A buddy of mine, knowing I was a big Lorenzo Lamas guy, asked me if I'd seen this film. I saw the ad for it on Lamas' MySpace, so I was familiar with it, but hadn't actually seen it. I searched for it on my program guide, and TiVoed it when it re-aired on Sci-Fi. When my buddy came back through town, we watched it together and loved it.
In Raptor Island, Lamas plays a military cat who's the head of a special forces/anti-terrorism unit on the trail of terrorist Steven Bauer (the guy who slept with Pacino's sister in Scarface). They track him to an island inhabited by raptors that aren't exactly bulletproof, but don't seem to care if they've been shot. Lamas and his homegirl barely make it off the island alive, in a scene reminiscent of Michael Biehn and his buddy's rescue in K2. Also, a volcano erupts out of nowhere without warning. I'm not sure what that means, but maybe the people who made this film had an axe to grind with US military scientists.
This movie's beautiful. It combines the best of two great worlds: the Lamas bad action movie, and the Sci-Fi Channel bad monster movie. It has that feel to it where you can almost see the scenes being shot, like a bad afterschool special--only with Lamas instead of Scott Baio. One of the best things is this tracking device thing they had. Lamas would look at it, and some words would pop up on the screen to tell him if he was on the right track to finding someone. I don't really know how it worked, but it seemed like it was straight off the Space Mutiny set, which made it really funny.
Steven Bauer doesn't make any sense as his character: I don't know if he's Eastern European, Arab, French, Iranian... the accent is just there. It has a hint of Adrian Paul in The Breed, which isn't exactly a good thing. According to IMDb, a Raptor Island 2 is coming out, with him reprising his role as Azir, but with no Lamas. (Lamas better have a good reason for turning down so sweet a project.) It makes sense, if only because the film gave us the impression that Bauer killed myriad raptors and a T-Rex with his bare hands at the end of the film in order to catch up to Lamas and his homegirl at the helicopter, so surviving more raptors and a volcanic explosion should be old hat for him.
This is worth a TiVo if you see it on Sci-Fi and worth renting or buying for a couple bucks. When the next one comes out, if it's anything like this one, do not, under any circumstances, spend new release money on it. TiVo it or tape it when Sci-Fi shows it. I think that's your best bet.
For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401742/
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When we watched Raptor Island, I remember thinking again and again "If only this had Joxer from Xena and the woman from the Weird Science Tv show, it'd be perfect." Luckily, the producers heard my prayers and arranged to make Raptor Island 2. Unfortunately, Lorenzo Lamas was apparently busy.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think you were thinking it'd be perfect if it had those two and Lorenzo. I guess a guy can dream, no?
ReplyDeleteyou'd think joxer would be in more of this type of fare. it's actually kind of strange you don't see him more in sci-fi stv originals
ReplyDeleteNo, I agree completely. Maybe because his brother does the Spidermans, he keeps this kind of thing to a minimum to avoid those embarrassing conversations at Thanksgiving. He still has to do a few so he can afford his home and car, but the fewer the better.
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