A different way of telling a story

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Sometime in an apocalyptic future, "David (Andrew Keegan) is frustrated with the repressive laws of his cave dwelling tribe. Restless, stubborn and defiant, his attitude problem turns deadly when he is forced to kill the tribe leader, his father, to protect his girlfriend. Now, banished to the dangerous and unexplored zone outside their cave, he and five of his teenage friends quickly discover the 'old' world they only dreamed about has evolved without them - into a complex, seductive and ultimately terrifying nightmare beyond their wildest imagination!" according to the DVD sleeve description.Director Larry Clark's two-worded "Teenage Caveman" seems to have been based on Roger Corman's three-worded "Teenage Cave Man" (1958). Mr. Clark has too much respect for the original work, or something… this film demonstrates good photographic and special effects skills, but the visuals are not accompanied by anything too satisfying. The frequently topless cast, obviously beyond their teenage years, is nakedly attractive; but, Mr. Clark seems reluctant to show them doing anything truly erotic. Shapely Tiffany Limos (as Judith) is consistently arousing, while most of the others only tease.With a weird pinned-up hair-do, handsome Richard Hillman (as Neil) is appropriately "over-the-top" as the heroic Mr. Keegan's adversary. Standoffish Tara Subkoff (as Sarah) seems bored, as the semi-virginal heroine. The dumber the part, the more fun it looks to be playing, apparently. It's difficult to essay a good characterization in an iffy, destined for home video hell, production - but, what a surprise to see that Stephen Jasso (as Vincent) has only two IMDb credits (as of this writing). Mr. Jasso is the film's "Best Supporting Actor" and Ms. Limos is the "Sexiest Supporting Actress".***** Teenage Caveman (4/3/02) Larry Clark ~ Andrew Keegan, Richard Hillman, Tara Subkoff, Tiffany Limos

Larry Clark is a genius. He's probably the only director I have ever seen who can create a frank and understanding portrayal of modern teenage promiscuity and the issues of youth today without turning his films into a porn orgy. Kids was a commendable effort, and Bully was a superb film. Which led me to pick this up, having never heard of it, for the cheap rate of 5€. Clark had, until now, focused on teenage melodrama, and this little foray into sci-fi/horror looked interesting.At least it was until I realised what had happened. The concept itself is interesting - Clark, fond of examining the behaviour of teenagers without the rule of law, has attempted to create a society that forms an ideal background to test the behaviour of a number of teenagers who live in a society where there is literally are no laws. And for the first half an hour, it looks promising.Even the ensuing bathtub and sofa orgies didn't reduce my curiosity. These scenes are lifeless and directionless, and seem to serve no purpose than to allow the actors to show as much bare flesh as possible. But I was hoping that this was going to take us somewhere. Teenagers from a society where sex is banned, launched into one where sex is free.Sadly, after around half an hour, you realise that in fact, it isn't going anywhere. The film turns into a pointless gore and fleshfest which revels in killing off characters in the most disgusting and tasteless ways possible, interspersed with sex scenes that are only vaguely explained away in the plot. None of the characters are developed into anything worth considering.The film feels like Larry Clark's work for the first half an hour or so, before the gorefest begins and you don't recognise it anymore - perhaps a case of studio interference. In any case, it's a blemish on Clark's record that won't be easy to remove.

This movie was Awesome!. Everything I like, in one futuristic movie. I think its the second best movie i ever saw. It's nice to see diversity too, in the cast. There's one guy (Neil) who's hairdo really bothers me, but other than that... I don't want to ruin the movie, but it gets better and better, toward the end. I cannot believe they got the actors to do this stuff! It definitely has that B movie feel to it, but I was entranced. I can't believe this passed the US censors!There is one scene where Neil drinks a whole bottle of whiskey, and the camera doesn't cut away, he must have really drunk it all!Rent this DVD as you probably wont see it on HBOZ too often.

This film feels like a big group of guys got together and said "let's make a movie!" Some of them wanted to make a sci-fi movie, some of them wanted to make a horror/action flick, some of them wanted to make a "Lord of the Flies"-esquire statement about the nature of man in his natural habitat, and some of them wanted to make a porn. Since they couldn't decide on just one type of movie, they decided to try and cram it all together - however each genre is so shoddily done that they all fail. The terrible special effects were rivaled only by the terrible acting, which was topped by the skin-crawling bad script. I watched this movie for three reasons: first, I couldn't believe it was really THAT terrible (it thought it had to get better at some point). Second, I've seen Andrew Keegan act, so I know he can and thus kept expecting him to at some point. And to be honest, the guy who plays Neil is pretty attractive. (You're stooping pretty low when the only redeeming fact you can find in a movie is that the actors were pretty.) It's amazing that hundreds of people can work on the creative end of a movie, and yet productions like Teenage Caveman still get made.