The Swiss Family Palmer Fights Giant Prehistoric Beetles
Added 3/14/2009
Christopher Atkins of "The Blue Lagoon" and "Dracula Rising" stars as John Palmer, the head of a family of professional cave guides. Palmer is unwittingly deceived into helping international thieves find an entrance to an abandoned Swiss mine. Within its walls is a "bridal chamber" of enormous emeralds. Unfortunately, it is surrounded by a colony of giant, prehistoric beetles that are prepared to tear intruders apart.
Made for the Sci-Fi cable channel, "Caved In: Prehistoric Terror" is fun and exciting. It has an interesting prologue that is set in 1948. A group of Swiss miners find a room with walls imbedded with huge emeralds. Gigantic beetles stream out of the room like a black flood of death; they slaughter everyone except one man who is physically and emotionally crippled. His grandson, Marcel, will kill anyone who stands in his way of obtaining those emeralds. He hires Palmer to take him and his friends into the abandoned mine. Suspenseful chases and gory dismemberments ensue.
There are numerous touching, heartfelt moments involving Palmer and his family. Unknown to him, his son is trapped alone inside the mine, pursued by the beetles, and his wife and daughter, left back at their cabin, are being terrorized by one of Marcel's murderous henchmen.
The acting is sub par and the plot has more holes than the cave itself. However, the Palmers are an adorable, charming family and you will find yourself cheering for them as they fight against European thugs and giant prehistoric beetles. There is non-stop action and the special effects are decent. "Caved In - Prehistoric Terror" is highly recommended if you are a fan of subterranean horror or a fan of creature features on the Sci-Fi channel. Other films in the subterranean horror genre that you may enjoy are "The Descent," "The Cave," and "The Cavern."
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I was going to come up with a catchy title, but someone stole it.
Added 10/10/2008
Caved In (Richard Pepin, 2006)
Did you ever wonder why Christopher Atkins, who seemed to have the world at his feet after The Blue Lagoon and A Night in Heaven twenty-five years ago, suddenly faded into obscurity? Well, look no further than this monstrosity, which stars Atkins as a spelunking guide whose party, comprised of jewel thieves, is menaced by giant mutant rhinoceros beetles. Yes, folks, you got that right. And now I don't have to spend another paragraph giving you a plot summary, because, well, really, that's it.
Come to think of it, Caved In is actually a haven for Hollywood has-beens. Angela Featherstone (Con Air, Ivansxtc) plays Atkins' wife. Colm Meaney (Star Trek: The Next Generation, the best actor in this movie by a country mile) is the guy whose financial backing makes the expedition possible. David Palffy (House of the Dead-- okay, I didn't say everyone involved had made good movies at any point) is the sweet-talking head of the jewel thieves. Etc. About the only person in the film who could be considered a rising star is Chelan Simmons, and I can only believe that's because the folks doing Kyle XY cast her before they saw her terrible performance in this travesty. (The film's other up-and-comer, Stevie Mitchell, has not worked since. Coincidence?)
If you like laughing at really bad special effects, this is one to watch. Otherwise, forget it exists before you actually get round to seeing it and you will be much happier. *
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Sci-Fi Channel be damned. i never thought they could ever produce a film worth purchasing, but they have. a truly entertaining and original bug movie.
A local is con'd out of his home so that miners can dig in his land for riches. what they find are giant beetles with a thirst for human flesh. meanwhile a family of adventurers move in to the area and begin a cave diving tour. they are soon contracted by mercenaries hoping to find out what happened to the mine unaware of the giant beetles below. they decend into the caves and are shut in by a quake leaving them stranded in a cave with man-eaters. The wife and daughter are on the surface and are quickly under siege from the flesh eating bugs. they must find a way, both those on the surface and those below, to stop the pissed off bugs before its to late.
Now the sci-fi channel usually has a 2 million or less budget for thier films and usualy do okey with the budget but really bad in total. this is one of the few films that proves that mix-up. The CG beetles are not bad looking and can pass off as shiny giant bugs most of the time. The acting is minimal at most but has some good backup from christopher atkins and colm meaney of DS9.
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Beam Me Up, O'Brien, It's So Terrible!
Added 2/24/2007
Adventurers hire an expert cave explorer as guide, and they go down deep into the mine shafts in Switzerland that have been deserted for 50 years. Actually they are not just adventurers; they are criminals looking for something very precious, but, well, that's not important. Deep in the cave the expedition team encounters something big, something fearful and creepy. Yes, they're giant beetles attacking and eating humans!
This is a typical, silly plot that can be fun with skillful storytelling or clever direction, but unfortunately "Caved In" has neither of them. The story goes on in a matter-of-fact way; it's no fun to see the actors acting badly fighting against a bunch of big bugs badly CG-created. And that `bad' is not kind of `campy' type of badness, nor `tongue-in-cheek' kind of the intentional one. It's plain bad. Designs are no better. The cave never looks real. It is too clean and the rocks and stones, I believe, are put there by someone in the set.
For the record, Christopher Atkins plays the leader of the team. David Palffy and Colm Meaney hire him. The film tries to add something new by showing the members of Atkin's family; Angela Featherstone as his wife, Stevie Mitchell as his son and Chelan Simmons as his daughter. Fans of these actors, however, would be very disappointed for they are not allowed to show their best. But how can they when fighting back the cheesy creatures in the insipid battle scenes?
Direct-to-video "Caved In" (2006) was released just one year after not-so-great "The Cave" (2005). They are not related, but both movies have similar stories about the expedition team going deep into the earth and the predatory creatures attacking them. The difference is "The Cave" has decent production designs and impressive cinematography while everything in "Caved In" looks quite cheap. If you ask me which is better, my answer is, none. But here's another answer I can give and that is, See "The Descent."
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mom kicks butt
Added 12/8/2006
Well, this was not a very good movie, but it had some redeeming qualities. Mom with a pump action shot gun was nothing less than a super hero. I mean she was awesome and when she started blasting away, you almost had to feel sorry for the poor defenseless 6 foot long killer beetles. Then there was the kind of humorous part where every time mom blasted a beetle, its guts splattered all over the cute little blonde spoiled daughter. The little brother was an idiot. Dad was a little on the naive side too. The bad guys tried to act tough but were pretty incompetent. And how did all the lights and the elevator work in this abandoned mine fifty years later? It's a good thing they did because the explorers brought almost no equipment. Huh? Well the bottom line is, this movie is watchable, laughable and not the worst way to kill a couple hours if you like Sci Fi channel caliber movies. I do, so I was okay with it. Man, mom was good with that shotgun!!!
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