KOMODO Much better than the killer-robe flick "Kimono" With a little more care in the script, this might actually have turned into a rip-snortin' little movie, and worthy of the theatrical release it reportedly almost got. (just wanted to use the term "rip-snortin'" in a sentence) Good action and special effects can often make up for a lack of plot, character, or interesting dialogue, but there's just too much lack here. Komodo has a pretty silly opening in which some Dire Straits-listening hippie (!) throws away some giant komodo dragon eggs on Emerald Island, North Carolina. This is silly in a few ways. For one thing, c'mon - nobody actually listens to Dire Straits. The subtitle says this is North Carolina, but the box says Florida...and the sheriff's license plate at the end of the film says Georgia! Guess it's all moot, since this was filmed in Australia. And this guy's throwing away giant komodo dragon eggs because they smell bad? Some rich idiot had to have dropped a buttload of money on getting these to the USA from wherever komodo dragons come from, and this guy just tosses 'em into the woods. "19 summers later" (not 19 years later, that wouldn't be specific enough), we meet a teenager (Kevin Zegers) who sees his dog and then his parents get chomped by fully-grown, giant komodo dragons (which, as we find out later, are rather easily impaled). This is actually a really good sequence, and if the film could have kept this up, we might've had another Anaconda on our hands (indeed, it's from the same writer, Hans Bauer, with Craig Mitchell). As it is, it's not exactly Python, but it ain't no Anaconda either. So this kid, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (somebody get George Carlin working on this script!), just kinda stares off into space like Richard Burton in Exorcist II. His psychiatrist (Law & Order's Jill Hennessy) thinks he'd be best helped by confronting his fears by going back to the island, while his...uh...his aunt, or something, thinks he should stay on the mainland. Wouldn't be much a movie if they stayed. They get to the island (ignoring all the "KEEP OUT!" warning signs posted by the oil company which now owns the whole place), meet up with a couple of komodo killers hired by the oil company, and, after a too-long period while we wait for the pace to pick up...guess what. I have to admit, the effects in this movie are, for the most part, excellent. The CGI on the animals is some of the best I've seen, in well-lit shots, at least. In dimmer shots, they seem to stick out more (everything around them is dimly lit, but somehow, they aren't...). When the lizards are on-screen, Komodo is a lot of fun. When they're not, it's tiresome and dopey. This is one of the silliest setups for a monster movie I've seen in some time. The characters are all boring, with the attempts at drama crashing most seriously in the attempts to illustrate how the kid is "getting better". I could've forgiven the silly plot and blank-faced characters if Komodo had a good sense of humor, like Anaconda and the Jurassic Park movies did, but it doesn't. I don't understand how the makers of this film got it into their heads that at any point we'd care in the slightest whether or not the kid re-integrates into society, or whatever. The boo-hiss Australian villain (Simon Westaway) who owns the oil company and wants his henchmen to do what they can to prevent word of the lizards (and the lizards eating people) makes no impression at all, and gets a "comeuppance" at the end which is unclear at best. I did, however, like Paul Gleeson as one of the henchmen. Komodo inexplicably ends with sunset over the sea, something you don't see too often ON THE EAST COAST. Maybe that's a tribute to the end of Jurassic Park, I don't know. Some of the same guys worked on the effects. If you're big on giant-lizard movies - and these lizards aren't THAT big, they're about the size of big crocs - this could make for a fun hour and a half. Otherwise, there probably won't be much here to interest you. Don't let that box cover fool you - at no point does a komodo dragon bust out of a chained-up box. Man, I'm seeing a lot of lyin' box covers these days. Directed by Michael Lantieri, who clearly knows his special effects, judging from his history in the biz. It's not enough to make him a good director, but it's a good start, if he can get to direct some decent scripts. BACK TO THE K's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE