Chillichap's Review - Caveman 1981 Comedy Dinosaur Movie Starring Ringo Starr, Denis Quaid & Shelley Long - A Film I've Just Watched

Hello!

Well I bet a lot of you haven't heard of this film. It just popped up on YouTube and I was intrigued.

The plot starts 1 zillion BC (so before the Earth came into existence then). It's a hostile environment where the cavemen scavenge whatever they can find whilst trying very hard not to be gobbled up by the surrounding dinosaurs! To be honest, the dinosaurs seem smarter than the cavemen who have limited speech. When a beasty appears, the cavemen climb very small trees. A rather large undefined dinosaur (that looks like it could be on a Chewits advert-yes, I'm showing my age) attacks the cavemen and one of them, Lar (played by Dennis Quaid) bravely tries to fight it off, while the others all run away. He's injured and implores his friend Atouk (played by Ringo Starr) to help, but the chieftains tell Ringo to leave his friend and come back to the cave. 

Atouk is sad about leaving his friend and is also in love with Lana the chief's woman which doesn't seem reciprocated. Atouk seems to be an artist and even an inventor and at one point is tinkering with a stone wheel. He finds some berries that make you sleep and laces the chief's mango with them so he can have his girlfriend all to himself-this is done to the tune Bolero, but little does he know the chief's girlfriend has consumed the berries too and is out cold, so he takes a bite too and goes to sleep. The chief wakes up to find Atouk in his bed and kind of banishes him. Atouk runs away and finds his friend Lar, they hug and invent physiotherapy. Later it runs out that all cavemen and women have back problems-must be the rough beds.

The next day the pair encounter Cog (played by Jack Giddord) who is blind and his daughter Tala (played by Shelley Long). The four of them hit it off, but Gog keeps wandering off and getting himself into trouble. Tala likes Atouk but he still fancies Lana (is he mad?) and so he and Lar try to unsuccessfully kidnap her.

The following day Atouk and co find a new tribe and encounter the first undefined dinosaur again, but manage to fight him off in a comical way. There's a thunderstorm and a tree gets struck by lightning providing the new group with a warming fire. The're joined by another disjointed tribe who have a large uncooked bird. Atouk and one of the other tribe try and pull the bird in half over the fire and invent the BBQ! If this wasn't enough, they go on to invent music too using various bits of the deceased bird. 
The next day the new tribe see off the T-Rex and then discover a giant egg which Atouk's former tribe steal.  They are spotted by a pterodactyl and the egg falls down a mountain into a hot spring and create a supersize fried egg!

There are lots more toings and froings with the original tribe. Some really great comedy moments which shouldn't be underestimated. The T-Rex is back and this time Atouk subdues him by shoving a bunch of the sleepy berries in his jaws. Atouk saves Lana from drowing and she seems eternally grateful to the point of actually being in love with him. Tala get jealous and storms off and the men go in search of her, discovering the advent of the Ice-Age and discover Lar encased in ice with a rather mysteriously creepy humanoid that looks like a vampire Wookie.

Meanwhile in the original tribe, the chief is looking to replace Lana and wjo should appear but Tala. Atouk's tribe get word of this and they prepare for war and hatch a plan to rescue Tala. The weapons they create give them the edge in battle. Atouk emerges riding the original undefined dinosaur. He fights the Chief and... I'll stop there as I don't want to spoil the ending.

I think this is a really great film with countless comedy moments, some of which, are ingenious. Don't get off by the cavemen's grunting and odd behavior at the start. Well worth a watch and I would definitely see it again.

Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap



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