Recap: A landslide has unearthed an ancient volcano in Turkey and professor Lovecraft, in desperate need of some publishable results, goes to explore the potentially fossil-rich volcano with a postgraduate and some students (read cannon-fodder). At the same time a team of American special-ops is on the hunt for a rebel leader hidden in the forests. Unknown to all of them, the landslide has not only unearthed fossils, but also a bunch of eggs that start to hatch (grown up pterodactyls obviously). The soldiers find their target and on their way home run into the professor's team, now caught by angry rebels in search of their leader. And all this under the watch of a flock of pterodactyls that decide it is time for a snack. The pterodactyls attack repeatedly, and in the confusion they abduct the postgraduate Kate, who now is the love-interest of Lovecraft. He must now rescue her, and the soldiers decide to help her because she apparently is the daughter of a war-buddy to the captain leading the soldiers.

Comments: It is all about expectations. If you expect a coherent, serious and above all a thought through movie you are in for a big disappointment. But if you expect a b-movie that will entertain you and make you laugh, this will be all you can wish for. It starts unexpectedly bad (or funny if you will) and then goes on to surprise every scene by making something even worse, silly stuff. To begin with, why put the location in Turkey? This is in no way crucial for the story, but is ridiculously obvious that they are nowhere near Turkey, and no Turkish people are in sight. Why not put it where they obviously shot the movie in the Czech Republic? Further more the CGI special effects are really bad, the so-called soldiers have no more experience of being in the forest than scouts, and obviously no experience being soldiers either. For example, why would a team of covert soldiers, under normal circumstances, with a hostage, be strutting around in the middle of a field, when there are forests all around. And when threatened by big flying man-eating that attacks from the air it becomes ludicrously stupid. And really, did they just climb a rope over a deep and steep ravine tied to a dead sheep?!? And don't forget the computer-game guns the soldiers carry around.

The only part of the production that isn't bad is the acting, but that may be due to the surface thin story and characters cut from cardboard. But it should still be said, the actors playing the students (the dead meat) do it nicely so that the stereotypes that they portray are crystal clear. Coolio is nowhere near credible as an army captain, but he delivers his lines in a good manner. I haven't much to say about Daddo or Sloan, though this might be the best accolade possible.

To conclude, a hilarious, ludicrous entertaining ride with a lot of laughs. If you didn't expect too much that is.

6/10 (Sure, I had a blast, but honestly, this project shouldn't be near a green light or funding, therefore I can't give it more than a six)

PTERODACTYL is an amusing enough monster flick from the director who bought us the likes of COMMANDO and CLASS OF 1984 back in the day. The story involves a bunch of roguish characters, soldiers, and the obligatory family caught in the middle of an outbreak of pterodactyls released from a Turkish volcano (no, I'm not making this up). What follows is a slew of action sequences utilising cartoonish CGI effects amid some gore and plenty of lacklustre acting from the leads. Despite the myriad problems, this is far from the worst that the genre has to offer and it's quite fun at times, albeit in a cheesy way. Coolio is a fun presence in the cast list and at least Lester doesn't skimp on the action or violence. It gets a bit repetitive come the climax, but you can - and often will - do worse.

While Pterodactyl is not a complete and utter dog's dinner, I still found it a poor movie with more bad things than good. Amy Sloan is interesting, and while wooden at times Cameron Daddo tries his best. But even they can't make up for the slapdash special effects, lazy directing or the editing which is the very definition of all-over-the-map. The dialogue is horrendous, so cheesy and grammatically problematic it hurt, the story reeks of predictability and stupidity completely devoid of any tension or suspense and the characters complete with generic names are poorly written stereotypes. The remainder of the acting was dire, and this is including Coolio, who is nowhere near as authoritative as his character should be. All in all, a poor movie saved only by one or two decent actors. 3/10 Bethany Cox