Keep spending most of my life, livin’ inna pterodactyl’s paradise
As Professor Michael Lovecraft leads a research expedition into the lush jungles of Northern Turkey, at the same time, a squad of U.S. commandos, led by Captain Bergen, hunt down a terrorist group hiding at a long-dormant volcano. Suddenly, aggressive, newly hatched pterodactyls start attacking the intruders, killing them one by one. Before long, the flying beasts take one of the scientists to their nest, and now, the guns have the final say. But, the enemy is swift and powerful, and the prehistoric birds ruled the sky since the dawn of time. Now, the fate of humankind is hanging by a thread. Can they destroy the menace of the winged living fossils?
Commandos and teenagers versus pterodactyls!
You don’t tune into a movie called Pterodactyl expecting it to reshape your notion of high cinema – you tune in hoping to see a well-made creature feature! And in this regard, Pterodactyl is a guilty pleasure indeed.
Many of the characters are named after famous science-fiction and fantasy writers – Burroughs (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Clarke (Sir Arthur C. Clarke), Donaldson (Steven Donaldson), Heinlein (Robert A. Heinlein), Herbert (Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert), Lem (Stanislaw Lem), Lovecraft (H.P. Lovecraft), Serling (Rod Serling), Yolen (Jane Yolen) and Zelazny (Roger Zelazny).
Mark Lester also directed Commando and Firestarter.
Should you watch it if you tend to like these kinds of movies? Does it deliver the requisite gore, thrills, explosions and unrelenting gunfire you’d hope from a creature feature? Hell yes!
Directed by Mark L. Lester
Starring: Cameron Daddo, Coolio, Amy Sloan
