The Curse of the Komodo (2004)

Is Jim Wynorski kidding us? This is so bad, that calling it a "B" movie, insults the genre. If there is such a category, this is definitely a "Z" movie, and not in a way that it's so bad, it's good, either. Most of those "guilty pleasures" films are at least comical. This is so inane, you can't even laugh, because you're stunned at the lack of everything that makes a film worth making and watching. First, the casting is atrocious, not a fledgling actor among the whole lot of them. Some casting agent must be banging soft-core porn actress, Glori Ann Gilbert, for her to have been cast, as she may possibly be the worst, most dimwitted actress of all time. Just peruse her filmography on IMDb and you'll get the picture. Perhaps "Curse of the Komodo" was a 3-fer picture deal with "The Breastford Wives" and "The Witches of Breastwick" and that's why it's so awful. Second, the dialog is silly, smarmy, exaggerated, ridiculous, etc. I could go on for days with adjectives describing how deficient it is. The writer must really harbor contempt for the audience, since this is possibly the most moronic dialog, I've ever heard. Third, speaking of deficient, how about the plot? What plot? What little there is isn't even good enough to be cliché sci-fi/horror flick plot. Here's an example of the nonsense. As the genetically engineered, giant Komodo dragon looms over the group of characters, one character says "he can smell us, but he can't see us. We're too close." Then then female lead runs away from the group, and the dragon. Apparently she's not bright enough to run to safety. This bimbo runs just far enough away so that the dragon can see her, and she's backed up to a tree, with nowhere else to go. Then she cowers down against the tree as though she's thinking "if I make myself very small, the monster won't eat me". She jumps out of the frying pan into the fire! Then she worsens the situation by shooting at the dragon with a pea shooter, annoying him. How clever, and we're supposed to believe this woman is the type who can survive a situation like this? One of the characters is bitten by the Komodo and left for dead by the group. He pops up later, after having morphed into cannibalistic, reptile brained zombie ala "Dawn of the Dead", "28 Days Later" and "Resident Evil". He jumps out, makes them pee their pants, and they shoot him all to hell. Finally, the end really ticked me off, because it made it glaringly apparent that the writers didn't do their research, on the species they were exploiting in the film. In the finale, just as the last characters think they have escaped, and are on the beach awaiting their rescue transport, a gang of Komodos come toward them, THE END. Hello? Komodos are solitary creatures, they track prey by scent for days, ALONE! They're an ANCIENT species of reptile, that adapted and escaped the last mass extinction. Their brains aren't sophisticated enough to communicate to each other and launch an attack en masse, much less storm the beach to get their prey!

The brainchild of military man Foster(Jay Richardson)regarding giant Komodo dragons against American enemies is given birth thanks to scientist, Professor Nathan Phipps(William Langlois)who has bio-engineered the supposedly extinct species into massive dinosaur sized monsters, quite carnivorous and hungry for food. Along with a few associates on an island compound near Hawaii, Phipps, his daughter Rebecca(..porn starlet Glori-Anne Gilbert, who isn't in this flick because of her acting ability, having a nice little topless bathing scene near water falls), and his assistant Dawn(Gail Harris)attempt to find a way at controlling the beasts without success. Meanwhile, a trio of casino thieves hitch a ride with paid alcoholic ex-military pilot Jack(Tim Abell, an ex-porn actor who gets a chance to play hero in an action adventure)who lands them on the island containing the Komodo dragon. Jack informs cranky muscular head heister Drake(Paul Logan), his lover Tiffany(Melissa Brasselle), and fellow thief Reece(Cam Newlin)that his chopper will need repairs, but they will soon find themselves joining forces with Phipps remaining crew against a giant Komodo dragon whose outer skin seems impenetrable from gunfire as everyone fires endless rounds at it without effect, just annoying the beast. Phipps' compound is guarded by an electric fence but they are low on fuel and the generator is on the fritz. With a plague deriving from a slime secreted by the Komodo dragon causing those infected to slowly succumb to horrible skin rashes, sickness and erratic behavior, and that Komodo loose and hungry, the group will attempt to make it for Jack's chopper due to the fact that Foster won't send a rescue team to fly them off the island. But, it won't be easy as the Komodo always returns to feast on human meat when it can corner victims.When inspired, director Jim Wynorski makes other films than just porn spoofs which is the case with this creature feature. It's nothing that you haven't seen numerous times on Sci-fi channel(..for which Wynorski has been a major contributor with numerous killer monster flicks), but I found it an entertaining enough time-waster. You get to see the Komodo dragon gulp a few humans. For a low-budget horror adventure, the special effects of the monster are the standard you are use to seeing on the Sci-fi channel, not really that bad or mind-blowing, either. The film alternates between our folks on the island squaring off with their sharp-teeth beast and the military headquarters of Foster. Unlike many of Wynorski efforts, the film plays it straight, not layered with tongue-in-cheek humor. As usual, though, Wynorski has two actresses with large fake breasts. Gilbert is a Wynorski regular who has starred in several of his porn spoofs such as "Witches of Breastwick" & "The Breastford Wives"(..also starring as a fantasy girl in another Wynorski creature feature "The Thing Below"). She attempts to emote, but couldn't act if her life depended on it. Abell isn't so bad and could make a living in these type of genre flicks. He'd probably made it well in Italian rip-offs back in the late 70's/early 80's. Brasselle is a major babe who serves as a very ripped source of eye candy. Logan as the brooding heavy Drake(..who shoots the late Buck Flower in his opening scene because Reece mentioned his name while they were looting a casino)might be familiar to those who have his seen him in a bevy of porn flicks. The film has a nice pace, with decent inserts of military footage, and fulfills all the requirements of a B-movie adventure flick. It's supposed to be escapist fare and is geared towards fans of creature feature flicks. Could be better. Could be worse. It is what it is.

That in the "bombing" and "hes turning into a zombie" scene the lines of this movie and its counter-part Komodo vs. Cobra were exactly the same. In the "they got off the island" scene, the only thing that was changed was the name of the sergeant! Did someone run out of money for the script writers?Also, this movie was based in the '00 but the Geneva Conventions, Napalm was banned as a unfair chemical, along with nerve gas, etc.I wish someone would have made this movie better, it was sort of a good plot.

First of all, I have to say that I'm a great fan of Jim Wynorski (the director)and of Glori-Anne Gilbert (Rebecca), a wonderful actress and a beautiful woman! The only fact that they were united in this project made me sure that it would certainly be a masterpiece. I was not disappointed! I warmly recommend this work of art to everybody... If you happened to like this movie as much as I did, I can recommend some other titles that are really worthwhile... First of all, Boa vs. Python. I saw it recently and still have not been able to get over it. Besides, there are some other classics: Treasure Hunt (2003), Raptor (2001), Gargoyles (2004). All of which are directed by Jim Wynorsky. Besides that, I'm really looking forward to the release of Komodo vs. Cobra, featuring the exquisite Glori-Anne Gilbert.