Le Dernier Dinosaure

Richard Boone plays billionaire Masten Thrust, an oil tycoon and big game hunter who leads a scientific expedition to explore a lost land in a dormant volcano under the polar ice cap. Joining him are scientists played by Joan Van Ark and Steven Keats, as well as a renowned Japanese scientist who doesn't last very long...seems that a T-Rex is out to get them, and it will prove to be the biggest challenge of Thrust's career.

Reasonably entertaining yarn is fun for kids, but also has themes of obsession and tragedy that will appeal to adults. Sure, compared to the "Jurassic Park" films the F/X here are primitive, but at the time, were impressive, and hold up OK. Not especially original, but does have a fitting end. On DVD from Warner Archive collection.

"The Last Dinosaur", the title for a particular late-70s science-fiction flick which was apparently (I'm guessing by a few details in the credits and in the film) a cooperation of American and Japanese film companies. This film was obviously made on an incredibly low budget, which you can judge by many aspects of it shown on the screen. "The Last Dinosaur" is preposterous, has campy effects, redone sound effects that still retain aspects of their original versions, and with the exception of Richard Boone, completely wooden acting. It is a mindless film, and yet, somehow, there is something classic and enjoyable about it. It's a film that cannot be forgotten by those who have seen it. And whether they loved it or hated it, they remember it for being so cheap. Why is it enjoyable, then? I myself don't really know the answer. There's just some things about some films like this that somehow in some way work out.

The title of the film isn't completely accurate, according to the storyline. The so called "last dinosaur" of the film is a humanoid tyrannosaurus rex who sounds uncannily like Godzilla, and is portrayed by a man in a rubber suit. But we see lots of other creatures on screen. We see pterosaurs (which technically aren't dinosaurs, but are still prehistoric creatures), a giant reptilian mistaken to be a ceratopsian. And then we see an actual ceratopsian, a triceratops. So evidently, this T-rex is not alone in his prehistoric world.

The special effects on the film are simply laughable. We are humored by the dinosaurs more than we are frightened by them. There are several instances when the rubber heads of the creature get pushed in and then bounce back out into perfect form again, totally impossible in real life, considering that heads are made of skulls. There is a point in the film when a triceratops falls over onto its side and although we were more than obvious to the fact that it was made by two men in a heavy suit, standing one behind the other, it becomes more obvious in the mentioned scene. First, the guy in the front falls, yet the second guy apparently wasn't timing himself, for the back legs were still standing for a while before they finally realized they had to fall over too.

Casting and acting was wooden, not counting Richard Boone, who was popular as a cinema villain. Here, he is kind of an anti-hero. A womanizer, hunter, tough guy. Yet, even Boone doesn't really save the cast. It's not his acting that was the problem, it was the lines he was given to say. "That's not an alligator, it's a crocodile, and yet I shot it too.", "You ding-dong!", "a great scientific mind was killed by a beast with a brain the size of a dried pea!", and so on and so forth. The other actors were simply horrible at their jobs, maybe excepting the dark-skinned actor who didn't have any dialogue to say. But those people dressed up as a cavemen were perhaps the most hilarious part of the film. Not only being totally unnecessary, but not unexpected plot points, they made me laugh as I watched them walk slowly, swaying their arms from side to side with their mouths hanging open. A lot of characters were also totally unintelligent. Such as a press conference scene, where reporters did not ask enough questions. No logical questions. They didn't even ridicule the idea of a live dinosaur, as they do in most sci-fi flicks.

While "The Last Dinosaur" is totally ludicrous and lacking in intelligence, it is somehow entertaining. Once again, I'll state that I don't know why I enjoyed it. Maybe I just like old cheap monster movies. This is cheaper than any of the old late-60s and 70s Godzilla films in all regards. But whatever, the case, "The Last Dinosaur" was an okay 70s monster movie. It will meet people halfway in terms of their outlooks upon the film. But everybody will describe it as cheap.

This one is just impossible to rate. I liked it; but I don't know why.

The dinosaur effects work is mostly terrible, and Tsuburaya should be ashamed of that T-Rex; although the man-in-a-suit Triceratops is ambitious and interesting, and the charge of the primitive mammal is beautifully done.

So why did they put those big, puppy-dog eyes on that T-Rex?

The overall story is above average for a 70s made-for-TV. I really liked Richard Boone as the world's wealthiest man. He was playing a kind of cross between Hugh Heffner (in later years) and Teddy Roosevelt! The writing actually manages a rather poignant touch at the film's close. It was an unexpected ending.

The Last Dinosaur was one of those "out of nowhere" movie-of-the-week films in the 1970's that was pretty exciting for the time especially to fans of Japanese Tokusatsu films. Originally slated for a theatrical release (around when the Dino King Kong was out in the previous December) it was suddenly pulled and made into a Friday Night ABC Movie of The Week. Rankin Bass-who were no strangers to Japanese co-productions were the guns behind this production, co-produced with Tsuburaya Productions of Japan-the people who brought us Ultraman in various forms. Starring mostly an American cast including the late Richard Boone, Joan Van Ark and the late Steven Keats, it told the tale of a prehistoric pocket of time in what was a superheated volcanic caldera somewhere at the frozen arctic circle, containing dinosaurs. It plays a lot like the films The Land Unknown(1956) and The Land That Time Forgot(1975) in feel and pace. Sure the dinosaurs were guys in suits(A Triceratops with front knees!) but they were filmed in such a way, the music and score was so well done, and the cast did a fine job that this didn't matter much to many of us brought up on Godzilla. The film has a lot of class to it, from the opening score by Nancy Wilson "The Last Dinosaur" to the overall "big" feeling of the film-the locations at hot springs in Northern Japan were excellent and lush- and the undeniable feeling of Kaiju Eiga to it. There are some amazing set pieces-the T-Rex's "bone yard" and a tracking shot that takes us deep into the jungle to see the T-Rex eat a giant fish from a stream. Tsuburaya's FX people did their job in style here and aside from a few dodgy matte shots, they do their job well. This film is considered the best 1970's "kaiju" film from Japan, even over the five Godzilla films made during that decade. Rankin Bass did several other co-productions with Tsuburaya providing the creatures or miniatures- The Bermuda Depths(1978) and The Ivory Ape(1980)-but neither measured up to the epic look of this film.

Ok, this is low budget stuff. yes the t-rex is ludicrous. But I still like this movie. Luckily it does seem to get better as it goes along. I love boone anyway, and he is at his screaming, impatient best here. It is still an entertaining flick ,and special effects not withstanding, it is still a pretty engaging movie. if you want a good laugh and some decent Boone to kill 90 minutes with, this is acceptable. Van Ark's luscious figure doesn't hurt the eyes either.