Massacre in Dinosaur Valley [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

No massacre and no dinosaurs!.......2005-06-07

A low budget cross between Indiana Jones and Cannibal Ferox,this is just direct to video nonsense that seems to have found a whole new audience thanks to DVD and re-releases of long lost 80's horror.
Michael Sopkiw[who also starred in the Mad Max rip-off 2019 After the Fall of New York]plays a young palenontologist who hitches an aeroplane ride deep into the Amazon jungle with a cast of badly dubbed europeans.
When the plane crashes in freak turbulance[possibly the worst plane crash in movie history,just check out that model]the survivors are left to fend for them selves against everything you would expect from a cheesey jungle adventure such as piranhas,leeches,quicksand and not forgetting cannibals.
Direction and plot are inept at best and apart from Sopkiw its a cast of amateurs not helped by a awful script.
As is to be expected there is a fair bit of gore from piranha bites to cannibalism but it is far less extreme than say Cannibal Ferox or Holocaust and thanks to some badly mis-timed comedic moments and bad 80's disco music its hard to feel to repulsed by the proceedings.
On a plus point its fairly entertaining if your in the right mood with plenty of crowd pleasing nudity.
Shriek Shows uncut DVD presents the movie in anamorphic 1.85:1 and for the most part looks fine with plenty of detail and good colour although some night scenes look a little dark and grainy.Sound is an English dub in mono that lacks detail but is quite punchy.
Extras consist of a feature length commantary and interview with Sopkiw.He obviously didnt have that good a memory of the movie as both of these are pretty bland and cover the same ground.There is also a short interview with director Tarantini in Italian with English subs.
The movie is also available in the UK through Vipco and is titled Cannibal Ferox 2 to cash in on Umberto Lenzi's classic.This version is cut by over two minutes and features no extras and a poor transfer.
Recommended only to hardened fans of Italian trash cinema.
Movie-**
Picture-***
Sound-**
Extras-**
Ratings are out of five.

Customer Reviews:

Essential for Pre-teen girls - Episodes 1-6, series TWO.......2005-11-25

An excellent series about Mildred a young witch starting at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches (a boarding witch's secondary school). It's based on the few 'Worst Witch' books by Jill Murphy (a child’s easy good read as well).

This DVD set 'Old Hats & New Brooms' has the first six episodes taken from the second series (year 8), and so is very good value. It's not avialable in the UK. Note that in the US this UK/Canadian series was badly dubbed in ‘American’ but fortunately there is a ‘UK English’ option in the DVD setup menu. The rest of series one (episodes 7-13) is on the 'Up in the air' two DVD NTSC set, also available from Amazon.co.uk resellers (it has a yellow cover).

These DVD's are still my 11 year old daughters favourite viewing and would suite 8 upwards. They aren't as scary as Harry Potter and all the cast are really excellent in their roles - Miss Hardbroom [Kate Duchene] even turned down a role in the Harry Potter film to remain true to her TV character.

Typical quotes: "Magic must not be used for selfish or trivial ends!" - Miss Cackle, "Confidence and control, Mildred - that's the secret of success." - Miss Hardbroom. So highly recommended for non-boy offspring - this series is easily a notch above the average TV sitcom or teen movie.

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