Directed by: Tsugunobu Kotani
Starring: Leigh McCloskey, Carl Weathers, Connie Sellecca
So, I have a co-worker who apparently wants to hit people that look like me with her car, and she told me about this movie which has Carl Weathers and Burl Ives hunting after a giant turtle that attacks helicopters. Of course I had to see this movie. For multiple reasons.
Burl Ives is the captain of a science ship, and Carl Weathers is his first mate who refuses to wear a shirt or pants ever. They find evidence of a giant prehistoric turtle in the Bermuda Triangle, which is somehow related to the main character’s (some boring blonde kid) girlfriend, who is apparently the ghost of his childhood imaginary friend. I think she made a deal with the devil (aka giant turtle) so she could haunt people or something?
This is an entertaining clusterfuck of a film. Entertaining if you like bad movies, that is. On its own merits, it’s just confusing and weird and a little unsettling (unless you really, really enjoy watching Carl Weathers in a speedo, and if you do, I don’t really want to hear about it). Also, it’s made by Rankin-Bass, the same company that made the perennial classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so all the effects shots are with a plastic turtle that they throw around like a frisbee and a toy boat (TOYBOATTOYBOATTOYBAORYBOYTA… damn, it’s even hard to type). Good shit.
Films in Boxes 
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