Manticore (2005)

[trekgeezer]

Manticore - A legendary monster having the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion.

Another SciFi original! This time Bulgaria is a stand in for Iraq (it looked like they were in an old strip mine or a quarry of some kind.

A couple of petty thieves rip off an amulet from the Iraqi national museum and sell it to a guy who claims to be heir to the kingship of Babylon. In order to take power he must awaken twin magical beast who will destroy everyone but the true believers. While he is awakening them from being stone statues one of the thieves breaks one of them which makes the one left unstoppable. Much mayhem insues and the amulet is dropped and left behind, meanwhile the beast starts making monster chow of the local village.

An army squad lead by Robert Beltran (Lone Wolf McQuade, ST:Voyager) and Heather Donahue (The Blair Witch Project) are sent to said village to look for a missing reporter played by Chase Masterson (ST:DS9). Jeff Fahey shows up as their commanding officer.

Apparently they had no military advisor on this film or they would have known that Sergeants are not addressed as "sir" and you don't yell "attention on deck" when one enters the tent. The vehicles were obviously Eastern European surplus and they didn't even bother to paint them desert sand. The uniforms didn't look very authentic either.

Anyway, the movie has a fair amount of carnage and gore. The beast looks like a lion with wings and a scorpion's tail. He rips a couple of people in two, his tail is covered with big porcupine like quills which he can throw, and last but not least he can throw up acid on you. Guns, grenades, and knives; nothing stops him, not even a laser guided bomb which takes out the whole village (but miraculously Beltran is not even scratched, he is just thrown clear and lands conveniently near his evacuated comrades). How will they stop it?

Not bad for a what it is, a SciFi channel cheapie. Some might find it entertaining or at least slightly amusing.

[Shadow]

Argh! I was wanting to see that one, but ended up forgetting. Phooey.

[trekgeezer]

Hey, it will probably replay this Thursday, Dec. 1 at 8:00pm Central .

[Shadowphile]

When will it be available on video?

[Mr. Hockstatter]

That wasn't too bad.  I had to chuckle at the US troops using a Russian BTR-70 armored personnel carrier.  That big machine gun on top would have come in handy in several situations, but oh well.  Guess they didn't have permission to use it or something.  Looks like Beltran plays Chakotay in whatever movie he's in.  The girls were nice enough to look at.  

It was better than Raptor Island :)

[Shadowphile]

They probably couldn't get ammo for it...

[Foywonder]

JARHEAD stole this film's rightful tagline.

MANTICORE wasn't nearly as painful to sit through as CERBERUS was last month but the movie was totally lifeless. The monster in a monster movie should never be boring.

MY MANTICORE REVIEW

[trekgeezer]

Hey, Cerebus wasn't so bad (well, not as bad as it could've been). Sebastion Spence was as wooden as ever, but that's the first time I've seen Greg Evigan playing a psycho mercenary. He ends up killing all his own men (at least the ones the beast didn't get.)

Beltran is another SciFi original coming up next year that was written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens called Alien Fire.  I'll be on the lookout for it, they are actually a couple of pretty good writers.

[ThadC]

This sucks!!! We can't get scifi channel in Norway without an expensive satelite rig, and I have to download anything I want to watch off that channel. That reminds me... I need to make a list of stuff I miss from the US that I can't get in Norway. POPTARTS being in the top 5.

[Flangepart]

CERBERUS was cheese, MANTICORE was cheese, its just a question of flavor.
I thought it was Goat Cheese, with a hint of Feta
Oh, yeah, U.S.Army...suuuuure, i believe ya, movie.
The ending...the thing with the video camera....Ah-hahahaha!....Ow, it hurts to laugh...



Post Edited (11-29-05 17:45)