When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

bought this DVD a while ago- when it was still cheap in stores, actually, and have never watched it.  it's paired with Moon Zero Two, a movie I have never seen (watching it today) but have read the novelization (and remember nothing about it).   the DVD is now rare because of the slight nude scene in When Dinos... caused some kind of stir or something, and it went OOP pretty quickly.  

good luck finding it for less than $40!  the prices collectors will pay for such things.
anyway, I've seen the movie before, though never as a kid.  it just wasn't on the playlist in my area.  I think I would like it more now if I had, since it's full of creatures and action sequences, and does have an elasmosaurus in it.  I wish I had seen it, as now I want to like it and I just can't.  mostly it's full of sound and fury but nothing happens!

it's not a bad movie, and I enjoyed it far more this time, but in the 100 minutes there's a lot of chasing and running, and it's not set up that well.  the one "bad" guy comes across as a complete religious zealot, wasting everyone's time just to kill the blond girl who dared run away.  that still makes no sense to me.

the effects are still amazing- especially the stop-motion creatures.  oddly enough, there's only one real dinosaur in this movie.  still, the made up beast has some great character moments with Sanna (Victoria Vetri).  all the principle actors are quite good, and I like most of the musical score as well. 

it's just the script is a mess.  how can you screw up the same story as One Million Years, BC (1966)?  the movie also suffers from not having any theropod dinosaurs in it.  a nice battle between the friendly creature and one of those would really have helped.  odd that the only fight in this movie is between two actual lizards, blown up to giant proportions.