"Pterodactyl" is a hilariously bird-brained movie from the Czech Republic starring Cameron Daddo as Professor Michael Lovecraft, and Coolio as Captain Bergen, the commander of a crack special forces unit. The film opens with Daddo and some students going to Mount Ararat in Turkey to look for archaeological specimens unearthed by a recent volcanic eruption. In a parallel plot (that feels like a parallel universe), Coolio is leading his crack Army team on the Turkish-Armenian border in a convoluted backstory about ridding the region of terrorist thugs. Before you go any further, here is a key question to reflect on: is it a bad sign that Coolio demonstrates more acting talent than the remainder of the cast combined?
The Pterodactyls make their opening move against the science expedition's Jeep, taking a couple of students along the way, and leading to an otherworldly four-way brawl that boils down (roughly) to the scientists versus the terrorists versus the Army versus the pterodactyls. Daddo is thrilled by the scientific find, and the whole anthropology expedition breathes a sigh of relief after having been rescued by the pterodactyls (sort of.) The scientist and Army contingents join up, and from the small world department, it turns out that Coolio knows Kate (Amy Sloan), Daddo's former student and would-be main squeeze's dad from the Army. Mercifully, the most beautiful but annoying character in the film, Angie (Mircea Monroe) dies from pterodactyl-inflicted wounds, vastly improving the watchability of the film, if too late.
Before long Kate gets captured by the pterodactyl and is taken to the nest where there are numerous hatching pterodactyls pecking at her, leading to possibly the only flying tethered sheep rescue scene in film history, and, unfortunately, some horrible romantic dialogue between Daddo and Sloan on the radio. Also in the nest, the lone surviving anarchist terrorist gets fed to the baby pterodactyls in the film's most poignant scene. Intermittently a soldier dies, and their melodramatic exits are hammy in the extreme, pointing to more of a directorial and script problem than basic thespian issues: all the soldiers die utterly ridiculous deaths with big monologues and the whole nine yards. This can really try your patience.
A brave ordnance expert saves the day, setting the scene for the big showdown of the alpha male pterodactyl versus Coolio, Daddo, and Sloan, which occurs in an expansive open field (which would not be my choice for a place to engage an aerial war lizard.) I will not reveal Coolio's plan to destroy the pterodactyl, but I will nominate it for most ridiculous plan in movie history involving surface-to-air missiles. Obviously love conquers all, with Daddo and Sloan officially becoming an item, while the film opportunistically sets up for a sequel. In the final shot there is a long shot zooming to a cave teeming with hundreds of pterodactyl eggs, implying the peril is obviously not over. In an amusing twist, though, the final shot of the film is of a Tyrannosaurus rex rampaging through the cave destroying the pterodactyl eggs, which makes me wonder if we should therefore see the T. rex as the real hero of the movie.
The film gets three stars for hilarity. The script is beyond dreadful, and regardless of the talent base of the actors, this couldn't possibly be a "good" movie. The plot of the film is likewise ridiculous, but that's pretty much guaranteed in a movie of this type, but the bizarre plotlines here don't intersect well at all (the whole Armenian terrorist angle went nowhere, save for feeding baby war lizards.) The cinematography is quite decent for a film of this budget, but the CGI pterodactyls were less than visually stunning to say the least. "Pterodactyl" is a completely outlandish monster movie, and is quite entertaining as a fun movie so bad it's good. I recommend it to fans of cheesy science fiction films everywhere.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Bakuryuu Tyranno
It's slightly above average
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2009Tom Lauridsen
The plot is all wrong in this film.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2011
