Dinosaur Island
Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski teamed up to produce and direct this movie and it's executively produced by Roger Corman and was released on Roger Corman's New Horizons label. Now that is a winning combination. I have to believe that Fred Ray had the biggest hand in writing and directing this since the movie is a lot like some of Fred's other movies, and it has a couple of his stock players, like Ross Hagen and Michelle Bauer. Although this movie is another homage to 50s schlock movies (like his Phantom Empire) this movie rises to a level only hinted at in his previous movies. For one thing, it looks like Fred had a decent budget which was probably out of Roger's pocket. I mean, it's still not a big budget picture, but it is definitely slicker and glossier then what you're used to seeing from Fred. But not so slick as to have real looking dinosaurs, which would spoil the fun.
Dinosaur Island is obviously a conglomeration of quite a few different movies, but the one movie it most closely resembles is 1952's Untamed Women. In that movie, a group of military airmen are shot out of the air and crash into the Pacific. They float for days in a rubber raft until they wash up on an uncharted island filled with beautiful loin-clothed women with spears. Soon the airmen find that the island is filled with prehistoric dinosaurs as well. In Dinosaur Island, a group of six airmen crash into the ocean and wash up on an uncharted island only to find that it's filled with beautiful loin-clothed women with spears and dinosaurs. One of the six doesn't make it out of the boat, because a dinosaur shows up and has him for dinner, so we're immediately down to five airmen. Shortly thereafter, another dinosaur kills one of the other airmen, and we're down to four airmen, just like in Untamed Women. There's just too many parallels for it to be a coincidence. But Dinosaur Island also draws an influence from Ray Harryhausen, the special effects wizard of the 50s and 60s who is famous for animating dinosaurs and all manner of huge beasts for various films. Ray is even thanked in the end credits.
Airman to group of hostile women with spears: Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will never hurt us. Beautiful loin-clothed woman 1, shaking spear: We've got sticks. Beautiful loin-clothed woman 2: And we've got stones. Beautiful loin-clothed woman 3: Let's break their bones!
Whatever the specific influences, these schlock fans really nailed it. The original Untamed Women and other entries in the a-group-of-men-stumble-onto-an-unknown-land-filled-with-beautiful-loin-clothed-women movies are a lot of fun to watch. Dinosaur Island has all of the elements that made the originals fun, and then turns everything up a couple of notches. It has great characters who play it straight and allow the great script and witty dialog to get the laughs. It has beautiful women in incredibly skimpy outfits who always seem to be falling out of them. The movie has prolonged nudity, exotic dancing, catfights, and love scenes. Of course, then there are the human sacrifices to the dinosaur known as "The Great One" and the quest to kill The Great One. The dinosaurs in the movie look fake, just like in the originals, and that's part of the fun. However, it looks like they did build one life size, hilarious looking dinosaur for the actors to interact with and fight. That must have cost a few bucks to make. Fred never had that kind of money on hand before.
All of this spells C-L-A-S-S-I-C! This is first rate entertainment that can be enjoyed over and over again. If you're looking for campy, exploitation entertainment, it doesn't get any better than this, so I'll rate it a 5.