SHOCK WAVES

Brooke Adams and Luke Halpin

SHOCK WAVES (1977). Director: Ken Wiederhorn.

A group of people out on a short chartered boat tour might not wind up on Gilligan's Island, but they probably wish they had. Instead they wind up on an island that is home to an elderly Nazi scientist (Peter Cushing) who tells them how they created unkillable super-soldiers who were meant to be the ultimate weapons. Dead already, these soldiers can stay underwater for hours and stalk the enemy with ultra-extreme stealth. The tourists, including Rose (Brooke Adams), Norman (Jack Davidson) and Beverly (D. J. Sidney),  team up with crew members Keith (Luke Halpin) and Dobbs (Don Stout) and try to get off the island before the zombie Nazis can slay them. Shock Waves has a damned good premise but its execution is below mediocre, with too many slack stretches, no real suspense or surprises, and not nearly enough exciting sequences. Of the major younger cast members, Adams makes the best impression and was the only one to have a fairly big career. Of the veterans, Peter Cushing has one of his least interesting roles, and John Carradine, as the captain of the tour boat, is killed off early on. Halpin [Island of the Lost] was most famous for the TV show Flipper.

Verdict: Pretty much a waste of a good idea. **.

ISLAND OF THE LOST

ISLAND OF THE LOST (1967). Director: John Florea.

Anthropologist Josh MacRae (Richard Greene of The Hound of the Baskervilles) sets sail with his daughters, Sharon (Sheila Welles) and Lizzie (Robin Mattson), son Stu (Luke Halpin), the Polynesian Judy (Irene Tsu), and a young adventurer named Gabe (Mart Hulswit) -- not to mention a cute, friendly seal named Drip. Unfortunately MacRae gets all of them lost on a strange island in the south seas. There's a tribe of unfriendly natives who are out to get them (all except a friendly native named Tupuna [Jose De Vega]), and worse, a whole horde of carnivorous ostrich-lizards -- yes, ostrich-lizards -- with sharp teeth. However, this is not a horror film but a family-friendly adventure story from Ivan Tors, who had a cottage industry going with Flipper and other watery adventures. The best scenes in the movie have to do with sharks who prove excellent performers as they swim around and dangerously near to some of the actors/stunt men in some amazing footage. The acting is professional, especially Greene, and some of the scenery is lovely. Florea also directed The Astral Factor.

Verdict: Not totally terrible, but not that memorable, either. **1/2.