The Phantom Empire (Video 1988)

The Phantom Empire: Directed by Fred Olen Ray. With Ross Hagen, Jeffrey Combs, Dawn Wildsmith, Robert Quarry. When a man-eating cave creature appears with a fortune in uncut diamonds around his neck, Dr. Chambers’ daughter Denae hires adventurers C u0026 C Salvage to find the underground source of the gems. Accompanied by archeaological intern Andrew Paris, mineralogist Prof. Strock, and Cu0026C’s scruffy owners Cort Eastman and Eddy Colchilde, Denea’s hopes of emerging from her famous father’s shadow become as remote as getting out of the caves alive!

“….and that happens at around the 50-minute mark, when Sybil (as a character in the film exclaims, u0026quot;WOW!u0026quot;) Danning appears, well-cast as a fighting alien queen. Up until then u0026quot;The Phantom Empireu0026quot; is a plodding, sleep-inducing trek, and the cannibals with Halloween masks over their faces and old rags for clothes are beneath Z-grade cinema. The sole bright spot is Michelle Bauer as a bikini-clad u0026quot;cave bunnyu0026quot;. After Danningu0026#39;s entrance, the viewer can at least focus on her phenomenal figure, and itu0026#39;s easier to forgive the unimpressive stop-motion animation effects (I think u0026quot;One Million Years B.C.u0026quot;, from 1965, has a better dinosaur battle than the one featured here). But if you want to see something from Fred Olen Ray that looks more like a real film and less like a college project, seek out his u0026quot;Cycloneu0026quot; from the following year. (*1/2) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eP.S.: To claim that you watched this film u0026quot;for the dinosaursu0026quot; is like claiming that you watched u0026quot;Jurassic Parku0026quot; for the T u0026amp; A.”