Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:51 am
If you know who Larry Cohen is, you've already got a good idea what this movie's like. You may stop reading now.
If you don't know who Larry Cohen is, think of a slightly higher class version of Roger Corman. Read on.
If you don't know who Roger Corman is, go rent "Grand Theft Auto," "The Big Dollhouse," and "Death Race 2000." Then read the review.
For those of you that fall into the second category, a review follows.
The story revolves around an ancient Aztec plumed, feathered dragon flying around New York killing people in the most low-budget fashions humanly imaginable. Two cops (David Carradine & Richard Roundtree) stumble onto its existence, as does a lowlife crook (Michael Moriarty).
If that sounds like a B movie plot, that's cos it is. The acting from Carradine is alright, I suppose. Roundtree is almost wasted as "generic angry black cop." Moriarty gives a performance that is better than a flick of this calibre deserves. His character gets some depth from the beginning, which makes him much more interesting than any of the other one-note motherfuckers on set.
Larry wrote the flick himself. All things being equal, he did a decent job. But it's still a low budget film whose greatest expense was probably all the helicopter shots of New York. The special effects are on par w\ that of "Jason and the Argonauts." More stop motion than you can shake a stick at, take a picture of, stop, start shaking again, take another picture, etc.
Verdict : 1.5 stars. It tries, it really does. If this were being rated in the B movie scale, it'd be 3 stars.
If you don't know who Larry Cohen is, think of a slightly higher class version of Roger Corman. Read on.
If you don't know who Roger Corman is, go rent "Grand Theft Auto," "The Big Dollhouse," and "Death Race 2000." Then read the review.
For those of you that fall into the second category, a review follows.
The story revolves around an ancient Aztec plumed, feathered dragon flying around New York killing people in the most low-budget fashions humanly imaginable. Two cops (David Carradine & Richard Roundtree) stumble onto its existence, as does a lowlife crook (Michael Moriarty).
If that sounds like a B movie plot, that's cos it is. The acting from Carradine is alright, I suppose. Roundtree is almost wasted as "generic angry black cop." Moriarty gives a performance that is better than a flick of this calibre deserves. His character gets some depth from the beginning, which makes him much more interesting than any of the other one-note motherfuckers on set.
Larry wrote the flick himself. All things being equal, he did a decent job. But it's still a low budget film whose greatest expense was probably all the helicopter shots of New York. The special effects are on par w\ that of "Jason and the Argonauts." More stop motion than you can shake a stick at, take a picture of, stop, start shaking again, take another picture, etc.
Verdict : 1.5 stars. It tries, it really does. If this were being rated in the B movie scale, it'd be 3 stars.