Cyclone

Good effect for an old movie, good cast. Bad timing 5 star for the effort and remember Mexican movie

Now this one had some damn good ideas. A cyclone reeks havoc, and we follow the struggle for survival of not one, but three groups of people (initially on a plane, a tourist boat and a fishing boat), all afloat in the vast ocean waters. But somehow director René Cardona Jr manages to mess up everything he possibly can and turns it into a pretty damn bad movie. The acting is downright hilarious. And some people speaking with their mouths closed due to bad dubbing, does not help things either. But it does make it funnier. The dialogues are close to being the most stupid, idiotic and plain ridiculous things I've ever heard in a movie. Yes, there's a bit of cannibalism. Yes there's a couple of shark attacks. But nothing too explicit. And that's okay, really. Doesn't have to be. When the rest of the movie's good, at least. But it's not. It's bland and uninspired with just plain retarded characters. Too many of them, even. And learning that there's even a version of this film running no less than 118 minutes, I wonder now how redundant a movie can actually get.

In CYCLONE, a boat full of tourists, an airplane full of passengers, and a fishing boat are all thrust into a hellish fight for survival when they are hit by the storm of the title. Each group faces the disaster separately -though they start meeting up during the lengthy aftermath. This is all very dramatic.

Unfortunately, the storm ends at about the 30 minute mark, and the dullness ensues. Oh, there's the occasional interruption in the form of a shark attack, an act of doggy murder, human fish bait, or cannibalism, but mostly it's just waiting, bickering, and more waiting to be rescued.

Said rescue is launched, and is equally boring, with naval types lethargically murmuring their lines. The dubbed dialogue doesn't help, with some of the characters speaking as if they're performing a eulogy! This goes on for many days, and the viewers face the same relentless torture as the survivors!

Recommended only for the stoutest fans of cinematic agony.

Co-stars Olga Karlatos (ZOMBIE), Arthur Kennedy (LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE), Carroll Baker (THE DEVIL WITH SEVEN FACES), and the inimitable Hugo Stiglitz (NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS, NIGHTMARE CITY).

P.S.- This review is for the full, 2 hr (!) version of this movie...

Having seen this film twice now - which some might find unbelievable or even masochistic - I felt I had to comment on it. It's easy to pan. The music is cheesy. In fact, as my wife suggested, it sounds like a porn flick. The dialog is downright juvenile if not stupid. Its runtime is way too long. I could go on but you get the idea. So why did I watch it twice? Well, one of my guilty pleasures is bad movies and I am a devoted fan of Carroll Baker and this movie fit both bills. Strangely enough the second time around I found much to like. The underwater scenes were really well done, especially those of the corals which were absolutely spectacular. The sharks were awesome, shown in all their predatory splendor and captivating ferocity. The cyclone scenes were also really cool, especially the ones of the seawall breaking and subsequent flooding. My guess is they were filming a real cyclone as these were not studio or miniature shots. And of course it starred Carroll Baker, still a knockout at 47, even without a hint of makeup. And Arthur Kennedy, at 64, in another trademark performance. Seeing him in this megalomaniac turkey was akin to a pilgrimage. To be honest, had it not been for these two actors I would not have bothered to see the film let alone review it.

Certainly an intense and at times campy little cult gem from Rene Cardon Jr. I'm a fan of the disaster film. Coming into this ,I wasn't quite prepared for some of what I saw. It has an interesting cast of European cult films, including Olga Karlatos from ZOMBIE. Just think of your standard disaster film with some shocking exploitation scenes. A friend told me after viewing that the filmmakers used real corpses to feed the sharks! Don't know if those folks donated there bodies to science, but even so its an entertaining obscurity. Warning to anyone with a weak stomach as this is quite out there in some scenes,in the gross-out department. As well as anybody who might own a poodle, you might like to turn away in 1 scene. All that said, CYCLONE, is much better than Cardonas other more known disaster film, SURVIVE.