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Ghost Canyon

'Legendary'
(Scott Adkins, Dolph Lundgren, et al / DVD / PG-13 / 2014 / Lionsgate)

Overview: Travis Preston (Scott Adkins) is a famous cyptozoologist. His nemesis is Harker (Dolph Lundgren) a trophy collector. When a "dragon" is filmed on a pipeline site inside of China, both men show up with their teams with opposite goals.

DVD Verdict: Oh dear, oh dear ... oh dear! I just can't get my head around Scott Adkins! He's acted alongside some of the top action men of all time and in some big action flicks, but most of his work is straight-to-DVD, badly acted, throw away hokum. You only gotta look at his filmography, half of them you probably haven't heard of!

I give you exhibit A: this time Adkins hangs up his martial arts skills and tries his hand at the Indiana Jones angle as a cryptozoologist (mythic creatures instead of mythic places and objects). After the failure to capture ... errr a very large bear its off to China to hunt down ... errrm a very big lizard. Oh OK, a dragon then. It's Adkins and his goodie goodie team of kind scientists Vs. Lundgren and his baddie baddie team of hunters. Yep you've guessed it, Adkins and company wanna find and study, Lundgren and company wanna hunt and kill!

So a US accented Adkins leaps about in this really iffy low budget creature feature which doesn't really scare or thrill. Nothing much happens at all accept for the odd obligatory water sequence where faceless people get snatched by the monster. Its all very 'Lake Placid' like but with really bad attempted humor and some atrocious acting all round.

The dragon (as this film was originally entitled 'Legendary: Tomb of The Dragon') in question isn't really a dragon naturally (shame), as they go down the more realistic approach and merely make it an overgrown gecko type lizard - aka Salamanderzilla! So no fantasy element just a stupid looking big lizard that doesn't really look threatening. The finale sequence in the caves really shows the creature in a bad light, hokey ass CGI. The moment Adkins wrestles the beast is fantastically crappy looking, even Harry Hausen's dated work looks better.

The only thing more hokey than the CGI lizard is the lurching Lundgren and, of course, this being a flick with the two action men they gotta fight. Amazingly though neither of them gets their shirts off, old fashioned fisticuffs for this one.

The entire film is basically trash accept for the finale which is slightly more exciting, as said the lizard looks awful but at least you get plenty of eating action. It feels like a homage to those old Doug McClure fantasy flicks more than anything, then you could easily forgive the schlock on screen, problem is it isn't. Anyway, sorry but why would the Chinese hire Americans to search their countryside for a man eating amphibian in the first place?! Too much thought, I know, sorry! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

"The Making of Legendary" Featurette
Interviews with Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins

www.LGF.com





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