But what makes this one even more enticing is that it was
directed by Mark L. Lester. He’s known for directing Firestarter and Commando.
Those are fine, but the film I love him for is Class Of 1984, a movie that I watched a whole lot when I was a kid,
and several more times as an adult. Poseidon
Rex has a much lighter tone than some of Lester's earlier films. This is
just a fun movie – there’s nothing serious here, and nothing too frightening
(so, yeah, it's fine for children).
It opens with three men diving for gold. One of them,
Jackson Slate (Brian Krause), is being forced to lead this diving expedition at
gunpoint. The men set off some powerful explosives, waking and angering a giant
dinosaur, which eats two of the men and the boat.
Meanwhile Rod (Steven Helmkamp) and Jane (Candice Nunes)
have arrived on an island for a vacation. Henry (Berne Velasquez) takes them
out on his boat to go snorkeling out by the blue hole, a giant sinkhole where
Jackson has gone searching for gold. They find Jackson floating in the water
and revive him, with the help of Sarah (Anne McDaniels), a marine biologist.
No, it doesn’t quite make sense that they would take Jackson to Sarah, but this
film has to get all of the main characters together quickly.
There is a criminal organization led by Tariq, and it was
that organization that was behind the dive for the gold, and in a flashback we
learn that Jackson was involved in an earlier expedition for gold with these
gangsters. Well, Jackson asks for help from Sarah, Rodney, Jane and Henry, and
promises to cut them in on the gold. Rodney is curious about the blue hole
anyway – that’s why he made this trip. Sarah is interested for science’s sake.
Henry just wants gold. Sarah is the voice of reason. She says to Rodney: “I don’t want to die on some wild goose chase
for some lost treasure. Did you forget the part where some gangsters are trying
to kill him?” She tells Rodney to stop acting like he’s in The Goonies, and doesn’t join them on
their dive. Rod ends up chickening out anyway, and doesn’t dive.
Well, Jackson, Sarah and Henry find the sunken boat that
likely has the gold, as well as giant dinosaur footprints, and quite a few
eggs. Of course, the presence of eggs raises a lot of questions. Is there
another dinosaur down there? And the moment they were woken by the charges,
they started going at it? Or was this dinosaur pregnant for centuries, and when
she woke she suddenly lay a bunch of eggs? Who knows? Sarah takes one of the
eggs back to her lab, and when she and Jackson carefully open it, the baby
dinosaur inside is miraculously alive. The baby gets loose, but comes in handy
when the gangsters show up.
There are some other odd yet convenient plot elements,
such as an abandoned military post, with guns, a communication system and a
working plane. It’s interesting how often characters stumble upon old military
bases in these films. And as you might expect, there is some less-than-stellar
acting in this film. Anne McDaniels is on the weaker side as Sarah, and just
isn’t believable as a marine biologist. And the coast guard guy is not quite as
good an actor as McDaniels. And later they completely forget about the baby
dinosaur that is still loose somewhere.
But it kind of doesn’t matter. After all, you get shots
of a dinosaur chasing boats and cars (yes, it can live on land as well as in
the water). The movie moves rather quickly, and doesn’t take itself too
seriously. And there are some good surprises. It's fun. Don't expect much else,
and you should enjoy it.
Special Features
The DVD includes The
Making Of Poseidon Rex, a nine-minute feature with behind-the-scenes
footage and interviews with cast members Brian Krause, Steven Helmkamp and Anne
McDaniels. There are also interviews with director Mark L. Lester and visual
effects man Scott Wheeler, who talks about the creature design.
The trailer is also included.
Poseidon Rex
was shot on location in Belize, in Central America. It is scheduled to be
released on DVD on May 13, 2014 through ITN Distribution.
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