something with a name that dubious escapes me, but okay.

The outstanding thing in this film, the thing that stayed with me, was the pet of a boy who was a member of Captain Yankee's party. It was a hooded cobra. This snake was very bright: he could put Lassie to shame, even conducting a scouting mission for the boy. He was so bright, he spotted a lady snake and slithered out of the film before the action concluded.

Not bad. Just silly.

Golan-Globus were shameless ripoff artists of the 80s who could take a formula from a successful film then turn it into atrocious cinema. How anyone outside of the third world could have been suckered into seeing Jungles Raiders, instead of Raiders of the Lost Atk, from which most the whole concept comes, is beyond me.

Bela Lugosi was to Ed Wood, what Lee Van Cleef is to this film – the only recognizable actor, past his prime but clearly content to collect a paycheck for the grandkids. For the most part the rest of the actors were Italian hacks whose dubbing is almost (but not quite) laughably bad. My favorite feature of the looping is what would appear to be a rule: all actors that are onscreen at any given moment must be talking or at least making utterances. Never mind that their mouths may now be closed, or that there is no reason for them to be talking – they are gonna make some noise and there's nothing you can do about it.

It's like bad porn, where the girl is moaning with her mouth shut (or occupied). Furthermore, these Italians must go to the School of Gusto Laughs where all male actors are taught to end all dialog lines with a hearty pirate's laugh. Just watch – it could make a good drinking game.

In a nutshell, however, this movie is bad – with a capital A. Not bad enough to be good, as I had hoped, but just plain bad. No story (and the story elements there are are taken directly from Raiders of the Lost Ark), no acting – lots of action with no motivation or reward in the last 20 minutes of the film.

Although some companies take great pains to maintain the quality of their film stock archives, noone should shed a tear if the entire Golan-Globus stock were to go up in flames tomorrow. The shelfspace is worth more.