Cathardincu
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
unbrokenmetal
In 1945, Japanese soldiers hid 2 heavy cases of gold in a cave before they had to leave the Philippines. 36 years later, Jefferson (David De Martyn) finances an expedition to find the gold. Tobachi (Harold Sakata, 'Goldfinger') is the only survivor from 1945 and is needed to show the hiding-place. Forrest (Stuart Whitman) and Larson (Edmund Purdom) shall lead the expedition together although they are deadly enemies – they simply can't resist the wages. Cal (Woody Strode), Forrest's girlfriend Maria (Laura Gemser) and Jefferson's daughter Janice (Glynis Barber) join the crew. The expedition seems to run as scheduled, but when they get deeper into the jungle, members of the expedition begin to disappear one by one when mysterious accidents happen...'Invaders of the Lost Gold' aka 'Horror Safari', in my country 'Söldner Des Todes' ('Mercenaries of Death'), is a low budget adventure flick that has no outstanding qualities despite the good cast. Mostly filmed in a 'jungle' where the natives apparently use a lawnmower and plant palm trees neatly in rows to make it look like a park, poor action scenes, long dialogues in tents and clumsy editing do not result in a thrilling picture. The DVD distributor obviously didn't even bother to watch it before they created a tag line saying something about 'the green hell of Malaysia (!)'. Can we really blame them?
BA_Harrison
After an enjoyably trashy opening sequence, in which a group of WWII Japanese soldiers are forced to hide their shipment of gold in a cave when attacked by blood-thirsty head-hunting natives, this jungle-bound adventure movie from prolific producer Dick Randall rapidly turns into a very tedious trek through extremely familiar territory, as a team of modern-day treasure seekers set out to recover the long-lost horde.Despite a promising premise and an excellent cast of exploitation regulars—including Edmund Purdom (Pieces, Nightmare City), Laura Gemser (the Emanuelle series), Stuart Whitman (Welcome to Arrow Beach, Eaten Alive), and Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata—Invaders of the Lost Gold is instantly forgettable low budget junk that becomes more and more painful with every passing minute.The story lacks excitement, with much of the film's running time devoted to bickering between characters and unlikely romance rather than on action and adventure, and the whole damn mess just simply isn't exploitative enough: Gemser strips off (I'd have been more surprised if she hadn't), but tasty TV blonde Glynis Barber keeps her clothes on (and I so wanted to see Makepeace nekkid!); there's almost no gore after the opening scene; and the ending totally wimps out, with not a savage native in sight.
insomniac_rod
What's the first thing that comes into your mind after hearing the title from an early 80's movie called "Horror Safari"? You bet it's an slasher flick that involves animals or cannibals after the craze from the 70's involving sharks, apes, cannibals, etc. Well "Horror Safari" is a mix of semi-exploitation scenes (involving decaps, impales, etc.), and the typical but cheap adventure scenes."Horror Safari" doesn't deserves a chance to be watched. It's a cheap, mediocre, slow flick that shouldn't be even aired on late night cable. Though there's some gore that doesn't makes up for the rest of the movie that is truly painful to watch. If the movie tried to copy the spectacular "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" it failed miserably on every aspect. Please avoid this safari because it's not fun, you don't learn, and worst of all, it's not even a decent horror b-movie.
gavcrimson
SPOILERS INCLUDEDInvaders of the Lost Gold is an exploitation film that really does throw in everything but the kitchen sink. It was helmed by British director Alan Birkinshaw, a former TV cameraman who was well versed in sex and horror cinema having previously directed Confessions of a Sex Maniac and Killer's Moon. The former was one of the tread-barest of Britain's careerist sex comedies and features a pretentious architect feeling up various glamour girls under the guise of wanting to design a breast shaped building. While the latter is largely considered the British horror film's most distasteful and unintentionally funny hour, due to lines like 'if we ever get out of this alive maybe we'll both live to be wives and mothers', the casting of a three-legged dog and a John Lindsay-type fixation for passing off secondary starlets as schoolgirls. Unlike many of his contemporaries who either retired (Pete Walker, Stanley Long) or struggled on in the declining British film industry (Derek Ford, Norman J. Warren), Birkinshaw spent much of the 1980's in Europe working for globe trotting producers like Harry Alan Towers and Dick Randall.
Here under the thumb of Dick Randall, Birkinshaw spins a tall tale whose opening documents a little known incident in WW2 in which the Japanese army faced off against a tribe of unkempt, head-hunters (or rather some blacked up extras wearing fright wigs) in the Filipino jungle. Despite their heavy firepower the Japanese come off noticeably worse and the cheerful head-hunters soon have a few severed heads to enthusiastically waive in the audiences faces. The only survivors are three Japanese soldiers who, forced to leave a large consignment of gold behind, vow to one day return. However '36 years later' ruthless businessman Rex Larson (welwyn garden city born actor Edmund Purdom) is up to no good and using less than democratic ways to separate the aged Japanese soldiers from a map of where the gold is hidden. One of the soldiers gets riddled with bullets when Larson shoots up a room full of Kung-Fu goons; another opts for an even more gruesome way out and commits hari-kari. With the map secured Larson's boss Douglas Jefferson, an upper-crust Englishman in a safari jacket then ensembles a motley crew of street fighters, mercenaries and unclassifiable toughs to journey back into the jungle for the gold. Much to Larson's annoyance his boss has also enlisted the services of Larson's nemesis, hard-living heavy drinking American Mark Forrest played by Stuart Whitman fresh from his Jim Jones gig in Guyana-Crime of the Century (1980).Forrest and Larson have old scores to settle after Larson left his former friend Forrest to rot in a jail for five years; naturally Forrest has revenge on his mind. Once in the jungle it also becomes clear that someone is out to sabotage the expedition. And with members of the team gradually being bumped off one by one, by the time they reach the gold the number of people sharing it is unlikely to be in high figures. It has to be said though, that this bunch of would be adventurers behave in such a clumsy fashion that the mystery killer has little to do other than put his feet up and wait for them to fall from rope bridges or stumble cluelessly to their deaths in the jungle. No prizes for guessing that the instigator of the group's misfortune is Larson, who in the middle of the film fakes his own death only to make a 'surprise' return for the climatic shootout sporting a three day growth of beard.
Likely to disappoint anyone expecting 'part Cannibal Holocaust and part Raiders of the Lost Ark' (as the mondo crash DVD cheekily sells it as), Invaders of the Lost Gold is a standard but not unenjoyable jungle adventure. Birkinshaw throws in some unconvincing gore, a little nudity and fans of his Killer's Moon will be pleased to know that continuity is still not Birkinshaw's strong point (just try and figure out what fate is meant to befall secondary character 'Maria' during her ill-fated swim). Surprisingly though, while Birkinshaw's two British films ear-mark him as a man who could deliver a high amount of exploitation film goods on a micro budget (no doubt what brought him to Dick Randall's attention) here his direction seems pedestrian and at times the proceedings threaten to drag dangerously to a halt. The best thing about Invaders of the Lost Gold, and what keeps it watchable, is the eclectic 'all star' cast which as well as Messrs Purdom and Whitman also includes Woody Strode, Laura 'Black Emanuelle' Gemser in an atypical role despite her nude scenes, Harold Sakata making an odder job of playing a heavy than usual and looking hopelessly lost as Whitman's 20 years younger love interest Glynis 'Dempsey and Makepeace' Barber in a role she'd be forgiven for leaving off her CV these days.
Invaders of the Lost Gold is best viewed as a 'I'm an exploitation film celebrity get me out of here' with the cast suffering both for their art and the audience's enjoyment in believably hellish Filipino jungle locations. The print used for the DVD is in a very scratchy condition and the only extras are trailers for some dodgy 1970's Kung-Fu titles which look far worse than the main feature.
