Friday, July 17, 2015

JURASSIC HUNTERS aka COWBOYS VS, DINOSAURS

Cowboys Vs. Dinosaurs [Oracle Film Group; 2015] was also known as Jurassic Hunters when it was released on DVD in Thailand. Which is where my copy comes from. The trailer for the movie has been online for months.

I was hesitant to buy the Thai DVD, but decided to roll the dice. I got a little nervous when I discovered all the previews were in Thai with no English subtitles, but the DVD offers both the English and Thai language audio for the movie itself..

Here’s the summary from the Internet Movie Database:

After an accidental explosion at a local mine, dinosaurs emerge from the rubble to terrorize a small western town. Now, a group of gunslingers must defend their home if anyone is going to survive in a battle of cowboys versus dinosaurs.

That’s not entirely accurate. If one defines a cowboy as someone on a horse, we don’t see a cowboy fighting dinosaurs until the end of the movie. There’s also a slightly more complicated explanation of how the dinosaurs have survived all these centuries.

Rob Hillis plays Val Walker, a former rodeo star whose injury ended his career and set him on the road to ruin. He has come back to his home town to apologize to his ex-girlfriend Sky [Casey Fitzgerald] for how he treated her while in the throes of alcohol, depression and drugs. Hillis also appeared in Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda [2014] and Piranhaconda [2012], so he knows his way around a CGI monster. Fitzgerald was in Sorority Party Massacre [2012].

Some other cast members have also appeared in giant creature movies and slasher films, but the only one you probably know by both name and sight is the always entertaining Eric Roberts. He plays Val’s father. 

There aren’t too many surprises in this movie. Corporate greed is the real villain of the story, personified by a cowardly CEO and a callous scientist. Everyone you expect to get chomped on by one of the CGI dinosaurs gets chomped on. When the situation gets truly desperate, Val gets on a horse for the first time in years to save Sky and the few remaining survivors. Though I saw that coming ten states away, it was still a nice moment.

There’s one surprise in the movie. It’s probably the pseudo-science we see in many “B” movies, but I thought it was a neat touch. Here comes the usual warning notice...

SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING


While underground, the dinosaurs breathed a mixture of methane and oxygen. They can be lured by the scent of methane. More important, if you fire a bullet or flaming arrow into their most methane-heavy organs - the brain or the heart - they explode in a ball of fire. I thought this was a clever bit.

I wasn’t as thrilled by the ending of the movie, in which surviving cast members try to look determined or resigned to their fate when a pterodactyl rises out of the enormous crater that was where these dinosaurs have been living. One, the acting wasn’t good enough for me to be sure what the characters were thinking. Two, I couldn't see how such a flying creature could have survived underground. That’s right. I had no trouble accepting living dinosaurs, just not that one living dinosaur. I am a contrary man.

SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED
SPOILER ENDED


The bottom line...Cowboys vs. Dinosaurs is a fun movie for its 89-minute running time. It’s the kind of film I enjoyed as a youngster and that remains a big part of my love for these movies now that I am almost 64 years old.

Youthful spirit or encroaching senility?

You decide.

I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2015 Tony Isabella

No comments:

Post a Comment