Triassic Attack

What a FUN movie. Beautifully shot in Bulgaria. Sure it was a LOW-budget production, sure some of the actors should have other jobs at the drive-up Dairy Queen, but hey, it was still fun.

The joker that played the sheriff was probably the weakest cast member. Pretty flat character that should have done a little more FREAKING OUT when danger was on the Jeep. Dontcha think. The rest of the cast was well suited for their parts. Especially the quirky and funny Gabriel Womack that was part McGyver, part stand up comedian. Loved his hair after the "wire-connection."

The reincarnation of a FLYING T-Rex was fabulous!!

All in all a good outing for the Sci Fi channel.

We all loved it, Gabriel!!! Missoula out....

Three people are running away from an unseen horror. They reach a water tower. Inside, the sheriff insists a man and a woman climb to relative safety, then he opens the water tower door. Look Out! …an animated dinosaur skeleton is revealed as the monster in pursuit… We then flashback "24 hours earlier," to discover what led us here… Three skeletal dinosaurs became "animated" during an incident in an Indian (Native American) Museum. Taking responsibility for the dinosaurs is Native American rights activist Raoul Trujillo (as Dakota), who has a tantrum in the Oregon museum. However, the real bad guys are greedy land developers who want to desecrate ancient Indian land. Perhaps the dinosaurs are mad because Indians took the land from them. No, that doesn't made sense – but neither does this movie...

Director Colin Ferguson's bickering co-stars are Steven Brand (as Jake Roundtree) and Kirsty Mitchell (as Emma Neil). With any luck, they will rediscover their love before the closing credits, and make rebellious daughter Emilia Clarke (as Savannah) happy enough to do an Indian rain dance. Running with the duo during the opening minutes, resourceful Gabriel Womack (as Wyatt) is the most useful member of the cast. The worst part of the horror is when Mr. Brand takes two young recruits from the local college to shoot a dinosaur with very big guns. Brand should have known what was going to happen the first time one of the dinosaur skeletons disassembled, but he stands there with a dumb look on his face instead of telling the two young guys to run inside… like, as fast as possible. Then, everyone forgets them.

*** Triassic Attack (11/27/10) Colin Ferguson ~ Steven Brand, Kirsty Mitchell, Raoul Trujillo, Gabriel Womack

Game of Thrones it ain't. Even Emilla (sic!) Clarke can't save this. Worst special effects I've seen in a long time. Do something better with your life.

I rarely rip on the acting performances in creature features from the SyFy Channel, but Jesus H. Christ. Where the hell did they find all these people? A project like "Triassic Attack" isn't going to attract the cream of the crop, but this cast goes well below the minimum requirements. For one thing: nobody in this quiet, rural American town manages to hide their British accent. For another, the inevitable comic relief character has the comedic timing of an orphanage fire. The Native American character does seem to be pulled straight from an SNL sketch, but I think those scenes are supposed to be taken seriously. The effects are never that good in SyFy movies, but they are especially bad here. These dinosaur skeletons seemed very difficult to animate, they move in a really unnatural way. There are several scenes where we get dangerously close to "Birdemic" territory. Overall though, the most bothersome thing about this movie is that it just doesn't give the audience what it wants. All you want to see is dinosaurs eating people, and it barely has any of that. And on the rare occasions you do see it, it appears to be completely bloodless because adding CGI blood is more work. Not even good for a laugh.

The amount of enjoyment I received watching this I realized was based on how I looked at it. When it started and I was thinking "Jurassic Park", the reality of how well the directors and cast stretched what seemed a very tight budget. Fair play to them for making a derivative and formulaic script somewhat watchable.

When I started thinking of it as a "Sharknado" but with dinosaurs instead of sharks, things came more into focus. The at times over-the-top acting, low budget special effects, and ponderous music, became part of the show.

Common sense rarely exists in this kind of movie. But that is part of the fun. If you enjoy campy pseudo-horror movies, then this is worth a gander.