RG
Roberto Giacomelli
•The archaeologist Kevin Hall is in Brazil searching for prehistoric fossils. When Kevin learns that Professor Ibanez, a renowned paleontologist, is in the country and has booked a private flight to the Valley of the Dinosaurs, a legendary Amazonian outpost rich in fossils, he takes the opportunity and asks the professor if he can join the trip. Along with the two scholars, Professor Ibanez's daughter Eva, an ex-marine guide with his acerbic wife, a photographer, and two models will also depart for the Valley of the Dinosaurs. It is said, however, that until now no one has ever returned alive from the Valley of the Dinosaurs, due to an ancient curse that looms over that area and especially because of a tribe of ferocious cannibals that inhabit the forest.
With considerable delay, Michele Massimo Tarantini, here under the pseudonym Michael E. Lemick, ventures into the Italian adventure-cannibal genre: the result is "Nudo e selvaggio", a B-movie as banal as it is entertaining. Tarantini is certainly more famous for the racy comedies that invaded our theaters from the second half of the 1970s and is still celebrated for titles like "The Professor of Natural Sciences", "The Teacher at the Sea with the Whole Class", "The Doctor is with the Colonel" and "The Wife in White, the Lover in Pepper", yet in 1984, when the cannibal genre was already considered extinct, our man tries his hand and gives life to this anomalous adventure piece of our national genre cinema.
"Nudo e selvaggio", in truth, is much more linked to the adventure genre than to horror, since the cannibals appear almost at the end of the film and their contribution to the story is rather pretextual; for a good three-quarters of the film, we will see the very over-the-top adventures of a group of unlikely jungle victims who try in every way to keep the viewer's attention and partly succeed. Tarantini manages to blend elements from different genres in just 90 minutes with extreme naturalness, so we will see situations that, with the backdrop of adventure, unfold between raucous comedy (the brawl in the bar is clearly inspired by the films with the duo Bud Spencer & Terence Hill), the erotic, the exotic and the horror, with a couple of scenes even well made (especially the attack of the piranhas).
As for the screenplay, which is the work of the same director, we are dealing with a clear product that does not make the script its strong point, since the story is quite banal and the twist with the emerald seekers
is also quite forced; the characters are two-dimensional and caricatured (the adventurer who has been to Vietnam) and some narrative solutions are even absurd (the models who have to do the photo shoot in the jungle populated by cannibals???). The actors are certainly not the best on the market, but the istrionic face of Michael Sopkiw (Shark - Red in the Ocean) in the role of the brave protagonist does not disappoint, as does Suzane Carvalho (Women on the Run) in the revealing attire of the damsel in distress.
There are many flaws, therefore, and the absence of particularly strong scenes leaves one somewhat perplexed, however, the film is conducted with skill and certainly knows how to offer an hour and a half of healthy entertainment.
Known abroad also with the title "Cannibal Ferox 2".
