Orca - The Killer Whale
|
Our Price: $32.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $18.92 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Orca - The Killer Whale
Movie Review: For being an "old" movie...
Summary: 3 Stars
...it is absolutely watchable, but far from the classic "Jaws" indeed is. Except for the water I wouldn't even compare these movies. The acting/actors is/are not as legendary (at least not in "Orca" anyway -Harris is of course a legend, but not because of this movie). The scenes "man/killer whale" really works for its' time, but nothing remembarable -other than that the whole theme of the movie is anything but boring, the plot (unbelievable as it may be) works fine. Gripping at times, and overall "Orca" is an entertaining piece. Ennio Morricones' music suits the movie as well.
A good movie!
Movie Review: Orca is a whopper but not a keeper
Summary: 3 Stars
Well made and choreographed Orca lulls at times but it has many beautiful harbor scenes along with some decent action. Richard Harris is his usual good and my title line reflects his describing Orca the killer whale as a whopper several times during movie... Still worth watching but I don't think it is a keeper especially considering it is out of print and on the rather expensive sideMovie Review: PG- but not for young kids
Summary: 2 Stars
This movie has two scenes that will scar you for life (or at least linger in your memory). Spoilers ahead.
First, we have a shot where a female orca spontaneously and very graphically aborts a bloody fetus all over the deck of a boat. This event occurs after we have been told that a human fetus is very similar to a human fetus. Ahh, the wonderful 70's- no PG-13 rating here, folks, even for a scene that would have been more appropriate in Caligula. I was treated to this scene after school when I was about 8 years old in 1984. And you thought seeing Bambie's mom get capped was traumatic! I haven't figured out in the intervening twenty years whether the scene was supposed to be tragic or gross out!
The other moment is when the male orca, bent on revenge, bites off Bo Derek's entire leg, plaster cast and all. We actually see Mr. Orca take the big chomp, after watching Bo slide slowly towards her doom. For a low rent, cheesy rip-off flick, this is pretty heavy, albeit radically entertaining, stuff.
The rest of the movie is pretty forgettable with the occasional cool moment- lousy mat work effects, stomach churning narration, stilted dialogue, and patronizing heavy handedness. What makes the movie truly bizarre is the lunacy of nearly every element of the story combined with the seriousness with which it is handled. No one so much as smirks in this film. Jaws had the sense to allow the audience to let its hair down every once in awhile. Not here.
This is a strangely effective bad film, but it is probably too intense for the under 12 set.
Movie Review: Oh come on everyone, this is garbage
Summary: 1 Stars
First of all, I should say that although I cannot bring myself to give this film more than 1 star, I'm certainly not saying that you shouldn't see it. I, for one, have seen this film 4 times, and don't doubt that I will view it again at some point. It is immensely amusing, and it is also THE STUPIDEST FILM EVER MADE. Normally I give things that are so bad that they're entertaining a high rating, but 'Orca' is just to terrible for me to do that.
Lots of Orca apologists will try and tell you that this isn't a complete Jaws rip-off because the Orca is the protagonist. Whether or not this is a valid defense of the film (which, for the record, it isn't), this points to the central flaw- This is an unspeakably moronic premise. I gotta tell ya, I don't find Killer Whales to be all that lovable, and the film does little to change this feeling. Beyond this, the main way it seems to try and generate sympathy for the whale is by showing it jumping out of the water again and again and again. This tactic is almost completely unsuccessful, I'm sorry to say. They also like to show closeups of his eye, where he is apparently crying. Do whales have tear ducts? Dunno, though I doubt the filmmakers know either. Furthermore the film takes great pains to make us believe that Orcas are hyper-intelligent, psychic super-animals.(Evinced by the best line in the film, where we are informed that a recording of Orca 'speech' has over 20 million pieces of information in it, whereas the bible only has 4 million. I suspect they may have taken liberties with the facts, in that case.) This again presents an unsympathetic picture, as if I would advocate the worldwide destruction of the orca, if I believed that the real animal was at all reminiscent of the ones described in the film. This is all compounded by the fact that the Whale doesn't even have that good of a case- Nolan didn't kill his mate, she killed herself. Yeah, Nolan shot her with the harpoon, a veritable pinprick, but she's the one who rammed her damn head into the propeller for no apparent reason. Furthermore, the fetus scene, which is oft-described as 'horrifying' or 'disturbing', tends towards the baffling and humorous regions.(first the former, than the latter) Finally, for all the films flaws, I actually kinda like Nolan, and certainly like him a helluva lot more than some stupid whale.
'Orca' is technically incompetent, a fine match to go alone with it's dramatic absurdity. On the good points, there's some decent cinematography from time to time, but this isn't all that impressive, as the ocean is naturally beautiful. Just point the camera at it and you'll do fine. Also, Morricone's score is fairly pretty, though it is ridiculously romantic much of the time, thus heightening the already spectacularly bathetic tone of the film. Harris is kinda a caricature, but I kinda like him. The rest of the acting is crap. Rampling plays a mannequin which is also apparently supposed to be whale scientist. Initially she hates Nolan with a passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns, but she eventually decides that she loves him, because if she didn't there wouldn't be a tacked-on and under developed romantic subplot. Bo Derek plays the girl with blonde hair and broken leg, and spends most of the film with a glazed, uncomprehending look on her face.(This is true of Rampling's character as well, but Rampling's blank look is somehow more calculating in nature.) Than we've got Ralph Sampson as the mysterious Indian dude, who proves to be a better actor when he isn't saying anything. The very worst performance in the film would have to on the part of the large foam blocks which are apparently supposed to be ice, which are featured prominently in the climax. Continuity is a big problem, as the whale's chipped fin appears and disappears sporadically, and the indoor pool they use to simulate the ocean for the Orca's stirring closeups is less than convincing, as the water in it is green. As others have mentioned, the real Orca they use frequently has a drooping fin, which signifies that it is a female. This is particularly amusing, as I might not have noticed this, except for that a character actually mentions how female orcas have drooping fins. It's nice when I film points out it's continuity problems for you, or perhaps the lead Orca is just a hermaphrodite.
It's hard to say which aspect of this film is the stupidest. The Orca's mad rampage, where he swims into town and smashes of the docks, thereby causing a massive fire is a standout moment. His various Shamoo-esque leaps, poorly superimposed over the burning town are quite literally beyond belief the first time you view them. The killing of the shark is quite spectacular as well, as the shark appears to go through a number of transformations prior to the killing, where it then turns into an incredibly stiff shark model, and then turns back into a real shark which is flying through the air, somehow. It's death throes are great too, as we are shown documentary footage of a great white which is quite obviously perfectly healthy, but with sad squeals overdubbed in order to suggest that it's dying. (This last is particularly great, as I've watched enough shark documentaries to know that Great Whites really don't make any noise at all.) Also, towards the end of the film the Orca leaps up onto an iceberg, thereby tipping it up at an angle and forcing it's prey to slide down towards him. Years later, Futurama used this idea, but they thought it was funny and ridiculous, rather than dramatic or horrifying, for some reason. However, the absolute best part might have to be when the Orca actually pushes an iceberg into Nolan's boat. Apparently icebergs aren't nearly as big and heavy as I'd been led to believe.
Yep, stupidest movie ever, right here. Check it out.
Movie Review: sncks as much now as it did then
Summary: 1 Stars
whoever considered this a straight ahead horror movie should be ashamed of themselves or thinks linda blair should have won the oscar for exorcist 2;the heretic.
lemme get this straight.....
male whale loves female whale....female whale gets caught and killed.....
male whale goes on rampage......this premiss was a ripoff of that SNL skit,land shark at large.how gullible must an audience be ????????
anyway,this is the best time to do an abbreviated all time,most horrible list;
WORST SEQUALS/PREQUALS(and some spinoffs)~
1)exorcist 2;the heretic(....hhhhmmmm,getting kicked in the nads times or seeing this again.....hhhhmmmmm)
2)speed 2;snooze control
3)jaws 3-d(''this time its personal''...no,this time its hysterical)
4)godfather 3(the unwanted,retarded stepchild of its brilliant parents,pts 1 & 2.best part was sofia getting shot and her uttering ''daddy....'')
5)friday 13th 8;jason takes manhattan(did jason actually turn back into a fat kid or was i dreaming ????)
6)jaws 4 (even jaws didnt want to be in this)
7)A vs P vs zzzzzzzzz's
8)orca(smart enough to not make a sequal)
9)starship troopers 2 (p tippett and co can be found restocking a k-mart near you)
10)TCM;the beginning (and the end at the same time)
11-tied)superman 3 & 4(all that was missing was the laugh tracks)
12-tied)evil dead 2 & 3(ok,they were terrific comedies)
13)halloween 3 (how to kill a golden goose 101)
14)jeepers creepers 2(this outsuct part 1)
15)halloween h20(1 rapper,bad acting,horrible script and voila)
16)halloween resurrection(1 rapper AND a model and the rest, voila)
17-tie)star wars 1 & 2(raise your hand if you think these made the inital star wars any better)
18)blair witch 2;book of nonsense
19-tie)friday 13 jason X & pt 7(i still dont see how almost drowning gave jason superhuman powers)
20)are we done yet(again,a sequal outsucking the original)
21)alien resurrection(s weaver must have been broke)
22)henry;portrait of.....2(the makers of this were the best victims)
23)blues brothers 2000(theres at least 2000 reasons why this suct)
24-tie)star trek 4 & 5(i finally had enough sense to stop here.pts 6-175 could just as well be worse.i wouldnt know)
25)alien 3 (i love when someone types ''not the best of the series but not the worst''....in other words,squeezing every last penny out of a dead franchise as possible)
26)TCM 2
27)MI;2
28)charlies angels 2
29)tcm:the return(if talking to someone could kill,this would have had a higher body count)
30)clerks 2(why bother?were the slackers of 90's that interesting?)
31)caddyshack 2 (i wasnt a fan of pt 1 either)
32)batman & robin (one can only laugh at those who went out of their way to see this)
33-tied)rocky 3-6.(this series was ktfo midway through pt 2)
34)rambo 3,the war against incontinence
35)predator 2(damn,danny looked worse than the monster)
36)beyond poseidon adventure(a ''g'' rating would have been harsh)
37)lawnmower man 2......part 1 was 1 part too many
38tied)NL vacation 2-3 (they went 23 skidoo fast)
39)leprechaun 2-? (whatever came after pt 1 has to be just as bad,right?)
40-tied)all revenge of the nerds after pt 1(some movies just had to embarrass themselves into thinking they were franchises.)
41)swampthing
42)escape from L.A.(fortunately,kurt escaped with some dignity.barely)
43-tied)urban legend 2-?(i can blame curiousity for seeing pt 1 and 15 minutes of pt 2.....ill take the producers word for it that this series would only get worse)