Excellent, smart action film.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Mama mia! I'm still trying to catch my breath after just viewing this edge-of-your-seat action/ horror flick from Italian B-Movie auteur Sergio Martino.Where to begin. This masterpiece starts off with a photographer(nicely played by Claudio Cassanelli) and his fashion model arriving by helicopter at an island resort - with the remit of taking some promotional pictures for the island. Cassanelli barely has time to adjust to the (lack of) pace, before he is quickly introduced to the resort's owner (Mel Ferrer) and his assistant (Barbara Bach) who whisk him off on a tour of the resort, and we are soon presented with the island's selling point... alligators! Before long, a live animal is being fed whole to the snapping reptiles in the resort's alligator farm - a briskly edited scene; and duly carried out by the resort's alligator wrangler( Romano Puppo). A curt exchange between Cassanelli and Puppo eventuates and we now know where this film is heading. We are then subjected to a few obligatory scenes of Cassanelli taking location snaps with the model which add nothing to the film other than showcasing the actress' inability to strike more than two poses.Twenty minutes or so later, we finally clap eyes on the 'Great (rubber) Alligator' attacking a boat mercilessly. Luckily for viewers though, the hapless model is the unfortunate passenger and along with a member of the Island's local tribe; both make a reasonable snack for the crocadilian. So much for their passionless liaison on a nearby island. The boat eventually washes up on the shore - with neatly contoured 'teeth marks', leading a suspicious Cassanelli and Bach to spring into action and set about discovering the mystery of the abandoned boat and the perfect teeth marks.Now the carnage begins... The film really gathers pace, and we are inundated with boggy, barely visible underwater scenes; unspectacular set-pieces; bit-part actors coming to grizzly ends; poor dialogue; an alligator that's as rigid as the board it's made with, and a cameo from exploitation's favourite pimp/ gym instructor Bobby Rhodes!Eventually, the film comes to a head; with celebrations aboard a movable raft ala Castellari's "Last Jaws" being torpedoed by the lifeless alligator and left stranded in the middle of a lake; for numerous extras to form an orderly queue and jump off the raft to get picked off at will by the alligator. Exactly what happens to Puppo and Rhodes in the remainder film is a mystery...or maybe I just missed that bit.I may sound dismissive of this gem, but in actual fact I quite enjoyed it. All the points I have made about this flick in my eyes are good things and If like me, you are a big fan of Italian B-movies and a fan of Sergio Martino, then I'm pretty certain you'll enjoy this too. It's certainly not in the class of other exploitation monster films: Devil Fish, Last Shark etc. But a good effort all the same.Also, The location of the film is set on a costly looking island, somewhere tropical, and no doubt the outlay for the flights, hotels and booze, far exceeded the expense of the film's entire production.

Let me start out by saying I can enjoy just about any bad Italian horror movie or jungle exploitation flick from the 1970's. Seriously. This one was downright awful.There are way too many elements that Martino tries to inject and none of them work (except for the croc-gone-wild thing) very well at all. There are some ignorant Westerners, of course, who set up a resort in the jungle somewhere. I don't even remember where it takes place...how sad is that... Basically, people come to the resort to see this native tribe and its' ceremonies but eventually they upset the 'Alligator God' of the river who then proceeds to go on a rampage, killing said vacationers and some tribesmen as well. Sounds good, yeah? Well, don't get your hopes up. There is minimal violence until the end, the special effects are so bad it was like a kindergarten class performed them and the love story thrown in is laughable.There is seriously a few scenes where it appears they set up a camera underwater in a pool and threw a toy alligator, like a dart, into the water and that is supposed to be the gator attacking. I'm not kidding. In another wonderfully crafted special effect, a Matchbox van is targeted by the incredible sinking plastic gator, who all of a sudden is five times the size of a van. (A few minutes ago, he was only big enough to eat a human, but now he dwarfs a full-size cargo van...) It is really pathetic. The only other flick I can think of where the effects were so bad I was pulled out of the story was Bruno Mattei's masterpiece, "Rats," what with the plastic rats on the conveyor belt and all who COULDN'T be terrified.Normally I'd say anything Sergio Martino was a solid must-see but this one is a must-pass. Waste of time and definitely not worth buying for the $15+ sticker price from No Shame. This one is a SHAME.2 out of 10, kids.

Big Alligator River, The (1979) * (out of 4) Another Jaws rip-off from Italy has a rich man building a resort in the jungles of Southern Asia only to have the locals call in a huge alligator to eat everyone. This is from director Sergio Martino who is best known for his giallo and cannibal films but this thing here is quite bad and easily the worst of any Jaws rips I've seen. The film is incredibly slow moving and the first hour is nothing but talk, talk, talk. The alligator attacks go into high gear at the end but by then it's way too late. The cinematography and music score are the only saving grace.

Not to be confused with Lewis Teague's "Alligator" (1980) which actually IS an excellent film, this "Il Fiume Del Grande Caimano" laboriously ends the exotic trilogy Sergio Martino made around the end of the seventies (including the rather watchable "L'Isola degli uomini pesce" and the not so good "La Montagna del dio cannibale"). Tracing outrageously the plot of "Jaws", the script fails at creating any suspense what so ever. The creature is ludicrous and its victims are simply despicable. Stelvio Cipriani's lame tune poorly illustrates the adventures of these silly tourists presented from the very beginning as the obvious items of the reptile's meal. No thrill out of this, rather laughters actually! And we could find this pitiful flick quite funny if the dialogs and the appearance of the natives were not so obviously inspired by pure racism. Very soon the giggling stops in favor of a sour feeling witnessing such a patronizing attitude. We could excuse badly made films and poor FXs, but not that kind of mentality. Never!