![]() ![]() If bad movies are your thing, definitely get this one. I love them, and especially bad monster movies, so I consider this the gem of my collection. This is loads of fun, to watch, if you like bad movies. I don't know how all the prints are, but in the version I own, the Tyranno's roar contains Godzilla's trademark bellow. It seems to have some kind of stealth technology, since Bunta (reputed to be the best tracker in the world) twice fails to notice it until it's within biting range of him. Speaking of 'suits', there is nothing good to say about the purple tyrannosaur, in this flick. He falls to the ground, well before the back half of the dinosaur follows suit. It's clear that the stunt performer in the FRONT of the costume knows the timing best. When the 'triceratops' gets killed, watch how it falls. ![]() The idea of a dinosaur being buried in the wall of a cave and suddenly coming to life is B-movie gold. The effects in this film are laughable, but fun. While he turns in a fantastic performance, I couldn't help but feel that he so outclassed all his fellow actors in this piece that he shouldn't even have been there. ![]() It's kind of sad that the man who rose to fame as Paladin should wind up in this ugly pile of celluloid. The only two talents in it are Richard Boone and Joan van Ark, and only Boone is any good. This movie epitomizes the 'so bad it's good' genre of films. Rankin Bass did several other co-productions with Tsuburaya providing the creatures or miniatures- The Bermuda Depths(1978) and The Ivory Ape(1980)-but neither measured up to the epic look of this film. This film is considered the best 1970's "kaiju" film from Japan, even over the five Godzilla films made during that decade. Tsuburaya's FX people did their job in style here and aside from a few dodgy matte shots, they do their job well. There are some amazing set pieces-the T-Rex's "bone yard" and a tracking shot that takes us deep into the jungle to see the T-Rex eat a giant fish from a stream. The film has a lot of class to it, from the opening score by Nancy Wilson "The Last Dinosaur" to the overall "big" feeling of the film-the locations at hot springs in Northern Japan were excellent and lush- and the undeniable feeling of Kaiju Eiga to it. Sure the dinosaurs were guys in suits(A Triceratops with front knees!) but they were filmed in such a way, the music and score was so well done, and the cast did a fine job that this didn't matter much to many of us brought up on Godzilla. It plays a lot like the films The Land Unknown(1956) and The Land That Time Forgot(1975) in feel and pace. Starring mostly an American cast including the late Richard Boone, Joan Van Ark and the late Steven Keats, it told the tale of a prehistoric pocket of time in what was a superheated volcanic caldera somewhere at the frozen arctic circle, containing dinosaurs. Rankin Bass-who were no strangers to Japanese co-productions were the guns behind this production, co-produced with Tsuburaya Productions of Japan-the people who brought us Ultraman in various forms. Originally slated for a theatrical release (around when the Dino King Kong was out in the previous December) it was suddenly pulled and made into a Friday Night ABC Movie of The Week. ![]() The Last Dinosaur was one of those "out of nowhere" movie-of-the-week films in the 1970's that was pretty exciting for the time especially to fans of Japanese Tokusatsu films. ![]()
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