MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM (2010)

MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM (2010)

Tagline: Nope

(Action, Adventure, Shaky CGI) [PG-13]

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it did end up with a TV-14 designation. PG-13 and TV-14 are essentially the same, so I think if this had come out in theaters it would have been PG-13. 

You know our choices are slim when the local authorities turn us over to this loser.

In this one, an American oil company is drilling in Mongolia and accidentally awakens a nest of Mongolian death worms. Their blood starts getting into the water and making the natives in the area sick. Meanwhile, a treasure hunter named Daniel is looking for Genghis Khan’s tomb which is actually protected by the death worms. Can Daniel and a Doctors of Hope doctor named Alicia working in the area, overcome an onslaught of death worms, save the locals and find the treasure?

One thing you can usually get with a decent b-movie is an awesome-looking poster and this thing does not disappoint in that regard. Where I do think they could have done a better job is in the actual CGI rendering. If you are going to make that death worm look super fierce on the poster, you should be able to pump up the contrast and the reds in the final copy. It feels like those are changes that would not have been tough, but they just don’t bother keeping these things plainer looking in most shots than they needed to be. Needless to say, TREMORS has the same issue, but the ones in the first movie are rigs and practical effects. The poster never promised us a ton of contrast. BOTH movies overpromise on size. The actual death worms are about as big as a large-sized man in a sleeping bag. With the exception of all but one, which is quite a bit bigger. 

Sean Patrick Flanery (THE BOONDOCK SAINTS) is pretty solid in this but is quite a bit better in other films. I like that he is a bit of an Indian Jones mashup of Han Solo character with a bit of a gruff personality, but also has a heart. Victoria Pratt (DRACANO) is pretty decent in this. She is mostly known for b-movies and isn’t related to Chris Pratt in case you were wondering. Interestingly enough someone online was trying to convince me that people were sick of westerns and that is why they aren’t getting made anymore, only Victoria Pratt’s last 2 movies were both westerns. Nate Rubin (SUPER) is good in this but doesn’t get a ton of lines. Where I think this thing spent too much time is in the “corporate” side of things. They keep going back to show us the oil company is corrupt, but the dialog in these parts is boring as heck and the acting doesn’t help at all. I did like both Tiger Sheu (as Bana) and George Cheung (as Timur) are both solid. Cheung has had an outstanding career and has been a part of over 200 movies and TV shows just in case he looks familiar. 

I am sure it would have cost more to produce, but I wish we had gotten more Mongolian death worms in this and less talking and running around and fighting. The other thing I kind of find funny is that when it’s time to blow something up in a movie, everyone suddenly knows exactly what value to turn, what combination of chemicals, or exactly how a bomb works. 

The pacing is okay in this, but not great and I think some better dialog would have really helped. It is billed as a sci-fi adventure comedy, but there isn’t much humor going on. The score works to an extent but it’s super basic and there is really no soundtrack to speak of. Overall however it’s a pretty decent Saturday afternoon flick and it fits right into the b-movie sci-fi nonsense arena just fine. For me, this is a 3 out of 7, but it’s not terrible at all if you are going in expecting something just below the part of most of the TREMORS installments. 

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