MovieChat Forums > Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1987) Discussion > what's up with the special effects?

what's up with the special effects?

posted 16 years ago by PeterBlues
13 replies | jump to latest

i'm like eye popping and jaw dropping everytime this movie airs, and i see the special effects this thing has got, i mean, it's must be the worst special effects i have ever seen (including movies decades and decades older, and sit-com shows), it's like.. just.. how.. why?
still can't help but watch the movie couse of elvira and sharon stone though. those ladies keeps me hooked. but it's in a quality i have never seen the likes of.

i'm hanging in space,
how did i get in this way?
strange and weird view from over here,
like i've never seen anywhere,
bubbles on the globe, a fire, bright light in space,
i must really have a suprising look on my face,
look at the bubbles!
green spots everywhere, green view, like the cartoon dr. snuggles,
dots, spots,
with a pencil click, a nation lights up,
so what nation do you wanna click on? how did i get in this way,
what a hip thing, look, i'm hanging in space.

[–] evidence7 16 years ago

I believe the fx were done in house at Cannon, which would explain why they are so horrible. CHEAP! I believe the absolute worst has to be the canoes in the cave. I mean they could have just shown the lame looking POV view but no, they had to reveal beyond the shadow of doubt that the cast wasn't in any real danger by using that horrible composite shot.

[–] film-guy 16 years ago

My favorite terrible effects are the snake-creature puppet things. What the hell are those things?

Great movie!

[–] farradin 16 years ago

All the wire shot got me. At first I was disappointed, but by the end I was almost in tears with laughter. One of those films in which it was hilariously bad.

[–] lemner 16 years ago

Part of the problem with the effects is that they are not connected with the action in any convincing or credible way. In themselves, some of them weren't too terribly bad.

Semper Contendere Propter Amoram et Formam

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lantzn 10 years ago

Yeah the green screen canoe effects were awful and then when they get to the bottom cavern they used tiny canoes with little dolls, that was hilarious.
I think that giant larvae that popped out of the face of the body in the hot water grew up to be one of those dragon snakes.

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 9 years ago

They hold up much better on VHS on a standard definition TV. The quality of the picture is so sh***y that you can't tell how sh***y the F/X are.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

[–] great_ap3 10 years ago

The special effects are pretty bad in some parts and good in others. This almost ruined the film for me, but the more I watched the more I wanted to keep watching. It's a fun, silly, innocent film. My biggest complaint is the villains could of been better. They could of come up with something better than a cult. This movie seems like an almost direct rip off of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they did them this bad on purpose. Kind of an homage to the old Z grade movie serials of the 30s and 40s.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16280) 4 years ago

Cannon Films was never known for their extravagant budgets. But 1987 was a bad year for them. They released Masters of the Universe and Superman IV the same year as this.

[–] Roguemail (1565) 4 years ago

Yeah, thats when everything started to fall apart for Cannon.

I worked for them in the UK at one of their flagship cinemas. I met them quite a few times.

They came to the UK and bought a few cinema chains. They made a big splash ans were spending a lot of money. Other cinema chains and distributors were worried. It looked like they were going to have a monopoly.

But then the securities and exchange commission started investigating them.

It transpired they were borrowing a ton of money from banks, particularly Credit Lyonais. And they were vastly overestimating the value of the company to secure these loans.
Their basic idea was to say they have a certain amount of movies that they would value at so many million. It turned out many of these movies had not even been made...but they were still vastly over estimating the profits they believed the movies would make.

Once this became known, the whole thing fell apart.

But...i got well paid by them, and even had an all expenses paid trip to Israel on them, stayed at the 5 star Tel Aviv Hilton, and toured the holy land for 10 days in 1986. We even had a guided tour of an Israeli Air force base (Ramat David in Gallilee), courtesy of Menachem Golan being an ex pilot. That was a very, very strange experience...a story for another time.

As is the story of Golan and Globus pulling up in a limousine on the opening night of their movie Breakin'...

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16280) 4 years ago

Two dudes that should get a movie about them. Like the poor man's Bruckheimer and Simpson.

[–] Roguemail (1565) 4 years ago

There are a few interesting docs out there about them. Worth watching.

Its interesting that they started out making cheap rip off versions of popular US movies. Their Lemon Popsicle series was their version of teen sex comedies like Porkys and the like.

Then they moved into pure action and exploitation movies, using Norris, Bronson and Dudikoff and similar actors. They knew their market, thats foe sure. They knew how to sell movies, even if they were not great at making them.

It still seems a little bizarre in retrospect that during that period in the 80s when they seemed to be everywhere, they were getting people like Zeffereli, Godard, Frankenheimer, Barbet Schroeder etc to work for them.

That said, they did overstep the mark at times. They were negotiating with Dustin Hoffman to star in a version of La Brava. Despite no contract being signed, Cannon took out huge ads in trade papers announcing that he was making the movie. He was not at all happy, and pulled out.