Customer Reviews

Legend of the Dinosaurs [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Okay. Legend of the Dinosaurs, and Monster Birds. The title says it all really. There's legend, there's at least one dinosaur- and as an after thought, we get a monster bird.

This is a horrible movie- make no mistake, but I love it so much.

"A misogynist geologist who loves his daddy refuses to go to Mexico to study strata- Instead he wants to follow in his Father's footsteps and find a dinosaur egg in a cave near Mount Fuji.

Unfortunately, modern science has concluded that dinosaurs and volcanic eruptions go hand in hand- Leading to our sizzling climax."

Crazy marionettes that stand in for men in suits, and grim grisly deaths abound. A woman graphically bleeds to death after having her leg bit in a lake. A half-eaten horse carcass is stuck in a tree. People blow themselves up (off-screen) with depth charges.

I saw this when I was three and now work in the film industry. Parents, show this to your children and purchase on credit!

The image quality is great and anamorphic. We get a couple trailers, English and Japanese audio, plus subtitles.

Only thing I wish was that the soundtrack came with it too. Did I mention that all our dinosaur attack scenes are accompanied by smooth disco-tech jazz and Japanese crooners? Okay, you got me, there is that one country western number. Not kidding.

You never would have thought a movie could be this bad....It is very unfortunate that it is so difficult to get a copy of this bizarre gem. Really folks, the movie screams bad taste but, god is it entertaining. Strangely though the copy i own says the rating is PG..i really doubt it (says on coverbox and on the video!). Oh yeah.. Some of the monster models are definitly made out of styrofoam. BUY ME!

The music in this film will bring back memories of Godzilla and a Smog Monster but the action is more along the lines of more classic Toho features. Here we have two giant monsters, a plesiosaur and a pterodactyl, a crazy music score, and a strange premise.
A young scientist is trying to prove that his father's theories are correct and that he was not crazy. The two believe that dinosaurs have managed to survive to modern day. When the giant plesiosaur makes its appearances he looks like he is being proved right. Suddenly a giant pterodactyl also makes an appearance. Both of these creatures (neither one is actually a dinosaur) are far larger than they really were. The film ends when the two monsters run into one another and have a typical monster brawl. Oddly enough this occurs deep in a forest (what's the plesiosaur doing out of water? How does the pterodactyl fit between the trees and under the treetops?).
All in all this is a pretty fun giant monster kaiju film. The monsters are just big, no powers of any sort. The final scene, involving a volcano, may be a bit too long for the action, but otherwise I really enjoyed this one. It was good to see a "new" corny kaiju film (think Godzilla's Revenge) as opposed to the more modern, but wonderful, releases. A bit of a trip down memory lane. Check it out.

Not much is missing on this strange edition, but what is missing counts.

When you pop the tape into the VCR it starts right away telling you that this is a children's movie (which it is not, even though I did watch it as a little kid all the time from a copy taped off a midnight movie TV show)- there's even a little boy who tells you how to adjust the tracking, and warns you that there will be previews at the end of the tape.

I believe because this is "supposed" to be a children's movie, that they edited the two following scenes.

-The raft murder sequence where a woman is partially devoured and then bleeds to death in the water. The entire middle of this scene has been chopped- leaving just the appearance of the monster, and her bleeding to death in the water.

-A part of the monster fight at the end where the Pterodactyl pokes the Pleisiosaur's eye out.

I'm not a gore fan or anything, but I was just sad that this wasn't the entire movie I remembered. But it is still so good.

the most absurd and audacious film to come out of japan. This Jaws-like movie features a mean plesiosaur eating the residents at a lake by Mt. Fuji eventually fighting a pteranodon. Outrageously violent, disturbing in the extreme with effective (albeit dated)music sets the tone for sleazy viewing pleasure. The direction by Junji Kawata is pretty much "art house" and shocking.Viewers beware: This movie is not for everyone.

This is not a bad movie at all. Great gore for a dinosaur flick. I recomend this film, because it's time for dvd companies to release more kaiju films. Seen these kind of movies when I was a kid, never got bored with them.

I still have a home recording of this movie from when it aired on "Commander USA's Groovie Movies" on tv. Sure it had some bits taken out because of the gore factor. But that did not stop it from being a worthwhile scarefest. How would you react if a pleasiasaur's head popped out of a lake right next to you, with its mouth wide open with sharp teeth? (And I am referring to the raft murder scene with the girl). Bear in mind that I'm not too fond that they had a cute little dog involved in this movie. I mean, it made me think they were going to have it killed or eaten or worse and that really doesn't sit good with me. I urge you all to try it if you are in the mood for a good scare and a trip down memory lane. You'll probably have a little trouble looking at the river the same way again.

This was fairly painful to sit through, and towards the end I resorted to FF in order to make it all the way. I have a high tolerence for bad movies but this offered nothing. Totally bad monsters and effects. After this film, I was wishing that Amazon had a DVD return policy.

The monsters in this movie get a lot less focus than I've seen in other kaiju films. It focuses a lot more atmosphere and such. The central human characters have solid personnalities and the lead man has a decent storyline.

Two completely non-humanoid creatures fighting seems very ambitious by the standards of what I've seen before. Unfortunately, their fight is (understandably, I guess) only a small part of the movie.

As a fan of Toei's Super Sentai series, though, a lot of footage of which was used in "Power Rangers", I ghonestly think Toei did a lot better with that battle than with a lot of the giant monster battles they're making even now.

The Pterosaur isn't even introduced until near the end and because of that I wasn't going to give the movie more than three stars. But after the Pterosaur's debut, I thought what the heck, that is a really awesome Pterosaur, hence the higher rating.

I'm assuming movies like this were common after the end of the Showa Godzilla series; a lot of filmmakers probably saw a void they wanted to fill.

Used to see this on TV in the 80's. If you dont mind cheap effects, there are some treasures in this movie...the cave...the egg...some well
done scenes. But overall i was dissapointed and can only recommend to
fans of this genre.