Les diamants de l'Amazone

Thilling and moving film concerning an unstoppable chase to find a valuable treasure , while battling for survival with threes groups besieged by head-cutters Indians , greedy gunrunners , including gore and blood . Exciting adventure and exploitation movie with three groups of adventurers all vying to find a treasure in the jungle where they clash against each other , take off the relentless natives , as well as the perilous wildlife . The best scenes are the immense efforts of the mean groups have to carry out for their purports , forced to do anything and everything they could to stay alive . Their Greed & Lust for Diamonds Was More Deadly Than the Perils of the Jungle. They survived the impossible...by doing the unthinkable. It's "Man against Man" and "Man against Nature" - Which One Will Prove More Deadlly ?

In the film there are noisy adventures , action pace , impressive struggles , beautiful landscapes and lots of blood and gore . An adventure movie relying heavily on sensationalistic aspects , eerie images full of gore , nudism and exploitation , such as physical violence , tortures , merciless natives executing decapitation and many other things . Regarding corrupt and ambitious people who will have to confront lots of risks until find a treasure and all of them will take on villains , savage Jibaro tribes and fighting each other . From start to finish the action-packed is non-stop and gory paranoia reaches a fevered pitch that culminates in a final savage action . The flick features many strong scenes , among them beheading , astonishing slaughter , cannibalism , a gloomy spectacle to watch . It's fast moving and that's why it is neither tiring, not boring , but bemusing . Special effects are passable , but other parts of the movie are never fully realized . The movie pushes too hard and too far , and no apt for squeamish . It strives for being some inspirational but falls well short of being really inspired and marred by some extreme exploitation scenes . In spite of it , the movie is entertaining , though shot in fits and starts and in Mexico obtained success enough . It was shot on location in Chiapas, Mexico and studios : Churubusco Azteca, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico , and Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico . Being a Mexican/American co-production , here appear notorious American actors as Stuart Whitman , Donald Pleasence , Bradford Dillman, John Ireland and Mexicans as Emilio Fernández , Sonia Infante , Pedro Armendáriz Jr. , Jorge Luke , Hugo Stiglitz , all of them giving ordinary performances , but they were so fun and amusing that kept entertainment in the film.

This horrific retelling of the treasure hunt throughout Amazon jungle was regularly written/produced/directed by Rene Cardona Jr who developed a long career as national as international . He was a Mexican director and writer, expert on all kinds of genres with a penchant for Terror , adventure and exploitation ; being especially known for The Treasure of the Amazon (1985) , The Bermudas Triangle (1978) , ¡Tintorera! (1977) , Cycone , Fantastic Balloon Voyage , Under Siege , The Night of a Thousand Cats , Survivors of Andes , Beaks , Carlos the terrorist and Guayana, El Crimen del Siglo (1979) . Rating : 5/10 , average but passable and acceptable.

Not an easy puppy to come across, but this "Treasure of the Amazon" surely is warmly recommended viewing for every fan of trash, pulp or the glorious exploitation cinema. I was lucky enough to catch it on a national TV channel, during a cult-themed night. This is a Mexican take on the extremely popular jungle adventures of the early 80's, complete with sleaze, gratuitous violence and a once-famous Hollywood cast. We witness how three separate groups of Westerners sift out the dangerous Amazon jungle looking for gold. All three groups encounter wild animals and a savage tribe of head-hunters but eventually it's the typical human greed that is the biggest threat. "Treasure…" is action-packed (not one dull moment) and extremely rich on gore sequences. Highlight of this is a semi-disgusting scene in which a gold-digger is torn apart by ravenous crabs! This particular scene is bit by bit copied from Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond", by the way. Director Cardona Jr. simply replaced the tarantulas with crabs. Much footage comes straight from other (more budgeted) films or nature channel documentaries but that only increases the terrific cult value of this production. The cast performances go from lovely OTT acting (former miss world Ann Sidney) to completely-not-interested acting (John Ireland as the priest). Donald Pleasance is utterly cool as the uncanny Nazi wandering through the jungle to refund the resurrection of his Third Reich. Stuart Whitman shines for the first time again since "The Mark" as the tough jungle rat Gringo.

This Mexican gorefest is probably the funniest and most entertaining adventure movie ever made. In the 1950s, different people are looking for the treasure of the Amazon. For example a dubious woman, an elder man who knows the jungle (Whitman) and an old Nazi from Germany (great as ever: Pleasence). Not only are they trying to outwit each other, but they also have to fight blood thirsty crabs, crocodiles and other animals, and not to forget a vicious tribe of Indios who like to behead their victims as soon as they capture them.

Rene Cardona jr. surely didn't have that a big budget for this film, but he certainly does the best with it. Concerning gory effects, that is. In the most outrageous scene, a hapless adventurer gets his eyeballs ripped out by the vicious crabs, a scene which has to be inspired by Lucio Fulci's notorious spider-scene in "L'Aldilà - The Beyond".

This film is very trashy, but it's better entertainment than any other adventure film I know (the "Indiana Jones"-trilogy included), and it boosts a great role for horror veteran Donald Pleasence (as a really unpleasant guy) and enough nasty bloodshed to please every gorehound who wants to see something else for once.

That's what I call good, mindless fun!

This Mexican adventure is a real treat for fans of cult movies.It has plenty of gore and violence including decapitations,throat cuttings etc.The scene where one guy has his eyes gouged out by some bloodthirsty crabs is the goriest bit and it reminds me the spiders sequence from Lucio Fulci's masterful "The Beyond"(1981).The cast is decent-a horror veteran Donald Pleasance("Halloween","Paganini Horror")shines as a Nazi adventurer.So if you are a fan of gory adventure movies like "Mountain of the Cannibal God" or "Cut and Run" give this one a look."The Treasure of the Amazon" is not easy to find though!

Gratuitous nudity, violence, gore, "action," over the hill stars looking of a payday and unintentional comedy. With that said it's at least 20 minutes longer than it needed to be which will test your feelings of it's so good it's bad to just bad. Luckily it saves the best for last with a third act filled with crosses and double crosses.