Amazonas

I'd long read about this oddball film called 'Massacre in Dinosaur Valley' but for many years it has eluded me, that was until Dragon Films announced it would be releasing Michele Tarantini's schlock gem onto DVD under the title 'Amazonas'!

This fun exploitation romp follows a group of travellers as they fly out to the mysterious Dinosaur Valley, our hero here is one Michael Sopkiw in the role of a poor mans Indiana Jones by way of Bruce Campbell as he attempts to track down some rare dinosaur bones. Amongst the rest of the entourage we meet a kindly professor and his daughter, a photographer and two models as well as an ageing haggard Marilyn Monroe lookalike and her spiteful sleazy husband - nice bunch of folk really! Their trip over the jungle is marred though when the plane crash lands in the think of the dense forest and the ensemble team are left to try find their own way to safety from the jungle extremes.

This though isn't going to be as easy as they would hope though as they are heading into a sea of danger in the form of leeches, crocodiles, cannibals and more! Well this is a low budget exploitation movie of course so we can expect a lot more than that, in fact we do in spades with the usual array of nudity, sexual violence and (ahem) cock fighting (yes indeed those cocks scrap so hearty that our chums at the BBFC demanded that cuts were made to the avoid at all costs release from UK darlings Vipco).

To be honest there's not much more to say about this film as we all know exactly what to expect and fans of films like 'Amazonia' and 'Cut and Run' (which this is very similar to but 'Amazonas' here being far more enjoyable) will definitely want to add this to their collection. It's a hoot watching Sopkiw hamming it up and enjoying some of the hanky panky like a b-movie predecessor to a fun Bruce Campbell. 'Amazonas' is a true no brainer and all the better for it, pure exploitative entertainment at its best and highly recommended at that.

The disc from Dragon is a bare bones one (no pun intended) but also a great looking one too. The widescreen print looks great and inevitably superior to the cut UK version, and the fact alone that the UK release has been snipped by the censors should be good reason alone to track down this fully uncut Dragon version. The English audio is decent enough but not quite as sharp as the alternative German audio which is a shame but not a big problem. As for extras pretty much all you get is a filmography of Tarantini's other work and a fun trailer for the movie itself (a welcome addition nonetheless).

Grab yourself a copy of 'Amazonas', a six pack of beer and let your brain have the evening off. Fun with a capital X - check it out!

Review by Alan Simpson