Change Your Image
memprys
I like films of many genres. Historical drama, science fiction/adventure, mysteries are my favorites among them. My favorite film series are Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, and the Conjuring. My least favorite are the Scary Movie parodies and any of that style since Spaceballs.
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Stargate SG-1: Politics (1998)
One of the Weakest Episodes
"Politics" is one of the least-good episodes of an outstanding series. Like the infamous Next Generation episode "Shades of Gray," it is a clip episode with the flashbacks loosely connected by a poorly written uberstory. The original bits are a political "hearing" with bickering and insults being used to pad the episode runtime. This was obviously made to stretch the season budget.
Caveman (1981)
A Well-Made Badly Made Film Comedy
Sometime a movie is low-budget and comes off as funny even though it was intended to be serious. Other times, a film is intentionally made to make the audience laugh at the cheap effects, and doesn't succeed. Caveman manages to combine utterly unconvincing stop-motion special effects and props with great comedic timing and a well-written comedy script to produce a slapstick movie that rivals some of Mel Brooks' best.
The cheesy stop motion is as funny as it was clearly intended to be. (The stoned dinosaur is a highlight of the film.) The cast includes young actors who would go on to successful careers (Dennis Quaid, Shelly Long), established comedic personalities (Jack Gilford, Avery Schreiber), and veteran actress Barbara Bach. Ringo Starr, already considered the best onscreen performer of the former Beatles, shines in the lead role. The chemistry between him and Bach is powerful. This is no surprise, as the two would soon join in a marriage that has lasted (in 2021) for forty years.
Brilliant aspects of the film include a script written (almost) entirely in a convincing fictional cave language, an earworm-creating musical jam session, and the running gag of a clifftop dinosaur whose cries aren't a typical thunder-lizard roars. There are stoner jokes which don't dominate the movie, and are all the better for their restraint. Ringo shines as caveman Atouk, a bottom-rung omega male in a prehistoric tribe whose brains, persistence, and leadership bring him and his followers through a number of trials. Along the way he learns to stand upright, invents the first weapons, and discovers both fire and marijuana.
Caveman is a little-remembered comedy gem that bears rediscovery and deserves cult status.