Komodo Vs Cobra (2005)

Director: Jim Wynorski

Starring: Michael Paré, Michelle Borth

Run Time: 94 mins

Certificate: 15

 

Plot Outline: A group of environmentalists hire a boat to travel to an off-limits island that is being used a secret military testing facility for something called Project Carnivore. When they get there they find only one survivor of the scientific team who tells them that they need to get off the island quickly. It seems that Project Carnivore has created giant komodo dragons and king cobra snakes. Can they get off the island before they become the next meal? Or will the military just blow them all up to stop the secrets from escaping?

The Review: If you've seen The Curse of the Komodo then you're pretty much seen this. Also made by Jim Wynorski, it featured almost the same story (only it was bank robbers that got stranded on the test island), the same locations (they've clearly re-used exactly the same house and locations to shoot) and even the same actors (Glori-Ann Gilbert, Ted Monte, Paul Logan and Jay Richardson all return only in different roles). This time the only difference is that there's a giant king cobra snake loose on the island as well as the komodo dragon. Oh and there's about a third of the budget too. It's a sorry mess of a film which has got to rank alongside one of Wynorski's worst efforts. The guy has made a lot of exploitation stinkers on the cheap, using sets left over from other films, culling footage from his previous flicks to pad out running times and generally making such a hack job of everything that some of his films do have a "so bad it's good" feel. Most of them just suck badly and Komodo Vs Cobra does a very good job in going for that moniker.

As I've already said, the film is just basically a rehash of The Curse of the Komodo. So this will bore the pants off you (presuming you're sad enough to have watched that) despite the lure of a giant king cobra snake thrown in. If you haven't watched the other flick, then I'm sure you'll still be bored. The komodo and king cobra don't get a lot of screen time and when they do, they don't do much except roar or hiss and maybe eat a human. The rest of the film involves the characters running around the jungle or the house, deciding on where they should run to next. I should also add that this may have been remotely interesting had a) there been a decent script and b) there had been some decent actors to deliver a decent script. There's also a really unnecessary subplot about some military chief and his deputy who constantly argue over the correct course of action to take in disposing of the island. And the point of this plot is? Nothing except to pad out some running time in an office. I'd rather have seen some more shots of the actors running through the same piece of jungle time and time again.

I have to quote a character in the film at this point. She says "the monstrous behemoths you've seen on this tape are not the creation of a Hollywood effects wizard." Amen to that. The monsters both move without rustling any trees, leaving marks on the ground, kicking up dust and have an uncanny knack for standing in shadows but not being blackened in the slightest. I think the komodo fairs a little better in the "how crap does the monster look" stakes but it's a pretty close race. Being a "vs" film, I had almost forgotten that we were due a battle between the monsters. Well you'll be waiting until the final five minutes before they duke it out. Well duke it out makes it sound a bit violent. They just stand and hiss and roar at each other for a few minutes before they're all napalmed to hell by stock footage.

I am madly in love with Michelle Borth. If there is a positive about the film it's that I've seen this woman. She's cute as hell and seems to be a decent enough actress. I can' really judge too much because the film blows and even if she was crap, I like her too much to slag her off. It's a travesty that none of the chicks in this film even get close to shedding any clothes. What is a crime is that Glori-Ann Gilbert took a swim in The Curse of the Komodo in all of her glory. So why didn't she repeat the feat here? One other note before I round off is Michael Paré's character of the ex-military man turned fisherman. This guy has superhero abilities to be able to fire off about fifty rounds from a handgun without reloading. I lost track of the amount of times he pumped lead into the komodo dragon and the king cobra without stopping.

Final Verdict: Komodo Vs Cobra is such a sorry mess of a film  that it only gets half a star for the cute Michelle Borth and the ridiculous sight of Michael Paré and his never-ending supply of ammo.

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