GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

missmonochrome Writer/race car driver/pilot/big game hunter Axel MacGregor(Donald Pleasence) has been restoring temples in Thailand when a spate of local villages are plagued by a violent panther killing and attacking the residents.Being given every multi hyphenate job title short of superhero, Axel sets off to hunt and kill the animal. Unfortunately, his legendary brass fails him and he ends up physically mauled and severely ego bruised.Cut to the present, where he has survived the attack with a bad leg and a worse attitude. Axel hires a local team to capture the cat, and bring it back alive to his private island residence. Rather than any of 1,000,000 logical actions...he released the animal onto the island, and plans to stalk and kill it with a rifle loaded with 9 bullets (one for each of the supposed lives a cat has in popular idiom).Public safety is apparently totally less important than repairing the damage to his mythical reputation.As it so happens, Axel's family decides to make a once in a half decade visit just then. Idle, spoiled daughter Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes), her independent half sister Leslie (a still sexy Nancy Kwan), Georgia's small child Peggy, and Georgia's boy toy of the moment Ross(producer Ross Hagen).Billed as a horror movie, it's actually an extremely slow moving melodrama. The extremely well trained cat is always shot in slow motion, and there's only one actual attack in between long runs of meandering dialog.Shrill Georgia ends up the cat's first island victim(due to an ill considered search for Peggy's pet dog), and poor Peggy ends up sitting out in the rain for what seems like 3 days while a weak Ross/Leslie love story is quickly sketched in, Axel's Ahab like obsession and post death of his daughter breakdown chew the scenery (and ample location shots) to pieces, and Ross attempts to save the day while looking to be more and more like Ross Hagen writing a Mary Sue stand in for himself that's far more accomplished than he ever actually was.Nancy Kwan is giving nothing interesting to work with,Ross Hagen is a smarmy twit, Peggy as a character is nearly forgotten about, all of the native actors are little more than the help.Donald Pleasence's fits of overacting are the only non narcolepsy inducing moments in an otherwise indifferent film with a an allegory as awful as the final visual transition serving as a dud of an ending.Most all of the cast had long careers as working actors, and this film is pretty much the nadir for all of them, skip it and watch a National Geographic special instead. All of the gorgeous panther tracking and location shots, far less of the boredom.

Chase_Witherspoon The adult children of a reclusive and eccentric former game hunter, travel to his island fortress for a surprise visit. What they didn't count on was the 200 lbs jaguar he imported to hunt, now on the loose and turning the tables on the hunter. Set against the backdrop of a tropical southeast Asian island paradise, adorned by ancient temples and ruins, it's a picturesque vista that provides some interesting visual diversions both during the attacks, and in the more frivolous activities undertaken by the characters. But a scenic stage can't compensate for poor cinematic qualities and a laboured momentum that revolves around Pleasance's guilt-ridden redemption and vein attempt to re-connect with his distant daughter and the grandchild for whom he now feels responsible.Pleasance is so-so as the mysterious tortured soul, withdrawn from mainstream society to a tranquil oasis, unable to properly adjust to life without perilous pursuit and risk. To satisfy this deficit, he imports a formidable quarry, but the script goes awry when his daughters make their unexpected visit and bad timing turns to tragedy. Kwan as the down to earth daughter is realistic if clichéd, harbouring deep resentment toward her father's absence as a child. To her credit, Kwan shows herself to be a consummate professional, and playing well below her weight in this drawn-out pot boiler.As far as a catch-and-kill storyline goes, "Night Creature" is a basic rendition, with limited add-ons and a rather one-dimensional treatment – accordingly, the picture isn't too demanding, and nor is there much sub-text to reveal. The only skill required is to try and determine who's pursuing who, such is the propensity to film almost every action sequence against a backdrop of darkness or dense shadows, which doesn't assist the viewer when the title creature's posture is it's expression, and it's as black as the ace of spades.

ferbs54 Perhaps I should explain that I am one of those people who are willing to sit through the most egregious crap, just to be able to hear Nancy Kwan's charming Hong Kong accent and see her fabulous zygomatic bones. But even for me, 1978's "Night Creature" was tough to get through. In this one, Nancy and a few others pick the wrong time to pop in on her dad, big-game hunter Donald Pleasence, at his private Thai island in the River Kwai. Donald has just released a preternaturally cunning and spitefully ferocious black leopard to hunt and engage in a battle of wits; a creature that wastes little time going after Nancy's half sister... Anyway, this movie is basically junk. Ineptly lensed and directed, with a weak story and little in the way of suspense, it surely doesn't offer much to the casual viewer. And the DVD in question here doesn't help. The picture is fuzzy and scuzzy, revealing a crummy and scummy 16mm print source, and the sound quality is very poor. Still, somehow, a viewing of "Night Creature" does have its compensations. Pleasence's acting is fun to watch, ranging as it does from hypermaniacal to catatonic. The film is atmospheric in parts, the Thai scenery looks nice, and Nancy Kwan looks even nicer. She is 39 in this film--18 years past her yummy Suzie Wong debut--and still looks very beautiful. Heck, she's still a looker TODAY, at 68! But even those zygomatic bones aren't enough to redeem "Night Creature." This is surely a film for Nancy Kwan completists only. Like me

HEFILM The recent DVD release of this is pretty murky and mediocre at best, but the film is worth a look, especially for animal attack movie fans.The opening scene is pretty laugh inducing with its POV cat footage, and most shots of the impressive title beast are used at least twice but the film does build some momentum. Ross Hagen, the producer and actor is pretty hard to take in his perky mugging fun lovin' tour guide character but once he gets scared by the cat things improve.The direction is a big pain in the ass, lots of freeze frames and slow motion--the slow motion is actually effective once you get used to it but the stills and the voice over, especially right at the start have to be put up with rather than learned to liked.The island setting with its ruined temple and rain is impressive as is the cat action stalking around the ruins or into the house. Good kitty. Cat training and wrangling gets top marks. There is a prolonged kill scene at night which is pretty intense, despite the hard to see DVD quality of it. This kill motivates Pleasance to do maybe his best crying freak-out in a long career. It belongs on any Pleasance fan's greatest hits tape! This is also one of the few in his fistful of film credits where he is the major character in the film rather than just showing up a couple of times quickly as happened more in the back half of his career--aside from the Halloween movies. He totally unglues in this great scene, it is shocking actually the way it should be, this breakdown scene. From that moment on the film is much better and gains momentum steadily until the ending.Has to be said that more people should have died for this to be more drama and less melodrama, but the central theme for the Pleasance character does work itself out and his interaction with the other characters is interesting. That can't be said for the interaction of those supporting characters on their own.Probably unlikely a better DVD will come along anytime soon, and too bad the film didn't have a better director, but again the cat is impressive and if you can put up with serious problems in the first 30 minutes it's worth the ride.