You should never let me near a place where you can buy movies because I always end up with productions from The Asylum. And in all honesty, I appreciate them a lot. Not all of them of course, but there's a few good ones here and there - Hansel & Gretel starring the great Dee Wallace Stone is one for example. There's probably written in the law that movies starring Treat Williams is worth watching and I can agree on that. He's awesome. He might be grandpa Treat Williams nowadays, but that can't take away his natural charisma and excellent delivery of one-liners. Not that Age of Dinosaurs gives him a fantastic character to work with, but he's a pro and he knows how to breath life into flat dialogue and underwritten characters.
In all fairness, Age of Dinosaurs is not bad at all. It's cheap, stupid and silly - but they've seemed to have put more time into actually making it visually attractive, there's less flat scenes than usual and a fun cast - who also includes Ronny Cox (damn, he's old nowadays - still great though!). The lack of a decent story is also one of the best things with Age of Dinosaurs, it's just entertainment - just something to watch and forget. And that's not a bad thing.
Ronny Cox is a multibillionaire who wants to sell dinosaurs all over the world - to parks, sport events, weddings... yeah, he's not kidding around. He wants real, live, dinosaurs everywhere for the enjoyment of the masses. The dinos are controlled by... something, at least that what his scientists say, but during the first presentastion of this amazing project everything goes wrong and suddenly hundreds of dinosaurs is out on the streets of LA!
That's the story. Nothing more. Nada. And that's fine by me. The dinos stomping through downtown LA reminded me of Dragon Wars, but a LOT cheaper - but most of the movie is set inside the building where Treat Williams is on the hunt for his lost teenage daughter - and at the same time the LAPD decides to go inside and take down the critters. It's like Die Hard, but with dinosaurs. (distributors, feel free to quote me).
Deep inside I'm just a ten year old who loves monsters and dinosaurs and that's the reason why I like this movie. It's not smart, the effects are so-so (they even have a puppet head dinosaur!), the story is non-existent and it's just fodder for a sleepy brain. The thing is I wasn't bored. I loved watching Treat Williams beating a dinosaur to death with a plank, I love the outrageous zero-budget blockbuster-scenes at the end. I love that The Asylum as usual dares to be so fucking cocky! They have little money, but instead of trying to work the movie after the budget they just use the budget to do what it says in the script - no matter how bizarre and big and seemingly expensive.
It's refreshing.
No, this is no big art. This is good old DTV trash, but it's fun and that's what matter in the end.
I've actually seen this one!
Or parts of it anyway. I don't know if I was too tired at the time or what, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get myself involved in the story, so I turned it off (a rare thing for me).
I agree on Treat Williams though, who is as awesome as ever, and the great Ronny Cox. Like you, I was somewhat shocked over how old he looks, but hey, the guy's 75! For some reason though, when i think of Ronny Cox I always picture the "RoboCop"-era of him in my head.
I will give this movie a second chance. Someday. Probably.
Posted by: Fredrik | September 26, 2013 at 13:39
"You should never let me near a place where you can buy movies because I always end up with productions from The Asylum."
I seen some of their productions.....very fun stuff.
"There's probably written in the law that movies starring Treat Williams is worth watching and I can agree on that. He's awesome. He might be grandpa Treat Williams nowadays, but that can't take away his natural charisma and excellent delivery of one-liners. Not that Age of Dinosaurs gives him a fantastic character to work with, but he's a pro and he knows how to breath life into flat dialogue and underwritten characters."
ahhahahhahahhahah....yeha, there must eb some kind of law about this....Treat Williams somehow does a good job regardless of the quality of the movie.
Just look at him in Deep Rising(1998), Dead Heat (1988)etc.....Williams delivers.
"In all fairness, Age of Dinosaurs is not bad at all. It's cheap, stupid and silly - but they've seemed to have put more time into actually making it visually attractive"
Yeah, SFX on this one looks very good for an Aylum film....just look at 2-Headed Shark Attack(2012), the CGI in that one was very flat, but then again.....it´s lowbudget entertainment.
"who also includes Ronny Cox (damn, he's old nowadays - still great though!)."
Cox.....great actor, just look at him in Deliverance, Beverly Hills Cop (1984) etc.
But like most of mine favorite actors....he grows old.
"That's the story. Nothing more. Nada. And that's fine by me. The dinos stomping through downtown LA reminded me of Dragon Wars, but a LOT cheaper - but most of the movie is set inside the building where Treat Williams is on the hunt for his lost teenage daughter - and at the same time the LAPD decides to go inside and take down the critters."
D-War(2007) was fun but very bland and uneven.
"It's like Die Hard, but with dinosaurs. (distributors, feel free to quote me)."
Well, if they won´t then I will...hahahhahahhah
"Deep inside I'm just a ten year old who loves monsters and dinosaurs and that's the reason why I like this movie. It's not smart, the effects are so-so (they even have a puppet head dinosaur!), the story is non-existent and it's just fodder for a sleepy brain. The thing is I wasn't bored. I loved watching Treat Williams beating a dinosaur to death with a plank, I love the outrageous zero-budget blockbuster-scenes at the end. I love that The Asylum as usual dares to be so fucking cocky! They have little money, but instead of trying to work the movie after the budget they just use the budget to do what it says in the script - no matter how bizarre and big and seemingly expensive.
It's refreshing."
I guess that´s why I saw 2-Headed Shark Attack(2012).......creature features, and big dinos......you can never go wrong with that....hahhahhahhahahhah
"No, this is no big art. This is good old DTV trash, but it's fun and that's what matter in the end."
I REALLY do hope that people don´t expect big art when watching this type of films, good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | September 26, 2013 at 17:32
Fred, thanks for the kind review! Yeah, the movie is what it is and it's nice to have folks understand that going in. We had 15 days of shoot and 6 weeks of post including all VFX... it was definitely a whirlwind! We did a fair number of JP homages for fun (and referred to the film as kind of JP 3.5 during production) so you'll find a lot of little things in there that might not be so apparent on first experience. It was a true honor to get to work with both Treat and Ronnie, LOTS of great tales of working in the industry from over the years. Jillian was an absolute dear and wonderful, I think she's got a great career ahead past Awkward given a chance. Anyway, it was fun, a great team in front of and behind the camera, a chance to do a dino flick and here's hoping there's more in the future! Thanks again for the nod! :-) JJL
Posted by: Joseph J. Lawson | February 03, 2014 at 08:18
Thanks for the comment Joseph! It's an honor! I've been recommending it to friends of mine who are dino-fans and all of them have liked it! They see the entertainment and understand the budget constrictions, so I think you delivered just what we wanted it to be :)
Posted by: Fred Anderson | February 03, 2014 at 09:10
Entertaining, but nothing special in it. Once seen it's easily forgotten.
Posted by: kloroxx | January 14, 2016 at 20:43