PodBill Just what I expected

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Neil Welch In the early 60s, the men in an African business which catches game for zoos find themselves unexpectedly beset with romantic issues.Hatari! is a colourful, spectacular, action-packed John Wayne vehicle, directed by Howard Hawkes. The action is all animal capture, mostly with vehicles chasing fast-running game while Wayne sits in a seat over a front wheel holding a pole with a rope noose at the end of it. When the animals are actually caught, the shots are from the rear, so that you can't see the face of the man in Wayne's seat and clothing.Parallel with the action are two romances. The main one features Wayne and Elsa Martinelli, the other features the tragic young French actress Michelle Girardon and, yes, Red Buttons. Both stretch the imagination somewhat, but the film is escapist nonsense, so what does it matter?

Leofwine_draca HATARI! is something a little different for John Wayne fans expecting a typical cowboy-filled western adventure. This one's set in east Africa where Wayne and his team of men go around hunting and capturing wild animals to sell to zoos around the world. Their business is complicated by the arrival of a French girl who stirs up feelings amongst the group. It's a film that's grossly overlong but has some great and realistic action scenes in it, scenes in which the actors really did perform the dangerous captures you see them attempting. The May to December romance stuff is cringe-worthy, but the animals are tame and lovable, particularly those baby elephants at the climax.

Terence Frederick Wow! was longing to see the lighter side of The Duke 'John Wayne' and here my wait is finally over. No more fighting the villains of the west but catching the wild animals in Africa. Another great movie brought by Hawks with Wayne in the main cast. One must appreciate the classical way the movie team brought the wildlife scenes. You may fail to appreciate these scenes as it is commonly shown in satellite channels these days, but must we remember the movie was shot in 1960s. The famous 'Baby Elephant walk' theme by Mancini was more than a feeling. BTW, I'd salute to the humor played by Red Buttons in this movie was such a fine icing on the cake.

lani4-886-903615 I really enjoyed this movie, so much so that I have watched it several times on DVD. As always for any movie my criteria is 'was I entertained?' and I was certainly entertained. Red Buttons as Pockets was a delight. In fact all the performances were very good. The humour was fun, the scenery was beautiful and the animal chases were exciting and the baby elephants were cute and Sonja was gorgeous. Aside from things like the changing water level when Kurt and Chips Jeep was stalled in the river and after several references to 15 pounds and one reference to a shilling, when Pockets was taking up a collection to buy some goats he asked for 2 dollars from each person, but most things were fine and Pocket's rocket was great. The one thing that really stuck out for me as being very wrong was when The Indian aka Little Wolf was gored by the rhino, Pockets said (I think this is what he said - it's not in the Closed Caption and I'm a little hard of hearing) 'this tourniquet isn't doing any good' and then on the radio Sean said The Indian was bleeding badly and they would be at the hospital in about 5 hours. If Pocket's statement and Sean's statement were both accurate The Indian would have bled to death long before the 5 hours was up, probably in the first hour! Once I got past that rather lethal goof I sat back and just had fun.